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OK, so I did a trace-over trainer. I used this anime art here:
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And came up with this: http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff39/PokeSmell/PokemonRanger_Male_trans.png What can I improve? |
when is the next update coming?
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The next update? Well, that's going to be... ahaha... Well, you see...
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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. |
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 |
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.
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Thanks for the review. What about this pose of Riley I did? http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff39/PokeSmell/trainer083.png |
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! |
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?
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Great tutorial Chesu! This will help me and alot of other people a lot!
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Thanks Haz!
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http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/Chesu/Tutorials/tut4.png |
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 ^^)
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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. |
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 |
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. |
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! |
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 |
thanks for the tut ill post some new sprites ltr
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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!)
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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.
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Btw, Chesu, are you also going to teach us how to make the running frames? 'Cause that would just be plain awesome! =D
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heres the edited version http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2748/omicrow.png
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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. |
With this tut I gonna remake my horrible OW of the girl in purple x')
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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! |
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