Download The Half Life Logo Creator (HLC) from HERE and install it. I prefer Logo Creator 1 over HLC 2 it just works better for me. It will ask you to locate the stored Half Life path. This means that HLC wants to know where hl.exe is. If you are using a retail Half Life game it should be as simple as navigating to the folder in the directory where the game is as shown below in Figure(1). With Valve screwing us all over with Steam we need to change where we put our sprays, and we need to change the name of them as well. So direct HLC to C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\your e-mail address\team fortress classic\tfc or in the event that you are setting up for Counter Strike C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\your e-mail address\counter-strike\cstrike and remember that HLC will by default name your spray "pldecal.wad", this is no longer valid. Why? I dunno ask Valve... Anyway, after you have made the .wad file, go through explorer to the folder in question and rename the .wad file from "pldecal.wad" to "tempdecal.wad" and you are all set.

Figure(1)

 If you do not have either Photoshop or Paintshop Pro, you can get trials versions by clicking these links, for Photoshop try either

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=39&platform=Windows

or

http://www.softnews.ro/public/cat/11/3/2/11-3-2-4.shtml

and for Paintshop Pro click this link,

http://www.jasc.com/download_4.asp?prod=K-PSP8-USDIR

Using an image editing program like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (MSPaint is not recommended) click file, select “new” and input numbers for the length and width in pixels that will be acceptable for making a spray as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure (2)

First off, we must understand the sizing issues for custom sprays. The image must be sized in increments of 16 pixels. You may use an image that is 16 pixels high by 16 pixels wide, or 32 pixels high by 32 pixels wide or 48 pixels high by 32 pixels wide so long as the number of pixels is divisible by 16, there is a limit however.  The image that you want to use must be less than 12288 pixels total. So that means that an image that is 144 pixels wide by 80 pixels high would equal 11520 pixels would be acceptable, where length times width  equals the area. This is probably the biggest sized spray you can make and it takes up a large area on the wall in game . On the other hand an image that is 144 pixels high by 96 wide, (even though both numbers are indeed divisible by 16) is equal to 13824 pixels and exceeds 12288 pixels in size and is not acceptable. So what this means is that the longer the image is, the shorter it must become or the taller an image is, the narrower it must become. For some examples of acceptable sizes see the table below. It identifies length and width and acceptable sizes shown in green for example, an image that is 144 pixels wide and 80 pixels high is acceptable as shown in green, another image that might be 128 pixels wide and 96 pixels high is not acceptable because the pixel count in an image of this size would be 12288 pixels as shown in red. It should also be understood that the last pixel in a color spray must be pure blue or the spray will not work. If you are using Half Life Logo Creator you need not worry about this, HLC will take care of that for you when it does the conversion.

It seems to be a matter of preference. I prefer to work with images that are already properly sized. The reason for this is simple, HLC will "Auto Size" the image for you but it does not allow for constrained aspect ratios.  It cannot do this because the image itself must be sized according to the table above and if the image you load into HLC is longer than taller it may end up taller and narrower thus making the image look pulled or squashed. On the other hand if you feed HLC an image that is already in an acceptable size it need not alter the images dimensions. So for this demonstration we will follow the example of Figure(2) above and use an image of 144 pixels wide by 80 pixels high. As shown in Figure(3) below, we have created a "new" image to make our spray on. We will want to use a transparent background on it so that ONLY the text that we type here will be visible. While the image itself appears to be quite small at 144 X 80 pixels, when it sprays in game it will appear quite a bit larger. Click on the colored squares to access the color picker as shown in below in Figure(3)

Figure(3)

We now want to select pure blue. Pure blue is not visible in the game, so only the text we type here will show up on the walls. Click on the square beside the R: (for Red) and enter the value of zero as shown, click on the square beside the G: (for Green) and enter the value of zero as shown and finally, click on the square beside the B: (for Blue) and enter the value of 255 as shown. Click OK to accept this color and in the tool bar select the paint bucket tool and fill your image with the pure blue color. Now that the background of the image is pure blue we want to add some text. Select the "T", choose a font, and a font size, place your cursor onto the image and type your name or slogan onto your image making sure it fits. I like bright solid colors like bright yellows or black is good as well because they have great contrast in the game itself and are easy to read. Try and pick a good font as well that is easy to read at smaller sizes, it stands to reason that if you cannot read the text on this image, you won't be able to read it in game either. Once you have entered your text you may move it using the move tool as shown below in Figure(4).

Figure(4)

Once all of your text is entered you will want to reduce the image to 8 bit or 256 color mode. In Photoshop click Image on the options bar, select mode and make sure 8 Bits/Channel is selected. as shown below in Figure(5) Then click "File" on the options bar and select "Save As" then select where you want to save the image and make the file extension either .jpg, .bmp or .gif.

Figure(5)

 Run HLC, select Open and navigate to your image that you just created. Please note that underneath the image HLC indicates that the image is sized at 144 x 80 pixel and is at 256 colors at 8 bit as shown below in Figure(6). Click Open to load the image into HLC, you may also load images in here, pictures or other graphics that you have.

Figure(6)

 Almost done now, in the bottom left corner select the mod you wish to make the spray for or to save for a mod not listed put a check beside "Save it to" and browse for the location. Notice how the image size shows green as shown in Figure(7) below, this means the image is at an acceptable size and does not require a dimension change. Click on the "Make Wad" button, and HLC should indicate that your wad has been created successfully.

If your image was not of the correct dimension, HLC would notify you by making the bar red in the Total pixel bar as shown in Figure(8) below. At this point your choice is to redo the size in your image editor or correct the size using HLC, you could select the Autosize button or you could select the MAX buttons or you could use the size selection boxes and the resize button.

As an example of in game size compared to actual size, a 144 X 80 pixel spray appears in game at the size shown below and while this may not be the best spray it serves the purpose of explaining transparent backgrounds that we created above with the pure blue as well as the endless possibilities that you have in front of you.

It is important to remember that if you have followed the instructions at the top of this page, then the spray is now called "tempdecal.wad" and in this case, the spray has been placed into the TFC folder C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\your e-mail address\counter-strike or C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\your e-mail address\team fortress classic\tfc . It is not necessary to select your spray, it is ready for use as is. You must not try to go into the in game menu and select the spray that you just made, Half Life will not find it there and in fact will arbitrarily over write your custom spray with a default spray. You can prevent your spray from being overwritten by the game by making it a read only file. Once you enter a game and want to try your spray remember, it may take a minute or two until your spray works. The reason for this is that your spray needs to be uploaded to the server and downloaded by everyone on the server so that everyone sees the same thing at the same time. Be patient.

FOR TIPS AND TRICKS SEE THE LINKS BELOW

For Tips on improving colour depth using PhotoShop Click Here

For a tutorial on how layers work in PhotoShop Click Here

 (if you have any Tips or Tricks to make sprays better please forward them to gronk161@tfcgaschamber.com and they will be added with your name credited)

 We hope you find this information useful, if you have any further questions we will be happy to try and help.

 Sincerely,

       The Gas Chamber Crew