Character sprites

Message

Dilly McPickles · #1 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 7:31 am

Does anyone have a technique, or any advice on making Sierra style character sprites? I'm going for the Sierra art-style, like the QG series mostly. I could use some advice. Thanks.

Blackthorne519 · #2 Post by **Blackthorne519** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 3:55 pm

Use MS paint.

Take a Sierra sprite you ripped from a game (via screen cap or some other method.....

Either paint over that OR use that as a model for size, texture, etc. and draw one next to it.

I always zoom in 8x, and have the grid on. It helps.

I start out by drawing an outline all in black, then I add details as they come. First I draw all things like clothes, etc. in one solid color. Then I add shading to it.

I'm not the greatest at this, but this is how I do it. And the more practice you have, the better you'll get. I should be good sometime in 2008, methinks!

I've included an attached JPG to this message. This is of a Sprite I made from scratch during this message. I did this in about 10 minutes, just to give you an idea. When more time is taken, you can have really great results.

Happy Spriting!

Bt

Swift · #3 Post by **Swift** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 4:05 pm

Cool advice, Bt.

Rambaldi0503 · #4 Post by **Rambaldi0503** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 6:00 pm

so THAT'S how QFI sprites are done!

Dilly McPickles · #5 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:13 am

Hey, thanks for the advice blackthorne! Does anyone have any tips or techniques that they use to get the walking motion to look right? Any shortcuts? I have Corel Photopaint 6, and I would appreciate some specific advice using that program as well. Thanks!

Dilly McPickles · #6 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 7:35 am

So here's my first atempt at a sprite. I used this slightly modified burgomeister from QG4 that I made a long time ago as reference for the old wizard. Sorry for the crappy jpg compression quality. What do you guys think?

Rambaldi0503 · #7 Post by **Rambaldi0503** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:30 pm

I like, I like. His shoulders are a little too, I dunno, straight. I feel there should bea slight curve, but other than that, very good. Like the beard!

MuzlakOofmay · #8 Post by **MuzlakOofmay** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 1:56 pm

What resolution is this for? It looks like your image is 4x the size of the original sprite image of the burgomeister.

Dilly McPickles · #9 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 7:15 pm

This is for a game that will use the 600x480 res. Yeah, I just stretched out the burg for this sprite because the wizard needed to be double the detail due to the resolution.

Corby · #10 Post by **Corby** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:44 pm

I'd say it's looks pretty good! I look forward to seeing your game!

Dilly McPickles · #11 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:05 am

Thanks Corby! I look forward to seeing your game, too. Heh heh heh.

Meerbat · #12 Post by **Meerbat** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:02 pm

I have a sprite-related question too.
More like two, actually. Please, bear with me, I have absolutely no AGS experience. I have just drawn some sprites and I want to experiment animating them (actually preferrably not with AGS).
The first question is a more general one, namely, how are the ready sprites animated? Directly in AGS from the different bmp files?
The second one is for Blackthorne, but I am posting it here instead of asking in private, in case other people are interested in the answer.

How do you make the animations in your avatar and signature? Did you first convert to gif files and then used a gif animator?

Thanks in advance,

Meerbat

#13 Post by **navynuke04** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:08 pm

Yes and Yes

AGS will take the individual frames (bmp, pcx, png) and animate them.

To use an animated sprite in your avatar, you'll have to use a gif animator. Most decent gif animators will convert your images from what ever format you are using, so you don't have to take that extra step.

Meerbat · #14 Post by **Meerbat** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:11 pm

Thanks, Navy.
I am off to find a gif animator then

Blackthorne519 · #15 Post by **Blackthorne519** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 12:23 am

Meer,

I use a free program you can download on the net called Easy Gif Animtor. Actually you get a trial and then you can pay, but it's a great little program for animating. You can save the initial frames in any format you want, .bmp,.jpg,.gif etc. .. the program does everything for you! Check it out.

Bt

#16 Post by **navynuke04** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 12:56 am

I use GIF Construction Set Professional. It's a shareware program that is fully functional. You have to register to get rid of the annoying welcome screen.

It's worth a look as well:

http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gifcon.html

MuzlakOofmay · #17 Post by **MuzlakOofmay** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:29 am

With double the resolution, your animations will need MUCH MUCH more detail. I don't even think double the frames would be enough.

I think it's actually a proven fact. Since your eye sees more detail in the sprites, it looks akward to have the same # of frames as a lower resolution game. At the very least, I would design my sprites at the smaller size, then pixel resize them up so that you don't have to spend the extra time on them. Good luck.

Meerbat · #18 Post by **Meerbat** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 9:15 pm

Well, thanks for all the useful advice, guys. I am now ready with my first animation ever. I used GIF Construction Set Professional (Thanks, navy

). As you can see, I also used the smaller version of the sprite, the first one was more like concept art really.
Comments and criticism are welcome, but remember that this was only done for fun, without any serious intentions. Oh, and you have to click on refresh to see it again, I didn't want to loop it...

BD Animation

#19 Post by **navynuke04** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 12:36 am

Meerbat wrote:I used GIF Construction Set Professional (Thanks, navy ).

No problem!

Meerbat · #20 Post by **Meerbat** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:19 pm

OK, sprite animating is fun. I just wanted to post this latest one, but don't worry I am not going to flood the thread with every new one I make

Edit: Made the animation smoother and looped it.

#21 Post by **navynuke04** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:21 pm

So Meerbat, mind if I ask what this sprite is going to be used for?

Gav · #22 Post by **Gav** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:55 am

Please don't take this the wrong way if I'm mistaken, but that guy is supposed to be gay, right?

Dilly McPickles · #23 Post by **Dilly McPickles** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 5:59 am

Also, I think there is something odd about his shorts area. It doesn't look like he's wearing any socks as well.

Meerbat · #24 Post by **Meerbat** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 10:30 am

Navy: I have no plans for him at all, I just read enough threads to think sprite animation was something I could give a try, just for fun. Perhaps the next one I try will be of a totally different character.

Gav wrote:Please don't take this the wrong way if I'm mistaken, but that guy is supposed to be gay, right?

I am afraid I can't answer that question before consulting with the project leader or plot writer of my inexistent and unplanned project

Seriously, he thinks he is too cool for socks. (Socks at the beach? Or maybe his socks are in his shorts

) He thinks he is sexy but he is too narcissistic to realize he looks ridiculous. Maybe he is a bit like Jeff(?) from Maniac Mansion. You guys have to come to Germany to see the enormous crowds of all kinds of people that hang out at the beaches, rivers, lakes, even public parks and every little piece of land where there happens to be grass and sunshine. If you had seen them, you would be glad he has clothes on

Jafar · #25 Post by **Jafar** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:33 pm

but he is too narcissistic to realize he looks ridiculous.

You think he'd know from all the laughs he hears when people see him.