#parallax background tutorial

Step 1. Template

So you took the template, you loaded it up in your favorite art program, and now you’re about to start to make your own panorama. Well slow down for a second, you need to know some things before you proceed to draw! Like, important limits depending on what program you’re using. Rpgmaker2003 is far from perfect and it has it’s own flaws, so stay tuned for that, I’ll explain the restrictions at a later time.. The main diameter is 320x240, which is also the size of the template you’re gonna be using! But here’s a little trick which is very important to know. 

Pay attention to numbers 15 and 20. That’s the default map size for rpgmaker2003. If you count the blocks, you’d get the exact same number, which plays an important role, 15 blocks vertical and 20 blocks horizontal, which is the default size of the panorama, being 320x240. If your map is larger than normal (let’s say 32 vertical and 50 horizontal) then you should expand not only your canvas but also the template to match by copying one row from each side until the whole canvas is covered. You done? Good. 

Step 2: Assemble 

For this part, I’ll be using a panorama which I did a while ago, which is Beth’s bakery panorama. The first thing you’re going to do is do a rough design of the interior you’re gonna make, or exterior, what ever. Just don’t forget to lower the opacity on the template so you know what you’re doing.

Now that you have your rough design of how it would look like, time to start spriting. Unless, you wanna do more rough designs until you’re satisfied, which I say go right ahead, after you’re done, start spriting. Might take you a while to do it by hand so please do be patient, unless you have paint tool sai, which there’s a nifty trick which you can use. Make a linework layer, set it to binary and there ya go!

Now this one is a little tricky, so pay attention to the lines. If you look at how the interior looks like in-game, you’ll notice the green part goes over the block like so:

This is very important to note because I’ve made that mistake and put it under the block, and the final result looked very off, especially in-game. (I wish I could give you an example, but since then I have fixed some of the panoramas. :’3) So, now that you’re done with the design, you’re gonna have to color in the rest of the background.

we’re almost done, which gets us to the good part. Adding decor and other stuff.. For this one, you’re done with the template, so you can add in decor where ever you please! You can add people, you can hand-draw some decor, or use existing decor from your charset/chipset. Yes, you can do that!

And now you’re done! It’s ready to go in rpgmaker. Use what ever you use to save your stuff in 8-bit (I use pain.net, doe i use gimp if there’s textures added), and then you just go to resource manager, click the panorama folder, choose your panorama and BAM. it is done. Now all you have to do is set up the panorama in the map properties and you’re good to go! 

Just make sure to add invisible walls in order to avoid no-clipping through it. And that’s it. In only two steps, you made your own panorama. Now I- Oh wait, I almost forgot. restrictions. *dabs*

Rpg2003 is very notorious for having it’s very specific limits, which can be very annoying, but are very easy to fix! I only found two of these specific and annoying bugs, not sure if there are more.

-error message pops out saying that the size is invalid when trying to put the panorama through the resource manager.

That will happen a lot, and I mean a lot!! Any panorama/picture that goes above the default diameter will result in that error. The ONLY WAY TO FIX SAID ERROR is to manually put the panorama/picture in it’s designated folder through the game files. Only from there will the game be able to register said panorama. Pretty sure the original OFF also has panoramas that go above the default diameter and are put in manually. 

-The panorama doesn’t move accordingly? 

Ah yes, the glitch effect. This mainly occurs when you put incorrect diameters in the template/map properties, which results in this.. very weird fever dream like event where the panorama moves each time you move. Refer to step 1 because that’s an important step, and make sure to count your blocks before and after you put said panorama in rpgmaker2003. 

Is there a way to make animations out of panoramas? Must I say it? Must i really say it? This is basic logic, and it’s not by going through map properties. You only use map properties when you want the clouds to move. Let’s say you did a little animation by making a couple of still images and you want them to move. You make a parallel process within the same map you added your panorama in, and from there, you experiment.

For this one, you need to constantly go back and forth with testing out in order to make sure everything is running smooth. Of course, when doing these kinds of things, you need to manually add the water effects to it. Self-explanatory in a sense, but for those who might not get it, panoramas and tiles don’t clash well unless your panorama looks like this.

It’s a pain, yes, but I didn’t make rpgmaker2003.. :’3 

Now my work here is done.