My first custom sprite!

[Tersius]

I thought I'd share the first custom sprite I have ever done.  It is a simple tweak on the time mage to turn it into a wizard.  What do you think?

I'm still having some problems on getting the portrait right due to the fact that it uses a different palette than the sprites (the wizard is blue, but his portrait shows up as purple).  What is the easiest way to change the portrait palette?  I am using GIMP to make the changes, but for some reason it doesn't like importing the portrait palette.  Even if I could get it to correctly import that, I can't figure out how to export it again so I can load it into the spr file.

[Cyberblade]

I would reccomend getting graphics gale (its free) it shows pallete more easily (well atleast i think so) And then you just have to swap palletes to the portraits pallete edit it and swap back save and import =P

[Vanya]

Hey, thats pretty neat! Good job. You should try doing one with a beard.

[Tersius]

Cyberblade
Wow!  Graphics gale is amazing!  I love it!  I thought I had already found all the graphics tools I need (I use GIMP and paint with a digital sketchpad).  I just might pick up the full version....

One problem though.  It keeps saying the file format is not supported when I try to import the .PAL files I save in Shishi.  Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Vanya
That sounds like a challenge!  I think I'll try to do that.  The beard coloring will be difficult because it is already using all 16 colors.  Any requests or recommendations on beard style / color?

[Cyberblade]

The pallete files dont worry about them.

heres a step by step walkthru of how I do it.

1. Open ShiShi
2. Open .SPR
3. File/Export
4. Open Graphics Gale
5. Open .BMP File Exported from ShiShi
6. Make sure on the View tab on Graphics Gale Pallete and Preview are checked.
7. Edit file
8. Save
9. Import File to .SPR
10. Done

Notes for Graphics Gale

On the Pallete Thing to import Pallettes Just click Load Pallette and select
a BMP to see the palletes already in this file and thats in Dont worry abot
palletes in ShiShi.

[Vanya]

Vanya
That sounds like a challenge!  I think I'll try to do that.  The beard coloring will be difficult because it is already using all 16 colors.  Any requests or recommendations on beard style / color?

I was thinking you could change the red parts to the white color and then use the red colors for the beard.

[Tersius]

Cyberblade
Thanks for the tips on the palettes.  Between that and the Crono sprite thread that is active I was able to figure out exactly how the palettes work.  I've managed to make this one work, but I'll do things differently to make things easier in my next sprites.

Specifically (if anyone cares / wants to verify if what I am thinking is correct):
[explanation]
When you export a bitmap of the sprite, all 16 of the sprite palettes are stacked end to end in that file.  This means color #17 corresponds to the first color in the second sprite palette and color #128 corresponds to the first color in the first portrait palette.  It looks like FFT will take either color #1 or color #128 and interpret that as color #1 in the portrait palette.  In mathematical terms I think it is doing a modulus 15 on all the color numbers in the image and using the result to generate a palette # and a color #.  This would explain why the portrait in my image (as screwed up looking as it is) works just as good as the nice clean looking one in the Crono sprite.  

If this explanation is confusing, download both my sprite and the Crono sprite.  Notice that there are very few strips of color in the Crono sprite, and that #128 is the background tan color.  Then notice that the black / gray spot on the hat in the portrait is color #1 (start counting from 0) and that in Shishi it is light blue.  Next look at my mage image again and notice that color #129 is that same light blue.  (IE 16 colors x 8 palettes + 1 for color #1 = 129)  I wonder if this means special units that only utilize the sprite palette and portrait palette (such as Ramza, Ovelia, and the zodiac monsters) could use this to "cheat" and get more than 16 colors?
[/explanation]

On another note, where can I post the images so I can use the BBCode to embed them in my post?

Vanya
I've got some preliminary work on a bearded wizard now.  What do you think?

[Vanya]

That's a pretty good start! =)
What I'm noticing is that the two colors above the red one are barely being used or not used at all. I think you should use them to give the beard some gradation. The color directly above the red one is used to add some shadow to the eyes. It can be replaced with one of the lighter grays above it. The only other think to consider is the beards of other sprites as bases for yours.
I think it'll turn out great! =)