What tool for combining images?
by Azmodeus · in Torque Game Builder · 09/28/2006 (4:42 pm) · 13 replies
Which tools do you use to combine several images into 1 for framing?
ie so I can put all of my trees (tree1.png, tree2.png, tree3.png) etc into one trees.png file and load it up directly?
ie so I can put all of my trees (tree1.png, tree2.png, tree3.png) etc into one trees.png file and load it up directly?
#2
I had the same dillema myself just a few days ago. 72 frames to combine into one sheet, to be loaded into TGB as cells. I looked around at some programs, and didn't really feel like downloading anything or figuring anything out. My solution? I wrote up an html file which placed all the images in a borderless, gapless table, then took a screenshot with the print screen button, loaded into an image editor, and cropped out my image. Handy method if you know html!
09/28/2006 (6:59 pm)
Funny I should see a post about this..I had the same dillema myself just a few days ago. 72 frames to combine into one sheet, to be loaded into TGB as cells. I looked around at some programs, and didn't really feel like downloading anything or figuring anything out. My solution? I wrote up an html file which placed all the images in a borderless, gapless table, then took a screenshot with the print screen button, loaded into an image editor, and cropped out my image. Handy method if you know html!
#3
09/28/2006 (8:40 pm)
@Corey: That's pure genius. I hadn't thought of that one.
#8
Glue-It looks great though- combines PNGS and respects their alpha channels. I haven't been able to get imageMagick to do that. Has anyone, or do you have any suggestions for other programs?
Corey's technique is a great hack, but it wouldn't give you an alpha channel.
12/05/2006 (3:45 am)
I'm also concerned about installing .net 2.0 to get Glue-It working, because of the possibility of it breaking other apps that rely on .net 1.1.Glue-It looks great though- combines PNGS and respects their alpha channels. I haven't been able to get imageMagick to do that. Has anyone, or do you have any suggestions for other programs?
Corey's technique is a great hack, but it wouldn't give you an alpha channel.
#9
12/06/2006 (3:59 pm)
.NET 1.1 and 2.0 are separate entities. They co-exist peacefully. No worries :)
#10
12/06/2006 (4:07 pm)
Thanks Ronny! I had no idea. I think I'm so used to M$'s 'install DirectX vWhatever' and there's no turning back. I'd give it a shot and see how Glue-It goes.
#11
Thanks so much for telling us about glue-it. This is SO much easier than building the cells by hand in painshop like I was doing!!!!!!
12/27/2006 (8:24 am)
Stanley, Thanks so much for telling us about glue-it. This is SO much easier than building the cells by hand in painshop like I was doing!!!!!!
#12
01/27/2007 (10:28 pm)
For you mac users, I also do the same as Corey, but not knowing anything but BASIC, I use MetaL Basic. It's great to combine pictures. I've even used it to look for certain hues and replace them with other hues, and to optimize things like "nearly white" which leave little ghosts on the transparent parts of images. One drawback--it doesn't recognize alpha, so you need to render pictures and mattes/masks separately, take your screenshots of the combined images, and then port them into Photoshop/GIMP to put the alpha channels in. 
#13
It doesn't do anything fancy; just makes a spritesheet from a bunch of pictures.
01/29/2007 (4:47 pm)
For Mac users there's a simple program called SpriteLiner.It doesn't do anything fancy; just makes a spritesheet from a bunch of pictures.
Torque Owner Alex Rice
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You could also use GIMP or Photoshop for manually doing it, if the # of frames is not too huge.
Hope this helps.