Trying to make one with gimp for self use but I'm not sure how people design it O_O
I have the idea made but just not sure how to make it
I have the idea made but just not sure how to make it
forum
How do people design cursors?
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Photoshop...
Get the canvas size of a cursor
And do whatever
Get the canvas size of a cursor
And do whatever
Not necessarily. GIMP will work as well and just as well for what most commonly is just a blurry dot.Yikari wrote:
Photoshop...
Ooh I never heard of GIMP before 
I'll check it out later
I'll check it out later
1. open your skin folder.
2. locate cursor.png, curstrail.png, and cursormiddle.png (if you use one)
3. drag them onto GIMP (so you get the original canvas size)
4. edit them as you wish, overwrite old files and experiment with it to find the best cursor you can make
note:
- cursormiddle.png is located on the center of the cursor (it's not rotating)
- depending on your skin.ini configuration, the cursor and cursortrail may rotate as well
- cursortrails helps make the cursor more visible
- you don't need photoshop, I'm a pure gimp user
- make use of the useful tools and built-in scripts for gimp. there's a lot of ways to make something, depending on how you want the cursor to look.
2. locate cursor.png, curstrail.png, and cursormiddle.png (if you use one)
3. drag them onto GIMP (so you get the original canvas size)
4. edit them as you wish, overwrite old files and experiment with it to find the best cursor you can make
note:
- cursormiddle.png is located on the center of the cursor (it's not rotating)
- depending on your skin.ini configuration, the cursor and cursortrail may rotate as well
- cursortrails helps make the cursor more visible
- you don't need photoshop, I'm a pure gimp user
- make use of the useful tools and built-in scripts for gimp. there's a lot of ways to make something, depending on how you want the cursor to look.
You really dont need a photoshop for cursor design...Gimp is also pretty complex for beginners. You may try Paint.NET. It gives you everything you need for the most common tasks and isnt overloaded with features most ppl dont even understand.
Basically you have 2 Methods:
1. Old style Cursor:
You make a cursor.png (preferably 64x64 pixels), where your cursor design is in.
And a cursortrail.png which is behind the cursor. It only indicates the direction you are moving. it will be placed whereever the click-point of your cursor.png is. (Commonly the mid (it is possible to make "normal OS-Cursor Style - top left corner" by forcing it in the skin.ini: CursorCentre: 0)) It fades out - meaning it leaves a "trail", but only for a short (maybe 200-300ms) time.
2. New style Cursor:
cursor.png as above
cursormiddle.png (is placed as cursortrail.png in old style, but redrawn every frame, not faded)
cursortrail.png is a trail, that will fade out much slower (maybe even 700ms) and leaving a real trail.
The size of cursortrail.png / cursormiddle.png isnt restricted afaik.
For trails you should use less opaque (maybe <60% alpha).
Most important: IF you recommend to let the circle spin (skin.ini: CursorRotate: 1) you HAVE TO make sure the center is the center! A wobbly Cursor is pretty much the worst thing!
Its also a good idea to keep every colored part in a seperate Layer, so it is easier to recolor it later. Any questions?
Basically you have 2 Methods:
1. Old style Cursor:
You make a cursor.png (preferably 64x64 pixels), where your cursor design is in.
And a cursortrail.png which is behind the cursor. It only indicates the direction you are moving. it will be placed whereever the click-point of your cursor.png is. (Commonly the mid (it is possible to make "normal OS-Cursor Style - top left corner" by forcing it in the skin.ini: CursorCentre: 0)) It fades out - meaning it leaves a "trail", but only for a short (maybe 200-300ms) time.
2. New style Cursor:
cursor.png as above
cursormiddle.png (is placed as cursortrail.png in old style, but redrawn every frame, not faded)
cursortrail.png is a trail, that will fade out much slower (maybe even 700ms) and leaving a real trail.
The size of cursortrail.png / cursormiddle.png isnt restricted afaik.
For trails you should use less opaque (maybe <60% alpha).
Most important: IF you recommend to let the circle spin (skin.ini: CursorRotate: 1) you HAVE TO make sure the center is the center! A wobbly Cursor is pretty much the worst thing!
Its also a good idea to keep every colored part in a seperate Layer, so it is easier to recolor it later. Any questions?
Topic Starter
Thanks for the responses, I've been using GIMP for a while and this still boggles my mind.
I see many unique cursors and most of them, I have no idea how a person would make them (don't see the pdf or xcf files so I don't know what the layers would look like). Just wondering if there's any tutorials as to how one would make a sample cursor just to get the feel of it? Or if anyone has a pdf file of one. I'm also wondering how cursors get their "glow" effects (I see some in cursor sets). I could probably make simple cursors that had no real design and was just a spherical shape with a trail of the same color, but I'm going for something more complex. Like a cursor with a peace sign.
I see many unique cursors and most of them, I have no idea how a person would make them (don't see the pdf or xcf files so I don't know what the layers would look like). Just wondering if there's any tutorials as to how one would make a sample cursor just to get the feel of it? Or if anyone has a pdf file of one. I'm also wondering how cursors get their "glow" effects (I see some in cursor sets). I could probably make simple cursors that had no real design and was just a spherical shape with a trail of the same color, but I'm going for something more complex. Like a cursor with a peace sign.
