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I spent about 4 hours on this, please diamond if you like. The last few were deleted for some reason. I will try to get them back.
Part I, Introduction.
There are many texture packs posted here on PMC. Some are fantastic packs made by experts who spent hours on the pack, making it as perfect as they can. There are some good packs, made by people with moderate experience, who spent thier time making thier packs as good as they can. There are some decent packs, made by those who are still relatively new to texturing and still are learning how to get thier blocks perfect. And there are some bad packs, made by those with no experience in art, and need serious help learning how to texture. This blog is designed to have some useful information for a texturer of any level, and to provide ideas and inspiration for everyone.
This blog will be divided into sections, to provide and easier time finding information on what you need help with.
· Part I, Introduction.
· Part II, Files and Programs.
· Part III, Design and Shading.
· Part IV, Tiling.
· Part V, Coloring.
· Part VI, Theme.
· Part VII, Consistency.
· Part VIII, Style.
· Part IX, MCPatcher/Optifine Features.
· Part X, Posting Your Pack.
· Part XI, Common Mistakes.
· Part XII, Other Useful Guides.
If you feel that a section should be added, or is missing important information, please leave a comment and give ideas on how to improve.
Part II, Files and Programs.
The first recommended program is 7zip. It is a file opener specifically designed for opening compressed folders (.zip). There are other alternatives though, such as Winrar or Winzip. Every Minecraft texture pack needs a .zip to load from. The .zip must contain all edited files, and the files must be inside of thier original folder and not renamed.
Minecraft uses several files to load textures from. Each file does various things, and is located in a different section of the .zip containing your texture pack. The files needed to create the texture pack can be found inside of your minecraft.jar, you will need all of the following files and folders to create a full pack.
· Achievement (Folder)
· Armor (Folder)
· Art (Folder)
· Environment (Folder)
· GUI (Folder)
· Item (Folder)
· Misc (Folder)
· Mob (Folder)
· Terrain (Folder)
· Title (Folder)
· Pack.png
· Pack.txt
· Terrain.png.
Each of these files are important in thier own way, though some are quite frankly more important than others. Not all of these files need to be put into your texture pack's .zip, only the files that you edited. This helps improve the download time and reduce clutter in your .zip.
Next, you need a proper program to edit your pack in. You must use a program that supports transparency, which means that you cannot use MSPaint. There are 3 main programs that most texturers use. GIMP, Paint.net, and Photoshop. Both GIMP and Paint.net are free, Photoshop is not.
GIMP:The GNU Image Manipulation Program. This program can be tricky to get used to at first, due to it's rather unique GUI and some odd saving features, but it is a good program and is used by many texturers and skinners. When using gimp, remember, export, don't save.
http://www.gimp.org/
Paint.net: Annother popular program. Simpler than GIMP, but does not have as many features. Still contains everything you would need for creating texture packs.
http://www.getpaint.net/
Photoshop: One of the most complicated image editors ever, but has loads of features and tricks. Once you learn how to use it, it is one of the best programs to use, if you can afford it. Can be used for any style of texture, including vector packs like BD Craft with the right plugins.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
I highly recommend trying these and seeing which one works best for you. If you cannot afford Photoshop, I am sure you can make due with one of the other programs after practice. But I honestly wouldn't buy Photoshop unless you plan on becomming a serious digital artist, it is too expensive to buy for just texturing.
So, to wrap up our files and programs section, I am going to teach you how your texture pack should look inside of the .zip. You will often see people put a file in thier .zip containing all of the texture files such as terrain.png and everything else. DO NOT DO THIS. Your pack will be unusable if you do this. Instead, just simply drag all of the files into the .zip as they would appear in the .jar. If you feel you need an example, download a few packs and take a look inside of them, it would really help if you still don't understand.
Part III, Design and Shading.
These are two of the most important things in a good pack next to the color and theme. The design of the block adds unique flavor to the pack, and the shading adds depth and makes the pack look 3D. When the two combine, you can often get a fantastic texture.
There are a couple of things you should think about when creating a new design for a block.
· Has this been done before? If it has, how can I make it original?
· Does it look good?
Chances are, the design you have come up with has been done before. You need to make it your own to seperate your pack from the others, and to help it stand out. How can you do this? That is simple, add some personal flairs. For example:
Here we have a basic stone brick design.
What can we do to make it more unique? Well, change it up a bit. For example, we could make if off aligned and create an optical illusion in game.
Well, that still has been done before. So we edit the texture and make it even more unique!
So, as you can see, we took a plain brick texture, changed the alignment, and roughened it up to make it more unique and cool. There are much more things you can do with this and other different designs, this is just one idea, you don't have to use it.
But more important than design is shading. Every texture pack needs shading, even the simple ones. I have never seen a good pack that had no shading at all in it. Know why? Because there really are no good packs without shading. Shading is the most important aspect of texturing, and must be mastered before you can make great textures.
First thing, is to pick a light source. A common one is the top left of the block, and I would recommend using this one. Think of all of the bumps and cracks that would be in the texture, then think about how the light would react the the cracks placement and size, and begin shading.
First, I recommend applying the lightest shadows, this will help you begin to form the block.
Next, apply the lightest highlights, don't forget factors such as reflected light and depth shading. You should begin to notice more depth becoming apparent.
Repeat the process until you have all of the shading you feel is needed. Don't be afraid to add more shadows and highlights to wherever you think is necessary.
Remember, parts that stick further out of the texture should be shaded lighter, this will give it a more 3D effect.
Part IV, Tiling.
Tiling is something that a lot of new texturers struggle with. Tiling is how the blocks come together, and how well the pattern shows. Typically, you want patterns to b not too noticable in textures, and for the block to be somewhat seamless. Now, there is a difference between a seamless texture and a texture that tiles, for example.
This texture tiles well.
This texture is seamless.
See the difference? While the edges are not seeable, there is still a very clear pattern and tiling issue.
There are more than just one possible tiling issue.
Pattern error: Where part of a pattern doesn't fit.
Edge error: Where an edge or multiple edges don't match up.
Shading error: Where a pattern is made noticable from shading.
The only way to fix tiling errors is to slowly edit the texture, and check often for patterns. If it gets to a point where you cannot fix the error no matter what, you may have to remake the texture. Don't worry though, after some practice you will be able to fix nearly any tiling issue.
Part V, Coloring.
For me, this is what makes or breaks a pack. A good and unique color scheme can make a pack fantastic, or awful. There are a few things to do to make your colors fit will together. Find the general color of the pack (Example, if the pack is generally yellowisn, greenish, or brownish.), and make your colors have a slight tint of that color to them. This will help you with your colors, and will make the whole pack match well.
Mixing colors is something that can be a but tricky at first, but with practice can be one of the easier things to do. First, you need to make sure your color is not too saturated. No color should ever be at 100% saturation in your pack, at most try to keep it under 90%. This is just to make your colors less harsh and not burn your eyes when you look at them.
Also, never use pure RGB colors. Do not use these colors, no matter what. They are quite frankly bad, and you should avoid them at all costs.
Next, try to put hue shifting into your textures. Hue shifting is where as the colors get darker, they become slightly more purple, and as they get brighter they become more yellowish. For example, here is a hue shifted red:
You will notice that as the color gets darker, it also becomes slightly more saturated, and as it gets brighter it becomes less saturated. This is to match the effects of natural lighting, and to add a bit more contrast to the colors.
Part VI, Theme.
Theme can be one of the most fun things to come up with in a pack. There is an incredible ammount of room for creativity. The main thing about theme is sticking to it. You have to think about the theme of your pack, and think what the world would look like if it had that theme. What the colors would be, what the blocks would look like, and even just how the pack feels. A hard part about theme though is that there are only a few that are not done to death. A few of these are cartoon, horror, and modern. There are not too many packs of those themes because it can be difficult to come up with ways to ame the blocks match the theme, and still be original. Also, those themes tend to change gameplay drastically, and do not fit with most builds. So you want to make sure your theme can fit in with pre-existing stuff, but al
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