LBP Level Creation Discussion

[BillCable]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

so you have to use the pre-rendered stickers, you can't draw your own designs. alright then, thats what i figured. thx. for your help.

Well, you can take photos of stuff with your EyeToy to create new stickers. And you can also take photos in-game of stuff you create using the camera tool and turn those photos into stickers. So there is some freedom. But there's no drawing tool per se.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

so you have to use the pre-rendered stickers, you can't draw your own designs. alright then, thats what i figured. thx. for your help.

Well you could build the pieces individually of wafer thin cardboard, color them, and glue them together - but that seems like a lot of work for some items that already specifically exist as stickers or objects.

You could also do something by hand and capture it with the PS Eye, stick it on cardboard and corner tool it, but again that is a heck of a lot of work for flowers or a tie.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by BillCable

Well, you can take photos of stuff with your EyeToy to create new stickers. And you can also take photos in-game of stuff you create using the camera tool and turn those photos into stickers. So there is some freedom. But there's no drawing tool per se.

they need to add that, it would make an awesome addition.

[BillCable]

I gotta look at the creation tools again, I think. Early on you get flower "stickers" that are actually 3D and sort of floppy. Since they say you can create anything you find in-game, there's gotta be a way to create cloth-like flowing objects.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by PA_Kid

Well you could build the pieces individually of wafer thin cardboard, color them, and glue them together - but that seems like a lot of work for some items that already specifically exist as stickers or objects.

You could also do something by hand and capture it with the PS Eye, stick it on cardboard and corner tool it, but again that is a heck of a lot of work for flowers or a tie.

yeah, ive been trying to do this thing were the sackboy has to knock over the leaning tower of pisa, but i can't get the tower to look right.

[hardcore_canadian]

Originally Posted by Simplayer

Are you going to recreate the song in the level too?

I would if I could... How do you recreate a Song in the Game? Are there just Random Notes I can use for Sound?

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

yeah, ive been trying to do this thing were the sackboy has to knock over the leaning tower of pisa, but i can't get the tower to look right.

Just a suggestion - don't draw on it, cut out of it. It won't look exactly the same, but here is my suggestion

1 - Start by building only one "tier" of the tower out of a stone rectangle
2 - cut long thin rectangles out of the left and right sides (making holes) to make pilars (or make it 2 layers wide and add in wafer thin pillars)
3 - Cut windows out of the tier using one of the ovals and then flatten the bottom of the windows with the corner tool
4 - Make multiple copies of the tier and stack and glue them into a tower
5 - alter the top tier as needed to look like the real tower

The real problem will probably be the physics - it won't stay leaning on it's own unless you anchor it somehow - you'll probably need to put it behind layer one and bolt it. That way you can sink the bottom and have it angled.

Depending on what you're going to do with it would determine what type of bolt and if you need some magnetic locks and/or pistons to "knock it down" on cue.

Edit - or you could just PS eye a real picture of the tower and paste it on a rectangle - and just corner tool out what you don't want from the photo

[toef]

As for the chattering teeth, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here, but...

MediaMolecule has those in the game already, and you can unlock them in a prize bubble to use. I forgot the exact name of the level it was in, but it's the one where you are in a hot air balloon, and have to go down into a volcano.

[Proteus]

Here's something I noticed:

There are a TON of objects available in the game that you may or may not be aware can be used.

Not all objects are available as prize bubbles, I've found that if I open up the pre-set levels into the editor I can often capture a lot of other objects out of them and use them in my own levels later, if need be.

There are a VAST amount of objects in prize bubbles though. It's really worth trying to collect all the 'booty' before doing anything too ambitious in creation.

The floppy flowers are there too. You can make floppy fabric by simply stickering a texture onto something else floppy if need be as well. Stickers pretty much do it all as they can have some pretty insane textures if used properly.

[stockstar1138]

how do you "capture" stuff in pre-set levels?

[toef]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

how do you "capture" stuff in pre-set levels?

Not sure. Sounds like he's copying the pre-set levels into the editor, but I don't know how that's done.

[mikejet]

You know what, I want the developers to say how many of the levels they created using the controller.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by toefer

As for the chattering teeth, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned here, but...

MediaMolecule has those in the game already, and you can unlock them in a prize bubble to use. I forgot the exact name of the level it was in, but it's the one where you are in a hot air balloon, and have to go down into a volcano.

Doh! I could have been working on my turkey and corn catapult then!

Thanks for the tip toefer - I'll go back to playing story some more - though I'm glad I did it because it helped me learn more about the create tools.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

how do you "capture" stuff in pre-set levels?

Easy.

The same way you would anything else.

When you go to Create a level you can pick 'blank' or any of the levels you have unlocked through Play.

Pick a level you unlocked and it will load the entire framework for that level into your editor.

Use the capture object tool to capture anything in it that is still there that is interesting to you and save that object (it will appear under 'my objects' tab on pop it).

You'll be able to use the object in your own levels anytime you want after that.

[PA_Kid]

Toefer, figured I'd mention your level here instead of cluttering up the created level thread.

Got to try it last night - lot of fun. Hearted it of course.

Few observations/questions -
1 - Didn't realize that the cars where grab activated rockets at first. First time tried to "pull" it to get extra speed. Not sure if it's worth tweaking the text for it, but I bet a few people will assume it's like the skateboard in the earlier levels when it's not.

2 - Loved the decisioning. Very nice.

3 - When I tried the elephant, the elephant destroyed the ball on the end of the rope at the end and I jumped (was launched? I forget) to the platform. With the donkey I actually had to grab the ball to swing over. Not sure if those were both intentional.

4 - The red, white, and blue ball crawl was neat - how did you do that one?

5 - That arrow at the begining was sneaky. Dirty pool old man.

Look forward to seeing more.

[toef]

Originally Posted by PA_Kid

Toefer, figured I'd mention your level here instead of cluttering up the created level thread.

Got to try it last night - lot of fun. Hearted it of course.

Few observations/questions -
1 - Didn't realize that the cars where grab activated rockets at first. First time tried to "pull" it to get extra speed. Not sure if it's worth tweaking the text for it, but I bet a few people will assume it's like the skateboard in the earlier levels when it's not.

2 - Loved the decisioning. Very nice.

3 - When I tried the elephant, the elephant destroyed the ball on the end of the rope at the end and I jumped (was launched? I forget) to the platform. With the donkey I actually had to grab the ball to swing over. Not sure if those were both intentional.

4 - The red, white, and blue ball crawl was neat - how did you do that one?

5 - That arrow at the begining was sneaky. Dirty pool old man.

Look forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the compliments.

Briefly:

1. I tried to leave the grab tool symbol big enough to help people out, I suppose I could go back and tweak it though, if need be.

3. When making the swing ball, I forgot the elephant was on the back plane, so when he comes rolling in, he tends to crush the ball. I was going to leave it that way, since if you ride the elephant, you can easily just hop over the sign, but then I realized someone might make a mistake and jump off the left side of the elephant, and have no way of getting back up and over. So anyhow, I moved the ball to the front plane, but haven't republished it yet.

4. I just dug out a hole, and make lots and lots of red white and blue sponge balls. There were apparently so many that a) I couldn't make anymore painted ones (they started showing up as just plain sponge color) and b) they created that sort of melted-together look.

[PA_Kid]

Ok, new question - is there any material out there that is not rigid? For example is there a material I could use that if I made a square and cut out most of the center, it would either sag or completely lose it's shape when the world physics were applied?

I tried using some of the cloth ones in sponge like felt, but their overall shape stays rigid.

[u_nick]

Hopefully this hasnt been answered:

What is everyone useing for text? As in, large letters, not the speech bubbles with regular text. Are you 'drawing' them with shapes? Or perhaps youget an alphabet of sorts during one of the training tutorials I havent finished yet?

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by u_nick

Hopefully this hasnt been answered:

What is everyone useing for text? As in, large letters, not the speech bubbles with regular text. Are you 'drawing' them with shapes? Or perhaps youget an alphabet of sorts during one of the training tutorials I havent finished yet?

Yeah, in the tutorials you'll end up with at least one if not two sticker alphabets.

[Copywriter]

I just went through the tutorials last night (about 45 min) and got loads of stuff.

My favorite was the explosive boxes. I put down about 100, connected them all and blew the level to kingdom come.