The Complete Tutorial to Spriting

[Nova]

I don't know where to put this, but most people will use this tutorial for their fan-games, so I think it fits best here.

As stated, this is a multi-part tutorial, with more chapters added over time: The first lesson will be the basics of spriting, with tips and general guidelines.

Lesson #1: Learning the Basics

1.1 Getting your tools

1.1.1 Image editing Program

You will need a program to edit and make sprites. Below are a few of them, with good and bad points. All of these programs are free. I use GIMP and occasionally Aseprite for small specific edits and animations.

Paint

+ Available immediately on your computer

- Very, VERY limited.

- Paint is so limited that it takes up two bad points. You should not use Paint for the majority of your spritework.

Aseprite (the latest versions cost money, but old versions, which work just fine, are available for free download)

+ Easy frame-by-frame animation (this is advanced, and I am still learning it myself. You won't need it, but it can be useful with the overworlds. Will get back to this later).

+ More specific selection, allowing you to move specific parts around quickly

- Has some errors with using parts from multiple images due to the indexed mode

GIMP

+ Quite advanced; I do most spriting work on GIMP.

- XCF is a bad format for sprites, so every image has to be exported.

Paint.net

I don't know about it, but it exists. It is free, so try it if you want to.

Graphics Gale (Thanks mde2001)

I have used it in the past. It is pretty good, but I personally prefer Aseprite and GIMP.

1.1.2 Additional tools (optional)

You can make sprites with the mouse just fine, but a graphics tablet can be useful. I use a Wacom Pen&Touch, mostly for small edits and a handy zoom option.

1.2 the Basics of Spriting

We will explore the basics of spriting using three Pokémon, which you probably already have seen. if you haven't, check out my banner. Shameless promotion. Nonetheless, here they are;

1.2.1 What a sprite consists of;

Sprites generally consist of the following;

-An outline

This line separates the sprite from the "outside world". It is the line that keeps the sprite together. Note that the outline is not always black; Note the difference between these varying outlines;

123

1- All outlines are black; Some things are too dark, and many lines conflict. Note that lines other than outlines are also colored black; I will get to those later.

2- All outlines are light; some parts kind of "fall away" and the sprite seems more vague overall.

3- Certain lines are black and some are white; This creates the perfect balance, and also prevents the conflicting outlines (I know that sprites 1 and 2 are outdated, 3 having some other minor changes, but that isn't what this is about.)

Creating the outlines creates a pose for a character, which is later "mapped in" with features, color and shading. The Pose and the Features are the primary ways of using emotion in a sprite.

-The Features

Features are all objects inside the outline that are different. For example; the eyes, horn, mouth, cheek and egg belly pattern Lifoam's sprite above. They fill in the sprite, taking up the empty space. They add the "life" to a character; A monotone Lifoam without the white egg and red underbelly pattern would not be nearly as interesting. As seen in picture 3 above, Features generally have outlines, but not fully black ones, with some exceptions such as eyes or features that are hard to see.

All lines for

-The Colors

This is about the colors. Shading is a different part of this, this is merely about what colors you use. Colors consist of the following;

The three components of colors. From top to bottom; Hue, Saturation and Value, from their 0 to their max value, the base color for Lifoam as a base.

Hue - The Hue is the base of a color; The hue determines if the color is red, green, blue or a mix of the three. Hue generally goes from 0 to 360, starting and ending with the same color. Black and white are not colors, they are the zero values of respectively saturation and value, as seen below.

Saturation - How "dense" the Hue is in the color; Higher saturation means the color is more present, low saturation means the color less present. Saturated colors stand out, Desaturated colors are subtle. Saturation generally goes from 0 to 100, 0 always being white and 100 being full hue.

Value - How dark the color is; High value means the color is lighter, a highlight. Low value means a color is darker, a shadowed area. High value colors are areas light falls upon, Low value colors are shadowed areas and outlines. A value of 0 is always black.

Color can also be used to convey emotion, just like outlines and features do, but it is better not to do so on purpose. Just have the colors be as they are, so don't force the colors on sprites just because they work with that emotion.

In short; Hue controls the base of the color, saturation controls how much the color stands out in the sprite and value controls light and shading. This is also the order in which you process color; First, you take a base hue. Then, you decide the density of the hue. Then, you create light and shadow, which takes us to;

-The Shading

By shading, you determine the areas light falls upon, and create highlights there, and where it doesn't reach, and create shadows there. This can be difficult to learn, but the best way to do this is to look around you, seeing how things are in real life, and practice. After some time, it'll be easier. A bit. Here are the general rules, but they vary for each specific case. With each example, look at Lifoam and see how things work out.

-Light comes from the top and travels to the bottom. For most sprites, light goes from upper left to bottom right. This means highlights are mostly on the top of the sprite, and dark areas on the sides and bottom.

-Light is blocked by objects and their features, preventing light from getting under them. Lifoam's arms create a darker area underneath them.

-Light reflects off of oblects. This light can also make features appear lighter.

You will generally use five different values of a color for the shades; One as the standard color, one as a highlight, one as a shadow area and one as a light outline. The last one is the same for all colors; black is used as a dark outline.

Tip from Zumi (Thanks Zumi): When shading, use the color wheel to slightly change the hue of the color you're shading with.This technique is applied by a LOT of artists, not just pixel artists, but it makes things usually look a lot nicer.

For example, when you're shading a blue color, change the hue to a slightly more purple tone (although still a darker tone of course), but only a tiny bit. When you end up shading with 3-4 colors, you'll see that the shadow slowly fades to a darker purple instead of dark blue. Another few colors that apply with this technique is orange to red, yellow to orange (or green depending on which kind of yellow you're going for), green to blue, etc. You can try it out yourself too in order to see which colors seem nice. A few examples where said technique is used are here, here and here!

So, the final working order for creating sprites would be:

1) Creating the Outlines

2) Creating the Outlines of the Features

3) Creating the Features

4) Selecting Base Colors for all Features

5) Shading the Base Colors inside all Features

That's all for today from me. Feel free to ask any questions below. I have linked some videos that have spriting tutorials as well. Feel free to check them out!

Tutorials

http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/42648699708/pixel-art-tutorial

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/pixel-art-tutorials/

Tutorial #2: Making Trainer Mugshots

http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16694entry394066

[Nova]

Reserved for future tutorials. Note that the things I wrote are the complete basics which allows you to understand the other tutorials better. To learn the full basics, go watch/read the tutorials I posted. The next tutorial will most likely be a step-by-step making of some sprites, so the basics (everything i posted) are useful to have in order to follow those tutorials.

[Sapp]

I don't mean to dissent, but I actually do use MS Paint for the majority of my sprite work. It's simple and has all the tools I need. I can try and post a tutorial of how I make custom trainer sprites in Paint if you don't mind.

[Shing]

I used paint before, however it kinda irrtate me. So i'll move to paint.net one if i have time.

Also for paint, save as 24 bit always if you are going to progessing with the sprite.

[Fumble]

I love you, Nova.

Time to download some spriting software!

[mde2001]

It would also be worth mentioning GraphicsGale which is a free download and what Ame uses. It is really good for spriting work.

[Zumi]

Another useful tip: When shading, use the color wheel to slightly change the hue of the color you're shading with.This technique is applied by a LOT of artists, not just pixel artists, but it makes things usually look a lot nicer.

For example, when you're shading a blue color, change the hue to a slightly more purple tone (although still a darker tone of course), but only a tiny bit. When you end up shading with 3-4 colors, you'll see that the shadow slowly fades to a darker purple instead of dark blue. Another few colors that apply with this technique is orange to red, yellow to orange (or green depending on which kind of yellow you're going for), green to blue, etc. You can try it out yourself too in order to see which colors seem nice.

A few examples where said technique is used are here, here and here!

Edited August 8, 2015 by Zumi

[Caz]

I generally use Graphics Gale now, but paint is pretty useful for edits and deserves more credibility

In fact, I found that Paints only downfall for me personally was it's inability to save as a transparent png, but that was solvable by just copying and dropping it into another program.

Regardless, there's nothing wrong with people using Paint I think.

EDIT: Your starter sprites look awesome. Just throwing it out there.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Chivalry

[Peepeepoopoo]

Is PS CS6 good for spriting?

[Nova]

Photoshop (PS CS6) can work well for spriting, but it's mostly made for photos, while there are a lot of better, specialised programs for spriting, IMO.

[Peepeepoopoo]

Well it's what I've been using to edit tiles so far.

[Zumi]

If you zoom in far enough with Photoshop, a grid should appear, so yeah, Photoshop is fine for spriting, just not ideal since it's not a program specifically aimed at said purpose.

But then again, i use paint tool SAI, a program that's aimed more at drawing rather than spriting but that still works as well, so it really just depends on your own personal preference!

[Nova]

Tutorial #2 - Making Trainer Mugshots!

The Basics

Mugshots are the pre-battle images that show up in the "Versus" screen of major battles. In RPG Maker, Mugshots are 256 pixels wide and 128 pixels high, but each pixel is a 2x2 area, so the actual size is 128x64.

<- Example of a mugshot

Today, we're going to remake an old mugshot of mine, and learn a few techniques on the way!

This is Walker, a Gym Leader from Se7en. Unfortunately, his mugshot is a bit outdated, so let's improve it a bit, shall we?

Step 1 - Defining the Pose

Somewhat comparable to making an outline for other sprites, the pose is the basic line-art of a mugshot, and is the most important aspect for defining a character. Choosing a pose is the first step for defining the mugshot as a whole. There are several ways of finding poses for your mugshot;

1) Editing a pose of a canon mugshot to resemble your own character (easiest); You take the most fitting already existing pose, then change the features to fit your character. This is the easiest way, because a lot of the work is already done for you. You can also combine several features from multiple canon mugshots (head from one, body style from the other, for example). This is called "splicing". It creates a bit of creativity and originality, but not all parts of all mugshots look good when combined. We will use this latter technique for Walker's mugshot.

2) Changing a pose from a non-pixel-art picture into pixel-art form. This means you take an artwork that is not a mugshot, either from Pokemon or something else, and turn it into a pixel art. This is harder to do if you don't know the basics, so it is important that you do. This is somewhat more difficult to do than simply taking a canon mugshot, but it's not TOO difficult. A part of this will also return later on this tutorial.

3) Drawing the pose on your own. This is often the hardest and most time-consuming, but it means you can create the character entirely how you want it without being limited by other aspects. This will likely be shown in a later tutorial.

For Walker, we will use a combination of 1 and 2. This will suffice for most mugshots.

The mugshot will add a lot of characterization to the character you are creating it for, so it's important to decide what the pose of your character would be. A great way to get some inspiration from this is to look on the internet for images of things that you think define your character. Is your character a hardened criminal? A maniac? A tsundere redhead? A jackass with a monocle? Whatever it be, look it up. It exists on Google. That gives you a bit of an idea how the pose of your mugshot would look.

Walker is a sheriff, and he is the type of guy who doesn't stand for injustice, so that would be reflected in his mugshot. If you look for images of your characterization, you can visualize it. I found this as an example for a Sheriff;

You can use these as bases for your image, using technique 2). I will show that now;

-Create a 128x64 image, with a transparant background, then put the image on it.

-Set the image to Indexed, with a color amount about 16/64 (varies per image; Enough to preserve detail, but not too much. The more jitter in the background the higher the color amount should be).

-Remove any unwanted areas with an Eraser tool.

After these steps, we have this for the Walker image. These example images are already resized to 256x128 for ease of viewing, but be sure to stay in 128x64 while doing this yourself!

The head and arm pose will be "added in later on; this is just for the clothing.

-Add any basic parts from the pose you are still missing; If you use method 2) for this, follow the same steps as above. Now, I will use method 1):

-Look for parts of mugshots that fit your character. The Spriters Resource site has all canon mugshots conveniently together for download, separated by game. I will use Bruno's face and facial expression, along with Surge's arm/hand pose, which is similar to the pose on the Google images, but better defined and, more importantly (for lazy people like me), already fully finished.

-Copy and paste these parts on your image. Be sure to put them in separate layers, and turn the image to RGB again (instead of Indexed) if you would like to keep their colors. Putting them in another layer allows you to remove some parts that you don't want (such as the white borders) and move the parts around without affecting the rest of the image.

This leaves us with the following:

-Now, for each of the parts, they will have to be changed to fit your character, remove all pixel errors, and make them prettier. I will describe this roughly, since it really depends for each character how much of this you'll have to do.

-Walker is bald, so all of Bruno's hair will be removed. The rest of the head will be added on.

I have used the bald head of the Unova Fighting E4 as a base for Walker's head, and editing it in the process. Adding more splices as you go is never an issue.

Made the head rounder and changed the eyes. This is a reminder of why, in GIMP, you need to set Interpolation to None when scaling your images (in GIMP); the picture becomes blurry otherwise.

Changed the skin color to more closely resemble the original and rotated the hand slightly to improve the expression. Note that rotation causes a lot of pixel errors; you need to fix those manually.

Defined the arm and the vest and added some basic shading. This is starting to look like something.

Added shading and changed the hand around. With shading here, I am using a technique called "dithering"; creating a pattern of two colors, combining them by making rows of one pixel of color 1, then one of color 2, and so on. This allows the colors to "blend in" a bit, creating an illusion of a third color.

Changing the hand once again, since it felt weird.

Reworked the hand once again and made the Sheriff badge more visible, since it's quite an important feature.

Mirroring your image is useful to spot small mistakes and fix them.

beforeafter

In the end, you will end up with your full, improved mugshot;

->->

[Fumble]

Good job, Nova!
Anyway, you might want to link these posts to the OP so it's easier to get to them.

[Cool Girl]

Man, Nova!

Your tutorials are great!

They have been very helpful for me!

What will your next tutorial be on?

Also, I tried using gimp for sprite works, but it's giving me a hard time. So until I have that figured out somehow, I'm using paint.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Cool Girl

[Tristram]

I'm really liking these tutorials. Now I have an easier way of doing what was hard in the past.

[Zumi]

This thread has been a bit dead lately, but I'll just post this here and show you how I do my trainer mugshots. I know there's a mugshot tutorial on here already, but I take a slightly different approach, so if you're interested you can watch this as well!

 

 

It's a bit of a long watch, but I hope people will find it useful c: