ASCII art can work in two different ways: In a line based with connectors (cel-like) way or in a text-shaded way (With any characters, used in a blurry way). Traditionally it's done in the connector way.
Throughout this tutorial I will demonstrate how to create each kind of ASCII art.
The first thing you have to do is use a monospaced font, such as Courier. Other fonts will lead your art to have small inaccuracies.
First you start with a reference point which you will replace later, like this:
o
You will work from this. Let's make, say...a box :D
Next you will work on the rest of your line. If you use a program such as Notepad or Textpad (recommended), it will probably be fairly easy.
Characters in ASCII art generally are o, -, _, |, =, H, and +. For curved surfaces you should use \ and /. If you want to make a dotted line, use -, otherwise use _.
If you're going to put your art on a web page, note that HTML won't accept more than one space in succession. You'll have to use something called a character code. will make a space that will work more than one time in succession. When you make the art, don't use these yet, they'll throw you off. Instead just uses spaces and replace them when you're done. Also before every line put something that says <br> to make the next line.
Now let's finish the line.
+-----------+
You'll noticed that I replace the reference point with a dash. You'll always want to replace the reference point after you're done using it.
Now we have the top of a box. Let's skip forward a couple lines to get to the bottom so we know where to stop.
+-----------+
+-----------+
Yay, we have the top and bottom now. Now comes the fairly hard part. We have to use several times here to create spaces.
+-----------+
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+-----------+
And there's your first box! :D
Now the complicated part, shaded ASCII art...
Shaded art is based on a spectrum of characters. The ones I use include M, N, H, #, Q, U, A, D, 0, Y, 2, $, % and + in that order.
For starters, let's make a gradient fading from the background of this page to red to the background.
.+%2YODAUQ#HMH#QUAD0Y2$%+.
You'll notice that if you back up from your computer it fades in and out.
Now we'll try something a little more complex. A really long time ago I was kinda bored, so I put together a pig. This is a really big one...
Q...................
. NMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNMMMMN .
..NNMMNN ......................... NNMMNNNNNNNNNN
.. . NMMNN ................................... NNNN NNNNMN
QNMMMMMMNN.Q Q.NMMMN ...............................................N NMMQ
MM> . MMNN . Q MMN ....> .................................. MM.
.MM > NMMM ... NMMMNMM ...> ........................MMN
NMM MMMMN > ..... .> NNN.> ..................NMNQ
MM> NMMMMM> N> N .......> ................NMM.
MMMNMMM > N> MN ......> ............... MM
NMN.> N> NMMMN> N ...> ................MM
QMMN.> NMMMM > N.> ................NM.
MM ..> NMMMMM> .> ..............NMM
.MM....> NNN > .............NMM
.MMN...> ............NMM
Q NMM ....> NNNNN > .........MM.
. NMMNN.....> MMMN> ........NMM
Q MMNN> ...> ...... MMQ
NMN> .....MM
NMNN N> ....MMN
.MMMN> ...NMN
MMN> N> ..NMMQ
Q MMN> NN> ..MM
Q MMMMNNNNN> NMM > ...MMQ
Q..NNNNNMMMMMNNNN> ... .> NNNMMMMMMN> ....MM
... NMMM N NNNNN > ...MMMMMNNNN ..Q MMN> .....MM
MMN> .. MMN> ....NMN MN> .......MM
MM > .. MMMN> ... MM QMMM .... MMQ
MMMM NNMMNMMN> .....MM. Q.NMMMMMMM.
Q.. ... MMN> ..... MMQ
NMN> .......MM
MMN> ........NMMQ
Q MMNNNNNNMMM
Q........
This might look funny on your browser because it's not pink...or it might be!!! (gasp).
If you're especially lasy, you can use a program like BGASCII. Look around on download.com for one.
And now I bid you a "bon voyage" (mwahaha) Have fun..
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