Creating your own tiles, monsters etc

[monkeyman1188]

So i bought the game character hub thinking i could do characters, monsters AND tiles pieces but i can only do characters which is NOT worth the money i paid.

without having to pay lots of silly money to get tiles and monsters that you don't want, I'd rather build my own monsters that i'd like and my own tile pieces.

Does anyone know what software i need to do that?

thank you

rob

 

[Zoltor]

So i bought the game character hub thinking i could do characters, monsters AND tiles pieces but i can only do characters which is NOT worth the money i paid.

without having to pay lots of silly money to get tiles and monsters that you don't want, I'd rather build my own monsters that i'd like and my own tile pieces.

Does anyone know what software i need to do that?

thank you

rob

You can use any art program really. All enemies are, are straight up PNG pics, no special format or anything. As for tiles, each A type require a special format, except for A-5. A-5, and B-E just need to be 32x32 pixels

 

[TheAwakeJake]

Usually I just draw them on paper and then scan them to edit.

 

[Zoltor]

Usually I just draw them on paper and then scan them to edit.

That doesn't really work, because then you get a off-white background, that's pretty much impossible to completely remove.

 

[Valentor Denesto]

I do the same as Jake. And if you draw them in black on white paper, then you just have to use the magic wand tool to select the white and delete it. Viola! Then all you have is the black outline on a transparent background and you can edit/color away!

 

[Sharm]

Zoltor: It works just fine if you know how to do it. I used to do it all the time before I got my first tablet.


monkeyman1188: What you paid for was a program set up for easy combinations of existing resources, the selling pack of that program was never meant to be the resources themselves. If you want more resources to put into the program you're not looking for a program, you're looking for art. That's why the responses have been "any art program". I know of a few modular tiles and backgrounds, a number of them for faces and busts, and there's lots of modular pieces for sprites, but modular stuff for monsters is harder. The only thing that's even close that I know of are some art packs for Spriter, but I don't know for certain if you can mix and match the parts or not. It's going to work out a lot better for you if you do them yourself or commission an artist to make the stuff you need. One big reason you don't see modular pieces for making monsters is because it makes the poses of the created monsters extremely set and stiff. Most people want dynamic monsters, meaning they're all created individually. The other reason is that monsters can be any size or shape or whatever, so making pieces that interact becomes practically impossible.

 

[Zoltor]

I do the same as Jake. And if you draw them in black on white paper, then you just have to use the magic wand tool to select the white and delete it. Viola! Then all you have is the black outline on a transparent background and you can edit/color away!

That only works if there aren't small spaces in the background. If the char/enemy has a lot of hair or fancy equipment, yea good luck with that.

Even on my one char who doesn't have long hair or whatnot, I was still only able to get 80% of that backing out.

To Sharm: It's not by any means, a precise tool, not even close.

 

[Valentor Denesto]

Have you tried the "Select by Color" tool in Gimp? It selects every pixel of a similar color in the artwork. I've never had an issue removing the background. If you want to color your art before scanning it and you plan on having any white (or similar color to the background) then all you have to do it add that coloring once you scan it in. So you delete all the background similar colors and then recolor in the white spaces.

 

[Zoltor]

Have you tried the "Select by Color" tool in Gimp? It selects every pixel of a similar color in the artwork. I've never had an issue removing the background. If you want to color your art before scanning it and you plan on having any white (or similar color to the background) then all you have to do it add that coloring once you scan it in. So you delete all the background similar colors and then recolor in the white spaces.

No, I don't use GIMP, I use Photoshop. However if that can even detect the a single pixel, that sounds like it may be a viable option.

 

[Valentor Denesto]

Yeah I have both Gimp and Photoshop. And Gimp is free so there's no reason you can't transfer your pieces between the two.

 

[Sharm]

To Sharm: It's not by any means, a precise tool, not even close.

I have no idea what you're talking about here.


Okay, just so you guys stop arguing about it, I will tell you 3 different ways to delete backgrounds for a non-colored image.


FIRST: Scan the image much larger than what you're trying to do. Adjust the levels until there are only 2 colors, black and white. Delete the white. Reduce the image size to get the anti-aliasing back.


SECOND: Adjust the levels until the lines are clear and most of the paper texture is gone. (This works best if you're working on bristol, printer, or some other smooth paper and using ink for the lines.) Set the layer to multiply, do all coloring and such underneath that layer.


THIRD: This one needs a higher end program like Photoshop. Should be possible in GIMP, but I've never tried it. Adjust the levels the same way as the second method. Load the selection of the RGB channel, then invert the selection. On a new layer fill selection with black, delete the original layer.


If you want to use a colored image that gets harder, making good use of levels, anti-aliased selection tools and masking tools are the easiest and fastest ways I know. It actually doesn't take too much time if you work big and get used to the work flow.

 

[Zoltor]

I have no idea what you're talking about here.


Okay, just so you guys stop arguing about it, I will tell you 3 different ways to delete backgrounds for a non-colored image.


FIRST: Scan the image much larger than what you're trying to do. Adjust the levels until there are only 2 colors, black and white. Delete the white. Reduce the image size to get the anti-aliasing back.


SECOND: Adjust the levels until the lines are clear and most of the paper texture is gone. (This works best if you're working on bristol, printer, or some other smooth paper and using ink for the lines.) Set the layer to multiply, do all coloring and such underneath that layer.


THIRD: This one needs a higher end program like Photoshop. Should be possible in GIMP, but I've never tried it. Adjust the levels the same way as the second method. Load the selection of the RGB channel, then invert the selection. On a new layer fill selection with black, delete the original layer.


If you want to use a colored image that gets harder, making good use of levels, anti-aliased selection tools and masking tools are the easiest and fastest ways I know. It actually doesn't take too much time if you work big and get used to the work flow.

 
It selects whatever the hell it wants, and in any case there's always some kind of game, unless you're croping a photo taken by a camera, It's a POS tool, that never works. 


However if you would love to prove me wrong, have fun getting rid of the background on this


-removed-


I spent a week trying to get her to look proper to use in my game, and didn't get even close(I had alittle more luck with another char, but even that was no good, and the other char didn't even have long hair or anything like this char)


If that GIMP thing doesn't work, nothing will, because I tried everything else already. Sadly I may have to find someone who is as good with drawing on a tablet, as they are on paper, to redo it digitally. However I doubt I'll beable to find anyone who can make such realistic hair, just wow.

 

[Sharm]

Seriously Zoltor, enough of this. You've completely derailed the thread. That image was made on a computer, if you have the rights to use that image it should be easy enough to just ask the original artist to give it to you without a background.

 

[Celianna]

Zoltor you've completely hijakced someone else's thread with your own misgivings (trying to use a picture you don't even own the rights for). Not cool. Stay out of this thread from now on.

 

[monkeyman1188]

Thank you everyone for your comments. It gives me ideas of where and how to start with items that i'd like to do.

Very much appreciated.

 

[Zoltor]

Zoltor you've completely hijakced someone else's thread with your own misgivings (trying to use a picture you don't even own the rights for). Not cool. Stay out of this thread from now on.

I do have the rights, thank you very much. Also no, how is it incorrect to inform the OP, you can't just draw a enemy pic, char bust, ect by hand, and then just scan it into a art program? It's pretty damn common knowledge you can't do that, because you end up with this ugly boarder type thing, whenever you try to set the background to transparent.

 

[Andar]

and then just scan it into a art program? It's pretty damn common knowledge you can't do that, because you end up with this ugly boarder type thing, whenever you try to set the background to transparent.

That's not common knowledge, that's simply wrong - and you shouldn't state wrong assumptions, and then ridicule people who gave the correct answers.
Just because you don't know how to remove that border, (or to remove the paper texture) doesn't mean that there is no way - how did you think artists were getting transparency from scanned pictures before art tablets and similiar tools were developed?


I admit that you need to know what you're doing if you want to remove those fragments from the scan, it isn't directly obvious to everyone - but Sharm gave the correct methods for lineart, and mentioned that it is more difficult (but following the same principles) and more work with color pictures.

 

[Tommy Gun]

So i bought the game character hub thinking i could do characters, monsters AND tiles pieces but i can only do characters which is NOT worth the money i paid.

without having to pay lots of silly money to get tiles and monsters that you don't want, I'd rather build my own monsters that i'd like and my own tile pieces.

Does anyone know what software i need to do that?

thank you

rob

I believe GCH lets you do tiles, but you have to draw them by hand (it just makes it easier to format them or something? I haven't tried. Or maybe it's mainly for combining tiles). I have a sprite formatting video in my signature that might help you. I use photoshop, but you can use GIMP.

 

[TheAwakeJake]

I draw by hand and scan cause it feels more creatively liberating to me.
I used a editing software to make transparent backgrounds and making it look better.

 

[Geoff Moore]

I struggled with deleting whitespace on scanned lineart for years before finding a working solution. It's pretty simple (instructions are for Photoshop, but I expect it's more or less the same in any program.

1) Scan your art at huge quality, like 600 dpi for example.

2) Adjust levels so you have nice black lines and white whitespace

3) Use magic wand with anti-alias and tolerance 100 to select and delete your whitespace

4) Size it down afterwards

Simple!