Creating New Images

Some information for creating new creature images. ASB requires two images - one using colors to show regions and the other to show lightness. Although many of the original images were created in ARK Dev Kit, you can create your own ingame.

Instructions are shown for the ingame portion and using GIMP to process the output, but other tools would work.

Overview

In ARK:

1. Setup ARK with Filmmaker's mod bluescreen, or similar simple background
2. LeaveMeAlone, Fly (spectator mode does not work for this)
3. Set to night, cancel weather
4. Disable creature movement
5. Spawn creature
6. Position any lights needed
7. Position yourself (remembering final image will be square)
8. Enable global pause to stop all movement
9. Set all regions to white, then capture screenshot
10. Set all regions to their key colors, then capture screenshot

Image processing:

1. Load both screenshots as layers of the same image
2. Crop the image to a square region
3. Remove the background (full alpha)
4. Duplicate the white image and invert it
5. Use layer modes to Overlay the inverted layer over the color mask, removing dark areas
6. Scale the image to 256x256
7. Export the original white layer to <Species>.png
8. Export the overlayed color mask to <Species>_m.png

Testing:

1. Ensure ASB has no creature selected in its library
2. Remove the existing cache
3. Copy your new images across
4. Select a creature of the correct species

Detailed Process

In ARK

1. You'll need a plain-color background to aid background removal later on. It may be possible to use a clear patch of sky, but the Ark Filmmakers Kit makes the process easier:
   gfi filmmaker
2. God mode or creative mode, not spectator mode (which does not allow interacting with a target):
   LeaveMeAlone | Fly | Ghost or GCM | Fly | Ghost
3. Disable blooming:
   r.bloomquality 0
4. Set to night, cancel weather:
   SetTimeOfDay 2:00 | CE stoptime (but the actual time needed seems to depend on your day/night cycle settings)
5. Turn off ambient occlusion option (removes some shadows).
6. Disable creature movement:
   PlayersOnly
7. Spawn your creature like:
   spawndino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Dodo/Dodo_Character_BP.Dodo_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 120
8. Position any lights needed then adjust gamma to give a clear image. You want a good balance between not too many dark patches and not over exposed, e.g. gamma 1.3
9. Tame the creature for easier positioning by looking at the creature and using forcetame
10. Position the creature by riding it to a good spot and/or using whistle commands (looking at creature and press T for Follow, press U for Stop All)
11. Disable Ally looking if the creature should not look at you. Go to the creature, hold the E key - Behaviour - Disable ally looking.
12. To get a good posture you may want to use slowmotion with slomo 0.1 before activating the global pause. Use slomo 1 for the default speed.
13. Position yourself, remembering final image will be square, and ensuring you are still targeting the creature. To help that the color commands will be applied to the creature, i.e. that you look at the correct spot of the creature, the blink admin rifle can help: spawn it in with cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/Extinction/Weapon_AdminBlinkRifle/PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle.PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle'" 1 0 0, right click until it get's yellow/green for the inspect mode, then make sure you see the creature infos.
14. Enable global pause to stop all movement (you will no longer be able to look around):
    SetGlobalPause true
15. Set all regions to white:
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 18
16. Capture the first screenshot, used for blending. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
17. Set all regions to their key colors (yes, it's mixed up on purpose to match ASB):
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 1 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 3 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 2 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 5 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 4 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 6
18. Capture the second screenshot, used for region masking. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
19. Turn off global pause:
    SetGlobalPause false

Image Processing

Image processing, using GIMP as an example:

1. GIMP can capture the screenshots, resulting in two separate images of the entire game screen.
2. Copy the entire color region mask image and paste it as a layer in the white/blend image (Paste As -> New Layer).
3. Use the crop tool to crop the image to a square region containing the creature. Setting 'Fixed: Aspect ratio' to '1:1' forces the crop to be square.
4. Ensure both layers have Alpha channels (right click layer, Add Alpha Channel)

The remaining steps can be done with the tool ColorRegionMaskCreator or within GIMP as well

with Color Region Mask Creator

1. Save the cropped images
   1. Show only the white blend layer and File->Export to <Species>.png
   2. Show only the mask layer then File-Export to <Species>_m.png
2. Move these files to the in folder of the Color Region Mask Creator and run it

Continue with GIMP

1. Create a selection for the background (using a combination of the Fuzzy Selection Tool and the lasso).
2. Erase the background of both layers (using the same selection).
3. Erase any teeth, claws and eyes (unmasked areas) from only the color mask.
4. Remove all shadows from the mask:
   1. Select the bucket fill tool and set its mode to Value.
   2. Set the foreground color to pure white.
   3. Fill the entire image - all dark areas should be removed and all colors should be full brightness.
5. Image->Scale Image to 256x256.
6. Show only the white blend layer and File->Export to <Species>.png
7. Show only the mask layer then File-Export to <Species>_m.png