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| title | layout | root | idx | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creating Textures | default | ../../ | 2.2 | An introduction to making textures in your editor of choice, an a guide on GIMP. |
Introduction
Being able to create and optimise textures for Minetest is a useful skill when developing mods. There are many techniques relevant to working on pixel art textures, and understanding these techniques will greatly improve the quality of the textures you create for Minetest.
Resources
Techniques
Using the Pencil
The pencil tool is available in most editors. When set to its lowest size, it allows you to edit one pixel at a time without changing any other parts of the image. By manipulating the pixels one at a time, you create clear and sharp textures without unnecessary blurring. It also gives you a high level of precision and control.
Tiling
Textures used for nodes should generally be designed to tile. This means when you place multiple nodes with the same texture together, the edges line up correctly:
[IMAGE NEEDED - cobblestone that tiles correctly]
If you fail to match the edges correctly, the result is far less pleasing to look at:
[IMAGE NEEDED - node that doesn't tile correctly]
Transparency
Transparency is important when designing textures for special nodes, such as glass or water, which players should be able to see through, and for craft item textures. It's important to remember that not all editors support transparency, so make sure you choose an editor which is suitable for the textures you wish to create.
Editors
MS Paint
MS Paint is a simple editor which can be useful for basic texture design; however, it does not support transparency. This usually won't matter when making textures for the sides of nodes, but if you need transparency in your textures you should choose a different editor.
GIMP
GIMP is commonly used in the Minetest community. It has quite a high learning curve because many of its features are not immediately obvious.
When using GIMP, the pencil tool can be selected from the Toolbox:
It's also advisable to select the Hard edge checkbox for the eraser tool:
