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Effortless Terrain Tile Making Tutorial
Note: This is for Classic/SD only, Reforged/HD tiles are kinda more complicated since it have three layers therefore it is not included in this tutorial.
Description
Have you ever wanted to make a tile, but you don't know how to? Worry no more, I will be teaching you how to effortlessly make a tile by yourself. I do personally use this method in my tiles so this has been tested multiple times. This same transparency (that I will provide in the tutorial if you follow) have been used by multiple tile makers back in the day (tobyfat, Nan0, WerbackIII) because of its cool "blend/blurring transition" effect.
Tools
What tools do we need? Well, GIMP. It's a free tool that you can download here - GIMP - Downloads. You will also need blplab for conversion.
Steps/Procedures:
1. Open GIMP
After downloading the GIMP you have to fire it up.
2. Finding a tile-able/seamless texture
So we'll need to find a tile-able seamless texture, you can search for tile-able/seamless textures online although be careful as some images online might have copyright. If you're a professional artist, you can probably make a seamless texture yourself.
The texture I will be using in this tutorial is from textures.com, you can get free real and tile-able textures from that website.
3. Importing the image
Now that you have a seamless texture, you will now have to import it to GIMP. You can either go to your desktop and right-click the file, click "Open With" and choose GIMP, or alternatively in GIMP you can just go to File (at the Toolbar) > Open and find the image you downloaded.
The desktop method.
Or alternatively opening it in the GIMP.
This is what it looks like in the canvas.
4. Resizing the image
In order to be able to use the tile transparency that I provided in the attachments, you will have to decide what texture resolution you want.
In this tutorial, I want a 512 x 512 texture, so I will be resizing it to 128 x 128. To resize the image in GIMP, go to Image (at the Toolbar) > Scale and input 128 x 128.
This is what it looks like when resized, obviously lots of quality have been lost, we can't do anything about that; unless you decided to make a higher resolution tile.
5. Tiling the image
After Step 4 your texture is now ready to be tiled in a 4 by 4 pattern. In order to tile this image simply go to Filters (at the Toolbar) > Map > Tile.
Remember what resolution you have picked in Step 4. In this tutorial, I mentioned that I will be making a 512 x 512 tile texture so the tiling size should be 512 x 512 image. If you want to make a 1024 x 1024 tile then input 1024 (width) x 1024 (length), if 256 x 256 then input 256 x 256.
6. Importing transparency to GIMP
Now that you have a texture in a 4 by 4 pattern, it's now ready to have transparency, so you can use it in the game.
Download the image with transparency (provided below) and load it in the GIMP.
Now you will have to copy the transparency of the image (provided by this tutorial) to your tile. In order to do that, go to Layer (at the Toolbar) > Mask > Add Layer Mask then pick "Layer's Alpha Channel"
Now do the same in the tile you created.
Now that both have layer masks, go back to the image with transparency that you downloaded, and copy the transparency from it, then paste it to your tile. To copy the transparency, be sure to select the mask of the image. I marked it red in the screenshot below so you can see it.
After selecting the mask, hit CTRL + C to copy it.
Now go to your tile, then select the mask aswell. I marked it red just in case. Then paste the transparency mask by hitting CTRL + V. It should look like this.
Before pasting
After pasting
Now anchor the mask you copied to your tile.
Now it's done!
7. Exporting
Now that you successfully made a tile, you can now export it (I recommend exporting it to targa format/.tga format). Just name your exported file to "<filename>.tga" or alternatively look for the targa extension under "Select File Type (By Extension).
8. Converting the file and testing the tile ingame/in the world editor
You can use blplab to convert targa/.tga image to .blp or .dds to be able to use it ingame. Here's what it looks like ingame (along with another tile I converted). You can download the test map here.
Note: This is for Classic/SD only, Reforged/HD tiles are kinda more complicated since it have three layers therefore it is not included in this tutorial.
Description
Have you ever wanted to make a tile, but you don't know how to? Worry no more, I will be teaching you how to effortlessly make a tile by yourself. I do personally use this method in my tiles so this has been tested multiple times. This same transparency (that I will provide in the tutorial if you follow) have been used by multiple tile makers back in the day (tobyfat, Nan0, WerbackIII) because of its cool "blend/blurring transition" effect.
Tools
What tools do we need? Well, GIMP. It's a free tool that you can download here - GIMP - Downloads. You will also need blplab for conversion.
Steps/Procedures:
1. Open GIMP
After downloading the GIMP you have to fire it up.
2. Finding a tile-able/seamless texture
So we'll need to find a tile-able seamless texture, you can search for tile-able/seamless textures online although be careful as some images online might have copyright. If you're a professional artist, you can probably make a seamless texture yourself.
The texture I will be using in this tutorial is from textures.com, you can get free real and tile-able textures from that website.
3. Importing the image
Now that you have a seamless texture, you will now have to import it to GIMP. You can either go to your desktop and right-click the file, click "Open With" and choose GIMP, or alternatively in GIMP you can just go to File (at the Toolbar) > Open and find the image you downloaded.
The desktop method.
Or alternatively opening it in the GIMP.
This is what it looks like in the canvas.
4. Resizing the image
In order to be able to use the tile transparency that I provided in the attachments, you will have to decide what texture resolution you want.
- If you want a 1024 x 1024 tile texture, you will have to resize the image to 1024 ÷ 4 = 256 (256 x 256)
- If you want a 512 x 512 tile texture, you will have to resize the image to 512 ÷ 4 = 128 (128 x 128)
- If you want a 256 x 256 tile texture, you will have to resize the image to 256 ÷ 4 = 64 (64 x 64)
In this tutorial, I want a 512 x 512 texture, so I will be resizing it to 128 x 128. To resize the image in GIMP, go to Image (at the Toolbar) > Scale and input 128 x 128.
This is what it looks like when resized, obviously lots of quality have been lost, we can't do anything about that; unless you decided to make a higher resolution tile.
5. Tiling the image
After Step 4 your texture is now ready to be tiled in a 4 by 4 pattern. In order to tile this image simply go to Filters (at the Toolbar) > Map > Tile.
Remember what resolution you have picked in Step 4. In this tutorial, I mentioned that I will be making a 512 x 512 tile texture so the tiling size should be 512 x 512 image. If you want to make a 1024 x 1024 tile then input 1024 (width) x 1024 (length), if 256 x 256 then input 256 x 256.
6. Importing transparency to GIMP
Now that you have a texture in a 4 by 4 pattern, it's now ready to have transparency, so you can use it in the game.
Download the image with transparency (provided below) and load it in the GIMP.
- If you decided to make a 256 x 256 tile, download this. https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/standard_tiles_alpha_256-tga.363358/
- If you decided to make a 512 x 512 tile, download this. https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/standard_tiles_alpha_512-tga.363359/
- If you decided to make a 1024 x 1024 tile, download this. https://www.hiveworkshop.com/attachments/standard_tiles_alpha_1024-tga.363363/
Now you will have to copy the transparency of the image (provided by this tutorial) to your tile. In order to do that, go to Layer (at the Toolbar) > Mask > Add Layer Mask then pick "Layer's Alpha Channel"
Now do the same in the tile you created.
Now that both have layer masks, go back to the image with transparency that you downloaded, and copy the transparency from it, then paste it to your tile. To copy the transparency, be sure to select the mask of the image. I marked it red in the screenshot below so you can see it.
After selecting the mask, hit CTRL + C to copy it.
Now go to your tile, then select the mask aswell. I marked it red just in case. Then paste the transparency mask by hitting CTRL + V. It should look like this.
Before pasting
After pasting
Now anchor the mask you copied to your tile.
Now it's done!
7. Exporting
Now that you successfully made a tile, you can now export it (I recommend exporting it to targa format/.tga format). Just name your exported file to "<filename>.tga" or alternatively look for the targa extension under "Select File Type (By Extension).
8. Converting the file and testing the tile ingame/in the world editor
You can use blplab to convert targa/.tga image to .blp or .dds to be able to use it ingame. Here's what it looks like ingame (along with another tile I converted). You can download the test map here.
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