Spriting, Hand drawn sprites? Options

[Zokuma]

Hey everyone, I was trying to sprite a person but, i suck at that, so I was wondering.. What would be better for making sprites?

Either using a program like MS Paint
Or
Hand Drawing the sprites and scanning them to color them and transfer them to AGM.

Im thinking Hand Drawing them would be alot faster then using an art program because I can sketch multiple sprites for a single action within 10 minutes and I can clean them with GIMP and transfer all of the sprites to AGM. Id rather do this because of my career choice.

But if I use GIMP to completely make the sprites, I would have crappier sprites because I suck at spriting people but they would look so much cleaner.



Want to know your opinion on this matter.

[Elemental Crisis]

It really depends on you, if you can draw it better on a piece of paper and then scan it in then do it that way.

[Allen Hunter]

I'm too poor to afford a good scanner, so I just do them on MSPaint.

[Bandito]

I use Idraw....but it only works on pics 8 bit or under though because it was designed to work for rpgmaker 2k3 graphics and under.

[joshuaalanhargre...]

If you do get into spriting, expect to spend a decent amount of time on your sprites. A lot of potential spriters think that spriters just pump out excellent sprites. It takes time.

[Zokuma]

If you do get into spriting, expect to spend a decent amount of time on your sprites. A lot of potential spriters think that spriters just pump out excellent sprites. It takes time.

Oh yeah, i know it takes time, but if it takes so much time that i get stressed and feel overworked with just the sprites then its pointless because i would never get them done. I know, o-o; im making my menu screen sprite right now.

Im gonna make my sprites by hand, its alot harder to draw such tiny pictures but it is faster and i can add those tiny details that normal sprites do not have. Now all i need is more mechanical pencil lead and some sleep... o_O;

[Scribble]

MS Paint all the way. I love making sprites now.

[Guido Yuhara]

I use Idraw, is perfect program

[plqqqqqqqqq]

I was thinking about different ways to make sprites and I came up with an idea using lego's and photographs. You could build something with the lego's(or any other thing that is constructable) and take a picture from a certain angle. Then you could put the picture onto a paint type program and color it in a way to make it look like a sprite. I have worked with things of this nature and my biggest problem is showing depth in the images, but with this you could have a basic outline already.

I was thinking of setting up some kind of stand to keep the camera in the same position and have an area to set the object so it will always be in the same view. I got rid of all my lego's a few years back and cant think of anything I have to construct with so I haven't been able to actually try this, but I think its a good idea. I'll probably go and buy one of those tubs in the next couple of days, but I wont have all the specialty pieces I used to have and getting new ones is too damned expensive. I think with enough manipulation with a paint program I can work with it until I can make more defined areas from a basic block shape.

Hopefully this idea is of use to someone else.

[Obsession]

I don't have enough legos for that X3

Paint Shop Pro 7 is my perfect program for spriting, personally. You can draw in pixels and shade it with the retouch tool, rather than select colours all the time.

[Kyle_Katarn]

I use Idraw, is perfect program

QFT. I've been spriting for nearly 5 years now, I've always used iDraw and it's not once ever let me down. Not once! There's only 1 thing that would be a great addition to an almost perfect program, the addition of Layers.

[Obsession]

QFT. I've been spriting for nearly 5 years now, I've always used iDraw and it's not once ever let me down. Not once! There's only 1 thing that would be a great addition to an almost perfect program, the addition of Layers.

Thats why I love Paint Shop Pro 7 to bits. Its a pixel artists tool with layers.

[Teo]

I've tried making hand drawn sprites a few times, and though it gives them a very vivid look, it is a tedious way to go about. First of all you really should have a light table of some sort, so you always can trace part of the previous frame of the sprite animation. If you don't, the general proportions of the animation will probably differ too much from frame to frame. This will make it look awkward, and give it a bad flow. Not that you need any fancy equipment, you can just tape the paper to a window or something to make the light shine through - but it's still a lot of extra work.

[keitsukun]

Hey everyone, I was trying to sprite a person but, i suck at that, so I was wondering.. What would be better for making sprites?

Either using a program like MS Paint
Or
Hand Drawing the sprites and scanning them to color them and transfer them to AGM.

Im thinking Hand Drawing them would be alot faster then using an art program because I can sketch multiple sprites for a single action within 10 minutes and I can clean them with GIMP and transfer all of the sprites to AGM. Id rather do this because of my career choice.

But if I use GIMP to completely make the sprites, I would have crappier sprites because I suck at spriting people but they would look so much cleaner.



Want to know your opinion on this matter.

I Generaly base myself on another game sprite and put off evry color and acessories to end up with a ''template'' end then I start coloring it by giving im first, colors. second, acessories. and then I start to refine it with light effects to give it a shiny and polished effect, Look how flameman looks now! :P



EXTREM MAKE OVER FTW!!

[megaman8x]

I am currently drawing sprites by hand and scanning and redrawing them for my current project, it works pretty nice but too much busy work it would help you you got something like a wacom tablet to easy the pain.

[rogerdouglas]

It really doesn't matter what program you use to sprite things. I've seen some impressive pixel art made with just MSpaint. I prefer Paintshop Pro 7 as well myself.

[toefoo]

Well I preferably Use mspaint, then use photoshop to make them look better and cleaner. but thats Just how I do it.

[Achturn]

For me, it depends on the size of the sprite really.

for example: an overworld sprite or other such small things I'll make in MS Paint, it's fast and easy and it doesn't take too much time, plus copy/paste is a dream when you're using simple sprite styles.

on the other hand, when it comes to large battle sprites like the ones used for enemies, I use photoshop, 7.0 specifically but it doesn't really matter I guess. Layers are also a huge convenience with larger sprites, but I haven't really found much use for them when working with the smaller stuff.

As for scanning drawings, I've never had an easy time with just scanning then, cleaning them up and using them for games, my process goes kinda like:

Draw => scan => bring in photoshop => set layer transparency to 50 => on a new layer trace with pencil tool set to 1 pixel => neaten up the lines => color and add effects

this takes a drawing from being pencil to something more like this:


I haven't tried this process for smaller sprites, but I suppose if you didn't make your original drawing too detailed then it should turn out fine, worth a shot anyway


I hope I helped in some way

[Lorenor]

I used to use MS Paint just to do small changes to sprites, usually pixel by pixel. Inefficient, but I got what I wanted in the end ^^

[Mag Launcher]

For my spriting needs I actually use an old Clickteam product I've had for roughly a decade called "The Games Factory". It's an old drag and drop game making system that has since fallen out of my favor since I've found so many other programs that do what I need much better.

The beauty of this, however, is that since it IS a game making tool, you can see what all your animations look like before actually placing them in your game. It supports up to a 24-bit palette as well, so you don't need to worry about palette restriction. =)

I'll also use a bit of the ol' Photoshop every now and again, but for all my main spriting needs, TGF has never failed me.

~MAG