[TUT] Clowns pixel building tutorial [TUT]

[Clown.]

 

 

 

I have recently developed quite an interest in pixel art. While I was browsing through this very forum looking for topics that include pixel art (mainly just for reference) I noticed that a lot of topics included people asking how to make a piece of pixel art, such as a pixel house. So mainly to help pixel newbies, I decided to write my �clowns pixel art tutorial� note, this tutorial uses phtoshop, so if you don't have it, then buy it, borrow it, trade for it or steal it. i don't care, just get it. or stop reading.

 

The tutorial will be split into three parts. In the first I will show you how to make a simple pixel cube. In the second I will show you how to give your cube a door and window, and thirdly I will show you how to make some more complicated things, such as a  roof, and a fence for you building.

 

Part 1: a pixel cube:

 

Firstly you need to see how to make a proper pixel line. An isometric line should be two pixels across and one pixel up.

 

 

Sometimes you will also have to use lines that are one pixel up and one pixel across

 

 

 

Ok, onto making the cube. Start by making a new document, 300x300, transparent, and zoom in to 1600%. firstly make a single isometric line like this, and then add another, making sure we use 3 pixels for the corner.

 

 

Then because we are lazy and using Photoshop, we can duplicate the layer and flip it vertically (edit > transform > flip vertical) then merge the two layers. Then duplicate the layer again and move it upwards using the arrow keys.

 

 

Then we can add lines joining the two squares together to make a cube.

 

 

After that all we need to do is add a bit of colour. Pick a grey colour and using the paint bucket tool colour the roof. Then colour the left side of the cube a lighter shade of the roof colour and the right side a darker shade. in my example you can see i used three grey colours.

 

 

and this is what you should end up with.

congratulations, you have just made your first isometric piece. i know it doesn't look like much at the moment but it will do when you add more to it.

 

And that is essentially all you need to know to start pixelling.

so have fun   

 

Part two coming soon (as soon as I can get round to it - hopefully tomorrow )

Edited September 8, 2005 by Clown.

[51L3N7 4554551N]

Wow this is a great guide, you've inspired me to actually do some stuff Seriously though, well done, pinnage maybe?

[SilentM]

That's more a pixel block than a building. A rather nub one at that.

Also, don't EVER use black edges unless they fit with the piece. They're ugly.

 

I guess it's a decent tutorial though.

[Ottae]

 

Wow! I've alwayz wanted to do this, thanks! -Ottae

 

[Clown.]

@silent assassin, thanks a lot - i don't think mods would even think of pinning until all three pieces of the tut are up.

@silent m, if you read more, it would tell you that i am doing two more parts of the tut, which make the block into a building and i am also going to remove the blacklines in the second part.

@ottae, no problem.

 

i'm putting the next part up sometime today.

[Clown.]

 

 

 

Part two: adding windows, doors and detail.

 

Here we go. This is what you will have ended up with last time (if you did everything right)

 

 

Now at the moment it looks more like a cube than a house. Firstly, we need to make it look a bit more appealing. Now anybody, regardless of whether they are any good at pixel art or not, will tell you that black lines are a serious no no. so the first thing we need to do is get rid of them. All you do is go over the black lines with a darker shade of the grey you used for the walls.

 

 

Now its looking a bit nicer. So now you need to make you box look like a nice place to live. So you need to add a window and a door. A door should be around 8 pixels tall, and a window around 6. So just draw the shape of a door on you building, remembering to us a darker grey, rather than black.

 

 

Now draw on a window, use my picture to see what it should look like.

 

 

Now you need to colour your door and window. Your door should be a wooden colour, but remember to use shading. With the window, a dark blue colour as a base, and then add a glint of sunlight reflecting off it with a bright blue colour. her are the colours i used for mine:

 

 

Now that you have know how to add one window and one door, you might want to go a bit further and add more. After adding a few more windows, this is what I have got:

 

 

In the next, and last, part of my tutorial, I will show you how to add a sloped roof and a small garden to complete your little house.

 

the next part will be up either tonight or tomorrow. its going to be the biggest bit so it might take a while to write

[king surfer]

It's a good tut and all but there's nothing here that you are not taught from the tutorials in the Pix-ill city topic.

[Clown.]

this is the final bit, and gives more explicit guidance on details that are not included (as far as i know) in any other tutorials.

 

 

 

Here it is, the last part of the tutorial, and possibly the longest. this part of the tutorial is all about textures. this isn't going to take five minutes to make, and it might get a bit boring at times, but hang in there, because the end result will look good.

At the moment you�ve got a perfectly functioning house, but it looks a bit plain and boring. So now we are going to add a nice tiled roof and a bit of  garden to it, just to brighten it up a bit.

Here is what we have at the moment:

 

 

Now we need to put a sloped roof on it. You will have to use slightly different lines for the roof, as they need to be at different angles. You will need to use a straight line, and a one up, one across line. First draw the front of the roof like so (using the colour #360101):

 

 

Then make it cover the entire roof by adding three more lines, like so:

 

 

Now you have a transparent, un-textured roof shape on your house. Now you need to texture it, to make it look a lot nicer. First cover the entire roof in this colour, except for the bit above your door, which you do the same colour as the wall below it.

 

 

Then you need to add the roof tile pattern. I used this pattern:

 

 

When you have applied this pattern to the entire roof it will look like this, its worth mentioning that I used lighter shades of the tile colours on the other

side of the roof.

 

 

Now we need to add a garden. Firstly draw the outline of your garden on to the front of the house, and fill it with a green colour. To make my grass pattern I randomly dot pixels that are a shade darker than the base colour, and then on top of them I dot a pixel lighter than the base colour, and finally randomly dot loads of pixels that are in between the darker and lighter colour.

 

 

now you just need to add a little path running from the door through the garden. Draw the path as if it has paving slabs, using a fairly dark grey as the base, followed by dark grey cracks and lighter grey highlights.

 

 

And now you have finished your basic house. thats it, done, finished and

complete. this is what you should have:

 

 

 

This really is not everything you need to know. I could teach you how to make other things, but what for? If I told you everything there would be nothing left to learn. Plus of course the fact that I don't know everything, in fact I am a beginner in pixel art myself.

 

Now go and pixel. Pixel my beauties, pixel!!! Ha ha ha ha

 

Sorry.

 

there you have it. everything you need to know to start making pixel houses.

 

comments, critiscism and suggestions welcome.

 

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

[51L3N7 4554551N]

Wow, looks good. Nice that you provided the colours too. Maybe add a fence around the house just to finish it off? Apart from that, ace guide my friend

[xxnofear617xx]

this all looks great but I am too lazy to do anything

[Clown.]

@xxnofear617xx, you could make it an ongoing project and add to it a bit at a time.

 

@silent, thanks man, i was going to do a fence, but it seems quite easy to make - and the house is meant to showcase lots of different things, requiring different methods to make them. a fence would look nice though, but its up to the person who follows the tutorial to add one.

[Ottae]

Added a fence

 

-Ottae

[51L3N7 4554551N]

Added a fence

 

-Ottae

Thats well good Ottae, that fence looks ace You should put a big yellow Z on the side, that'll be a challenge for ya

[red light]

sweet guide clown. great job

[Ottae]

challenge excepted silent:

 

-Ottae

[Mike_Toreno]

Ha, it rocks!!

[Ottae]

Made into animation:

 

Party at the house:

 

-Ottae

[51L3N7 4554551N]

Made into animation:

 

Party at the house:

 

-Ottae

I'm gonna go blind

 

 

Silent goes blind

 

Seriously though, nice animations, I will try later on today, maybe a factory of some sort

[Clown.]

Made into animation:

 

Party at the house:

 

-Ottae

ha, i love it.

its nice to see my tutorial put to such, erm, interesting use.

i have never seen such varied colours of grass before.

 

 

Clown. joins silent in blundering about screaming "my eyes, my eyes,"

[51L3N7 4554551N]

Well if this has inspired me and Ottae, then there is no reason why this can't be pinned. I go make some stuff now

[Ottae]

I made a church last night, it's a bit big and i got some constructive ( ) critism n the '2G Pix-Ill City v2' topic:

 

 

What do you think? -Ottae

[Clown.]

thanks for the comments silent, i think mods would have to come and look at the tutorial and decide whether it could be pinned. the other tutorial pinned is moto's, and mine are no way near as good as his.

btw, make sure you post your piece when it is done.

 

i didn't like mine so i thought i'd better get the demolition team in:

 

 

 

just seen ottaes, wow, its erm, big. i like the stained glass windows and the bell and tower, however i would continue the grass pattern all the way around it and fix the perspective of the cross (at the moment its not facing the same direction as the rest of the church.

[Ottae]

 

I'll get right to it -Ottae

 

[51L3N7 4554551N]

God good

 

I have one small querie; I don't know how to get the brush down to the size that is able to draw over the pixels at 1600%. Do you use pencil or something? PSCS doesn't seem to have it

[Ottae]

 

i had to open the 'tool options palette' in the toolbars seciton and change the brush size to one -Ottae

 

[Clown.]

just use the pencil tool (right click on your brush and click on the pencil icon), and then up at the top of you page there should be a pencil icon, and next to it the word brush. click the arrow next to the word and a drop down box appears, set the master diameter to 1 pixel.

 

heres some piccys:

 

the top of your screen:

 

 

after clicking the arrow change this to 1:

 

 

i use cs too.

[Ottae]

i changed the grass so it's full of dandelions, it is a church a place of beauty i fixed the cross too:

 

-Ottae

[Clown.]

 

latest work. i thought i might as well post it here.

 

@ottae, yeah that looks a lot nicer, i think the grass especially looks nice. although i thought dandelions were weeds

Edited September 10, 2005 by Clown.

[Ottae]

Spose, they look nice in front of a church

 

Nice work! Looks great! I especially like the umbrella

[Pierce Brosnan]

Thank you. This will become very handy for me.

 

*rates topic good*