GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Oct 11, 2007 8:23:13 GMT -8
Some of the flagz are the original, larger size versionz to be replaced. The link will display a table of all the flag images available on this Forum.
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Gaby
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Post by Gaby on Oct 11, 2007 8:50:29 GMT -8
I'll just go to the source and download them again...
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Oct 11, 2007 13:23:49 GMT -8
The non-animated flagz have been corrected. What needz to be done is to get the smaller version flagz for those nationz where the larger flag is being displayed right now.
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Post by GooRoo on Oct 11, 2007 17:12:46 GMT -8
With this reasonably complete set of world mapz, it is time for me to update the script, adding more entriez to the drop-down menu in the Gruntzerz' profile box. Since I now have an animation program that even I seem to be able to use, I may "try my hand" at creating one of the simpler flagz. For instance, the current Russian flag is very close to the flag of Serbia except for the location of the colorz. I could do a "Save as.." of the Russian flag and 'swap' the Blue and White bandz in each frame of the animation. Then (perhapz) the flag of Austria might be closer to the color of the bottom band.
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 13, 2009 16:48:33 GMT -8
I am reminded of this thread, and the flagz that are 'non-standard'. Since I have learned a bit more about "Advanced GIF Animator", I may be able to do something about those large flagz. I may be able to 'cut' the image and colorz from the large image, and 'paste' them over a basic set of small flag imagez, probably created from the Japan flag ... essentially white with a red sun . Each flag GIF (in the 'standard' size) is a ten cell animation, so the effort is to (first) create imagez that are fully transparent on the outside, and semi-transparent on the inside (the foldz of the flapping flag, with everything else transparent), then to create 'maskz' (just the flag outline, without the flag pole) for each cell. Then, using the maskz, cut out the appropriate section of the (too) large flag ... ten timez! So it will be a rather time-consuming project. I will tackle the flag mentioned earlier in this thread (close to Russia's flag), and get a feel for how much time is involved. I may only do the one flag, since there are a few other thingz that have a demand on my (remaining) time. (I am sixty-six yearz old, after all, and the Bible givez us seventy yearz ... and by virtue of strength, perhapz eighty so I must use the remaining time wisely.)
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 13, 2009 19:03:39 GMT -8
By my count, there are 109 flagz available on this Forum (the array is numbered from 0 to 108). Since the owner of this Forum residez in the United States of America, that is the first entry in the table ... the other nationz are (or at least, should be) in alphabetical order. By my (very manual) count, there are 27 flagz of non-standard size, or that are not animated ... fully 25% are still wrong. Are there any talented graphicz artistz in Gruntzland willing to take on the 'standardization' of at least one flag?
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 13, 2009 20:21:03 GMT -8
I am definitely not a graphicz artist, and don't know the first thing about creating anything with a Paint program ... only know enough to trim an existing artistic effort. I surrender! Actually, this is just the initial effort of creating a basic flag (ten cell animation) to be used in creating 'standard' National flags from the non-standard onez we now have. The next step is to create (trim everything else away) the shading of the furlz of the flag ... for ten cellz! I didn't want to take the time to pseudo-dither the basic white flag tonight ... much too time-consuming. (I have to take partz from several different flagz that have white somewhere in the center (where the Japan flag's Sun was) to build up something that lookz as much as possible as the work of the real artist, the creator of all those 'standard' flagz. When I have something I can accept for the 'surrender' flag, then I need to figure out how to modify the shading by adding in the color of whatever should be in the 'fold' area. (Perhapz the trick involvez making the shading of the foldz semi-transparent, and some sort of 'layering' operation.) I suppose that shouldn't be too hard to do for 'pure' colorz ... redz, greenz, bluez. etc. ... but will be a real hassle (for me!) to do with chartreuse or some similar graded color with RGB muted shadez.
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 13, 2009 21:32:31 GMT -8
I used my head (for a change!) and scanned all of the flag imagez that are 'standard' sizez, and discovered that Poland has a white top band of a two color flag, while Singapore has a white bottom band of a two color flag! And to make thingz even better, the primary white color of both is exactly the same hex "FDFDFC" (253253252), so I should be able to trim away all of the non-white portionz from both flagz, and save the result for each of the ten cellz ... then merge the TopCell1 (through 10) with the BottomCell1 (through 10) to achieve a properly waving 'Surrender' flag. But it is too late for me to tackle that task tonight. I'll take that on tomorrow, after returning from the family errandz.
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 14, 2009 13:46:01 GMT -8
I now have a 'basic' ten cell flag animation that I can use to create 'standard' flagz for those 27 National flags that are currently 'non-standard'. The surrender flag that I cobbled together is not too shabby, close enough, at least, that I believe it will make a good prototype for real national flags in the ten cell format, standard 'wave' and standard flag pole, etc. The next step is to figure out how to make the 'foldz' semi-transparent (I will make the white 251251251 pixelz all transparent, so that the starting point would be ten cellz complete with opaque flag pole and semi-transparent foldz. Then I would overlay the National flag colorz and symbolz, etc. onto each cell, taking the imagez, etc. from the non-standard flag (using the closest 'fit' for the corresponding 'standard' cell) to complete the flag. The easiest onez will be the striped onez without any special symbolz ... next the onez with a simple symbol, such as a star. (I may not live long enough ... or this Forum may not exist long enough ... for all of the flagz to be standardized. )
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 14, 2009 20:05:37 GMT -8
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 15, 2009 11:40:14 GMT -8
I have been unable to find a way to create a semi-transparent image in order to do an overlay merge. I have a couple of cellz of the Ukraine flag ... without the 'foldz' of the flag ... a 'flat' image, right now, not a pseudo three dimensional image. I need to be able to make the flag foldz semi-transparent (what ratio, I haven't determined might be proper) and overlay/merge the flag image with colors, darkening the primary colorz where the foldz are ... but the program I am using doesn't seem to have the capability I need to do that. I am comfortable with the use of the animation program, and can quickly put together a ten cell flag animation ... once I can create the ten cellz! Does any Gruntzer have a program (and the ability to describe the process in 'cook book' form) that will perform that overlay/merge?
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 15, 2009 19:19:13 GMT -8
This is what the Ukraine flag lookz like without the foldz. I really would like to find out how to do a merge with the foldz . Merging in the foldz, modifying the colorz occupying the same pixelz as the foldz (by darkening the primary color(s)) is something that should exist ... somewhere. I have been using Paint.net (shareware program) for the image editz. I will (since I once again have Paint, with Vista on this notebook computer) see what Microsoft's program can do. But if someone knowz of a program that is user-friendly (preferably free) that is capable of doing such a merge, I would appreciate the lead to acquiring such a program.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Mar 16, 2009 5:59:27 GMT -8
Hah, maybe Paint? Alright, joke. Here is my sample: >>Deleted << Any corrections?
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 16, 2009 11:26:24 GMT -8
Hah, maybe Paint? Alright, joke. Here is my sample: Any corrections? That flag lookz fine! Now, what program(s) did you use, and how did you go about creating it ... step-by-step, as in a cook book?
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Post by Tomalla on Mar 16, 2009 11:38:12 GMT -8
I used Adobe ImageReady CS2 ( an addition to a PhotoShop ). Basicly, I've loaded all 10 frames ( or "cells", as you called ) of your Ukraine flag animation without folds to an animation with Surrender flag WITH folds. I had 20 layers then. I've turned alpha blending of each frame of Ukraine flag down ( to 60% transparency ) and put two layers as a one frame ( one of surrender's flag and one of Ukraine flag with transparency ). So, I guess that's all. I'm sure there's easier and faster way to overlay to animations, but I'm not so pro to do that.
That Ukraine flag you see I've created in approx 10 - 15 minutes ( because of manual works, such as merging each layers together to a frame, turning down alpha blending of each Ukraine frame etc. ).
Hope this'll help.
Regards, Tomalla
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 16, 2009 11:44:38 GMT -8
Unfortunately, I do not have PhotoShop ... and as I recall, it is a rather expensive program ... far beyond the financez of this retired senior citizen. I presume the add-on you mentioned is freeware/shareware and not another commercial program. Funny, the tutorial I found also used PhotoShop, with something called displacement to achieve a waving flag effect.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Mar 16, 2009 11:58:58 GMT -8
Displacement? Never heard of it. Could You give me a link to this tutorial?
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 16, 2009 15:46:31 GMT -8
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Mar 17, 2009 3:27:22 GMT -8
Ok, now my turn - how did You created a waving Ukraine flag ( this one without folds )? Step by step ?
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Post by GooRoo on Mar 17, 2009 9:32:14 GMT -8
Ok, now my turn - how did You created a waving Ukraine flag ( this one without folds )? Step by step ? Ukraine was my first effort, rather simple two color vertically striped flag. As you know, this Forum has several animated national flags that are ten cell 68 pixelz wide by 50 pixelz high. Singapore and Poland are both two color vertically striped flagz, both with a (same color!) white stripe, one on the upper half, the other on the lower half. These were my sourcez. For each flag, I opened it in Advanced GIF Animator, and in subsequent operationz deleted all but one of the ten (actually eleven ... one blank, which I ignored) cellz and did a "Save As.." Cell1, Cell2... Cell10(upper/lower).gif. Then I used Paint.net (shareware program, which I registered and paid for) to erase everything that wasn't white flag section from the twenty GIFz. (I also cropped out the flag pole as a separate GIF.) Then I merged Cell#upper and Cell#lower and manually dithered in the missing pixelz from the merger, and added the flag pole ... repeated for all ten cellz. That created the Surrender flag. So far, I have only created cell1 for the foldz of the flag, by making everything that was the pure white primary color transparent. I plan to do the same for cellz 2 through 10, to have a complete set ... unless there is an easier way ... for which I do not have the toolz. I am now doing the same thing with three stripe flagz ... creating thirty GIFz of pure colorz. That way, I can do a fill of the primary colorz of the next flag I build (Serbia ), and Save As.. for the new flag. The flag pole and the foldz will be standard componentz of each flag, no matter whether it is two-stripe, three-stripe, three bar, or anything else ... same foldz, same flag outlinez for each of the ten cellz ... just what is inside changing. The hardest (and most time-consuming) part will be adding in the devicez from the non-standard flagz onto the standard flagz (where there are non-standard size 10 or 15, 16 or 18 cell animationz). I don't know what I am going to do with Cyprus , because I only have one cell of that flag ... hopefully just faulty SAVE-ing, and I can go back to the source and re-download a ten cell version of it. BTW, I much prefer the softer foldz of your Ukraine flag over the 'harder' foldz of flagz such as the United States flag.
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