Hex Tokens: How?

[dorpond]

Hey Phergus, I have been slacking with the token and frame making lately and wanted to catch up by making some Hex goodies for the community since I have so many different textures.

Any advice how to approach this in Photoshop? Are there any pitfalls I should keep an eye out for?

Just wanted to ask before I got in too deep

[Phergus]

You think I should know? You confusing me for an artist?

I use GIMP so can't really offer any Photoshop advice. To give me a base hex shape I used an SVG file which I pulled from the source of all knowledge - Wikipedia.

Hexagon Entry

You can download the SVG (Structured Vector Graphic IIRC) from there. GIMP will allow you to create a bitmap from it at the size you want. I would expect Photoshop can do the same thing.

Just set the vertical height to be the cell size I wanted and went from there.

[Vry]

Here's the sample hex overlay I made for the sometime in the not too distant future advanced tokentool overlays.

Put the Mask in a new channel, have the overlay on a layer with the character on a layer below it, load a selection from the alpha channel, copy merged, paste in a new file, delete the background and save.

[dorpond]

AHHHHh!

Frustrated!!

I cannot make an equal sided Hex for the life of me in Photoshop! When I use the Hex tool, it fills it in and then I cannot edit anything with it!

If someone can paint me out a plain black outlined HEX, I could work with that as a template. Just a black (not filled) lined Hex..



I really want to help you, I really do!

[Vry]

Right click on the layer with the hex, click "Rasterize Layer"

Click Select -> Load Selection -> Shape Whatever Transparency.

Select -> Modify -> Contract -> However thick you want it to be.

Delete.

[dorpond]

Thanks Vry!

That worked great! Another feature that I still have no clue on what it does but proves valuable