Carcassonne Central

I have an idea. Since I am working on an expansion I sadly descovered that there are really small base of good quality graphics. Maybe we can drop some prepared graphics for future expansions in one thread? I know that there would be danger that someones could download this resources and print officials expansions/base game. I also disagree with such behaviour. You like the game, so buy it. But I want to drop materials like roads on transparent backgrounds, only backgrounds, some variants of structures, only cities parts and so on. Like a spritesheets for game developers.

From my side I would like to ask mod to make it sticky, and I will drop some materials as soon as I will do some.

Please comment it. I would like to hear from more experienced authors about this idea. I would bet on that you guys have some materials in a psd (if this is photoshop format, I use Paint.NET so don't know all formats) format, or similiars.

Something like this would be crazy awesome, but a lot of work to prepare. I get all my source images from BGG, and not everybody uploads in the same sizes.

Yep I know, but with some resizing this could be done :)

I think one person would need to scan everything in for consistency. Basically starting from scratch.

That would good idea. I don't have whole collection so maybe CKorfman could do it (I read somewhere that he have almost whole collection, and ony school is missing), or another person that have whole collecion. Or we can just tell that we want images with a certain dpi, and color settings :) Tiles are the same size, pretty the same schema in all scanners, so it should provide nice source of graphics. I will try to scan some tiles, and do some mepples models tomorrow (in basics colors, I know that it can be done by adjusting hue/saturation, but having a unified meeple colors will be good). Then cuting out roads, cities, structures, some other smaller graphics and there will be a spritesheet for modders :)

Still... Would be greate if scanned tiles would be in thouse cardboard borders (don't know how it's called in english, even don't know how it's called in polish or any language that I use :/), maybe clipboard it would be called? That would give nessesay margin to tiles.

EDIT
And the dpi would have to be big. 96 dpi is good for printing but for modders kit maybe 400 dpi or greather would be grerate.

for my work I have my card scanned at 300dpi, if this does not create copyright issues could scan other, I do not have all the expansions but I must get some

I'd be willing, but I'm not sure I have the skills.  Maybe someone could walk me through it.

That is really easy. When you place tiles and other materials that you want to scan, you have to set properties of scaning. There should be there (that depends what scanner do You have, OS, and so) resolution settings and there should be a selectbox, or a slider or something similiar and you have to set it tp 600 dpi or more. For default most of scanners have set collor palette for RGB, but if You have something else (like CMYK for example) then change it to RGB. That is for color. Most of laser printers prints in RGB, and CMYK palette is use in very large formats (like A0+) and for proffessional use, but we don't be using it. Very important is that You remember it, then other person will know what kind of source is it. An author will just use math to resize it to desired format :)

Still I think that 600 dpi should be enough to extract structures from source tiles. I am talking about small houses on cities or tree in city of Carcassonne. That will do as a base for new structures.

Yeah... and another request for authors. I seen that some exps have unique structures on it (like mountaing, JPutts outposts, stables and so on) could you post it also in this thread? I am talking about source files. Best way would be to post it on transparent background in png format.

I don't think this is necessary. I always trim them off before printing because it's a waste of toner. I know they look nice but their not practical. Just my opinion.  ::)

I have something like this on my computer but they are all saved in photoshop format. I also can't vouch for the size consistency, so I'd hesitate to post them as 100% legit.

That said, I found that the easiest thing for me to use in making tiles was all the separate elements I might want that I could then place on a said tile I'm working on.

For whoever scans in freshly sized and colored tiles for us to work off of...some symbols/shapes that can be great to have include but are not limited to...

From the official tiles:
pennant
straight road
curved road
three way road
cloister (there are several types if you are ambitious)
shrine
cathar symbol (and/or the siege people and their engines)
inn on the lake
cathedral
pig herd
volcano
magic portal
princess
tower foundation
bazaar
fair
the icons for the trade goods
the wheel symbols (1, 2, 3)

Other symbols that are on tiles that have/might be used in fan expansions or at least tile decoration:
well
house (and/or group of houses) (both for in cities and those on roads (they are different))
bushes
the little barns with animals

Fan made expansion symbols:
The other pennants (red and yellow from family feud, and if you're really ambitious then get the other colored pennants from chariot races as well)
the various fields (lavender, wheat, vineyards)
the fan made expansion trade goods (there are a number from a number of expansions)
etc...etc...etc...

For this time being I work on trade tokens and icons. But have only icons ready from T&B. When I finish that I will go for cloisters.

I don't know if my question fits into this topic, but here it goes.
I'm completely clueless about Photoshop or Gimp or any other decent photo editors. My first and also last attempt to create a custom tile with MS Paint was a complete disaster. I wonder if any of the tile creation specialists here in CC would be whiling to create a tutorial or maybe even a short video on how to create a custom tile with features from the current official games. Maybe something like adding a road or a cloister or some small symbol to a regular tile.

On topic: I like the suggestion made here in the topic to create a set of custom tile features with added transparency. Maybe that would even make it possible for me to create tiles in MS Paint  ;D

My advice is forget MS Paint and start to use GIMP. It's free and feature rich, available for Linux and Windows. There is a portable version for Windows here: http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/gimp_portable (http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/gimp_portable). No installation needed just copy to a folder or a USB drive and run.
Some learning requiered of course but a lot of tutorials can be found. A collection of very good videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/GIMPtricks (http://www.youtube.com/user/GIMPtricks)
One week and you will be a master...  ;)