Valk's Projects: 2021 update (Trance) Terra, Fran, Main Vagrant Story cast +more

[azavier]

I love it! Cant wait till its complete

[Valkirst]

Okay, so the first one it is, without the "flowers" hehe. I'll probably make one just for fun. However I won't have time to finish it til a few days from now, gonna go camping! :3 And once Terra is done and I settle on the Portrait I will start working on Fran.

[azavier]

i actually like the one with the flowers better, so feel free to finish that one first ! ha :}

[CONMAN]

I like the looks of both your sprites in this thread Valkirst!  I think Terra holds a special place in the heart for most final fantasy fans- so this is has been a long time coming! (though it has been attempted in the past!)

I lurk waayyyyy more than I actually post on these forums and I have definitely been excited by your posts on what you want to do with this sprite.  I have an "esperella" sprite I have worked on occasionally (forever) that was inspired by Terra's esper form.  I really don't have much art skill so I have trouble critique/help other spriters.  However, I do sort of pride myself on trying to look outside the box to find unique ways to do things.... or more appropriately- I want to know the exact dimensions of the box so I can abuse it fully!

Some of your questions outside of this thread made me pause and want to point you at exactly what you CAN do with this sprite!

Is there a sprite sheet anywhere for Type 1/ Type 2 that will tell me what sprite parts are used for specific animations? I am currently working on Terra and have wondered if it was possible to have it so that when casting a spell I could change her animations to Morph
For example the boxes checked on Patcher are 8,11,13,14 which gives you a value 01 2C 00, I want to try to manipulate it so that only when casting does her sprite change to her Morphed form. If it isn't possible, then oh well!

This was a great thought that could ALMOST be pulled off, but would cause unwanted side effects.  Tinkering with the upraised arms used in spell casting would allow you to change the face/upper body of your sprite, but these same arm motions are used for the jumping frames.....  I think a few pictures could illustrate what I'm trying to show you.  Ironman below has spell/jump arm frames with another head attached in order to change the eyes.

All kinds of little manipulations can be done by playing inside the individual sprite frames (I believes Xifanie created a reasonable human template below showing exact dimensions).  I once attempted to give my esper super saiyan style lightening effects by attaching them to the walking frames.  It could have been done better, but it could be done.  Or someone could generate a halo effect around a characters head by properly imposing it on the arm frames.

Other frames can also be used for unique looks that drastically change what a sprite is capable of.  Dead and Critical frames can be totally unique as seen in the awesome succubus sprite (honestly the sweet wings could have been used on the blocking frames as well).  Blocking and singing frames allow for something like 75% freedom on what kind of frame is seen in game....about the only thing they won't cover on the standard sprite is it's feet.....take a look!  I honestly believe a spriting wizard could create a cool force field effect for blocking or ...something.  Check out the size of that box-frame on female summoner! 

At the end of the day, you could make an entirely normal Terra sprite with the top half of your sheet and use the bottom half as a transformed version for all attack frames (as long as it simply shares the exacted same palette).

Speaking of which.... I have on a few occasions wondered if some attack-arm-frames might be used for the simple punching motions but not weapon strikes.  The standard goblin/skeleton/squid monsters are designed for punches but not weapons.  This makes me feel like it might be possible to have otherwise normal sprites (like say monk) have a fireball punch or some such shit on their actual sheet.

Basically what I have now, is my Character Terra Performs Shiva, which I have changed to Morph and she jumps in the air, but she keeps being prompted to perform another action when her turn comes up off screen. kind of killing the suspense of when she does perform the "Diamond Dust" or how I have renamed it "Terra's Ascension" giving the illusion that Terra has transformed. I basically just want to do the Morph, she flies up into the air and I don't see or hear from her until she performs the "Summon"

I wish I could help you on this.  I grinned when I saw you post this because I did a similar thing with my esperella in game.  I gave her the disappearing animation and linked it with the salamander summon (summoners don't need 2 fire attacks).  However, I gave it no range (normal area of effect), lowish power and made it very fast to avoid having to wait a turn....

Sorry if I derailed/sidetracked your topic, but I felt your enthusiasm for this work to be very refreshing!

[Valkirst]

Haha, wow thank you so much, those are great ideas so I took something you said to heart. I think there are a lot of things we can modify and thank you so much for the sprite sheets they are really gonna help me out! So here are two versions of Terra on where she morphs and flashes and a regular one. I really need more sets of eyes on these as I find myself in my own head I am probably missing some things.

I will try to come up with some new ideas, maybe I can conjure something up with the Morphing that isn't so static looking, on that note Con, or anyone else can you give some pointers on the Terra Morph Animation? Should she just be morphed without the fluctuations? Or do they give the proper effect?

[Lijj]

That looks so awesome! I like the pastel blue palette.

[Seushiro]

On the whole sprite sheet 1st (Left facing) and 3rd frame (Front Facing) look a bit derp and rectangle faced. Please do curve the face by adding depth.

[Valkirst]

Thanks! I really appreciate all the feed back, and I updated the two formation sprites Seushiro, I did have problems with the third front facing sprite, I just needed some new eyes on these to spot things I overlooked or have a bias on.  Anyhoww they're updated with the palettes

[Angel]

A couple observations: the facing up (back toward us) frame ponytail is lacking in volume compared to the others, and the far right side very bottom ponytail on the sheet doesn't match the others; it still looks like a Balmafula lift (as do the up facing getting hit frame and down facing KO frame). The midway down the sheet, second from the right is kind of in the same situation, albeit much less so. I almost feel bad mentioning that one, since it's actually still quite nice.

I really can't find fault in anything else. Everywhere else my eyes turn, I'm just impressed. This is beautiful, beautiful work!

[Choto]

We almost have a full FF6 stable of sprites!

[Kagebunji]

I was about to give some crits, but then I realized there is so much of it, that it would be easier to just make the edits myself. I hope you don't mind. Overall the depth and whole body shape wasn't right, which you can see once you paste over my edits. Her waist was much too slim, hair had some funny shading, whites could be better(I only darkened the darkest white a little bit) but I didn't have the time to search for some real good ones, arms shading was off, her chest was unproportional to rest of the body, and legs were too slim too. Feel free to use it any way you want. I would advise toying with the palette a bit more. Remember to use only existing FFT colors, that way you have 100% guarantee it will look right in-game.

[Angel]

Sorry, that hair is way too yellow. It would be too yellow even in a portrait.

[Kagebunji]

Yeah, palette overall could use better colors, didn't do it though, since that's something rather easy. Just use some existing colors from FFT, Valkrist.

[Valkirst]

So let me start off by saying that I am working on fixing some of the shadowing with the edits that you gave me Kage, they're a really helpful. To that point I completely agree with you on a lot of things (which is why I put it up, to get a critique) So the things I didnt agree with is the edit you did on her chest with the red pixel looking like its sticking up, possibly to give her more of a bust I imagine?? I just do not agree with that, Terra is not very buxom and she is a very thin, waif like character, however re-proportioning her chest worked well to my end and with the light widening of her face, it just looks so awkward to me. The hair tie is not a bow, and the dress is not linked to her gloves so there should be some sort of separation there betwixt the dress and gloves in the chest area with the cape gingerly wrapping around her shoulders and collar bone.  Anywho, I will get to work on that a bit today so that when I put them in I will put it up!

Okay so I guess I am having a hard time understanding what the proper palette is for FFT as I don't think that necessarily matters since I am creating Terra from other sources, mainly from Dissidia. I am all for creating from within parameters. however testing her in game she doesn't seem to clash with anything that is happening, in the game. Besides Terra herself does have a colorful palette and that is part of the fun as she is not of the FFT world. (Which is why I took the Cloud that was on the website, he looked more true to character, for me and my particular sensibilities)

Having said that, I am experimenting with Weigraf's Temple Knight red as it's oranges still keep it vibrant. And as for the Yellow, Toshiko that is just an alt costume based on the various incarnations of Terra. As for the colors though at the end of the day, again looks fine in game to me, but I imagine that at some point short of technique in shading etc. we are all simply discussing subjective notions of what we each think a particular character should or shouldn't look like or what the proper colors should be. Regardless, I am the noob here, so I don't purport any finality here, as I am still definitely in need of a lot of improvement.

[Angel]

And as for the Yellow, Toshiko that is just an alt costume based on the various incarnations of Terra.

I was referring to Kage's edit, not any of your work, just to be clear. Were I demonstrating with an FFT-approved palette, I would have pulled from, say, the Link sprite used in Jot5 for the green in her hair.

Edit: Nevermind, I see he pulled it from one of your alts. I am a derp. *skitters away*

[Celdia]

Oh, look. Kage gave something bigger tits. Shock and awe.

I love how this sprite concept is developing. Having not played Dissidia I wasn't aware of her palette swap there but I like how it looks as a sprite. Would like to see that one worked out with Kage's edits at some point.

[Kagebunji]

Oh, look. Kage gave something bigger tits. Shock and awe.

Haha, what can I say. Guilty! Hahaha.

[Valkirst]

Well it has been so long since I posted something on here... almost a year. Life tends to happen I guess. Anyway here is some work I did on Terra. The reds have been changed to FFt colors but the last one the hair is also changed. Of course there might still be things that need to be fixed. If I can get a new set of eyes on this, that would be great.

[Jumza]

I like it! A++ work for sure. And welcome back, of course

[Lijj]

Nice custom boots! Yay another sprite with heeled boots.