This is a thread that aims to teach you how to make an excellent looking muzzleflash in Adobe Photoshop.
You will need the following:
-Adobe Photoshop (I'm using 7}
-NVIDIA's Photoshop DDS plugin (can be found at the following link:http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html)
-A copy of FPSC (you probably have this
)
OK. Let's get started!
Open Photoshop and start a new document. Make it 1024x1024 pixels, with a resolution of 72 pixels per inch, and set contents to transparent.
Now, make a solid white circle roughly in the center of the page, with 5 circles surrounding it, like so:
Now, join those up with smaller brush strokes, then put some smaller circles around the original ones:
OK. Now, using the paint bucket tool, change the colour to whatever you want your flash to be.
Now it gets fun. Use Gaussian blur on what you've got, at Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur. Set it to a radius of 4.5 pixels. Now, get a white brush again, but one of those feathered ones. Make a smaller version of the shape you have now inside it.
Now, at Filter > Liquify, just get creative. Mess up the muzzleflash as much as you want, and morph it into whatever shape you want. Some examples of good and bad:
After that, use Gaussian blur again, at a radius of 4.5 pixels, then up the contrast a bit, until you have something like this:
Now, repeat using liquify, Gaussian blur and contrast until you are satisfied.
My end result:
Exporting to FPSC
OK. Save as .DDS, using that NVIDIA plugin I mentioned before. Now, here is one of the most crucial parts of saving as .DDS; MAKE SURE ALPHA CHANNELS IS SWITCHED ON! If you don't do this, you'll end up with a big white box, with your flash inside it. You can find the alpha channels here:
Sometimes, especially in my case, Photoshop will not let you turn alpha channels on. In this case, you can just save without it turned on. But you need to have it on this setting when the NVIDIA popup appears:
(Thanks to EAI for this!)
Now, it needs to be saved in FPSC directory > Files > gamecore > muzzleflash. Now save it with the name 'flashXX'. The XX needs to be replaced with a number. Must be higher than 7, and NOT 61-65. Those are MP6 flashes.
Now, to add it on to a gun, go to said gun's gunspec, and where it says 'flash = XX', change the XX to your number. Then it should work.
Thanks for listening.
-Toasty
NOTES:
-One error that I have gotten before, is that the edges do not appear blurred, the way presumedly should. If anyone knows what the cause of this is, please speak up.
-To make a flash without the big, flary 'blades', just follow the tutorial without the circles around the original circle.
-I'm not sure if Gaussian Blur and Liquify ship standard with Photoshop, so if anyone does not have them, I will post them for download.
