Real quick before I head off again:
2)Time to reveal your juiciest texturing secrets! What is the one brush/filter/technique/approach you couldn't live without? Why is it so awesome?
In photoshop (and on a mac), Cmd+Shift+C copies everything you can see. Lets me quickly copy my textures into my terrain.png file or check for tiling without having to screw around with merging and undoing. Invaluable for saving my time. Possibly because I'm using CS3 and its just a bit buggy when doing that (very annoying, who wants to buy me a new photoshop?)
If you could tell me why my .zip files I create using my MAC don't want to work to show the textures within minecraft yet downloaded ones do work I'll be ever so grateful!
Its annoying me. Lots of people have asked on certain posts yet theirs never an answer!
EDIT: Actually I think I just figured it out :tongue.gif: You have to use winzip instead of the usual compress within the MAC system
Compress the files instead of the folder.
(this happens all the time, and would probably be a useful addition to the guide)
In that case, I'm going to need someone to give me the low-down on how to package zip files on macs, because I've never used one before and don't plan to unless I'm stuck on a desert island with no other way to check my threads.
In that case, I'm going to need someone to give me the low-down on how to package zip files on macs, because I've never used one before and don't plan to unless I'm stuck on a desert island with no other way to check my threads.
Select all files
Right (ctrl) click
Select "Compress (some number) items"
Rename the resulting Archive.zip to your pack's name
I know how to change the water and lava and fire and stuff...
but is it possible to make a longer or shorter block breaking animation?
So I don't have to make it 10 blocks always?
I know how to change the water and lava and fire and stuff...
but is it possible to make a longer or shorter block breaking animation?
So I don't have to make it 10 blocks always?
I can answer this right off the bat. Unfortunately, the breaking animation can never be more than 10 blocks long. You could erase blocks, if you wanted, in order to make the animation shorter, but the amount of time it takes to break a block would remain the same regardless. (ie, the animation would still be running, but the frames would be invisible)
Good... I need some help with those stupid pine needles :/
Irritating things. Following the default's style gave me some interesting leaves, but useless needles :/
Okay I found a way to make some decent pine needles. I'm assuming you all know Photoshop. First, get your base dark colour (so a dark green), and then, with a 1px brush, make some small, diagonal lines jutting around the green (all in the same direction, generally about 4-7px for a 64x texture) that are a highlight colour for the needles. Then, add a motion blur in the diagonal direction all of them are facing, until the are smooth lines. Now you can add some more lines for randomness and continue to motion blur, but that is optional.
Next, duplicate this layer. Flip it horizontally, and select the blend mode to Lighten. Merge the two layers, and duplicate this combined layer. Flip it vertically, and set the blend mode to lighten. Repeat until you have a nice pattern of pine needles. Hopefully, it will turn out like mine, and be so random it tiles together fine already.
For fancy graphics, just erase some dark spots in between the needles.
This'll work for Photoshop and Paint.NET, but you're on your own for GIMP. I dunno how it does layer transparency, but if you know that, you can do it as well.
Basically, make a new layer and get a black brush. This'll be our shading. Slather it over the areas you want shaded. Then, add a Blur effect to it (very slight, just enough to soften it a bit). Pain.NET users should use a Gaussian Blur, while Photoshop has it's plain Blur that works quite well enough. Then, change the layer's opacity to below 50% somewhere until you're happy with it. For Paint.NET users, you can double-click the layer (in the Layers window) and the Properties box will popup. Change the Transparency or Alpha value here (I forget which name Paint.NET uses) to below 128 somewhere until you're happy with it.
Repeat the same exercise for highlights, except using white instead of black.
A good brush size for this (DON'T USE A PENCIL, even for 16x) is 1px for 16x, 2-3px for 32x, 4-6px for 64x. You can adjust the brush size for each resolution and individual item... the blur should allow it to be nice and even anyway.
Also, thanks so much, slinky! Gonna try that now! EDIT: Not good enough for 32x... need a different technique... I'll keep trying. But you have something with the diagonal strokes... hmm...
Also, someone suggest to Kahr to allow for the block breaking animation to be more than 10 frames, just scaled to different speed according to how many frames it has. We could use a separate file, like "custom_break_animation.png". That would make it much more versatile -- we could have some incredibly smooth animations done that way, drawn pixel by pixel instead of line by line like we generally need to do now. I, for one, would use it. It would make some awesome block breaking animations.
Also, someone suggest to Kahr to allow for the block breaking animation to be more than 10 frames, just scaled to different speed according to how many frames it has. We could use a separate file, like "custom_break_animation.png". That would make it much more versatile -- we could have some incredibly smooth animations done that way, drawn pixel by pixel instead of line by line like we generally need to do now. I, for one, would use it. It would make some awesome block breaking animations.
Yeah, I would definitely use that... I wanna make it look like claw-marks gouging out the block. That'd be awesome :biggrin.gif: But... it'll work better if I can have no frame limit.
2)Time to reveal your juiciest texturing secrets! What is the one brush/filter/technique/approach you couldn't live without? Why is it so awesome?
In photoshop (and on a mac), Cmd+Shift+C copies everything you can see. Lets me quickly copy my textures into my terrain.png file or check for tiling without having to screw around with merging and undoing. Invaluable for saving my time. Possibly because I'm using CS3 and its just a bit buggy when doing that (very annoying, who wants to buy me a new photoshop?)
I detect massive spam of adfly links incoming :biggrin.gif:
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
I haven't quite made it to tiling yet. This guide is a work-in-progress. (Hence all the broken anchors :biggrin.gif:)
@Everyone else: As always, thank for for taking the time to respond. Call all your friends over here to get them in on the action!
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
Quote of the Day: "If you think you're gonna snap, or be rude, here's an idea: Don't post." - Theevilpplz
Compress the files instead of the folder.
(this happens all the time, and would probably be a useful addition to the guide)
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
and don't plan to unless I'm stuck on a desert island with no other way to check my threads.Select all files
Right (ctrl) click
Select "Compress (some number) items"
Rename the resulting Archive.zip to your pack's name
but is it possible to make a longer or shorter block breaking animation?
So I don't have to make it 10 blocks always?
cannot comply; signature in progress
I can answer this right off the bat. Unfortunately, the breaking animation can never be more than 10 blocks long. You could erase blocks, if you wanted, in order to make the animation shorter, but the amount of time it takes to break a block would remain the same regardless. (ie, the animation would still be running, but the frames would be invisible)
Are there anymore animations I can edit?
Things like the pointer on a compass?
cannot comply; signature in progress
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think you can edit the compass needle.
Okay I found a way to make some decent pine needles. I'm assuming you all know Photoshop. First, get your base dark colour (so a dark green), and then, with a 1px brush, make some small, diagonal lines jutting around the green (all in the same direction, generally about 4-7px for a 64x texture) that are a highlight colour for the needles. Then, add a motion blur in the diagonal direction all of them are facing, until the are smooth lines. Now you can add some more lines for randomness and continue to motion blur, but that is optional.
Next, duplicate this layer. Flip it horizontally, and select the blend mode to Lighten. Merge the two layers, and duplicate this combined layer. Flip it vertically, and set the blend mode to lighten. Repeat until you have a nice pattern of pine needles. Hopefully, it will turn out like mine, and be so random it tiles together fine already.
For fancy graphics, just erase some dark spots in between the needles.
This'll work for Photoshop and Paint.NET, but you're on your own for GIMP. I dunno how it does layer transparency, but if you know that, you can do it as well.
Basically, make a new layer and get a black brush. This'll be our shading. Slather it over the areas you want shaded. Then, add a Blur effect to it (very slight, just enough to soften it a bit). Pain.NET users should use a Gaussian Blur, while Photoshop has it's plain Blur that works quite well enough. Then, change the layer's opacity to below 50% somewhere until you're happy with it. For Paint.NET users, you can double-click the layer (in the Layers window) and the Properties box will popup. Change the Transparency or Alpha value here (I forget which name Paint.NET uses) to below 128 somewhere until you're happy with it.
Repeat the same exercise for highlights, except using white instead of black.
A good brush size for this (DON'T USE A PENCIL, even for 16x) is 1px for 16x, 2-3px for 32x, 4-6px for 64x. You can adjust the brush size for each resolution and individual item... the blur should allow it to be nice and even anyway.
Also, thanks so much, slinky! Gonna try that now! EDIT: Not good enough for 32x... need a different technique... I'll keep trying. But you have something with the diagonal strokes... hmm...
Also, someone suggest to Kahr to allow for the block breaking animation to be more than 10 frames, just scaled to different speed according to how many frames it has. We could use a separate file, like "custom_break_animation.png". That would make it much more versatile -- we could have some incredibly smooth animations done that way, drawn pixel by pixel instead of line by line like we generally need to do now. I, for one, would use it. It would make some awesome block breaking animations.
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
YES!
Someone pls do! :biggrin.gif:
cannot comply; signature in progress
Donate to help me buy people Minecraft accounts!
cannot comply; signature in progress