Xorn
June 22nd, 2008, 14:20
Okay, this is just a quick rundown of how to turn the D&D minis in their gallery, (or anything else you have a shot of) into a pretty handy transparent mini. We're going to turn Lord Soth (from the Giants of Legend set) into a mini that I can use with FG2. Now I set my minis to 100 pixel scale, but you can set them to whatever you like. Going below 50 for a medium size creature you can't really tell what it is anymore, as a warning. (I used 50 pixel/square maps, but all my tokens are 100 pixel/square scale. I just lock token scale and I'm good to go.)
Setup (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/setup.jpg)
Get whatever graphics program you use opened up, and I like to set it up side-by-side with the miniatures gallery. Once you get going, you can complete a mini/token in about 30 seconds or less, so having them side by side becomes pretty handy. I'm using PSP, but the free GiMP can do everything this program can. I highly recommend making a custom toolbar to cover all of our steps, it speeds things up greatly.
Step 1: Copy Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step1.jpg)
First copy the mini you're going to do. As I'm starting on Giants of Legend today, we'll use Lord Soth. He's medium size, so I'm going to be making a 100 pixel tall token out of him. (More on that in the Resize step).
Step 2: Paste As New Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step2.jpg)
Next I paste the image into PSP.
Step 3: Promote Background Layer (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step3.jpg)
I click Promote Background Layer (so that there's no background--if I delete anything now it leaves transparent pixels behind it).
Step 4: Delete Background White (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step4.jpg)
Using the Magic Wand (with 5 tolerance) I click on the background and delete it till I get everything. Sometimes really light weapons will get snagged, and I use the Freehand tool to trim around them before pushing delete. This happens on maybe one mini from a whole set. I made a before and after for this step.
Step 5: Select All (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step5.jpg)
Now that I've trimmed out all the background, select all of the image in preparation for the next step.
Step 6: Select Similar (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step6.jpg)
Now I select similar pixels, set to remove any pixel from the selection that was transparent. The resulting selection is shown. (All I have to do is click OK, it remembers the settings.)
Step 7: Copy (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step7.jpg)
Click copy, to copy what I have selected.
Step 8: Paste As New Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step8.jpg)
Now I paste my clipboard as a new image again; this has removed any excess space from the mini, so it will fill the square nicely.
Step 9: Resize (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step9.jpg)
Next I resize the image, and this is the most involved step. If 100 pixels is Medium, then 75 is Small and 200 is large. Determine if the creature is "tall" or "wide" and set the height or width to 100 (for medium), respectively. Lord Soth is humanoid, so obviously I set his height to 100 (keeping aspect ratio on). Had this been say... the Basilisk later in the set, that looks like it should be wider than tall, so I'd set the width to 100 instead. The important thing--when I set the height of Lord Soth to 100, if his width is more than 100, then I turn off aspect ratio and squish it to 100. You need your token to fit in the square well. This mostly occurs with large creatures, but occasionally dragons and such (with their wings out) will look... odd. Usually anything like that I just skew to 200x200 and move on. You'll find what works for you.
Step 10: Save (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step10.jpg)
Last step, save the token as a PNG (which doesn't need a transparent color set) in the host folder, and you now have a token ready to go. I have a campaign called DDM that I save all my new tokens in, then as I actually use them for an adventure I copy them into that campaigns token folder.
I've had several people asking for a copy of my minis--I'm not comfortable sending these tokens to anyone, as I created them from copyrighted images, but now you can make them yourself!
Setup (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/setup.jpg)
Get whatever graphics program you use opened up, and I like to set it up side-by-side with the miniatures gallery. Once you get going, you can complete a mini/token in about 30 seconds or less, so having them side by side becomes pretty handy. I'm using PSP, but the free GiMP can do everything this program can. I highly recommend making a custom toolbar to cover all of our steps, it speeds things up greatly.
Step 1: Copy Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step1.jpg)
First copy the mini you're going to do. As I'm starting on Giants of Legend today, we'll use Lord Soth. He's medium size, so I'm going to be making a 100 pixel tall token out of him. (More on that in the Resize step).
Step 2: Paste As New Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step2.jpg)
Next I paste the image into PSP.
Step 3: Promote Background Layer (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step3.jpg)
I click Promote Background Layer (so that there's no background--if I delete anything now it leaves transparent pixels behind it).
Step 4: Delete Background White (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step4.jpg)
Using the Magic Wand (with 5 tolerance) I click on the background and delete it till I get everything. Sometimes really light weapons will get snagged, and I use the Freehand tool to trim around them before pushing delete. This happens on maybe one mini from a whole set. I made a before and after for this step.
Step 5: Select All (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step5.jpg)
Now that I've trimmed out all the background, select all of the image in preparation for the next step.
Step 6: Select Similar (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step6.jpg)
Now I select similar pixels, set to remove any pixel from the selection that was transparent. The resulting selection is shown. (All I have to do is click OK, it remembers the settings.)
Step 7: Copy (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step7.jpg)
Click copy, to copy what I have selected.
Step 8: Paste As New Image (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step8.jpg)
Now I paste my clipboard as a new image again; this has removed any excess space from the mini, so it will fill the square nicely.
Step 9: Resize (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step9.jpg)
Next I resize the image, and this is the most involved step. If 100 pixels is Medium, then 75 is Small and 200 is large. Determine if the creature is "tall" or "wide" and set the height or width to 100 (for medium), respectively. Lord Soth is humanoid, so obviously I set his height to 100 (keeping aspect ratio on). Had this been say... the Basilisk later in the set, that looks like it should be wider than tall, so I'd set the width to 100 instead. The important thing--when I set the height of Lord Soth to 100, if his width is more than 100, then I turn off aspect ratio and squish it to 100. You need your token to fit in the square well. This mostly occurs with large creatures, but occasionally dragons and such (with their wings out) will look... odd. Usually anything like that I just skew to 200x200 and move on. You'll find what works for you.
Step 10: Save (https://www.eugee.net/tutorial/step10.jpg)
Last step, save the token as a PNG (which doesn't need a transparent color set) in the host folder, and you now have a token ready to go. I have a campaign called DDM that I save all my new tokens in, then as I actually use them for an adventure I copy them into that campaigns token folder.
I've had several people asking for a copy of my minis--I'm not comfortable sending these tokens to anyone, as I created them from copyrighted images, but now you can make them yourself!