Particle's Projects

[(Designer)VeganCannibalism]

Have either of you seen Spirited Away? It's a very minor character, but there is a living lamp that hops about and squeaks. It's adorable. :D

[(Designer)Particle]

 

[(Designer)VeganCannibalism]

Wow, someone made a render? That's cool!

[(Designer)Particle]

Just finished these, there are 2 versions:

 

 

The one on the bottom left is the default one, my version is the one with the arrow over it.

[(Designer)Particle]

So in case you're wondering what this is all leading up to, it is very simple.  I should have a pack out in a week or so.

 

Here's a preview of what the icons look like:

 

I just wanted to learn how to do the colorswapping for buildings, and the lamp was sort of a happy accident.  After I finished the lamp I realized that this would be pretty nice for other scenery, but honestly the lamp was just a test to see if I could do it.  Now I'm getting better at it, and learning some tricks, so I consider this to be valuable training for the future.

 

Also once I get the hang of it, I will tell everyone how it works.  For now, just let me say, ztstudio does the palette work, and the rest I did by hand editing the graphics in photoshop.  There is no easy way to do this, every graphic has to be completely redone with this process in mind.  This is what it looks like when one of these is "redone" to be ready for this, this image is zoomed in on the png:

 

I like that all these different observation areas looked like they were from different sets, but now, they can all match each other.  I didn't really plan on that, it was just another happy accident:

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Well those look pretty cool.

Have you thought about doing a few trees that can be color swapped?

[(Designer)Particle]

I have not, but that is a great idea... I will try it.  It might not work, because to get this to work for scenery, I have to configure it as a building.  I copied the code/setup from the stage backdrop (which if you think about it is scenery that changes colors).  But to make the stage scenery change colors, Bluefang set them up as buildings, and just listed them in the scenery menu.  So can I make foliage a building? I haven't tried that yet.  So that will be fun to find out.  If I can't do it that way, what I'm guessing is I can make the tree a piece of scenery to get it to colorchange.  I'll let you know how that goes.  Are there any particular trees that you would like me to try first?

 

And before anyone asks, can I do this for animals?  My guess is no.  But I'm going to try anyways.  You see the problem is very simple.  You CANNOT change colors unless you open the buildings tab.  That is why you must configure these as buildings.  Remember I cannot reinvent the wheel here, I can only play with what is possible.  And the problem in this case is that the animals have their own panel, and it is completely different than the building panel and I have no idea how you might go about opening 2 panels for one object... I don't think that would be possible.  But foliage, they currently don't have any panel.  So assigning them to have a building panel is probably going to work.

 

Last night, Cricket requested I try the woven basket with flowers, so I'm going to give that one a try today.

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Yes, if the scenery items can be color changed, trees can be coded as buildings, its just different graphics.
The deciduous trees would be awesome as they are the ones that change color in the fall.
They could be done with just one color change for the leaves, as the trunks do not need to change color.

They could even be done with two color changes for different parts of the leaves.
They would be awesome decor items, but would not be habitat placeable as animals do not like buildings in their exhibits.

 

Ooo... Color changeable flowerbeds would be awesome as well, the in game full tile flowerbed that has the purple and yellow flowers can be two color changable, and the full tile purple Savannah flowers could be one color changeable.

Im really liking this idea!

[(Designer)Particle]

I will see what I can do with trees and flowers, thanks for the suggestions.  :)

 

Today just for fun I tried to make regular land exhibits into tanks, and tanks into regular land exhibits.  So far nothing too exciting came of it, but it led to some other weird ideas.

 

Then I also tried to make a new type of animal, one that doesn't go inside fences.  Well that sort of worked.  I currently have a scenery item that is a moose, but he doesn't move at all, he just hangs out in one spot.  There were a lot of things I learned trying to do it, so maybe I'm getting closer to my  concept, but for now, I would just call it a fun experiment.

 

I'll work on those things more later though, I'm off to make some flowers and trees.

[HeatherL]

Peacocks wandering around would be cool.