Mod:Create a portrait

This tutorial shows how to create a portrait to add in The Sum.

Example of large portrait with dimensions of 300 x 300 pixels.

Required tools

• Image editor, like Photoshop
• Phoenix engine (FT Tools)

Create a portrait

There are two types of portraits: a small one (the most common) and a large one (for the 22 main characters).

  For successful integration into The Sum, the photo to be used should be framed at the shoulders, include the entire head, and be taken relatively from the front. 

Small portrait

Example of a portrait with dimensions of 75 x 100 pixels.

This tutorial uses mainly Photoshop, but any other image editor will do.

1. Open the photo in Photoshop', then immediately save a .psd version of it.
   
     Name this file _code_name_of_character.psd. 
   
   
   
2. Go to the
    Layers 
   menu and then
    New 
   and
    Layer from Background... 
   . Press
    OK 
3. With the lasso tool (
    l 
   ), cut the outline of the portrait to remove the background.
   
     The tool Background eraser can also be useful for this task. 
   
   
   
4. Change the tool for cropping' (
    c 
   ), and in the property bar (top), in the boxes to the right of
    W/H ratio 
   , type 75 and 100 and make sure
    Delete cropped pixels 
   is unchecked
5. Crop the image close to the face (note that the proportion is preset).
6. Press
    ctrl 
   +
    s 
   to save.
7. Go to the
    Image 
   menu then
    Image size... 
8. Change the width of the image to 75 pixels (the height should automatically be set to 100 pixels)
9. Go to the menu
    File 
   then
    Save as... 
   then save as .png in Game/core/---BOX---.
   
     Close the image without saving it. The .psd file already created is of better resolution 
   
   
   

Large portrait

Follow the previous steps (or start from the file .psd that you have created) and resize the image to 300 x 300 pixels instead of 75 x 100 pixels.

Convert to .zar file

1. Open the folder Game/ then FT Tools.EXE.
2. Click on
   ⦿  OK 
   .
3. Click on
   ⦿  PNG To ZAR 
   .
4. Open the folder
    ---BOX--- 
   and select your portrait to convert.
5. Move the .zar file created in the folder ---BOX--- to the folder Game/core/gui/char.
   
     Although .png files work in The Sum, it is recommended to only use the .zar.