TIGSource Forums

Hi, I've sprited previously but never got good at it, just dabbled around, mostly did editing, not making my own stuff. I've also drawn and gotten good but never really got far, and stopped a while ago.

I've had a few ideas for games flowing around my head and have wanted to start working on them, while I've yet to find a good engine (looking to make a 2d platformer), and probably won't and end up coding it myself when I learn more C++... I want to learn to sprite again.

So does anyone have any good tips for someone trying to learn from scratch? Right now I have my DS I carry with me which has UAPaint (pretty good DS spriting program!!), GraphicsGale, Photoshop, MSPaint, and a few other programs.

I'm decent at drawing (not sure if I should draw things first and then pixel them, or just pixel right away (what I find very hard to do).

My biggest problems right now are proportions in pixel art, and definition of characters, I draw a head and I don't like it. If I draw rough to get an 'outline' I end up making the head too big for the rest or the body too big for the legs, it bothers me.

I'm mostly looking for good ways to make 2D platforming characters (also backgrounds/blocks but mostly characters).

My only suggestion is playing platformers (or any genre you want to make) and seeing how the graphics are done in a real game. If anything, you should at least be able to pick up a few things, like how sometimes, the player isn't completely sideways, and you'll see a bit more of their chest, etc.

Aside from sort of studying games, maybe read a tutorial (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=74.0) or two. Most of it is just practice, practice, practice, for things like anatomy and shading, but there a few helpful tips that you can pick-up that should help a lot (ie. anti-aliasing).

Thanks, there was a lot of bickering in that thread, but I found a few good tutorials I read before that have really good information.

I guess I'll be staring at a lot of 2d platformers from now on. Good thing I know a few 2DSSMMORPGs I can look at that have a lot of content,  as well as a ton of Sidescrollers I actually play.

Since you're good at sketching, I'd say try painting. Pixel art is just another medium like acrylics or oils or charcoal, it feeds off your central library of anatomy, light, composition, animation, and color theory knowledge. It's more like painting than it is like sketching though. For general art stuff, this tutorial (http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm) by Arne is the best thing I've ever read.

The pixel, however, is pretty much different from other media in terms of execution. It's completely opaque, completely replaceable, and extremely small. For getting to know the pixel, I think you should really read this (http://www.pixel.schlet.net/), which explains some pixel specific stuff. It was originally a ramblethread written by Helm of Pixelation.

Speaking of Pixelation (http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php), that's the best place to go if you want to learn.

Amazing links! A thousand thanks my good sir.

Those are good tips.  I would also recommend looking closely at sprite sheets or screenshots from games.  Here (http://www.retrogamezone.co.uk/index.html) are a few places (http://www.vgmaps.com/) to start. 

(http://www.retrogamezone.co.uk/Sprites/GBA/FireEmblemSheet1.gif)
[from Fire Emblem for GBA]


Bring the sprite sheets into Photoshop or your program of choice, zoom in a bunch and look closely at how the artist created the sprites.  Zoom back out to see how it translates at 100% scale, too.



Goodluck ;D

Thank you for this!  :coffee: