Uhm, these are three sprites I've been working on recently. I've taken advice from Smash, and a friend of mine (Azureman, for those who go to other sprite boards). They still need to be recolored... And mug shot... and sprite sheeted... Anyhow, I'm just posting these as concept, they include the sprites I used to make them, and some of the process (Needles to say I havent been working on them so much), so criticism is needed.
1)This one's a Sprite I'm making for Michael Jackson. I think I'd only need to recolor the hat, seeing as I couldn't fit the moonwalker's sprite hat in it.
http://i25.tinypic.com/wanll0.jpg
2)Seeing as I'm spriting for some friends of mine, I made the main character for the edit they're working, Azuma
http://i31.tinypic.com/34dqxjo.jpg
3)And then there was Eddy
http://i29.tinypic.com/28qq1yd.jpg (http://i29.tinypic.com/28qq1yd.jpg)
Decent starts. For future reference post things in png format, jpgs look terrible for sprites. You definitely need to work on having consistent color themes so that they look better and stay at 16 colors. Keep at it.
I think Eddy looks pretty great. One of the better franken-spritings I've seen.
Though yeah, be aware of color limits.
Not a bad portrait at all, I like it. Very stoic and noble looking. As far as learning FFT spriting style my best advice is:
1) To work with the materials already available to you and work from there.
2) Don't mess with the arms at the beginning, just do palette swaps because they are a royal pain to edit.
3) Get your colors from existing sprites, helps with fitting the contrasts and overall feel of the game.
4) Organize how you are going to use your 16 colors early on (don't forget that one of the 16 is the black background).
That is a good start.
Yea. Looks good start ^^
Looking forward
Great concepts (and you're already awesome for the inclusion of Michael Jackson on one of those images). You're doing a great job mixing and matching, without it being too obvious, so keep at it. You do need to remember the 16 color limit--that's always a kicker. But overall you're doing quite well. Everything looks natural.
Okay, I've started taking everyone's advice into consideration, and I've started working on recoloring. (I've been thinking of giving Eddy a specially dark pallete of colors, do you guys think I should stick to browns and grays?) Also, I'm still having trouble trying to post them in other formats (they're still turning back to JPG), Is there any specific program I should use to make spriting easier and properly formatted? (I'm stuck using paint xp). Zozma gave me some advice on another sprite I'm working on, and I will post the concept soon. Anyways, I will post the finished products sometime this week, with portraits if I get the hang of making them.
Anyways, guys, all your criticism has really been taken, and thank you! =D
It's only letting you save as JPGs? Hmm...try using FFhacktics' attachment option, and hopefully you'll be able to upload a PNG (since BMPs are disabled here, I believe). And for the very few times I sprite, I use paint for drawing and most recoloring. For replacing colors on a larger scale much more quickly I utilize Adobe (or Macromedia) Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop.
And do post your concepts--your stuff is very promising. The more spriters, the better.
God, I certainly do hope that my concept sprites being good isn't sarcasm! XD
Anyways, I'm gonna be working on posting the png files as soon as possible. Thanks guys!
And thanks for the advice Mav, I'm gonna try and download photoshop sometime during the summer, I looked up firewors, and it sounds good, so I might give it a shot too!
Whoa, such a gentle looking knight avatar, where did you get that from? It looks great!
I used Wiegraf's body, Beowulf's face and the generic Knight's hair to make it in paint. I want to shade it and everything, so It looks as good as the other custom portraits in the forum... or close xp
Well guys, I got a program that'll get my images in png formart, but it leaves one weird ass logo in it, anyways, I'll repost the concepts I had earlier now
Okay I have bad news. If a few of these are the original versions then they have already been destroyed by the jpeg format (specifically the gaf pants guy and the knight guy). You can see all the crazy color compression stuff happening, I hate jpegs. Any ways use the free version of Graphics Gale as your graphics editor and save everything as bmp or png.
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ (http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/)
Wait, Paint isn't even showing the PNG option at all? That doesn't sound right...
Okay, I'm downloading Gale, I'll redo the sprites on photoshop, that way I can recolor them too, and I'll try to post them later today
I went ahead and deleted all those other PNG images (they took a lot of space) and remade the originals. I finally recolored Michael Jackson, and I added another sprite I'm trying to fully edit. Up until now, I've only been able to recolor it, but I'm trying to make some costom shoulder pads using Reis' head, so far no success. Finally, I placed them all into one Image, with the original coloring and the edited coloring
Neat stuff man; I like where these are headed. My only suggestion is to darken the hat on the Michael Jackson sprite, keep it white-gray, but use the darker shades. And is something going on with that last sprite's hair? Cause he's giving off an Alfalfa effect.
Yeaaaah, I used Balthier's head. I'll get on it soon
Dang, man. You really got me liking these concepts. Micheal Jackson sprite... Heh. I wonder what his job title would be? Maybe Smooth Criminal? Or just awesome musician? Haha, and he would have skills from bard and dancer classes.
I havent really thought about it, but I think I could do both and rename the Skills. I dunno, I havent really been able to get the software running (I SUCK at installing stuff xp)
Anyways, I'm finishing editing stuff, so I'll prolly have the finished product after this weekend (Minus sprite sheet), And I'm starting to work on a BRAVEHEART sprite!
I know I've posted a couple of attachments into this topic, and that it's prolly getting boring by now, but here's the recolors. I've discovered that recoloring isn't my forte, so anyone that would like to re-recolor these is completely welcomed.
Also, I'm not techno savvy at all, and I have no idea how to run ePSXe or Lioneditor. Can someone please, pleaaaaase walk me thru how to do this?
I like the gold and blue one with the Gaf pants.
Edddy, go to Mercenaries main thread last page, CT5Holy sugested there an epsxe version, it works, I'm using it now, here is link to the tutorial for newbies, you will find there everything you need: http://www.fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/emuhelp_epsxe.htm (http://www.fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/emuhelp_epsxe.htm)
The brown on the knight is a bit much--maybe you should change out the color of his gauntlets and boots? The others look pretty nice; like Kuraudo, I'm digging the one with gold boots and blue vest. Michael Jackson is shaping up too, but something is still a little off with the hat. Keep fiddling with the colors. The last sprite looks great too. He looks fit for FFT, yet characteristically different from the others.
You know? I'm honestly think I should've just left Michael Jackson's hat the same color as the oracle, I've been playing with different shades of whites for a couple of hours and that's still the best I could come up with xp
I might give the Knight a lighter color scheme, but try not to ruin the dark knight vibe I'm trying to make. Maybe I'll just use more reds or something.
Anyways, I'm gonna try to make the next image include portraits and add another picture with another Four Sprites I'm starting to work on.
Thanks Kagebunji, now I actually don't feel so lost trying to run this! I'll have to thank CT5Holy too (If he doesn't kill everyone in one cast first). But I think I'll ait until I get that Asus I've been meaning to buy before I try to re-install everything
I that white one supposed to be a sailor?
The Lancer legs and Balthier's shirt go well together by the way.
Why don't you just use the same colors as the shirt?
The white one's supposed to be Michael Jackson. And I tried Using the same colors as the shirt, but the contrast wasn't so good... I dunno, maybe it was better then the brownish white it has now