Graph Paper

Share graphical tips, notes and queries related to our favourite screen layout and its editors.
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Morkin
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by Morkin »

R-Tape wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2017 10:30 pm
Rorthron wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:53 pm No. I built an Excel spreadsheet for the whole screen, manually input each pixel as a 1 or 0 and used formulae to convert these into a string of values for 0x4000 and beyond (I hope I got that right).
Oof!
Rorthron wrote: Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:53 pm I did something similar for the attributes.
I'm struggling to visualise this (I get the pixels), I'll have to try it. How on earth did you decide how to place the attributes? DId ZX-Paint not come into this somewhere?!
Rorthron's 'graphics-by-Excel'...

Image


A couple of the formulas were wrong unfortunately... I was going to ask him to correct them without telling him which were wrong, but I thought it might give him a nervous breakdown... :lol:
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
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Joefish
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by Joefish »

Joefish wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:32 am The sprites and font in Buzzsaw+ were designed as binary data statements in the PASMO listing!
R-Tape wrote: Sun Dec 03, 2017 3:26 pmIt works! Though I assumed you used contemporary packages, I pictured you agonising over every pixel for months.
I wrote a sprite routine to display the 16x16 sprites, then cut and pasted a load of 00000000b,00000000b lines into the code, switched the edit cursor to overwrite and typed in the 1s I wanted, compiling and running every so often to see what they looked like! Nothing was done in an art package or on paper. To be honest, when you are trying to see what can be achieved with narrow attributes and you're changing one pixel at a time back and forth for ages, it doesn't really matter what you're doing it in - the only thing that counts is what it looks like when you display it in the game. Particularly for attributes - you can fiddle with some mouse-driven setting system or just overtype 1s and 0s in your data - it doesn't take any longer, and in some ways it's easier as you don't then have the hassle of translating your images into code later on.

The original LDI version of my multicolour code could only change every second attribute on every second line, so the atttributes were 8x2 but offeset one pixel vertically in the two halves of the sprite. You can still see the after-effects of designing that way in the sprites, particular on levels 5-10 where the sprites have coloured masks and headbands that don't always go straight across.

The font was done the same way - loads of 00000000b in blocks of 8 with a comment to say which character it is, filled in with 1s by hand!

I have gone onto the graph paper for my Bertrand Bubblethwaite sprites, to get the hang of designing for 8x2 multicolour. This involves scrolling though so it's getting tricky to work out what can go where. And although I can sketch out animations on paper or in a paint program, there's still no substitute for actually seeing them animated in the game code. And given that I'm going for Manic Miner-style, combining the animation with the pre-shifting, that means I need a moving sprite routine up and running to start with.
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arkannoyed
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by arkannoyed »

Anyone remember the ZX Microfairs that used to be held in the Horticultural Halls in Westminster?

Probably around 1985 I somehow acquired a graphics design pad with tear-off sheets made by Protek.

Probably 5 or so years ago, I recreated it from a scan of the original in Illustrator, so if you print this off, then you'll have quite a nice
clean graphical design sheet to play with.

I did also produce a 'live' version that need a decent PC speed to run on, but allows you to actually re-colour each pixel square.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9qt6ahrc2x972l ... e.pdf?dl=1
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arkannoyed
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by arkannoyed »

If you're printing it, usually a laser printer gives the best result.

Looks like this is a busier forum than old WOS, where I usually go. Didn't know about this!!
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Rorthron
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by Rorthron »

Nice! I remember those Protek sheets. If my printer's up to it, I might give them ago.

And welcome to the forum!
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PeterJ
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by PeterJ »

arkannoyed wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:48 am Looks like this is a busier forum than old WOS, where I usually go. Didn't know about this!!
Welcome to the forums. If you can help spread the awareness of the site it would be much appreciated.
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arkannoyed
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by arkannoyed »

Don't know about spreading awareness, but its always good to find somewhere with stuff going on. WOS can be a bit desolate these days. :cry:
Rob M
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by Rob M »

arkannoyed wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2018 11:46 am Probably around 1985 I somehow acquired a graphics design pad with tear-off sheets made by Protek.

Probably 5 or so years ago, I recreated it from a scan of the original in Illustrator, so if you print this off, then you'll have quite a nice
clean graphical design sheet to play with.
Thanks so much for this! I was looking for something like this, and this is perfect. :) Thank you for sharing!
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arkannoyed
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by arkannoyed »

No problem at all. It’s good to print off and have a doodle. With the original pad that’s how I created loads of stuff I’ve still got hanging around on mgt +D disks. I used to photocopy the sheet, then use it again in the copier to get a pixelated version of images, mainly solid objects or logos.
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HEXdidnt
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Re: Graph Paper

Post by HEXdidnt »

A couple of years ago, I had a bunch of pads printed up by a local print shop - ended up doing two versions - 256x192 in 8x8 blocks and one that would work as VGA 13h or C64/similar. My rationale was that I started learning pixel art on purpose-made pads that I bought at a ZX Microfair, and kept getting frustrated with standard 10x10 grid graph paper. I figured it might be worth making something for those of us who might feel more comfortable planning things with pencil and paper. They are press-printed, not digital, as I found that grids would be erased along with any pencil markings on the digitally-printed test copy.
Image Image

Image Image

I was selling them on Etsy for a while, but never got round to doing any proper promotion of them, so ended up dropping the listings. Still got quite a few of both available, if anyone's interested.
...Dropping litter in the zen garden of your mind

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