okay Im finishing up the spartan laser model and as some people commented on my video for it the beam looks flat and I agree thats why it was a setup video and I've been looking but wasn't real sure how to make a projectile that has no model more rounded or round at all in this case?

make the contrail bitmap have a depth to it. More like this:
as opposed to this:

Well Considering I dont have photoshop anymore just paint hope it still works??

My question is how do u make it dimesions of 2"s for halo ce?

Go to image attributes in paint, set the length and width to a dimension of two.

Hey guys I was working on the bitmap but Im not sure excatly how to add depth and stuff like on the first post I got?

i meant to make the image look rounder, instead of being flat, as if you were doing it for a 2D game

I think he means the depth, how can he make it look like a cylinder and not just a plane firing outta the laser.

yep, and thats what we're telling him.

Yes I mean how do you do that I have paint not photoshop??

I mean how can I make it look like a cyclinder and not flat like what do u go to I checked the edit image drop down stuff and couldn't see anything on how to add depth??


I'm trying to learn bitmaps now Cuz I've almost got modeling 100% but need to learn bitmaps and shaders etc??

use paint.NET or gimp, they're free. Also, there's no effect for it, its just a type of gradient.

well whats a gardient Im deff.. new to bitmaps sorry :)

look at the h2 teli tag
it has planes spinning around realy fast with the same shader on it so it gives the optical cilender effect buy those planes spinning around very fast and makes 5 flat plains that look round because thare spinning now lay it down and you have your basic shape make that longer and shoot it along with putting one of those textures on it^ and that should work
idk im just gessing on how it might be made!
im not experianced with projectiles! but if you can understand what im saying mb it will help.
Edited by jackrabbit on May 6, 2009 at 03:17 PM

Well I got gimp and the orginal contrail image saved as .jpeg so if I open it in gimp what would u suggest from there?

You make a gradient like everyone said.
Do this by making a base color ( red in this case) and fill the whole thing with that color. Then darken the color slightly and paint it on the top and bottom border. Repeat the process until it looks like Koo's example. If you still don't get it, you have my xfire. Just message me when I'm online.

well I kinda get what u mean but I still need to chat with u and I think all be good to go :)

I'll look on xfire for u but I work a 40 week now so I want be on much :(

here, i made a vid for you.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?hlyejzjn2z1

okay yeah u had a few extra steps lol nice vid thanks man now I now the basics :)

Projectiles can't have two contrails attached at the same time, only one of them shows as far as I know. Most of Halo 3's projectiles have two contrails; sniper rifle, beam rifle, carbine, they have the primary projectile contrail as well as a smokey effect contrail. You can't do that in Halo 1's projectiles, but you could use some tagging tricks to emulate the effect.
Edited by Marka Haiyana on May 7, 2009 at 08:05 PM