Floor Tile Tutorial

1. What you'll need to do this:
   a) a good graphics program.  I use Paint Shop Pro, and I like it a lot.  If you would like to try it, go here and download the demo.
   
   b) some graphics to use in your tile.  You can try making your own, and there are plenty of textures in PSP and other programs to help you do that.  Still, it's easier to just use some free graphics.  Here are some places to start looking:
   
               ABTA Textures  One of my favorite background sites.  All the images are absolutely free.
               Free Clip Art and Images   Has links to many different sites that have clipart, including backgrounds and textures.
   
   c) a pattern to follow for your tile.  You can always look at your own house, and see what the pattern is for the tile.  You can also look at various tile sites online to get ideas.  Here are a few sites that have pattern tiles that you can use as examples:
   
               Daltile
               Floor Tile Patterns
   
   

2. For my first tile, I'm going to use a pattern similar to one that is in the game (diamond in the middle, with the four quarters of the square split off).  Here are the two graphics I'm going to use for my tile:
   
     
   
   If the pattern on your graphics seem too large, go ahead and resize it to make it look smaller (remember, you're making a tile that is only 64x64 pixels, and you don't want a texture that is so large you can't see it. 
   
   

3. Start off with a square that is 64x64 pixels.  I know that my tile will have grout lines showing, so I'm going to change the color of the picture right away to what I want my grout color to be:
   
   
   
   That color seems a little too solid, so I'm going to add some "noise" to it (in PSP, that's found under Image/Noise/Add).  Now my picture looks like this:
   
   
   
   

4. Now I'm going to create the first part of my tile.  I cut out a square from my first graphic that is 30x30 (that's one quarter the size of the tile, minus some space to show grout lines).  I end up with a graphic like this:
   
   
   
   Then I erase part of the image with the erase tool (set the options on it to "right slash"), and I end up with the following image:
   
   
   
   Now I copy and paste it (as a new layer) into my tile:
   
   
   
   I can then copy and paste 3 more copies of the image into the tile, making sure to flip and mirror them (under Image) to get them to lie correctly.  Now my tile looks like this:
   
   
   
   

5. Now I need to cut out my center square.  You could be exact and measure exactly how many pixels high and wide it needs to be, but I was lazy and just guessed and got it right after a few tries.  Here's what I cut out:
   
   
   
   I copy and paste it onto the tile, and then rotate it by 45 degrees.  Now my tile looks like this:
   
   
   
   And there you have it!  A nice looking tile that can now be transported into the game (remember to use Homecrafter to make it into a floor).
   
   
           If you have any questions, or would like me to make some special tiles for you, feel free to contact me.