Sprite Creation Tutorial Stuff

A friend (Xaviersly) asked me to help him with some sprite stuff, so I figured I would put that on here as well, as an FYI.  I would say that I am pretty good at sprite editing, because I was doing it in 1996 in MS Paint (shut up, I'm not old).  That and my brain is good at pixel distribution visualization (pretending I can only see in 8 bit or 16 bit graphics).

So here's the character concept.

What he wants is animated sprite battlers of this guy (and another character) for a game he is working on.

First we start with the template.  Add a new layer and start tracing over it with the character's theme.

Note that it isn't JUST about changing the colors, but also editing what you need and don't need of the template.

Like rounding the feet off, in this character's case, because he is wearing a suit with integrated feet - not boots like the template is wearing.

Now we need a little more color scheme definition.  I always recommend at least 7% difference in colors with most sprites, else they start to blend a little too much.

Next, get your major color background down and then you can start doing details and shading.

Remember that shading is actually REALLY SIMPLE.  Never overdo it, and you don't have to think about objects being in 3 dimensions (although that can help if you are capable).  I put arrows sometimes to help me see what direction the light or darkness is heading toward or away from.

Finish up the details as necessary.  Remember: the key is not to have it look realistic - just good enough for people to know what it is they are looking at.  Next comes the hard part: animating pixel art.

Note what the template does in the animation: it goes from this side <--  towards this side --> (right to left)  THEN it goes back again so if the template is 1, 2, 3, 4.  The animation goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 etc.  In the case of this template, all it really does is go up and down, up and down.

Create a new layer and start putting down some line indicators of where things are from the main sprite (they have to return to this way, so the edits can get more and more dramatic the further to the right you go.  This also means that you copy the main sprite, edit it.  Copy that sprite, edit it, then copy that sprite, and edit it one final time, if it's too difficult to think of them all as a set (some people can do it, some cant).

More to come tomorow.
-VSPAR