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Basic Pixeling in YY-CHR

Introduction

In this tutorial we will learn how to pixel with YY-CHR, how it works and everything we need in it from the SMW standpoint.

Contents
-)Extracting and making the ExGFX file
-)Basic Outline
-)Basic Shading
-)Adding the finishing touches
-)Custom Palettes
-)Realistic-like Foregrounds

Extracting and making the ExGFX file
First, go to a level in SMW and make a savestate with zsnes, remember where it is and what its called. Next extract your graphics from SMW, then take a graphic from there(say GFX00.bin) and copy in to a new folder you will make called 'ExGraphics'. Open it in YY-CHR and change the 'Graphic Format' to 4BPP SNES. You will notice that the colors look all funny, that does not matter now. Hit 'CTRL + A' and then 'delete'. Then change the zoom level to 'x8'. This will set the editing area to 16x16 tiles. If you wanted to edit a single 8x8 tile you would go to 'x16'. Now load the savestate you made, and pick a palette you want to use by clicking on any of the rows of colors in the bottom right scrollbox, but you can't go past the 7th palette if your using it for MAP16! If you don't see any palette that you would like to use, you can make your own, but we will talk about that later.

Basic Outline
To create a basic black outline you will need to have found the palette you want to use, then take a look at the third color. Notice how its black? Since the transparency is also black you can't see it! You will need to scroll and find a palette that has a lighter color for the third one. We see that palette # 4 has a gray in the third color spot. We will use this palette to make the basic outline and then switch back to our main palette. The basic outline will be a solid black color so go ahead and make your outline, but before you do notice that unless your going for a YI styled graphic, if you use clumed pixels it looks bad:


Basic Shading
Now that we have made the outline we want to finish the graphic, right? Ok, good. Now you want to switch back to the palette that you chose to work with, and you will notice that theres nothing there?! Thats incorrect, the 3rd color in the palette is black, remember? So you have your outline and you can't see it. What do you do? The best way that I have come up with of doing this is to switch back and forth between the two palettes and fill in your background color with some other color by using the palette that you can see your outline on. Then go back to the palette you chose again, and change to the color you want. Ok, now you have your basic outline and the background color so here comes the shading to make it look less bland. Find the darker color to the one your using(usually the farthest to the left of that color) and color in the outside of the background. You can use the darkest one or the 'just a smidge' darker one(which looks better). Just like making a second outline the above rule about clumped pixels apply. Now we have shaded our graphic!


Adding the finishing touches
Now that we have made the outline, the background color, and the shading, we can actually work on the graphic now. Just use the above steps and draw!

Another thing to think about is that if you don't have enough room, you don't have to shade certain areas.

Custom Palettes
If you look at all of the palettes available in SMW and can't find that good one that has all of the colors that you want to use, you need to make a custom one. To do this simply find a palette that wont cause any confliction with another image in the game, and find a color and right click on it. This will bring up the color editor. All you have to do is choose the RGB properties and click ok. Now color your graphic with this color and before saving and closing YY-CHR, goto the Palette menu from the top and click 'Save Palette(.pal)' . And to load the palette in Lunar Magic click 'File>Palettes>Import Level Palette from file' and choose the palette you saved.

Realistic-like Foregrounds
So now you've made a couple of graphics and you want to make something better? Now we will be creating a realistic looking forground tile. I usally use palette #5 for this, and with the black colors at the end, add more colors. So, realistic graphics aren't as hard as most people would think, take a look at the palette I used for this:

Just simple lighter and darker shades on green and brown.
Ok, we'll start with the dirt. This sounds crazy,but for the dirt all I do is randomly create dots of darker and ligher colors.

And now that we have our dirt all we do is add some green, randomly dot it and shade it, and:


So thats it, you have learned how to do basic pixeling with YY-CHR.


Thanks for reading,
zKiP
You do realize that you can just change the displayed color of the transparency in YY-CHR, right?

Well, this tutorial is okay, I guess... Perhaps more detail? In any case, it's good to see an actual tutorial on this, I'm tired of GFX artists saying "Oh, making GFX is easy, all you do is just shade and add detail." I mean seriously, you can't just shade if you've had little practice or knowledge... I hope this tutorial can be improved and will show these GFX artists that there is more to it than they think for us without experience.

World Community Grid: Thread | Team
 
Can you use YY-CHR to edit the title screen?
SMW rocks!
Luigi is the best.

Originally posted by FireLuigi150
Can you use YY-CHR to edit the title screen?


If you mean by graphics, then yes. You can find it in GFX29.bin, but space is very limited, but you can always use lunar magic to make the letters.
On another note, you can go the best way, and make a ExGFX file with your title screen and insert it into level C7, and place it into the level via MAP16. You will need to go into the title screen editor and delete everything, though.

Give Mario some love?~


Thanks a lot, this was very helpful! :D

Who knows when I'll have
something to put here.


Credits go to Counterfeit for the bitchin' post layout.