Final Fantasy Hacktics

Current Projects in order of priority:

Project for Elric - about 50% complete

Flan Sprite

1 Headed Dragon

new panther animation

the shading is scary, im not sure what you did, you need to take colors from existing sprites.

I think rafa looks better in a dress, I always hated her and malak's sprites, even more than mustadio's. At least he had cool hair.

Yeah... it's a shading mess I know.. It was literally me changing whatever colors on the palette I wanted with no rhyme or reason. I'm slightly colorblind too so that may contribute to poor shading :P

look at similiar sprites and how the shading is done...and the colors and the ratio between the brightest and darkest...and dont over pillow-shade

I couldn't look at the three layers on the palette (and 31 colors used) and not at least try to clean it up. I dropped it to 4bpp and just tried to clean up a bit from there without changing the colors that were still being used too much. I did try to fix the eyes a bit as some were blue and purple and others were grey/white. This is currently at 14 colors used.

Thanks for the advice Generalstrife, 'ppreciate it!

Thanks Celdia, a little color swappin and the palette is set.

I'll work on her for awhile and see if I can get the hang of it.

Mmm ugly pallete, but the dress is a great idea.
I think this new Rafa will need a new portrait, I hate the current one.

This is a decent concept. The problem appears to be that you are not using a good transition colors for the palette. One of your darker shades of the purple is way too saturated and makes it look fugly even though the shading may actually be proper. Get your colors from existing sprites. This is Rulte #1 of FFT spriting.

Here's another sprite I started after getting advice from you guys. I tried following the "rules" alot more with this one ^_^. To me it seemed to work out much better than Rafa so far, what do ya'll think?

The head is looking weird on the body, since it is soo bulky, try giving him Samurai arms too. As to Rafa, use Female Time mage purples, and Teta or Alma as a reference for shading, this shoul help you.

I like that rafa idea, makes me think of a gypsy lol. of course the colors arent right but once you fix that...

This is also a good looking sprite. The color choice is really nice for the samurai. I would recommend changing the helmet just a little to make it even more original. Maybe something like this, and then this character could be like the lead samurai:

(http://www.samurai-swords-for-sale.com/store/images/T/oda-nobunaga-samurai-helmet.jpg)

Thanks for the feedback guys :)

Here's the samurai with more samurai-like arms. I didn't want them to be blocky like the stock samurai armor, so I tried to round them up a little. Also tried to render something like Nobunaga's helmet that Cheetah suggested:

Question: Is it a no-no to post the whole spritesheet? just wondering

It is generally fine to post the entire sprite sheet, but if you are only making a few changes to the key frames it is usually best to just post those so people know what you are changing.

The new arms look good, but I'm not sure they fit with the sprite as a whole. I actually preferred the straight Zalbagg sprite look. That new addition to the helmet will be tough. You might want to look at some monster sprites for some horns or other body bits that might be easy to translate. Just google samurai helmet and you will get a variety of options.

I'm with Cheetah on the arms - go with the Zalbag ones over the Samurai ones. Try to give the sprite some other defining detail like a new design on the cape or on the hem of the tunic. I do like your first take on the helmet 'horns'.

I love the idea of the Samurai Helm on Zalbag Body, and honestly, I prefer it with the Samurai arms.  It gives him a really interesting and still clearly armored aesthetic, and makes him look properly filled out.  The Zalbag arms just look weird to me, they're far too scrawny given the head.  Zalbag Body + Samurai Head/Arms + Commander Horn would look great personally.

I'm tellin ya man this is the money shot.

Don't take this the wrong way, but shit looks ridiculous.  :(

Then again I really dislike the male Ronin/Parivir's arms to begin with on the same idea of "shit looks ridiculous", tossing that funky huge helmet on it just makes the shit look even more ridiculous.

No offense, :p

Without Samurai arms the Zalbag body doesn't match with helm at all. Too bulky, especially on back frames, Samurai arms are a must here. And good luck with the helm!

Seems like we have split opinions ^_^

I'm most likely gonna use this sprite for a berserker unit, which I want to be a little more armored... Honestly I may just see them both through and see which I like better. I can definitely see both sides' arguments. The helm will take some work, if it causes too much of a problem I may scrap it, but we shall see!

I was never a big fan of the parivir arms either. I thought they were a cape or something at first, but to each his own :P

it took like 30 seconds, I know it looks bad. but paravir looks more like a samurai wearing whatever it is they call that than DEB

This one's been quick and easy so far... Elidibs' hat on a priest's body. I hope to put some more customization into it as I feel it looks kinda bland as is. I really need to get away from blue/purple colors

Yeahh....you really need to work on the colors.

I personally think those colors aren't too bad. They clash a bit too much though. The hat looks decent on the priest body, though.

Quote from: Tyler on September 16, 2011, 03:40:59 pm
I personally think those colors aren't too bad. They clash a bit too much though. The hat looks decent on the priest body, though.

No, these colors look horrible. Need to stick to FFT colors.

Well they are actually taken from FFT palettes, I just keep finding myself messing with blues. At first I was thinking of making all of the player's palettes blue to make you feel like you had your own army, but it may be too uniform.

Crazy purple or whatever it is, doesn't mix with blue.

I'm sure but I think DeadManWalking did something like this long time ago.

Quote from: Wolfran on September 16, 2011, 04:49:07 pm
I'm sure but I think DeadManWalking did something like this long time ago.

I don't know if DeadMan ever did, but Saigas finished Arcanist, which is basiclly identical concept to this one. His Arcanist is all black and has no symbols though.

Where can I see those? Maybe I can make mine different than theirs... I actually have trouble seeing blues and purples, I didn't even notice the hat was different until halfway through XD

If you have trouble seeing those colours, perhaps you should try to stick with palettes of red and green? Then once you are done with the sprite, do a palette swap with blues/purples.

Thats a good idea twin, i didn't think about doing that. Maybe I should explain myself too, for right now i'm just kinda posting rough ideas. I wanted to get some feedback to see if what I'm doing is on the right track or get some tips from accomplished spriters. Eventually I'm gonna see all these sprites through to completion for use in my patch, but right now i'm just throwing ideas out there and seeing what people think.

With that said, anybody ever run into something like this happening? I'm thinking the lower frames might have gotten messed up in layers or something... It appears to be normal when I open it in GG, but in shishi it has that wierd blend in it.

It happens often, for various reasons(moslty happens when the ISO is patched improperly). However I don't know why it might be happening if you just import it, maybe try another ISO and see if something is different.

Here is an update on some of the sprites i've been messing with. I discovered palette editor which helped a ton in getting closer to "FFT" colors.

Warlord - After trying to put in samurai arms and customize them into wrapping around his arm, I found out that Ramza's arms fit like a glove :). For now I think i'm gonna remove the helmet horns and finish it up, then maybe one day i'll tackle that monster...

Archon - He's pretty much how he was, just with some better colors. To me it still seems like the the violet is a little too radiant.

Hell Knight - This is just me messing with turning a skeleton into a "human" based character so he can equip some items and make him into a little mini-boss event. It should be noted that in making him a human and giving him innate:undead, it'll turn his whole palette a bit darker and violet-ish.

These basic sprites are a great practice I must say. Keep doing these and in time you will be doing custom work without bigger problems!

Thanks Kage! Do you still think the helmet looks bulky with Ramza's arms? The first frame reminds me of megaman XD

i really like the warlord and the hell knight, tho in my non-spriter opinion, i say keep the horns on the warlord

Well school's been as busy as boot camp this semester, so I haven't had much time to play around, but here are 2 things: Some trials at the warlord helmet, and some very basic concept stuff for some of the other classes. They are nothing to write home about right now, I'd like to put some more uniqueness into them and go past simple swaps.

Class Concept:

Engineer                                Male Archon
Female Archon                        Male Warlock
Female Valkyrie/Lancer

Choto, if you fill out a whole spritesheet for that Female Archon I'll use it as the replacement for the Female Alchemist in CCP.

Also your Male Warlock makes me think of Shadax from Solstice...

cool, that should be easy.. hopefully i'll get some time to finish it up sooner than later.

I see the resemblance. I feel like that sprite is so bland as is, I gotta think of something to add in..

You seem to have screwed the resizing, but that isn't what's most important, soo...

Engineer, I definitly like this concept, Monk's body goes well with those legs. I can't see anything that should be changed other than hair, Monk is good, but not for another class, here is the portrait for an Engineer I found some time ago and thought I would keep it, since I like it.(look at the bottom of the post for it)

Male Archon, seems like a basic headswap to me. Pants are blending in with the cape, since they use similiar solors, try some more contrast there.

Female Archon, Compared to Male, she looks way better. Reis dress goes nicely with Chemist's body as well. However I think you lost one shade on the dress(it should have 4 blues, you have 3), I would have to check Reis original sprite to be certain about it though.

Male Warlock, like I said earlier, it's almost identical to the Arcanist Saigas made some time ago. Will try to find it and post here.

Female Valkyrie/Lancer, has potential but you need to change few things. Mainly the armor, it's bery basic(simple round shape), an it's flat, which makes look even worse. If you really want it to be a round armor, use Male Squire's(without changes). The helmet is changing on few frames(once you used male Lancer, other time you use Male Lancer), I advise that you decide on only one, lol. Overall I think it is a little flat in few places(armor, brown thing on her back, shoulder pad on some frames), maybe it is the fault of the contrast.

Hope this helps.

Quote from: Kagebunji on October 13, 2011, 08:05:31 am
You seem to have screwed the resizing, but that isn't what's most important, soo...

Definetly did, I still can't find the correct way to resize in GG without doing the ol' click and move.. I also didn't rectify any of the palettes while swapping stuff, so I'm sure I lost a color or two on some of them. My plan was to get a concept then go back and do the full swaps with the correct palettes. I didn't know about Reis' robe though I'll definetly check that.

Quote from: Kagebunji on October 13, 2011, 08:05:31 am
Engineer, I definitly like this concept, Monk's body goes well with those legs. I can't see anything that should be changed other than hair, Monk is good, but not for another class, here is the portrait for an Engineer I found some time ago and thought I would keep it, since I like it.(look at the bottom of the post for it)

Ya I was gonna try to make the hair a little smaller, my abilities with custom hair are limited though, I'll give it a run at some point.

Quote from: Kagebunji on October 13, 2011, 08:05:31 am
Male Archon, seems like a basic headswap to me. Pants are blending in with the cape, since they use similiar solors, try some more contrast there.

This one i'm looking for a direction to go to make it a little more unique or different.. I'm not even too thrilled with the mediator hat.

Quote from: Kagebunji on October 13, 2011, 08:05:31 am
Male Warlock, like I said earlier, it's almost identical to the Arcanist Saigas made some time ago. Will try to find it and post here.

Thanks, I was interested about that when I heard about it.

Quote from: Kagebunji on October 13, 2011, 08:05:31 am
Female Valkyrie/Lancer, has potential but you need to change few things. Mainly the armor, it's bery basic(simple round shape), an it's flat, which makes look even worse. If you really want it to be a round armor, use Male Squire's(without changes). The helmet is changing on few frames(once you used male Lancer, other time you use Male Lancer), I advise that you decide on only one, lol. Overall I think it is a little flat in few places(armor, brown thing on her back, shoulder pad on some frames), maybe it is the fault of the contrast.

The main thing I wanted to accomplish with it was to get rid of the battle skirt... I never liked it. The female lancer's helm was always a little underwhelming, so I started to swap it with the male's helmet. Even though they're the same, it'll give her a little edgy look hopefully. I'll definetly try to clean up the armor and leather back..thing... Or maybe try some different armors.

I'll try to apply most of these changes when I get the time to. I really appreciate the feedback though, definetly helps alot, thanks!

ahhh K, it's been awhile. This is a sprite I finished up for Celdia. It was kinda hastily finished towards the end so it may have some imperfections, but with the spriter's approval i'd like to officially submit my first sprite :) The palettes after the first one were just kinda thrown together to get some more palettes in.

Also I'm having a pretty big issue with the portrait. I was just going to use the chemist's port, but through the whole process of rectifying the colors, the portrait is now choosing the wrong colors. I tried reimporting the original palette colors for the chemist's portrait but its still all whacky.

Good to see you are still at it. Keep it up, and grats on finishing your first sprite!

Send it over to Site Submissions, Choto. I'll hopefully have an update of CCP today or tomorrow with her loaded into it. ^_^

e: Just noticed your note about the portrait. If you like, I'll fix it up and submit it on your behalf.

BEHOLD, Evolutionary ancestor of hydra with an increased wingspan and (hopefully) the preferred mount of ancient dragoon knights! The 1-headed dragon!

$5 per ticket to booth.

Just throwing this up as a future project for fun. Once I finish up my project for Elric and the Flan, this'll probly be next...

Maybe call them Wyverns to differentiate from the classic dragons? I like how it looks for a concept, but front wing there looks like its shoulder-joint is coming out of the center of the beast's chest as opposed to from the side.

I have something for you. If you are not interested in this, do tell, I will give crits to your Wyvern then.

i've been waiting reeeally long for this XD

Hehe, thanks Kage... I actually have that and was looking at expanding on it down the road as well ^_^. I'd like to see where this goes first though. This was just an initial rough-concept for fun. I have to see what to do with the belly/chest, legs, and as Celdia mentioned the shoulder and wing expansion. Thanks Celdia i hadn't really noticed that.

I didn't want to call it Wyvern actually because I knew smash's wyvern concept existed. I'd rather call original dragons Drakes, and this one a dragon. I suppose drake kinda fits for this one too... so maybe i'll call it that for now. Hold your crits till i get some time to dive into it though cause its just a rough concept atm.

That is pretty sweet looking.  I don't know how the hack to ride non chocobos actually looks in game and I have never bothered to give it a try.  I would love to see some dragonish creature as proper mount- perhaps on a chocobo sprite sheet.

my thread lives! Gonna join in on the recent spriting action. Trying to finish a back facing concept for Umaro and having major challenges with his hair. Also have a couple of version of his front facing noggin.. not sure which is the best fit.

I guess I got the FF6 bug and wanted to give the ghost that joins your party at the phantom train some love. I think he's got a bad case of the pillow shades though.

If anybody feels like playing with one or both of them feel free!

Your concept is already good so carry on with it for Umaro. I just adjusted the color to be similar to one of your references. As for the ghost can you try gaffy's hood on it as the head?

Sorry Seushiro, I'm looking for more of a stringy look on his hair. More beastly. Also I'm trying to stick to FFT-colors (I used Rafa's whites and blues), as it's always been suggested by the spriting guru's here.

Got him walking for now, just noticing the flashing on his feet and arms though. I'm still at a standstill at his back facing concept.. the dimensions just don't seem right. Added some detail on the ghost

Those arms are pretty damn convincing. I feel like maybe the left arm is swinging out when it should be swinging in on its farthest back frame. I know you mentioned flashing; that left hand looks disconnected when it's behind the body. I think everybody who knows who Umaro is would recognize it immediately.

That is one shaggy, beefy yeti.

Good to see things animated now. Why not continue with the shaded part on the feet? That way at least it won't switch from light to dark pixels at an instant and will look whole during animation. Keep it up Choto :)

Quote from: Choto on April 08, 2014, 08:48:39 pm
*snip*

Loving it. Very awesome >: D (<3 FFVI)

Looks great Choto, don't forget about the black colour though (In my opinion the most essential colour)!

Thanks Twin and others for the crits, could you elaborate on the black color? Or do you mean the background on the gif's and you're just messing :P

Also, I never knew about the two over two down things with arms. Are there any other conventions like that that are a good rule of thumb?

Made slight progress on the back concept but I'm still a bit put off with it... back concepts are always 1000000 billion times harder than fronts for some reason.

Yeah sure. Pretty much every all FFT sprites use the colour #282828 or #282820 as the darkest colour (the black). You said you used Rafa as your palette reference so if you look at her eyes and her hands you will find it :P. It is hardly used on her though, the only other place is on her feet.

Quote from: Twinees on April 11, 2014, 12:03:31 pm
Yeah sure. Pretty much every all FFT sprites use the colour #282828 or #282820 as the darkest colour (the black). You said you used Rafa as your palette reference so if you look at her eyes and her hands you will find it :P. It is hardly used on her though, the only other place is on her feet.

oh! I get what you're saying, now. I thought you meant the background >.>

Little update with some animations. Sheet is filling out a bit. I feel ok about the back concept, but his butt and lower back still bother me a little. Also shading his left side when his arms are up seemed a little pillowy to me.

Still needs quite a bit of work but it's coming along steadily. Luiakyn Idk how you work so quickly and knocked that giant out :P

The dark purple dots on the top most part of the head has to go. They will not blend in game but rather float right out cause of the color difference.

Haha awesome stuff. Just maybe watch out for some frames where his is getting chopped off (I'm not sure if you'll be able to fix that due to size constraints though)
I'm not a big fan of the purple following the grey though, but its great that you are shading with a good amount of colours so you can swap palettes at any time (good thinking :D).

I love the attack animation! Keep it up Choto.
& the palette does seem out of place with that purple shade.

Attack animation is indeed awesome, looks really clean. Keep it up man :)

I'm calling the sprite done for now. I probably need to make another cleaning pass and see how it looks in game but he's in a good place now. I started working on the portrait and wanted to post it if anybody wants to get their creative juices flowing. It's only my second portrait so I still need to learn and practice. Now that i look at it I think his head is a bit round on the top. I'm having a hard time finding shades or textures to put in his hair.

Thanks ya'll guru's for your approval :) and good call Seushiro on the hairs!

Also updated the animation post w/ spritesheet

Any reference on this for the portrait? I could try make a rough sketch, though I think its better for me to leave to the pros.

EDIT: Rough sketch

Jimmy please do a rough sketch. I consider you a pro cause of your experience and It is good practice too. It might give that WIP portrait a great shift in direction. I agree with Choto on the creative juices.

Edit: oh you already did... keep it up

Congrats on the sprite completion Choto. Monsters are harder to make than the normal piece by piece sprite. Kudos.

Great job Choto. It's awesome to see that you finished this, Umaro is a great character and you've done a great job. When I'm feeling up to it next I'll have a look through the sprite and tell you some more things about it or I can fix some things that look a bit odd if you want.

I used Jimmy's outlines and came up with this. It still needs a bit of polish but hopefully that helps you out Choto. Its pretty minimal with the colour usage, I think 12 so you can really do anything you want with it :P.

Don't doubt yourself Jimmy, you're a great pixel artist.

From the outline into that hot dang! It is awesome now I wanna see where that will go when Choto adds more details/shadings with the remaining color slots.

*bows and worship Twinees*

Quote from: Twinees on April 23, 2014, 04:10:48 am
Don't doubt yourself Jimmy, you're a great pixel artist.

Also this

Damn you Twinees! That looks great! :P

Quote from: Seushiro on April 23, 2014, 04:27:35 am

Quote from: Twinees on April 23, 2014, 04:10:48 amDon't doubt yourself Jimmy, you're a great pixel artist.

Also this

You both are giving me too much praise. I can (not will) admit that I can sketch, but shading woes me still. :P

I will take this. I will study it. I will not return to civilization until I am one with the portrait. *Heads towards the Appalachian Mountains*

Thanks to both of you. Outlining like that is something I've never been able to do either Jimmy so that definitely helps me to see. I posted the reference I was using below. Twin anything you want to fix feel free, otherwise crits are great. I think the only big thing is that I changed the back-facing legs in the defending/charging/casting poses to have somewhat of a knee and I didn't really cross that over to the walking frames. The jumping frames may be questionable too.

Hell yeah nice Umaro portrait update Twin.

Damn awesome stuff.
Jimmy, I also consider you "one of the pros", for what it's worth : )