Amici's sprites

[Amici]

Now I know the motto on this forum is do it yourself, and believe me when I say my Photoshop skills are more than apt for copying and pasting Ramza's head on the custom Balbanes sprite on this site. I've hit a snag though, I can never fix the palette. Can anyone fix the palette for me on the BMP file? I can figure out how to use those palette programs to save my life, so far I've been able to replace 4 poses but still unsure to push thru since I dunno if I can even use it in the end. Any tips on how to go about it?

Finished sprites (as of 09/09/2015)
[attachment=1:2toghva7]ramzabalbanes.bmp[/attachment:2toghva7]
[attachment=0:2toghva7]Dante V3.0 FINAL.bmp[/attachment:2toghva7]

[Cheetah]

If you are using photoshop, when you convert the file to BMP (save a copy not your original) you can set the number of colors and it will auto reduce. From the preview you can see how it is turning out and essentially start deleting/combining colors by hand. I always use GraphicGale for the final touches to the palette though to get it working in ShiShi. Generally I will o some test frames to insure that I have a palette that is working and move forward, but not do all this stuff till I'm close to done.

PS: Post previews and we are always happy to help.

[Jon]

Post what you have done, I think anyone on here can help you if its not me

[Amici]

Well this sucks, I think I've lost all my previous work    I've only a BMP of when I replaced just one pose.

[Kyousukeee]

@Amici
Though you said you are good with PS and palette editor programs , try to use Graphics Gale , you can set layers and easily view/edit the palette used ; and when you copy and paste something from another file GG will try to fit the palette of the copied part to the new file ( if you copy a red part and paste it in another file that has no red in the palette it'll turn the red into another color and so on ) .

The image you posted had more than 16 colors ( max color used for sprites ) and I tried to fix it . You can only use one row of colors for the palette , if you are making more palettes ( like the generics characters ) , do not mix one row with the other . The first 8 rows are used for the sprite alone and 9~ on are used for the portrait only . BTW the image you posted has no palette for the portrait , if you upload it into the game and see a weird portrait or just a black box , that's 'normal' ; you can read a tutorial in the site that will teach you how to add portraits into sprite sheets .

I used Ramza's ( purple armor ) head to sample a few head positions ( Sorry I'm too lazy to do it all ). You can use that file as a layer , just set the background color to black and include transparency .

Good luck with you sprite =)

[Jon]

Looks like Kyousukeee just did all the work except for the singing poses. If this was my sprite, I would be happy

Hey listen, everyone on here by now probably knows about Mari's FFTEVGRP undertaking of the Portraits/Menu Icon, maybe someone should do a "heads" thread, just to speed the head swapping process up. Maybe I could do it, but my computer is working against me :\ oh well...just an idea.

[GeneralStrife]

oh and mari if you're reading this....you're missing a few like advent children cloud....i appreciate the convenient thread btw

[Mari]

oh and mari if you're reading this....you're missing a few like advent children cloud....i appreciate the convenient thread btw

I know, I have the last of them ready to be worked on. I've just been devoting my free time to New Vegas since it came out.

[GeneralStrife]

Me too....i love it....some great mods out for it too already. PC FTW

[Amici]

Oh wow cool this is great Kyousukeee! Thanks

As for Graphics Gale, I've tried that, but I'm having a difficult time using it since I'm used to the Layers system of Photoshop. How do you use Layers there? I'm not very good at actual drawing and creating of art/sprites, but I'm pretty good at imitating and manipulating. And I'm not good at palette editor programs, I think I made a typo there. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when I'm dealing with those palette programs.

[Cheetah]

Just use Graphics Gale for doing the final color reduction, do all your spriting in photoshop.

[Kyousukeee]

@Amici
Open a file in GG , in the "layer window" select the arrow symbol , and ADD

spoiler

It'll open a new window with the layer properties , select TRANSPARENT to add transparency .

spoiler

The color you pick here will be transparent in the specific layer , just don't forget to pick one color in the row you are using or you'll have more than 16 colors in the spritesheet . 100% black ( 0/0/0 ) is the transparent color , if you change it to 0/0/1 , it'll appear black in game .

If you are copying parts from another file it is a good idea to save the palette somewhere and make all the other rows black to avoid GG using the colors in the other rows .

If you want to save the file with layers to continue later , save it as .GAL , if you save as .BMP or other extension all visible layers will be merged in the background .

[Amici]

Thanks for the helpful tips everyone So here is my first output, any comments on the palette, and the sprite itself? Can't figure out how to fix the areas where Balbanes' beard and ponytail used to be.

[Jon]

I have the answer for that, its real easy: get Smash's Cavalier and imitate the armor but with the black colors of this sprite. Cavalier and Balbanes have the same armor. Erase any floating white gray hair pixels.

[thechancellor]

Haha. I was watching this thread to see how the head swap would be pulled off. I really like Balbanes' armor. It's just that the ponytail and beard were a hassle to work with. Thanks for the tip Jon. Gonna see if I can do a Beowulf head swap.

[Amici]

@Jon: Thanks for that tip, I'm able to fix some weird pixels flying around in the armor in some animations. Here's my latest fix, I'm wondering if someone can take a look at it in Shishi's animation thingy and look at some of the weird animations I'm seeing. Unfortunately I'm at a loss on what to do. I've also attempted to put in the portrait from MiKeMiTchi's Ramza sprite, which resulted in utter failure.

[ffta707]

@Jon: Thanks for that tip, I'm able to fix some weird pixels flying around in the armor in some animations. Here's my latest fix, I'm wondering if someone can take a look at it in Shishi's animation thingy and look at some of the weird animations I'm seeing. Unfortunately I'm at a loss on what to do. I've also attempted to put in the portrait from MiKeMiTchi's Ramza sprite, which resulted in utter failure.

Good job on this sprite, it looks really good.

[Amici]

@ffta707: Hey thanks! But I really haven't done anything here except follow instructions, be meticulous, and take advantage of the fantastic-looking sprites in this community I dunno how to fix the portrait though, and the other weird pixels flying around.

[Wolfran]

Maybe if you change the arms or change the colours it'll be a better sprite. I'm glad you started spriting

[Kagebunji]

Such headswaps are good practice, makes beginner learn basics of spriting etc. But in all honesty, it's not worth submitting, it's still just a headswap. If you get more used to spriting, try doing some custom parts or good copy/paste.

Maybe if you change the arms or change the colours it'll be a better sprite.

Hell no, stay away from arms. With your experience ATM, it would result in utter failure