Applying Dink Palletes
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- Author(s): Dan Walma
- Categories: Development, Tutorial
- Downloads: 31
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In defense of this tutorial thing (after Phoenix blasted it all to heck):
Not everyone has imaging tools outside of Paint. I know I didn't for a very, very long time. Everyone has Paint. Everyone can do this technique. Not everyone can boot up Photoshop 6 or Paint Shop Pro 7 and apply palletes like that.
And as for 'severe distortions', yes colors may change a tad, but they will with any pallete change using any program. It might be a tad more noticeable in Paint (as there is no dithering at all), but for sprites with Dink, it is quite acceptable. This, of course, wouldn't be recommended for large pictures and such, but for most sprites it works fine.
I suggest using it on anything except very large sprites (like the boat from Mystery Island) and other large picture-type graphics.
Update (later that day): Phoenix updated his review, so I have as well. And I have pictures
Phoenix seems to think that dithering somehow 'saves' the image no matter what, where non-dithering 'kills' it no matter what. So I bring proof before you, readers.
Example One: This was originally a 24-bit color graphic stolen from RTSoft.com, credits Justin Martin (I think). There is hardly any difference between the images... there is a slight grain in both the reduced pallete versions, but nothing serious. And the background is a little paler on the Paint version, but the dragons themselves appear identical. So for character sprites and such, they seem about equal.
Example Two: This is a picture of Mexico from space. The Photoshop-ed one looks a bit... grainy. It works with the ocean gradiant, but not so well on the green shoreline. The MSPaint-ed one has a weird looking ocean... big globs of bluish-color. But the green shoreline looks a tad batter, in my opinion, and there really isn't much difference where the details are.
So, in conclusion, for character sprites where there are a lot of different colors in close proximity (like in the dragon character and on the shore), Photoshop and Paint are about equal. For large gradiants (one color moving slowly to another) and other large areas of color, Photoshop is probably the best bet.
But, my technique works everywhere, and is ideal if you're just starting out (like I was when I first made it). However, if you're going to do serious graphic editing, I of course recommend Paint Shop 7 or Photoshop 6.
And finally... dithering often makes transparency worse... if you have an image with a slightly-darkened white as a background, you'll end up with a lot of slightly-grey dots which are an absolute pain to get rid of. With Paint, it will likely make all of the light-white area completely one color, so if it isn't white a quick click of the paint bucket will fix it.
Not everyone has imaging tools outside of Paint. I know I didn't for a very, very long time. Everyone has Paint. Everyone can do this technique. Not everyone can boot up Photoshop 6 or Paint Shop Pro 7 and apply palletes like that.
And as for 'severe distortions', yes colors may change a tad, but they will with any pallete change using any program. It might be a tad more noticeable in Paint (as there is no dithering at all), but for sprites with Dink, it is quite acceptable. This, of course, wouldn't be recommended for large pictures and such, but for most sprites it works fine.
I suggest using it on anything except very large sprites (like the boat from Mystery Island) and other large picture-type graphics.
Update (later that day): Phoenix updated his review, so I have as well. And I have pictures
Phoenix seems to think that dithering somehow 'saves' the image no matter what, where non-dithering 'kills' it no matter what. So I bring proof before you, readers.
Example One: This was originally a 24-bit color graphic stolen from RTSoft.com, credits Justin Martin (I think). There is hardly any difference between the images... there is a slight grain in both the reduced pallete versions, but nothing serious. And the background is a little paler on the Paint version, but the dragons themselves appear identical. So for character sprites and such, they seem about equal.
Example Two: This is a picture of Mexico from space. The Photoshop-ed one looks a bit... grainy. It works with the ocean gradiant, but not so well on the green shoreline. The MSPaint-ed one has a weird looking ocean... big globs of bluish-color. But the green shoreline looks a tad batter, in my opinion, and there really isn't much difference where the details are.
So, in conclusion, for character sprites where there are a lot of different colors in close proximity (like in the dragon character and on the shore), Photoshop and Paint are about equal. For large gradiants (one color moving slowly to another) and other large areas of color, Photoshop is probably the best bet.
But, my technique works everywhere, and is ideal if you're just starting out (like I was when I first made it). However, if you're going to do serious graphic editing, I of course recommend Paint Shop 7 or Photoshop 6.
And finally... dithering often makes transparency worse... if you have an image with a slightly-darkened white as a background, you'll end up with a lot of slightly-grey dots which are an absolute pain to get rid of. With Paint, it will likely make all of the light-white area completely one color, so if it isn't white a quick click of the paint bucket will fix it.
Now, I really like this file !! It's plain and simple, it's the easiest solution to make your graphics compatible to dink and you don't need no high priced programs like psp, fireworks,....
A MUST for... well... n00bs and other dinkers as well, I suppose
Click the download button, you know you want to
A MUST for... well... n00bs and other dinkers as well, I suppose
Click the download button, you know you want to
This is a short movie that shows you how to apply the Dink Palette in Paint.
I actually never knew you could do that in Paint! Therefore I find this movie very useful, because I used to copy the graphics I made in Paint to PSP to apply Dink Palette.
The movie shows all the steps you have to take, which is real handy. The movie only went a bit too fast for me (perhaps due to the speed of my computer) so I had to watch it several times before I knew exactly how to do it. Perhaps a written file would have come in handy; for those who have fast computers and for those who just want to read (as well) how to do it.
Overall a good movie if you only have Paint, or if you only want to use Paint, but still want to apply the Dink Palette to new graphics.
I actually never knew you could do that in Paint! Therefore I find this movie very useful, because I used to copy the graphics I made in Paint to PSP to apply Dink Palette.
The movie shows all the steps you have to take, which is real handy. The movie only went a bit too fast for me (perhaps due to the speed of my computer) so I had to watch it several times before I knew exactly how to do it. Perhaps a written file would have come in handy; for those who have fast computers and for those who just want to read (as well) how to do it.
Overall a good movie if you only have Paint, or if you only want to use Paint, but still want to apply the Dink Palette to new graphics.
This is a short avi film to show people how to transfer any graphics file (even 24-bit) into a dink compatible one using MSPaint.
The good thing for this is that it is a movie and you can see exactly how you should do for your graphics file. In principle it is correct, but at least it should include a readme file to say this is ONLY good for MSPaint and might not be very good for large graphics file. It also a little too faster. I need to see it at least twice to get every step in the movie (and I have already known how to do it!). It might be a little annoying for people who really don't know how to do it because he might need to watch it a few times before he can get a feeling. Since it's so fast, it is practically not possible for people to try for themselves while watching this film. As SimonK's review said, a text description might be a good way to make it much easier to be learned. My Simple Graphics covers the whole content in this film while teaching you how to really "fix" your new graphics using Paint. Anyone who is interested in creating a new graphics without fancy imaging tools should check that file out.
The good thing for this is that it is a movie and you can see exactly how you should do for your graphics file. In principle it is correct, but at least it should include a readme file to say this is ONLY good for MSPaint and might not be very good for large graphics file. It also a little too faster. I need to see it at least twice to get every step in the movie (and I have already known how to do it!). It might be a little annoying for people who really don't know how to do it because he might need to watch it a few times before he can get a feeling. Since it's so fast, it is practically not possible for people to try for themselves while watching this film. As SimonK's review said, a text description might be a good way to make it much easier to be learned. My Simple Graphics covers the whole content in this film while teaching you how to really "fix" your new graphics using Paint. Anyone who is interested in creating a new graphics without fancy imaging tools should check that file out.
A tutorial that is an avi - excellent. Pity there was no sound. But what it shows is a way everyone can apply the Dink palette to a graphic. Redink1's own assesment of the procedure is correct - and not everyone has Photoshop or PSP. My only thing is it would have been nice to way a few written words as well and pics - but most of that is above.
