Designers, Assemblers, Closers and Profilers: Making sprites

[Asmo X]

The problem: Spriting is hard. Some people have the attention span to make an entire spritesheet but don't have the technical knowledge to make a sprite properly. A feeble attempt will taint an entire sheet. Other people can sprite well but aren't in the business of doing whole sheets. Neither of these people necessarily know how to make it work in game and no-one out of all 3 groups necessarily know how to make a portrait. My idea is to turn spriting into a mechanical process using all 4 people. No one person will have to do much work outside their competency and hopefully, not much work period.

Designer: Should be the person with the most solid technical knowledge on making a sprite look good. Designs the sprite alone or with input and creates the first 8 views. People ought to put the designer's work under high scrutiny and hold them to a very, very tough standard.

Assembler: Uses the designer's solid starting point to fill out the rest of the spritesheet. Tries not to piss off the closer too much.

Closer: Checks the sprite to make sure it works in-game and may be responsible for realigning or tweaking certain parts of the sheet so that it runs properly. Major fuckups (like an unusable palette), may have to be referred back to the Designer or Assembler.

Profiler: Does the portrait.

Bear in mind, no individual has to be assigned a life-long job in one of these groups. I just think this would be a fast way to get decent sprites out. It is also an opt-in proposal. People can still run their own spriting projects if they like. It is for this reason that people shouldn't hold back on the designer. It's your choice to put yourself up for this role so know your shit.

[jimmyjw88]

I think this is a nice idea to speed up spriting process and provide them in decent quality to the community or in-game. Not sure if members/spriters willing to join because some might want to work on own sprite for own use but hope that spriters will join because this really helps in the process of spriting. ^^

[MiKeMiTchi]

I'm more of a Closer and Profiler.

Nice thread for finding one's spriting identity, ..Sir Asmo, I mean, Asmo!
Everyone who wants to make concept sprites should be the Designer.

The Joiner would be the hardest part, but the more people who'll join, the faster the process.

[Asmo X]

The success or failure of this is determined by how many people want to be joiners. I'm estimating that number to be 0

[Vanya]

For the sake of a test run I'll volunteer to be Joiner.

[jimmyjw88]

Haha. yeah. I'll join in too but which group, I don't know. I mean, designer, I can't make a solid concept, joiner is work the rest of the spritesheet, which I'm not really good and slow; Closer, sometimes I missed a lot of error or glitches and as for profiler, I'm not good at portrait, as you already know. Haha. But I'll try to fit into one of these groups and help ^^

[Vanya]

Shouldn't we have something to work on first?

[Asmo X]

Ok cool. Im still capped right now and I have work tonight but when I get back I'll try and make something.

[Asmo X]

Or someone could cook something up in the meantime. If they do, make sure it is criticised brutally.

[MiKeMiTchi]

BRUTALLY!? Yeah.. let's give that a try.

[Seushiro]

Why not finish your Marshall concept Asmo X or use it here as a test run and assign them jobs?. . . that was a great concept and the only hopes of a great looking western hat in game. . .

[Sephirot24]

Great idea Asmo! Efficiency 1st huh? ^^

May I suggest a sprite that NEEDS to be done? The one Jimmy found lying around. It's really awesome

[Asmo X]

Well the horn isnt straight and collar seems to be popping directly out of the armour. Might be a decent starting point though. I would probably suggest that if a designer gets on board with that, they should try to "hide" the obvious lineage from the sprites it is built from.

[kafei]

The success or failure of this is determined by how many people want to be joiners. I'm estimating that number to be 0

I think this largely depends on whether or not the potential joiner would have any use for the sprite in his or her own projects. If the sprite would look great in something they're already working on, they have more incentive to get in there and get the sprite done.

Or someone could cook something up in the meantime. If they do, make sure it is criticised brutally.

This is something we really need to work on as a community. It's great if a bunch of spriters show up with a bunch of projects, but if they're all done so badly that they look out of place in the game, what's the point? We need to make sure we're keeping people on the right path, and not giving them false hope. This will lead to better sprites overall, which I believe is what Asmo is trying to convey with this point. I know you've already been doing this, Asmo, but some of the rest of us really need to get on board, too.

EDIT: For the record, I like the idea of having different people try to tackle one sprite together.

[Asmo X]

Well I was hoping people wouldn't give too much of a shit about working on the sprites of other people if the work was split up enough. Perhaps more than 1 person could help with fleshing out the sheet. Perhaps they should have a less fruity name than "joiner" too.

[kafei]

Perhaps they should have a less fruity name than "joiner" too.

qft

[Seushiro]

well how about fabricator or assembler for a less fruity name. . . just like design, fabricate, profile and test. . .

Hope you guys get it in action since this would be a good community effort. . .


so what is the line up for now? Any chosen concepts to work on?. . .

[Asmo X]

Assembler ok. We'll do a trial run on the sprite sephirot found. I'll see if I can roll out the first 8 views

[Jumza]

If i had more skills as a spriter i would join as a profiler but i suck at making portraits so im more of a closer. and I would love to help with that sprite.(it is really awesome a calculator with a lancer hat lolz)

[MiKeMiTchi]

Sure. Let's work on jimmy's sprite.