By Ordep

This tutorial will explain how to convert images into photos that can be used in High Heat 2002 and 2003, and also how to edit photos, allowing you to change players' hats from one team to another. Like the above tutorials, you'll need a graphics-editing program such as Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Photoshop (which is what I use). A little experience using one of these programs would also be a plus, but isn't really necessary.

Converting Images
So you've found a picture of a player you want to use in the game, but don't know how to do it. Open PSP or Photoshop, then open your image. Use the "Crop" tool to select the area of the photo you want to use, then crop it. Now re-size the image so it's 64 pixels wide by 85 high. Now "Save As" a 24-bit uncompressed .tga file. That's it! Now just use DZ's Editor to import it.

Changing Hats
(I'll use two important terms in these directions: "Base" will refer to the picture of the player you're going to edit, and "Target" will refer to the team you're converting him to.)

There's basically two different ways of doing this. The first way is to cut-and-paste an entire hat from your Target onto your Base. This is the easiest way to do it, but harder to find just the right conditions that make it possible. You need to find a player wearing your Target hat who's facing in the same direction (straight ahead, slightly left, slightly right) and has his head held at approximately the same angle. Using the "Select" tool, draw a rectangle around the entire Target hat. "Copy" and "Paste" it on to your Base picture as a new Layer. Adjust the opacity of this second layer to about 50% so that you can easily see thru it. Use the Move Tool to re-position it so that it completely covers the original hat. Now, use the Eraser to remove everything from the second layer other than the Target hat. In the areas where the Target hat overhangs the Base hat, erase the extra portions of the Target, cutting it down to match the size and shape of the Base. As you get nearer and nearer to the edge of the Base hat, using smaller and smaller brush sizes on your Eraser, so that you're eventually down to a brush one pixel in diameter. Go slow to be sure you don't erase too much. Use the Zoom function to increase the magnification to 500x-800x, allowing you to see your work better. When doing it this way, sometimes the brim won't look quite right. This is because when you moved the hat to best cover the Base, the brim moved out of position. In these cases, you're best off erasing the brim from the Target layer, too, and then cutting and pasting it over again as a new layer. Adjust the opacity to 50% once again and move the new brim around until it's in proper position. Now, erase everything else from this layer. The logo might not look right, either, and may need to be replaced. How to do this will be discussed in a moment.

The other method of altering hats involves re-coloring the original. This is the one I use most often, because players usually have their heads held at unique angles or in different directions, making it hard to find another Target that closely matches them. First thing you need to do is make a couple of copies of your Base photo. The easiest example is changing a solid, one-color hat (such as the Cardinals, Dodgers, Cubs, etc.) to a solid navy-blue/black (Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, etc.). Take one of your copies and convert it to Grayscale. Then, convert it back to RGB color (it'll still look b&w, however). Adjust the brightness on it so that it matches the approximate shade of the Target team you're trying for. “Copy” and “Paste” it onto your Base picture, then, just like in the previous method, erase everything but the new hat. For a "colored" hat (example: changing Toronto to St. Louis), take one of the copies and select "Colors," "Adjust," and begin turning the "Red" up until you get the right shade of Cardinal Red. Once again, copy-and-paste it onto your Base pic, and erase everything but the hat. The “Brightness” function also comes in very handy, allowing you to make the images lighter or darker as needed. Hats with different-colored brims (whether they're the Target or the Base) are a little more tricky. You'll have to do the body and then the brim as two separate layers, adjusting each one individually to get the Target shades you're looking for. Sometimes you'll end up with the border around the edge of the new hat looking kind of jagged. In this case, use the "Blur" tool to smooth it out. You may also need to do this if you did the body and brims separately, to blend the two together.

Logos
Now that you've got the hat done, you still need to apply the new logo. But first, you need to get rid of the old one. If you're using Photoshop, you can use the very useful "Clone Stamp" tool to erase the logo. Position the brush over an area of the hat very close to the logo. While holding down the ALT-key, click the left mouse button to define the stamp, then move over and begin slowly "painting" over the logo. You could also try to match the hat color and use the regular ol' paintbrush to get rid of it. It's not important that it look perfect, because any minor imperfections in your work won't be noticeable once you apply the new logo. Look for a picture of a player from your Target team who's facing in close to the same direction as your Base player. You may need to rotate the Target image several degrees, either clockwise or counter-clockwise, to get the logo to look right on your Base hat. You'll also probably have to re-size it. I've found it's better to make it slightly too small, as a logo that's a litte too small is less noticeable and looks much better than one that's slightly too big. On the "Logo Layer," try to erase as much of the color around the logo as possible. This is because the hat color from the picture you got the logo from may not precisely match the shade you've created, and you want to eliminate as much evidence of any such difference as you can.

The End
And that's pretty much it! Merge your layers and save your work as an uncompressed 24-bit .tga (and remember to make sure it's 64x85). These are the basic techniques I use. The more you do them, the better you'll get. You'll probably also develop some of your own, different ways of doing things that are most comfortable for you. Keep practicing, and if you're having trouble with a certain pic, don't give up on it. Once you get the hang of it, many pics can be edited it five or ten minutes, but some would still take me much longer to get them to the point where I was satisfied with them. If you're not happy with it, keep at it; you'll get it eventually. If I can do this, ANYBODY can! Good luck!

As answered in this thread.