Welcome to the Texture Pack Academy, a major resource for texture pack creation. Here you will find everything from useful links to tutorials on how to get you started. This Academy is also for the advanced as well! Nobody likes uncreative packs so hopefully the following links should give you a head start to making your very on texture pack. This first post is my section, the second is TheMirror's and 3rd is 42and19's share. They are all great places to check out.
Pixel Art & Texturing
One of the most important sections, tutorials on texturing from 16x to 512x.
Texture Pack File Guide
-This is really important to read if you are a beginner, explains all the files in a texture pack. By TheFool_76
Anti-Aliasing for True Beginners
-This is pretty much a must read for those who have no pixel art talent. Try not to take that personally.. Yet another great tutorial by Leostereo.
How to Make a Texture Pack
-A little less detailed, but this explains the files as well as publishing, posting, etc. Applies to Windows & for Macs. By MacMCServerSupport.
Technical
Various tutorials on posting, copyright and general technical stuff.
Protect your Art Work
-Guide by aaegon. Concentrates on copyrighting your work, if you are serious about it.
Installation & Creation
-A thread which has a group of tutorials for zipping, creating hd textures, where to find files, etc. By Minecrap.
Programs
A variety of free and costly programs for image manipulation
Paint
-A well known free program for image editing. Fairly basic and does not support image transparency. For Windows only.
GIMP
-GIMP is a versatile image manipulation program. Well known and used by many pixel artists. For Windows & Mac.
Adobe Photoshop
-Photoshop is one of the best programs you can get, though it costs $$$. Personally I think it is worth it because it is what I use. For Windows & Mac.
Pixen
-Pixen is another free image manipulation program. It was especially made for pixel artists, so this may be a good choice. For Mac only.
Utilities & Tools
Multiple tools to start textuing
Default Texture Pack [All Resolutions]
-A great thread that offers a download on every resolution so you don't have to change it yourself. By Gestankfaust.
Want to submit your tutorial or guide? Let us know using this application!
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.
Note: Another, easier method of finding the texture pack folder is to open Minecraft, click on the texture packs and mods button then click open texture pack folder.
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
How to Create a Texture Pack
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.
File Locations
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
A texture pack is a modification that changes the overall look and feel of Minecraft without modifying any of the gameplay elements. It does not remove or add anything to the game, it just simply changes the appearance of in-game things such as blocks, mobs, items, GUI and more.
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The titles confuse me! What is this moonspeak?
Allow me to demonstrate!
1- The Resolution (We'll get to that.)
2- The version of Minecraft the texture pack supports. (Current is 1.7.3!)
3- Stating the pack in question is a Work In Progress, meaning they're still working on it.
The rest is simply the title of the pack and extra info!
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What's all this resolution gibberish?
The resolution is the amount of pixels in one block/texture. For example, the default texture is "16x16", or "16x". This means each texture has a 16 by 16 pixel canvas. A 32x resolution pack is more detailed, while a 64x is even more detailed and so on and so forth with the higher resolutions.
RESOLUTIONS ABOVE 16x REQUIRE MCPATCHER! Be careful about using a higher resolution pack as it could make your Minecraft run very slowly.
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I want to make a texture pack! MSpaint's all I need, yeah?
Nope!
To make a texture pack, you should have this entire list filled out:
Image Editing Software (GIMP or Paint.net) [NO MSPAINT!!]
Determination and Dedication! - It takes a lot to make a pack.
Time! - It takes time to make a pack!
Strong will! - There's always negative input; You gotta be able to handle that! (Don't be a Crona!)
An idea! - We do not need more simple packs. You need an idea before you start making a pack!
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I can't think of anything. Can I make a simple pack now?
No! We don't need more simple packs!!
It's very simple to think of a texture pack theme, really. You could make one with a certain 'theme'; perhaps halloween-y, christmas-y, [insert holiday here]-y, anything! Perhaps you'd like to make one based off a TV show, video game or book you enjoy. I based my first pack off of Soul Eater, an anime I enjoy(alot).
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Uh.. Well I have my idea. The name will be..
Hang on a sec there, tiger. First you need to do research! Make sure the name you want to pick isn't taken, or else there will be lots of confusion. Try to avoid using names such as "DuckCraft" or "CraftCraftCraft", because that's used a lot. Instead, come up with something that sounds nice. for example, if your pack was about ducks, you could name it "Quackers" or something nice like that.
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Now can I fill in all the textures with one color, yeah?
No, damnit!
Now you need to either download a base pack to work on or just edit the default textures. Be sure to not release any textures that are not yours, though (default are fine) unless the owner of the texture pack you used allows redistribution of their textures.
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But where do I start, then?
Open "terrain.png" in your image editing program of choice. Then, take a go at whatever texture you feel you have a set idea for. For example, my pack was inspired by the moon in Soul Eater, so the very first thing I did was make the moon! Just listen to your inspiration on what you should try first and go for it.
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I'm having trouble with this one texture..
Ask for help! Don't worry, we here in Texture Packs are nice and only bite on moderate occasions. Just post a thread with a screenshot of the texture you're having an issue with, state the problem and ask for help!
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Big Emporium of Texturing Tutorials? Wuzzat?
That's this section! In this section, I will link to VARIOUS tutorials on the actual process of drawing and making textures. (I might write a few myself, lol.) The Texture Pack University! - A great thread that is definitely worth checkin' out! MLGM's Texturing Lessons - Huge thread fulla' stuff!
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I wanna make a thread now!
Well, that's great. Let's go over some things first though.
First, you need to make sure you are using the PROPER TITLE FORMAT, which goes as such:
One last thing!
You need to write a copyright license for your pack. You don't want anybody stealing your hard work, do you? Didn't think so!
It doesn't have to be eloquent lawyerspeak, you can just use common vernacular to make one. Here's an example:
Users are allowed to use this pack freely ingame. If you upload any textures from this pack, or the pack itself, it will be subject to removal.
Make sure you point out that you don't want people to re-upload your textures. Unless you want 'em to, which is cool, too.
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How do I upload my pack?
It's pretty simple!
Just go to www.mediafire.com, upload your pack and then put the download link in your thread! Dunno if I have to go in-depth with this one or not.
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How do I update my pack?
Simply re-upload your pack to Mediafire (Name the new version something different, like "v2" or something) and then change the download link in your thread (edit the original post!). Be sure to also post screenshots of stuff you add!
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Someone said they didn't like my pack. Do I curse them out?
No! Negative input is the foundation of improvement because it shows you what you need to work on. Listen to all types of replies and comments! I don't care if they're saying your pack is godly or if they're saying it's rotten sewage, always listen to it. You'll get better that way!
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Someone stole my pack! What do I do?
If it's here on the Minecraft Forums, first ask them kindly in a PM or post to remove the pack. If they don't comply, report their topic/post to a moderator.
If it's elsewhere, report them to the host of the website via e-mail. Be kind and formal!
Important Notice: This thread has now been officially bookmarked by TheMormon, whose In-game-name is, in fact, TheMormon, for future use in the creation of texture packs and possibly forum signatures and avatars if boredom strikes.
Actually only once. :biggrin.gif: I used to write my class notes like that to save me time. I also have shorthand for a lot of common words. Most other people can't even begin to read them :biggrin.gif:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Look, I don't care if your 8 or 20. If you can't take criticism or opinions, then get off the internet." -Stronghold257
Actually only once. :biggrin.gif: I used to write my class notes like that to save me time. I also have shorthand for a lot of common words. Most other people can't even begin to read them :biggrin.gif:
Texturing Lessons For All Levels
-A topic I made myself, has multiple tutorials on most subjects.
How to make a nice-looking Simple Pack
-A nice tutorial by NorthernerSouth. Great for spicing up your simple pack.
Learn the Art of Texturing
-A somewhat in-depth group of tutorials covering basics on tools and general texturing. By WoodPuncher
The Art of Coloring
-An excellent in-depth tutorial by Leostereo explaining how to choose colors for a pack (Important)
Guide to Texturing for 32x
-A very nice in-depth tutorial on how to texture for 32x. By steelfeathers.
The Guide to Good Texturing
-Yet another great tutorial for texturing stone and wooden planks. By FrigginSandvich
How to make Cobblstone & Planks
-A well-done tutorial by Leostereo explaining how to texture various blocks.
Texture Pack File Guide
-This is really important to read if you are a beginner, explains all the files in a texture pack. By TheFool_76
Anti-Aliasing for True Beginners
-This is pretty much a must read for those who have no pixel art talent. Try not to take that personally.. Yet another great tutorial by Leostereo.
How to Make a Texture Pack
-A little less detailed, but this explains the files as well as publishing, posting, etc. Applies to Windows & for Macs. By MacMCServerSupport.
Protect your Art Work
-Guide by aaegon. Concentrates on copyrighting your work, if you are serious about it.
Animating Water & Lava using GIMP
-A great, in-depth tutorial by Pscientist. This tutorial is mostly for beginners.
Installation & Creation
-A thread which has a group of tutorials for zipping, creating hd textures, where to find files, etc. By Minecrap.
Paint
-A well known free program for image editing. Fairly basic and does not support image transparency. For Windows only.
GIMP
-GIMP is a versatile image manipulation program. Well known and used by many pixel artists. For Windows & Mac.
Adobe Photoshop
-Photoshop is one of the best programs you can get, though it costs $$$. Personally I think it is worth it because it is what I use. For Windows & Mac.
Pixen
-Pixen is another free image manipulation program. It was especially made for pixel artists, so this may be a good choice. For Mac only.
Default Texture Pack [All Resolutions]
-A great thread that offers a download on every resolution so you don't have to change it yourself. By Gestankfaust.
Want to submit your tutorial or guide? Let us know using this application!
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.
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.
Note: Another, easier method of finding the texture pack folder is to open Minecraft, click on the texture packs and mods button then click open texture pack folder.
16x pack with fire/water/lava animations and HD packs: MCpatcher method
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
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 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
I have decided to do the rest of my tutorials in the form of videos. Here is the first one on planks
http://www.youtube.com/user/42and19?feature=mhee#p/u
1- The Resolution (We'll get to that.)
2- The version of Minecraft the texture pack supports. (Current is 1.7.3!)
3- Stating the pack in question is a Work In Progress, meaning they're still working on it.
The rest is simply the title of the pack and extra info!
Be careful about using a higher resolution pack as it could make your Minecraft run very slowly.
To make a texture pack, you should have this entire list filled out:
It's very simple to think of a texture pack theme, really. You could make one with a certain 'theme'; perhaps halloween-y, christmas-y, [insert holiday here]-y, anything! Perhaps you'd like to make one based off a TV show, video game or book you enjoy. I based my first pack off of Soul Eater, an anime I enjoy(alot).
Now you need to either download a base pack to work on or just edit the default textures. Be sure to not release any textures that are not yours, though (default are fine) unless the owner of the texture pack you used allows redistribution of their textures.
The Texture Pack University! - A great thread that is definitely worth checkin' out!
MLGM's Texturing Lessons - Huge thread fulla' stuff!
First, you need to make sure you are using the PROPER TITLE FORMAT, which goes as such:
Make sure you do it like that.
Next, you need pictures. Remember: Linking to your hard-drive doesn't work! We can't get into your computer and look through all of your files!
If you don't know how to post an image to a post, you don't just put the link. To make the image show up in your post, you gotta use this code:
For example:
I could link to this tiny picture of Maka..
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/quiz/648000/648694_1311059810829_50.jpg?v=1311059869
Or I could just use the code above!
Which produces:
Doesn't that look much better? We all agree, too.
One last thing!
You need to write a copyright license for your pack. You don't want anybody stealing your hard work, do you? Didn't think so!
It doesn't have to be eloquent lawyerspeak, you can just use common vernacular to make one. Here's an example:
Make sure you point out that you don't want people to re-upload your textures. Unless you want 'em to, which is cool, too.
Just go to www.mediafire.com, upload your pack and then put the download link in your thread! Dunno if I have to go in-depth with this one or not.
If it's elsewhere, report them to the host of the website via e-mail. Be kind and formal!
Quote of the Day: "If you think you're gonna snap, or be rude, here's an idea: Don't post." - Theevilpplz
This post will be kept here for your submissions! If you'd like to submit a tutorial of your own, use the application above! (First post)
Quote of the Day: "If you think you're gonna snap, or be rude, here's an idea: Don't post." - Theevilpplz
I'm glad you like it, this will soon be a mega thread :tongue.gif:
Well, it can't be dull, now can it? :wink.gif:
EDIT: This is an awesome 42nd post. :biggrin.gif:
Sort of, you could add those, but I meant to clip the text a bit so it doesn't take so much space.
*buckles down to do some editing*
∂ ∆ ƒ ß
I just wrote hello, in alt language :wink.gif: