Major issues with spriting in general (Character Added!)

[Mongoose88]

I've been playing and looking over AGS games for a while, but never took upon myself to join the forums and contribute (I'm regretting that now). I finally have an idea for a game, but I'm completely thrown about making the graphics for it! Considering this is my first game, it's going to be low res, in a pixelated style (A side note: my laptop won't go under the 640 resolution....I don't know why). I'm sort of hoping for the lucasarts style of Monkey Island 1 or 2.

My backgrounds are also a truly bad sight to behold. They're just black and white lines that look like disproportioned rooms. (But that's another topic all together)

I'm here to request whatever pixel tutorials, hints, tips, mini tutorials right in this topic, ideas, or anything else you might have about getting started on the low res character. I usually can learn alot from character "molds", which are just a black and white outline of a character that you color in.

I use paint, I can get ultimate paint or gimp though.

Before you flame me or send me a link to the sticky topic, I've been there, and went through every page, only to find that 80% of the links were dead ,and the rest sent me to styles that I'm not interested in.

EDIT:


I don't think he looks too bad, but critiques are always welcomed and encouraged!


Thanks for reading.

[Dr. Scary]

You will probably have this post moved somewhere else.
I have noticed myself that there's an extreme lack of character tutorials. There are many for backgrounds, but very few for characters.
My best advice is to do a paintover of the sprites you like. Over and over and over again. Then, when you feel you're ready, draw one from scratch. Then do that lots of times. In the end you will have developed your own style that resembles the style you are aiming for.
But there is no fast way to do this. It will take lots of time to become good even with proper tutorials.

[Mongoose88]

I agree, but I do need something to get the ball rolling. Sometimes, I try to paint over an image, but there's just something not good enough about mine (the hands are too big, the legs aren't long enough, etc.)

I'll try and post up some of my drawing attempts in the original post (if I have any saved ones left over).

Edit: that's a paper bag...


how do I resize it to a more....pixel like fashion?

[Saberteeth]

how do I resize it to a more....pixel like fashion?

your res is 20X44 so we quardruple that and get 80X176.
Oh, to do this, do this-->[***img width=blah heiht=blah]www.somewebpage.com/mypicture.png[***/img] without the ***.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Sprite drawing is all about preference and individual style.  Do you like dark outlines? Bright, contrasting colors? Cartoony proportions?  These are some questions that only you can answer, and once you've decided on a particular way of drawing the sprites you just need to practice.  I've never really held much stock in tutorials for such things to be honest; a tutorial can't teach you patience, for example, and drawing a sprite has very few rules associated with it.  Spriting is really a very subjective thing and there are a multitude of ways to approach it.  I suppose I can illustrate a few:

Meet Willy.



1.  Basic outlines and two colors per shape.  This is a simple and effective approach to creating a sprite and is also useful for moving on to more detail.  Light sources and shading are ignored.



2.  Basic outlines with a third color added for shading.  This makes the character more rounded and less cartoony.  Note that light sources are ignored.



3.  Basic outlines and shading are combined with approximate overhead lighting to make the character appear to be affected by his/her environment.



4.  Along with the previous steps more detail is added to make Willy more unique.


These aren't meant to be guidelines but examples of the many different things you can do with sprites.  If you wanted Willy more cartoony you'd make his posture more exaggerated as well as his features.  If you want him more realistic you'd tighten his features and add definition and additional shades and details.  Also, decide beforehand what dimensions the character is going to need to fit into the world.  The best advice I can offer you is to practice.

[Khris]

And if you're unsure about proportions, do a pic-google for "skeleton", choose a pose and resize the pic to about 30x70, then paint over it.

Great tut, ProgZmax!

[skw]

Hey, you stole my Mr. Paperbag idea!



j/k

[Mongoose88]

Thanks for the replies so far, I especially liked the mini tutorial Zmax. I will probably edit this post with a rethought out (and repixeled) picture.