Author Topic: Custom Ribbons  (Read 5650 times)

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Offline Desdinova (OP)

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Custom Ribbons
« on: April 15, 2020, 02:50:57 PM »
RibbonMaker

RibbonMaker is a program I developed in order to create custom ribbons for Aurora, for those who want to create custom awards or are uncomfortable using real-world military awards.

Here is an example 'rack' of ribbons created using the tool:



How To Use

Download the executable from the link below.

The ribbon is displayed at the top of the screen. To add a graphical element, choose its color, adjust the size and positioning, and click 'Add Element' when satisfied. The 'symmetry' button creates two elements symmetrical about the center of the ribbon. By default, a fabric-like texture is applied to the ribbon, click the 'Draw Texture' checkbox to disable this or 'No Texture' to turn it off on an element-by-element basis. This is useful for adding metallic badges or devices to a ribbon.

When finished, click 'Save' to save the ribbon as a 100x30 PNG file compatible with Aurora.

Troubleshooting

The tool depends on the same .net 4.7 environment as C# Aurora. If you can run Aurora, you should be able to run RibbonMaker.

If Windows Defender is blocking the .exe, follow these steps.

Downloads

Bitbucket Link

Link to releases

Suggestions and feedback are always welcome. Also, if anyone wants to contribute new devices, feel free to share them.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 02:19:39 PM by Desdinova »
 

Offline Desdinova (OP)

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2020, 11:52:04 AM »
Version 0.6 Released

I just posted the latest release on the Google Drive. This version now includes the ability to add custom devices to ribbons. To use this feature, create a directory named "devices" in the same folder as the executable. It will load any PNG file it finds in this folder that is equal to or smaller than 100x30 in size.

Tips for creating devices:

Work in shades of grey only, with the "body" of the device in white. Don't add color as the image should be converted to greyscale automatically when loaded into the program. It should automatically create background transparency; I would work on a black or solid color background if using paint or create a blank canvas with an alpha channel if working in Gimp or Photoshop. Remember that it won't try to load images that are larger than 100x30, and only PNGs.

Let me know if you run into any bugs.
 
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Offline Desdinova (OP)

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2020, 12:41:28 PM »
0.7 Released

No code changes for this one, but I did a quick pass over the built-in devices to make them fit better with the other devices I've released.
 

Offline King-Salomon

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2020, 01:44:54 PM »
hmmm.. maybe it's only me but Win10 (Windows Defender SmartScreen) is blocking the exe for me (was the same with the 0.4 exe, so I deleted it) ... no idea how to start it and why it is blocked in the first place...  ???


EDIT: Thanks Desdinova, that worked :)
« Last Edit: April 18, 2020, 02:07:07 PM by King-Salomon »
 

Offline Desdinova (OP)

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2020, 02:04:25 PM »
Try following these steps.
 
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Offline Froggiest1982

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2020, 08:44:05 PM »
Hey good work. Do you think you can make a similar program for flags?

Offline Pedroig

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2020, 11:57:02 PM »
Here are some device elements I've worked up.  One thing I've noticed is that they do not center vertically, they top align.  Maybe something to tweak and/or offer option to offset.  Some are working better than others, not sure why.  (See Wings Eagle and Wings Long for an example)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iqe4mtchqup8e0w/AADy43v18HOkFZrXuaezeQ2Ta?dl=0
Dropbox, should be able to download direct.  ~30kb
si vis pacem, para bellum
 
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Offline Elouda

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2020, 04:18:10 AM »
Here are some device elements I've worked up.  One thing I've noticed is that they do not center vertically, they top align.  Maybe something to tweak and/or offer option to offset.  Some are working better than others, not sure why.  (See Wings Eagle and Wings Long for an example)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iqe4mtchqup8e0w/AADy43v18HOkFZrXuaezeQ2Ta?dl=0
Dropbox, should be able to download direct.  ~30kb

Make them 30px tall and they will align vertically.

These are great btw.
 
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Offline Pedroig

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2020, 06:21:34 AM »
Here are some device elements I've worked up.  One thing I've noticed is that they do not center vertically, they top align.  Maybe something to tweak and/or offer option to offset.  Some are working better than others, not sure why.  (See Wings Eagle and Wings Long for an example)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iqe4mtchqup8e0w/AADy43v18HOkFZrXuaezeQ2Ta?dl=0
Dropbox, should be able to download direct.  ~30kb

Make them 30px tall and they will align vertically.

These are great btw.

The problems with 30px tall is they are too "big", resizing an entire image in paint is easy, but I'm not graphically artist savvy enough to know how to change the size/ratio of the image to the entire picture.  I had them at 30px tall, but then most of them took up the entire ribbon from top to bottom, which I think looks goofy.  Went for 24 high, with the theory being there would be 6 pixels on either side. 

Thanks for the feedback.   :)
si vis pacem, para bellum
 

Offline idefelipe

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2020, 06:31:30 AM »
I'm amazed with this small program.. but I think that it is getting out of my hands  ;D ;D ;D ;D




(the red line are those created by the game, except the wings that I created with photshop, getting from somewhere, for my fighter pilots).

(and if you are wandering if I made a medal for each rank and awarded manually one per one.. yes, I did  ;D ;D ;D)
 

Offline Elouda

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2020, 10:01:54 AM »
Here are some device elements I've worked up.  One thing I've noticed is that they do not center vertically, they top align.  Maybe something to tweak and/or offer option to offset.  Some are working better than others, not sure why.  (See Wings Eagle and Wings Long for an example)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iqe4mtchqup8e0w/AADy43v18HOkFZrXuaezeQ2Ta?dl=0
Dropbox, should be able to download direct.  ~30kb

Make them 30px tall and they will align vertically.

These are great btw.

The problems with 30px tall is they are too "big", resizing an entire image in paint is easy, but I'm not graphically artist savvy enough to know how to change the size/ratio of the image to the entire picture.  I had them at 30px tall, but then most of them took up the entire ribbon from top to bottom, which I think looks goofy.  Went for 24 high, with the theory being there would be 6 pixels on either side. 

Thanks for the feedback.   :)

At 24px it will be 3 to either side. I have attached a zip with edited ones to make them 30px tall without altering the size of the actual image part if you want to give them a try.

Also note the wings_long doesn't work well as the background has noise on it.
 
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Offline Pedroig

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2020, 10:08:36 AM »
Appreciate the edit.  Will try working the long wings again...
si vis pacem, para bellum
 

Offline Desdinova (OP)

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2020, 05:33:48 PM »
Hope you don't mind, I did a super quick pass over your images to get them to display better. A few of them were showing some serious compression or scaling distortion. In some cases, all it took was a bucket fill to fix it.
 
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Offline Erik L

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Re: Custom Ribbons
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2020, 06:14:29 PM »
Can you put an option in the maker to mirror a device element? Some are angled one way and it'd be nice to have matching pairs without creating new devices.
 
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