Working with RTP tileset - houses

[kiku]

Working with RTP Tileset - Houses
Simple building method and use layers wisely

(Note: This tutorial contains a lot of images rather small in file size, inside spoiler tags)

Hi, this is my first Tutorial, rather some advices, on building houses with RTP tileset. Sorry if some contents may be common sense or hard to make sense, but I will try to explain as clear as I can.

Unlike previous RPG Maker versions, You can simply draw any kind of graphics from a tileset on any layers as you wish in RMXP. So you don't necessarily have to put, for example, grass on layer 1, house and trees on layer 2 while not overlapping each other, and windows etc on layer 3. A good looking house must have a bunch of details on it. So take the advantage of RXMP and set graphics on the 3 layers wisely. Have a lot of layers of graphics!

Even we have 3 layers to work with, we can sometimes make graphics to look like more than 3 layers. Here's a way:

Spoiler

Lets say we have layer 1 (bottom) with grass, layer 2 (middle) with a tree and layer 3 (top) with another tree in front of the other one.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9594/pic1wh4.jpg[/IMG]

Now if we want to add a 3rd tree in front of that one, basically means a 4th layer is needed. However, we can cheat. Draw another tree in front of it on the same layer (layer 3). Notice how it erases part of the tree you're trying to cover?

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8628/pic2bl7.jpg[/IMG]

So we go back to a layer below it, which is layer 2, and recover the section of the tree that was erased.

http://img481.imageshack.us/img481/3947/pic3il2.jpg[/IMG]

As you can see, the replacement on layer 2 is not in conflict with the whole tree on the same layer, which is good. If you want graphics to all overlap each other, I don't think we can do it. Just make sure that if two graphics overlaps, go back to the layer before and recover the lost piece. If it still overlaps with some other graphics, then I suggest try move two graphics a little bit more apart from each other until they don't overlap. Resulting a fake 4th layer:

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/7781/pic4vk7.jpg[/IMG]

Now lets build a house with layers!

Spoiler

First let's put grass on layer 1 as usual, and a house of whichever shape you like on layer 2.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/6051/pic5sx9.jpg[/IMG]

Let's fill up those two triangular holes on the roof. So using that fake layer method, go back one layer before, which is layer 1 - the grass layer and draw the missing part of the roof. It's ok to replace part of the grass with roof because you'll never get to see that part of grass anyways. Feel like drawing a tree? Let's put one behind the house, on layer 2, which is same layer as house. (I drew 3/4th of a tree there, so the other 1/4 of the tree won't erase more of the house).

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/2314/pic6yz5.jpg[/IMG]

Then simply go to a layer above it, layer 3, to recover that missing corner of the house.

Notice the little holes on the sides of the house here and there?

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/2343/pic7aj1.jpg[/IMG]

What you can do here is go back to layer 1 and replace those holes with house wall graphics, thus erasing some grass.

http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/8365/pic8om4.png[/IMG]

This is sometimes a small issue, sometimes big. Notice the little white area in the circle? That was caused because that one block of wall graphics is not completely solid, it has a few pixels empty. And since we replaced the grass, it means there's nothing below that and we can see through the hole into the...void. In this case it's a small issue because the hole isn't too big. But some graphics rather leave big ugly black holes in your final work. So if you care:

Spoiler

Just draw the walls on layer 2, same as the house

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7223/pic9ek3.jpg[/IMG]

and cover up the erased pieces on layer 3

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/281/pic10fb4.jpg[/IMG]

and the problem goes away because there is grass at the bottom layer.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7653/pic11tx7.png[/IMG]

Now working with layer back and forth, let's add some more trees, and other stuff. Some people prefer adding windows on Events. But when you are building a house or a town, I don't recommend have events containing graphics there. Because you'll likely to shift the map accordingly as you build it, and events must be shifted one by one manually.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1777/pic12as8.jpg[/IMG]

Now you can draw some road and water on layer 1, on top of grass. Draw some fences and other stuff on layer 2 or 3 accordingly.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2885/pic13sp5.jpg[/IMG]

Ok, there's your house. Ready to make it into a town?

Spoiler

When you make a town, I suggest start with a big map and draw a few different-looking houses. You can then copy and paste houses to locations you like. Typically, it's not really good to have a huge town map but only few house. The map will look vast and rather unlively. Unless you made it that way to fit the story. A town is good looking if it's filled with details. Think of all the appropriate graphics on your town tileset and place them in your town.

For a smaller town like the one I have here, I put houses close together. Leaving enough space for small road and then put decorations on the sides. Sometimes it's nice not to line up the houses perfectly, shift them around. When you draw the road, some players prefer continue road and some, like me, prefer discontinue roads. It's better to not let the hero to reach an edge of a map, unless it's a transition point to another map. You can put intense graphics such like lots of trees, rivers or bushes around your town.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/25/pic14ke7.jpg[/IMG]
A forest town (1/2 zoomed out)

Now you can put in NPCs who walks around and it will look a pretty lively town!

Thanks for looking at the tutorial. I am willing to take advices from others, or to fix my mistakes.

Also thanks to Imageshack.us for hosting my images.

 

[psgels]

Um, you do realize that the RTP has special tiles if you want to make your house in a T-shape? I also recommend you to use shifter's curved water, for better-looking puddles. Overall, you've got a nice tutorial here. It should be good for the beginners out there.

 

[Anaxamander]

I'm just starting out and I found this very helpful. Thanks!

 

[___]

That's definitely a good start on layering. I always, always demand absolute efficiency with my layers so I can add as much detail as possible. For instance, any tile that has no transparent sections should be on layer 1. An example would be the middle sections of trees, walls, and such. In general, always put everything on the lowest layer you can without having any holes. You can achieve a really high level of detail without any trick tiles if you follow that rule.

 

[Varyale]

Very good tutorial for those who get fustrated in layering. Why not go erase some on the top, then go under to fix it?

 

[LosAngeles]

I'm afraid, but isn't there a mistake in the use of the tree02-autotile in your last pic?
You used it as grass or something(maybe bushes) but i guess it's supposed to be on trees(which I think looks odd aswell).
Well...actually I never found out how to use this autotile correctly(the same with tree01!)
It always looks so weird!

 

[Draken]

Hate to steal your thunder, psgels, but:

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/2389/houseml8.png[/img]

:P Just an example of what he meant in case you were like, "WTF!!11one"