CompuServe Thread

Hi DA, << if I wanted a single palette for the game is it better to render the graphics in a single 8-bit palette or convert afterwards. I haven't had much succes either way. >> When rendering a flic, your color palette is reduced to 256 colors. For optimum results, please review pgs. 8-116..8-119 in the Ref Manual regarding Palettes, VGA Palette Control for Flics and the General Palette Information sections. jonas[adesk]

Probably the best method is to use a custom palette based on a draft rendering of the animation. The process is described in the docs. For any additional tips, there are plenty of game designers on the forum — hopefully, one of them might be able to add to what I've suggested. – Jack

DA, Yes, there are ways of manipulating palettes in 3DS for 8-bit game production, and also Animator Pro. First, keep in mind that 3DS _always_ renders to at least a 24 bit color depth. It is only when you render out to a 8-bit format like flic or gif that 3DS makes the color-cut to 256 colors. So you have a number of ways to go about this. Do you already have a palette in mind? Are you sure it represents all the colors needed in your animation? If so, you can render using a Custom Palette, made in 3DS or AniPro. Check the reference manual for details concerning the creation of Custom Palletes. Maybe you need to render to 24-bit frames for post-effects or compositing purposes? You could do that, do your post work in Animator Studio or any other 34-bit paint program, and then re-render to a Custom palette in 3DS, or force a pallete in AniPro. I can't stress more the importance of understanding the Custom Pallete in 3DS, DA. Hope this helps, -Alan

Hi DA — you've zeroed in on the most critical issue (I think) of working with 3-D Studio in 8-bit. I've been creating graphics for 8-bit multimedia applications (kiosks, disk-brochures, CD-ROM, etc.) for several years now and believe its essential to design your palette as soon as you have your primary screens designed. I render the critical scenes as 24 bit images, and use a paint program (Photoshop) to assemble them into one large image, then convert to index color and let Photoshop create the palette. Personally, I find a high-end paint program does a better job than the High Palette technique in the 3DS documentation. Even better, since our office uses both PC and Mac software, is to bring all the critical scenes as 24 bit images onto the Mac and use Debablizer to create a custom palette (I don't know if there is a PC version of Debablizer — but if there is — get it!) Is your final programming using the .flc format, or will your images be imported individually into the game program? If you need to cut the images out as cels, I recommend rendering them as 24 bit images with alpha channels against the appropriate background color. In Photoshop, load the alpha channel as a selection set and increase it by one pixel. Dither to your custom palette first, then invert your selection set and delete the background. Your cel will be cut out with one pixel of antialiasing (this works great for text cut-outs also in Photoshop). However, if the cel will be floating over a background with a wide variety of colors, both dark and light, you'll have to settle for unantialiased edges. If your final programming uses the .flc format, go ahead and render to the custom palette right in 3DS. Be sure any background images have been previously converted and saved with the custom palette as well, to avoid that nasty "crawl" that occurs in the background when its dithered with slight differences from one frame to the next. Another tip: if your game is going out on a Windows platform — don't forget to include the 20 Windows system colors in your final palette, in the correct locations (first 10 and last 10 slots in the palette). You'll need a program like Animator Pro or Debablizer to locate the colors in their correct slots. Without the system colors in the palette, your user will get some very annoying screen effects if he/she runs the game in a window on a hi-res screen. Bottom line is — these guys who use 3D Studio for broadcast graphics have it easy! It's making 3-D look good in 8-Bit that takes real skill! Good luck… Anne