★~Tutorial : Hoenn's Pixel Over Tutorial~★

[Elaitenstile]

★Hoenn's Pixel Over Tutorial★​

★Intro★

So... here I am. I'm Hoenn, you see, with this Pixel Over tutorial. I didn't see any rules for tutorials, just some exception. So I think whatever I'm going to tell you will be allowed. Let's see... this tutorial is for those with the faint of heart who don't find anything outside this site, so I'll just make one for you guys too xD.


★Pixel Overs★

What ARE Pixel Overs actually? Most of you know, yes, but take a difference between these two pictures :

1^st :

2^nd :

(Sorry if the non-transparency annoys you)

Look, the second one is smaller! Also a bit thinner, and non-transparent. So what? This can be easily done with my trusty resize option! That's too easy!

If you thought that I can understand you might be a novice. If you saw the REAL difference, well and good my friend. We can obviously see that the second one is pixelled, and possibly looks like a sprite. This is a result of a Pixel Over.

Now, I usually resize the sprite to my desired size first, and the 'desired size' depends on the use. For example, I resized a Swampert to 130x130 before I Pixel Over'd it because I wanted to use it for my avatar.

NOTE : I would advise you not to use Pixel Over sprites as sprites for wild Pokémon in hacks and games, because they wouldn't look too impressive, and their pose wouldn't fit your use.

★Tutorial★

Okay, so I'll make my prospective choice, which is my image I'm gonna Pixel Over.

This here Staraptor looks impressive, doesn't he? I've taken his Pokémon Conquest Art (On account of me being a HUGE Conquest fan) today. You may take anything.

First things first. I'll resize him (Using MS Paint's resizing tool) to my desired size : 100x104.

I'm using this size because I want him in a portrait, but that's a long story.

Next, I make a second one to his right, and divide them both with a 4-pixel thick green wall. I do this for keeping a shading and shape reference.

See that? That wasn't so hard.

Next, I start defining the palette. I do this and place it in the green wall I made. I start with Black and White, which any sprite cannot be without.

Then, using the eyedropper tool, I pick out good colours, highlights first, then the basic colour, then the shade, and the outline shade. I'm finished with this :

Look here : I'm telling you : Don't make more than 16 colours in total! Black and White including. Also, if you are making it for a Hack ('s titlecreen or something) then you should have 15 colours in total, so as to perfect the indexing.

So next, I'm defining in the outlines. The REAL outlines. So I start by putting in a blue colour over the outlining.

Let's forget the palette for now, please.

... and I'll do that until the whole sprite's outlines are finished. Also, any semi-outlining inside the body can be ignored, because we have a shading reference, but any CLEAR outline should be blued up too.

Next : We'll need to fix the background. I'm sure you all can see the black dots I ignored out of the outlines since they ruin the shape.

I used light pink, because it's close to white, but is still remarkably different.

Now, you can see that after I used the Fill Bucket tool there are still a lot of whites near the outline. So, we'll have to fix them one by one until the whole thing is done.

Next, we do the insides. I use a random colour, say light brown, and paint it over a SPECIFIC colour and ONLY that colour.

I did this using colour eraser.

I finished up the whole place I need to use this.

Then I take another random colour, red, and paint it over another specific. I do this until the whole inside colours have been differentiated.

So huzzah. We finished a part. This sure is a weird Staraptor! (Use these colours for your next recolour!)

This won't do. So I make the blue outline pure black now.

And fill in all the interior colours their respective with reference to the picture on my side. (Use the palette's basic colours)

This Staraptor has hope. But I don't want an unshaded one.
So we put in the shading :

Note that this isn't a shading tutorial, I'm just shading with respect to the image on my right. To know more on the subject, view Chesu's fantastic tutorials.

And the selective outlining (We can remove the cranky image on our right since it isn't useful anymore):

A little dithering doesn't hurt :

Note : Don't go overboard with dithering! They will badly ruin your image if you do!

So the palette isn't needed anymore. And the pink.

Not yet finished. I'm using IrfanView to cut off it's unnecessary colours which I might've overlooked.

And then I finished, with mah majestic transparent image of Staraptor :

Hope yours is as good too.

★Ending Word★

Yah, the Pixel Over is done. Hope you actually understood something. Also, I can note that my method might be different and more tedious than others, but I feel that this one is more foolproof.

If you have any questions, doubts, reports (of errors) and suggestions, you can post them here! (You're increasing your own post count, anyway)

Also, tell me if this stuff is actually good, and if you want another tut like this (Since Chesu doesn't get much free time) or not.

 

[Demon Days]

I like it. However, it's much more effecient to use GIMP and do the outline on a different layer.
I suggest you make a tutorial like that as well as this one.

 

[Silversnk]

I like it. However, it's much more effecient to use GIMP and do the outline on a different layer.
I suggest you make a tutorial like that as well as this one.

PS over GIMP, always. But MS Paint it's more user-friendly than both of them. I like this tutorial it's really simple and covers almost all the basic stuff one needs to know. I'll bring an outcome soon!

 

[Demon Days]

PS over GIMP, always. But MS Paint it's more user-friendly than both of them. I like this tutorial it's really simple and covers almost all the basic stuff one needs to know. I'll bring an outcome soon!

The problem with PS, however, is that it costs $700. GIMP is free.

 

[Silversnk]

The problem with PS, however, is that it costs $700. GIMP is free.

True. But still, for an average spriter MS Paint it's more than enough. Of course, other programs would make the work easier and faster.

Well, here's my quick outcome:

 

[Logiedan]

Impressive tutorial, and quite thorough. I would agree to the people saying layers are much more helpful and time-saving. And GIMP is free so it's the next best thing from MS Paint.

 

[Elaitenstile]

Impressive tutorial, and quite thorough. I would agree to the people saying layers are much more helpful and time-saving. And GIMP is free so it's the next best thing from MS Paint.

GIMP is actually waaaaay better than MS Paint, and yeah, the layers do save a lot of time, especially the erasing the colours thing. But in my own experience, I can say that if you've used a colour on the sprite itself, same layer, then you'll get an actual skill build up, shortening out the edges and straightening the outlines. From my experience of Pixel Overs only I got an outlining skill for scratch sprites. Else Pixel Overs doesn't teach anything at all xD. I opted for the simpler more straightforward one, although this'll take more time.

 

[kinataki]

i made this just for fun using this tut.

yes it is compatible to a rom.

Spoiler:

 

[Elaitenstile]

i made this just for fun using this tut.

yes it is compatible to a rom.

Spoiler:

The stuff looks nice, but you didn't put in anti-aliasing and dithering. Also you could straighten out more outlines. And tweak the selective outlining. Other than that, I think you've put up a good understanding of this tutorial.

(You could use the Showcase Thread for future Pixel Overs)