theatroN's Video Gallery + Screenshots

[Chlοë]

Ask irishron, brother theatron. He knows all.

[theatroN]

Thanks man. Got it all sorted out, and also thanks for the comments in the recent POTW submission.

So I've got another little question for the modders that dwell here. I've been thinking for some time now about doing my own "mod" where I would redo most of the event pictures in NTW with ingame edits of my own creation.
I really like the ones that are there now and they inspire me to create something even more awesome. So to get started on this I was wondering if you would know a file path or unpack method to find and look at the actual jpegs or pngs of the events pictures?

I'm a total newb in the modding field so I might need further assistance along the way if this is to succeed.

[LuckyLewis]

Damn TheatroN, you really know how to return to the POTW with style, hah. That ship shot is one of your best. I see your orange sun glares have also invaded RL photographs these days too.

As for the in-game edits of events, I'll try and get you set up with a few instructions and screenshots:

1. Go get yourself the Napoleon PFM (Pack file manager), this will allow you to open the game files. You can find it here.

2. Open up the PFM application

3. go file > open and select the data.pack found in your NTW data folder (C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\napoleon total war\data)

4. You should now see a list all sorts of stuff in the PFM. Scroll down and expand the 'ui' category.

5. From there, right click on the 'eventpics' category and select 'extract selected'. Browse to a location that you wish to store the event images e.g. your documents and the PFM will put all the images there for your use. Don't worry though, you aren't taking the files out of the data.pack, just copying them out of it, so it won't break your game or anything by extracting from it.

It should look something like this:

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In my case, I now have a folder in my documents called 'ui' and a 'eventpics' subfolder which includes all of the game's event images separated into Europe, Indian and MiddleEast folders. All the images should be .TGA format, which is a supported format for photoshop.

Here are most of the European event pictures:

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And here is a opened .tga file in photoshop showing you what it should look like.

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You can edit all these images now and when you are done, I'll tell you how to get them in-game as a working mod file. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

[theatroN]

Haha, thanks Lewis. You know me too well. The photos from RL were a bit orange before I did the color grading though!

Awesome of you to create this mini tutorial with screenshots and all. Thanks a bunch mate! It was really helpful!

I must call upon help again though. I was wondering if it was possible to find the events in their "completed state" like this, so I could see the text underneath and see how the cropping should be done?

I made these two as an example using the photos provided on DeviantArt.

Winter Attrition

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Desert Attrition

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[LuckyLewis]

Cool event pictures.

Unfortunately I don't think you can view the event cards in their complete state, atleast not out of game. You can find the text for them in your language.pack file though e.g. mine is in local_en.pack and then have a look at the localiation.loc. Problem is it's quite hard to navigate as it's got pretty much all of the text in the entire game stored there. I wouldn't bother doing that if I was you.

I don't understand why you'd need to crop if you are just editing the event images though. The .TGA images you've extracted should be the correct dimensions. Just open up the .TGAs, edit the image/replace within the dimensions and save the file with the same name. As long as you keep to the same length/width of the .TGA image you are editing, you should be fine.

Lewis.

[theatroN]

Cool event pictures.

Unfortunately I don't think you can view the event cards in their complete state, atleast not out of game. You can find the text for them in your language.pack file though e.g. mine is in local_en.pack and then have a look at the localiation.loc. Problem is it's quite hard to navigate as it's got pretty much all of the text in the entire game stored there. I wouldn't bother doing that if I was you.

I don't understand why you'd need to crop if you are just editing the event images though. The .TGA images you've extracted should be the correct dimensions. Just open up the .TGAs, edit the image/replace within the dimensions and save the file with the same name. As long as you keep to the same length/width of the .TGA image you are editing, you should be fine.

Lewis.

All right man. Thanks a lot for the help.

Now it's just time to get started on the event pics I guess. Will probably call upon you again when I am to release this as an actual mod.

[The Norseman]

What kind of editing program do you use to make zhe epicest of the epicest pictures?

[theatroN]

What kind of editing program do you use to make zhe epicest of the epicest pictures?

Hah, thanks mate.

I use mainly photoshop, and often After Effects as well to add effects like sun flares and particles.

[The Norseman]

aha well its an amazing gallery! Do you study to become an artist or director or something?

[xHolyCrusader]

Hah, thanks mate.

I use mainly photoshop, and often After Effects as well to add effects like sun flares and particles.

Damn you buyed After effects and Photo shop? How much did the cost :O?

[Chlοë]

I'll be looking out for the eventpics mod!

[TWFonzarelli]

Im looking to enter the RockPaperShotgun Shogun 2 screenshot contest.

Although winners will be picked at random and not based on any real criteria(other than a lovely or brutal screenie) I'd still like to submit a screenshot that highlights Shogun from an unconventional angle/zoom.

Some of AtroNs's screenies seem like he used a 'free camera' as some of the angles he's achieved i didn't think possible using the standard tools, such as the 'n' key for cinematic zoom and holding the 3rd mouse button in tandem with a push or pull of the mouse to pan the camera up or down.
(sorry for the running sentence).

Does anyone have any tips on how to take well framed screenies as seen in this and other threads?

ps. theatroN > Truly beautiful work! Im inspired to take similarly epic screenshots.

[theatroN]

aha well its an amazing gallery! Do you study to become an artist or director or something?

Thanks man!
I'm on my 2nd semester at the Academy of Art in San Francisco where I study Animation & Visual Effects, but in august I'm going to start at the Truemax Academy in Denmark to become a digital artist.

Damn you buyed After effects and Photo shop? How much did the cost :O?

Well I've for a long time been using pirat copies of these programs, but I'm using 100 % legit licenses that I got for free via my school. Adobe made it's entire CS5.5 Master Collection available for free to all the students at my school. Worth like 2600 dollars. Pretty insane.

Does anyone have any tips on how to take well framed screenies as seen in this and other threads?

ps. theatroN > Truly beautiful work! Im inspired to take similarly epic screenshots.

Thanks for the kinds words, and welcome to TWC.

You need to debug the camera to get that "free-camera" you mention. Can't find the link right now, but a quick search on debugging camera in NTW should do it.

[TWFonzarelli]

awesome! I wish every game had a debug camera.

Thank you Kindly n keep them screenies comming!

[theatroN]

Finally took the time to do a picture again. Buried up an old and very boring screenshot, and tried to bring it to life.

This time I added a small breakdown of my methods when creating this piece. Hope you enjoy it fellas!

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Full size

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Breakdown

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[theatroN]

Newest, and yea most likely my last total war video, until Rome II ofc.

[famiglia_ducale]

Fantastic as always my dear friend.
+rep of course.

[theatroN]

Thanks man!

Newest work!
Taken from Empire: Total War using the great mod, Roma Victrix.

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Original

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[theatroN]

Had enough time to do another today, YAY!

Put together using two screenshots. Worked out surprisingly well. It was quite the challenge.

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Originals:

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[Chlοë]

Glorious!!!