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Say good-bye to parallax mapping for good.
Today I'm going show you guys how to make something like this...
in Vx/Ace. It should take you less than 20 mins to do, which is a fraction of the time taken to do a similar pretty looking map using parallaxing. I'll put a video right at the bottom showing how I did one in less than 10 minutes.
Interested? Read on!
Step One:
Laying the groundwork.
Doesn't look like much at the moment, now does it? But it's still vitally important, since it will determine where there finer details come in later on. Every great map always has a simple beginning.
The top layer was done through an auto-tile, the bottom through actual tiles. To get rid of those blocky edges on the top layer ( so they can be nice and round and match the bottom stuff ), SHIFT-click the lower left and right of the auto tile cliffs.
You'll get something like this.
Replace them with the actual rounded-cliff tiles from your tileset. You can either use XP's stuff, or find some really nice ones in Celianna's tileset as well. They will then look like...
this.
Step Three:
Making stuff more visually pleasing.
Now, while those cliffs are slowly starting to take shape, I admit it looks a little boring for now. So spice it up! There. That looks a lot better.
Step Four:
More details and Eventing ( the Third Layer ).
The fun part. Just don't over-clutter stuff. See that half-finished tree? That will be finished up with events. Yes, events. VX/Ace's 'third' layer.
See?
Final Step:
Add in a tint and remember to add overlays, folks! Viola, you're done. Simple, easy, time-efficient and 10x smaller in size than a parallax, which reduces the load on your game file size. Not all of us have high-speed internet speeds, ya know.Oh, and you will actually finish games this way as well. I speak form experience ( I finished 3 games alone this year ).
10-minute 'speed-mapping video'
Today I'm going show you guys how to make something like this...
in Vx/Ace. It should take you less than 20 mins to do, which is a fraction of the time taken to do a similar pretty looking map using parallaxing. I'll put a video right at the bottom showing how I did one in less than 10 minutes.
Interested? Read on!
Step One:
Laying the groundwork.
Doesn't look like much at the moment, now does it? But it's still vitally important, since it will determine where there finer details come in later on. Every great map always has a simple beginning.
The top layer was done through an auto-tile, the bottom through actual tiles. To get rid of those blocky edges on the top layer ( so they can be nice and round and match the bottom stuff ), SHIFT-click the lower left and right of the auto tile cliffs.
You'll get something like this.
Replace them with the actual rounded-cliff tiles from your tileset. You can either use XP's stuff, or find some really nice ones in Celianna's tileset as well. They will then look like...
this.
Step Three:
Making stuff more visually pleasing.
Now, while those cliffs are slowly starting to take shape, I admit it looks a little boring for now. So spice it up! There. That looks a lot better.
Step Four:
More details and Eventing ( the Third Layer ).
The fun part. Just don't over-clutter stuff. See that half-finished tree? That will be finished up with events. Yes, events. VX/Ace's 'third' layer.
See?
Final Step:
Add in a tint and remember to add overlays, folks! Viola, you're done. Simple, easy, time-efficient and 10x smaller in size than a parallax, which reduces the load on your game file size. Not all of us have high-speed internet speeds, ya know.Oh, and you will actually finish games this way as well. I speak form experience ( I finished 3 games alone this year ).
10-minute 'speed-mapping video'
