So I have been wanting to make my own texture pack for a while now, or at least attempt it. I already have photoshop. I'm just not sure where to begin exactly. What do most of you do for inspiration on coming up with textures? Any tips or guides for a newbie, to help push me in the right direction of texturing?
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"Every time a bat gets killed, a miner falls in a pit of lava while carrying half a stack of diamonds."
So I have been wanting to make my own texture pack for a while now, or at least attempt it. I already have photoshop. I'm just not sure where to begin exactly. What do most of you do for inspiration on coming up with textures? Any tips or guides for a newbie, to help push me in the right direction of texturing?
Find the block in default that you dislike the most. Make a version that fits your vision and theme. Add it to the pack, and then pick another bock. Wash, rinse, repeat.
But in all honesty, if you don't have an idea or inspiration for a pack my advice to you is "don't". There are already loads of uninspired packs available, we don't need anymore. You should read This Thread before choosing to make a pack.
Beyond that, there are loads of tutorials around. Check out Resource Pack Discussion and Resource Pack Help for some good information on how to make a pack. Chances are if you're having a problem, someone else has had that problem before and there will be a thread for it. If you can't find one, please feel free to ask. As long as you're trying we're pretty friendly around here.
One thing you could do to get ideas is do a search for the texture challenges floating around. Most are done with but you can still try the challenge for yourself for fun and for practice. A lot of good packs have been made from these.
I quickly read other people's advice and I would suggest you to get familiar with photoshop. Or you can use another image editor that you are familiar with. Why? Because you will know how your painting/drawing tools work and which to use and when. Here is some software that I use:- Easy paint tool SAI, it have some nice tools and work with layers. one of the most simplistic to use when you are not used to painting or drawing.-photophiltre, I din't really used it much but it seams to have basic features. Caution with the bucket/ fill/ lines tools, they are mean and dangerous, (people don't like bucket filled textures)-.Paintdotnet, Free and support invisible pixels, (you will need it) + have some nice tools.beside, if you still want to use photoshop, be aware that photoshope makes huge files for nothing much but losing performance in the game, I suggest you to find a way to compress your textures.- Format factory would be a nice Free* software to compress any image or souds,, videos*I'm not sureAt last, sorry for my bad english, It's not my native language.
I'm also new to working with textures in Minecraft, but I have created them for my Blender projects. I also use the GIMP software, it's free and for me it works just as well as photoshop. I am just beginning to create my own textures for Minecraft 1.7.4 and I'm making good progress but it may take quite a while to finish. It will be well worth the effort to create a useful and beautiful resource pack that will stand the test of time.
It does take patience, and it might help to have a somewhat unique theme or vision to build on. Also I have found it useful to test each texture in game because something that looks really good in your texture editing program can look really bad when added to other textures in the game. I also test them again by switching bewteen my resource pack and the default that way I know my builds look good in both packs.
I'm just not sure where to begin exactly. What do most of you do for inspiration on coming up with textures? Any tips or guides for a newbie, to help push me in the right direction of texturing?
A good place to start is with what you like and dislike about a pack, or several packs. For instance my first texture was a fix for the annoying streaks in the default glass. But clear glass isn't enough inspiration to make a whole pack. But then again, you don't necessarily need to make a whole pack. Since 1.7 packs can easily be combined, by stacking them in the pack selector window.
In my case i came across the Faithful pack. I really like how everything was easily recognizable, and how well the style fit with mods. I liked higher res textures, but i didn't like the lack of detail, and how Faithful faithfully reproduced all the ugliness and inconsistency of the default textures. Since i didn't see much point in putting in the time to make a pack that does essentially what some other pack does as well, i looked around to see if there was another pack that had what i liked about Faithful, but didn't have what i disliked. There were a few other packs in that general area, but none that did things the way I'd like to see them.
So i started on what became Lithos: Core.
Also consider, if you don't yet have an idea for a pack of your own, you could start doing mod support for a pack you like. Some established pack authors like Rayvolution (IIRC) and myself, would be happy to link to other artists that create mod support add-ons in the style of our packs.
(Disclaimer: If you already know how to draw textures most of this post won't be too handy)
My advice would be to start off by ripping off someone else work. I know, it sounds crazy. But if you're completely new to drawing textures your best starting point is to find someone else work that's similar to a style you're interested in, and rip it to shreds. Try to figure out how they made it and then try to make textures that would blend right into that person's work like it belongs there. Once you've mastered the art of replicating someone else (Completely from scratch, no texture edits!) Do it again! Find another pack you like, and try to duplicate their style as well.
Once you've done this to a bunch of packs, then take all that you've learned and try to make up your own unique style. It's how I learned to draw textures many many years ago, long before MC. There's a lot of subtle things you pickup. Drawing textures isn't really the same as say, web graphics design.
Just keep in mind, you absolutely should not try to distribute these ripoff textures, people will probably notice pretty quick. Just use them for learning purposes only. Another obvious route is to find tutorials based on the styles you like (Cartoony, pixel art, realistic, etc) and try to duplicate their work as well.
Somewhere along the line in the learning process your inspiration will some naturally! Then, once you really get going and have your own style, post some examples in this forum and let us nitpick them apart, and we can all help you figure out out to shade and color your pack correctly.
(Disclaimer: If you already know how to draw textures most of this post won't be too handy)
My advice would be to start off by ripping off someone else work. I know, it sounds crazy. But if you're completely new to drawing textures your best starting point is to find someone else work that's similar to a style you're interested in, and rip it to shreds. Try to figure out how they made it and then try to make textures that would blend right into that person's work like it belongs there. Once you've mastered the art of replicating someone else (Completely from scratch, no texture edits!) Do it again! Find another pack you like, and try to duplicate their style as well.
Once you've done this to a bunch of packs, then take all that you've learned and try to make up your own unique style. It's how I learned to draw textures many many years ago, long before MC. There's a lot of subtle things you pickup. Drawing textures isn't really the same as say, web graphics design.
Just keep in mind, you absolutely should not try to distribute these ripoff textures, people will probably notice pretty quick. Just use them for learning purposes only. Another obvious route is to find tutorials based on the styles you like (Cartoony, pixel art, realistic, etc) and try to duplicate their work as well.
Somewhere along the line in the learning process your inspiration will some naturally! Then, once you really get going and have your own style, post some examples in this forum and let us nitpick them apart, and we can all help you figure out out to shade and color your pack correctly.
Thanks. This post was pretty helpful.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Every time a bat gets killed, a miner falls in a pit of lava while carrying half a stack of diamonds."
"Every time a bat gets killed, a miner falls in a pit of lava while carrying half a stack of diamonds."
But in all honesty, if you don't have an idea or inspiration for a pack my advice to you is "don't". There are already loads of uninspired packs available, we don't need anymore. You should read This Thread before choosing to make a pack.
Beyond that, there are loads of tutorials around. Check out Resource Pack Discussion and Resource Pack Help for some good information on how to make a pack. Chances are if you're having a problem, someone else has had that problem before and there will be a thread for it. If you can't find one, please feel free to ask. As long as you're trying we're pretty friendly around here.
I hope that helps you.
I'm also new to working with textures in Minecraft, but I have created them for my Blender projects. I also use the GIMP software, it's free and for me it works just as well as photoshop. I am just beginning to create my own textures for Minecraft 1.7.4 and I'm making good progress but it may take quite a while to finish. It will be well worth the effort to create a useful and beautiful resource pack that will stand the test of time.
It does take patience, and it might help to have a somewhat unique theme or vision to build on. Also I have found it useful to test each texture in game because something that looks really good in your texture editing program can look really bad when added to other textures in the game. I also test them again by switching bewteen my resource pack and the default that way I know my builds look good in both packs.
A good place to start is with what you like and dislike about a pack, or several packs. For instance my first texture was a fix for the annoying streaks in the default glass. But clear glass isn't enough inspiration to make a whole pack. But then again, you don't necessarily need to make a whole pack. Since 1.7 packs can easily be combined, by stacking them in the pack selector window.
In my case i came across the Faithful pack. I really like how everything was easily recognizable, and how well the style fit with mods. I liked higher res textures, but i didn't like the lack of detail, and how Faithful faithfully reproduced all the ugliness and inconsistency of the default textures. Since i didn't see much point in putting in the time to make a pack that does essentially what some other pack does as well, i looked around to see if there was another pack that had what i liked about Faithful, but didn't have what i disliked. There were a few other packs in that general area, but none that did things the way I'd like to see them.
So i started on what became Lithos: Core.
Also consider, if you don't yet have an idea for a pack of your own, you could start doing mod support for a pack you like. Some established pack authors like Rayvolution (IIRC) and myself, would be happy to link to other artists that create mod support add-ons in the style of our packs.
• Follow Lithos on Twitter for release announcments
* Join the Lithos Discord for previews and to help
My advice would be to start off by ripping off someone else work. I know, it sounds crazy. But if you're completely new to drawing textures your best starting point is to find someone else work that's similar to a style you're interested in, and rip it to shreds. Try to figure out how they made it and then try to make textures that would blend right into that person's work like it belongs there. Once you've mastered the art of replicating someone else (Completely from scratch, no texture edits!) Do it again! Find another pack you like, and try to duplicate their style as well.
Once you've done this to a bunch of packs, then take all that you've learned and try to make up your own unique style. It's how I learned to draw textures many many years ago, long before MC. There's a lot of subtle things you pickup. Drawing textures isn't really the same as say, web graphics design.
Just keep in mind, you absolutely should not try to distribute these ripoff textures, people will probably notice pretty quick. Just use them for learning purposes only. Another obvious route is to find tutorials based on the styles you like (Cartoony, pixel art, realistic, etc) and try to duplicate their work as well.
Somewhere along the line in the learning process your inspiration will some naturally! Then, once you really get going and have your own style, post some examples in this forum and let us nitpick them apart, and we can all help you figure out out to shade and color your pack correctly.
Thanks. This post was pretty helpful.
"Every time a bat gets killed, a miner falls in a pit of lava while carrying half a stack of diamonds."