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Invite / Guide for artists #25

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jetrotal opened this issue Nov 30, 2021 · 6 comments
Open

Invite / Guide for artists #25

jetrotal opened this issue Nov 30, 2021 · 6 comments

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@jetrotal
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jetrotal commented Nov 30, 2021

We need Help for creating an Open Source RTP

EasyRPG is moving towards making the engine 100% Open Source, that includes making original artwork and music/sfx for it.

image image

Our Goal is to create new Open Source Artworks, inspired by the Original RPG Maker 2000/2003 Assets.
Those Original Assets are hosted on OpenRTP's Checklist

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We need to study them and create new Equivalent Artworks.

image image

Bellow there's a guide on how those assets work.


General Rules

There are 4 simple rules when making assets for EasyRPG's RTP

  • Send your art to one of those following channels:
    Discord - https://discord.gg/pX9Ua6gvX6
    EasyRPG Forum - https://community.easyrpg.org
    GitHub's comments - Invite / Guide for artists #25

  • Make sure a reasonable person could tell the two Artworks apart (RPG Maker's x EasyRPG's artworks).
    The new artwork can look similar to the original, but should not be mistaken for identical.

  • Do not use any parts of the original when making the new Artwork. Don't copy any pixels, don't trace the shape, don't use the original as a template for body movement, etc. Looking at one to get an idea of how one moves or how they're gesturing or even basic color schemes is fine.

  • Be Sure to state that your Artwork is licensed as CC0 (Do whatever you want with it) or CC-BY 4.0 (Do whatever you want with it + Give Credits to the Author). More info on CC licenses here.


Backdrop

The backdrop is the background for random encounters. These pictures will be used depending on what you set as the battle background on your map properties.

Image Size: These resources can be both 320x160 or 320x240 pixels

image image

If you want to contribute graphics to the RTP replacement, best use a proportion 4:3 like 320x240 to do it. A good practice is not to put any important decoration under the 80 last horizontal pixel rows, the battle menu goes there. You can do larger graphics, as 640x480 and larger, if the EasyRPG project wants to go higher resolution in the future, specially if you are not making the battle background using pixel art: it's easy to scale down the graphic up to 320x240.


Battle

The battle folder is used for importing graphics for the battle animations. These usually include graphics such as dark spheres for dark spells, music notes for spells that encompass singing, as well as many others. This allows you to import some color and animations into your battles.

Image Size: 480x480.

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Battle2

This is for really really large battle animations. They can be useful for a variety of things like a character walking around the screen to do a move or a really large picture of something that does something.

Image Size: 640x640.

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For battle2 animations: (Each square is 128x128)


BattleCharSet

This simply means the character sheet you will use during the battle scenes. When you play the game, this sheets allows your battle characters to appear to move, not move, use spells, attack, and many other things. Without this, you would have a very bland game, or at least bland battle sequences.

Image Size: 144x384

TemplateBattleCharSet image image

3 planes each row, 8 rows, each sprite frame is 48x48 pixels.


BattleWeapon

As with the BattleCharSet above, these are necessary for battle animations. These are what the characters you create are displayed as using for attacks. You can set each one to use a different set, so each character can have a different mace, sword, and staff.

Image Size:192x512 pixels. 3 planes each row, 8 rows, each sprite frame is 64x64 pixels.

image image

The weapon sprite position is centered with the sprite position on the battle.


CharSet

One of the most important aspects of RPG Maker 2003 is the CharSet, or Character Set. This is the sheet of sprites that are used to display characters walking in all directions, and allow them to interact with the environment you create.

Image Size: 288×256, containing up to 8 characters.

image image

Each charset comprises 12 squares, divided into 4 rows of 3 columns, representing the 3 animation frames for each direction.

The top row is where the character is moving upwards (north), the second row is moving right (east), the third is moving down (south), and the bottom row is moving left (west).

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Sizes can vary, E.g.: 288x256 (8 characters), 72x128 (1 character), 24x32 (1 inanimated character).

https://jetrotal.github.io/EasyChar/ - A tool for auto generating charsets:
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ChipSet

These are what make a map.
image

image

Image Size: 480×256, comprising all of the components for maps.

image
The dark blue and black squares are where the water autotile animations go (an example of which is already present).

The orange and gray squares are used for additional animations, such as a flickering torch or lamp. Each row is one set of animations.

The blue and black squares are where the autotiles go, as for things like forest, grass, desert or carpet. Each individual autotile set comprises a 3×4 grid.

The red and dark blue squares are where the background tiles go, such as bushes and cities on a world map or furniture and decorations on an interior map.

Finally, the pink and blue squares are for the transparent foreground tiles go, such as windows, doors or pictures, which are also used for events. Note that the first pink square on the left must be kept as this is used for blank events.

Here's a tutorial on how to convert Tilesets into Chipsets

Debug image, to test auto tiles and animations on Chipsets:
image


FaceSet

When speaking, you may want some important characters to display faces next to what they say. That’s what the FaceSets do. It’s a collection of squares with a characters face in it, and can be inserted into messages on either the left or the right.

Image Size: 192×192, containing up to 8 characters.
image image image

Each square contains a single face, which can also be expressions representing surprise, anger, etc. This adds an extra dimension to the game.


Frame

A frame is a graphic that can be laid over the game window. It allows for nice graphics around the screen based on what you want your game to look like, or you could have a demo overlay for when you release your game as a demo.

Image Size: 320x240 pixels.

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GameOver

These are graphics that will cover the screen either when all characters in the party in your game die, or when a game over event is initiated. These can be customized as you like.

Image Size: 320x240

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Monster

Monster graphics are a necessity for your game if you plan on fighting anything during your battle sequences. This is where you would upload monster graphics for your battles.

Image Size: Up to 320x160 pixels. You can use variable width and height. For example 16x50, 100x40, etc.

image

In order to make the the Battles work both on RPG Maker 2000 and RPG Maker 2003 games,
we recommend designing the Monster Sprites always facing right, as in the image bellow:

image


Movie

Movies can be a big part of your game if you’d like them to. You can create your own, and then upload it to RPG Maker 2003 as an .avi or a .mpg. These can be played at any time during the game using an event.


Music

Music files can come as .mid, .wav, or .mp3, and are usually played in the background as something happens, such as a small cutscene, or just someone playing the game. Boring games usually don’t have music, so if your game is heading in that direction, this will be a big part in creating a successful game.

EasyRPG can use MIDI, wav and MP3 format sound files for music.

RPG Maker games support creating a loop point in MIDI files, more info on this: https://rpgmaker.net/articles/104/


Panorama

Panoramas, although not needed, would be nice additions to any game. They allow you to show movement in an environment without having to move any other aspect of the map. You could show an airship flying through the sky by using a sky panorama and making it move on that map.

image

Image Size: Up to 640x480. You can use variable width and height. For example 90x80, 101x350, etc.


Picture

Pictures are just what their name suggests; they are merely images that will sit stationary on the screen, and can change depending on what keys are pressed, or can be there for a certain amount of time to display a certain idea. Many games, such as the Legend of Zelda: Ages and Seasons, used this to show Link dancing and singing with the oracles.

image image

Any size. Anyways there are not material to do for the RTP replacement.


Sound

Like music, this is a very important aspect of the game to prevent boredom. It allows doors to sound like they’re opening, monsters sound like they’re being hit, and any other sounds you can think of.

EasyRPG wav and MP3 format sound files for music.


System

System is the set of files used for shop inventories and character item comparisons and for the menu screen. This includes arrows, the color of words, and the frames surrounding different parts of the screen.

Image Size: 160×80.
image image image

Once "filled in", this will determine how the messages appear, including text colors, in text boxes and menus; in other words, the main interface.
Here's a Tutorial on how to edit it.


System2

System2 is the set of files you use for battle meters and indications. This includes arrows to tell you whose turn it is, which monster you are targeting, and how much magic and health you have left.

Image Size: 80×96
image image
System 2 set: (Most squares are 16x16)

Tutorial on editing System2


Title

This is the image that will become the title screen. This can be any number of pictures, like the Game Over screen, and is fully customizable to your whims and desires. It still, like all of the other resources, has a pixel size limit to it, and can only be 320X240.

Image Size: 320x240
image


Image Formats

image

BMP
BMP is a bitmap format used initially in Windows. There are different types but RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 only support BMP files with the following specifications:

Uncompressed BMP (RLE compression is not supported)
8 bit indexed palette, 256 colors (not 24 bit, not 2, 4 bit or other indexed palette formats)

PNG
PNG is the Portable Network Graphics format. RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 supports it with following restriction:

8 bit indexed palette, 256 colors (not truecolor 24/32 bit, not 2, 4 bit or other indexed palette formats).
Information chunks about alpha transparency, transparent color key, multiplane (APNG), gamma, color profiles, etc. will be ignored.

This is the recommended format to work with the RTP replacement material.

XYZ
XYZ is a graphics format made for RPG Maker 2000 and 2003. RPG Maker can import and export graphics supported by RPG Maker in this format. The features are 8 bit palette and a maximum of 65536x65536 pixels.


Material sources ( some Text and Images ):
https://wiki.easyrpg.org/development/rtp-replacement/media-file-format-specifications
https://blog.rpgmakertimes.info/page/3/?s=template
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/RPG_Maker_2003/Resources
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/resource-templates.40220/
http://charas-project.net/charas2/index.php
https://rpgmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Graphics_and_Sounds_QuikSheet#:~:text=These%20resources%20are%20640x480%20pixel,960%20pixels%20and%20unlimited%20vertically.

@Ghabry
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Ghabry commented Nov 30, 2021

This is almost too good to have it buried in the issue tracker.
Could be added to the easyrpg website in the rtp section.

@ryliejamesthomas
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I think more useful would be to have the wiki page complete, so that can be linked to where necessary, and/or a markdown file in the repo, with some templates, framed as a contributors' guide.


I don't know if EasyRPG supports this, but worth mentioning that RM2K supported creating a loop point in MIDI files: https://rpgmaker.net/articles/104/

@fdelapena fdelapena pinned this issue Jan 30, 2022
@fdelapena
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I don't know if EasyRPG supports this, but worth mentioning that RM2K supported creating a loop point in MIDI files: https://rpgmaker.net/articles/104/

Yes, player support this feature, thanks for linking the tutorial. There is also an open source MIDI editor from the OpenMIDIProject that supports .mid (Standard MIDI File) format and even the RPG Maker 2000/2003 loop feature. The editor is called Sekaiju, available at https://openmidiproject.osdn.jp/index_en.html (it's for Windows but works with Wine, too).

@D0NM
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D0NM commented Mar 8, 2022

I'm that Don Miguel
And I love this approach. Keep it up!!!

UPD: All my original files in the RTP are under CC0.

@jetrotal
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jetrotal commented Apr 25, 2023

Some donations to the project


Sprite Might donated those hair assets as CC-BY:

image

They are part of a full body asset collection that can be downloaded here: https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads%2Fsprite-might-assets-rpg-maker-2003.76339%2F&fbclid=IwAR24QuxYQkJ9pMZEzxJ1I7lqK5dvPo5qUfuSu4cyIYBMLMfrX2luKF1k8VI

Only the hair assets are under CC-BY, full body license is described at the link above.

CC-BY stated here:
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R.C.O old assets license:

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John Cena-esque character donated by Jason Perry [CC0]

image

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AntumDeluge added a commit to AntumDeluge/EasyRPG-RTP that referenced this issue May 8, 2023
@shinyjiggly
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Thinking about contributing some stuff here, maybe some sound effects where there's gaps still needing replacement.
Maybe once I return home in a week, I can do some visual things though.

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