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Author Topic: Where to start?  (Read 4452 times)

dirkdragonslayer

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Where to start?
« on: February 18, 2014, 08:31:51 pm »

I feel like trying my own hand at pixel art, and most advice from my friends say I should start modifying a existing pack like obsidian. I have three questions, 1) how do I do the spread sheet for jobs and apply it to a new species, like for me and my friend's personal mod adding a minotaur civ? 2) how big can a texture be, around 16x16 right? 3)Is there anything I should pay attention to when making a pack?
Thanks for the tips, and if this post shouldn't be here, please take it down.
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"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
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Meph

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2014, 08:47:39 pm »

1) Best do have a look at existing files. The ones you want are in raw/graphics/xyz.txt. Select the dwarven one and have a look at how it is set up, and how the sprites, the bmp/png looks.

2) As large as you want. 16 is usually taken, but there are 8x8 or 24x24 sets as well. You can even do 32x, 48x, 64x... the limit is your screen. Its 80 tiles that are shown minimum, so if its 16 pixel, you need a solution of 16*80. If your screen is better than that, use a higher number.

3) That is a very general question. I'd say... yes? ;)
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DragonDePlatino

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2014, 11:16:03 pm »

Take it from me, if you want to get good at pixel art, you gotta put in lots of practice in all sorts of different projects! Drawing pretty much any pixel art, DF-related or not will significantly boost your drawing skill. If you'd like, I can go ahead and send you my .raw graphics files for DawnFortress. They have every creature and every variant, but most are missing the coordinates.

Clatch

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2014, 02:25:16 pm »

Take it from me, if you want to get good at pixel art, you gotta put in lots of practice in all sorts of different projects! Drawing pretty much any pixel art, DF-related or not will significantly boost your drawing skill. If you'd like, I can go ahead and send you my .raw graphics files for DawnFortress. They have every creature and every variant, but most are missing the coordinates.

WOW, that's really generous.  I'd take him up on that.

dirkdragonslayer

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2014, 07:40:16 pm »

Take it from me, if you want to get good at pixel art, you gotta put in lots of practice in all sorts of different projects! Drawing pretty much any pixel art, DF-related or not will significantly boost your drawing skill. If you'd like, I can go ahead and send you my .raw graphics files for DawnFortress. They have every creature and every variant, but most are missing the coordinates.
Thanks for the offer, but I might just make Minotaur job sprites to fit the style of your pack once you finish it :P , great work so far btw, very excited. thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can do for now, and maybe see if I can get my artist friend into DF to help me with some of it.
Logged
"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!

DragonDePlatino

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2014, 08:31:11 pm »

Thanks for the offer, but I might just make Minotaur job sprites to fit the style of your pack once you finish it :P , great work so far btw, very excited. thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can do for now, and maybe see if I can get my artist friend into DF to help me with some of it.
Hmmm...don't think that'll be necessary! You can find Minotaur sprites in DawnLike, which is where I'm getting DawnFortresses's graphics from. They're in Characters/Humanoid0. If you make some nice class sprites, please send me the layered images so I can add them to DawnLike!

dirkdragonslayer

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Re: Where to start?
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2014, 08:38:23 pm »

Thanks for the offer, but I might just make Minotaur job sprites to fit the style of your pack once you finish it :P , great work so far btw, very excited. thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can do for now, and maybe see if I can get my artist friend into DF to help me with some of it.
Hmmm...don't think that'll be necessary! You can find Minotaur sprites in DawnLike, which is where I'm getting DawnFortresses's graphics from. They're in Characters/Humanoid0. If you make some nice class sprites, please send me the layered images so I can add them to DawnLike!
I'll see what I can do once the weekend swings around, now back to building a giant labyrinth to get myself pumped up for when I get to business later.
Logged
"Games come and go, and we all get tired of some games after time, but Dwarf Fortress seems to grab me by the leg every couple months and drags me back with it's bloody, ASCII claw. I think this game has given me Stockholm syndrome, but I love it so, and it's simplistic style yet extremely complex mechanics are like fine art, like a beautifully crafted ☼Cave Spider Silk Sock☼" - Dirk 3/31/2014
TAIL SHOOOOES!