Final Fantasy Hacktics

I got now, so do not know if it was good, but this is only a beginning.

- Don't use use black outlines.
- The colors are way too flashy.
- The shading is horrible. Looks at other units.
- Hands are too blocky.
- Honestly the only think that looks like Lenneth in this is the hair, and even then you have to know, because that's not exactly platinum hair.

Start over, take other sprites as a base and don't try to make up your own colors because you're not good at this. I would seriously recommend taking a lot at spriting tutorials and/or look at other sprites when spriting.

I definitely suggest using other sprites as bases, but it's also extremely important to borrow from existing sprite palettes. For bright blues you can borrow from more than a handful of generics; things like that will keep it looking consistent. Though the sprite itself also needs a lot of work. Zodiac's suggestions pretty much hit it to the tee: work on the chest especially.

I'm not good at it, and this is my first sprite, then do not expect much from it.
I was doing it based on this image below.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethtest.png)
I took a crack at the sprite, based on the in-game sprite (and ripped the colors from said sprite)
Critique?

The actual outfit itself looks awesome Ark, If you could get the colors right it would pwn.

It looks better than mine T_T, you are a beginner or already have experience?

First sprite, but all it really is is Agrias recolored, with the a custom AuraDragon dark-knight helm and one of balmafula's arms.

I took the colors from the original lenneth sprite from ValkProfile, so what palattes would work good with this one (and what was the color limit?)

The original
(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethtest2.png)

Your color limit is 16 colors.

The old picture clocked in at 18 (I think)
(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethtest2wpallate.png)
Whittled down to 16

I had not thought of that, it seems that there are people born with talent and people who do not have a way with it.^_^

Quote from: "ArkDelgato"The old picture clocked in at 18 (I think)
(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethtest2wpallate.png)
Whittled down to 16

Good one.

IMO, The Valkyrie looks mono toned. :)
(or you can make the armor brighter then make the helmet darker)

QuoteI had not thought of that, it seems that there are people born with talent and people who do not have a way with it.^_^

I disagree.

He he! 'm Not good at editing sprites.

Found a blue that was used once, swapped it for a darker blue, used it on the darker helm
(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethnewhelm.png)

^ Looks better.

Any other serious problems I should tend to before doing other positions?

Yes, remember that BLACK will be transparent. (close to the left hand??)
You would want to change those black pixels to the darkest purple color.

Thanks for that catch, can't believe I missed that

Looks like there's a black pixel on the helm decoration that is on her right.

ark: The outfit is uneven. The part hanging down on the far side is way wider and whatever that is hanging down between the legs needs to be reshaded so that it actually looks like something.

The outfit, generally speaking, is a bit unintelligible. In the small version of the sprite it's hard to tell what's going on around the hand. I think it's the back of the armour hanging down below the waist. If it is, it's flaring out way too much anyway. Also, if there is supposed to be a pauldron on the far arm it needs to be more defined.

Would I be correct in thinking you made your own palette for this?

Oh yeah, it's flat. You have quite a light blue and all the other colours seem a lot darker. You need another intermediate blue I think.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethasmofix.png)
Lengthened the right armor-skirt, thickened the right, beefed up the pauldron, used the center fold of duke largs robe as a base for the new cloth, used a blank white for an intermediate blue.

Didn't really make the palette on this, I just stole colors from the Valkyrie Profile Lenneth sprite. Except the new blue for the cloth.

Does the palette not mesh well?

Looks better. Can I suggest you pinch the male Monk's arm or something? If you look at the small version of the sprite you can see how it still doesn't look like anything (hand/wrist area in particular). Also yeah, the palette is a bit cartoonish. Steal palettes from existing FFT sprites.

Definitly her helmet can't be dark, it resembles Hrist too much, besides look for yourself:

(http://www.psp-themes.net/data/media/5/Lenneth%20Valkyrie.jpg)

Now you can see that her helmet should be light blue. I think I will make two other valkyries.

I made changes to Lenneth:
-changed color of helmet,
-some gold added to arms,
-her skirt is redone,
-armor on her legs are a lot shorter now

(http://i29.tinypic.com/2rzc7rc.jpg)

thief legs as base? they look a lil too thin. the arms seem too high up like a football player. its a shame we cant put more detail into sprites

honestly though, are you going to notice changes THAT small in-game?

Quote from: "Mental_Gear"honestly though, are you going to notice changes THAT small in-game?

You would be surprised. If you are competent at analyzing sprites just about any change will be glaring in-game.

That is unless your sitting a couple feet away from the screen playing with a controller.

or if you play 320x240 on a 2880x1920 24 inches screen

No gojoe, legs aren't from thief (in my sprite). All I did is recoloring and adding small details (compare hands on both sprites)

The legs in mine were balmafula.
(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethmentalkajifix.png)(as you can see, the helm on the game sprite is a dark blue, not white like the art)

Re-shaded the helm to get it lighter while keeping it dark enough to avoid monochroming.
Monk arms, Made the leg thicker, freed up a white by using the eye colour in the hair.
The close foot looks a little pointy, might have to edit it.

Any recommendations on what sprites to leech a pallate from?

In-game it is dark-blue, but in every other shit (films,VP2:Silmeria) her helmet is light blue, and you cannot change that fact dood, besides that dark blue just doesn't look good. Oh and her legs are "hidden" in skirt, so you should change that.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethneverrelentonhelmet.png)
Keeping the helmet as is, can't find a way to get it to look good as the white helmet in the art.

Added the other pieces of the skirt, re-shaped the close foot.

This looks better, I tied moving her arm(the one on our left), just move it one pixel down, it will look better. Add some gold into her shoulder armor(as in image), skirt should look a little more brighter IMO, cause it resembles rmor colors a bit. Great work so far.

Oh and here you have a small piece of armor that will fit for her(I'm talkin about breast part of armor), just recolor it:
(http://i26.tinypic.com/2lo0x9g.jpg)

How do I get that Image?
I DL'd the SPR from the custom sprites section, then what do I do?

Convert it to a BMP, I believe.

Would I just change the name on the sprite from NEWAGURI.SPR to NEWAGURI.BMP or is it something harder than that?

load the .spr into shishi sprite editor and then export it

Just save the image I posted with "save as..." or DL'd SPR from Custom SPR section, get shishi and:

1.Open shishi, click import sprites fom ISO
2.Select some sprite(doesn't matter wich one)by double clicking on it
3.Click "Import SPR", then select your Agrias sprite
4.When you change SPR to New Agrias, just click "export BMP"

That should be all.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethneverrelentonhelmet-2.png)

Changed skirt colors, lowered the far arm, used the re-done agrias chest-plate.

Hey, now looks great! Her skirt improved, but it look like it is dirt, maybe light it up? Try to delete that light square on helmet, it look somewhat strange.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethneverrelentonhelmet-3.png)
Used the lighter eye color for skirt, the darker one for shading.
Better?

It resembles Lenneth skirt now a lot, it loks perfect! But something is strange going on with the skirt, hmm I don't know how to say it, so I will post img late.

It could be the gold trim not showing up...
If I use the brown it looks like a leather belt...
Should I try a darker gold?

The right side of the skirt looks like its going over the left part but there is no shading on that edge. Its probably because the right part of the skirt seems to go over onto the other side, not that the left side is moved out that way. It just looks awkward.

Work on the blues...something looks off. Borrow from the blue Minotaur sprite (Sacred was the enemy's name, if I recall correctly). And work on the skirt thing...it looks like it's not resting on her legs/leggings properly. The purple outline is harsh too. Keep working on it--I have a feeling that you can make this work after some due diligence.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethneverrelentonhelmet-4.png)
(trying to correct the skirt for now, will get to the harsh purple later)

This will be a cool sprite when its finished.

Wow, that is some extreme improvement from what I saw last.  Great job so far.

Thi is exactly what I meant, now just make her leg-armor smaller, so it will resemble the original.

Quote(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethneverrelentonhelmet-4.png)

Looks better.

Just fix the over-all shadings, though. And the outline for the cloth and helmet.
The arms are fine. The left leg is ok. The right leg is not really noticeable.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethshortreshade-1.png)
Lightened the leg armor, made the close skirt more revealing, re-shaded skirt, re-shaded armor, made the harsh purple outline into a more smooth blue one.

See, this is how you get better at spriting. Huge improvement Ark. I would just suggest making the arm closest to us a bit shorter. Also, if you're having trouble with that cloth bit that hangs down in front of her legs, remember that many of the shrine knights have the same thing.  You could just c/p and then tweak it to be a bit shorter or something. Still, it's very good.

No Asmo, she's just in a position to easily give/receive hugs.

It's probably because of her left arm, but she seems to be falling backwards to me. yes the arm should be shorter but also closer to her body. Right now it looks either distanced or completely behind her.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennetharmandcloth.png)Moved the close arm inward, took rofels skirt, shortened it by a few pixels re-colored and slapped it on, knocked down the color count to 15 colors and black, (two different whites and three different out-line browns? One of each now.)

You are doing great! I would help you, but I'm very busy with my sprite now.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethlookleft-1.png)
Critique?

Looks great from the side...

you're missing the yellow line

Pick another shade for the gold: it looks too close to the skin right now. But the sprite looks pretty decent overall.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethatrois-1.png)

Dancer's dress/hair shade of gold.

The outline on the face in the front facing frame makes her face look narrow. Just because she is being covered by a helmet doesn't mean that her outline has to be so dark. It just looks odd to me.

Not bad! The gold definitely pops more, so good job with that. I agree with Zalge about the font-facing frame though: right now she looks kinda squished. It also looks like the shoulder pads and helmet's size on the front-facing one don't correspond to the others'.

The armor coming down from her hips at her sides doesn't seem consistent in the three views.  They seem to wrap all the way around her in the diagonal view but not the others.

The arm on the side view looks a bit long. On the front view, correct me if im wrong someone, but it looks like there might be too much hair showing on either side of her head. Also, you're trying to do too much with the cloth in front of her legs. It's hard to tell whats going on with it in the diagonal view. I also notice that the cloth has some pink as though it has gaps where her legs are showing through. This is completely lost on the small version. I think you had the right idea before when there was just one smaller part hanging down from the armour.

yes the side view does have long masculine arms. yes the hair is showing too much on the front view also and the eyes seem one pixel too long in the front view.

I think you'd have a hard time making this.
I suggest you practice editing on easy sprites first..
since the valkyrie has complex and unique armor.

Quote from: "MiKeMiTchi"I think you'd have a hard time making this.
I suggest you practice editing on easy sprites first..
since the valkyrie has complex and unique armor.

Spriting complex armour should not be a goal for anyone of any skill level. Also, there is decent progress being made on this. Go back and look at his original concept.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethatrois-2.png)
Used a dancers arm on the side profile, changed the skirt to blues, like in the VP sprite, might have to darken the skirt armor for contrast. Changed the eyes to the normal FFT style for fronts (with the dark color eyebrow things)
I'm kinda surprised no-one's mentioned the braid I made.
Is it actually good?

Braid doesn't look bad to me.  I like the change to the side view's arms.  My earlier comment involving the "skirt armor" inconsistencies remains.  The helm adornments seem to change size/shape from the side view to the angled view.  Feet between the side view and the other views seems to change in a similar fashion and the one lacks the gold the others have.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethatroisrevis.png)
Changed the side-views feet and the angled one's feathers.

How would I make the skirt armor look like it wraps on the other two angles (or look like it doesn't wrap on the angled view)?

The skirt is just getting more and more complicated now. I've said this before, but there are some things that just can't be reproduced in a sprite unfortunately. You're going to have to simplify the design a lot more if you want it to work.

i dont kno if its just me but on the front view, the round part of the helmet is a little smaller

There's a plainly visible gap between them at their highest point in the front view and the side view.  The angled view lacks any such gap, as far as I can tell.  They touch directly under the middle of the breast plate in the angled view.  The difference is of course less noticeable on the small view, but it's still something that would look better if it was fixed.  I suppose decrease the gap in the other views or increase it in the angled view.  Keep in mind that it probably won't take much, so don't try to change more than a little at a time while editing that particular part.  Considering perspectives and what I picture the armor's shape as, I'm tempted to say go ahead and add another few pixels to the top of them on the side view either way.

I think I have to agree about the helmet looking smaller on the front view.  I'm apathetic about the skirt, for now.

(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethatroislargskirt.png)

While playing FFT, I noticed that Duke Larg had a segment in the middle of his robe that is just what I was looking for, so I edited that on.

Looking good. Lenneth......is this from Valkyrie profile? ^^

I can't shake a couple of things:

1. I'm guessing that's the middle of the walking stance? The feet are in the best position for that, but as a standing pose, it looks awkward.

2. The dress looks way too frontal, and not turned enough. Because of this, it's looking a little flat.

Great progress (sincerely). This looks like a tough job, but if you're anything like me, you want to know what others think is going wrong.

Yeah, this one isn't perfect, but it's more of what I'm talking about

Luiakyn she look fat , probably because of skirt, but skirt should be white...

(http://itachiboss.i.t.pic.centerblog.net/svcc66bc.jpg)

(http://pspmedia.ign.com/psp/image/article/705/705760/valkyrie-profile-lenneth-20060508042945589.jpg)

See?

Hmm....white is not bad at all.
0.o....what Ark did was white at first...

Look at all the elements below the waist, people. This is too much. In my opinion: Cut off the armour at the waist. Attach female dragoon skirt. Modify accordingly.

I'd have thought that Agrias's skirt and legs would work, but maybe Asmo is right.

Bottom half of agrias would be ok too. Recolour the trousers/boots or even try to link the trousers so it looks like a narrow skirt. But if you use that, I don't think that the part at the front should be added because it would then look too busy.

Yea. I think Asmo has a point there. It's looking abit busy down the waist there. Keeping it simple, neat and clean is good.

Quote from: "ArkDelgato"(http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii168/Ark-Delgato/lennethtest2wpallate.png)

Was using this, that's why she looked fat

I agree with Asmo. Take the lancer's dress and if you really want those armor pads, take Smash's. But it can do without them.