[Tutorial] Making a Poster Overlay

Skwii

L1: Registered
Mar 16, 2008
24
1
Please sticky this. I bet many people are dying to make their posters but dont know how to get them working!
 

Vigilante212

L420: High Member
Dec 21, 2008
481
33
bah I cant get it to work. I think im doing something wrong saving in photoshop. when I open up my file in gimp and deselect the alpha channel my poster disappears. same thing in vtf edit except where my poster is it turns white. In hammer all I get is the white line box.
 

Vigilante212

L420: High Member
Dec 21, 2008
481
33
Ok I managed to get the poster to work, I still have to tweak it a bit. Let me know what ya think.

picture.php
 

ClydeJr

L1: Registered
Oct 30, 2008
20
4
Only issue I can see is all that small text. Most people will see it and just go "words..." and run off to find someone to shoot. Maybe if you put it in a spawn room, someone might take the time to read it during setup.
 

GrimGriz

L10: Glamorous Member
Jan 2, 2009
774
133
I got an error trying to convert one to vmt to put in my marp, anyone else get this error:
 

a2h

L2: Junior Member
Sep 18, 2008
93
30
How's this?

CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 aus
 
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kwagner

L2: Junior Member
Feb 28, 2009
92
6
Thanks for this tutorial! I'm just at the point where I need to make some custom signage, and this was just the ticket.

A couple things I've noted:

Vtex.exe: you don't have to pass files through this one at a time. You can select multiple .tga's and drag/drop them all onto vtex.exe at once, and it will convert them all properly. Handy, if you're in mass production mode.

Posters not showing up in Hammer? Odds are you've mistyped a filename in one or more places. The names of the .vtf and vmt files must match exactly, and the path and file names inside the .vmt must match the files and locations exactly. And if you move the files around, you must be sure to edit the .vmt path to match the change. I know it sounds simple, but I failed to do all the above precisely right and suffered great frustration as a result.

QUESTION: When pakrating these into my .bsp, do I need to include the .vmt's, or are just the .vtf's sufficient?
 
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HojoTheGreat

L5: Dapper Member
Nov 11, 2008
206
34
To add to Youme's reply, the consider the VTF as the image itself, and the VMT is the file that tells the program where the image is located, and what properties to apply to it. Thus without the VMT, the game/hammer will not know where to find the VTF on your Hard Drive (correct me if I've made an error guys :p)
 

kwagner

L2: Junior Member
Feb 28, 2009
92
6
When you pakrat in the VTF and VMT, does pakrat create an internal folder structure, so that the VMT's filename ('signs/my_awesome_poster') makes sense? :confused:
 

HojoTheGreat

L5: Dapper Member
Nov 11, 2008
206
34
Pakrat will use whatever roots and extensions are already on the files, thus you should always keep custom materials within the tf/materials folder. So for example you should have your VTFs and VMTs in tf/materials/signs folder. Then just hit Auto in pakrat and it should add the correct folder structure.
 

ProblemSleuth

L1: Registered
Apr 9, 2009
1
0
I wanted some way of inserting a Kopimi logo into my maps so people would know to feel free to directly use brushwork or concepts I've built, so this was the perfect solution! Thanks Nineaxis.

I just used Google Translate for the Swedish, so I have to hope this conveys the idea/translation of "Kopimi Northern Logging."

3467214805_3068bd7bef_o.png

3468028274_240c1680d0_o.png
 
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Dr. KillPatient

L3: Member
May 10, 2009
115
8
I've figured out most of this, but the part about taking the leftmost color on the red row and setting it at 10% alpha/90% opacity lost me. Any way to do that in GIMP 2?
 

zpqrei

Theme Changer Extraordinaire
aa
Oct 19, 2008
1,067
1,150
I wanted some way of inserting a Kopimi logo into my maps so people would know to feel free to directly use brushwork or concepts I've built, so this was the perfect solution! Thanks Nineaxis.

I just used Google Translate for the Swedish, so I have to hope this conveys the idea/translation of "Kopimi Northern Logging."

3467214805_3068bd7bef_o.png

3468028274_240c1680d0_o.png

The guy to ask would be Fearlezz, he's Swedish (I think).
 

kwagner

L2: Junior Member
Feb 28, 2009
92
6
I've figured out most of this, but the part about taking the leftmost color on the red row and setting it at 10% alpha/90% opacity lost me. Any way to do that in GIMP 2?

I think that's the part about making parts that look like they've got water stains, etc...?

http://forums.tf2maps.net/album.php?albumid=73&pictureid=537

In that image I've circled the paintbrush tool above, and below I've circled the opacity setting.

If you set the opacity low, like around 20, the color you brush on will be quite transparent (see-through). If you set the opacity high, like 90 or 100, the color will be very thick (non-see-through)