I have spent a lot of time on this forum and there is something that I have noticed. There seem to be a lot of questions about how to make a texture pack and not enough updated tutorials. To make matters worse the good tutorials tend to get buried. I have decided that it would be best for the community to make a texture pack tutorial directory. This thread will contain all of the good up to date tutorials for anything dealing with texture packs. They will be divided into three main categories; Technical, Artistic and Resource.
The Technical category will include tutorials that deal with finding the needed .pngs, what programs to use, how to use said programs and how to create .zip files.
The Artistic category will be include any tutorials and tips that deal with creating a visual appealing piece of art.
The Resource category contains resources for a beginner texture pack artists such as templates and link to good image editing software.
All new links will be marked with an asterisks.
I will also be including my own tutorial in the second post of this thread and I hope to get feedback from some of the other respected texture pack artists including tips and tricks.
*All Inclusive Guide to Texturing
- I felt that this thread needs it own category. Currently it is mostly about the technical side of texturing but as it is a work in progress it will soon overflow that boundry.
The Art of Coloring
-This is a tutorial written by one of the masters of color choice. I strong suggest checking it out.
A Guide to Texturing for 32x
-This is a fantastic guide to some of the basic techniques for creating a good looking 32x texture pack. Many of these techniques can be applied to other resolutions as well.
How to Shade Your Character
-Another tutorial written by Leostereo, this one specifically addresses character skins but the principles can be applied to mobs and armor as well.
A Guide to Good Texturing
-This tutorial focuses on tiling. Tiling is one of the hardest thing to do properly for begging texture pack artists and it is STRONGLY suggested that you look at this tutorial before posting your work.
Learn the Art of Texture Packs
-This is a decent and detailed tutorial covering some of the art techniques needed to make a good pack
Essential Photoshop Techniques for Realistic Textures
- These are a series of excellent tutorials dealing with the best techniques to making really detailed textures. I had a bit of trouble deciding were to put this link but I think it falls more into the artistic side than technical. These tutorials are for Photoshop but may be translatable to GIMP.
Resources
Terrain and Item Templates
-A nice thread containing terrain and item templates for resolutions from 16x to 256x
GIMP
-One of the best free image editing programs out there.
Digimarc
-This is software that can be purchased that marks each pixel with an invisible digital serial number. This allows you to to protect your work keeping people from redistributing your pack without your knowledge. Because of the way this software works you are able to track were your material goes. Making it much simpler to crack down on pirates.
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Portland Minecraft Examiner
- I write minecraft related articles for Examiner.com. I am currently doing a series of texture pack reviews that you might find interesting.
I figured that it is probably a good idea that I also contribute to the tutorial collaboration. So, I am writing one here. It will be divided into four sections. The first will be a very basic introduction to texture packs in general. The second will cover how to install texture packs and any extra mods needed. The third will cover the technical side of creating a texture pack. The fourth will be the artistic side or creating a texture pack. Use the Ctrl+f function to search through this post to find the section you need.
Introduction
A texture pack is, in essence, a collection of files that are used to re-skin Minecraft. These files, called .png files, are typically bundled in a package called a .zip file. Texture packs come in all shapes and sizes and as such genres have developed. Genres that include clean/smooth packs, dark packs, or realistic packs. A clean/smooth pack attempts to draw texture with the least amount of noise (noise being the presence of slightly off color pixels giving the block a grainy look). These are the most common pack as they tend to be the easiest to make. Dark packs are just that. They use lighting and muted color schemes to set a mood, on the opposite side are the few light packs like jolicraft that use brightened color schemes to set a different mood. Realistic packs are packs that attempt to draw the textures in the most realistic manner possible.
Texture packs come in many resolutions. Resolution is a measure of how many pixels there are per block. For example, the default minecraft texture is 16x16. This means it has 16x16 pixels, or 256 pixels, in one block. So the dirt block would be made up of 256 pixels. The resolutions for texture packs can range from 1x1 to 512x512. These values are typically written as 1x or 512x or 128x. It is important to note that the difference between a 16x pack and a 32x pack is not twice the amount but it is 4 times the amount. 16x packs have 256 pixels per block while 32x packs have 1024 pixels per block. The number of pixels increases exponentially as the resolution increases. 128x packs have 16,384 pixels per block while 512x, the highest that can be supported by modern computers, has 262,144 pixels per block. This is why higher resolution packs create such lag.
Packs also fall into two more categories. Hd and non-Hd packs. HD packs are any pack that has a resolution of 32x or higher while non-HD packs are 16x. Packs that are less than 16x are different and will not be addressed again in this tutorial.
The Installation
16x packs Without animated water/fire/lava
This is the basic texture pack and includes packs like painterly. All that is needed to install this pack is to drop the .zip file into the texture pack folder. To do this (on windows) follow these steps
1) Download the .zip file of your favorite texture pack. Make sure that you do not extract the files, IT MUST STAY AS A .ZIP
2) Drop the .zip file onto your desktop.
3) Hit the start button and type run in the bar at the bottom. Hit enter
4) A window will pop up, there you find another bar in which text can be entered. Type %appdata%/.minecraft
That will open the minecraft folder. There you will see a folder labled texturepacks. Drop the .zip file into the texturepacks folder.
5) Now open Minecraft and naivgate to the bar that says mods and texture packs. You newly installed texture pack should be loaded there. It will take a bit to load up and if they do not have a custom menu screen you won't be able to tell if it worked until you get in game.
16x pack with fire/water/lava animations and HD packs: MCpatcher method
Now we get to the harder part. If the texture pack you want uses custom animations or is in a resolution other than 16x than you need to patch your game before you can use them. This becomes even further complicated if you are using mods but that is why I am here. If you are using Modloader and/or audioloader they MUST be installed before MCpatcher.
If you are not using mods skip steps 1 & 2
1) Download Modloader and/or audio loader first. You can extract the files if you want.
2) Next you need to install them. To do this you will need a decompiler program like WinRAR. Navigate to the minecraft folder using steps 3 and 4 from the above post. Open the folder labeled bin, find the minecraft.jar and open it using the decompiler. Then drop the files from the Modloader and audioloader zip files into the minecraft.jar. Make sure that you don't drop the files into a folder in the minecraft.jar. Then delete the META-INF folder.
3) Now we need to install MCpatcher. First download the file here. Then run the .exe (the icon that comes up when you download it.) It will bring up a box with several buttons and a window in the center. In the window are three items with check boxes. Two of them are checked and one is not. If you want the grass to draw all the way down the side of the block then check the last box. Otherwise leave the checks alone.
4) At the bottom there is a large button that says patch. Click that button. A progress bar will show up briefly. When it is full you are done.
5) Now follow the steps above to install your texture pack.
NOTE: You no longer need to patch each texture pack with MCpatcher. You only have to use the patcher ONCE EVER and you will be able to use any texture pack
16x pack with fire/water/lava animations and HD packs: Optifine Method
Optifine is one of my favorite mods. sadly, it is not compatible with many other graphic enhancer mods like GLSL shading. On the other hand, it is compatible with yogsbox. MCpatcher isn't, or wasn't last time I checked. Another thing that makes Optifine great is that is vastly improves the performance of minecraft. If you have issues running a certain resolution because of lag than Optifine will most likely fix those issues.
1) Here how to install. If you are just using the Yogsbox you can just drop the files into the Minecraf.jar using the same process as installing modloader.
Note: If you are using other mods things become more complicated and sadly I cannot be of much help. I know that you have to pay attention to what class files are being rewritten when you drop the files into the minecraft.jar; and I know that mods that rewrite the same class files tend to be a bit hinky when used together. Apparently the solution is to install them in a specific order. But I do not know what that order would be. Especially since it would changed depending on what mods you are using.
The Technical Side of Texture Pack Creation
The very first thing you need is an image editing program. The common ones are either Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.net. If this is all you are going to use the program for then stay away from photoshop. It is a fantastic program (it is what I use) but unless you plan on using photoshop professionally it is not worth it. GIMP and Paint.net are decent programs and can do all you need for a texture pack. What ever you choose make sure that it supports transparency. It the program does not then things like your torches and ladders will be surrounded by a white box.
The second thing is a template to work from. I used Bordercraft as my template as it was the same resolution that I was working in. However, I do not suggest working off of someone else's pack anymore because of the new rules. It is best to start from the default template. There is a link in the resources section to a bunch of templates that should help.
The third thing you need is an idea or theme. I will cover this more in the artistic section but for now let's say that it is necessary to have a starting point.
Now you are ready to create. "But what about mobs, armor and all those things?" you may ask. Well, those can be found in the minecraft.jar. Using the process covered in the thread with the templates you can resize the .png to the resolution needed.
If you don't feel like reading that tutorial then here is how to resize in GIMP and photoshop. This may work for Paint.net as well but I am not sure. Open the 16x terrain.png. Go to image size and that should bring up a window with the resolution in boxes. There should be either a check box or a drop down menu with the phrase Nearest Neighbor or preserve hard edges. Make sure that is selected. Then change the resolution from 256x256 (the 16x pack) to a resolution that you need. (512x512 for 32x packs)(1024x1025 for 64x packs)(2048x2048 for 128x packs and so on)
Once you have something that you want to test you you need to create a .zip file for you texture pack. Select all the .png files and folders needed and right click. Go down to "send to" and navigate to the compressed folder option. If you have put all of your files and folders in another folder make sure you do not .zip that folder. It will cause issues.
You .zip file should look like this. There may be some new files, like custom fire or water animation or there may be some missing files. Say, if you were just doing the terrain.
So, now you have something that you are happy enough with that you want to post it on the forums. How does one do that? First you need a file host. There are many file host sites out there. Some will pay per download but often have wait times and download speed restrictions. The one I use right now is mediafire. Though that may change soon. Mediafire is probably the most commonly used filehost on the forums. Create and account and follow their instructions. Then you can either post the download link on your thread or you can put it through an url shortener.
Url shorteners are really kind of pointless for forums. Typical forums will shorten the link automatically rendering the url shortener sites pointless. However, there is adf.ly Now I know that I am going to catch some grief for suggesting this as an option. There is a possibility that you may catch a virus, though I have never experienced it or talked with anyone who has. There also may be a problem with surveys that trap you into filling them out. However, if something like that happens you need to report it to either adf.ly or the person who's content is linked as this is a violation of the adf.ly agreement and the survey will be removed. To use adf.ly create and account. You will also need to create a pay pal account. I forgot to mention it before but adf.ly pays per view. Once you have created those things you can copy and paste your mediafire link into the large bar at the top of the adf.ly page. it will spit out a much shorter url which will route the user to a small ad that can be skipped after 5 secs. The skip ad button should always be a bright yellow button in the top right hand corner of the page.
Once you have those things it is time to start on your thread. First you need to make sure that you read ALL the stickies about formatting and requirements for your thread. Also, it would be a good idea to read the guide on image hosting linked at the top of this thread. Once you follow all those things you will have a texture pack and a thread. I will be writing another tutorial on how best to format your OP (original post) to be the most appealing.
Some oddities About Texture Pack Creation
I thought it would be wise to cover some of the oddities of the way Minecraft pulls textures and were some of those textures are stored. First of all lets look at the terrain.png
The absolute first thing that needs to be noted is the grass. Many people get stuck at this point. The grass has 4 different texture files. 3 of them are in the terrain.png. The other is the biome shading. In the terrain.png the grass resides in these three places.
Two of them are grey. This is because they will have the biome shading applied to them. The one that is not grey is used for the grass block that is in the inventory but it is also mapped on the side of grass blocks. Make sure that the grey side grass matches the green side grass perfectly otherwise you will have some odd effects.
The next weird thing about the terrain.png is the glass. There are around 62 blocks that support transparency but only about 5 blocks that support opacity levels. Opacity is a measure of how see-through a texture is. Surprisingly glass is one of those blocks that DOES NOT support opacity. The pixels will either be there or not be there. This was a big frustration for me because I wanted to do a frosted glass texture. However, it ended up being a solid white cube. The blocks that support opacity are as follows
1)Ice
2)the 5 water blocks
If you find that you have mysterious stray pixels that you can't seem to find this is most likely caused by a very transparent pixel that is being drawn as a solid pixel by minecraft. To solve this create a new layer, fill it in with black and drop it behind your texture. That should help you see the offending pixels.
Another oddity is that the furnace and the dispenser share sides. This through me for a loop at first because I couldn't figure out which tile belonged to which block. Turns out the side tiles are used for both XD
Redstone is one that can trip many people up. Redstone can actually be drawn in two different layers. The first layer, right below the bed is what should be used for the actual redstone itself. This tile gets a red filter applied to it that changed with the state of the redstone in game. The second layer is used for any decoration to the wire. This layer stays the same color as it is in the terrain.png
Another oddity is how doors and hatches map the side textures. There is no side tile in the terrain.png, so what Minecraft does is take part of the door front and remaps it to the sides. In this pic you can see what I am referring to.
This restricts what you can put on the front of the door a tad, unless you ignore the side, which is acceptable.
Let us talk about file location. You already know that most of the files can be located in the minecraft.jar but what you may no know is exactly were they are or how they should be formatted in the .zip file. So here it is
I will also be taking suggestion for tutorials. Here are some requirements.
1) The tutorial must be up to date. Meaning it must not contain information that is no longer accurate. Many of these inaccuracies will actually cause problems with how minecraft runs.
2) I would prefer if the tutorial were on this site but if the tutorial is exceptional I will include it.
Format for submission:
[b]Name of tutorial[/b]:
[b]Link to tutorial[/b]:
[b]Programs Used[/b]:
"you're just pulling those links from cyberdragon's sticky!"
Yep, I am. What of it?
The problem with the sticky is that some of those link are out of date. I don't know if it is because Cyberdragon has "retired" from his mod position or whatever. I have included all the tutorials that are still up to date. Sadly minecrap's is not. there is some information in that tutorial that will cause texture packs to now work properly.
...and so, I present to you! the updated directory that I will keep active and updated. (I also plan on including more)
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
Thanks, I am working on writing my own tutorial right now. (in a word program :biggrin.gif: ) I also need to find that guide I saw a while ago about choosing color.
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
Thanks, as some may have noticed I am updating my tutorial in stages. I frequently get pulled away from the computer and having kids in the house leave my computer vulnerable to...devious hands. I find, on long posts, that it is best to divide them up a bit to reduce the risk of data loss.
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
Thanks I hope that this will turn into something big. My goal is for this thread to be a place were people can come when they have questions rather than posting threads with vague titles like "HEEELLP MEEEE PLEAAAASSEEE!!!"
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
I have added a bunch more links in the OP including a new section for resources. I have also started my tutorial. Soon I will be expanding the technical section to cover some of the unexpected anomalies in the Minecraft textures.
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
I have a question for you all. Is this worth continuing? It hasn't cut back on the cries for help and I am not getting any feedback. I would hate to think that the hours I put into this were for nothing...
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"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
I have spent a lot of time on this forum and there is something that I have noticed. There seem to be a lot of questions about how to make a texture pack and not enough updated tutorials. To make matters worse the good tutorials tend to get buried. I have decided that it would be best for the community to make a texture pack tutorial directory. This thread will contain all of the good up to date tutorials for anything dealing with texture packs. They will be divided into three main categories; Technical, Artistic and Resource.
The Technical category will include tutorials that deal with finding the needed .pngs, what programs to use, how to use said programs and how to create .zip files.
The Artistic category will be include any tutorials and tips that deal with creating a visual appealing piece of art.
The Resource category contains resources for a beginner texture pack artists such as templates and link to good image editing software.
All new links will be marked with an asterisks.
I will also be including my own tutorial in the second post of this thread and I hope to get feedback from some of the other respected texture pack artists including tips and tricks.
*All Inclusive Guide to Texturing
- I felt that this thread needs it own category. Currently it is mostly about the technical side of texturing but as it is a work in progress it will soon overflow that boundry.
Technical
*How to Use a Color Palette
-This is a GIMP specific tutorial.
*Simple Way to Fix Tiling Problems
-the title says it all.
Screen Shots and How to Host Them
-This is a good tutorial on how to host screen shots for your texture pack thread.
Simple Texturing
-Shows the absolute basics of texturing in minecraft. Uses Paint.net
Spriting for Mods and Tex Packs
-This tutorial is a bit more advanced as it covers tools. Uses Paint.net
Allocating More Memory to the Java (or Minecraft)
- I put this in here because of the fad for 512x texture packs. Allocating more RAM MUST be done to run those types of texture packs.
How to Make a Texture Pack on a Mac
-The title says it all
Animating Water for Beginners Using GIMP
-An excellent tutorial on animating water and lava
How to Properly Make a Texture Pack Thread
Artistic
The Art of Coloring
-This is a tutorial written by one of the masters of color choice. I strong suggest checking it out.
A Guide to Texturing for 32x
-This is a fantastic guide to some of the basic techniques for creating a good looking 32x texture pack. Many of these techniques can be applied to other resolutions as well.
How to Shade Your Character
-Another tutorial written by Leostereo, this one specifically addresses character skins but the principles can be applied to mobs and armor as well.
A Guide to Good Texturing
-This tutorial focuses on tiling. Tiling is one of the hardest thing to do properly for begging texture pack artists and it is STRONGLY suggested that you look at this tutorial before posting your work.
Learn the Art of Texture Packs
-This is a decent and detailed tutorial covering some of the art techniques needed to make a good pack
How to Make a Nice Looking Simple Pack
-A good tutorial on how to make a simple pack interesting.
Essential Photoshop Techniques for Realistic Textures
- These are a series of excellent tutorials dealing with the best techniques to making really detailed textures. I had a bit of trouble deciding were to put this link but I think it falls more into the artistic side than technical. These tutorials are for Photoshop but may be translatable to GIMP.
Resources
Terrain and Item Templates
-A nice thread containing terrain and item templates for resolutions from 16x to 256x
GIMP
-One of the best free image editing programs out there.
Paint.net
-Another decent free image editing programs
How to Protect Your Artwork
-A good tutorial discussing copyrights and licencing
Digimarc
-This is software that can be purchased that marks each pixel with an invisible digital serial number. This allows you to to protect your work keeping people from redistributing your pack without your knowledge. Because of the way this software works you are able to track were your material goes. Making it much simpler to crack down on pirates.
Shameless Advertisement
Portland Minecraft Examiner
- I write minecraft related articles for Examiner.com. I am currently doing a series of texture pack reviews that you might find interesting.
A texture pack is, in essence, a collection of files that are used to re-skin Minecraft. These files, called .png files, are typically bundled in a package called a .zip file. Texture packs come in all shapes and sizes and as such genres have developed. Genres that include clean/smooth packs, dark packs, or realistic packs. A clean/smooth pack attempts to draw texture with the least amount of noise (noise being the presence of slightly off color pixels giving the block a grainy look). These are the most common pack as they tend to be the easiest to make. Dark packs are just that. They use lighting and muted color schemes to set a mood, on the opposite side are the few light packs like jolicraft that use brightened color schemes to set a different mood. Realistic packs are packs that attempt to draw the textures in the most realistic manner possible.
Texture packs come in many resolutions. Resolution is a measure of how many pixels there are per block. For example, the default minecraft texture is 16x16. This means it has 16x16 pixels, or 256 pixels, in one block. So the dirt block would be made up of 256 pixels. The resolutions for texture packs can range from 1x1 to 512x512. These values are typically written as 1x or 512x or 128x. It is important to note that the difference between a 16x pack and a 32x pack is not twice the amount but it is 4 times the amount. 16x packs have 256 pixels per block while 32x packs have 1024 pixels per block. The number of pixels increases exponentially as the resolution increases. 128x packs have 16,384 pixels per block while 512x, the highest that can be supported by modern computers, has 262,144 pixels per block. This is why higher resolution packs create such lag.
Packs also fall into two more categories. Hd and non-Hd packs. HD packs are any pack that has a resolution of 32x or higher while non-HD packs are 16x. Packs that are less than 16x are different and will not be addressed again in this tutorial.
16x packs Without animated water/fire/lava
This is the basic texture pack and includes packs like painterly. All that is needed to install this pack is to drop the .zip file into the texture pack folder. To do this (on windows) follow these steps
1) Download the .zip file of your favorite texture pack. Make sure that you do not extract the files, IT MUST STAY AS A .ZIP
2) Drop the .zip file onto your desktop.
3) Hit the start button and type run in the bar at the bottom. Hit enter
4) A window will pop up, there you find another bar in which text can be entered. Type %appdata%/.minecraft
That will open the minecraft folder. There you will see a folder labled texturepacks. Drop the .zip file into the texturepacks folder.
5) Now open Minecraft and naivgate to the bar that says mods and texture packs. You newly installed texture pack should be loaded there. It will take a bit to load up and if they do not have a custom menu screen you won't be able to tell if it worked until you get in game.
16x pack with fire/water/lava animations and HD packs: MCpatcher method
Now we get to the harder part. If the texture pack you want uses custom animations or is in a resolution other than 16x than you need to patch your game before you can use them. This becomes even further complicated if you are using mods but that is why I am here. If you are using Modloader and/or audioloader they MUST be installed before MCpatcher.
If you are not using mods skip steps 1 & 2
1) Download Modloader and/or audio loader first. You can extract the files if you want.
2) Next you need to install them. To do this you will need a decompiler program like WinRAR. Navigate to the minecraft folder using steps 3 and 4 from the above post. Open the folder labeled bin, find the minecraft.jar and open it using the decompiler. Then drop the files from the Modloader and audioloader zip files into the minecraft.jar. Make sure that you don't drop the files into a folder in the minecraft.jar. Then delete the META-INF folder.
3) Now we need to install MCpatcher. First download the file here. Then run the .exe (the icon that comes up when you download it.) It will bring up a box with several buttons and a window in the center. In the window are three items with check boxes. Two of them are checked and one is not. If you want the grass to draw all the way down the side of the block then check the last box. Otherwise leave the checks alone.
4) At the bottom there is a large button that says patch. Click that button. A progress bar will show up briefly. When it is full you are done.
5) Now follow the steps above to install your texture pack.
NOTE: You no longer need to patch each texture pack with MCpatcher. You only have to use the patcher ONCE EVER and you will be able to use any texture pack
16x pack with fire/water/lava animations and HD packs: Optifine Method
Optifine is one of my favorite mods. sadly, it is not compatible with many other graphic enhancer mods like GLSL shading. On the other hand, it is compatible with yogsbox. MCpatcher isn't, or wasn't last time I checked. Another thing that makes Optifine great is that is vastly improves the performance of minecraft. If you have issues running a certain resolution because of lag than Optifine will most likely fix those issues.
1) Here how to install. If you are just using the Yogsbox you can just drop the files into the Minecraf.jar using the same process as installing modloader.
Note: If you are using other mods things become more complicated and sadly I cannot be of much help. I know that you have to pay attention to what class files are being rewritten when you drop the files into the minecraft.jar; and I know that mods that rewrite the same class files tend to be a bit hinky when used together. Apparently the solution is to install them in a specific order. But I do not know what that order would be. Especially since it would changed depending on what mods you are using.
The very first thing you need is an image editing program. The common ones are either Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.net. If this is all you are going to use the program for then stay away from photoshop. It is a fantastic program (it is what I use) but unless you plan on using photoshop professionally it is not worth it. GIMP and Paint.net are decent programs and can do all you need for a texture pack. What ever you choose make sure that it supports transparency. It the program does not then things like your torches and ladders will be surrounded by a white box.
The second thing is a template to work from. I used Bordercraft as my template as it was the same resolution that I was working in. However, I do not suggest working off of someone else's pack anymore because of the new rules. It is best to start from the default template. There is a link in the resources section to a bunch of templates that should help.
The third thing you need is an idea or theme. I will cover this more in the artistic section but for now let's say that it is necessary to have a starting point.
Now you are ready to create. "But what about mobs, armor and all those things?" you may ask. Well, those can be found in the minecraft.jar. Using the process covered in the thread with the templates you can resize the .png to the resolution needed.
If you don't feel like reading that tutorial then here is how to resize in GIMP and photoshop. This may work for Paint.net as well but I am not sure. Open the 16x terrain.png. Go to image size and that should bring up a window with the resolution in boxes. There should be either a check box or a drop down menu with the phrase Nearest Neighbor or preserve hard edges. Make sure that is selected. Then change the resolution from 256x256 (the 16x pack) to a resolution that you need. (512x512 for 32x packs)(1024x1025 for 64x packs)(2048x2048 for 128x packs and so on)
Once you have something that you want to test you you need to create a .zip file for you texture pack. Select all the .png files and folders needed and right click. Go down to "send to" and navigate to the compressed folder option. If you have put all of your files and folders in another folder make sure you do not .zip that folder. It will cause issues.
You .zip file should look like this. There may be some new files, like custom fire or water animation or there may be some missing files. Say, if you were just doing the terrain.
So, now you have something that you are happy enough with that you want to post it on the forums. How does one do that? First you need a file host. There are many file host sites out there. Some will pay per download but often have wait times and download speed restrictions. The one I use right now is mediafire. Though that may change soon. Mediafire is probably the most commonly used filehost on the forums. Create and account and follow their instructions. Then you can either post the download link on your thread or you can put it through an url shortener.
Url shorteners are really kind of pointless for forums. Typical forums will shorten the link automatically rendering the url shortener sites pointless. However, there is adf.ly Now I know that I am going to catch some grief for suggesting this as an option. There is a possibility that you may catch a virus, though I have never experienced it or talked with anyone who has. There also may be a problem with surveys that trap you into filling them out. However, if something like that happens you need to report it to either adf.ly or the person who's content is linked as this is a violation of the adf.ly agreement and the survey will be removed. To use adf.ly create and account. You will also need to create a pay pal account. I forgot to mention it before but adf.ly pays per view. Once you have created those things you can copy and paste your mediafire link into the large bar at the top of the adf.ly page. it will spit out a much shorter url which will route the user to a small ad that can be skipped after 5 secs. The skip ad button should always be a bright yellow button in the top right hand corner of the page.
Once you have those things it is time to start on your thread. First you need to make sure that you read ALL the stickies about formatting and requirements for your thread. Also, it would be a good idea to read the guide on image hosting linked at the top of this thread. Once you follow all those things you will have a texture pack and a thread. I will be writing another tutorial on how best to format your OP (original post) to be the most appealing.
I thought it would be wise to cover some of the oddities of the way Minecraft pulls textures and were some of those textures are stored. First of all lets look at the terrain.png
The absolute first thing that needs to be noted is the grass. Many people get stuck at this point. The grass has 4 different texture files. 3 of them are in the terrain.png. The other is the biome shading. In the terrain.png the grass resides in these three places.
Two of them are grey. This is because they will have the biome shading applied to them. The one that is not grey is used for the grass block that is in the inventory but it is also mapped on the side of grass blocks. Make sure that the grey side grass matches the green side grass perfectly otherwise you will have some odd effects.
The next weird thing about the terrain.png is the glass. There are around 62 blocks that support transparency but only about 5 blocks that support opacity levels. Opacity is a measure of how see-through a texture is. Surprisingly glass is one of those blocks that DOES NOT support opacity. The pixels will either be there or not be there. This was a big frustration for me because I wanted to do a frosted glass texture. However, it ended up being a solid white cube. The blocks that support opacity are as follows
1)Ice
2)the 5 water blocks
If you find that you have mysterious stray pixels that you can't seem to find this is most likely caused by a very transparent pixel that is being drawn as a solid pixel by minecraft. To solve this create a new layer, fill it in with black and drop it behind your texture. That should help you see the offending pixels.
Another oddity is that the furnace and the dispenser share sides. This through me for a loop at first because I couldn't figure out which tile belonged to which block. Turns out the side tiles are used for both XD
Redstone is one that can trip many people up. Redstone can actually be drawn in two different layers. The first layer, right below the bed is what should be used for the actual redstone itself. This tile gets a red filter applied to it that changed with the state of the redstone in game. The second layer is used for any decoration to the wire. This layer stays the same color as it is in the terrain.png
Another oddity is how doors and hatches map the side textures. There is no side tile in the terrain.png, so what Minecraft does is take part of the door front and remaps it to the sides. In this pic you can see what I am referring to.
This restricts what you can put on the front of the door a tad, unless you ignore the side, which is acceptable.
Let us talk about file location. You already know that most of the files can be located in the minecraft.jar but what you may no know is exactly were they are or how they should be formatted in the .zip file. So here it is
-title (folder(f))
|---mojang.png
----mclogo.png
-terrain (f)
|---sun.png
----moon.png
----glass.png (?)
-mob (f)
|---zombie.png
----spider.png
----spider_eyes.png
----char.png
----chicken.png
----cow
----creeper.png
----ghast.png
----ghast_fire.png
----pig.png
----pigman.png
----pigzombie.png
----saddle.png
----sheep
----sheep_fur.png
----skeleton.png
----slime.png
----squid
----wolf
----wolf_angry
----wolf_tame
-misc (f)
|---water.png
----vignette.png
----shadow.png
----pumpkingblur.png
----mapicons.png
----maplog.png
----grasscolor.png
----footprint.png
----foliagecolor.png
----dial.png
-item (f)
|---sign.png
----door.png
----cart.png
----boat.png
----arrows.png
-gui (f)
|---trap.png
----slot.png
----particles.png
----items.png
----inventory.png
----icons.png
----gui.png
----furnace.png
----crafting.png
----container.png
----background.png
-font (f)
|---default.png
-enviroment (f)
|---snow.png
----rain.png
----clouds.png
-art (f)
|---kz.png
-armor (f)
|---power.png
----iron_1.png
----iron_2.png
----cloth_1.png
----cloth_2.png
----diamond_1.png
----diamond_2.png
----gold_1.png
----gold_2.png
----chain_1.png
----chain_2.png
-achievement (f)
|---bg.png
-terrain.png
-particles.png
-pack.png
-custom_water_still.png
-custom_water_flowing.png
-custom_lava_still.png
-custom_lava_flowing.png
-custom_portal.png
-custom_fire_n_s.png
-custom_fire_e_w.png
1) The tutorial must be up to date. Meaning it must not contain information that is no longer accurate. Many of these inaccuracies will actually cause problems with how minecraft runs.
2) I would prefer if the tutorial were on this site but if the tutorial is exceptional I will include it.
Format for submission:
As have I, second one on my list. :biggrin.gif:
"you're just pulling those links from cyberdragon's sticky!"
Yep, I am. What of it?
The problem with the sticky is that some of those link are out of date. I don't know if it is because Cyberdragon has "retired" from his mod position or whatever. I have included all the tutorials that are still up to date. Sadly minecrap's is not. there is some information in that tutorial that will cause texture packs to now work properly.
...and so, I present to you! the updated directory that I will keep active and updated. (I also plan on including more)
Also, could someone post something about the custom water. That's the only thing I'm really having trouble with
Check out my texture pack!