Creating Explosion Media

    FreeVector can display animated bitmap effects using a series of 32 bit images. Below is an example of a particle effect that uses an animated explosion effect.

BEGIN#
TYPE# ANIMATED 30 0.02
EFFECTNAME# MissileBang
VELOCITY# 0 0 0 0 0 0
ACCELERATION# 0 0 0 0 0 0
LIFETIME# 1
COLOR# 1 1 1 1
COLORFADE01# 1 1 1 1
COLORFADE02# 1 1 1 1
COLORFADE03# 1 1 1 1
STARTOFFSET# -10 -10 -10 10 10 10
TEXTURENAME# explo.bmp
GRAVITY# 0 0 0
BOUNCE# FALSE
TOTALTIME# 1
SIZE# 20
GROW# 30
EMITRATE# 0
USEZWRITE# TRUE
BLEND# D3DBLEND_ONE D3DBLEND_ONE
NUMPARTICLES# 20
END#

    The line TYPE# ANIMATED 30 0.02 tells the engine to load 30 bitmaps. They will be changed every 0.02 seconds. The line, TEXTURENAME# explo.bmp tells the engine that the textures named explo0.bmp, explo1.bmp, explo2.bmp, etc.

    There are several options available that can be used to create these images. They can be taken from a gif or a video, the only criteria being that the background is black. If a video is used, then the program Virtual-Dub can be used to separate the video into a series of bitmaps. If it is a GIF, then IrfanView can be used. Both programs are freeware.

     Now that the images have been taken from the gif or video, a second set of greyscale images need to be made from these images. Again, this can be accomplished in IrfanView using the advanced options during a conversion or it can be done using the Batch/Automate commands in Adobe Photoshop. With the two sets of images created, they now need to be combined to create a 32 bit image. The 8 bit greyscale image needs to be saved as the alpha of its corresponding color image. Below is an example of foure combined effects from the game O.G.R.E.