okay, I'm getting the feeling teh pace is too slow now? Let's get to the next step.
alef, you're idea for "first" step is right in line with what I was originally thinking (didn't i post a rough outline of what we would do?), except that someone brought up the idea of vector boards. So, I'm going to take a little side trip into vector boards and textures first, and then get right into what you suggest, i.e. making simple changes to existing boards.
At this point, everyone should have gimp installed and be able to run it, as well as having JavaFibs2001. I will refer to the directory that JavaFibs2001 is installed in simply as javafibs/ hereafter. Remember, if you don't understand something, ASK!
- Run javafibs (no need to connect to fibs).
- From the "Preferences" menu, select "Board..."
- Check the "Vector" box.
Recall from Cthulhu's post earlier, that a vector board has the ability of being stretched to any size. By comparison, the "image" boards can only be the size they are.
- Click on the "Colours/Textures..." button.
- Take note of the various components of a board you can change: background, checkers, dice etc...
- Go ahead and play around with both colours and textures. Notice the vast array of options Cthulhu has given you here. All in a board that is resizeable. Select either a colour or texture, and then hit the "..." button to choose.
Remind me to check the javafibs page for enhancement requests. It occurs to me an "Apply" button would make sense in these popups, to short-circuit the need to keep working through menus. Maybe a preview too, or something.
Anyway, notice that there are many pre-installed textures to choose from. These are installed in the javafibs/textures directory. Go ahead and take a look there. We can add new textures there, and javafibs will automatically recognize them. I don't know what sorts of problems we can cause by adding new ones in unexpected formats and such, but I have a feeling we're going to find out!
First, let's confirm that a new file is found. copy javfibs/textures/wood_orange.gif to javafibs/textures/wotest.gif. The next time you bring up the texture selction popup, it should appear there. Note the need for descriptive file names.
okay, to the gimp-mobile!!
- Start up gimp.
- Open the new wotest.gif file. If you have trouble getting this far, ASK!
- There are two general ways to do things in GIMP: from the "toolbox", or from the "right-click menu". As a personal perference, I do most stuff from the menu.
- I'll let you play around with gimp to alter the image any way you can. Don't worry about making things ugly, we're going to end up erasing this wotest.gif file and starting over once we've learned a few things anyway.
- Try drawing a short black line using the pencil tool. (ASK!)
- Save the file (ASK if you need to!)
- Try the javafibs prefs again, choosing wotest.gif and see the change!
At this point, if you are not able to add some sort of custom change to a vector board, start asking questions and let's get everyone up to this point. I glossed over stuff in a big way, and know that more detail is needed.
Once we have everyone this far, we can start making specific "good" changes, like altering the color of the wood, or changing the direction of the grain etc... Then we'll create our own brand new texture from scratch. Start thinking up ideas.
PLEASE START ASKING QUESTIONS, and answering them for each other too
