How should I go about building a 2d game "tile-set" in Illustrator CS3?

December 19, 2007 12:17 PM

Illustrator CS3 Filter: Process recommendations for a novice Adobe Illustrator user on building/using a "tile-set" (like you'd see in a 2d video-game) in AICS3...

I'm going to be constructing a number of "tile-sets" (see this link for an example of the sort of thing I'm talking about) for a rather ambitious art project using Adobe Illustrator CS3. As I'm a very novice Illustrator user (most of my experience is with PS & Painter), I was wonder if any Illustrator "power-users" out there have any recommendations on the best and/or most versatile way to do this...

Tips/recommendations? How would you, the Illustrator Expert(TM), go about doing something like this? Separate object groups for each tile? Making each tile its own "swatch pattern" and then just using them to fill squares? I'm eager to hear any opinions folks out there may have...

posted by joe_from_accounting to media & arts (6 comments total)

Email me (link is in my profile)
It'll be easier to explain in an email.
posted by Thorzdad at 12:58 PM on December 19, 2007

I generated a block-based reusable set of graphics for teaching (groups of illustrations that could be used to show a sequence, or alternately used singly in exams and quizzes for identification of specific steps, etc.). I just saved each individual block as a group once complete, and saved the blocks in sets as single files. When needed, I open the file, select the block(s) required and copy-paste them into a new file.

Get familiar with the alignment tools, specifically key objects and spacing, etc. - it will save you a lot of time.
posted by caution live frogs at 1:05 PM on December 19, 2007

What style are you going for? I'm thinking Illustrator is going to impose a sort of cartoony style when you start to get into a large tile set (or you will experience incredibly painful slowdown when you try and add enough detail). On the other hand, if cartoony is what you're going for (like the example), well, at least avoid separate object groups and go with the swatch patterns.

Here is my favourite tutorial for tile-based (pixel) art, the beginning is probably more applicable to someone working with a raster program, but you might find it useful as well... and it starts to get really good around the middle, in the De-Mystifying the Greats section.
posted by anaelith at 3:18 PM on December 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hey anaelith,

I'm actually looking for low-detail at the tile level, as eventually I'll be using the art assets generated by this project (which involves large format printing) in a MetaPlace game where the tiles themselves will end up raster 128 x 128 -or- 64 x 64 @ 72ppi.
posted by joe_from_accounting at 4:28 PM on December 19, 2007

Why not just save your tiles as symbols? What am I missing here?
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:40 PM on December 19, 2007

Agree on the symbols. Or, if you want to keep everything in discrete files, save out Illustrator-editable PDF files and link to them in a larger AI document.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:31 PM on December 19, 2007