Sprite Sheets, This could help you...

Hi guys this sheet is for people that would like to contribute with characters.
with this sprite sheet you can get an idea of how large are the characters in the game(sizes).

note that in towns ect you could just make one sprite to popularize your characters, we have taken peoples sprites and put them in our game, shop keepers,villagers soldiers, ect....

now if you have a complete sprite sheet that looks extreamly cool to us we could even add it for enemies or Heartless generals, you name it.

ALSO SPRITES MUST BE KEPT UNDER 24 colors*

Hope to see your characters in our game soon....later guyz

*POST Your sprites in this TOPIC*

*Attention*
I have edited my old post for all new members who read this. You are welcome to read the entire topic to see just how far this topic has come. There are lots of useful tips throughout the many pages. This is just for your convinence.

Over the time this topic has been progressing there have been a few changes to what is required of the sprites for this game. Here is a post I made later in this topic concerning the changes for sprites. Any rule that was not changed below is still in effect.

This is an Avalon solider sprite that Ikaru pulled straight from the game itself. Match all of your character sizes with this sprite to make sure it fits the proportions correctly.

When you are done, post your sprite in this topic and please wait patiently for me to grade it. REMEMBER: this topic is for sprite characters ONLY. All other sprites can be posted in the creativity board.

To prevent common questions from being repeated in this topic, here is a few basic
actions that are constantly used when making a sprite.

Programs used for spriting

These are the programs I hear about the most when it comes to making a sprite.

Photoshop (comes with ImageReady)
A very powerful tool used in graphic design. Making sprites is just one of MANY things you can do with Photoshop. It has many supporting functions that can help with spriting as well.

GIMP
Similar to photoshop only with a few less fuctions.

MSPaint
I wouldn't really recommend MSPaint but it is possible to make sprites with this program. You may run into many problems like color count issues.

Resizing a sprite

If your going to edit a sprite, you'll need to resize it to the propper size of the other game characters. So you will need to have the sprite sheet sizes copy that ikaru posted above already opened in photoshop. To resize, go to Image > Image Size. In the Height box, you'll want to change it to a smaller number since your sprite is too large. Down at the bottom, make sure "Resample Image" is checked and change it from "Bicubic" to "Nearest Neigbor" and then hit OK. Depending on the size of your sprite, you may need to do some trial and error before you can get the right size. If the sprite ends up too little or still not little enough, Hold Ctrl and Alt and then press "Z". That will undo your last action and you can retry the resizing again.

Checking Color Count

To check color count for a sprite,

1. Make sure you are on the sprite layer you want to check.

2. Hide all other layers from visibility by clicking the eye that is next to each one.

3. When you are sure you have selected the layer of the sprite that you want to check and that it is the only thing visible, go to Image > Mode > Indexed Color.

4. hit ok when it asks you to merge layers. (note: If you only have one layer then it will not ask you this.)

5. When the box comes up, make sure Pallete is on "Exact" and Forced is
on "None"

The Colors should be listed between Pallete and Forced.

6. After you see your color count, hit Cancel so the layers wont merge and you can continue working.

-----------------------------
**For people who want to submit their characters as playable cameos Ikaru has created a checklist to go by:**

BASIC SPRITES

Stance:
Walk:
Run:
Jump:
Landing from Jump:
Ducking:
Blocking:
Roll/dodge:

ATTACK SPRITES

Stance attack:
Jump attack:
Ducking attack:

EXTRA ATTACK SPRITES

Stance kick:
Stance punch:
Ducking kick:
ducking punch:
Jump kick:
jump punch:

NIMPO/ MAGIC

One arial super move:
One ground super move:

MISC

ducking blocking:
Switching characters:
Stance hurt:
Arial hurt:
Stance talking:
Personal Stance:

Good luck, happy spriting.

-neogeno
-----------------------original post below--------------------------

Spriting from scratch is mind numbingly difficult; even more so for a game of this calibur. You guys really have talent.

Well, the little guy you see below is a hack job sprite edit from a Ky Kiske sprite base from Guilty Gear. Even though I was editing an already made sprite, it was still very difficult to get it to look similar to the image of my character.

I tried sizing it to match the kiddy size in the create a character topic and came out with this.



Transform tool can only do so much...

I could get an animation or two in, but that will take even longer.

This post has been edited by neogeno on May 2 2007, 07:21 PM

That's exactly the same way I do it too.

There is a trick that has helped me. (Sometimes it makes it worse too, so use this technique with caution.)

Take Neogeno's character for instance. Obviously it is too large in comparison to the sprites Ikaru put in the original post on this message. His character is roughly 212 pixels tall. The Sora Shell sprite is roughly 53 pixels tall. Let's make Neogeno's character 60 pixels tall since he is standing pretty straight.

First, in Photoshop, make a copy to have 2 versions of the character on your screen. On the copy version (make sure there is no background), go to <image> then to <image size>.

A new window will pop up. Anyone with Photoshop will be familiar with this. In the "Height," change the dimensions to 60 pixels. But before you click "OK," check at the very bottom. There is a "Resample Image" section with a drop down menu. Use the drop down and choose, "Nearest Neighbor." What this does, is when your image is scaled down, it won't blur the pixels together, especially around the edges. It will keep everything cleaner. Now click "OK."

Now this is where I said sometimes it makes it worse. I've done this with many of the characters I have done, and probably half the time they come out so bad, that it's not worth attempting this. The other half, (like this example) it comes out pretty good. It is by no means finished, but this game you a really good starting point to clean up your single sprite image.

I had you make a copy of the original because now you can use the larger image as a reference as you try and make the new 60 pixels tall sprite look as close to the original as possible.

A few things I would alter with the new version:
• remove the glow from the sword. It rarely works well in a small sprite like it does in the large version
• the right foot looks like a growth is coming out
• the stomach lines need to be cleaned up
• the hair could use some tweaking
• clean up the dark edges to the front of his blue coat
• etc. (you get the idea)

Once you have cleaned it up and feel it is ready, then, duplicate the layer, and you can try and make subtle changes to the new layer of the sprite to create animation. Try a simple standing and breathing animation first. It requires very little adjustments, other than the chest expanding and contracting, and possibly minor arm movements. If your character has a cape or long hair, try animating it moving in a breeze.

I hope this helps. Like I said before, this technique doesn't work for all characters. It seems to work better with characters that have bolder colors and large blocks of color. If a character has an overall single color, then when you shrink the image, you loose all the detail and it looks more like a blob. This character was a great example to use for this technique, and this is just a great way to get started.

Good luck everyone. I've attached the end result of what I did to Neogeno's character by shrinking it using this technique. I did not attempt to clean up any of it. I only shrank it and placed the Sora Shell next to it for size comparison.

Heres my sprite. As far as shading goes, I tried as best I could to mimic what I saw in the demo.



I resized him a bit more and got rid of the glow on his sword. I'm still working on other sprites like his two scarfs. Tell me if this looks alright or not.

Edited to make more sense.

Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing when I first made it.

@ Disnoid
Now I'm no expert on this but I think it also depends on the type of character you want them to be too. For example:

The Idea of this explaination was made by Tsugumo from zoggles.co.uk.

This is Balrog from street fighter. He's got his head bobbing going on and his fist and arms are moving and he is just overall showing plenty of movment giving off a "C'mon! Let's rumble!" attitude.


This here is Guy from street fighter. Hes head barely moves at all; his legs barely move either. He breaths slowly and with control. He's giving off no sudden movements and has an overall calm attitude saying "Mess with me and you'll live to regret it.". His breathing is showing all of the points you showed earlier but if I try raising the shoulders on my sprite, it creates too much movement and makes him look as if he is short of breath.

Basically, I'm saying that the less movement the character has, the more calm and controlled he or she is. And if the character moves a lot, then he or she gives the impression of an active personality. My character has a calm attitude and thats why there isn't that much movement.

When and if I even decide to animate Raiken, I plan to have him moving a lot when he breaths. I'm not trying to be lazy with pixels or anything (if that was what you were thinking), I actually still plan on adding wind movement on the hair. I just thought that this animation fit his personality pretty well.

But hey, I'll try and add more movement anyway to see how it works out. It's supposed to fit your specifications anyway.

This post has been edited by neogeno on Feb 3 2007, 09:41 AM

Thanks a bunch Ikaru.

Alright here's another before and after of the breathing.


If you guys think its better then I'll keep it.

This post has been edited by neogeno on Mar 7 2006, 12:35 AM

Allright---I'll help you guys a little whenever I can.




enjoy

XD

Use Image Shack and use the address they give you at the bottom.
Oh...you got it already nvm. >__>

Wow. Looks really great. You've just turned it into a premium animation. Thanks for the tune up.

Edit:
Didn't want to double post.

Here's his scarf animation.

Now I just have to figure out how to add it onto the breathing animation. -_-

This post has been edited by neogeno on Mar 7 2006, 09:23 AM

Pleease someone else put sprites up. I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing Ryth now.

Anyway, heres the combined animation.

I've gotten rid of the white pixels around the animation but I'm not too skilled with highlights yet so I didn't change it yet.

Here's an entrance I made for Ryth. Those of you who have seen the .Hack//G.U. trailer will find this familiar.



This post has been edited by neogeno on Mar 10 2006, 01:34 PM

I couldn't help it, I liked it too much.

Well, this is the only WIP i'll show of this sprite until i am done with it. Things to do:

-Add Head
-Add Arm
-Finish Pants
-Finish Jacket

And do the rest of the sheet, of course. This sprite is for KHIH, btw.



Almost fully completely custom, I used K' from KoF for Proportion reference and some pose reference, but I changed it a lot.

Ocksen is © me.

Nice! Real nice! Even when he is resized he still keeps a lot of his detail. He seems to be just as tall as sephiroth.

*Gasp!* Look! Look! Are you getting this? Ryth's taking his first steps! Oh they grow up so fast!



Yeah well there are a number of things wrong with his animation. I'll need to go back and animate his torso and hair. The feet aren't alligned to a flat surface. There are some sprites that I didn't add detail to yet and there is no cape animaton. Plus his sword is too big. I just wanted to get it out to see what you all think.

Edit: there it should be a bit more fluid now.

This post has been edited by neogeno on Jan 20 2007, 12:44 PM

theused: Haha, thanks.

I fixed up that head bobbing. I added in a bg color, assuming white would show up trasparent I have white colors on my character. Sorry if that sounds confusing. Anyway, here it is.

Well with spring break now in full swing, I've had some time off of class to finally continue on Ryth. Heres the little guys scarfless jumping animation.

Sprite, finished and resized:



Now to add the rest of the sheet. And fix up a few details on the base.