Chances are, if you are reading this, you want to make a texture pack for Terraria. That's great! Texture packs are an underappreciated aspect of Terraria that I personally believe need a bit more spotlight, so trust me when I say that I am more than excited to get you started! Perhaps one of the most daunting parts about making texture packs are the sheer amount of textures there are. However, if you take each part step by step, you can plan out a method on how to accomplish this mammoth of a task.
Setting up your work Station
Before you pull out your nearest Paint.net, Aseprite, GIMP, Photoshop, or MS Paint and start working on all the radical hairstyles you saw in that anime you watched a few days ago, we need to set up a workstation. I am going to share the workstation I use to create my texture pack (Shameless link here). Your workstation does not have to be just like mine, you can switch it up to your liking.
You are going to want to make a folder containing everything in your texture pack. I recommend naming this folder whatever you decided to name your pack, because calling it "Texture Pack" will most likely lead to some confusion. Your folder should contain the following folders:
An uncompressed folder containing all the image sprites in the game. While not completely necessary, it is immensely recommended that you have one so that you can 1) copy and paste an image file and replace the texture, so as to avoid typos in the naming of the file, 2) use the original texture as a form of inspiration or to generally give ideas on how you will adapt the texture, and 3) to ensure that you have not glossed over any specific texture. (For example, creating stone, ebonstone and crimstone, but forgetting pearlstone.)
To access these files, you need to go into the game files of Terraria. Follow this guide on the wiki to learn how to do this, and other technical aspects on making textures packs.
A folder titled "Images" containing all the sprites you plan to release in a specific update. This is the file that you will compress into .zip and share to your users. Please take note that once you compress the folder, you will want to rename the compressed folder to "Texture Pack". Since compressing the folder places the uncompressed folder into a compressed folder of the same name, you will already have the proper "Images" folder inside the "Texture Pack" folder.
A folder containing all the future sprites you plan to add in an update. If you are anything like me, you may have gotten an artistic revelation on how a specific sprite should look like. That's fantastic! Waste no time on making that sprite so that you can hold on to it when your release schedule calls for it. You can place this texture in the future folder to be kept until it is moved into the "Images" folder for your new release.
A folder containing concept art. Of course, this is not required, but it's great to have so that you can go over ideas that may have come in the form of concept art.
A folder containing tools, guides, and what not. This is also not required, but you make end up creating some sort of shortcut that can help you out, for instance, you might have an image that maps out where certain variations of a tile go.
A file containing your forum page branding and artwork. If you wanna sell you texture pack to other people (figurative, not literal), you will want to make you page look pretty. While it's not required, having a folder where you can keep your branding artwork is a great way to keep your work space organized.
Having an organized work space makes it easier to work, and thus, makes it easier for you to keep on going without getting burnt out.
Pixel Art Resources
The process of making Pixel art is quite complex, however, fortunately, there are all sorts of great tutorials out there. Here are a few to check out!
If that's not enough, there are a huge collection of tutorials on Lospec. Check it out here!
There are plenty of free programs you can use to make pixel art, my personal favorite is Paint.net. If you have some loose change sitting around, you can buy Aseprite. It's very cheap and it comes with all sorts of cool pixel art related tools such as animation (though you will not be using it in this case).
The Images Folder and You
Before we get started here let me just say this. The nightmarish dungeon that is the Images folder is known far and wide among us texture pack artists as the most convoluted, disorganized, complicated thing in the game. You think getting to and defeating the Moon Lord is bad? Ahh...those young innocent minds.
In all seriousness, the Images folder may look pretty bad on the surface, and the fact that it has well over 10000 files does not help. Fortunately for you one of us took a hit or the team and will share with you how to navigate the folder. First things first, it's good to know that everything is in alphabetical order. You can thank the lovely people who programmed the file explorer for that one. While most files can be found in their own subcategories, there are some files that sit there without a place to call home, and will hide among the thousands and thousands of other files.
Now, from the top of the folder to the bottom of the folder, this is where everything is. Ahem.
Note: most sprite categories start with "Sprite_0" or simply "Sprite" so numbers may indicate that there is one more sprite than the highest listed number. Those that this applies to will be marked with an *. Categories with only one sprite will not be indicated.
Acc_HandsOff (13 Sprites) (Accessories that appear on the player's off hand; the hand behind the player's sprite)
Acc_HandsOn (21 Sprites) (Accessories that appear on the player's on hand; the hand in front of the player's sprite)
Armor (234 Sprites) (Armor that covers the player's arm and body sprite)
Ambiance (29 Sprites) (Small objects and creatures in the background; This category is not labeled as "Ambiance" These sprites are too similar and self descriptive for their own categories and have been grouped into a single category.)
*Splash (29 Sprites) (Splash Screens; Sprites are ordered in a weird way)
TownNPCs (56 Sprites) (All friendly town and merchant NPCs; This category is not labeled as "TownNPCs" These sprites are too similar and self descriptive for their own categories and have been grouped into a single category.)
NPC (26 Sprites) (Custom Bestiary NPC Showcase Sprites; These sprites ordered based on their NPC counterparts)
Research_Gear (3 Sprites) (Research Gear Sprites; Sprites are ordered alphabetically)
Research_Slots (1 Sprite) (Research UI Icon)
Research_Spark (1 Sprite) (Research Spark Icon)
The folder represented by spoiler below is not named "Minimap" but rather it is named one of the names below. The contents within the minimap spoiler appear in all 9 folders. It would be pointlessly redundant to create 9 spoilers with the exact same thing inside each folder.
Default
Golden
Lead
Remix
Retro
Sticks
StoneGold
TwigLeaf
Valkyrie
MinimapButton (3 Sprites) (Minimap Button Icons; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
MinimapFrame (1 Sprite) (Minimap Frame)
Heart (7 Sprites) (Player Health Bar; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
Star (5 Sprites) (Player Mana Bar; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
HP (4 Sprites) (Horizontal Health Meter; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
MP (4 Sprites) (Horizontal Mana Meter; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
Icon (12 Sprites) (World Creation Option Indicators; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
MP (14 Sprites) (World Creation Preview Graphic; Sprites are ordered by purpose)
Wings (46 Sprites) (Wing Accessory appearing behind player sprite)
*Wires (5 Sprites) (Colored wire tile sprites)
WiresNew (1 Sprite) (Extra wire variations)
Wraith_Eyes (1 Sprite) (Wraith eye glow overlay)
*Xmas (5 Sprites) (Christmas tree decoration overlays)
XmasLight (1 Sprite) (Christmas tree light overlays)
This took hours to create for the purpose of cutting the hours wasted browsing the folder, and overall, making it easier to make texture packs.
Packaging and Releasing
Do you have some amazing textures done, ready to be unleashed upon the world? Great! However, one step remains. Packaging and Releasing texture packs, now in the new 1.4 update, is easier than ever. Years ago, back in the primitive days of texture pack making, we would have do convert all our textures into the .xnb files the game uses and replace the game files with the texture pack ones. It was an absolute riot. If you made the silly mistake of not backing up your game files, you were stuck with those textures.
Now, in order to make your textures playable in Terraria, you need three things. A content folder, a pack.json file, and a icon.png file. These files will go into your texture pack folder (it is necessary that it is a .zip files in order to package properly)
Content Folder - This folder contains all the resources in your pack. Within this folder is the infamous Images Folder described below. This folder contains all your beautiful textures!
Pack.json - This file tells the game that the folder it is in is a texture pack folder. This pack will let you name the texture pack, give it a version, a description and will let you put the name of the author (YOU!). I have a template Pack.json file at the bottom of the thread that you can edit and use. It is CRUCIAL that you don't mess up the code. I find that the easiest way to mess up the file is to accidentally delete a comma. If you pack is not showing up on the texture pack list, this is the reason why. If you need a program to let you edit it, you can use a word processing program, but I reccomend Notepad++. It's free and has everything you really need.
Icon.png - This image is the icon of your pack. It is not necessary, but if you want to really make your pack look professional, it is highly recommended. You can have any resolution you want, but if you want some nice pixel art, 64x64 is recommended.
Once you have all these things, you are done! Congratulations, you have come a long way and it is time to make your texture pack known to the world! Once you have your .zip file done and ready, you need to upload it to an online library. You technically can upload the zip file directly to your forum thread or Discord server, but it is recommended that you use something like Dropbox or MEGA. These libraries will let you update the file every time you have a new version of your texture pack, so you don't have to go an update your thread or discord post. That's it! You are done! You should be so proud of yourself! I'm proud of you!
Speaking of forum threads and discord, let's get into that!
Building your Community
Building a community of people around your texture pack is not terribly difficult, but do not get discouraged if your texture pack does not take off. I'm sure it's amazing, but it's not going to be instantly known by everyone. It is almost crucial that you make a thread on the forums. This will put your texture pack face to face with potential users. Let's have a rundown of the forums.
Terraria Community Forums has three subforums for Texture Packs.
Released - This forums is for texture packs that have a usable and downloadable version of your texture pack. Make sure that the download link is easy for people to find, and make sure you include some snazzy screenshots and sprite showcases.
Works-in-Progress - Do you not have a public version of your texture pack yet! This is the forum for you. This is the place to start building hype around your pack. Once you have a version of your pack released, there is no need to make a new thread. You can ask one of the forum moderators to move the thread to the Released subforum.
General Texture Pack Discussion - This is for general discussion. No texture packs should be posted here, but rather, questions, concerns, discussion, or tutorials can be posted here. You know, like a certain tutorial made by a considerably sexy and endlessly charismatic frog who has no negative qualities...yeah.
When making a thread, you want to make a clean and professional looking environment. You want your users to really know that you mean business and that you have one heck of a texture pack to share with them. There are a few things that every thread should have.
Title - Introduce yourself and your pack to those clicking on your thread. A confusing entrance will push away potential users. Make it bold and flashy. Entice them to scroll down.
Download Link - The download link of your pack should be the most important part of your thread. I recommend having it right after the title. It should be very easy to let your viewers know where they can install your pack
Discord Link - Discord is an essential elements for creating a space for people to talk to you and to each other about your pack. If you have a Discord link, make sure to include it!
Images - No one is going to go through the trouble of installing your texture pack if they don't know what it looks like. I recommend posting screenshots as well as individual sprites. (When showcasing tiles, I like to put them in a 3x3 square. Look at how they do it in the Wiki.)
Support Code - The signature of a user is the forum equivalent to a billboard. This will bring the face of your texture pack outside of the texture pack subforum. Below is a template to a code that you can copy and paste into your thread so that users can copy and paste it into their signatures. I'm sure you've posted other people's content into your own signature. This is a good place to wrap up your forum post.
How about Discord? What will you need for that? There is a lot that goes into making a Discord server, but below are some essentials that will help you out.
Welcome Channel - This is similar to the title of your forum thread. This should be the first channel that users see when they join the server.
Rules - The rules of your server can go in your welcome channel or in it's own. I recommend keeping the rules brief, you want people to both read the rules and not feel like they are in an oppressive and controlled environment. If you need to scroll down to see the whole rule set, you probably wrote too much. Have faith in the common sense of your users. They are not elementary school students (at least they shouldn't be). They won't look for every loophole possible to spite you. If it helps you can ask users to use common sense in your rule list. Below is a set of rules I created for my server that you are welcome to use in yours. No need to give credit, just use them!
Chatboxes - This is the place where the most discussion about your pack will be had. You might end up splitting these into several chats depending on the way your server grows.
Meme Channels - This might sound like a joke, but these are necessary. Your users will want to post memes, and if they don't have a place to do it, they WILL begin to clog up the general chatboxes with nonsence. Trust me, I own a texture pack server, my meme channel is a god-forsaken cesspool.
Art Channels - Posting all your sprites in your forum thread is actually not a good place. The simple reason is that you have an image limit within your forum thread. I recommend posting some sprites there, and posting the rest on your discord server. Dedicate a channel to posting all the artwork with no additional discussion. The same applies to screenshots.
Schedule Channels - In my texture pack, I follow a strict release schedule. This helps me stay organized and keeps me motivated on work. You don't want to do everything you want to do and ignore the rest. If you want to make a 100% completed pack, this is almost a must.
There are many other channels that you will need to make depending on your workflow and the way your server grows. Be savvy and know what to do. Managing a Discord server is a form of art in itself.
We have a few rules that must be followed for the sake of a clean and friendly environment.
1. Please keep proper etiquette. The following is strictly forbidden.
-Harrassing or ridiculing others.
-Toxic Behaviour
-Excessive Swearing (keep it to a minimum!)
-Posting sexually explicit or suggestive content.
-Making racial or homophobic comments.
-Links to sites containing malware, pornographic sites, phishing sites, and sites containing pirated or otherwise illegal content.
2. Don't share private information. The following is strictly forbidden.
-Links to private discord servers
-Information from private messages (without the other user(s)'s consent)
-Personal information such as names, images, or personal contact information
-Spreading false, malicious information about another user.
3. Advertising is prohibited as is the following.
-Posting links to unrelated content
-Consistent spamming
4. Most importantly, let's all have fun!
Here are a few roles that I find are useful for texture pack discord servers.
Author/Owner - YOU!
Moderator - These people make sure your server rules are being followed. They manage your community and essentially keep the dynamic clean and orderly. Have a channel that they can congregate in and discuss the general happenings in your server.
Artist - If you have anyone helping you make your pack, this is a good role for them to have. Give them a place to share artwork for opinions and critique that they don't want to be made public.
Beta Tester - If you want to ensure that your pack will run smoothly within Terraria, select a few people to look for bugs and provide feedback on your work.
Partner - It may help to find other texture pack artists and form partnerships with them. This will let you advertise their packs on your server and you can advertise your pack on theirs. It doesn't even have to be another texture pack author, it can be anyone, though I advise that you find a person with a related channel so that your advertisement does not fall on uninterested eyes.
Good Luck on the Road!
Making texture packs can be a fun and rewarding experience. There is so much potential here that I feel is wasted because of the lack of information from tutorials such as this one. It's my personal mission to ensure that this community is growing and thriving! So, good luck on the road, aspiring texture pack author!
Hi, can you help me with a texture pack I am making? I don't know how to change the texture of tile entities such as text statues. I do know that all the text statues share the same sprite sheet, but I can't find it anywhere.
Hi, can you help me with a texture pack I am making? I don't know how to change the texture of tile entities such as text statues. I do know that all the text statues share the same sprite sheet, but I can't find it anywhere.
if you want to change the texture. look for it on the wiki. find it in a folder and use a program like gimp or something else to create your texture. also use TConvert(Tool - TConvert - Extract content files and convert them back)
u will also need to make (something i like to call texture packs corpse)
content -----> images-----> (put your masterpiece here)
icon.png (optional)
pack.json
(also im preatyshoure u cant change titles and description in texture pack)
Hi, can you help me with a texture pack I am making? I don't know how to change the texture of tile entities such as text statues. I do know that all the text statues share the same sprite sheet, but I can't find it anywhere.
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