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I'm not exactly sure if this is the right location for a post such as this. However, this will be my first attempt at creating a tileset and I want to make sure I am doing it correctly. Also, forgive me if my terminology is incorrect.
When using software such as "Tiled" to design a map for game development, it takes at least a combination of 4 tiles to draw out a building. When designing these tiles from scratch, at what resolution should I create the blank image as? I read that 96 x 96 pixelation is good to start at. Does that mean if I am planning to create a building it would be 4 times the size of the 96 x 96? Or do I have the wrong approach altogether? Some guidance on where to start would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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One of the typical sizes for tiles is 16x16 pixels. This is a good size for someone starting out because it doesn't require too much detail but gives you enough room to be creative without using a lot of tricks. Here are some tilesets by one of my favorite graphic artists:
The idea behind a tileset is you make every tile the same size. We have a style guide from a contest we ran called the Liberated Pixel Cup that might offer you some guidance:
http://lpc.opengameart.org/static/lpc-style-guide/styleguide.html
The guide uses 32x32 pixel tiles and in a different style from the assets above but the ideas are the same. Generally speaking, smaller tilemaps are easier to make than bigger ones because they require less detail work.
I'm not a graphic artist by the way, I'm a programmer. If you have any other questions everyone on this site is usually pretty willing to help out. Good luck and please share what you make!
I am not a site moderator or anything, but I believe questions about how to create art are perfectly fine here.
The size of a single tile depends on your needs but is usually smaller than 96x96.
This is something you need to decide early. If you change it later, you have effectively wasted most (if not all) of what you created until then.
How do you decide on the size? Smaller sizes allow for more tiles to fit on the display at the same time, creating more overview. Larger tiles allow for more details per tile. They also require more time to create. Traditional tile sizes are powers of 2. This used to have hardware-related reasons. It doesn't any more, but that is how tradition works... Anyway, using a popular size makes it easier to build upon or mix with existing tilesets -- provided their license permits. I believe the most common contemporary tile size is 32x32, but YMMV.
The number of tiles in the tile sheet is easier to change. When working with tiled, you can at least change the height of the sheet without harming existing maps. I don't know current versions of tiled; maybe they have added a way to port maps even when the tile sheet width changes. Otherwise it is easy for programmers to create a converter.
Too narrow tile sheets make it hard to arrange tiles such that transitions happen between adjacent positions in the sheet. Too wide sheets may cause a gratuitous need for scrolling when used with tiled.
Your 96x96 pixels would translate to 3x3 tiles of size 32x32 or 6x6 tiles of size 16x16. Personally, I think 3x3 is too small, but go with what works well for you.
Outside of using programs such as tiled, the tile sheet size is of little importance.
When you are unsure about something, it may help to look at how other do it.
OGA is a great resource for that. William already gave you some pointers. And all art here is open, which means that you are not only allowed to learn from it; you are allowed to use it and build upon it. Sometimes with implications on how you are allowed to license the resulting combined work. (I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.)
caeles is a really smart guy, you should listen to him. Also, he pointed out the bits about number of tiles in a tile sheet vs size of the tiles (something you asked about but I totally missed). He has more artistic talent than me, he can probably answer questions better.
I'm not a site moderator either by the way, just another person who likes to frequent the site.
Thanks guys! That was exactly the information I was looking for. The LPC style guide is pretty incredible. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of drawing something up that is larger than 2 tiles. What method do you guys choose to do in this case? I'm assuming I should create a large blank image and use some sort of grid system to highlight the 32 x 32 area to guide me where to draw. Is there an easier approach or is that the way to go?
Ahh.... I believe I understand it now. I had some crazy counterproductive method in my head that I should be creating an image of 32 x 32 and then connecting them together like a puzzle. But, from the images it looks like a grid system is used.
Well its recomented to make a whole image using a grid since you can remix the individual tiles later For example if you draw a tree you can have use multible tiles for its base (that way when you design a level you can have taler or shorter trees) and aven use the top of the tree for making other stuff (like busheshes etc.).
I've experimented with JDraw and GrafX2. Here are links to both (free):
I haven't tried any of these following programs but here are some more pixel artist style programs I've seen on the web:
Again, I'm a programmer, not a graphic artist or pixel artist. These are just things I've seen and heard about. I have no expertise in these things. I'm sure if I'm wrong or have missed something obvious someone will chime in and share better advice. Good luck, please share what you make!
Awesome, thank you. I'm certainly glad I didn't start drawing each tile individually and I'll keep that tree/bush technique in mind when drawing.
I'll definitely play around with both JDraw and GrafX2 as they both look like the better choice out of all of those links.
Hopefully time is my friend and grants me permission to complete something that I am 100% content haha. And of course, I'll share it with everyone when that time comes.
Oh, just saw this. I'm a tileset artist, I can totally help here!
Okay, so when I first start making a tile set the #1 first thing I do is make a sprite. Make it however big or small you want, smaller being easier to animate, bigger is easier to see details. If you're not really a spriter you could also find one you like, Redshrike's LPC sprite for instance. Once you have a base sprite you'll know how to scale everything, and scale is a really important thing to know when making a tileset.
The second thing I do is make sure I have a plan of what I'd like to have done for the set. If you just sit down and try to make stuff you'd like to see in a game you'll be at it forever! Get an idea of what style you want to use, what setting, how complex you'll allow your tiles to be and then scale back wherever you can. Too often people just make a grass tile and expand up from there and end up with something extremely generic and they run out of steam before they get done. Tilesets are just as prone to feature bloat as any sort of game making. Knowing where you'd like to end up when your done will make a huge difference.
My third task is to make a mockup. This is where I start making tiles, but it's a little more freeform than what will end up in the actual tileset. I use Photoshop or Pyxel Edit for this stage. I use a grid so that turning the results into tiles isn't as hard, and I never forget that it has to be divided up and used with other tiles, but I'm more concerned with making something that looks interesting than I am in getting edges matching perfectly. I won't actually refine this mockup until later. The mockup is important because if you don't see the tiles together as you work on them you'll end up with conflicting visual priorites, negative space issues, and colors that don't work together.
Step four, I start making the actual tileset and refining it. One of the things I do here is recreate the mockup but in the actual editor this time. I work out all the tiling issues, make sure all the options work together, iron out kinks or funny bits, add whatever is needed to make it feel complete. What the actual tileset will look like depends entirely on what engine you're using. If you're using Tiled you can organize your set pretty much however you want as long as it keeps the same grid size for all the tiles.
I think I know why you found a suggestion of 96x96. If you're making something like a wall tile you'll need 1 tile for each corner, 1 tile for each edge and 1 tile for the middle. That's 9 tiles each 32x32 set in a square. Now, if you're doing something like a grass tile you'd need a few more for the corners that turn the other direction.
Creating tiles is pretty confusing at first, but it'll make sense later as you get used to it. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about how it all works.