TimpsShot V3

TimpsShot was a lot of fun to build, originally built for just one person, a friend. In fact, all of my tools have started their life with a single user in mind. That aspect of HCD (Human Centred Design) is really important for me. Putting in the things people want, meeting their specific needs.

For this latest version I wanted to solve some things in the tool that bugged me, and I know annoyed others. First and foremost was the filenaming. Originally I just went with a string and some random numbers, mostly because it was fast and easy. It got the job done. But a user contacted me and wanted to use TimpsShot to generate 700 icons for an RPG, so something needed to change.

The new system built for file naming uses the object name by default. Then you can optionally add in a prefix, suffix, the icon size and the random numbers if you want/need them for any reason.

I've completely rebuilt the logic for taking an icon, and it supports custom sizes now (original TimpsShot was locked to 512x512). So now you can enter any dimension and it will make a square icon. I've done tests anywhere from 16x16 up to 8k and it works like a charm. There is a noticable lag when spitting out an 8k icon, which is to be expected.

The object management has been rebuilt allowing you finer control of things like the position, rotation and scale. I've rearranged and changed these sliders a lot, so now they feel comfortable and logical to use. And easy to navigate.

The last big feature is the addition of a silhouette mode. This switches to a second camera rendering with a custom shader, without lighting information. It creates a clean white silhouette of the object, ready to use as an icon in it's own right, or as a mask etc for some kind of effect.

This update has been a long time coming, and represents a complete rebuild of every aspect of TimpsShot.

The tool remains free, and there's an optional donation (or join my Patreon) if you'd like to say thanks. :)

- Timps