Here is another good tiling guide. It is pretty much the exact same thing as the other, but it does have words and is a bit different.
Also a tip for gimp is that there is a filter called tile which makes a new image of any size you choose that is the active layer tiled over and over again. And as said before there is also the make seamless filter, but the can make the image blurry.
You should probably include a section on higher resolutions too, like why you need the HD patcher, how bigger textures give you more space to work with, but can take longer to complete, why you shouldn't put google images on an HD texture, etc.
There are various texture packs that come in various sizes ie. 16x16, 32x32, 64x64, and 128x128. Which one is best and why? What is supported by Minecraft. Why do some texture packs need that HD mod? What should someone new focus on? For example I tend to think the 16x16 is a little too restrictive and would like to work in 32 or 64x.
Do you suggest/need a template to get started? copperdomebodha posted a really nice thread with info about a texture Template, do you guys suggest using this? Thread is here viewtopic.php?f=1021&t=60625
Maybe some tips on making texture packs more bright or more dark. I've noticed in some texture packs the game is so dark at night I can't see anything while others seem to be very visible no mater time of day. Transparency under water is like that too depending on the pack.
Adding on:
The various sizes refers to the pixel square count. 16x16 means 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels high. The more pixels you have, the more clear the image will be in game. This is referred to as resolution and definition. 16 and 32 tend to pixelate up close while 64 starts to pixelate less. 128 is a lot less pixelated. The highest recommended resolution is 128. 256 is possible but the higher you go, the more you will lag and crashing becomes more often.
Does one need a template to make textures? Yes and no. Yes because all texture modding starts from the simple concept of altering the original minecraft terrain file. I also say no because once you understand how the textures work, you can start from virtually scratch and make textures. So if one needs templates or not is up to the maker. It takes less than 30 seconds to make a template from scratch if one knows how, but for those who are new, or doesn't want to go through the trouble, would prefer using premade templates.
As for the last one, I can make a tutorial for that discussing adjustment layers and masking.
Artist tips:
Dont use pure white or black, unless you really need to.
Value, Value, Value. Like, work in a grayscale and when you finish the Texture and pattern then work on the Hue.
Contrast. (The difference between a dark color and a lighter color)
Unless it's a theme, No neon-bright-pure colors, always try to work in a natural color pallet.
Research. Look at other's packs, see what you like and dont like. Take from them if you'd want and work with it.
Be original. Make each block unique, in some way, depending on if youre working in a theme or not.
Above all, experiment. Dont settle with the first cobblestone you make. Make another. And another. Maybe that third one you could use for a Brick texture?
Also, Make a world to house a small little "gallery" to show how the blocks tile In game. There is an "Engineers Map" around the mapping and modding section that gives you a nice flat playground, with all the blocks within chests.
why does the sides of the grass change color in game?
I think you mean "not" change colors.
It's because if the biome colors effects the sides of the grass as well, you will have rainbow dirt. There is a mod that allows you to have biome colors on the sides of the grass however.
Wasn't sure if this would be wanted here, as its not free. Not only is it not free, it's a bit on the pricey side for the extreme niche market its aimed at. I picked it up years back when working on a platformer and now if I ever need to push pixels at the low level its my "go to" app on the pc, even over photoshop.
I absolutely love the palette tools, and even owning Photoshop, Painter, Sketchbook, MangaStudio.. and so on. If I'm working low res, or with a restricted color palette, I go to Pro Motion.
Nice selection of video tutorials on the site : http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php?Documentation/Video+Tutorials , used to be a lot more non-app specific tutorials there if I remember correctly. I' sure if you browse the popular spriting forum/communities you'll find a lot of useful info. I'll have to dig through my old bookmarks for some more links later and post them.
ok guys i started making a texture pack using this guide and it looks good i used the templates, But how do i make custom water??
it's in the terrain file as well Consists of 5 same sized squares of roughly the same water texture.
Like this:
(gray has no value)
If you want to make the custom still and flowing...you might have to search around a bit. I'm still working on that myself
:tongue.gif:
You can play around with it and make it almost invisible. I once put a creeper face in it to see the motion of water. Yeah was like watching an old TV that couldn't keep the vertical hold
:biggrin.gif:
My tip for the day is spend your first days being silly and trying things. As long as you stay inside the "lines" of the texture box, you can put anything there you want. (16x and 32x will blur most large pics to garbage though... lol)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
Can flowing water be compared to a stop-motion film?? 5 images who played in sequence??
=> =>
................\/
....... <=
Not at all.
Apparently what Notch does for the water is a bit more complicated.
First of all these five textures are identical in the original texture. Stepping through them would produce no animation at all. Notch samples the texture, rotates it 45 degrees, pastes it into the second tile, repeat this for each of the four stacked tiles. Now a sample of this 4x4 are is taken and mapped onto the water shape.
The animation of the water is done in code. This part I understand even less so I won't butcher it in an attempt to explain in more detail.
This allows for the texture to properly tile to other flowing or still blocks. I could put up a clip explaining it, but the short answer is no, this is not a 5 frame animation.
Where can I get the 32x32 starter textures. Also, does it have a large impact on development time? I'm new to this but I'm trying to develop a texture pack for UTD.
Where can I get the 32x32 starter textures. Also, does it have a large impact on development time? I'm new to this but I'm trying to develop a texture pack for UTD.
Just download a 32x pack and try to mimic it. Resolution sizes does affect how long it takes to finish and varies depending on the person's work flow. For example 128x pack and beyond take quite some time because when you get to that size, little details count because it is noticeable. Then again it varies by how much effort you plan to put in it. For example, my pack (Nyxcraft) is 32x but takes about 20 mins to make a texture because I try to focus on the little things to make each texture better. Hope that helps.
WOW...it's funny to see this creep (no pun intended) up again after (what seems) so long. I learned much more since this post started than I added. Would like to see this post go further...and NO, there isn't one like this that's readily visible.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
Artist tips:
Dont use pure white or black, unless you really need to.
Value, Value, Value. Like, work in a grayscale and when you finish the Texture and pattern then work on the Hue.
Contrast. (The difference between a dark color and a lighter color)
Unless it's a theme, No neon-bright-pure colors, always try to work in a natural color pallet.
Research. Look at other's packs, see what you like and dont like. Take from them if you'd want and work with it.
Be original. Make each block unique, in some way, depending on if youre working in a theme or not.
Above all, experiment. Dont settle with the first cobblestone you make. Make another. And another. Maybe that third one you could use for a Brick texture?
Also, Make a world to house a small little "gallery" to show how the blocks tile In game. There is an "Engineers Map" around the mapping and modding section that gives you a nice flat playground, with all the blocks within chests.
So much I agree with here...and yet disagree with.
Above all...you are the creator. Don't let others tell you what "this texture" should look like.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
Also a tip for gimp is that there is a filter called tile which makes a new image of any size you choose that is the active layer tiled over and over again. And as said before there is also the make seamless filter, but the can make the image blurry.
You should probably include a section on higher resolutions too, like why you need the HD patcher, how bigger textures give you more space to work with, but can take longer to complete, why you shouldn't put google images on an HD texture, etc.
Adding on:
The various sizes refers to the pixel square count. 16x16 means 16 pixels wide by 16 pixels high. The more pixels you have, the more clear the image will be in game. This is referred to as resolution and definition. 16 and 32 tend to pixelate up close while 64 starts to pixelate less. 128 is a lot less pixelated. The highest recommended resolution is 128. 256 is possible but the higher you go, the more you will lag and crashing becomes more often.
Does one need a template to make textures? Yes and no. Yes because all texture modding starts from the simple concept of altering the original minecraft terrain file. I also say no because once you understand how the textures work, you can start from virtually scratch and make textures. So if one needs templates or not is up to the maker. It takes less than 30 seconds to make a template from scratch if one knows how, but for those who are new, or doesn't want to go through the trouble, would prefer using premade templates.
As for the last one, I can make a tutorial for that discussing adjustment layers and masking.
Dont use pure white or black, unless you really need to.
Value, Value, Value. Like, work in a grayscale and when you finish the Texture and pattern then work on the Hue.
Contrast. (The difference between a dark color and a lighter color)
Unless it's a theme, No neon-bright-pure colors, always try to work in a natural color pallet.
Research. Look at other's packs, see what you like and dont like. Take from them if you'd want and work with it.
Be original. Make each block unique, in some way, depending on if youre working in a theme or not.
Above all, experiment. Dont settle with the first cobblestone you make. Make another. And another. Maybe that third one you could use for a Brick texture?
Also, Make a world to house a small little "gallery" to show how the blocks tile In game. There is an "Engineers Map" around the mapping and modding section that gives you a nice flat playground, with all the blocks within chests.
Also added an HD texures section
I think you mean "not" change colors.
It's because if the biome colors effects the sides of the grass as well, you will have rainbow dirt. There is a mod that allows you to have biome colors on the sides of the grass however.
Cosmigo Pro Motion : http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php
I absolutely love the palette tools, and even owning Photoshop, Painter, Sketchbook, MangaStudio.. and so on. If I'm working low res, or with a restricted color palette, I go to Pro Motion.
Nice selection of video tutorials on the site : http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php?Documentation/Video+Tutorials , used to be a lot more non-app specific tutorials there if I remember correctly. I' sure if you browse the popular spriting forum/communities you'll find a lot of useful info. I'll have to dig through my old bookmarks for some more links later and post them.
it's in the terrain file as well Consists of 5 same sized squares of roughly the same water texture.
Like this:
(gray has no value)
If you want to make the custom still and flowing...you might have to search around a bit. I'm still working on that myself
:tongue.gif:
You can play around with it and make it almost invisible. I once put a creeper face in it to see the motion of water. Yeah was like watching an old TV that couldn't keep the vertical hold
:biggrin.gif:
My tip for the day is spend your first days being silly and trying things. As long as you stay inside the "lines" of the texture box, you can put anything there you want. (16x and 32x will blur most large pics to garbage though... lol)
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
Not at all.
Apparently what Notch does for the water is a bit more complicated.
First of all these five textures are identical in the original texture. Stepping through them would produce no animation at all. Notch samples the texture, rotates it 45 degrees, pastes it into the second tile, repeat this for each of the four stacked tiles. Now a sample of this 4x4 are is taken and mapped onto the water shape.
The animation of the water is done in code. This part I understand even less so I won't butcher it in an attempt to explain in more detail.
This allows for the texture to properly tile to other flowing or still blocks. I could put up a clip explaining it, but the short answer is no, this is not a 5 frame animation.
YOU HAVE BEEN A NAUGHTY BOY ONLY COAL FOR YOU THIS YEAR
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
/lameness
Edit: Great art tips, I will make a new texture with these tips under my metaphorical belt (or I'll just improve my original pack).
Just download a 32x pack and try to mimic it. Resolution sizes does affect how long it takes to finish and varies depending on the person's work flow. For example 128x pack and beyond take quite some time because when you get to that size, little details count because it is noticeable. Then again it varies by how much effort you plan to put in it. For example, my pack (Nyxcraft) is 32x but takes about 20 mins to make a texture because I try to focus on the little things to make each texture better. Hope that helps.
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
So much I agree with here...and yet disagree with.
Above all...you are the creator. Don't let others tell you what "this texture" should look like.
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to...."
Anyways, i have learned alot too, im gonna make a making of a texture pack series!