Question about designing in GIMP

[Marleen]

I am really seriously trying to figure out the process of designing, with the manual provided.
First I tried in Paintshop, but the final steps became too difficult (it's hard enough as it is, all in English), so I downloaded the GIMP-program recommanded in the manual.

And no matter how many times I try, I don't even GET to the last steps. Because, whenever I design anything, no matter how crude (I eventually even tried a pair of plain underpants !!, just as they are in the doll), everything I create gets totally killed and screwed up in the scaling-process.

Here's what I do :
- I draw the item I want, 2 pixels wide at least (which is VERY hard because I can only choose between a pencilwidth of 1 and 3 (and larger).
-I erase the rest of the doll
-I set the transparency for the background
So far, so good....

Then, I go to the scaling, set the size as indicated (101x215 pixels, cubic), click on 'scaling'.....and voila ; gone is my perfect picture, replaced byh a very very blurry, all shades of blue, grey, white and black fuzzy image of what I just TRIED to make. Nowhere NEAR an image that I can somehow use in the future, unless I wanna make people think they need some glasses.
Back to the drawing board, to get the same result over and over again.

What am I doing wrong here ?
SHOULD the small picture look so un-usable blurry and is it just me ? Am I missing a step that is - or is not- in the manual ?



In this image I put the - very plain knickers with stripes, which is NOT what I was trying to design, but just a very clear and plain example - original version as drawn and the scaled image next to eachother. As you can see, the scaled image is hardly usable.

Could you please let me know where I am going wrong here ? Because I just cannot seem to find the problem.

[TroyHepfner]

The scaled image is actually correct. I can't tell from your picture, but I suspect the zoom level at the bottom says 800% or something like that. If you change the zoom level to 100%, it will look like it should in the game.

[Marleen]

But even at a 100 % it looks much 'blurrier' then any of the clothes in the game ??
Well, I'm just gonna continue trying with one of those blurry images then - hoping it DOES come out fine. I suspect I'm gonna have enough trouble trying to line up images in a .png-file :lol:
In the meantime I checked some .png-files from both the original and user-made addons, and indeed they seem to have this somewhat (thoug not this bad) blurry base. That must be the reason then you have to revert to the larger image befor using color and then rescaling again. That first seemed like an unnecessary extra step.
I'll definitely try something easy first....don't think it'll ever show up here....

[Marleen]

Well. I THINK I just made a strip of clothing-items, and now I'm looking in to the XML I'm supposed to write. That looks a loot harder, really. I hope I can just copy the text provided and change the values as needed......pfff. Better start cooking first ;-)

[Marleen]

So, I THINK (again) I did everything right -or at least according to the manual - more or less - and after playing three games in a row, finally 1 (!) of my items showed up !! Just one so fas, but that was GREAT (even though the desing was nothing to write home about).
Hope some of the other colors will come out later today (if I can keep playing this impatiently. )

[AlleyCat]

Sounds like you're making good progress! Can't wait to see some new creations for Fashion Cents Deluxe! It's been a few months since we've seen some new addons for our favorite dressup game!

[Marleen]

I am just making a simple catsuit-like thingy, and although I've only seen a few so far (one shouldn't upload TOO many addons in this game, even if it was just for testing :lol. Maybe I'll complete the outfit with bunny-slippers ;-) it SEEMS to be working. No 'invisible' desses turned up.

But then I tried making a second thing (a nightcap to go with the frilled catsuit, which I thought kinda looked like something you could only sleep in) , and although only a few turned up so far, and I had to make a lot of adjustments in the .dat-file to place them properly, I have a feeling several of them DID appear, but totally invisible. (Invisible 'hats' with colours I used).

But I can't see anything wrong in the DATfile.
Coordinates, width, height, colours, everything seems to be in order. This really puzzles me a the moment. Why only index number 8 showed up twice so far.

What causes invisibility of an item, and what should I look at / recalculate / remeasure to fix that ? Or should I just start all over again ? (I think I placed the items too close together on the strip).

(Here's a small impression of the ' work in progress' )

[Marleen]

(And I fount an easier way to test my items ; I deleted ALL addons-titles from the index-file except my own (kept them in a safe place ofcourse), so now my items are showing up more regularly.
Only seen 5 out of 17 / 2 out of 17 variations though, but I hope more will show. )

*edit* - seen 11 out of 17 / 7 out of 17 plus 4 invisibles by now. Few more to go, and find out what causes invisibility.

[TroyHepfner]

Feel free to post the contents of your .dat file here. I'll be happy to take a look at it and give you feedback.

[Marleen]

It's kinda long, but I'll give it a try.

This is the DAT-file for my 'hats' :

<FCADDON>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 0 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 1 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 16 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 0 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 1 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 9 11 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 48 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 2 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 12 13 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 95 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 3 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 6 8 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 142 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 4 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 16 17 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 189 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 5 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 6 12 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 236 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 6 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 9 13 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 283 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 7 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 7 15 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 330 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 8 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 0 3 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 377 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 9 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 6 10 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 425 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 10 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 1 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 1 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 471 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 11 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 4 11 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 518 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 12 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 3 14 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 565 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 13 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 2 17 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 613 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 14 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 3 7 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 661 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 15 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 8 10 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 707 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
<CLOTHING>
<NAME> mznightcaps </NAME>
<IMAGE> mznightcaps.png </IMAGE>
<TYPE> 0 </TYPE>
<INDEX> 16 </INDEX>
<COLOR_COUNT> 2 </COLOR_COUNT>
<COLORS> 11 16 </COLORS>
<SRCX> 754 </SRCX>
<SRCY> 0 </SRCY>
<XOFFSET> 24 </XOFFSET>
<YOFFSET> 4 </YOFFSET>
<STARTX> 211 </STARTX>
<STARTY> 559 </STARTY>
<WIDTH> 47 </WIDTH>
<HEIGHT> 34 </HEIGHT>
</CLOTHING>
</FCADDON>

and I don't know if the .png is needed and if I can upload it correctly, but this is the corresponding png-file. I don't know if the transparancy shoes up.



I've gone over and over and over it to look for what could be wrong, but I guess I just don't know what I should be looking for....