Creating New Images

Some information for creating new creature images. ASB requires two images - one using colors to show regions and the other to show lightness. Although many of the original images were created in ARK Dev Kit, you can create your own ingame.

Instructions are shown for the ingame portion and using GIMP to process the output, but other tools would work.

Overview

In ARK:

ASA

1. Setup ARK with the mod GreenWorld
2. Console commands: LeaveMeAlone | Fly | gamma 2 | r.ShadowQuality 0 | r.EyeAdaptationQuality 0 | r.bloomquality 0
3. Spawn creature
4. Position creature, disable ally-looking
5. Position yourself (remembering final image will be square)
6. Enable global pause to stop all movement with slomo 0 (don't touch the mouse in the next steps since it will change the view)
7. Set all regions to white, then capture screenshot
8. Set all regions to their key colors, then capture screenshot

ASE

1. Setup ARK with Filmmaker's mod bluescreen, or similar simple background
2. Console commands: LeaveMeAlone | Fly (spectator mode does not work for this)
3. Set to night, cancel weather
4. Disable creature movement
5. Spawn creature
6. Position any lights needed
7. Position yourself (remembering final image will be square)
8. Enable global pause to stop all movement
9. Set all regions to white, then capture screenshot
10. Set all regions to their key colors, then capture screenshot

Image processing:

1. Load both screenshots as layers of the same image
2. Crop the image to a square region
3. Remove the background (full alpha)
4. Duplicate the white image and invert it
5. Use layer modes to Overlay the inverted layer over the color mask, removing dark areas
6. Scale the image to 256x256
7. Export the original white layer to <Species>.png
8. Export the overlayed color mask to <Species>_m.png

Testing:

1. Ensure ASB has no creature selected in its library
2. Remove the existing cache
3. Copy your new images across
4. Select a creature of the correct species

Detailed Process

In ARK

ASA

1. You'll need a plain-color background to aid background removal later on. The green mod map GreenWorld is useful for that.
2. God mode or creative mode, not spectator mode (which does not allow interacting with a target):
   LeaveMeAlone | Fly | Ghost or GCM | Fly | Ghost
3. Disable blooming, shadow casting and auto exposure / eye adaptation; gamma 2 might be useful:
   gamma 2 | r.ShadowQuality 0 | r.EyeAdaptationQuality 0 | r.bloomquality 0
4. Disable creature movement:
   PlayersOnly
5. Spawn your creature like:
   spawndino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Dodo/Dodo_Character_BP.Dodo_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 120
6. Tame the creature for easier positioning by looking at the creature and using forcetame
7. Position the creature by riding it to a good spot and/or using whistle commands (looking at creature and press T for Follow, press U for Stop All)
8. Disable Ally looking if the creature should not look at you. Go to the creature, hold the E key - Behaviour - Disable ally looking.
9. To get a good posture you may want to use slowmotion with slomo 0.1 before setting it to slomo 0. Use slomo 1 for the default speed.
10. Position yourself, remembering final image will be square, and ensuring you are still targeting the creature. To help that the color commands will be applied to the creature, i.e. that you look at the correct spot of the creature, the blink admin rifle can help: spawn it in with cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/Extinction/Weapon_AdminBlinkRifle/PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle.PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle'" 1 0 0, right click until it get's yellow/green for the inspect mode, then make sure you see the creature infos.
11. Use slomo to stop all movement (caution, you still can look around which must not be done in between taking the two images). SetGlobalPause true doesn't seem to work anymore in ASA:
    slomo 0
12. Set all regions to white:
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 18
13. Capture the first screenshot, used for blending. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
14. Set all regions to their key colors (yes, it's mixed up on purpose to match ASB):
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 1 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 3 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 2 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 5 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 4 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 6
15. Capture the second screenshot, used for region masking. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
16. Turn off global pause:
    slomo 1
17. Make room for the next creature:
    destroyMyTarget

ASE

1. You'll need a plain-color background to aid background removal later on. It may be possible to use a clear patch of sky, but the Ark Filmmakers Kit makes the process easier:
   gfi filmmaker
2. God mode or creative mode, not spectator mode (which does not allow interacting with a target):
   LeaveMeAlone | Fly | Ghost or GCM | Fly | Ghost
3. Disable blooming:
   r.bloomquality 0
4. Set to night, cancel weather:
   SetTimeOfDay 2:00 | CE stoptime (but the actual time needed seems to depend on your day/night cycle settings)
5. Turn off ambient occlusion option (removes some shadows).
6. Disable creature movement:
   PlayersOnly
7. Spawn your creature like:
   spawndino "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/Dinos/Dodo/Dodo_Character_BP.Dodo_Character_BP'" 500 0 0 120
8. Position any lights needed then adjust gamma to give a clear image. You want a good balance between not too many dark patches and not over exposed, e.g. gamma 1.3
9. Tame the creature for easier positioning by looking at the creature and using forcetame
10. Position the creature by riding it to a good spot and/or using whistle commands (looking at creature and press T for Follow, press U for Stop All)
11. Disable Ally looking if the creature should not look at you. Go to the creature, hold the E key - Behaviour - Disable ally looking.
12. To get a good posture you may want to use slowmotion with slomo 0.1 before activating the global pause. Use slomo 1 for the default speed.
13. Position yourself, remembering final image will be square, and ensuring you are still targeting the creature. To help that the color commands will be applied to the creature, i.e. that you look at the correct spot of the creature, the blink admin rifle can help: spawn it in with cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/Extinction/Weapon_AdminBlinkRifle/PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle.PrimalItem_WeaponAdminBlinkRifle'" 1 0 0, right click until it get's yellow/green for the inspect mode, then make sure you see the creature infos.
14. Enable global pause to stop all movement (you will no longer be able to look around):
    SetGlobalPause true
15. Set all regions to white:
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 18 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 18
16. Capture the first screenshot, used for blending. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
17. Set all regions to their key colors (yes, it's mixed up on purpose to match ASB):
    SetTargetDinoColor 0 1 | SetTargetDinoColor 1 3 | SetTargetDinoColor 2 2 | SetTargetDinoColor 3 5 | SetTargetDinoColor 4 4 | SetTargetDinoColor 5 6
18. Capture the second screenshot, used for region masking. Ensure you capture the entire screen.
19. Turn off global pause:
    SetGlobalPause false

Image Processing

Image processing, using GIMP as an example:

1. GIMP can capture the screenshots, resulting in two separate images of the entire game screen.
2. Copy the entire color region mask image and paste it as a layer in the white/blend image (Paste As -> New Layer).
3. Use the crop tool to crop the image to a square region containing the creature. Setting 'Fixed: Aspect ratio' to '1:1' forces the crop to be square.
4. Ensure both layers have Alpha channels (right click layer, Add Alpha Channel)

The remaining steps can be done with the tool ColorRegionMaskCreator or within GIMP as well

with Color Region Mask Creator

1. Save the cropped images
   1. Show only the white blend layer and File->Export to <Species>.png
   2. Show only the mask layer then File-Export to <Species>_m.png
2. Move these files to the in folder of the Color Region Mask Creator and run it, the following setting usually work fine:
   ColorRegionMaskCreator -noregions -autostart -openoutfolder 0 -GreenScreenFactorGLargerThanRB 2 -GreenScreenMinGreen 50 -GreenScreenBorderFactorGLargerThanRB 1.5 -CropBackground true -ExpandBackgroundToSize true -maxWidth 256 -maxHeight 256

Continue with GIMP

1. Create a selection for the background (using a combination of the Fuzzy Selection Tool and the lasso).
2. Erase the background of both layers (using the same selection).
3. Erase any teeth, claws and eyes (unmasked areas) from only the color mask.
4. Remove all shadows from the mask:
   1. Select the bucket fill tool and set its mode to Value.
   2. Set the foreground color to pure white.
   3. Fill the entire image - all dark areas should be removed and all colors should be full brightness.
5. Image->Scale Image to 256x256.
6. Show only the white blend layer and File->Export to <Species>.png
7. Show only the mask layer then File-Export to <Species>_m.png

File names

The simplest or base file name for a species image is the species name with the .png file extension, e.g. Rex.png. The color region mask file, if available, is the exact same file name with the suffix _m, e.g. Rex_m.png.

There are several optional suffixes for more precise categorization to specify the game (ASE or ASA), the sex and the pattern index. These suffixes must be added in this order.

• game suffix: _ASE or _ASA
• sex: _sf for female or _sm for male
• pattern index: _i, where i is an integer > 0, e.g. _1

The more specific a file name, the more priority it has when selecting a file. For example if there is a file Rex.png and Rex_ASA.png and the image for a Rex in ASE should be displayed, the file Rex.png is taken, for ASA the file Rex_ASA.png is used. If there is also a file Rex_sm_ASE.png this will be only used for a male Rex in ASE. A female Rex in ASE will use Rex.png in this case.

Combining all suffixes could look like Cat_ASA_sm_2.png indicating the image for a male Cat in ASA with region pattern 2. The file Cat_ASA_2_sm.png has the wrong order of the suffixes (sex needs to be before pattern) and won't be used by any creature.

The mask file must have the same file name with _m at the end. The mask file Rex_m.png will not be used for the base file Rex_ASE.png, the latter will only use the mask file Rex_ASE_m.png.