• Mugshots translate seven different colors, so you'll want to draw from this palette:
(https://imgur.com/INYCA6H.png)
• Three shades of blue, used for the primary weapon color: 197, 198, 199
• Three shades of cyan, used for the secondary weapon color: 192, 194, 77
• A solid black, used for outlines and other details: 0
• To insert your mugshot, simply crack open hudball-v2a.wad in Slade and replace HBFACE.png with one of your own. I left handy markers inside, if you're having trouble finding it.
• I strongly recommend making the extra black space in your mugshot transparent. This makes charge weapons easier on the eyes.
Anyone who's artistically inclined will know exactly what they're getting into with this. For everyone else, I'll walk you through mugshot adaption here, and give you an idea of things to keep in mind.
Since I'm adapting mugshots of Robot Masters that also have usable skins, I'll be referring to those for guidance, but you absolutely don't have to.
Our four examples are laid out here: Flame Man, Tengu Man, Galaxy Man, and Enker. I'll go over each of them.
(https://i.imgur.com/ydXZqRq.png)
Flame Man has it pretty easy. His headlight, earpieces, and facial covering all use cyan, while the rest of him uses blue.
Since his turban won't be changing colors with him, I left it alone, but you could just as easily give it a blue or cyan tinge, if it strikes your fancy.
(https://i.imgur.com/lYheoUK.png)
Tengu Man is simple in concept: his mask is blue, his neck is cyan. However, his mask has an awful lot of colors. The blue swatch is enough to account for the reds, but not the tan, and so I colored those cyan.
It might look a bit strange in execution, so you could just as easily color it white, or leave it as is, if you prefer.
(https://i.imgur.com/fjONWE7.png)
Galaxy Man is pretty much solid blue, with cyan highlights. His green eyes offer you quite a bit of creative freedom, however.
Since his skin colors them white, I followed suit, but gave them a cyan tinge for a little color variety.
(https://i.imgur.com/SvD3hea.png)
Enker has it the hardest, and he was one of the biggest reasons I decided to add a third shade to each color.
His gold trim is all cyan and covered with white highlights, so I delicately colored those appropriately using the three colors available. Shiny bastard.
His head and eyes, meanwhile, required only one shade of blue.
(https://i.imgur.com/a2sk1Ny.png)
The last step is to trim the excess black background from the mugshot. Technically, this step is optional, but it makes charge weapons much easier on the eyes.
While I was at it, I made sure the black used was no. 0 on the 8BDM palette: this will make absolutely sure it translates properly.
(https://i.imgur.com/e0EjEXE.png)
And we're done! At this point, just plug your mugshot into hudball-v2a.wad as HBFACE.png, and you're good to go.
Technically, there's no wrong way to do this, but if you want some other advice:
• For the best results, try to make sure the base blue and cyan (198 and 192) are the dominant colors. The other colors are mostly there to account for shading and highlights, respectively.
• Try to avoid having large amounts of similar shades mixing together (that is, 197 and 192, or 199 and 77, for example). Things will really start to bleed together with certain weapons.