Ship Creation Tutorial

=Make your own ship tutorial= This tutorial will guide you through how to make a ship from an image file (PNG) =What you will need= =Overview= You need to create a few files/layers
 * A PNG of whatever you want to make into a ship
 * Image editing software (GIMP or Paint.net, etc.)

"Top"layer = the colour of your ship

"Bot"layer = the interior of your ship

"Bump"layer = the 3d-esque shape of your ship (optional, but reccomended)

"Spec"layer = the shininess of your ship (optional)

"Emit"layer = the lights of your ship (optional)

File name examples would be

[shipname]Top.png

[shipname]Bump.png

=Instructions= Now, to get on with the tutorial...

Preparing the PNG
First take the PNG and boot it up in your editor of choice (I used gimp) and crop out the image of the ship you want, eg, Lets say you want to make a smaller ship from an existing ship.

You crop out everything, except the thing you want. Then go into canvas settings and give it about 10~20 pixels around the left and right of free space (so you have space to install shields in the future)



Making Top Layer
Then you must ensure that the uncoloured areas are of the RGB value "0,0,0,0"

You can do this by using the magic wand tool in GIMP, selecting all the empty space, filling all of them black, then deleting them with the delete key.

Save the image as a PNG. Preserve transparency, in 32 bit. Congratulations, this is your "Top" layer.

Save it and make a copy of it

Making Bot layer
With the copy of the Top layer, select every pixel of your ship. (not the empty transparent pixels) Paint all of them a green colour (default structure colour) RGB "35,100,69,255"

Ensure transparent places are still "0,0,0,0"

If not, repeat process from making the top layer.



Save it as a PNG, Preserve transparency, in 32 bit.

Making Bump Layer(and Spec layer)
If you want to take the time and effort to make a 3D model and generate a bump map from that, you most probably won't need this guide.

I shall be covering alternative easier methods (though they may not give that spectacular a result.

Use a suitable preferred web browser, load up this website http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/

Select "PICTURES" from above the left most window, then drag and drop your TOP layer .png into all four of them.

Tweak the "STRENGTH" and "LEVEL" settings until the 3D preview on the right looks like you want it to.

(A good starting point might be S:5 L:4.5, though different pictures/ships may vary.)

Check the Invert boxes for "R", 'G" and "Height". Download the PNG.

(You can also Download the Specular map PNG as well, though you might need to invert the colours of that.)

Loading it into the game
You first need to create a new ship profile with any ship from the "select profile" screen. After naming and saving the profile, exit the game and find the file in the profiles directory.

You can then replace the ship files with the files of your custom ship, and delete any image files that you didnt change/use. Ensure they are named correctly. Dont delete the non image file.

You should be able to find your custom ship in game under the select profile menu.