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2D All the way! / Learning to Sprite....and lost.

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Dark Dragon
16
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2007
Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 11th Jun 2011 03:05
So, im gonna start making my own media for my games. But ive no idea where to start learning to sprite? Does any one have any suggestions for a lost noob? I cant fathom wheere to start, and i dont think "Jumping right in" is the smartest thing to do.....Help?

Em3rgency
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Posted: 11th Jun 2011 10:37
Well sprites are just images... So grab photoshop or mspaint even and start drawing

Plenty of photoshop lessons on youtube.
Iceman
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Posted: 11th Jun 2011 15:26 Edited at: 11th Jun 2011 15:28
Hi Dark Dragon

Do it the old way............

1. Go out and grab some graph paper.

I can recommend "A3 Dual Graph Pad" from stationery box. It gives you both the small (1.5.10mm) and larger size graph (2.10.20)

2. Think of what you need to draw and then after you do a quick sketch, copy it to the graph paper.

3. Refine it until you get it right on paper, then you have a choice......
a) Scan it in to a paint package from the paper and clean it up or..
b) load up your fave paint package. Pick a SQUARE single pixel brush and then activate the ZOOM mode until your single pixel is large on the screen. Then just copy what you did on the graph pad on to the screen click by click.

4. Use fill/flood etc etc and other tools in the paint package to finish up the sprite, then save it as a BMP (or whatever you want) ready to be loading in to DBP.

As an alternative to that... you could download a sprite maker (which is just a cut down paint package anyway) and doodle directly on to it instead of using graph first.. but I like using graph first before messing about with a computer package.

Here are some simple, and small examples that I have done in the past for games using the above method:






Dark Dragon
16
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2007
Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 11th Jun 2011 22:29
Hello Ice man And Emergency! Thanks for responding! Will take heed of your advice..... Feels great to be back on TGC! What packages do you recommend,eh? Ive heard about PsP and Gimp...

Iceman
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Posted: 11th Jun 2011 22:53
Gimp is good....nothing wrong with it at all. I use PSP myself, and you can now get version 8 (if I remember right) for free, so you can use whatever package you want.
Dark Dragon
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Posted: 12th Jun 2011 03:26
All Right! Psp For free sounds absolultly Lovely! I have a little bit of Manga/Anime drawing experiance, Is it gonna be of like, any help at all? When i scan my stuff, I dont think theres any way for it to be usable in a game....

Iceman
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Posted: 12th Jun 2011 04:41
Yes any exp in drawing is always helpful

Quote: "When i scan my stuff, I dont think theres any way for it to be usable in a game...."


If you have done it on graph paper then when you scan it in (say about 600dpi) you will get a good clean scan. Just select the grid colour (greenish on the graph paper I use) and then click black (or whatever you want) as one of your colours and then click the fill icon and fill the green with black (you can also use “replace” instead of a fill).

You can then using zoom simply add to the drawing using a box fill etc.
Or you can use the scanned picture as a reference and just use a large zoom and draw dots relevant to the graph picture...like in this fast example I just did you.

I do have a DBP program somewhere on my HD that can actually scan the graph picture and produce from it a fully drawn sprite...just like my hand example above. If I can find it I will email it to you... may save you a bit of work.
Dark Dragon
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Joined: 22nd Jun 2007
Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 12th Jun 2011 04:54
Yes that would be awsome! XD Okay i think i get it......Thanks, hmmm use this email if u find it tho: wazi.bladerx@yahoo.com .....Heheh, Dude this is gonna be pinful lol, learning all this......but im up for it. Haha! XD

Stormwire
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Posted: 30th Jun 2011 22:20
Can someone give me a link to this psp program. I cant find it in Google. Nothing but sony psp coming up. Thanks
Grog Grueslayer
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18
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Joined: 30th May 2005
Playing: Green Hell
Posted: 1st Jul 2011 02:26 Edited at: 1st Jul 2011 02:32
You can get any old version here:

http://www.oldversion.com/paint-shop-pro.html

I personally prefer v7 but I have v12 for fancier image manipulation. If you go on their site the price for Version 13 is only $40 bucks.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051#versionTabview=tab1&tabview=tab7

Stormwire
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Posted: 1st Jul 2011 07:34
Thanks Grog Grueslayer. Good site
Non Sequitur M
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Location: Where am I!? Where are YOU?
Posted: 25th Jul 2011 04:18
Aw, Grog, man! FTW! I've been bummed, for like 3 years I haven't been able to find my PSP 9. I think I left it in a box in our attic at our old house. Thanks, man.
Dark Dragon
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Location: In the ring, Kickin\' *donkeybutt*.
Posted: 10th Aug 2011 00:44
Dude, PSp's great, u guys should check out the tutorials on youtube.

zenassem
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Location: Long Island, NY
Posted: 12th Aug 2011 09:38 Edited at: 12th Aug 2011 09:39
There's a world of difference between novice and professional spriting or Pixel Art. While not everyone is going to be an artist, it doesn't hurt to learn the "Right" way to create sprites. It saves a lot of time, frustration, and it simply looks better. Here's a great article/tutorial on the subject.

http://www.yarrninja.com/pixeltutorial/

You can do a lot with Paint,, though I prefer Pro Motion (sold quite cheaply through this site) or an older version of Paint Shop Pro. Just remember to always save your sprite work in a lossless format like .bmp or .gif. Never use a compression like JPEG .jpg,, especially while working on your sprites, It will artifact them.

Grog Grueslayer
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Playing: Green Hell
Posted: 12th Aug 2011 14:18
.PNG is the best to use because it is loss-less and allows us to create transparencies as well. .PNG just makes life easier... especially if you're creating content for your games in Darkbasic.

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