Page 1 of 2

Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 8:58 am
by Rufus_Veneficus
Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows a good tutorial or reference on spriting humans and people and such. I can make a good fighter ship, strange monsters, tiles (kind of), and some other assorted things, but for the life of me just can't figure out the right proportions. Any help i can get is appreciated. Thanks. And if I figure anything out, I'll be sure to post.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 10:29 am
by Falco Girgis
I'll tell our two pixel artists, pritam and Jools, to have a look at this topic.

As for me, I don't know shit on the subject. ;)

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:10 pm
by MarauderIIC

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:15 pm
by pritam
Zeids links are very good :) pick a tutorial you find interesting and get spriting. You'll learn a lot, not only in pixel art.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 3:27 pm
by zeid
Type 'human proportions' into google, theres heaps of reference out there. For an overhead pixel person, GI joe toys or similar action figure are useful as reference, you can pose them as they should look then take an overhead perspective.

Human anatomy isn't going to be understood by any 1 link or any quick tutorial im afraid. medical images to get a good understanding of the underlying structures and how they interact are useful as are studies by other artists that detail different proportions of features. Unfortunately then you need to take these resources and practice like hell.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 6:22 pm
by Rufus_Veneficus
Hello, and thanks for all the replies. The links were (for the most part) helpful, I knew some of it already, but that's OK, doesn't hurt to go over things again. But I think that one of the main setback (at least for me) is being unsure of your abilities, and your willingness to try something new. Shortly after I read those links, i pulled something together, and I was overall surprised. I went for a monotone red-ish style for this one.
Image 32x32
All done in about 10-15 minutes, give or take the touch ups. I soon intend to animate him, because he actually looks like something I would like to use in a game... So thanks again, and, provided the time, I hope to continue on with this, because it's very fun.

Oh yeah, if anyone wants to see any of my other "work" (term taken loosely), just say so.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:39 pm
by MarauderIIC
He seems a bit small. I'd make him wider and have him fill the whole 32 high, as well. But it looks nice, imo :)

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 8:59 pm
by Rufus_Veneficus
True, but if i expand up, i won't have room up top for a head bob while running, seeing as i've only got a couple pixels to work with. Still, thanks for the crit. Maybe i can make him a 32-48 or something to give a little more room to make him bigger... I'll see how that works out

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 3:48 pm
by MarauderIIC
We're using 32x64 and I think it looks pretty good, if it's possible for you to use that.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:18 am
by Falco Girgis
I don't know if I would recommend a weird size like 32x48. 3D accelerated hardware only loads sheets in powers of 2, by design. So OpenGL, Dreamcast, PSP, your mom's Gamecube, blah blah, won't be able to render it (unless your graphics library appends an extra 16 pixels on the height for you).

I would recommend 32x64. Just leave the top segment of the sprite empty if that's too big.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 7:22 pm
by Rufus_Veneficus
Alright, coming back with an update. yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking with 32x48, so i edited it, made it 32x64, but something still doesn't seem to fit... I dunno, maybe it's just me. Here it is, tho:
Image

*edit* oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i took out his weapon, just for now. let me know what you think

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 11:41 pm
by MarauderIIC
He looks alright to me, although his upper arm appears short?

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 12:57 pm
by Rufus_Veneficus
Alright, a little update, added the pink "transparent" background, gave him a gun, and a second arm (finally), and I'm over all pleased. Tell me what you think:
Image
maybe the gun's a little hard to see, but maybe thats the pink bg talking.

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 1:06 pm
by dandymcgee
Rufus_Veneficus wrote:Alright, a little update, added the pink "transparent" background, gave him a gun, and a second arm (finally), and I'm over all pleased. Tell me what you think:
Image
maybe the gun's a little hard to see, but maybe thats the pink bg talking.
Wtf? That's is the weirdest format I've ever seen. I tried to edit it in MSPaint, but you can only use colors already in the picture?! It's as if the .PNG has a hard-coded palette or something.. :shock2:

Re: Spriting characters and such

Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 1:17 pm
by Rufus_Veneficus
BWAHAHAHA!!! BOW DOWN BEFORE MY SUPERIOR SKILL OF INFINITE FAILURE!!! But anyway, I'm not sure what you're problem is. i just c&p'ed into mspaint, and it worked just fine for me, so i dunno.