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ghost0311 β Sprite Tutorial
Published: 2006-03-14 00:43:44 +0000 UTC; Views: 34082; Favourites: 319; Downloads: 2658
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Description
Created jointly by John Cutting and Jessica Mora.Check out more of our custom sprites at www.fortunasaga.com
Too often do I hear that sprites are "not art" or "for people who can't draw." I believe we at the Fortuna Saga have demonstrated that we do know how to paint and draw, but we choose not to. To be honest, I think it is easier to use oils than pixels. I don't have to be as creative with oils.
Think of a sonnet. The Shakespearean sonnet uses four divisions: three quatrains + rhymed couplet for a conclusion. The quatrains can have different rhyme schemes, but the typical pattern is abab cdcd efef gg. When I first looked at those restraints I thought, "What the hell?! How are you supposed to be creative if you have to follow that crap." But once you try it out and explore this area of restrictions, you find that there is a lot of room for variation and innovation. With the same base sprite, you can make heroes, villains, monsters, angels, men, women, children, animals, werewolves, ghosts... it goes on forever. You just have to be clever enough to figure it out.
I think sprites get a bad rap because they are easily misused. If you must, attack the writer not the genre.
*Some images property of Square-Enix.
Some images property of John Cutting.
Some images provided by st0ven ([link] ).
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Comments: 46
This is an excellent tutorial and I especially like the advice about what format to save a sprite as. I did save a sprite I created recently as a Jpeg and when I tried to use it as an avatar ( my gmail for example) it came up very blurred and unclean. Yet when I used it for my devianart avatar it came up clean, as you can see. ^_^ However when I saved it as a png and a bitmap it blurred as well. Has the blurring happened because I used Sai as opposed to Photoshop? I'd like to be able to make sprites on a bigger scale. Any advice or guidance would be much appreciated!
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I've never used Sai before, and, while I use Photoshop as a tool for comics, I think Photoshop is too powerful for spritework. It's like using a sledgehammer for a tiny nail. You need to change the settings in Photoshop to play nice with pixel work (turn off contiguous and anti-alias... there may be another setting like bicubic that I'm forgetting), but I don't recommend doing this. In windows or Linux, I use a program called KolourPaint for the sprite work, and I resize and paste what I need in Photoshop. In Mac OS, I used to use an app called Seashore, but Seashore has been deprecated for a while. Β I haven't used OS X since Tiger, so I can't make recommendations anymore.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK_d2-β¦ Here's a video of me doing some sprite work and coloring in Kolourpaint
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xsBZw⦠This is a video of me swapping between Photoshop and Kolourpaint/GIMP while making a comic.
It's a bit tricky to setup Kolourpaint for Windows, so I also recommend gimp if you have trouble. I prefer kolourpaint because it has a tighter UX and runs faster.Β
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UX? Awesome feedback man. At the moment I'm just using this online pixel editor called Piskel. If anything it's got me back in to the swing of things so I'll certainly look into this KolourPaint for sure andΒ try and elaborate on what I've done.
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"Good knowledge of Photoshop is a must"? Uhm... I'm sorry, but that is extremely far from the truth. As a matter of fact, you're supposed to work on sprites through Paint essentially since it's adapted for just that. And I in my case can then later add it in to Flash to either animate it or work on comics or it. I'm just saying, Photoshop isn't a must - and good knowledge of it is neither so.
Still, I really do appreciate this tutorial. 
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In the context, I believe we were talking about the easy pitfalls of many doomed sprite comics on the web.Β I don't think the focus was on photoshop the app as much as it was shorthand (ie. "that photo looks photoshopped" when I could have easily used a dozen other apps) to say there is much more to a sprite comic than the sprites.Β Our earlier comics used watercolors and oils along with digital paintings but it could just have effectively been pixel-art backgrounds as well.Β Your point is valid, but I don't think we disagree about the main thrust of your comment.
*Sorry it has taken so long to respond.Β It's been a rough year for me. Β
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What kind of file should pixel art be saved as? I'm kind of new to it, and you didn't mention what kind is best in the tutorial.
Also, I agree with you about sprites being a kind of art. It's just like painting minatures.
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I prefer PNGs for highest color fidelity, but a few of my colleagues prefer tiffs.
GIFs will limit the number of colors you can use, and I once ruined several hours' work by saving it as a JPEG.
Hope that helps. Let me know if you need anything else.
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I know that people say that sprites are not art, but let me say this: I can draw all you want me to, but I have difficulty with sprites 
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i agree with your comment, "not art"?? drawing a square is one of the principles of art, and besides perspective and everything else applies to sprites, just look at the latest marvel vs series and tell me that's not art . anyway thanks for the tutorial
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You are most welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
You make very good points. I was trained with acrylics and have done welding for 3D pieces, and working with sprites has been just as challenging and rewarding. Unfortunately, I run into sprite stigma often probably because the "barriers to entry" with pixel art is lower than other art forms.
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Some browsers don't show it correctly. Try downloading it or clicking on it to expand.
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Thanks so much for this tutorial. I'm really interested in sprites and wanted to try it out. It's hard starting from nowhere. This is a great starting point.
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My pleasure. Let me know if you have any other difficulties. I've been thinking about making another tutorial but I'm not sure where else people want advice.
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Could be a browser issue. Try the download image link.
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Before, I was terrible
But now...I have uncovered a natural talent of mine that has laid dormant for years!
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Jesus. Who the hell thinks sprites aren't art or are easy mode? I'm a 3d artist, and I actually think good sprite work is harder to do than good 3d work. Specially HD sprites, that stuff is hard to do really well.
Good old school tut!
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Thank you for sharing. That's very interesting the hear from a 3D artist. I've felt that a big challenge of sprites is that they have to be able to convey emotion/action in both still shots and in motion. HD sprites are less abstract (your mind fills in less blanks automatically) which could make this process much harder.
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Ty for making this! I used it to create sprites! you can check them out on my page, if you want!
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Who knows... I may go crazy one day and try this... *faves*
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Who the bloody hell would say sprites are not art? They have to be drawn first, just because they're made of pixels doesn't make them any less artistic. Thanks for the tut! It helps a lot!
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You are most welcome.
It is sad but true that I encounter people who say that quite a bit. I can't blame them though, the internet is full off half-ass rips and comics with two-tone backgrounds, no plot and no direction. It's hard to see art in a sea of garbage.
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Yeah you've got a point there. I've a whole new respect for the spriters out there who do a good job, I can only hope that my sprites come out as nice and smooth as I need them to be.
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wait, so what do you save it as? you said not jpeg or gif, but which one?
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I usually save them as PNGs.
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oh alright. thanks for replying.
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thats pretty cool ^w^ I have been curious on how well I can make sprites. I always enjoy trying something new 
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Good stuff. Will use when get back to pixel art.
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Nicely done tutorial. I'll have to try it out. BTW, maybe it's just me, but that "generic FFVI" sprite looks like Locke to me.
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You're right. Locke is one of the more basic main characters in the game. If you wanted a good starting point, I would pick his sprite set and empty out all of the stuff in the middle.
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This is might me a bit. I'd love to do animations in that Harvest Moon, Mario pixel look. Thanks.
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omg thank you soo much! i love sprites! ever since those days...the good old days...Harvest moon ect...!!! thanks again im finally gonna have a crack at making one!
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Best of luck. If you need a hand or honest opinion, feel free to contact me.
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Very nice. I'm going to fave it just so I can try using it in the future. I may end up not... but I would like to remember it if I decide to use sprite-based things. Thanks for opening up the sprite-based genre to having a serious plot.
-SZ
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Haha!!Thanks cool...i like it,im gonna try this!!!! When i do i'll +fav
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Definately faving this one. I've been looking for a way to produce my comic for a while now....so far this is the best thing next to hand making them....and I haven't got the time or the resources for that.
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Wow...that's pretty cool. I don't have any intention of making any sprite-art, but it is cool to see the process behind one of the best sprite comics on the net. Keep up the good work!
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