I was able to find the tilesheet with all the individual black curly pieces that make up the borders of the loading screens and create a template to use. This would be extremely handy for anyone who wants to use pegtool and photoshop to create their very own loading screens.
finalack.com/Idol/loadscreen_template_sr...*** NEW ***
Here is an even easier and closer way to do this using Gimp with a special gradient map designed by Curly Haired Boy who is one of the gents and a good friend.
If you don't already have GIMP, then download and install it:
www.gimp.org/Download Curly's Gradient Map:
finalack.com/Idol/SR2_Loadscreen_Gradien...Put this new gradient file here:
c:users[profile name].gimp 2.6gradients
Restart GIMP (if it's open)
In the righthand pane select the Gradient tab and then select the new map which is named "SR2 for idol" (you can thank curly for that. lol.)
In the main GIMP window, click menu File/open, and open your image file you want to use for the loading screen:
With your image now open, click menu Colors/Map/Gradient Map
In the right pane, click the white layers tab at the top left, then select the duplicate button in the middle. This will create a background copy layer of the original image:
In the main window with your picture, select menu Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur
In the gaussian blur dialogue box choose 30 for either value and click ok
In the right pane, click the drop down arrow button to the right of Mode and change the Mode to Overlay:
In the main window click menu Colors/Desaturate.
Click Ok to use default settings.
Save the file and you're almost done!
The last step is importing into photoshop with the background black layer template and tweak the color a little bit if needed:
finalack.com/Idol/loadscreen_template_sr...Here's the finished loading screen from gimp after a little bit of tweaking in photoshop.
I have found that the best settings to tweak are Hue/Saturation. I find that raising Hue slightly and lowering Saturation slightly works great. I do this adjustment while a few of the original loading screens pics are also open to compare against the new pic.
And here's an original loading screen for reference
And here's the old manual one I did by hand in photoshop:
As you can see, the gimp one looks a lot closer to the original with curly's gradient map. :)
Enjoy!
*** OLD INSTRUCTIONS (REPLACED BY ABOVE GIMP ONES) ***
Here's the PSD template with the layers:
finalack.com/Idol/loadscreen_template_sr...To manipulate the colors and look to imitate the SR2 original ones:
1. Desaturate the image so it's black and white
2. Adjust Brightness/Contrast:
* Brightness -20
* Contrast +50
^This gives it that harsh bloom look
3. Adjust color balance:
* R +100
* G +0
* B -100
4. Adjust color balance AGAIN further pushing B into the negative to give it even more yellow and slightly pushing R into the positive. Suit to taste.
Have fun and make sure to post some pics if you use it! :D
