Technology Icons

Create your own technology icons with a look similar to those of the default game. Requires appropriate graphics software.

by Cam Hills (June 1999, updated May 2000)

Objective

Making your own Technology Icon graphics with the same look as those of the default game's may be a lot more straight forward than you may think so long as you are using appropriate software. The 'sunburst gradient' tool is an important part of this process, and it is found in several graphics packages including Paint Shop Pro developed by Jasc Software.

The introduction of Civilization Test of Time™ has alleviated the need for designers to confine themselves to the limitations of the Civ2 palette. This tip will mostly address the creation of technology / advance icons with the 'traditional' versions of Civ2, but will also touch upon the procedure in Test of Time.

Note: The next sections set out in gray text indicate that the tip's focus is on pre-ToT in that it involves steps that focus upon reducing colour depth to comply with the traditional Civ2 pallete. These are not necessary for ToT design.

Saving the Civ2 Palette in Paint Shop Pro

For pre-'Test of Time' versions of Civ2, there are a range of colours that are defined for the game's image files - these may be saved by loading one of the image files (preferably units.gif) and saving the image's colour palette, as per;

• If you have yet to do so, load one of the default game's image files such as 'units.gif'
• On the menu, select; Colors > Save Palette, and save it as Civ2.pal
• Close the file

Creating a new icon background

• Start with a new graphic. Its dimensions; 34 x 18 pixels, 16 million colors on a white background.
• This will be very small, so zoom or magnify it in size to say 10:1.
• You will need to select two colors that will form the middle and the outer edges of the 'sunburst'. Remember that Civ2 is confined to a maximum 256 colours, so with such a limited range, finding similar colors to make an effective gradation effect may be a challenge. To further explain, Civ2 uses a lot of blues, grays, greens and browns, but uses only a few shades of purple, so a background streaming from pale violet to a dark purple might end up looking particularly chunky rather than a smooth transition. Additional colours may be inserted into the 'units.gif' palette to assist with a smoother transitional effect for colour groups not well addressed in the default Civ2 palette. (See The Palette Explained for further discussion on the matter of Civ2's colour limitations).
• Select the 'flood fill' tool (paint pot) and turn on the 'control palette' toolbar: View>Toolbars.
• In the flood fill control palette toolbar, select Fill Style > Sunburst Gradient, and then select the 'Options' box. This will give you a visual chart. In order to middle our sunburst, select 50% and 50%.

• From this point, use the floodfill tool in the small, white image. In order to mix up the texture a little bit, add 3% uniform noise. This is done through Image>Noise>Add. Ensure that the 'uniform' option is selected.
• You may wish to consider lifting the contrast levels of the image by a small amount. One of the effects will be to make the outer pixels of the background comparatively darker than the current graphic, which is more in line with the effect achieved with the 'official' icons.
• Now load the Civ2 palate (nearest matching color), which will reduce the number of colors from 16.7 million to 256. This will affect the subtlety of coloring, however will ensure that it works with the game.
• The end result forms the background to our icon.

Creating a Foreground

Foregrounds can be created from a monochrome image of appropriate size (usually no larger than about 15 x 28 pixels) if attempting to replicate some of the more traditional Civ2 icon appearances.

A quick way of getting a suitable foreground is by using the symbols in fonts such as 'wingdings', 'webdings', 'sports', 'signs', and so forth. If using these, a font size of about 10 or 11 is often a good fit. Note however that you can draw your own icons and the same basic processes still apply. Check out the web for different sites that have free fonts for download if your font range is limited - [Acid Fonts] is but one of many such sites. Consult Windows' help facility if you need assistance in installing new fonts (installing, fonts).

You may wish to develop your own icon foregrounds to better suit the theme of your scenario or modpack. Images of maps of continents or spaceships may be more appropriate than the ones provided in the default game.

• Start with your image, which should be at 16.7 million colors. If in doubt, Colors > Increase Color Depth.
• Use the 'magic wand' tool (holding the shift button) to select all parts of the image.

• Having selected all the parts, use the dropper to select the internal colours of your icon - traditionally a light brown and a deep straw color. These may be taken straight from one of the icons in 'Icons.gif'.
• Apply a 'flood fill' with a sunburst gradient to the icon. If you wish to change the focus of the sunburst, click the 'Options' box as was done with the background. You may also add 3% uniform noise to the flood fill also.
• You may choose to modify the sunburst effect by lifting contrast levels or doing some 'hand painting'.
• Insert a drop shadow by Image > Effects > Drop Shadow of 100 Opacity, 1 Blur, 1 Horizontal, 1 Vertical.
• Select all of the components again with the Shift + Magic Wand.
• Load the Civ2 palette.

Merging the icon onto the background

Copy and paste the foreground onto your earlier prepared background. Include a border using either the rectangle or the line drawing tool. The odd 'speckle' pixels may be hand painted into the border to increase contrast.

This in turn may be copy and pasted into your scenario's or modpack's icons.gif file over the appropriate slot. If you have yet to include the icons.gif / icons.bmp image in your scenario folder, copy and paste the default file from your Civ2 folder.

Test of Time

Designers will be pleased to note that Test of Time is not hamstrung by the 256 colour limits of the Civ2 palette, and a full spectrum of colours may be utilised. As such, the traditional colour schemes for technology icons have to some extent been expanded upon - for instance, the Lalande 21185 Sci-Fi game uses new colour ranges for the backgrounds as well as a greater inclination towards full-coloured icon images / foregrounds.

Concluding notes

In order to order to build on the 'artistic' elements of your scenario or modpack, creating new and professional-looking technology icons can become a significant contribution to the success of translating your ideas and efforts. Using this technique can provide images that look well comparable to the professional ones developed by Microprose.

If using text (such as Wingdings symbols), the foreground can be developed on top of the background directly and not as two separate images.

May 2000 Update

• New images in example demonstrating improved colour definition.
• Accommodates for Test of Time and differentiates this from the process for traditional Civ2 icons.
• Notations regarding increasing 'contrast' levels.
• Link to paper 'The Palette Explained'.
• Expanded advice on symbol-based (wingding-style) fonts.
• Minor syntax errors corrected.