Of Mice and Pen: Pirate Art - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 243

5. Next, use the Image, Image Size option to rescale the artwork to an appropriate size,

bearing in mind that the entire game screen is only 1024x600 pixels.

Finally, use the File, Save As option to save the file as a .png format file, which is
compatible with Game Maker and preserves the transparency of the image. Don't
worry about doing this for now, as this is a hypothetical exercise.

6.

Figure 10-21. Using the Color Overlay layer effect to color the environment art

Of course, you don't just have to stick to using the artwork we've provided and it's quite easy
to turn a photograph into a silhouette using the same Color Overlay option. You'll need to cut out
the shape of the image from the photograph first, but if you take your own photographs of objects
against a single-color background, then it's child's play to use the Magic Wand Tool to highlight
and delete the background. Figure 10-22 shows a children's toy turned into a spooky-looking
church by applying this technique. Just think how easy it is to realize your craziest ideas with all
the images of the internet at your disposal.