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Blinging question

BlueWillow Kipling
Registered User
Join date: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 12
09-27-2005 20:16
My first project is adding blings to a bracelet I made.

I am a raw newbie with programming experience but practically no graphics experience.

When I asked a question about getting a script for glowing particles to bling, a couple of people suggested that I use a star texture and apply it to the particles. Or that's what I understood them to mean.

I'm also just learning the GIMP, and I haven't done much in anything like Paint in a long time, either (although I did do enough years ago to know my way around the toolbox, at least).

So, I've got this image of an 8-pointed star, made in paint, imported into the GIMP, where I made a second, transparent layer, cut (actually apparently copied--but I *tried* to cut it) the star out from the bottom layer and pasted it onto the second, transparent layer.

So now I've got that transparent layer with it's little checkerboard pattern around the star, and the star solid white. I haven't been able to figure out how to change the color of the star. I've fiddled a lot with the paint-bucket area fill tool, and the fg and bg colors, but no matter what I do I can't get that star to go anything but white.

My question is if I'm going to apply a star texture to a glowy expanse of particles to make them bling, do I need the star to be opaque and its surroundings to be transparent, or do I need the star to be transparent and the surroundings opaque. If someone could answer this and explain why I would be forever grateful.

And the next question is this---when I try to import the star bling texture into SL, because of what I said above, all I see is white. Is there any way to change this so that I see I'm actually getting my star bling texture, without screwing up the texture?

I'm not making this to sell, it's just a personal learning project that has me working on several things I need to learn. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I know you're not the "textures" forum, but I figured you scripting folks could do a better job of answering the question of which part needs to be transparent to bling right---the shape or its background.

I'm also having trouble getting my head around how the texture applies to the particles--namely, why a texture that looks like a star wouldn't either look like an opaque, white cut-out piece of star-shaped paper, *or* like an opaque white sheet of paper surrounding a star-shaped hole.

So, anyway, help?

Any comments that help me learn more are much appreciated.

Blue
Chandra Page
Build! Code. Sleep?
Join date: 7 Oct 2004
Posts: 360
09-28-2005 13:35
From: BlueWillow Kipling
So now I've got that transparent layer with it's little checkerboard pattern around the star, and the star solid white. I haven't been able to figure out how to change the color of the star. I've fiddled a lot with the paint-bucket area fill tool, and the fg and bg colors, but no matter what I do I can't get that star to go anything but white.


You don't actually need it anything other than white. In fact, if the star is white, that's the perfect color for tinting the particle effect to whatever color you want. Particle effect scripts can define their own color, which is combined with whatever colors are used in the texture displayed by the particle. White is the best, because it won't interfere with the color you set in the script.

However, if you're looking to use the bucket fill in the GIMP in the future, I suspect your problem is that you currently have another layer selected instead of the layer that contains the star. At least, that's a problem I've run into in the past.

From: BlueWillow Kipling
My question is if I'm going to apply a star texture to a glowy expanse of particles to make them bling, do I need the star to be opaque and its surroundings to be transparent, or do I need the star to be transparent and the surroundings opaque. If someone could answer this and explain why I would be forever grateful.


The star itself should be opaque, with its surroundings transparent. Think of it this way: each individual particle that a particle system spits out is actually a two-dimensional square surface. If your texture were a plain white square, the particle system would produce a shower of plain white squares, hard edges and all. If the star itself were transparent, you'd get a shower of squares with stars cut out of the middle of them. With the area surrounding the star transparent, you'll get a shower of stars, which I'm assuming is what you're after.

From: BlueWillow Kipling
And the next question is this---when I try to import the star bling texture into SL, because of what I said above, all I see is white. Is there any way to change this so that I see I'm actually getting my star bling texture, without screwing up the texture?


This one is pretty easy. Before exporting the texture from the GIMP, make sure that the transparent areas of the image really do look transparent. If you have a white background layer visible behind your star-and-transparency layer, the GIMP will export the whole thing with a white background, giving you a solid white square. Use the Layer window to hide any layers you don't want to appear in the final image. Then, use the Save a Copy command and save the image as a TGA. Second Life can only import transparency information from a 32-bit TGA file, so saving to JPG from the GIMP won't work.

From: BlueWillow Kipling
I'm also having trouble getting my head around how the texture applies to the particles--namely, why a texture that looks like a star wouldn't either look like an opaque, white cut-out piece of star-shaped paper, *or* like an opaque white sheet of paper surrounding a star-shaped hole.


With a star image that has proper transparency, it should look like an opaque, white cut-out piece of star-shaped paper. Try applying your uploaded texture to the side of a prim. Can you see through parts of the prim? If not, the transparency information was lost somehow during upload for one of the reasons I mentioned earlier in this post.

If you're still having trouble, feel free to IM me in-world, and I'll be happy to help.
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Kim Manilow
total spaz
Join date: 8 Jun 2004
Posts: 154
09-29-2005 09:50
I didn't read your entire post because my understanding is that bling is not done with a texture. I think that this is all you need:

CODE
// Particle Script 0.3
// Created by Ama Omega
// 10-10-2003

// Mask Flags - set to TRUE to enable
integer glow = TRUE; // Make the particles glow
integer bounce = FALSE; // Make particles bounce on Z plan of object
integer interpColor = TRUE; // Go from start to end color
integer interpSize = TRUE; // Go from start to end size
integer wind = FALSE; // Particles effected by wind
integer followSource = FALSE; // Particles follow the source
integer followVel = TRUE; // Particles turn to velocity direction

// Choose a pattern from the following:
// PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_EXPLODE
// PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_DROP
// PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE_EMPTY
// PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE_CONE
// PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_ANGLE
integer pattern = PSYS_SRC_PATTERN_EXPLODE;

// Select a target for particles to go towards
// "" for no target, "owner" will follow object owner
// and "self" will target this object
// or put the key of an object for particles to go to
key target = "";

// Particle paramaters
float age = .2; // Life of each particle
float maxSpeed = .1; // Max speed each particle is spit out at
float minSpeed = .1; // Min speed each particle is spit out at
string texture; // Texture used for particles, default used if blank
float startAlpha = 10; // Start alpha (transparency) value
float endAlpha = 10; // End alpha (transparency) value
vector startColor = <1,1,1>; // Start color of particles <R,G,B>
vector endColor = <1,1,1>; // End color of particles <R,G,B> (if interpColor == TRUE)
vector startSize = <.04,.25,.01>; // Start size of particles
vector endSize = <.03,.25,.01>; // End size of particles (if interpSize == TRUE)
vector push = <0,0,0>; // Force pushed on particles

// System paramaters
float rate = 5; // How fast (rate) to emit particles
float radius = .0; // Radius to emit particles for BURST pattern
integer count = 5; // How many particles to emit per BURST
float outerAngle = 1.54; // Outer angle for all ANGLE patterns
float innerAngle = 1.55; // Inner angle for all ANGLE patterns
vector omega = <0,0,10>; // Rotation of ANGLE patterns around the source
float life = 0; // Life in seconds for the system to make particles

// Script variables
integer flags;

updateParticles()
{
flags = 0;
if (target == "owner") target = llGetOwner();
if (target == "self") target = llGetKey();
if (glow) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_EMISSIVE_MASK;
if (bounce) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_BOUNCE_MASK;
if (interpColor) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_INTERP_COLOR_MASK;
if (interpSize) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_INTERP_SCALE_MASK;
if (wind) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_WIND_MASK;
if (followSource) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_SRC_MASK;
if (followVel) flags = flags | PSYS_PART_FOLLOW_VELOCITY_MASK;
if (target != "") flags = flags | PSYS_PART_TARGET_POS_MASK;

llParticleSystem([ PSYS_PART_MAX_AGE,age,
PSYS_PART_FLAGS,flags,
PSYS_PART_START_COLOR, startColor,
PSYS_PART_END_COLOR, endColor,
PSYS_PART_START_SCALE,startSize,
PSYS_PART_END_SCALE,endSize,
PSYS_SRC_PATTERN, pattern,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE,rate,
PSYS_SRC_ACCEL, push,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_PART_COUNT,count,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_RADIUS,radius,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MIN,minSpeed,
PSYS_SRC_BURST_SPEED_MAX,maxSpeed,
PSYS_SRC_TARGET_KEY,target,
PSYS_SRC_INNERANGLE,innerAngle,
PSYS_SRC_OUTERANGLE,outerAngle,
PSYS_SRC_OMEGA, omega,
PSYS_SRC_MAX_AGE, life,
PSYS_SRC_TEXTURE, texture,
PSYS_PART_START_ALPHA, startAlpha,
PSYS_PART_END_ALPHA, endAlpha
]);
}

default
{
state_entry()
{
updateParticles();
}
}
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Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
09-29-2005 10:56
From: Kim Manilow
I didn't read your entire post because my understanding is that bling is not done with a texture.

You're right that it's done with a particle script, but you're incorrect that it's "not done with a texture". It's both. Particles have textures. Unless you assign one (and there's a place to do that in the script you posted, where it says "string texture;";) it is given a default blank texture, making the particle appear to be just a mass of color. For the jewel-sparkle "bling" effect, you need spindly star-shaped texture for the particles.

That having been said, please everyone, use bling sparingly. First, it's a MAJOR cause of lag. Second, in my opinion it's a pretty cheesy effect. I've seen it done tastefully maybe once or twice out of the thousands of times I've seen it. It's usually pretty tacky.
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Land now available for rent in Indigo. Low rates. Quiet, low-lag mainland sim with good neighbors. IM me in-world if you're interested.
Mhaijik Guillaume
Chadeaux Vamp
Join date: 18 Jun 2004
Posts: 620
WebEx
09-29-2005 11:08
Reading this just made me think of really cool WebEx meetings where you could see and take over the other persons screen....

hmmmmmm....
*wanders off to check into security issues*
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Chandra Page
Build! Code. Sleep?
Join date: 7 Oct 2004
Posts: 360
09-29-2005 11:14
From: Chosen Few
That having been said, please everyone, use bling sparingly. First, it's a MAJOR cause of lag. Second, in my opinion it's a pretty cheesy effect. I've seen it done tastefully maybe once or twice out of the thousands of times I've seen it. It's usually pretty tacky.


I'll second that. I've made a couple "bling" effects that I prefer to refer to as "sparkle" effects. They go off at infrequent intervals (maybe once a minute, tops), and the objects in which the effect is hosted only produce one small sparkle at a time. Bling is most effective when it's used sparingly. It ought to catch the eye every now and then as an accent, not overwhelm whatever object creates it.

That which blings least, blings best.
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Kim Manilow
total spaz
Join date: 8 Jun 2004
Posts: 154
09-29-2005 16:11
I am in no way promoting the use of bling. Just trying to help.

And no it doesn't look like a mass of color, it looks like all the other bling out there. Maybe I am missing the subtleties. :D
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succulent Abattoir
Registered User
Join date: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 30
09-29-2005 19:57
well i do not consider bling as a plus value, in fact i think a bling item will make me ask for a refund ^^