I just did a little experiment by biome coloring the dirt using MCPatcher. Although it is possible to color normal dirt, you wouldn't want to as it's not possible to color the sides of grass dirt! If I'd really thought about it beforehand, having just done the snow grass dirt, the side has white snow on it, which is not an overlay like normal grass sides. Therefore it would either be a case of funny looking snow that wouldn't match the top snow or the side dirt not matching the rest of the biome colored dirt stacked up beneath.
Oh well, at least biome coloring the dirt is out of the question, so I can now concentrate on trying to balance things like sand and podzol a little better with the dirt and tweak the dirt color for a happy compromise.
I haven't dropped by to drop my two cents into the well in a while, and i must say that I am blown away in utter astonishment at the beauty you've brought to the dirt, of all things. Fantastic work as always Glimmar. Words simply cannot express my amazement at what your pack has become.
I haven't dropped by to drop my two cents into the well in a while, and i must say that I am blown away in utter astonishment at the beauty you've brought to the dirt, of all things. Fantastic work as always Glimmar. Words simply cannot express my amazement at what your pack has become.
Beautiful fresh clean crisp snow, you landed that perfect Glim, can,t add much more than what asikar said mate, think that statement sums up pretty much what the Glimmar fans think , now more screenshots please
Thank you, guys. Much appreciate the support...as always...just hope it lives up to expectations.
Well back from the heights of texturing snow and dirt I crashed down to the lows of podzol editing. Spent a good 3 hours last night editing the stuff and thinking I was on to a winner, but in game it was a disaster. It looked fine with the dirt, meaning it was a great transition from one to the other, but alongside grass it was just incredibly stark. So I spent another hour adding blades of grass to 64 individual repeat podzol textures and just made matters worse!
So it's back to the drawing board again today, that is when I've got a bit of free time. I probably need to darken the dirt to make it work with grass, but if I do that the relationship between stone and gravel will be broken.
Time for me to go into contemplation mode and just stare at the podzol for an hour or two - sometimes inspiration has been known to strike me...well, here's hoping!
Hey Glim, I think there's a problem with your latest version. I downloaded it last night, but it seems like your packed ice doesn't show up. (Yes, I do have all the fancy CTM bells and whistles turned on). Thought you should know-- default packed ice really ruins the atmosphere of ice-spike biomes.
Hey Glim, I think there's a problem with your latest version. I downloaded it last night, but it seems like your packed ice doesn't show up. (Yes, I do have all the fancy CTM bells and whistles turned on). Thought you should know-- default packed ice really ruins the atmosphere of ice-spike biomes.
It's working fine for me, Steel...on all my profiles using MC 1.7.4 and all the following 1.8 snapshots. Also works fine on 1.7.5. Here's a screenshot I just made as proof:
Not sure what the problem is at your end, as it's the first time anyone has mentioned the pack ice as not showing up. The texture is just a straightforward 8x8 64x repeat ctm texture.
It's working fine for me, Steel...on all my profiles using MC 1.7.4 and all the following 1.8 snapshots. Also works fine on 1.7.5. Here's a screenshot I just made as proof:
Not sure what the problem is at your end, as it's the first time anyone has mentioned the pack ice as not showing up. The texture is just a straightforward 8x8 64x repeat ctm texture.
Nice to see you around again...hope all is well.
Huh, that is odd. I'll have to try again after I get off work.
Huh, that is odd. I'll have to try again after I get off work.
I hope you can get it working, as it's one of my favorite textures.
Don't know if it's a memory thing, temporary aberration or what. MCPatcher for 1.7.5 has missing grass edges for me, so mayhap it's something like that for you.
I hope you're able to work on Dragon Dance again, if you're not already, that was one of my favorite packs for sure.
Kind of sorted the podzol problem! Herewith, pics of the new re-edited podzol influenced by the new dirt.
64 repeat textures for the top needed re-working and then re-working some more and then 16 re-edited random side textures were added this evening. I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out, as running around in mega taiga biomes discovering awesome features is a nice pasttime which I didn't want to spoil! I suppose a real crazy person would also add some extra random features to the podzol...well as it happens, I'm not that crazy yet! However, it remains a possibility.
Anyway, without further ado, here are the pics:
Click the spoiler for more pics:
I now have a hankering to make some new ore textures to finish up on the stone (not forgetting that stone also could do with some random features), while I gather up the resolve to tackle a new sand texture that might work a little better with the dirt and gravel. What an avalanche of textures has been created by fiddling about with stone...just plain ridiculous if you ask me!
The thing is, I'm kind of racing the clock slightly, because I've a new project starting soon that might mean I don't have as much disposable leisure time for a little while, so I'm trying to get as much crammed in as I can...in my usual slow lumbering fashion.
Well I hope you like the new podzol, hopefully I haven't spoiled it too much over the old.
Your going the extra mile Glim, your skill and craft is appreciated mate, the photo's look awesome
It's been a 4 year long mile so far, BullJaw...I really must be crazy!
The thing is, I like building stuff, I like the surprises MC keeps on throwing up by way of blocks and I still love discovering awesome landscapes, but most of all, I like being able to edit the look of things! It's a very addictive mix, hence my craze for Minecraft in a nutshell.
Glad you like!
As soon as I have anything decent to show on the ores, I'll bore you with some more pics.
... man, i remember 4 or 3 years ago, when i first saw your pack, i got amazed. i actualy still have an alpha world somewhere on my backup folder where i used to play survival ALWAYS with this pack. man *le sigh* good old times, glimmar.
Haha! Thanks mate.
Wow! When I look back at all my old stuff, I kind of feel embarrassed, but I suppose there wasn't so much to compare it with back then and we didn't have so many options with MCPatcher...so perhaps it wasn't too bad.
I can't believe it's going on four years really. I'm more worried about the huge back-log of games I haven't played because of MC! In all that time I think I managed about a day of Skyrim, a couple of hours with 'Dishonored' and so on. My Steam account just keeps on merrily updating stuff I've never even had a chance to have a go with!
I wonder when I can start collecting on my MC pension.
Still more work needed to get the random spacing acceptable on the coal nuggets. Although nugget-like, I'm also still wanting some kind of seem-like quality to them... something of an impossible task I fear. Here are a few random shots rambling through one cave system:
I was hoping to show you something new I'm trying for the iron ore, an idea that might also make it more useful than just plain iron ore, but I was called away on other matters. Hopefully I'll get a chance to show some pics tomorrow, giving me a chance to refine it further...gedit? 'refine' it?! Well, if BullJaw can make ore jokes, I can too. Except mine are just baaaad!
Early work still, as more work is certainly needed on the iron ore for it all to link together as I want. I'm trying to achieve the appearance of ore seams, whilst at the same time making it useful in other ways, eg. alternative gravel, rusted concrete support decoration. It should also sit reasonably well with gravel, dirt, and new granite textures. First and foremost though, I wanted to create a believable iron ore that looks natural in clumps in the landscape, not just random orange stones that look like variants of coal or gold nuggets. I'm well aware I might be hoping for too much and it's already proving very difficult to produce random linkages, without patterning.
It's also important to point out that these are not transparent 'overlay' textures, but are simply random ctm, so there will be the odd appearance of seams between ore stone and normal stone. However, this has been kept to a minimum and I decided until the issue of rendered transparencies floating in front of water or glass is resolved, I was willing to put up with the odd line here and there. Losing the ability to goggle at ore on a river or lake bed or behind a waterfall is too much of a scene breaker for me at present. As it is though, the kind of texture I've created for the new stone helps greatly in confusing the eye as to where a border between one block and another exists.
Anyways, here are a few early WIP pics and final appearance may change considerably:
As someone that plays with mods and uses the mod support textures, I've become used to the sight of seams between stone and the various mod ores. That being said, I think the lines and seams you are referencing are hardly noticeable in comparison. Fantastic work. I have been taking some time away from MC the last couple of months, but look forward to jumping back in and seeing my worlds through new eyes when this version of your pack is done.
Just as a question about your process, do you have separate layers for various colors? I know you said you are not using transparent overlays in conjunction with ctm. I'm referring to just Photoshop or gimp or whatever you use to create your textures. As an example to you have one layer for the stone grays, another for darker cracks, and another for the orange-y rust colors of the iron ore blocks? I just ask as someone that dabbles a little with mod texturing. It'd be a great resource to get your layers if that is in fact how you work. It would make repurposing your iron ore for say copper by just changing the rust colors to greens (when copper oxidizes it turns green) and leaving the stone alone. That would help reduce additional seams from cropping up in mod support textures.
As someone that plays with mods and uses the mod support textures, I've become used to the sight of seams between stone and the various mod ores. That being said, I think the lines and seams you are referencing are hardly noticeable in comparison. Fantastic work. I have been taking some time away from MC the last couple of months, but look forward to jumping back in and seeing my worlds through new eyes when this version of your pack is done.
Just as a question about your process, do you have separate layers for various colors? I know you said you are not using transparent overlays in conjunction with ctm. I'm referring to just Photoshop or gimp or whatever you use to create your textures. As an example to you have one layer for the stone grays, another for darker cracks, and another for the orange-y rust colors of the iron ore blocks? I just ask as someone that dabbles a little with mod texturing. It'd be a great resource to get your layers if that is in fact how you work. It would make repurposing your iron ore for say copper by just changing the rust colors to greens (when copper oxidizes it turns green) and leaving the stone alone. That would help reduce additional seams from cropping up in mod support textures.
Glad you like the look of it so far, julius.
I was aware you hadn't been around as often for the past few weeks, but we'd all go mad (like I have) if we stuck with one thing for too long! Always glad to have old friends pop in though.
In answer to your question, I did make multiple layers for the dirt, as that had to have stones and boulders in it that closely matched the new stone and gravel textures. As I still wasn't decided on the final brightness or colour of stone, and also thinking that it might change again in the future, it was safer to have a separate stone and dirt layer.
As I moved on to doing the grass overhang, I added another layer for grass, and another layer for it's shadow, then I could tinker with how much depth it had. Finally I added more layers for random special plants and roots, but found working them into the dirt was too fiddly and I ended up merging them with the dirt level so I could use dodge and burn and blend things a little more freely. I did keep a backup of the plain dirt though, so I can easily replace a feature if I ruin it at some stage. It was all getting too complicated for me trying to edit different features on multiple layers, especially as all this was being edited on a large sheet of 'repeat' ctm stone and dirt textures.
I thought about doing something similar for the ores, but in the end it just made it too complicated and limited my use of the smudge/blend tool and dodge and burn to get the depth of fissures, shadow and highlights to look right. I reasoned that if I wanted to edit the stone later, but still wanted to retain the ores, it would be just as easy to overlay the ore with the stone texture and 'rub' it through. You might be able to take the same approach if you wanted to change the color of any of the ores, ie, overlay any of the plain stone textures or a copy of the ore you want to change on one layer, edit the overall color of the ore on the bottom layer, rub the top layer away to expose the edited ore beneath and then add more detailed color editing where necessary if some areas don't look quite right.
I'm afraid I'm still very old school with most of my methods and prefer to work and rework directly on one layer...total madness I know, but as I've worked that way with oils, watercolours and all the rest for many, many years, it's hard not to use the same method digitally. Getting all arty and philosophical about it, I'd say all the working and re-working stuff puts me 'in touch' with the actual material, but it's probably more to do with me being lazy!
Besides, I'm not sure I would ever want to go back and start over working on another type of stone or dirt again, it has taken me nearly fours years to pluck up the enthusiasm to redo things from scratch and I haven't even begun to work on trying to make each of these new textures work without MCPatcher's ctm! For my own purposes I am totally committed to MCPatcher, without it's many beautifying features I doubt I would have any long term interest in Minecraft.
I was aware you hadn't been around as often for the past few weeks, but we'd all go mad (like I have) if we stuck with one thing for too long! Always glad to have old friends pop in though.
In answer to your question, I did make multiple layers for the dirt, as that had to have stones and boulders in it that closely matched the new stone and gravel textures. As I still wasn't decided on the final brightness or colour of stone, and also thinking that it might change again in the future, it was safer to have a separate stone and dirt layer.
As I moved on to doing the grass overhang, I added another layer for grass, and another layer for it's shadow, then I could tinker with how much depth it had. Finally I added more layers for random special plants and roots, but found working them into the dirt was too fiddly and I ended up merging them with the dirt level so I could use dodge and burn and blend things a little more freely. I did keep a backup of the plain dirt though, so I can easily replace a feature if I ruin it at some stage. It was all getting too complicated for me trying to edit different features on multiple layers, especially as all this was being edited on a large sheet of 'repeat' ctm stone and dirt textures.
I thought about doing something similar for the ores, but in the end it just made it too complicated and limited my use of the smudge/blend tool and dodge and burn to get the depth of fissures, shadow and highlights to look right. I reasoned that if I wanted to edit the stone later, but still wanted to retain the ores, it would be just as easy to overlay the ore with the stone texture and 'rub' it through. You might be able to take the same approach if you wanted to change the color of any of the ores, ie, overlay any of the plain stone textures or a copy of the ore you want to change on one layer, edit the overall color of the ore on the bottom layer, rub the top layer away to expose the edited ore beneath and then add more detailed color editing where necessary if some areas don't look quite right.
I'm afraid I'm still very old school with most of my methods and prefer to work and rework directly on one layer...total madness I know, but as I've worked that way with oils, watercolours and all the rest for many, many years, it's hard not to use the same method digitally. Getting all arty and philosophical about it, I'd say all the working and re-working stuff puts me 'in touch' with the actual material, but it's probably more to do with me being lazy!
I've never worked in oil, and only recently discovered acrylics. As for digitally, I'm predominantly a vector guy. I like being able to endlessly tweak my anchor points. It is tough to achieve dimensionality that way though. I would look at graphic work done in photoshop and think I know how I would do that in Illustrator, but I'm totally lost in 'shop. That's begun to change though. I've learned some things that have me feeling a bit more comfortable there.
It's true that I haven't posted as much recently, but hardly a day goes by without checking the thread for juicy new v16 WIP pics!
I've never worked in oil, and only recently discovered acrylics. As for digitally, I'm predominantly a vector guy. I like being able to endlessly tweak my anchor points. It is tough to achieve dimensionality that way though. I would look at graphic work done in photoshop and think I know how I would do that in Illustrator, but I'm totally lost in 'shop. That's begun to change though. I've learned some things that have me feeling a bit more comfortable there.
It's true that I haven't posted as much recently, but hardly a day goes by without checking the thread for juicy new v16 WIP pics!
I've had Photoshop for a while, but shockingly I've only ever really used it's 'photo' editing functions to any depth. Long before I got Photoshop I'd already become familiar with Gimp, so I'm more at home there. I've tried on a number of occasions to take Photoshop seriously for artwork and texturing and just become very frustrated not being able to do something instantly that I can do without thinking in Gimp. It's all down to familiarity in the end, but with such limited time, being tired and rushed with updates (although this time Mojang have given us a slight break) there's a tendency to shy away from having to relearn how to do something all over again!
I look at what some have achieved with Illustrator and been utterly amazed. I used to be reasonably familiar with Corel Draw, back when I got my first PC and needed something to edit graphics and type for pamphlets and leaflets etc. Though it's probably 10 years since I last used my 15yr old version! So I understand a little bit about vector art, it's flexibility and frustration...emphasis on 'little' though.
Of recent years I enjoy the immediacy of oil pastels - doesn't smell as nice as oil paint and 'turpentine', but less messy and easier to set up and take on day trips out or family holidays.
Your work never stops amazing me Glim, the ore just fits so well and looks astounding Sir, from the quality of your art and work it is quite obvious to me, that your a slave to your craft, and the results are outstanding mate.
Its's pure digital heroin.
Ooo! That's probably the first time my work has been compared to heroin!
I'm still hoping to add some other features to iron ore that might not look so out of place down a mine or fixed to the side of an old stone/concrete structure - hence the emphasis on rusty fissures. However, these will be very rare features if they're going to work and look believable. More on this later, if I manage to pull it off.
Glad you like the new ores so far and I much appreciate you looking in so regularly. I've noticed that the forums have got fairly quiet of recent weeks, but without some sort of feedback from users, it becomes easier to drift into other pressing work. So you're helping me keep on the straight and narrow. BullJaw!
Progress continues, but at a very slow pace at present due to other commitments. Here are some screenshots showing how the new iron ore is developing. I mentioned previously I was adding some new special features. Well I've been working on a range of abandoned mine working paraphenalia - mostly rusted bolts, drill holes, old chain fastenings and bits and bobs to add further depth and atmosphere to the new stone.
They are designed to potentially make iron ore a more useful decorative block around old buildings not just as part of abandoned mine workings. Although where they appear will be down to trial and error. However the iron ore deposits are themselves designed to be useful as rusty, crumbly concrete features.
The screenshots give the impression they will be all over the place, which is not the case, they will be fairly rare when I release the next update, it's just that temporarily the random weight for making the special features appear has been set artificially high so I can squeeze a few in a small space for screenshot purposes:
A few more pics in the spoiler:
I'm still not happy with the ore deposit textures, so continue to tinker with new varieties, while also now looking at new lapis ore.
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Curse PremiumOh well, at least biome coloring the dirt is out of the question, so I can now concentrate on trying to balance things like sand and podzol a little better with the dirt and tweak the dirt color for a happy compromise.
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Curse PremiumThank you, guys. Much appreciate the support...as always...just hope it lives up to expectations.
Well back from the heights of texturing snow and dirt I crashed down to the lows of podzol editing. Spent a good 3 hours last night editing the stuff and thinking I was on to a winner, but in game it was a disaster. It looked fine with the dirt, meaning it was a great transition from one to the other, but alongside grass it was just incredibly stark. So I spent another hour adding blades of grass to 64 individual repeat podzol textures and just made matters worse!
So it's back to the drawing board again today, that is when I've got a bit of free time. I probably need to darken the dirt to make it work with grass, but if I do that the relationship between stone and gravel will be broken.
Time for me to go into contemplation mode and just stare at the podzol for an hour or two - sometimes inspiration has been known to strike me...well, here's hoping!
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Curse PremiumIt's working fine for me, Steel...on all my profiles using MC 1.7.4 and all the following 1.8 snapshots. Also works fine on 1.7.5. Here's a screenshot I just made as proof:
Not sure what the problem is at your end, as it's the first time anyone has mentioned the pack ice as not showing up. The texture is just a straightforward 8x8 64x repeat ctm texture.
Nice to see you around again...hope all is well.
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Retired StaffHuh, that is odd. I'll have to try again after I get off work.
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Curse PremiumI hope you can get it working, as it's one of my favorite textures.
Don't know if it's a memory thing, temporary aberration or what. MCPatcher for 1.7.5 has missing grass edges for me, so mayhap it's something like that for you.
I hope you're able to work on Dragon Dance again, if you're not already, that was one of my favorite packs for sure.
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Curse Premium.....GS v16 New Dirt WIP Part 6 - Podzol Dirt!
Kind of sorted the podzol problem! Herewith, pics of the new re-edited podzol influenced by the new dirt.
64 repeat textures for the top needed re-working and then re-working some more and then 16 re-edited random side textures were added this evening. I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out, as running around in mega taiga biomes discovering awesome features is a nice pasttime which I didn't want to spoil! I suppose a real crazy person would also add some extra random features to the podzol...well as it happens, I'm not that crazy yet! However, it remains a possibility.
Anyway, without further ado, here are the pics:
Click the spoiler for more pics:
I now have a hankering to make some new ore textures to finish up on the stone (not forgetting that stone also could do with some random features), while I gather up the resolve to tackle a new sand texture that might work a little better with the dirt and gravel. What an avalanche of textures has been created by fiddling about with stone...just plain ridiculous if you ask me!
The thing is, I'm kind of racing the clock slightly, because I've a new project starting soon that might mean I don't have as much disposable leisure time for a little while, so I'm trying to get as much crammed in as I can...in my usual slow lumbering fashion.
Well I hope you like the new podzol, hopefully I haven't spoiled it too much over the old.
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Curse PremiumOn a related note, I have updated some of the textures I am working on.
Buildcraft
Forestry
EnderIO
Tinkers Construct (Now added TMechworks into the same download - though only a GUI update at the moment)
I have also added a ChangeLog.txt to each download to state when I last uploaded and for what mod version I have developed for. - hope that helps.
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Curse PremiumMany thanks, Megistus, both for the kind words and the updates.
It's been a 4 year long mile so far, BullJaw...I really must be crazy!
The thing is, I like building stuff, I like the surprises MC keeps on throwing up by way of blocks and I still love discovering awesome landscapes, but most of all, I like being able to edit the look of things! It's a very addictive mix, hence my craze for Minecraft in a nutshell.
Glad you like!
As soon as I have anything decent to show on the ores, I'll bore you with some more pics.
Thanks, guys.
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Curse PremiumHaha! Thanks mate.
Wow! When I look back at all my old stuff, I kind of feel embarrassed, but I suppose there wasn't so much to compare it with back then and we didn't have so many options with MCPatcher...so perhaps it wasn't too bad.
I can't believe it's going on four years really. I'm more worried about the huge back-log of games I haven't played because of MC! In all that time I think I managed about a day of Skyrim, a couple of hours with 'Dishonored' and so on. My Steam account just keeps on merrily updating stuff I've never even had a chance to have a go with!
I wonder when I can start collecting on my MC pension.
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Curse Premium.....GS v16 New Coal Ore!
Still more work needed to get the random spacing acceptable on the coal nuggets. Although nugget-like, I'm also still wanting some kind of seem-like quality to them... something of an impossible task I fear. Here are a few random shots rambling through one cave system:
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Curse PremiumHaha! I shall add that joke to my repertoire!
Thanks guys.
I was hoping to show you something new I'm trying for the iron ore, an idea that might also make it more useful than just plain iron ore, but I was called away on other matters. Hopefully I'll get a chance to show some pics tomorrow, giving me a chance to refine it further...gedit? 'refine' it?! Well, if BullJaw can make ore jokes, I can too. Except mine are just baaaad!
Sorry, I'll just go and get my coat!
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Curse Premium.....GSv.16 New Iron Ore WIP!
Early work still, as more work is certainly needed on the iron ore for it all to link together as I want. I'm trying to achieve the appearance of ore seams, whilst at the same time making it useful in other ways, eg. alternative gravel, rusted concrete support decoration. It should also sit reasonably well with gravel, dirt, and new granite textures. First and foremost though, I wanted to create a believable iron ore that looks natural in clumps in the landscape, not just random orange stones that look like variants of coal or gold nuggets. I'm well aware I might be hoping for too much and it's already proving very difficult to produce random linkages, without patterning.
It's also important to point out that these are not transparent 'overlay' textures, but are simply random ctm, so there will be the odd appearance of seams between ore stone and normal stone. However, this has been kept to a minimum and I decided until the issue of rendered transparencies floating in front of water or glass is resolved, I was willing to put up with the odd line here and there. Losing the ability to goggle at ore on a river or lake bed or behind a waterfall is too much of a scene breaker for me at present. As it is though, the kind of texture I've created for the new stone helps greatly in confusing the eye as to where a border between one block and another exists.
Anyways, here are a few early WIP pics and final appearance may change considerably:
Just as a question about your process, do you have separate layers for various colors? I know you said you are not using transparent overlays in conjunction with ctm. I'm referring to just Photoshop or gimp or whatever you use to create your textures. As an example to you have one layer for the stone grays, another for darker cracks, and another for the orange-y rust colors of the iron ore blocks? I just ask as someone that dabbles a little with mod texturing. It'd be a great resource to get your layers if that is in fact how you work. It would make repurposing your iron ore for say copper by just changing the rust colors to greens (when copper oxidizes it turns green) and leaving the stone alone. That would help reduce additional seams from cropping up in mod support textures.
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Curse PremiumGlad you like the look of it so far, julius.
I was aware you hadn't been around as often for the past few weeks, but we'd all go mad (like I have) if we stuck with one thing for too long!
In answer to your question, I did make multiple layers for the dirt, as that had to have stones and boulders in it that closely matched the new stone and gravel textures. As I still wasn't decided on the final brightness or colour of stone, and also thinking that it might change again in the future, it was safer to have a separate stone and dirt layer.
As I moved on to doing the grass overhang, I added another layer for grass, and another layer for it's shadow, then I could tinker with how much depth it had. Finally I added more layers for random special plants and roots, but found working them into the dirt was too fiddly and I ended up merging them with the dirt level so I could use dodge and burn and blend things a little more freely. I did keep a backup of the plain dirt though, so I can easily replace a feature if I ruin it at some stage. It was all getting too complicated for me trying to edit different features on multiple layers, especially as all this was being edited on a large sheet of 'repeat' ctm stone and dirt textures.
I thought about doing something similar for the ores, but in the end it just made it too complicated and limited my use of the smudge/blend tool and dodge and burn to get the depth of fissures, shadow and highlights to look right. I reasoned that if I wanted to edit the stone later, but still wanted to retain the ores, it would be just as easy to overlay the ore with the stone texture and 'rub' it through. You might be able to take the same approach if you wanted to change the color of any of the ores, ie, overlay any of the plain stone textures or a copy of the ore you want to change on one layer, edit the overall color of the ore on the bottom layer, rub the top layer away to expose the edited ore beneath and then add more detailed color editing where necessary if some areas don't look quite right.
I'm afraid I'm still very old school with most of my methods and prefer to work and rework directly on one layer...total madness I know, but as I've worked that way with oils, watercolours and all the rest for many, many years, it's hard not to use the same method digitally. Getting all arty and philosophical about it, I'd say all the working and re-working stuff puts me 'in touch' with the actual material, but it's probably more to do with me being lazy!
Besides, I'm not sure I would ever want to go back and start over working on another type of stone or dirt again, it has taken me nearly fours years to pluck up the enthusiasm to redo things from scratch and I haven't even begun to work on trying to make each of these new textures work without MCPatcher's ctm!
I've never worked in oil, and only recently discovered acrylics. As for digitally, I'm predominantly a vector guy. I like being able to endlessly tweak my anchor points. It is tough to achieve dimensionality that way though. I would look at graphic work done in photoshop and think I know how I would do that in Illustrator, but I'm totally lost in 'shop. That's begun to change though. I've learned some things that have me feeling a bit more comfortable there.
It's true that I haven't posted as much recently, but hardly a day goes by without checking the thread for juicy new v16 WIP pics!
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Curse PremiumI've had Photoshop for a while, but shockingly I've only ever really used it's 'photo' editing functions to any depth. Long before I got Photoshop I'd already become familiar with Gimp, so I'm more at home there. I've tried on a number of occasions to take Photoshop seriously for artwork and texturing and just become very frustrated not being able to do something instantly that I can do without thinking in Gimp. It's all down to familiarity in the end, but with such limited time, being tired and rushed with updates (although this time Mojang have given us a slight break) there's a tendency to shy away from having to relearn how to do something all over again!
I look at what some have achieved with Illustrator and been utterly amazed. I used to be reasonably familiar with Corel Draw, back when I got my first PC and needed something to edit graphics and type for pamphlets and leaflets etc. Though it's probably 10 years since I last used my 15yr old version! So I understand a little bit about vector art, it's flexibility and frustration...emphasis on 'little' though.
Of recent years I enjoy the immediacy of oil pastels - doesn't smell as nice as oil paint and 'turpentine', but less messy and easier to set up and take on day trips out or family holidays.
Ooo! That's probably the first time my work has been compared to heroin!
I'm still hoping to add some other features to iron ore that might not look so out of place down a mine or fixed to the side of an old stone/concrete structure - hence the emphasis on rusty fissures. However, these will be very rare features if they're going to work and look believable. More on this later, if I manage to pull it off.
Glad you like the new ores so far and I much appreciate you looking in so regularly. I've noticed that the forums have got fairly quiet of recent weeks, but without some sort of feedback from users, it becomes easier to drift into other pressing work. So you're helping me keep on the straight and narrow. BullJaw!
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Curse Premium.....GSv.16 New Iron Ore WIP - Part 2
Progress continues, but at a very slow pace at present due to other commitments. Here are some screenshots showing how the new iron ore is developing. I mentioned previously I was adding some new special features. Well I've been working on a range of abandoned mine working paraphenalia - mostly rusted bolts, drill holes, old chain fastenings and bits and bobs to add further depth and atmosphere to the new stone.
They are designed to potentially make iron ore a more useful decorative block around old buildings not just as part of abandoned mine workings. Although where they appear will be down to trial and error. However the iron ore deposits are themselves designed to be useful as rusty, crumbly concrete features.
The screenshots give the impression they will be all over the place, which is not the case, they will be fairly rare when I release the next update, it's just that temporarily the random weight for making the special features appear has been set artificially high so I can squeeze a few in a small space for screenshot purposes:
A few more pics in the spoiler:
I'm still not happy with the ore deposit textures, so continue to tinker with new varieties, while also now looking at new lapis ore.