The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
3/18/2013
Posts:
238
Minecraft:
27thColt
Member Details
Resource packs come in so many shapes and sizes. They have different resolutions from 4x to 512x. They have different styles from simplistic to realistic. They have many different color schemes, themes, and they are DAMN BEAUTIFUL. And we all appreciate their work at the end of the day once we see those pixels on our blocks.
But do we really?
If you haven't noticed already, doing anything while being committed and making it an art form is really hard. I'm serious. You could be jumping for all I care. That would be easy. But it takes a strong spirit and practice to be committed and making it look good, like in parkour. This goes with every work. Even Minecraft. That is something that most beginning Minecrafters don't realise. They think that they can be famous once they have their own resource pack... or map, or youtube video, or mod, or server. But in reality, it takes heck of a long time.
In resource packs, we see these beginning Minecrafters in the form of simplistic resource packs. But not the good ones. There is a difference. They just do a bunch of bucket fills with some colors that took from the default textures. They put some borders and such. That's it. Then they go on PMC or MCF and they say "I'm new so don't criticize me". But by making it public, you are opening up to people who will love it, and also haters. You can't please anybody. And by making a pack like that and posting it, all you can do is just hate on it. Why? They never really did any effort. It probably took a long time, but everybody knows that quality beats quantity.
So what does a real Texture Artist do? What is the amount of effort it takes to make at least one? The most obvious thing we can measure it by is by the amount of files to texture.
Let's start with the basics. Most people go for the blocks section only. It is the easiest and it is the thing you will see the most in Minecraft. So how many files are there to texture? Well there are 373 textures as of 1.8 (Official Release). Don't forget that 4 of them are the water and lava flowing and still animations. So for most people (who are working in the 16x resolution), that is 16 pixels that have to put with different shades for every color and to make it pretty.
Okay, so what about Blocks + Items? More detailed packs have these two elements. Well you have 373 block textures and 227 item textures. That makes an exact 600 textures. Not to mention the compass and clock are also animated files (and need some reworking to be done).
Okay how many files does a complete resource pack need? When I mean by complete, I mean Blocks + Items + Entities (Except Banner and some other small files) + GUI + Map + Paintings + Enviroment (Except End Sky) + Particles (Except Hieroglyphics). These come up to a whopping 825 textures! Of course not all will be textured, but any logical or reasonable person might come up to a maximum of that number.
However, there IS more. Many people use MCPatcher or Optifine. Which means random textures, connected textures, custom biomes, skies, lighting. People have recently used the models from 1.8. The amount of model textures (max) in there are 1469 (But of course nobody in their right mind would do all... would they?). Not to mention you could have animated textures. There are also packs with mod support. Which means an entirely new set of blocks, items, mobs, particles, etc.
In summation: Making a Resource Pack is a HUGE project that should not be taken on lightly.
Sorry to say, but you're preaching to the choir on this one, and most of the people who should be reading and thinking about this either won't read it or won't believe it if they do.
Also... you should probably have talked about the amount of time necessary to make a good texture. For a 16x texture I can spend 20 minutes to an hour easily. But again, that depends on the style. I spend less time on the 32x textures for Fall of Autumn (which is a relatively simple style) than I do the 16x textures for Sanity (which is very realistic... for a 16x pack).
That's just one example, of course, but the time element really hammers home the dedication necessary to make something good in this hobby.
I have to agree with Alvoria. The section of the forums may be right, but it's not likely to be one visited by most of the people you seem to be targeting. So mostly your audience will be people who grievously understand what you're trying to say.
Although I have not shown any of my work as of yet (aside from to friends), I am working on my own texture pack, and I can tell you what he said is quite right. Time is a big thing. I didn't realize how much time had flown either, until I noticed I went through an entire 5-hour compilation of music. Some textures (stone in particular for me) require you to redo them a dozen times just to feel that they're right, and then others you get "lucky" and you get what you want from the texture on the first try.
As someone who works on several other forms of art, including 3D work, I can tell you that people don't always pay attention to the detail and work you put in, they tend to take it for granted, give a passing glance, but rarely a close inspection. Those are the people you tend to find throwing "bucket-fills" onto the forums as well, I think, and they don't recognize other work, so they'll think they can get by with very little. Just so turns out that Minecraft is a very simplistic style by default, so people think there's no effort needed, so therefore no effort (aside from tedium) is given.
The worst sin anyone can do, of course, is to demand that you not criticize them. See it too often, just on the grounds that they are new. I am new to making texture packs, I expect criticism when I release mine, and I also have hopes I woo some folks. Most artists want people to like their art, after all, but you have to be open to improvement.
I've had a project for probably close to a year now. I have 25 different blocks textures, some of which I still need to redo. Overall it adds up to 63 textures with random CTM. Though, I'm not counting a full CTM block in this. That's 46 tiles alone. Then there's 16 textures I've redone or discarded that I'm also not counting. About 125 textures total if my math is correct, and I've only gotten the very basics done.
Though, I'm really slow with getting projects done.
But do we really?
If you haven't noticed already, doing anything while being committed and making it an art form is really hard. I'm serious. You could be jumping for all I care. That would be easy. But it takes a strong spirit and practice to be committed and making it look good, like in parkour. This goes with every work. Even Minecraft. That is something that most beginning Minecrafters don't realise. They think that they can be famous once they have their own resource pack... or map, or youtube video, or mod, or server. But in reality, it takes heck of a long time.
In resource packs, we see these beginning Minecrafters in the form of simplistic resource packs. But not the good ones. There is a difference. They just do a bunch of bucket fills with some colors that took from the default textures. They put some borders and such. That's it. Then they go on PMC or MCF and they say "I'm new so don't criticize me". But by making it public, you are opening up to people who will love it, and also haters. You can't please anybody. And by making a pack like that and posting it, all you can do is just hate on it. Why? They never really did any effort. It probably took a long time, but everybody knows that quality beats quantity.
So what does a real Texture Artist do? What is the amount of effort it takes to make at least one? The most obvious thing we can measure it by is by the amount of files to texture.
Let's start with the basics. Most people go for the blocks section only. It is the easiest and it is the thing you will see the most in Minecraft. So how many files are there to texture? Well there are 373 textures as of 1.8 (Official Release). Don't forget that 4 of them are the water and lava flowing and still animations. So for most people (who are working in the 16x resolution), that is 16 pixels that have to put with different shades for every color and to make it pretty.
Okay, so what about Blocks + Items? More detailed packs have these two elements. Well you have 373 block textures and 227 item textures. That makes an exact 600 textures. Not to mention the compass and clock are also animated files (and need some reworking to be done).
Okay how many files does a complete resource pack need? When I mean by complete, I mean Blocks + Items + Entities (Except Banner and some other small files) + GUI + Map + Paintings + Enviroment (Except End Sky) + Particles (Except Hieroglyphics). These come up to a whopping 825 textures! Of course not all will be textured, but any logical or reasonable person might come up to a maximum of that number.
However, there IS more. Many people use MCPatcher or Optifine. Which means random textures, connected textures, custom biomes, skies, lighting. People have recently used the models from 1.8. The amount of model textures (max) in there are 1469 (But of course nobody in their right mind would do all... would they?). Not to mention you could have animated textures. There are also packs with mod support. Which means an entirely new set of blocks, items, mobs, particles, etc.
So yeah, that is all I wanted to say.
Games:
[2012] Floater [HTML5 Javascript Game]: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/2619031-html5-gamefloater-a-game-about-scuba-diving/
But that's beside the point. My point is... what is this post trying to tell me? I don't mean to be rude, but I feel like I'm missing something.
As it stands, my pack has in the ballpark of ~1200 uniquely modified files. (Models included).
Cast aside your festive doylaks: dragon stuff is about to happen.
Multiplayer is lonely once you understand how it actually works.
Alpha 1.0.4
Sorry to say, but you're preaching to the choir on this one, and most of the people who should be reading and thinking about this either won't read it or won't believe it if they do.
Also... you should probably have talked about the amount of time necessary to make a good texture. For a 16x texture I can spend 20 minutes to an hour easily. But again, that depends on the style. I spend less time on the 32x textures for Fall of Autumn (which is a relatively simple style) than I do the 16x textures for Sanity (which is very realistic... for a 16x pack).
That's just one example, of course, but the time element really hammers home the dedication necessary to make something good in this hobby.
Although I have not shown any of my work as of yet (aside from to friends), I am working on my own texture pack, and I can tell you what he said is quite right. Time is a big thing. I didn't realize how much time had flown either, until I noticed I went through an entire 5-hour compilation of music. Some textures (stone in particular for me) require you to redo them a dozen times just to feel that they're right, and then others you get "lucky" and you get what you want from the texture on the first try.
As someone who works on several other forms of art, including 3D work, I can tell you that people don't always pay attention to the detail and work you put in, they tend to take it for granted, give a passing glance, but rarely a close inspection. Those are the people you tend to find throwing "bucket-fills" onto the forums as well, I think, and they don't recognize other work, so they'll think they can get by with very little. Just so turns out that Minecraft is a very simplistic style by default, so people think there's no effort needed, so therefore no effort (aside from tedium) is given.
The worst sin anyone can do, of course, is to demand that you not criticize them. See it too often, just on the grounds that they are new. I am new to making texture packs, I expect criticism when I release mine, and I also have hopes I woo some folks. Most artists want people to like their art, after all, but you have to be open to improvement.
i've spent like 6 months making like 40 textures.
gg.
Though, I'm really slow with getting projects done.