How to texture a flag (for Ray) – Part 1

Now I can't seem to find the original tutorial I was looking for, but I did find this video by Jan Kardel in German on vimeo. (Doh! Put in the link to said video.)


Lets see if my two weeks of College German in 1986 and Google translate can get the job done.


(Just a clarification. The following is what he does in the video, not what I did to make the flag ripples. Although I did use a bunch of the techniques outlined.)


Just from looking at it he is starting with a default 640 x 480 pixel image. He probably set the background as transparent and then copied the background and created a new transparent layer. So we have three layers starting from the bottom. Background (BG) – copy, which looks to have the GIMP Mascot (Wilbur?) on it; BG, which has been filled with a solid color (blue of some sort); and New Layer which is transparent and the only visible layer at the start.


Off the bat he sets the New Layer Mode to Multiply. Then uses rectangle select to select an area perpendicular to the image. Then Layer > Crop to selection, Select > None. Then Filter > Render > Clouds > Solid Noise. The settings are check all the check boxes (Randomize, Turbulent, Tilable) Detail = 5, X Size = 16, Y Size = 0.7.


We now have our striped cloud layer. Now Layer > Scale Layer to increase the size. He unlocks it and stretches it to 650 wide (10px wider than the image). He then uses the Move tool to reposition it over the image. And finally Layer > Layer to image size.


Next Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Settings: Blur Type = Linear, Length = 256, Angle = 90.


Now we make our Color BG layer visible and Bump Map it. Filter > Map > Bump Map. Settings are Bump Map = New Layer (or whatever our stretched cloud layer was called), Map Type = Linear, check all check boxes (Compensate for darkening, Invert Bump Map, Tile Bump Map), Azimuth = 135, Elevation = 55, Depth = 22.


Next he raises the Wilbur Image and runs a Filter > Map > Displacement with settings of X = 7, Y = 7, both from our “New Layer”; Displacement Mode = Cartesian, Edge Behavior = Wrap. Then Bump Map said image. All settings the same except the elevation was reduced to 53 and the depth to 14. And then the layer mode set to screen. Then the layer was duplicated which lightened its appearance.


So here is my take, modifying the techniques slightly:

I'm off to another class field trip today. I'll post the steps to do this soon. I hope this is what Ray was looking for.

Elder Signs, Arkham Horror Lite?

Late to the party as usual, I came across Elder Signs at Barnes and Noble the other day.

Now aside from being a bad ass trailer, this game looks pretty interesting. As far as I can tell it has all the flavor of Arkham Horror without all the stuff. Therefore it doesn't take up quite so much space. I also kind of like the specialty dice and their mechanic for accomplishing tasks.

Another plus is they seem to say it can be played solo and best of all, it's half the price of Arkham Horror. I'm definitely putting this on my wishlist.

They also have an iOS Android OS version called Elder Signs: Omens. The review I read said it was worth it on a tablet. I'll stay away from that as I do not have a tablet and I oppose pay apps on principal.

Way cool paper terrain

I just had to share this.

I read this article over at Bring your A game. It is about the "Mean Streets" paper terrain for gaming Pulp city encounters. The China town and Cotton club are stunning. You can look at the offerings from The Virtual Armchair General

Borrowed from Bring your A game

Just what I need... more distraction from another era.

Arkham Horror

Got in an actual game last night, Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Horror. My brother owns the game and so my son and I sat down to play it with him last night.

For those not familiar, Arkham Horror is based on the H.P. Lovecraft stories about Cthulu and the occult. Your investigator has been drawn to the New England town of Arkham where strange goings on have been on the rise. Gates to other dimensions start opening, releasing monsters and bad guys of various descriptions and abilities upon the town. The Investigators job is to ultimately seal the gates to stop the Elder Gods from coming into our dimension.

From the Wikipedia Entry

My brother hadn't played in awhile so it took him a little bit of time to re-acquaint himself with the rules. He did say that he learned a few new things and perhaps played the most correct game to date. The rule book is a little verbose and it seems hard to find examples when you have a rules question.

I played Monterey Jack (Archaeologist), my son played Joe Diamond (Private Eye), and my brother played Harvey Walters (Professor). You can find stats etc about them here.

So the game started out pretty simply. Not too many monsters gates seemed easy to close. I soon realized that I needed to focus more on sealing gates rather than just rushing around to close them and found my self struggling to gather the clue tokens necessary. The general gameplay went as usual when the three of us play. My son was mostly interested in combat and so used his guns to slay a lot of maniacs, zombies and cultists. He was powerful enough to dish it out to a few monsters, but struggled with ghosts and the like due to a lack of magic. My brother was the magic heavy hitter of our group and did most of the heavy lifting in sealing about half of the six gates needed to win. I floundered around trying to get clues and husbanding my low sanity (something that I shouldn't have worried about so much because I had a special healing item that I forgot about most of the game).

Anyhow we were sailing along, had three gates closed, and then all of a sudden things got tough. We started having Monster surges, a special event had monsters stacking up in Miskatonic square and the outskirts started filling up with excess monsters pushing up the terror track. We came within one space (out of 11 total) of having Nyarlathotep come on for the final battle.

Low lights: getting lost in space and time, my brother getting killed once and loosing both enchanted knives, loosing my blessing the first turn after getting it and then getting cursed. My brother rolling only one success out of 8 dice (he needed a 4-6 because he was blessed), when he needed three.

Highlights: Rolling three successes with the last three out of eight dice to kill a Nightgaunt! (In your face!) Closing and sealing the final gate to win the game. For my brother and son who knows.

It took us about three and a half hours, including a break for dinner, and was fun if not a little tense. I in particular had a hard time remembering all my stuff so I forgot modifiers and bonuses. We also had a few untimely ability shifts, miscalculating when we would need more luck or will.

All in all fun. Just make sure you have enough space and time to do it.

Welcome to RSpears192 of Lucky Joe's Place (it's not on your google friend connect). Zombies and survivors in 15 and 28mm. I'm really liking the paper buildings he has been making.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hi all,

I'll be travelling today and I've no idea how much free time or internet access I will have over the next week so I just wanted to leave you with a Happy St. Patrick's Day wish and the only clean Limerick I know.

There once were two cats from Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
Till excepting their nails,
And the tips of their tails
Instead of two cats there weren't any.

My second favorite Irish Beer (It's from Kilkenny)

I learned this one from Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose ever. My mother read it to me and I have a copy that I have read to my kids.

Welcome to Kobayachimaru of Chroniques du fort Bastiani as well as a couple of other blogs I have not had the chance to look at yet. This is a really nice site with a range of interests. A lot of Two Hour Wargames campaigns going on from Sci Fi to Fantasy. I like his minis, terrain and game aids that he makes for himself and his club. I've been following for quite awhile now.

Anyway enjoy the day, hopefully you will successfully avoid the crowds of amateurs that come out drinking on this day. I will raise a pint to you. Slainte!

And remember, you know you've had too much green beer when your urine turns green.

**Edit

Oops, I almost forgot:

Always gets my blood up!

**

Interesting painting site

Hi all,

I'm pretty sure that the Colonel posted this already, but it didn't sink in until today.

I was looking for ideas about creating my own Devlan Mud wash and found this resource here. Now when I was painting I had all Citadel Colour paints with the pop tops and I don't recall them having any washes for sale. I started using Windsor Newton Inks for that purpose. But I digress.

Les made a bunch of washes, shows you how, and if you are too lazy you can buy them. Pretty sweet. I then went to his blog where I saw his painting station here. Pretty nice setup. Anyway, I'm now following his blog.

Over on the THW yahoo group, Nicholas asked if I could make a tutorial for the map I'm working on. I will do that, but I'm going to be busy the next few days and then on vacation with the family for the following week. I will have my computer and some internet access, but I can't guarantee I'll get anything done. We shall see.

And now I have something to read on the plane:

Thanks Ray!

Nicholas Has Chosen

It took a few days, but I made contact with Nicholas and he chose Long Rifle.

The description starts "Long Rifle is the black powder period immersion game centered on the French and Indian War."


There are some good posts about it on the Two Hour Wargames Blog starting with the Story of Thomas Howard here.


So I'm sure we all hope, after he gets comfortable with the rules of course, that Nicholas will share an AAR or two from his games at his site http://colony13.blogspot.com/.

Also Welcome to Mats Lintonson of Mono Desire, a nice gaming blog with some interesting projects. I like the painting station he made.

Oh and somehow when I wasn't looking, I passed 3000 views. It's the little blog that could.

Have a great rest of whatever time of day it is where you are.