Can someone share "how to make good custom tiles"?

[idontknow]

I just dont know how to make good tiles--i can't even fathom how anyone can just create sprites (such as for link) out of nowhere--i want to make my own but how does one design tiles that look good? It is very difficult for me to do so because of the graphics & yet many of the tilesets look really good.

[Freedom]

I'm a poor poor artist IDK, but some of my sprites have come out ok.
What I do is start with an existing sprite and continue to change it until it looks like what I had invisioned.
sometimes it takes me hours to get one little sprite the way I want it.
sometimes I just settle for what I've got and move on.

The way I look at it if someone wants to critisize my sprites they are more then welcome to draw me some better.

[Radien ZC]

The difference between making character sprites and customizing "setting" tiles is quite great. If you would like to simply alter existing Link tiles, Freedom's method is the best bet. There really isn't much else to say if you're just going to tweak Link tiles.

However, if you would like to try your hand at creating character sprites from scratch, here's what I recommend:

1. Look for sprites with a style you like, and study them. For 16x16 sprites, every pixel is important. And since they're so small, some layouts are used quite frequently. In particular, pay attention to exactly where the eyes are placed, the outline of the face, the length of the arms, and the size of the head.

2. I say "from scratch," but nobody's going to fault you for using a ripped sprite as your "skeleton" if you're going to edit it so much that there's no recognizable connection.

3. Decide what needs detail and what doesn't. 16x16 is also very small, so you have to deform some things and leave others out. This also goes for colors, if you make your own palette. For instance, take a look at my quest's character, Serenia:

http://bluecrescent.rpgcafe.net/zelda/serenia-walk-anim.gif

Most of the tile and the palette are dedicated to her face and hair. I didn't try to add a nose (not even in the side view, which isn't shown here) and I only gave two colors to her tunic.

Lastly, let me emphasize again how important a few pixels are. The most important part is the eyes. Where they are situated and how big they are will determine how big the other bodily features will be, and the shape determines the "style" and maybe even personality (I went for a "cute" look here, so I imitated Riese's eyes from Seiken Densetsu 2, and used one pixel on each pupil to make her eyes green).

That's all for now. Feel free to look me up at PureZC for a quick reply. My nick is just "Radien" there.

[PolygonX8]

Radien explained it quite nicely, but when it coems down to this... it also takes much practice. I remember when I started with my first Metroid style quest, everything looked like crap, and with what I can do now... is great.

Besides all of the things Radien listed above, your 16x16 character sprites should have big heads, because that's pretty much the style of ZC.

Editing from an existing sprite like Link, as Freedom mentioned, can be a great way to start. It's how I started. It pretty much gives you a frame to edit from, and then all you have to do is shape it up quite a bit until you really get what you want. When creating Link, use the CSet 6 to your advantage. All 15 of those colors... use all of them and create darker and brighter ones of each to do some nice shading.

I'm very picky with my sprites, and evne if one pixel is off... it bothers me. I take about an hour just doing one little sprite, that way it comes out how I want. Then, as for animating it... that's less time because all you need to do is make small changes.

Spirtes can be a hard thing to do well, but IMO, landscape is even harder... and I can't even do that. I wish you luck on your endeavors, idontknow. :) Practice makes perfect, as they say.

[ShadowTiger]

Well, here's a short tip for you if you want to compare two tiles very quickly. Hold in CTRL, and press a direction to go instantly one tile in that direction on the tiles page. It saves the tile you were working on or viewing as well. So just Hold in CTRL and press left and right really fast, and you'll see what you like to compare between two tiles. :)


BTW, IDK, I am NOT a great artist. My pencil sketches are all horrible; I have no sense of proportion or depth whatsoever, .. um.. etc. And in Pixel art, the only thing I can really do well are items. (Because they're cool! :D :laughing: ) So don't worry about it if you're "not good at pixel art." A lot of us aren't. I just keep hammering away at it until it looks semi-presentable. I'm just a persistant bugger. :p The only times I stop is when something else interests me. So don't go thinking that everyone else is better than you, because it' s just not true. (Well, in some sense, it is, but not really. :p ) .. Okay, here are a few tips.

1) Black Outline: You may think that everything needs one, and this is semi-true. Some things can use darker colors to emulate this black outline, AND it also adds shading.
2) Motion is exaggerated in people. NOT in sprites. In Sprites, you can do whatever you'd like. In slow moving people's characteristics, like hair, hair moves slowly, pixel by pixel bunch if they're standing still. If they're moving, they have two frames of animation. :p That's it!
3) My sister has demanded the computer. :sweat:

[Bandeira]

Here's my entry on pixelating help:

http://tsugumo.swoo.net/tutorial/

It's a very good tutorial, specially about terrain, the tilesets themselves.

Note: the tutorial explains how to draw pixels in any situation, unlinked to any game creating programs.

[Freedom]

great site, but you should start a new thread for it, it will probably be missed in this thread, and MANY would be interest here in your work.

Thanks for sharing it.

[davidballardjr]

When I made my "Gina's Journey" quests I used existing tilesets and I also drew some of the tiles I used in them. What I did was used graph paper and made 16 x 16 (4 in. x 4 in.) square boxes and drew the tiles in that box by coloring in the little squares with different colored pencils. What I also did was that I kept some of the enemy sprite tiles and the Link tiles and drew other ones. It's hard but in the end you may get decent custom tiles.

[zael]

Ihave a template at this address: http://www.filespace.org/zael/template.doc

[*b*]

a special template? how would that work for making custom tiles? is it like a grid or something?

[zael]

yes it is a 16x16 grid for hand sketches. there are 6 to a page.

[Questwizard88]

Usually the hardest things to make are people and especially the custom tiles. Although my skills on paper are absolutely horrible (can't even draw a simple little sword the right way), my skills on the computer are quite good. What I usually try to do is get a picture of what I'm trying to draw in my mind, then make a quick and sloppy drawing, which is usually nothing more than a black outline with a couple colors filled in.

I make several copies of each thing right next to the original, edit each one a different way, then pick which one looks the best. I usually do about 6 drawings for everything I make, which means I have lots of choices to choose the best one from. Once I pick the one I think is the best, I make a couple of copies of it, and then start adding the details (shading, small details, things like that). If I absolutely have to, I will occasionally use an external graphics editor to do some fine tuning. Sometimes, I will even blur the tiles some, to give them a slightly smoother look. If it looks bad, I simply don't use it, and just make a new one.

I'll have more later, and maybe an example or two of the process I use to draw something.

EDIT: Here's a bit of advice on shading things correctly:

1) The most important of them all. Shading is supposed to give depth to something, not just make it use more colors. Areas around the black border, or around the edge of something should be darker than what is further inside.

2) Always try to use colors that match up when shading. For example, don't use a medium gray color as the brightest color, and then just go straight to red for example. Make a color in between the gray and red, and use that. It helps to make your shading look smoother.

3) For those who think there are not enough colors in a cset to produce any good shading, you may be wrong. For example, if cset 5 has 3 colors for grass, 3 for dirt, 3 for sand, and 3 for snow, try to make the sand colors a lighter brown, while still making it look like sandy colors, but make the dirt colors darker brown. If done just right, you will have 6 brown shades for making mountain tiles, etc. Make sure the darkest sand color is just slightly brighter than the lightest dirt color though, or this may look bad.