New BAMs for spells

[yarpen]

There's nothing too much to talk about, I'm just trying to produce few good-quality BAMs for Spell Revision project. So today I've made slightly fixed version of Sunschorch BAM (B and C version, so 'stone' and 'nuttin') and I want to present them to you. Main thing fixed is colour pool for both of icons, there's no longer very bright IWD red, but toned-down BG2-like. I was using colours from Charm Person spell. I still think that it looks bad... looking better than IWD-one in BG isn't a big challenge.

Tadah!

 

 

Because I don't have BG2 copy right now, I want to ask you about something. In BG2 files, between standard spell BAMs there are few unused icons. One of them I think can suit Sunschorch spell well. Can someone try to find it? I don't remember spell group. But you have to look trough BAMs, not spells.

 

Any opinions can be very useful. What I can fix/tweak etc.

- Yarp

[Salk]

This is already an improvement so good job, yarpen!

[yarpen]

It looks very 'piggy' right now. Damn.

And thanks Salk. I will try to make it better.

[Demivrgvs]

I knew about them:

- spcl626 would be ideal for Summon Wyvern imo

- sppr316 would be ideal for Mist of Eldath

- sppr505 probably was for Wall of Fire

- sppr709 is very strange...

- sppr716 would be ideal for IWD II's Smashing Wave

- spwi204 seems something related to winds

- spwi906 has been used for the Shambling mound in SR V3

 

There are a few more...but none seems appropriate for Sunsorch imo.

[yarpen]

There's one... maybe you already used it somewhere else. I've thought that this one with some waves and half of sun will be great. ;-)

 

I think that's much better.

[yarpen]

Anyone have got any idea about Mass Charm spell?

[Demivrgvs]

There's one... maybe you already used it somewhere else. I've thought that this one with some waves and half of sun will be great. ;-)

I think what you're suggesting is sppr716, which imo wouldbe less appropriate than the current one.

 

 

I think that's much better.

Yes, and in-game looks slightly better too imo. I've included these in V3.

[Mike1072]

There's one... maybe you already used it somewhere else. I've thought that this one with some waves and half of sun will be great. ;-)

 

I think that's much better.

I'm pretty picky with my artwork (unreasonably so considering I don't make any myself), so take any criticism lightly. I think those look great, but... !Start Nitpick Warning! I think the one on the scroll background could be just a teensy bit more opaque in the centre. !End Nitpick Warning! The hue is spot-on.

 

[Demivrgvs]

There's one... maybe you already used it somewhere else. I've thought that this one with some waves and half of sun will be great. ;-)

 

I think that's much better.

I'm pretty picky with my artwork (unreasonably so considering I don't make any myself), so take any criticism lightly. I think those look great, but... !Start Nitpick Warning! I think the one on the scroll background could be just a teensy bit more opaque in the centre. !End Nitpick Warning! The hue is spot-on.

 

The good news is that being a priest's spell the the scroll's bam is quite useless.

[Guest guest]

Can i just ask, how does one go about making/editing/using these BAMs? I know next to nothing about them, but is it easy to extract them, or equally to start from scratch? And can you work on them in things like ms paint/photoshop and then convert from bmp to BAM type or something?

 

I doubt it's this simple, otherwise i'd guess lots would have done this eh, but let me know someone please about all this or direct me to a good tutorial maybe, thanks.

[scorpio]

Can i just ask, how does one go about making/editing/using these BAMs? I know next to nothing about them, but is it easy to extract them, or equally to start from scratch? And can you work on them in things like ms paint/photoshop and then convert from bmp to BAM type or something?

 

I doubt it's this simple, otherwise i'd guess lots would have done this eh, but let me know someone please about all this or direct me to a good tutorial maybe, thanks.

 

Right, that was me...I was really hoping someone could help me out, but i think i've found a few things, anyways here's my very first attempt at a BAM, i decided i liked the sound of this summon shadow spell you've got and wanted to try to create an icon for that - I have no idea what you have for it currently, here's what i've got so far:

 

 

I have all of 1 hour experience in all this, so go easy guys

[yarpen]

As you can see, that's not difficult stuff. Rather boring. Icon you did is quite nice but try to remove dark outline of red stuff.

[Demivrgvs]

Can i just ask, how does one go about making/editing/using these BAMs? I know next to nothing about them, but is it easy to extract them, or equally to start from scratch? And can you work on them in things like ms paint/photoshop and then convert from bmp to BAM type or something?

 

I doubt it's this simple, otherwise i'd guess lots would have done this eh, but let me know someone please about all this or direct me to a good tutorial maybe, thanks.

 

Right, that was me...I was really hoping someone could help me out, but i think i've found a few things, anyways here's my very first attempt at a BAM, i decided i liked the sound of this summon shadow spell you've got and wanted to try to create an icon for that - I have no idea what you have for it currently, here's what i've got so far:

 

 

I have all of 1 hour experience in all this, so go easy guys

I think Yarpen could help you much better than me, as I haven't work on bams at all! Speaking of your bam for Summon Shadow, it does remind me more of a mist (same animation used by nishruus and hakeashars) rather than a shadow (at least considering BG's shadows animation).

 

 

The list of exisiting spells which probably need a custom bam are:

- Faerie Fire

- Fire Trap (I think Yarpen is currently working on that)

- Create Undead (currently use Animate Dead's one, as in vanilla it was the same spell)

 

The list of possible new spells (which I'd like to keep as few as possible) is:

- Banishment (I think IWD's one is ok, except for the horrid color palette)

- Iron Body (thought I think Ironskin bam may be ok, as SR doesn't use it, and it also has a respective portrait icon)

- Mass Charm

[Mike1072]

Can i just ask, how does one go about making/editing/using these BAMs? I know next to nothing about them, but is it easy to extract them, or equally to start from scratch? And can you work on them in things like ms paint/photoshop and then convert from bmp to BAM type or something?

 

I doubt it's this simple, otherwise i'd guess lots would have done this eh, but let me know someone please about all this or direct me to a good tutorial maybe, thanks.

Check out BAM Workshop I, and to a lesser extent, BAM Workshop II, both available here.

[scorpio]

This stuff is quite frustrating...takes so long.

 

Yarpen, do you use some particular software, my "method" involves about 10 windows open at once, going back and forth between bamworkshop, bmp2bam, paint, photoshop, NI, and a few folders and whatnot...

 

Anyways, here's a little something:

 

For faerie fire: The unimaginative person that i am, i went for a fairy...inside some fire...but the in-game spell icon just is so wrong it's unbelievable...here's the spellbook one which is ok (well, i'll let you decide whether it it even that):

 

 

This was again faerie fire, this time I went ahead and got the in-game icon looking okay:

 

 

 

Just your basic armour half on fire thing going on.