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A Guide to Face Icons, DMIs, and Compression - Printable Version

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A Guide to Face Icons, DMIs, and Compression - Moira - 08-22-2020

I know that there are several guides for this already, but I wanted to post an updated one that I think will be the easiest method for most players. This guide assumes you have found a “playby”. You’re going to want to likely pick something that is a character from a series so that they’ll be plenty of art available for the sake of making face icons. There will be a lot of pictures since I wanted to make this as follow-able as possible for those that are not tech savvy. 

I found a character I like, now what?

Gather art of the character! There are various sites that you can use. I would ask around to see what other's use, but a good one is zerochan.net since there is no nsfw content on it. Just maybe swimsuit pictures at worst.

Now that you have all the art open for said character, save pieces that you like to your computer.

Part 1: Cropping the Face Icons

There are a few methods to go about this. I will cover the most accessible first,

Using the built in tools on Windows 10. (Only works with this OS):
Quote:Step 1.)

Open the image that you have saved either by double clicking it or right-click and select "open"
[Image: hiEDkiy.png]


Click the Crop Icon as highlighted.
[Image: GOzyyAF.png]
 
Your screen should now look similar to this. Go over to "Aspect ratio:" and select "Square" from the drop down menu.
[Image: UJKLrU4.png]

Step 2.)

Position the square to capture the face. Keep in mind that FIs are small so if you want the expression to be visible, you'll want to be close. Once satisfied hit "Save a Copy" and save the cropped image. 
[Image: Bjvnper.png]

NOTE: If you can't get close enough, just crop it once, then reopen the cropped one as the steps above and crop again. You should be able to get it as close as needed for the face icon that way! Windows is weird like that sometimes. 

Repeat this process until you have all the images you wanted converted into square face icons face icons. 

Step 3.)
NOW, you can open this in the editing software of your choosing if you want to resize them that way, but this guide assumes you have nothing thus we shall be using paint.

Right click the image file and select "Edit" this will open up paint for you. 
[Image: 5SFD7me.png]

Then, go ahead and select "Resize" hit the "Pixels" option and type 96 x 96, then "OK"


[Image: uOLv0Vf.png]

Repeat until all face icons are 96 by 96 pixels in size. This will feel tedious, but hang in there.


Using Gimp
Gimp is a free editing software that you can download if you don't have windows 10 or do not want to do the method above. You can get it here: https://www.gimp.org/ 

Quote:Step 1.)
Open up the image using Gimp. Select the cropping icon from your tools then check off "Fixed Aspect Ratio" into the box below you'll want to put 1:1 which will give you a square. 

Step 2.)
Adjust the square until you're happy with the crop. Keep in mind again, face icons are small so you'll want to be close if you want the expression to be visible. 

[Image: q6y7dh6.png]

Once satisfied, just click inside the square and it'll crop leaving you with this: 


[Image: yeCDBOF.png]

Step 3.)
Click "Image" then "Scale Image..." 


[Image: 3g2MUMr.png]

Change the Width and Height to 96 x 96 pixels, then click "Scale".

[Image: ogm1uWT.png]

Step 4.)
Go to "File" then "Export as..."

[Image: sFnrMlu.png]

In the next menu just type in .jpg or .png at the end of the file name if it's not there already then select a place to save it in "places".

[Image: 5edReuX.png]


Part 2: Making the .dmi

Quote:Now that you have your face icons ready and resized, it's time to make the .dmi. This the file you will actually upload to SL2. 

Step 1.) 
Search your computer for "Dream Maker" It also can be found in program files > BYOND > bin

[Image: ogJuGn1.png]


Once the program is open go to "File" then "New Environment". 
[Image: nDgUXsB.png]


A dialog box will pop up. Just select your directory where you want to save the .dmi put in a name, then hit "OK"
[Image: qEcrTHq.png]


Then it will ask you what type of file you will be making. Hit the drop down arrow and select "Icon File (.dmi)" then hit "OK" again. 
[Image: w7HmFSe.png]


Step 2.)

On the .dmi screen that you now have go to "Graphic" then "Import" OR right-click on the .dmi screen and hit "import".

[Image: tjTTaWW.png]


Locate where you saved your Face Icons and select and open them. You may have to do it one at a time, or you may be able to right+shift click the first and last one and do it one go. 
[Image: QfOTOoa.png]
Do NOT name your face icons yet UNLESS you are doing the Miller Tweaker method mentioned here: https://neus-projects.net/forums/showthread.php?tid=7039

Part 3: Compression

Quote:Odds are you finished .dmi file is too big for SL2's 256kb limit. Thankfully, there is a way to fix that! 

Step 1.) 
Right click your .dmi file and select "Open with..." 
[Image: KE4CF9J.png]

Select "Paint"

[Image: otFjhGg.png]

Immediately upon opening the file, go to "File" then "Save as..." And save the image as a .png

[Image: 5dt6JOa.png]

Step 2.) 

Go to https://compresspng.com/ and upload the .png file you just made. 

On the side of the page there is a slider with Colors then a number. Adjust that down until you get below 256kb then click "Apply". Note: Do keep in mind that if you set the colors too low then the image quality will drop. 

[Image: heJ3iZa.png]

Then hit "Download" and it'll save itself as "filename-min" 

Step 3.) 

Create a new .dmi file. Before you do ANYTHING uncheck the box that says "Use size from file" then type in 96 x 96. 

[Image: 9kJoqzs.png]

Once that is done, you can go ahead and import the ENTIRE min.png file you just downloaded. It will look something like this. You have to delete the one slot that shows all the FIs. 

[Image: wb2ireL.png]


NOW it is time to Name your face icons. This is how they'll come up in the list in-game so name them something you can figure out what is what, or meme it. I'm not your mother.

Go ahead and double-click the text beneath each FI and write what you want the state to be called.

[Image: FTjWN5G.png]


Congratulations, your .dmi is good to go!
Things to note about compression. (PLEASE read.)


You CANNOT delete or add any FIs as you please to the .dmi you just made otherwise it will completely undo the compression. You will have to redo the entire thing. 

In order to reorganize the order of the FIs, use cut + paste shortcuts aka Crtl+z and Ctrl+v. 

If you do not have a perfect square number of FIs you will get blank spots. DO NOT DELETE THEM since it will mess up the compression! Just cut and paste them to the back of the .dmi and don't think about it.
[Image: AcJ8KRU.png]




IF you compressed the .dmi down to 256kb and it DOES NOT upload, odds are it is actually larger than 256kb by a little bit. The way you can check is to right click the .dmi file and hit "Properties". If this happens you need to compress it more or remove FIs to make it fit. 

[Image: 0TbGQ25.png]