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extrahp In reply to Thatrandomcreepyguy [2014-05-27 15:58:03 +0000 UTC]

Go for it!

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extrahp In reply to EternalNeon [2014-01-07 16:03:46 +0000 UTC]

I guess in a way I "hand drew" it. While I didn't use a pen + tablet, I used my mouse to draw every line/pixel. I use a program called asesprite. I don't have any tutorials, but I'll be happy to make one or just give some tips of how I generally approach spriting and animating. Will get back you with more info on this later when I don't have class!

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EternalNeon In reply to extrahp [2014-01-08 22:04:31 +0000 UTC]

Oh wow so you did all of that amazing stuff with just your mouse.....I HAVE ONE OF THOSE YES already on the right track!!! XD haha. You dont have to go through an entire tutorial Any useful hints and tips you can give will be VERY appreciative. Thank you i look forward to your next message. 

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extrahp In reply to EternalNeon [2014-01-10 06:29:00 +0000 UTC]

Sadly, I have no time to draw out a whole tutorial, so I'll just explain

1) I went on your page to see how much experience you have with drawing, so I know where to start. For the most part, you're all good to go. Your proportions aren't bad. Only problem I saw was that most of your drawings are of people in basic/static poses. As in they're just standing the normal idle pose. If you're not good or experienced in that, really start practicing more dynamic poses! Aerial poses, running poses, any poses that imply movement. I've seen way too many animated sprites people have done where they're just like tree trunks in a human pose. Sure that'd be fine for an idle pose, but when the running/attacking animation is just the movement of one limb and nothing else, that's really bad and very unnatural. To be blunt, it looks horrible. So step 1: practice drawing dynamically! Loosen up those limbs!

2) We're still not ready to start yet! Next step is mental visualization. I have no idea how good you are at this, but it's really important to mentally plan out and visualize sprite poses and sprite movement. What do I mean by that? Well, try to imagine a guy running. Are you able to visualize exactly how the arms swing back and forth? The exact movement patterns of the thigh, the calves, and the feet? How about the torso and head? Once you've tried that, try to look up an actual person running. How closely does it match to what you've mentally pictured? If you're planning to make a sprite animation, do you know how many frames you'll have for the running? If so, do you know how much movement (or difference in position) you'll have for every single limb between each frame of the animation? All this you really need to plan out and visualize in your head. Visualize a complete frame. Then the next frame, then the next. One at a time, and work at it. Visualization might not be for everyone. If you truly can't, start small. One way is to have a physical model. Pose that model for the first initial frame. Draw that out. Then repose it for the next frame, and repeat until you have an animation. If you can't get a model, pose yourself! For my more complex martial arts/punches and kicks sprite animations, I physically get up and do them myself, then think about how I'm moving, from limb to limb. Do it slow, and think about how every part of you is moving, then recapture that in your drawing.

3) STILL NOPE. NOT SPRITE TIME YET! Be sure to have a good idea of how physics work. Understand momentum, friction, just movement stuff. In many sprites I've seen, the biggest problem was that the movement looked really unnatural. It's the biggest factor that leads to choppy or jumpy animations. For example, if you jump, you don't magically just go up. Just a little bit, you may notice you go down a little (to build up some strength), and THEN push yourself up. Another example, when you land from a jump, you don't just come to a dead halt. Otherwise, your bones would break. Take a jump right now. You'll notice that as you land, even AFTER your feet touch the ground and your feet has stopped moving, the REST of your body don't stop instantaneously. It goes down a tiny bit more and you may notice you take some strength to push yourself back up a little depending on how hard you landed, right? That's momentum. That's what bouncing is. Bouncing is really important in creating natural looking movement, because in the real world, there's always momentum. Speeds never just jump from 10 to 0. It's always a GRADUAL change. Clothing movement is important too, but we don't need to get into that too much yet.

3) OKAY NOW WE'RE STARTING TO SPRITE YEAH! I know this is a lot to think about and absorb, but you don't need to do it all at once. It REALLY helps to just do one part at a time. I like to start with the feet and legs. I see them as the foundation of the human body, where all the movement starts. You can't run or jump until you star moving your legs, then the rest of your body responds to balance itself. SO! If you're doing an animation with lots of body movements, start with just the legs! Do the complete animation or movement with ONLY legs. Once that looks good, go back to the first frame and add the body in. Then the head, then the arms. I myself always leave the arms last because they're much more dynamic than the body and the head, and one of the arms usually is drawn on the top, in front of the body (if the character is facing left or right). 

4) DON'T BE LAZY. Again, a LOT of spriters make this mistake. They get lazy, and copy paste certain body parts from one frame to the next, and so there's only the important part moving. So like, a sprite of a guy running, where only the legs move, while the arms and body and head are COMPLETELY still. No. that looks HORRIBLE. Nothing in the real world would ever be like that. If you look at all my sprite animations where there is supposed to be movement, you'll NEVER find a frame where any body part does not move, unless they're standing still. Now, you don't have to always redraw everything from nothing. What I like to do is that if there is only a tiny movement, I will copy paste a part from the previous frame, but EDIT it a good amount. So main point, keep things moving, no matter how small. At the very least, move it a little bit. Move it according to how the rest of the body moves. If the position of the legs move, the rest of the body should move along with it. 

5) Again, step by step. Take things slowly.Don't try crazy complex animations early. Start by really simple movements. Like a person waving hi. Or turning their body. Then try a walk. Maybe a run. Then jump. Just start small for now, get used to spriting and animating. Also don't always try to finish everything as you go. First draw all the important parts, even just the outlines. I myself do coloring and shading only AFTER i have a complete animation. Otherwise, it's all just outlines. Spriting like this can seem overwhelming, but always just keep in mind you can take little tiny steps at a time.

Things to avoid:

-Shrinking body parts. Keep parts the same size!
-Withdrawing body parts. If you're drawing a human, no part of us can just withdraw into itself like a turtle head. A VERY common thing people do is just shift a torso up and down during an idle animation. That's terrifying, to imagine the bones inside that person shrinking into itself. So that means, if you want your character to move his body down, the pelvis should also move down. The leg should bend a little. Keep things in shape. Don't be a demon, let your people move the way a human should C:
-Jumpy movements. Keep movements as fluid as possible. This one is a little harder to explain by text, but just make sure your sprites aren't moving one direction one frame, and then completely different the next. Be sure to keep momentum in mind!!!

I guess that's all for now. I hope things go well and have fun! I know this is a lot, and it'll probably take you a while. Don't get discouraged. Spriting is not an easy skill at all. It really does take a lot to sprite like this. I've sprited for over 8 years now to get to where I am today. Everyone is bad at the start. Just take it slow at your own pace, and have fun! Good luck!

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EternalNeon In reply to extrahp [2014-01-14 06:59:09 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for the advice. Now i know it will take ALOT of time but i WILL get into this and try my best at it.

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