Final Fantasy Hacktics

Howdy Hacktics,

Phew, it's been a crippling journey out of retirement, I like to think I was good at this once upon a time. But alas, I've forgotten all of my tricks, this first sprite back, based off of the Merc Ramza sprite (And also Eerily similar to when I started years ago) was meant to be a test for a new hobby project. Unfortunately It's been giving me trouble!

This sprite currently uses 27 colors and the Portrait background is set to 168, 160, 136 and as far as I can tell, it's being saved as an 8bit BMP.

When loading into the Orbonne Monastery for the first time, all looks prim and proper... that is of course, until he crouches. 
(http://gamegrit.com/upload/213249ce2c173956aab1.png)
What happened to you, poor Ramza?

But wait, there's more! When he stands up all is well once again, that is until he opens his mouth.
(http://gamegrit.com/upload/ca4b30d8d03d141d81b8.png)

I'm almost certain I'm overlooking something, but I just can't figure out what it is. I've attached the sheet to this post :)

Send help! I have fallen and can't get up.

http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Event_Instruction_58

Pretty sure shishi can edit EVTCHRs now.

EVTCHR, you clever bugger! I forgot the game wasn't completely reliant on the spritesheet and custom animations were needed for some cutscenes.

If it can, I haven't quite found it yet. But I'm still re-familiarizing myself with the tools, thanks for coming to the rescue :)

The background color for the portrait is in the wrong slot. Should be in the first slot in the palette

That's strange, because I have my palettes saved so that's the case. Looks fine in gale but shows up in Palette Editor. I've been comparing palettes because I can't tell the difference between a lot of them.

I'll move some stuff around :D

Yeah, see, it kinda helps to use portrait colours for portraits and sprite colours for sprites... don't mix them like you did. Portraits and sprites have access to 16 colours at a time each, not the full 256 colours palette.

There's a few things off with your portrait.

Your picture is fine when it uses the first palette - and so it looks fine just glancing at the base image in the file - but FFT uses the ninth palette for portraits. The portrait is also one pixel too far to the right. And there's no white to the eye, and the beard mixes dedicated skin colors with hair colors, making it look ... off. The trim on the armor and the edges of the beard also aren't consistent.

Finally, a little bit of advice - I'm not at all a pro spriter, but your Ramza portrait has multiple unused colors and a lot of area on the armor where it's just one completely separate color with no shading. Just adding in a bit of shading can go a long way when it comes to that.



I'm sure it's nowhere near perfect, but it definitely looks a lot better like this, I think. I just wanted to quickly put something out there to give you an idea of what improvements can be made.

Here's what the file looks like with the portrait palette separated properly (and it's got my edited version of the portrait in case you want to use that as a base going forward). Open it in GraphicsGale and you'll see that there's just two rows of palettes - the one in the ninth slot is what the portrait uses for the colors, which is why it looks so weird in the default palette.

Quote from: nyzer on January 12, 2017, 10:28:08 pm
There's a few things off with your portrait.

Your picture is fine when it uses the first palette - and so it looks fine just glancing at the base image in the file - but FFT uses the ninth palette for portraits. The portrait is also one pixel too far to the right. And there's no white to the eye, and the beard mixes dedicated skin colors with hair colors, making it look ... off. The trim on the armor and the edges of the beard also aren't consistent.

Finally, a little bit of advice - I'm not at all a pro spriter, but your Ramza portrait has multiple unused colors and a lot of area on the armor where it's just one completely separate color with no shading. Just adding in a bit of shading can go a long way when it comes to that.

spoiler: Here's a comparison to demonstrate what I mean.

(http://i.imgur.com/OBskRTV.jpg)

I'm sure it's nowhere near perfect, but it definitely looks a lot better like this, I think. I just wanted to quickly put something out there to give you an idea of what improvements can be made.

Here's what the file looks like with the portrait palette separated properly (and it's got my edited version of the portrait in case you want to use that as a base going forward). Open it in GraphicsGale and you'll see that there's just two rows of palettes - the one in the ninth slot is what the portrait uses for the colors, which is why it looks so weird in the default palette.

Thanks for giving it a bit of an Overhaul! I face some unique challenges when tackling a sprite. I'm Tritanopic so a lot of it gets lost an translation. You'll see discrepancies in the beard and hair because it's a lot of educated guesses in getting them to match up and then it's a task of double checking and triple checking the numbers. Practice, practice, practice!

At least you can still see color! A friend of mine and my great-uncle are 100% monochromatic colorblind. The former actually managed to guess (much as you do, I imagine) how full color images should appear. No mountain high enough.

Quick edit: Have you given any thought to EnChroma (http://gizmodo.com/can-these-glasses-help-the-colorblind-we-put-en-chroma-1739433668)? I've no idea how accurate it is, but I've seen some joyfully tearful results from its usage.

Quote from: Angel on January 13, 2017, 12:56:58 am
At least you can still see color! A friend of mine and my great-uncle are 100% monochromatic colorblind. The former actually managed to guess (much as you do, I imagine) how full color images should appear. No mountain high enough.

Quick edit: Have you given any thought to EnChroma (http://gizmodo.com/can-these-glasses-help-the-colorblind-we-put-en-chroma-1739433668)? I've no idea how accurate it is, but I've seen some joyfully tearful results from its usage.

I have a close friend who's Monochromatic! It's true he can't see color, but his attention to detail defies what's possible. He analyses  things so fully and completely, it's almost like he sees better without color.

I've seen the EnChroma shades and I seriously want to check them out! I've just never had the disposable income to buy them! I can only imagine what seeing the world as it actually appears would be like, but I imagine I'd have another learning curve ahead of me, actually being able to identify colors as they're meant to be seen, not as I see them.

As for guess work, I do a lot of it! But it's never kept me from trying to make Sprites. Hacktics has been an awesome way to both show the work I've tried to do, but also have it corrected when it goes awry. (Which happens a lot! :))

I have a lot of flaws in my process that I need to correct, I always seem to mix the Sprite palette and the Portrait palette together.

Ramza's face needs to be a bit older and square-looking if you're going to give him a beard, otherwise he looks like he's wearing an obviously fake disguise.