Counting posts

Hi,

First off, I am fairly new to WordPress and PHP.

I’ve done quite well so far on this theme I am creating but hit a block with a certain page. As far as I can tell I need to customise the loop to get what I need.

Basically I have a page with 4 images on top, cleared and separated then on the bottom another 4 images all taken from the same custom post type.

If I just do the standard loop, it works fine but of course I want the top 4 images separated from the bottom and then some pagination onto other pages. Harder than I thought..

I’ve done some digging and from this i’ve learned I will need to create an increment variable. I’m only just learning PHP so this idea scares me!

I’d rather not use a plugin and if possible try and understand how to do this myself.

Hope some of this makes sense!

This is what I have without customising the loop:

[Code moderated as per the Forum Rules. Please use the pastebin]