How do you make sprites ?

Hi,

Im planning to draw my sprite on a sketch pad and transfer it to my computer using a scanner, but I was worrying that the scanner may pixelized my drawing on other words I want a clean output. I'm not good in using photoshop so I want the detail be done by my hands.

I want to know how you make your sprites steps, hardware, program and style.

Thank you!

There are many ways to create sprites. Many different software packages to use too. From Paint, to Flash, to Photoshop, to 3D packages.

If you have a tablet, then the best way for you would be to get used to Photoshop. You'll spend a lot of time cleaning up scans in Photoshop anyway. Plus, you'll have to create transparency so that could take a bit of time to get right by using a scan.

Either way, you'll end up doing a lot of work in Photoshop. For bigger sprites like Street Fighter Alpha and the like, sure it's worth the time, but for smaller sprites (16x16 - 128x128 for example), you're better off just learning to draw in Photoshop from the start.

You'll have automatic transparency if you create your sprites on their own layers.

Of course, you could just do the line art, scan it, and colour it in Photoshop and scale down. Search google for scanning and cleaning up line art.

Once you have your sprite, you can break up the body parts and use something like Spriter to create animations with the body parts. Although, it's best to create the body parts individually from the start (arms on their own layers, legs too, etc).

Hope that helps you get a better idea.

Thats too much information. Thanks proc!

procrastinator made a great post, the frame by frame animation is crucial to learn. I totally suggest everyone at least go over the basics.

Frame by frame animation by hand is a very hard talent to master. I use Blender. It is a free application with lots of online tutorials. If you want to spend a little money Maya and Cinama4D are quite popular too. I think Maya might have a "free" version too. I might be OK to use it for non- commercial games.

If you want to save some money though, or you are just curious about animation in general you might want to give this a try. They have a few free movies they made with it. It is a very serious application.

Blender has a Fluid simulator, and a few tools to break and shatter things.

You can also do some very realistic smoke, and fluid simulations too.

blender.org