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-   -   Spriting Tutorials - Pokemon and Trainer (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=176686)

Chesu June 8th, 2009 6:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazzamon (Post 4728348)
I haven't added colou, shading or even facial details so before I do, your opinion on it.

The legs are curved a bit too much, and the hind legs seem to short compared to how low that part of the body is... you should make the pelvic area just a bit smaller, rather than make the legs longer, though.


edit: Wow, this post is the one hundredth in this thread! When did the number of replies get so high?

Haz June 8th, 2009 10:01 PM

I jusr relised I accidently saved it in JPG :( I'll have to redo it.

Chesu June 8th, 2009 10:41 PM

What, the outline? It looks like it contains just two colors... black and white. It shouldn't have been damaged if it's so few colors.

Haz June 9th, 2009 2:22 AM

The outline was ruined but I fixed it :) I'm going to fix the posture and then colour it.

Mr June 10th, 2009 1:15 AM

Thanks. This is a great tutorial!

Haz June 13th, 2009 9:10 PM

2 Attachment(s)
Hey Chesu I finished my sprite. I changed it completly (well, only a bit) and I cheated a little bit by using other Pokemons parts. (see if you can guess which ones!!) ;)
Anyway, how do you think it looks?
I've also added some tiles I made there too. They're kind of sucky cause its my first try at making them. i can't remember why Sandslash and Shaymin are there for but anyway...

Chesu June 14th, 2009 2:13 AM

Looks like you used Shaymin and Sandslash as color references.

There are a few problems with your sprite... it really needs to be smoothed out around the edges, looks flat so needs more shading, and one of the arms is a lot bigger than the other.

Conan Edogawa June 21st, 2009 2:34 PM

Here's another trace-over I made that I think turned out pretty nicely:
http://www.iaza.com/work/090521C/ferreon6958474561-iaza.gifCredit to Ashurasonic for the Concept Art. And yes I was given permission to use it.

Chesu June 21st, 2009 7:20 PM

Looks good! You should post the original image alongside, or at least link to it, for comparison. :D

While I'm here, I'd just like to apologize to... whoever it is that's been waiting for the backsprite tutorials. I have the first one a little more than halfway done, but I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on it lately. I hope to have it finished before too much longer.

Ty 101 June 22nd, 2009 5:43 AM

I'm patient.
Hope you get more time to work on it.

Conan Edogawa June 22nd, 2009 5:53 AM

Ok here's the link. ?I also have an idea for a new tutorial. How about techniques for shading things such as scales,fur,etc.

Chesu June 22nd, 2009 11:07 AM

ZephyrPlusle is actually working on a guest tutorial on that topic right now.

Conan Edogawa June 22nd, 2009 2:56 PM

Oh well I can't wait to see it! And also if you think it's necessary, a tutorial on a more advanced way of spriting with geometry or another technique would be nice.

GameFreak Executive June 25th, 2009 12:05 AM

*.com/view.php?pic=2vjvdp3&s=5

Well, that was my very first result, using your amazing tutorial, but please, tell me what I could do to make it better.

It didn't turn out how I invisioned it at all. x)

Chesu June 25th, 2009 7:54 AM

You should round and touch up all of the outlines... and try using the the color palettes of existing Pokemon, it will make your sprite look more natural. I like the face!

Nyu~♥! June 25th, 2009 4:36 PM

Very nice tutorial.

I'll definately use it in the future.

Pokefreak437 June 25th, 2009 7:12 PM

Dude this tutorial helped a lot. I made a custom trainer and almagation (animated), but I'm new to the site and don't have enough posts to put up a URL >.>

Chesu June 25th, 2009 7:52 PM

You actually have the option to attach images stored on your computer to your post. Just press the Post Reply button under my post, and the Attach Files field will be in the Additional Options in the table below the text field.

Pokefreak437 June 25th, 2009 10:31 PM

My Fakemon (s)
 
3 Attachment(s)
Three Starter Pokemon I made. The Pig had a Cyndaquil's head (heavily edited) and Nuzleaf's Leaf as a tail. Stantler's legs. The bird Water thing is completely scratched. Try to guess what I did for the snake :O

Pokefreak437 June 25th, 2009 10:32 PM

I know some of the animations are a little choppy, but oh well.

durenloveanju June 26th, 2009 12:18 AM

wow.. good tutorial.. keep good work.

Ritchie July 6th, 2009 5:04 PM

1 Attachment(s)
This is my first sprite, tell me waht do you think about it? How can I improve it?

0m3GA ARS3NAL July 6th, 2009 6:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ritchie (Post 4825464)
This is my first sprite, tell me waht do you think about it? How can I improve it?

I know I am not chesu, but I can say, you need a bit more shading, especially on that arm there...

Chesu July 7th, 2009 6:55 AM

More shading would help, as would smoothing out some of the edges. I like the design!

Ritchie July 7th, 2009 9:15 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by 0m3GA ARS3NAL (Post 4825732)
I know I am not chesu, but I can say, you need a bit more shading, especially on that arm there...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 4826923)
More shading would help, as would smoothing out some of the edges. I like the design!

Thanks! I added more shading as well as smoothing edges. Take a look:

http://www.pokecommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=47698&stc=1&d=1246986777

I made it kinda of big, is it possible to resize it to the size of Nidorino or something else?

Chesu July 7th, 2009 3:42 PM

Unfortunately, if you resize it, you'll have to redo pretty much everything on it... to the point that it would just be easier to make the smaller sprite from scratch.

What you did is called "pillow shading"... It has its uses, but doesn't really have a place on a Pokemon-style sprite. Take a close look at how Pokemon sprites are shaded.

0m3GA ARS3NAL July 7th, 2009 10:13 PM

How is that?
New trainer I made... comments?

EDIT
Removed Image, Updated Below

Chesu July 8th, 2009 6:41 AM

The outline looks really sharp on the white side, due to the contrast between black and white... you need to shade it a bit more. Other than that, it's great! The green background is visible between his legs... does the bottom of the coat-thing not wrap all the way around?

0m3GA ARS3NAL July 9th, 2009 4:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 4831642)
The outline looks really sharp on the white side, due to the contrast between black and white... you need to shade it a bit more. Other than that, it's great! The green background is visible between his legs... does the bottom of the coat-thing not wrap all the way around?

Lol, originally, this was his normal design, but I WAS thinking of doing that yesterday while walking the town.
I updated his clothing's patterns, and upped the shading, and softened the lines on HIS right.
I'll update him in a minute here....
(Leaves window open to go sprite...)
OKAY, back now...
here we go, version 2.
http://0m3ga-ars3nal.webs.com/BrannonVer2.png

number 2 July 10th, 2009 2:42 AM

my avatar is an amalgamation I made of mew two and pikachu

doesn't matter July 12th, 2009 6:50 PM

ok guys, this thread is just for comments on the tutorial. If you want to show your work, go to the Spriters Showcase/Discussion thread.

Theonewhoisodd July 22nd, 2009 6:39 PM

Thanks for the tutorial this will make things easier

Chesu July 22nd, 2009 7:56 PM

I really, REALLY need to finish the next tutorial... I planned to have it up, like, two months ago. :/

Cynder The Bloody Angel July 23rd, 2009 1:28 AM

thanks dude ! i hope the backsprite Tutorial will be uploaded soon !

0m3GA ARS3NAL July 28th, 2009 7:39 PM

Where did you go Chesu!? GAH

-Smash July 28th, 2009 9:11 PM

[QUOTE=Chesu;4829427]
What you did is called "pillow shading"... It has its uses.[QUOTE]

No, no, no.

Pillowshading is a common mistake that gets the better lot newbie spriters. Hell, even if you had the lightsource in front of you intentionally, the style would still look bad and wrong.

You people must be made to understand that pillowshading is not an actual technique, but rather a tendency that leads to failure, one that must be avoided at all times.


..Or not actually, really. It can be used to make bad sprites intentionally, or for pillowshading contest for the lulz. :p

0m3GA ARS3NAL July 28th, 2009 9:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by -Smash (Post 4915337)
No, no, no.

Pillowshading is a common mistake that gets the better lot newbie spriters. Hell, even if you had the lightsource in front of you intentionally, the style would still look bad and wrong.

You people must be made to understand that pillowshading is not an actual technique, but rather a tendency that leads to failure, one that must be avoided at all times.


..Or not actually, really. It can be used to make bad sprites intentionally, or for pillowshading contest for the lulz. :p

I actually don't know any of the terms for any sort of art thing, I just do stuff, and it often turns out good.
But what is it called when you shade like it is shaded in my previously posted sprite?

Chesu July 29th, 2009 6:35 AM

A light-diffused gradient that doesn't make proper use of the light source... ^^;
You goal is, of course, to make your sprite look like... well, what it's supposed to look like. Cloth wouldn't normally look like the left side of your sprite's jacket looks... There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but realistically the shading would be more minimal.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4003/72394103.png

Maybe like the "complex anti-aliasing" shown here.

As for pillow shading being abhorrent as you're making it sound, -Smash... like I said, it has its uses. Here, it's pretty terrible, and makes the portraits look cheap... but some games use it due to the limitations of the platforms their games are developed for, and by using it properly and integrating it into the game's overall art style, they manage to make it look pretty good.

-Smash July 29th, 2009 1:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 4916426)
A light-diffused gradient that doesn't make proper use of the light source... ^^;
You goal is, of course, to make your sprite look like... well, what it's supposed to look like. Cloth wouldn't normally look like the left side of your sprite's jacket looks... There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but realistically the shading would be more minimal.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4003/72394103.png

Maybe like the "complex anti-aliasing" shown here.

As for pillow shading being abhorrent as you're making it sound, -Smash... like I said, it has its uses. Here, it's pretty terrible, and makes the portraits look cheap... but some games use it due to the limitations of the platforms their games are developed for, and by using it properly and integrating it into the game's overall art style, they manage to make it look pretty good.

Ah, Chesu, it's pretty abhorrent indeed. I'll explain why.


Pillowshading or pillowing.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/xavier2000/PhotobucketUpld-1080.png

Shading style in which there is absolutely NO lightsource established, because the shadows come directly from the outlines and inward into the sprite, even though it may appear that a lightsource is between the object and the viewer. It creates an ugly effect that does not even resemble pillows, and on sprites with line segments in them, the effect magnifies in to the worst. Having black lines inside of the sprite and shadows behind them only by one side can be said as derived from this, I believe.

Common error by young spriters everywhere, and the bane of any spriter hoping to improve. It's something too useless to even be considered a technique.


Now, pillowshading and pillowing are the same thing, but you seem to be mistaking what you call "pillow shading" from what I know as Layered shading.

Layered shading

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/xavier2000/PhotobucketUpld2-38.png

In this type of shading, there is obviously a light source present, and the shades do not follow the lines as before but stand in a similar manner and are numerous. The layered style might give the impresion of being pillowed in small sprites, and so leads to misconceptions. I find the style to be fine to use, but pretty hard to get it right. The best example of this would be that video you posted before.


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/xavier2000/PhotobucketUpld-1820.png

Now this is what would be known as proper shading. A good lightsource established, and only a few colors. Fitting for the pokemon style.


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/xavier2000/PhotobucketUpld2-39.png

And this, regular AAing used properly. Exceeding in AAing might get you that pillowy effect on small sprites, like you mentioned before. It should be used moderately.


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l208/xavier2000/PhotobucketUpld-1081.png

And this is selective outlining. Basically have your outlines brighter when circling bright areas and eliminate the ugly black lines all over. It's something most people miss around here, and should be brought to light, but then I might be getting off topic now.

But getting to the point, yes, pillowshading is as bad as it sounds, if not worse. It would be best to argue against it instead of defending it because of mistaken terms.

me2hack July 31st, 2009 7:26 AM

I tired this tutorial and it's quite helpfull. :D

Napalm August 8th, 2009 5:48 PM

Thank you very much for the tutorial, very detailed and easy to follow. Hope you update sometime soon, especially with the back sprite tutorial!

PokeHackers August 9th, 2009 4:01 PM

It's really good, I have nothing bad to say about it except,
I hate unfinished things.
=(

0m3GA ARS3NAL August 9th, 2009 9:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PokeHackers (Post 4964830)
It's really good, I have nothing bad to say about it except,
I hate unfinished things.
=(

Give Chesu some time, he'll get it done.

Chesu August 10th, 2009 2:31 PM

Yeah... eventually... e_e

Llennoccm8 August 12th, 2009 4:35 PM

Thanks! this will help me in the future.

Jαcκςση August 24th, 2009 2:24 PM

Tried your Algamation tut, very helpful! Thanks.
I came out with this: http://i32.*.com/eqqfl0.jpg It's obviously a wip, as I just changed the lower body and hair (and crapped up the face, xD).. I'll post the rest when I finish.

Edit: just finished it. Wow, the old version looks really bad.. xD.

http://i25.*.com/4sjp1s.jpg

mama luigi September 7th, 2009 7:09 AM

yay! thaks for this tutorial,it is really helpful! ^.^ I look forward for the back sprite tutorial! I'll try the scratch spriting,and post it if it comes out good! ^.^

~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~ September 9th, 2009 5:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jαcκςση (Post 5032024)
Tried your Algamation tut, very helpful! Thanks.
I came out with this: http://i32.*.com/eqqfl0.jpg It's obviously a wip, as I just changed the lower body and hair (and crapped up the face, xD).. I'll post the rest when I finish.

Edit: just finished it. Wow, the old version looks really bad.. xD.

http://i25.*.com/4sjp1s.jpg

in my eyes, nice job with the shading and the coloring of this sprite.


:t354:TG

tbone1094 September 11th, 2009 8:58 PM

http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/tt38/tbone1094/carnasis.png


a fusion of deoxsys and carnivine with alot of scratch work (just realized a couple issues with it after posting really like the fluid like concept tho) :)


http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/tt38/tbone1094/mewbiirevamped.png


mew and celibii fusion with very little scratch work

~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~ September 13th, 2009 4:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbone1094 (Post 5105934)


http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/tt38/tbone1094/mewbiirevamped.png


mew and celibii fusion with very little scratch work

Celebi or Serebii

You did a great job with the coloring and shading with this but the head may need to be positioned in a different way


:t354:TG

The Smell September 23rd, 2009 4:49 PM

OK, so I did a trace-over trainer. I used this anime art here:



And came up with this: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff39/PokeSmell/PokemonRanger_Male_trans.png

What can I improve?

shortdan1998 September 24th, 2009 2:35 PM

when is the next update coming?

Chesu September 24th, 2009 2:46 PM

The next update? Well, that's going to be... ahaha... Well, you see...

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Smell (Post 5147640)

My, a convenient distraction! Wait, didn't that post used to be about the fusion/recolor topic? Well, anyway. The Smell, you could touch up the outline a little, maybe add a bit of shading if you want... The face looks a little off, you should work on that too.

Oh, and shortdan, your signature is about three times larger than the maximum allowed size, you should do something about that before a mod gets to it.

The Smell September 26th, 2009 2:23 AM

Haha, yes it was. Anyway, this is a trainer I made by throwing together different parts of trainers and editing them. What can I improve?

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff39/PokeSmell/trainer000.png

Chesu September 26th, 2009 7:01 AM

The torso is kind of boring.. maybe add a design or the shirt or something? The legs also seem a bit short. You'll get more help if you post in one of the large stickied threads.

The Smell September 26th, 2009 4:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 5156387)
The torso is kind of boring.. maybe add a design or the shirt or something? The legs also seem a bit short. You'll get more help if you post in one of the large stickied threads.

That's what I was thinking about the torso. Also, the legs had to be shortened so it could fit in the 64x64 space. ;)

Thanks for the review.

What about this pose of Riley I did?

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff39/PokeSmell/trainer083.png

Chesu October 12th, 2009 10:32 PM

GBA/DS Pokemon Back Sprite Tutorial
 
GBA/DS Pokemon Back Sprite Tutorial
by Chesu


While sprites viewed from the front are by far the most popular,
especially when it comes to Pokemon, the large sprites representing your
team in battle are just as important. With that in mind, let's get right to it!


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut73.png


You may recognize Marchare from my original spriting tutorial.
It's the first Pokemon sprite I ever made from scratch, and allows
me to bring up a few points in the process of making a back sprite, so
it's what I'll be spriting. If you don't have your own sprite and want to give
this tutorial a try, why not make your own back sprite of an existing
Pokemon and see how close to the real deal it turns out?


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut68.png


The first thing we need to do is figure out how big the
sprite will be. Since back sprites are closer in the player's
perspective, they will always be bigger than the front sprite
versions. Most front sprites fill up a good portion of the area they're
allowed to take up (64x64 for third generation, 80x80 for fourth
generation), so the back sprites of all but the smallest/floatiest
Pokemon will have their lower halves cut off. However, seven of
the ten Pokemon I checked had back sprites that were the height
as their front sprites, like Banette up there. This only applies to third
generation sprites; most back sprites from the fourth are much larger
than the front sprites. So, how do we determine how much bigger the
features of the back sprite need to be? Well, through a bit of research
and experimentation, I've discovered that third gen sprites are forty
percent larger, and that fourth gen sprites are usually fifty to
seventy percent larger. We can apply that thusly:


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut73.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut70.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut69.gif


First, take your sprite and flip it horizontally, then
increase the size by the desired percentage. In MS
Paint, you would right-click the sprite or click the Image
tab, select "Stretch/Skew", and replace the 100% in both
boxes under Stretch with 140; in Paint Shop Pro, click the
Image tab, select Resize, and do the same thing in the Pixel
Dimensions box, while making sure that it's set to Percentage
rather than Pixels. It may be a little blocky, but don't worry, this
image won't make it into the final sprite. As you can see in the
Banette animation, while the resized sprite is a blocky mess,
all of its features are almost exactly the same size as
the ones in the back sprite. With this, we can
begin working on the sprite itself.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut71.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut72.png


Using the method from the original scratch tutorial, create
some shapes around the same size as the important parts of your
enlarged sprite's body, then fit them together in an approximation
of the front sprite's pose and start reshaping them. The circles are
placed on top of the sprite in the image on the left only to show the
size comparison; since the back sprite is viewed more from above,
you shouldn't try to put the shapes together exactly as they sit on
top of your resized sprite. I set them about the same way I did
when making the original sprite, and will work from there.
Once you're reasonably happy with the basic shape
of the body, we can move on to limbs and
deciding where to cut off the sprite.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut74.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut75.png


Here's a selection of parts I made based on the
resized sprite, and my first attempts at assembling
them. Like I said before, one reason that I chose Marchare
was to point out some important aspects of making a back sprite;
one of them is budgeting your available space. Marchare's front sprite
is one pixel short of the third generation's maximum width, meaning
that a larger version will have to be a bit different from the original
to fit. My first thought was to perk the ears up so that there would
be room for the tail, but that looked kind of... terrible. Also,
between the positions of the ears and arm, the sprite
seems to be facing straight to the right, which
we want to avoid if at all possible.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut76.png


By making the ears just a bit shorter than in
the front sprite, I'm able to make much better-looking
ears that make the sprite only a few pixels wider than it
was with them perked up. Unfortunately, the left ear being
down means that the tail overlapping it will be almost unavoidable.
There are only ten pixels between the back of the body and the edge
of the area I have to work with, so I definitely won't be able to draw the
tail the same way it appears in the front sprite. Don't worry though, if
you fiddle with it enough you'll always find a way around things like
this. I cut the sprite off around the middle of the hip, to make
sure that there's at least one pixel between the bottom of
the foot and where the battle menu would be.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut77.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut78.png


This brings me to the next point I chose Marchare
in order to bring up: whether or not to show certain
body parts. I could get away with lowering the majority
of the tail below the cut off point, saving me from having
to deal with the overlapping of tail and ear, but after a bit
of experimentation I decided that it wouldn't look very good.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try something similar if
you think it would work though, every sprite is different. I ended
up going with a more curvy version of the front sprite's tail, with the
dimensions based on the resized sprite. If you overlap parts like
this, make sure that the shapes work well together. If this tail
were moved one pixel in any direction, its outline would
touch the outline of the ear or body and look... Well,
not so good. Once you're happy with your limbs,
it's time to move on to one last point worth
considering, then the final stage, shading!


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut68.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut79.png


The last reason I chose Marchare is the shape of
its face. Because of the way Rattata's face is shaped,
its eyes aren't visible from this angle, while Banette's
are. Marchare's eyes are spaced farther apart than Rattata's
but not quite as much as Banette's, so how much of its face I
show is down to a judgment call. There's really no golden rule for
this, you'll just have to make a choice based on the shape of your
sprite's head and face. Once you've worked that out, it's time to shade!
As shown in the second and third generation Rattata sprites (official
revamps of back sprites are pretty common... who knew!), the
light source is almost directly above. How much
dithering you use is completely up to you.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut80.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut73.png

With a little modification to the head and
back, it's looking even more like the front sprite.
That's one last thing I would like to bring up; don't
be afraid to make changes like this at the last minute.
No matter how much work you've done on a sprite, you're
not committed to the current look. If you think it could
look better, go ahead and try! So long as you keep
backups of all important revisions of your
sprite, it never hurts to experiment.

Well, there you have it. Back sprites may seem
intimidating, what with their large size and divergence
from the familiar rules of Pokemon spriting, but in reality
all you need is to know a few useful techniques. I hope
you've found this tutorial useful! Until next time...
Keep spriting!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut69.gif http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut81.gif

---

If you have any questions or would like to give feedback
on the tutorials, click here to leave me a visitor message!




Time Shift Dialga October 17th, 2009 12:00 AM

Just out of interest (Heh, that's a common phrase in my life xD), is there any quick way of taking out the palettes, I'm using the eyedropper and pencil still. Is I missing something here?

Haz October 17th, 2009 1:06 AM

Great tutorial Chesu! This will help me and alot of other people a lot!

Chesu October 17th, 2009 10:52 AM

Thanks Haz!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Time Shift Dialga (Post 5228304)
is there any quick way of taking out the palettes, I'm using the eyedropper and pencil still.

There really isn't a faster way... and no other way in Paint, really. What I like to do is grab colors with the eyedropper tool, then use the four-pixel brush to make palettes like this:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut4.png

Micklo October 18th, 2009 3:10 AM

Fantastic tutorials! My favourite is looking at the amalgamations. Had a go at a few, and even tried recreating the Purple Kecleon psychic dinosaur...(and failed ^^)

Chesu October 18th, 2009 3:24 AM

Thanks! Even if you feel that you failed, that doesn't mean that you have to give up. I actually made sprites of all three of them back in 2006 using nothing but parts taken from Pokemon sprites.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Video%20Games/Pokemon/fakestarters.png?t=1255864727

...Actually, it looks like I cheated a bit on Espeon/Karasuneko's tail, but whatever point I was trying to prove back then is long forgotten, so eh.

Spherical Ice October 18th, 2009 3:36 AM

Mum said she's going to cook pancakes. She really did! XD

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff288/Sphericalice/phanteddyback.png

I don't like it. :/ He looks all stiff.
I like those sprites. I need concept art to sprite. SOOO bored!

Do your homework!
Screw you! XD

Chesu October 18th, 2009 3:43 AM

Let its arms hang more naturally, like in the front sprite... I think the main problem is how round the shoulders are. If you don't like it, why not make the back more interesting? If it's a stuffed animal, why not put a rip or stitches on the back? If it's supposed to be an animal, well... do something else. Oh, and the right ear is kind of small and messed up.

...Also, wow, that was fast.

Chesu October 22nd, 2009 7:07 AM

GBA/DS Trainer Overworld Tutorial
 
GBA/DS Trainer Overworld Tutorial
by Chesu



Overworld trainer sprites are usually
considered to be the easiest of the Pokemon
games' sprites to make, but that's not completely
true. They are incredibly easy to modify, but that doesn't
count as making your own sprite, and most people do it
with little or no regard to the style they're supposed
to be spriting in. Each modern style has its
own distinct traits, as illustrated here:


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut82.png


Here we have sprites of the Camper trainer class,
from FireRed/LeafGreen, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and
the DS games. The DS version is clearly much bigger than
the other two, which allows for more detail, but there are
also differences between the two GBA versions. Actually,
there are too many differences... The R/S/E Camper
overworld sprite is also used for Rangers, giving
it the dimensions of an adult sprite. Let
me find a better example...


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut83.png


Here we go! There are three major differences
you should note between the two styles: the FR/LG
sprites (left) have a more subdued color palette, large,
round heads for a cuter, more cartoonie look, and are viewed
more from above. What I mean is that you can see more of
the tops of their heads, less of their thoraces, and unlike
the R/S/E sprites, they don't seem to be looking at you.
Now that you're aware of the differences, we can
start making overworld sprites from scratch!


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut84.png


After my usual bout of research and
experimentation, I've created these sprite bases.
Don't worry, they're just circles sitting on top of squares,
you can use them and still say your sprites are made from
scratch. The red ones are for FR/LG-style sprites, blue is R/S/E,
and green is quite obviously for DS sprites. The small frames on
the right are for small children; School Kids, Tubers, that type.
On the left we have adults, and in the center are frames for
older kids and teenagers- protagonists, rivals, anyone
that doesn't fit into the other two sizes.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut85.png


I'll be basing my sprite on Ringo here. I have
a reason for choosing her, but I'll get to that later. For
the sake of making every paragraph a long, complicated
mess, I'll be making three sprites at once.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut86.png


The first step is shaping the sprite.
The arm positions I gave mine are the most
common for their respective styles, but you can
do yours however you want. Reference sprites in
the style you're emulating can be used, so long as
you don't follow them too closely. The leg positions
I went with are also common for each style. Once
you're happy with your outline, it's time to color!


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut87.png


Unless you're creating a new style, DO NOT
use the palettes found on in-battle sprites; the
GBA and DS can only process so many colors, so
the overworld palettes are pretty limited. I'd like
to direct your attention to the arms of my sprites.
While the FR/LG and DS sprites are only brown (the
darkest skin palette color) on the outside, the R/S/E
arms are brown all over. This is because the other
two are viewed more from above, so you see the
outlines of their torsos rather than their arms.

Moving on, you can start coloring
and shading your sprite's skin. I have,
again, gone with the most common style in
each... uh, style. The light source on overworld
sprites is above, and slightly toward you. Every
other character with exposed arms in the DS games
has them shaded a different way, so I went with the
style used by a character with similar hair. With that
out of the way, you can mark the waistline and start
dressing your sprite. R/S/E sprites show equal parts
torso and legs, while the others show more torso, so
keep that in mind. You should also stick to colors
found on other overworld sprites and objects. Oh,
and don't forget to draw some ears, if you need
to. Ringo's will be covered by her hair, but I've
included ears in the size of the head; just
remove a few pixels as needed.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut88.png


As I've said in the past, hair is a tricky
subject to tack down... There are just so
many variables! The main things to remember
are that hair is usually shiny (especially in the DS
games), unless it's spiky or there's some other structure
breaking the flow, and that it's okay to simplify
a hairstyle to fit in the sprite if need be.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut89.png


There you have it, overworld sprites
easily made from scratch, strictly adhering
to their respective styles. I hope this tutorial
has helped you understand why overworld sprites
are assembled the way they are, so that even if
you're just editing existing sprites, you'll
have the tools to do it right.

...Oh, wait, the tutorial's not done yet.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut90.png


From here on, I'll be working in
FR/LG style, since I prefer it to the other two.
Starting with the same empty doll thing, shape
your the body and draw a body coming directly from
the bottom of the head. I couldn't tell you why FR/LG sprites
have such bad posture, but sprites in the other two styles definitely
stand up straighter than this. Since the outline of the face is exposed
to the light source in this side view, you can go ahead and make it brown.
If you look closely at the arm, you'll see that its outline is both brown and
black; this is to keep colors from flowing together. It can't be all black
since it touches the black body outline, and it can't be all brown
because it touches the brown shoe. As for the hair... Well, just
do your best to envision how it looks from the side. Do your
best to make your sprite the same height and width
as the front-facing one, I'll explain why later.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut91.png


The back sprite is basically the same as
the front, with two key differences: the head
ends higher, and the arms are covered by hair if it's long
enough. The back of your head flows into you neck around
around where the bottom of your nose is on the front, which
is reflected in the sprite. Another thing worth noting is that any
features of your sprite's hair visible from the front will be farther
up when seen from the back, if in view at all. Once you have
all three orientations of your sprite done, it's time to
animate! For that, I'm going to switch to super
big, every-pixel-is-sixteen-pixels mode.

(Note: The following techniques used for
animating the sprites only apply to the FR/LG
style; as their bodies are much bigger, the other
two styles are animated completely differently. If
enough people request it, I'll amend this section
with R/S/E and DS-style animation techniques.)


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut92.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut101.png http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut93.png

Diving right in, start by erasing one of
the legs, leaving just the outline from the
bottom of the foot in its place. Move the hand
on that same side one pixel inward and give it an
outline on the inner edge. Move the other hand three
pixels up (two pixels for young children) and recolor half
of it to form the arm. To avoid an overlap between the very
similar colors of my sprite's hand and hair outlines, I've just
hidden the whole arm behind the hair. Finally, make a copy
of your sprite and mirror it horizontally, making sure not
to mirror anything that isn't symmetrical (like Ringo's
bangs and... uh, stem). If you can find a way to add
bounce to your sprite's hair or any hanging cloth,
go for it! I've straightened the stem thing
out... You'll see why in a minute.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut94.png


Right, moving on to the side view!
Erase the arm, but don't worry too much
about drawing in everything under it, since
we'll be changing the shape of the sprite. Move the
leg one pixel up and three back, then move your sprite's
back... well, back, one pixel. Your upper body twists a bit
as you walk, so more of the sprite's back should be visible
in this frame of the animation. Add a bit of the other foot's
outline to the front of the body, then draw the arm back on
as I did. It doesn't have to line up with the front of your
sprite's body, but that's how it looks most of the time
with FR/LG sprites, so that's what I'll be going with.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut95.png


Starting with the armless body you
made before, move the leg one pixel up and
two forward, then make it one pixel shorter horizontally.
Draw in any details of the leg that are missing at this point,
then add the other leg (all in black, to show that it's in the background)
in about the same shape to the back of the body. The upper body twists
in this frame as well, but it will be covered by the arm, so you don't
need to draw it. Animating the back view frames is mostly
the same as the front view, so I'll skip right to
the good part- actually animating!


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut96.png


So, what's this bounce I referred to earlier?
Well, take a look at the two sets of animation
frames above. The green set is one pixel taller than
the blue one, and the sprites in motion are set lower
in their frames than the ones that are standing still. While
there's nothing wrong with the blue animation, I think the
green animation is more fun, and even looks better. Why?


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut97.gif http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut98.gif


Bounce! While the difference isn't as
noticeable when the sprites are moving through
an environment, most animators will still go with
the green animation, since it has more personality and
looks more natural. Unfortunately, moving one pixel down
makes Ringo's stem look like it's retracting rather than
bouncing, so I may have to make it a bit longer in the
motion frames. Since the side view sprites become
one pixel shorter during animation, there's no
need to add bounce to them in this way.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut99.png


One of the most important parts in animating
a sprite is making sure that all the frames are the
same size. You should also try to make the sprites used
by a character in your game the same size as well, for
proper collision detection and all that good stuff.


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut100.gif


There you have it, overworld sprites easily
made from scratch, AND properly animated! I
hope this tutorial has helped you understand why
overworld sprites are assembled the way they are, so that
even if you're just editing existing sprites, you'll have the
tools to do it right. The tutorial is over for real this time,
but if enough people ask for it, I'll add sections
for animating R/S/E and DS sprites.

---

If you have any questions or would like to give feedback
on the tutorials, click here to leave me a visitor message!




Laidjon* October 24th, 2009 6:36 AM

Really nice, and everything is so easy to understand. Thank you for contributing =D
Ow's are now a piece of cake :P

I would love to wear your Support Bar xD Just to let people know that I'm not one of those ROM-hackers :P

Train rides by October 24th, 2009 7:37 PM

thanks for the tut ill post some new sprites ltr

Death Strike October 24th, 2009 8:04 PM

Great tutorial, you've definitely spent a whole lot of time on it, now everyone else who isn't good at spriting can sprite! (including me!)

Train rides by October 24th, 2009 9:35 PM

heres one of my newest sprites what do you think?
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/2748/omicrow.png

Chesu October 24th, 2009 10:43 PM

I've seen much, much worse, but it isn't without fault. The outline is jaggy in places, and too light... especially on the skull. The sprite may be facing too much to the left, but it's hard to tell. More importantly, the... I want to say shredded cloth, at the bottom is too uniform. with the same shape over and over. I love the concept of the sprite though, bird skulls are something that I've never seen sprited.

Laidjon* October 25th, 2009 2:41 AM

Btw, Chesu, are you also going to teach us how to make the running frames? 'Cause that would just be plain awesome! =D

Train rides by October 25th, 2009 7:03 AM

heres the edited version http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2748/omicrow.png

Chesu October 25th, 2009 12:43 PM

The running animation is basically the same, but with the character leaning forward... I guess I could add it.

Train, you didn't really address the problems I mentioned. You actually made the skull more jaggy, and the original color was better. Where the outline needs worked on is the body, especially around the tail. Look at sprites of Pokemon like Duskull, Misdreavus, Mismagius, and Darkrai for examples of how the body should look.

Yume Tsuki October 25th, 2009 1:14 PM

With this tut I gonna remake my horrible OW of the girl in purple x')

Chesu October 25th, 2009 1:36 PM

The one with the crazy-long hair? I don't remember there being anything wrong with it...

Well, to make this post actually worth something: what should I do for my next tutorial? Pokemon overworlds, trainer backsprites, overworld objects, background tiles, or something else from the "coming soon" list? Click here to vote!

Train rides by October 25th, 2009 1:41 PM

heres a frame fora new sprite what do you think? http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8233/bermudaislegrassstarter.png
and ill take a look at those sprites now

Chesu October 25th, 2009 1:46 PM

I really don't want this thread filled up with random conversations... If you want my opinion, could you just PM or VM me? Since I'm posting anyway though, it's good! It looks like a sheep with a ton of wool or something. A few things, though; the outline is kind of jaggy on the wooly parts, one of the legs doesn't look like the other two, and if those things above the head are horns, they look like they're coming from behind the head.

Logan October 25th, 2009 1:49 PM

Well, Pokémon ow's aren't that much different to normal ow's. Nor would they be any more difficult. I think someone could make a Pokémon ow using your method from the people ow's. I'd say trainer backsprites, because it'll be fun to see how your fine self figures how to do them. Also, I need to work on backsprites more, so gogogo.

Besj08 October 26th, 2009 11:41 AM

Very useful, clean and easy to learn

Chesu October 27th, 2009 5:51 AM

Hrm... Would anyone be interested in a tutorial on FR/LG-style establishing shots? An establishing shot is something used in film to introduce the audience to the setting of a scene, before focusing on the characters.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Misc/vforest.png

Even though it looks like a big, complicated image, it's actually pretty simply-drawn, and uses the same number of colors as Pokemon and trainer sprites. So, would anyone here be interested in a tutorial on the subject, or is it too obscure?

~Kian~ October 27th, 2009 6:03 AM

well id love to be able to make them it would make hacks/games even more unique and i'd think people would appreciate it :) (might have typos)

~kian

manhattan October 27th, 2009 9:44 AM

I'd love a tutorial about it too. :3

= GPR = October 27th, 2009 11:22 AM

Ok Chesu, so... i've always been wretched with back sprites... and after three hours of farting around with this, i have something presentable... by no means am i saying that this is ready to go into a game, but it's a start!

So, as you know, i LUV my fakemon Milodos. My alltime favorite!
http://i.imagehost.org/0468/milodos_kenji_tips.png

using your method of flipping the sprite and enlarging it, i then redid the outline, entirely whited out the portions, and reshaded the sprite... i started with the neck portion, then did the tail portion second...
http://i.imagehost.org/t/0980/milodos_backsprite_compositioin.jpg

So then i just layered the tail onto the neck portion, and voila! (It's coiled up near it's base, so that is why the tail is so close to the neck...
http://i.imagehost.org/0889/milodos_backsprite.png

Now, i know that the shading is still VERY CHOPPY and boxcut. There are also alot of jagged points, but still, how would you rate this?

Thanks!

Spherical Ice October 27th, 2009 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 5265003)
Hrm... Would anyone be interested in a tutorial on FR/LG-style establishing shots? An establishing shot is something used in film to introduce the audience to the setting of a scene, before focusing on the characters.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Misc/vforest.png

Even though it looks like a big, complicated image, it's actually pretty simply-drawn, and uses the same number of colors as Pokemon and trainer sprites. So, would anyone here be interested in a tutorial on the subject, or is it too obscure?

gogogo nao kthnx

I'd love a tutorial on one of them, if not for my hack then just to be able to stand back and look at it. :3

Laidjon* October 27th, 2009 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spherical Ice (Post 5265914)
gogogo nao kthnx

I'd love a tutorial on one of them, if not for my hack then just to be able to stand back and look at it. :3

Same + People can also make their own titlescreen since it's also a 16 colour pallete!
I would love to read your explenations and words of wisdom in this tutorial :P

~Kian~ October 27th, 2009 12:44 PM

not only that ^^^^ but also battle backgrounds thats 3 skills in 1 it would help a lot please consider doing it :?

~kian

Chesu October 27th, 2009 1:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by = GPR = (Post 5265825)
http://i.imagehost.org/0889/milodos_backsprite.png

There are also alot of jagged points, but still, how would you rate this?

Lookin' good! The outline does look really bumpy, especially on the neck, but that's not a sticking point as the sprite isn't finished yet. There is, however, one problem with the design itself. Where the tail originates at the bottom of the sprite is way too close to the visible potion of the body... The body is too thick to twist enough to pull off that pose, so it seems like the sprite below what's visible is being squished. You should move the base of the tail as far to the left as you can.


Quote:

Originally Posted by all of you
OMG YES ESTABLISHING SHOTS DO IT DO IT NOW

Wow, I wasn't expecting to get much of a response... and especially not such a positive one! Alright then, I'll get to that when I have the time.

BlueShuckle October 28th, 2009 6:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chesu (Post 5265003)
Hrm... Would anyone be interested in a tutorial on FR/LG-style establishing shots? An establishing shot is something used in film to introduce the audience to the setting of a scene, before focusing on the characters.


Even though it looks like a big, complicated image, it's actually pretty simply-drawn, and uses the same number of colors as Pokemon and trainer sprites. So, would anyone here be interested in a tutorial on the subject, or is it too obscure?

I like it, I think it would be neat to learn how do create scenes like that.

0m3GA ARS3NAL October 28th, 2009 5:16 PM

It would be nice to see a quality guide on establishment shots. It would add a sense of professionalism to pokemon hacks around the net.

Go on ahead, you have my support.

Chesu October 28th, 2009 6:03 PM

I think I'll cover three locations in the tutorial... A building viewed from the base, an interior shot of a forest, and an exterior shot of a cave.

edit: I've started work on the first part, the building. Everything in the image below is from scratch, and I'll go into detail on how to draw it all in the tutorial.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/6517/temps.png

Here's to hoping the building turns out as good as the background!

Hyperpulse November 5th, 2009 11:29 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Wow, the circle meathod works wonders!
Look at the masterpiece I produced with it!
(In the attatchment)

Chesu November 6th, 2009 6:44 AM

The shading is laid on a little thick around the bottom of the sprite's body, and it looks like it has a foot coming out of its neck, but that aside it's good. It's not often you see a green armadillo! One thing, though... You should try making the eyes a bit rounder.

deeelove November 19th, 2009 8:54 PM

this is awesome! Helps alot!

-MéWtH2- December 5th, 2009 4:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5qwerty (Post 4585813)
Yay! I can't wait for the other tutorials to come out!

Yeah! I'm waiting for more of your tutorials!

Oh, and your tut for trainer amalgamation is awesome!
Thanks a lot!

-MéWtH2- December 6th, 2009 1:15 AM

Help please?
 
1 Attachment(s)
Finally finished with my sprite!
This tutorial is great!

Umm... This may seem off-topic but
can you or someone help me with creating
the back sprite of the sprites I did?

I'll really appreciate the help..
Oh and my sprites are for Fire Red.

The sprites are attached to this post.

Chesu December 6th, 2009 1:58 AM

Try making the back sprite on your own; if you reach an impasse or want an opinion, just post in the showcase/discussion thread.

GFA December 6th, 2009 9:58 AM

My hat is off to you Mr. Chesu, your Pixel Over Tutorial has blown me away. If we could still give you positive rep, I would

Emotion. December 6th, 2009 11:11 AM

This is a good tutorial, it's made me want to try some from scratch, so far I've only done fusions.

Spherical Ice December 9th, 2009 11:45 AM

Support!
 
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff288/Sphericalice/chesusupport1.png
Code:

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You deserve these, Chesu. Great tuts!

Sorry for eye-sore green and yellow. Will change.

Roxas90 December 10th, 2009 3:11 PM

Wow, these tutorials are awesome. I've always admired some of the good custom sprites in ROM hacks, and now I can try my hand at making my own!

Oh, and...YOUNG MAD SCIENTIST DEXTER wants to battle!


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