Archive: 13 posts

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From time to time we all need some letters for our levels. I thought I would take a moment to show just how easy it can be to make your own by running through one of the processes I use here. I like to start out with a rectangle of cardboard that is roughly the size of the letters I want. For this font I made it four big grid squares high, and three wide. Somewhere around this ratio seems pretty good. You can fluctuate it some by one or two small squares, but it will change your center points and references. Now that I have my rectangle, I create 25 more of them and lay them out in two rows, evenly spaced. This creates a template for me to work with (I'll explain why I do this in a minute). And we're on to the fun part. I prefer to design the letters using holo material because it has good crisp corners, and when I pull it from my objects later it will stay in one spot on my level while I test. To start with, I set my grid to small, and make the letter A. So I make a holo rectangle and place it over my first piece of cardboard. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/tbradt/lbp/fonts/Start.jpg Now, using the various shapes and holo I cut and play with it until I get things how I want. For this one I decided I wanted a rounded look with a few sharp edges. I've kept it fairly simple. Doing this I have only used three shapes to create the letter. I used one circle that is four small grids across to round the top edges, a circle that is two grids across to cut out the center, and a square to get the sharp edges. This creates several references for me as I create the rest of the letters. The key here is to keep it simple with just a few shapes. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/tbradt/lbp/fonts/A.jpg Now I go through the rest of the letters and make them. Some letters are remarkably similar to others. This is why I lay out all the cardboard. For example C, D, G, and Q are all variations on O. So I make O first and copy it and paste where I need it. This makes creation much easier. You will probably do the same with Z and S, E and F, M and W, and several other letters along the way. Well, now I have a basic alphabet built. It looks like this. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/tbradt/lbp/fonts/First.jpg Now I go through and double check my references. Here is a closeup to show some of the repeated shapes and reference points I was talking about (you may notice I changed the A). Obviously yours may be different, but this is part of the process. http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/tbradt/lbp/fonts/closeline.jpg The Red lines are the upper and lower bounds of the cutout portions. You can see how that is repeated in several of the letters. The yellow lines are basically the center line. it's where things like the arm of the A, X, K, and the cutouts for C and G will fall. The light blue is another form of center line, but this one is the same width as the upper and lower fourths of the letter. This would be where things like the center arm of the E is, or the F. It is also the lower part of the P or R, and center of the B. It's important to use things like these. It doesn't have to be dead on as you get more stylized, but making a basic consistent starting point is important. This gives me the basic look of the letters. From there I tweaked a few more corners, and rearranged some shapes to get my final font. This would be the part where you may deviate from the reference points some in order to put the finishing touches on, but since you have done all the groundwork, you will end up with a consistent look and feel for all of your letters. Here is what I ended up with: http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q149/tbradt/lbp/fonts/Final2.jpg You can see that once everything is aligned it looks better even with the few style changes on individual letters. Granted, this isn't the fanciest font in the world, but it looks ok. With these steps and a little work, anyone can make their own fonts to look any way they want. My other technique is one I used to recreate Arial, a very clean font for menus and such. it took a different process. If you guys want, I can write that one up too. It will help you recreate any font you have on your computer. EDIT- I know that this font is basic and can be made better. I probably will on down the road, but I created this one as I wrote out the tutorial. It's just a quick simple font to help describe the process I use.

2011-09-12 07:53:00 Author: tdarb Posts: 689

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I noticed that no one has commented on this yet so on behalf of everyone who read your post and didn't post anything I want to say thank you.

2011-09-18 22:56:00 Author: DarKnighT_0_9 Posts: 91

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That's cool, I'll have to try it sometime! I really wanna make a Times New Roman font...............(dot dot dot...)

2011-09-19 00:05:00 Author: Unknown User

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Awesome. I was thinking of doing a tutorial for making traditional fonts next. I was going to do Arial since it is a really simple font (and I have it made already), but I can probably base it on Times New Roman. That should be a fun font to have.

2011-09-19 02:45:00 Author: tdarb Posts: 689

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Not sure how I missed this a week ago, but fantastic work!

2011-09-19 09:00:00 Author: Mr_Fusion Posts: 1799

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Please, I want to know how to recreate PC fonts.

2011-09-19 16:57:00 Author: RibShark Posts: 83

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A nice, easy to follow method. I'll have to try this later, thanks!

2011-09-21 08:44:00 Author: xero Posts: 2419

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I've been getting fed up of using community fonts for a while now - there's awesome fonts out there, but I've always wanted to make my own, with capitals, lowercase, punctuation, etc. If you do ever write up a guide about recreating pc fonts, please do post it so we can all give it a go! This technique is a very nice way of laying down the basics. Thanks!

2011-09-21 10:46:00 Author: rialrees Posts: 1015

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Awesome, I find that another way I like is to have two 6 x 8 or 4 x 8 pieces of cardboard that are stacked on top of each other so you get the center line.

2011-09-21 14:35:00 Author: TheSwede Posts: 59

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That's pretty cool, thnx

2011-10-18 05:45:00 Author: Unknown User

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A very nice way to make fonts

2014-11-06 11:11:00 Author: Verschleppen Posts: 15

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You can also make those cardboard borders different shapes, like weird blobs, if you want some crazy looking fonts.

2014-11-06 23:17:00 Author: Devious_Oatmeal Posts: 1799

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You call yourself non creative then you post something like this lol Thanks for posting I'll definitely try this.

2014-11-25 14:04:00 Author: SirenScribble7189 Posts: 52

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