I'm aiming to work on a new campaign with another member. Since I haven't had much luck in actual level design, I've been offering my writing services and wanted to do some concept art to go along with the project. I know it's possible to create short animations with JCS material, including tiles and text (most people just use a black screen, but I've seen EvilMike do something quite creative with the Battleships tiles).

Does anyone know if it is possible to use still artwork when programming levels, like we saw at the end of each episode of the original Jazz Jackrabbit?

It's certainly possible. All it requires is an image to be put into the tileset. Images can be transitioned between, using a system of warps.

Black screens are easier, for obvious reasons (I tend to use them more often than not).

You have, yes, but I've also seen what you've been able to do with other tilesets in the past, too. Your Deserto saga (I'm sorry; I forgot which particular set it was, but I think it was the third installment of that storyline) did a gorgeous job with one of the old Jazz 1 tilesets, making it look like a ship entered the base. I was personally aiming to do the introductions for the collaboration in a comic-book style, going from panel to panel.

Would you know if there is any particular preliminary image format that works best for the tileset? For example, is a .bmp or .png more JCS-friendly than, say, a .tif or .jpeg?

For the entire tileset, JCS only takes .bmp, .pcx, .lbm, and .anm files... I recommend .pcx because it's smaller than .bmp and yet something you can actually find programs that will save images as. It's up to you what sorts of files the parts of the tileset come from, but you don't want too many .jpg files as they use lots and lots of colors and you obviously have to observe JJ2 color limits.

Another reason not to use JPG (not even for intermediate storage) is that it is a lossy compression algorithm that produces artifacts, destroying your original image:

I know I've never dabbled in .pcx before, but .png and .bmp are pretty familiar. Thank you both for the suggestions. I'll be more than sure to avoid .jpeg in this instance.

yeah, what prog do you use?
I recommend Gimp, because it's (fairly) easy and fun to mess around with.

Originally Posted by PT32

yeah, what prog do you use?
I recommend Gimp, because it's (fairly) easy and fun to mess around with.

I agree, and use Gimp myself for the majority of tileset work. (Gimp can be downloaded for free online somewhere. Google it)

Also, for creating images based off standard Jazz sprites, you should look into NeoBeo's sprite dynamite (Downloadable from J2O.)

Is the still image you see at the end of an episode that you are refering to the picture for the next episode that you see when choosing an episode? If you want to make these, there are also a couple of .j2e creators you can download from J2O to create these.

Originally Posted by Troglobite

Is the still image you see at the end of an episode that you are refering to the picture for the next episode that you see when choosing an episode? If you want to make these, there are also a couple of .j2e creators you can download from J2O to create these.

No, the first post specifically makes reference to the end-of-episode screens (or animations) in JJ1.

GIMP rux with the grid system as well. Just make sure you use Tilesetpal to adjust the colors before you compile it in JCS.

Just to be helpful, here's a link to Sprite Dyanmite

To make the fade effect like in the jj1 scenes, just use the Set Light event, and then use Text events for the lettering.