This little manual may help those who don't know anything about texturing in Minecraft, but surely does want to know. When i studied it myself, i found that sometimes some problems appear to be not obvious in fixing. Here - i am going to tell how i create a TexturePack for minecraft.
In this tutorial I DO NOT TEACH HOW TO DRAW! I just explain how textures should de combined in the texture pack. And give advices "How To".
Дорогие российские/украинские/говорящие по-русски пользователи! Если вы плохо знаете английский - обратитесь в ЛС ко мне и я сделаю русский перевод моего туториала.
(Translation: "Dear Russian/Ukrainian/Russian-speaking users! If you don't know english - PM me and i will translate it")
Part 1: Getting Started
So, for creating a texture pack you have to have 4 things: 1) Paint.Net or Photoshop.
The first one is free and pretty easy to use. The second is not free and is not so easy to understand it from zero. I advice to use Paint.Net. It is just fine. 2) MCSkinEdit or some tool to redact skins
I chose McSkinEdit because it was the first one i googled AND managed to understand how it works. 3) Minecraft.
It should be patched. 4) A good head to remember everything.
So, you downloaded everything. The first thing you do is extracting ALL contents of Minecraft.jar to an empty folder. Or - if you think you know where anything is located - just folders you need. Than delete all .class files. You won't need them.
Now, take some time browsing those folders. If you played minecraft - you will get what those pictures do.
And now - for work!
Launch Paint.Net. In there there are some important things.
1) Layers.
Be sure to add an empty layer above the original image. There you should draw everything. It is much more comfortable to draw in a layer above the image than drawing IN the original image. But still Paint.Net has the ability to undo practically everything.
2) Resizing.
There you can enlarge the whole image.
Now take a look at that:
As a first value for Length/Width it places original image resolution. 256*256 is the size of Terrain.png - texture, where all blocks are placed. Original block texture size is 16*16.
Now. If you want to make a [32*32] you should resize terrain.png to 512*512. Be sure that the new resolution remains square, AND that it's side can be divided by 16. So - 512*512 is okay, but if you do 513*513, you can get an extremely ugly scene in minecraft because engine would not be able to "cut" textures correctly.
While resizing you should also be sure to have a tick "Maintain aspect ratio". It would allow you not to fill "Width" if you have already selected "Length".
3) Zooming.
Be sure to zoom in. You must be sure that you are drawing the same part of texture that you think you are drawing. Just an advice.
Part 2: Terrain and Blocks
Well, practically all textures from Terrain.png are layed on the cubes. Exept...
1) Torches
They are layed in a small parallelepiped that is formed from 4 planes angled 90 degrees to each other. So, the texture is layed on them, even if it is bigger than the side of parallelepiped (what an ugly word). Picture shows how it looks if you didn't understand what i said.
2) Sapling, Mushroom and Flower
Sapling is formed from 2 planes that are form a cross. Like on the picture. The rest is up to you.
3) Redstone, Rails and Ladder
Just a plane lying on the block's side. Nothing special in there.
4) Fire
There are 6 planes, and i don't know how to explain their sittuation. Just look at the picture.
4.1) Fire
The fire that "burns" eyes of player. It uses the same texture that the fire "block" uses, so don't bother your mind with that.
5) Water and lava
Those pictures (5 for each liquid) are the animation frames, that animate idle and moving lava or water.
IMPORTANT!If your custom (or not custom) Lava, Water and Fire doesn't work, than you have to patch minecraft.jar with HDPatcher!
And, that's all for blocks.
Part 3: Items
For some reason, items.png (the texture that represents items) is sittuated in \GUI (Graphic User Interface) folder.
Everything there must be obvious exept for some things.
1) Fishing rod
It has 2 states - the one that is not fishing (you have your bait in your pocket) and the one that is fishing (with the bait in the water waiting for fish). The "fishing" state is in the 6th column and 6th row, and the "idle" state is in the 6th column and 5th row. Just notice.
2) Bow
Similar to fishing rod, but have 3 states - "Idle", "Pulling string" and "Ready to launch. Their coordinates are:
Idle - (6;7)
Pulling - (6;8)
Ready - (6;9)
Where (Cols;Rows).
3) Antialising
Normally, it makes your picture look better, but...
DO NOT ADD IT! If you do, you may cause SEVERE ugliness like floating planes without connection for the model. The same goes for such blocks like torches and saplings that are rendered (in human's hands) not like a block but like a "flat" item.
That happens when your brush (with antialising turned on) goes near transparent areas. It draws semitransparent pixels around your mouse, that sometimes cannot correctly be transformed into an item model.
To turn it off - look at the picture.
And you now can change items.
Part 4: GUI
Now, there is some step-by-step tutorial that you might have expected. This is the way i do it, and for me it is the best.
First of all, start with opening (and resizing, if you like) some of the GUI textures. In this tutorial, I used the crafting table. Lets open it.
I have made 3 layers. One is for original picture (the bottom layer), one is for background for the window (middle layer) and one for the slots (the top layer).
First of all, lets fill the top layer. Just select on the bottom layer the slots, copy them. go to the top layer and paste. And place the pasted part of the image to a place where it should be.
Now, if you have some gray parts of the original texture that you don't want to have, choose the "Magic wand". It should have 0 tolerance (Shame to be co intolerant!) and contiguous selection mode. This selection mode means that if the area you selected is surrounded by some other color - it will stop searching. In global it will select everything it finds.
Now, when you selected everything you don't need - delete it. If you hide all lower layers, you will see this -
Now draw the middle layer. Like you like. Just remember - it must be the same size as the original window - everything off borders will not be shown.
It might help you if you make the middle layer transparent in half. To do that - do like in the picture.
Now, when you drew everything - make every layer visible. Ugly picture.
So, you may either redraw slots (would not teach you how to do that), or recolor them.
Choose the body color of slots as your secondary color with a Color Picker (right-click on the needed pixel), and the main color from the palette (pressing "Bigger" button may help you).
Now choose the Recolor tool and just use it against slots. Every pixel colored in your "Secondary color" will be recolored to your "Primary color".
But we still have an ugly picture.
Unless we add some transparancy to the slot layer...
Now look at that! THAT is a pretty nice crafting window we have here!
Finally - when you are done - merge all layers with that button.
Now save it in PNG and set it to autodetection - and you are done!
And your GUI is ready for action!
Part 4: Mobs
The hardest part? You think?
And i say - no!
First of all - you have to draw everythin with your own hands. Do not be afraid - i AM an awfull artist, but my skins are great (IMHO, of course).
1) Man (or woman) Living Being with 2 legs
So, i am using a MCSkinEdit. It is great for 3 reasons - It was the first i googled, It was the first i understood, It shows you the skin on a man immediately.
And again - no tutorials. Just hints.
1) While drawing - if you are doing it in Paint.net - save often and reload it inprogram immediately. It is not so long and gives you immediate point of what to fix and what to leave.
2) If you are drawing your skin "from zero", and it is not a game char - i can not help you. If you are drawing a videogame (or real person) monster - try to use the same color. Like - when i was drawing Caleb - i used colors for his skin for minecraft that were used in game sprites. You can compare
2) Monsters
On the screen showing MCSkinEdit, you can notice a special map saying what part of texture is sittuated. Well - you can create the same for yourself. It is very easy and handy - with that you will be drawing your monsters MUCH quicker!
Here are all that i have done for myself, because those creatures appeared to be harder to unwrap than i thought. Proportions are saved.
Enderman
Citizen
Creeper
And now - how to do it for yourself?
Most parts are obviously unwrapped - you just have to get the idea.
The picture can explain most things.
Once again - when making your "Help Map" (As i am calling it), keep an eye on the screenshot of the monster you are unwrapping. That is very helpful - let me explain why.
You see - creeper is like ALWAYS in his green camouflage. And you can not understand where is his front part of the body and where is his back. But try to notice the similar parts in unwrapped texture and in texture on the model.
See? Easy enough to do it yourself!
Part 5: Logo
The final part of our tutorial is placing the logo. And again - just the main idea.
See? In the same proportion you will have to divide and place your logo. Easy.
Part 6: Final
Well... Thanks a lot for reading. I don't think i have written something REAL new, but that will help those who have never made a texture pack.
Do not worry if you do not have mad painting skills. You still can make a texturepack from some old game textures (Like my BloodCraft ). Just ask the moderators if you have the right to post it - you still do not own any of those textures!
And - yes, check out the BloodCraft - the pack that i am releasing with the help of all hints given here.
If anyone wants a nice, convenient 1.3.1 default texture pack template (16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256 and 512x512), just check out THIS thread!
For beginners
This little manual may help those who don't know anything about texturing in Minecraft, but surely does want to know. When i studied it myself, i found that sometimes some problems appear to be not obvious in fixing. Here - i am going to tell how i create a TexturePack for minecraft.
In this tutorial I DO NOT TEACH HOW TO DRAW! I just explain how textures should de combined in the texture pack. And give advices "How To".
Дорогие российские/украинские/говорящие по-русски пользователи! Если вы плохо знаете английский - обратитесь в ЛС ко мне и я сделаю русский перевод моего туториала.
(Translation: "Dear Russian/Ukrainian/Russian-speaking users! If you don't know english - PM me and i will translate it")
So, for creating a texture pack you have to have 4 things:
1) Paint.Net or Photoshop.
The first one is free and pretty easy to use. The second is not free and is not so easy to understand it from zero. I advice to use Paint.Net. It is just fine.
2) MCSkinEdit or some tool to redact skins
I chose McSkinEdit because it was the first one i googled AND managed to understand how it works.
3) Minecraft.
It should be patched.
4) A good head to remember everything.
So, you downloaded everything. The first thing you do is extracting ALL contents of Minecraft.jar to an empty folder. Or - if you think you know where anything is located - just folders you need. Than delete all .class files. You won't need them.
Now, take some time browsing those folders. If you played minecraft - you will get what those pictures do.
And now - for work!
Launch Paint.Net. In there there are some important things.
1) Layers.
Be sure to add an empty layer above the original image. There you should draw everything. It is much more comfortable to draw in a layer above the image than drawing IN the original image. But still Paint.Net has the ability to undo practically everything.
2) Resizing.
There you can enlarge the whole image.
Now take a look at that:
As a first value for Length/Width it places original image resolution. 256*256 is the size of Terrain.png - texture, where all blocks are placed. Original block texture size is 16*16.
Now. If you want to make a [32*32] you should resize terrain.png to 512*512. Be sure that the new resolution remains square, AND that it's side can be divided by 16. So - 512*512 is okay, but if you do 513*513, you can get an extremely ugly scene in minecraft because engine would not be able to "cut" textures correctly.
While resizing you should also be sure to have a tick "Maintain aspect ratio". It would allow you not to fill "Width" if you have already selected "Length".
3) Zooming.
Be sure to zoom in. You must be sure that you are drawing the same part of texture that you think you are drawing. Just an advice.
Well, practically all textures from Terrain.png are layed on the cubes. Exept...
1) Torches
They are layed in a small parallelepiped that is formed from 4 planes angled 90 degrees to each other. So, the texture is layed on them, even if it is bigger than the side of parallelepiped (what an ugly word). Picture shows how it looks if you didn't understand what i said.
2) Sapling, Mushroom and Flower
Sapling is formed from 2 planes that are form a cross. Like on the picture. The rest is up to you.
3) Redstone, Rails and Ladder
Just a plane lying on the block's side. Nothing special in there.
4) Fire
There are 6 planes, and i don't know how to explain their sittuation. Just look at the picture.
4.1) Fire
The fire that "burns" eyes of player. It uses the same texture that the fire "block" uses, so don't bother your mind with that.
5) Water and lava
Those pictures (5 for each liquid) are the animation frames, that animate idle and moving lava or water.
IMPORTANT! If your custom (or not custom) Lava, Water and Fire doesn't work, than you have to patch minecraft.jar with HDPatcher!
And, that's all for blocks.
For some reason, items.png (the texture that represents items) is sittuated in \GUI (Graphic User Interface) folder.
Everything there must be obvious exept for some things.
1) Fishing rod
It has 2 states - the one that is not fishing (you have your bait in your pocket) and the one that is fishing (with the bait in the water waiting for fish). The "fishing" state is in the 6th column and 6th row, and the "idle" state is in the 6th column and 5th row. Just notice.
2) Bow
Similar to fishing rod, but have 3 states - "Idle", "Pulling string" and "Ready to launch. Their coordinates are:
Idle - (6;7)
Pulling - (6;8)
Ready - (6;9)
Where (Cols;Rows).
3) Antialising
Normally, it makes your picture look better, but...
DO NOT ADD IT! If you do, you may cause SEVERE ugliness like floating planes without connection for the model. The same goes for such blocks like torches and saplings that are rendered (in human's hands) not like a block but like a "flat" item.
That happens when your brush (with antialising turned on) goes near transparent areas. It draws semitransparent pixels around your mouse, that sometimes cannot correctly be transformed into an item model.
To turn it off - look at the picture.
And you now can change items.
Now, there is some step-by-step tutorial that you might have expected. This is the way i do it, and for me it is the best.
First of all, start with opening (and resizing, if you like) some of the GUI textures. In this tutorial, I used the crafting table. Lets open it.
I have made 3 layers. One is for original picture (the bottom layer), one is for background for the window (middle layer) and one for the slots (the top layer).
First of all, lets fill the top layer. Just select on the bottom layer the slots, copy them. go to the top layer and paste. And place the pasted part of the image to a place where it should be.
Now, if you have some gray parts of the original texture that you don't want to have, choose the "Magic wand". It should have 0 tolerance (Shame to be co intolerant!) and contiguous selection mode. This selection mode means that if the area you selected is surrounded by some other color - it will stop searching. In global it will select everything it finds.
Now, when you selected everything you don't need - delete it. If you hide all lower layers, you will see this -
Now draw the middle layer. Like you like. Just remember - it must be the same size as the original window - everything off borders will not be shown.
It might help you if you make the middle layer transparent in half. To do that - do like in the picture.
Now, when you drew everything - make every layer visible. Ugly picture.
So, you may either redraw slots (would not teach you how to do that), or recolor them.
Choose the body color of slots as your secondary color with a Color Picker (right-click on the needed pixel), and the main color from the palette (pressing "Bigger" button may help you).
Now choose the Recolor tool and just use it against slots. Every pixel colored in your "Secondary color" will be recolored to your "Primary color".
But we still have an ugly picture.
Unless we add some transparancy to the slot layer...
Now look at that! THAT is a pretty nice crafting window we have here!
Finally - when you are done - merge all layers with that button.
Now save it in PNG and set it to autodetection - and you are done!
And your GUI is ready for action!
The hardest part? You think?
And i say - no!
First of all - you have to draw everythin with your own hands. Do not be afraid - i AM an awfull artist, but my skins are great (IMHO, of course).
1)
Man (or woman)Living Being with 2 legsSo, i am using a MCSkinEdit. It is great for 3 reasons - It was the first i googled, It was the first i understood, It shows you the skin on a man immediately.
And again - no tutorials. Just hints.
1) While drawing - if you are doing it in Paint.net - save often and reload it inprogram immediately. It is not so long and gives you immediate point of what to fix and what to leave.
2) If you are drawing your skin "from zero", and it is not a game char - i can not help you. If you are drawing a videogame (or real person) monster - try to use the same color. Like - when i was drawing Caleb - i used colors for his skin for minecraft that were used in game sprites. You can compare
2) Monsters
On the screen showing MCSkinEdit, you can notice a special map saying what part of texture is sittuated. Well - you can create the same for yourself. It is very easy and handy - with that you will be drawing your monsters MUCH quicker!
Here are all that i have done for myself, because those creatures appeared to be harder to unwrap than i thought. Proportions are saved.
Enderman
Citizen
Creeper
And now - how to do it for yourself?
Most parts are obviously unwrapped - you just have to get the idea.
The picture can explain most things.
Once again - when making your "Help Map" (As i am calling it), keep an eye on the screenshot of the monster you are unwrapping. That is very helpful - let me explain why.
You see - creeper is like ALWAYS in his green camouflage. And you can not understand where is his front part of the body and where is his back. But try to notice the similar parts in unwrapped texture and in texture on the model.
See? Easy enough to do it yourself!
The final part of our tutorial is placing the logo. And again - just the main idea.
See? In the same proportion you will have to divide and place your logo. Easy.
Well... Thanks a lot for reading. I don't think i have written something REAL new, but that will help those who have never made a texture pack.
Do not worry if you do not have mad painting skills. You still can make a texturepack from some old game textures (Like my BloodCraft ). Just ask the moderators if you have the right to post it - you still do not own any of those textures!
And - yes, check out the BloodCraft - the pack that i am releasing with the help of all hints given here.
If anyone wants a nice, convenient 1.3.1 default texture pack template (16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256 and 512x512), just check out THIS thread!
1.3.1 HD Default Texture Pack Templates
Thanks for good comments :smile.gif:
www.youtube.com/machineinput
www.youtube.com/machineinput
www.youtube.com/machineinput