Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hello ladies and gents, I'd thought I'd introduce myself as well as my first fft sprite. I love Final Fantasy Tactics, whether it be on DS or PSX. But I always loved the art/spritework in FFT. So, I recently found the site and discovered the great talent here, and thought that I may get better by hanging around, maybe pick up a few tips. So, heres my first sprite, Fein!

(http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5495/fein.png)

Let me explain here: Green sash, armored left arm, grieves on right leg.

Welcome to the board.

Interesting sprite, but it's pretty messy. First off, you gotta make sure your brush is the right size for the portrait and the sprite: generally the resized sprites are just for viewing purposes. Likewise you gotta work on shading, especially for the portrait. It looks like the neck has been improperly modified and the hair lacks depth at times.

But don't be discouraged--everyone here gives and receives criticism like there's no tomorrow.

Ah, I'm well aware of criticism, haha. Thank you very much! I'm still not used to shading via pixels, so I'm working to practice that a little bit. I've never been very good with portraits, from when I do Fire Emblem sprites, but like I said, I need practice. Thanks once again.

First, correction, It would be "newb" not "noob". =D Being a "newb" means you want to learn. A "noob" is... a person no one wants.

Secondly, I somewhat see what you're doing, but there are a lot of things that don't look right and things that just don't translate when you make a sprite. See, making side specific alterations such as armored arms and legs while the opposite side isn't doesnt work because, for example, when facing full left, that is reflected for the full right. Right facing parts of the sprite is just left reflected, just so you know. The armored arm and leg would be switching sides.

Work in the transition between the neck and the armor. Even if the armor is right up against his skin, there should still be some shading there. The back of the neck looks... strange. The Ear looks nicely done, but the earring... not so much. The pulled back hair doesn't really look good either, there is no gradient transition between the hair on the right (his left) and the face. The hair on the left (his right) has a LOT of random pixels. Fix that up. Even if its pillow shaded, its better than random pixels. Trust me, I'm still pillow shading a lot, and my stuff looks fine.

Also, a lot of it looks like you were working with the size several sizes bigger than the actual size thats used on a spritesheet. Work with the smallest size you can, it makes all marks more accurate.


I'm no expert though, follow Asmo, Mike, Mav, and everyone else's advice and you'll do just fine. Look at what it did for me =D Everyone was a newb at some point though, don't expect skill to just show up in you randomly.


EDIT: Oh, yeah, and welcome to the board!

Alright, I see what you mean about the translation/switching deal. Thanks for the positive criticism, and I definitely see what you mean about the random pixels, it does look terrible, as well as 99% of the portrait. I find it a bit difficult on the whole pixel shading/placement end.

Also remember to use only 16 colors for a sprite.

For the portrait, I suggest you work on the neck's outline and shading, The dark shades should
be along the outlines, not in the middle. (also avoid pillow shading)(shading like a gradient)
for portraits, follow a light source.

For the sprite, let's see more of it.

Quote from: "MiKeMiTchi"For the sprite, let's see more of it.

Minus the miss-matched armor? The whole  16 color thing was not in mind when making this, thanks for telling me.

Your call. It's your sprite.

Welcome aboard. ^^
The sprite looks good to start with but like Zalge and mav said. Need to be fix. Don't worry. With practises, advices, you will get your hands on it.

Quote from: "Fein"

Quote from: "MiKeMiTchi"For the sprite, let's see more of it.

Minus the miss-matched armor? The whole  16 color thing was not in mind when making this, thanks for telling me.

The miss-matched armor is fine. Look at the archer and Cloud. Yeah, it does switcheroos, but hell, it's already in the game. It won't be out of place.

But if you need to fix the armor for the 16 color limit, you've gotta do it.

Yeah, I'll keep the color limit in mind when re-doing it and doing other positions.

I'll just critique the sprite. Basically, you haven't unified all the different parts properly. The red side is shaded lightly, while you have basically just outlined the brown areas with something very dark. Outlining is to be strictly avoided. It looks horrible and doesn't fit in at all with the game's sprites. The hair needs a lot of work as well. It is very flat, and all of the shading has been pushed to the edges, creating an outline. It also needs to be reshaped since the part that hangs down is actually wider at the bottom than it is close to the scalp. What you really need to do is what every new spriter needs to do. Copy/paste heavily from existing sprites. This goes for both the parts and the palettes. The moment you try to do something like make your own hair, it's all going to go to shit since you don't know how to do it yet. And don't say that no sprite has the hairstyle you want. I bet you could copy/paste 2 hairstyles together to get what you want. Copying is even more important for palettes. If you want a series of browns, find an existing sprite with the shades you like and lift them all. Don't try to add or change colours within the palette.

Well, I scraped my first sprite/portrait, because I felt I could go no where with it. So, I took the whole copy paste idea, and came up with this knight type deal:

(http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2497/fein2.png)

I know what you're going for, but you've made a couple mistakes. The face looks squished in there and you're gonna need to shade the top and side of the head, in regards to the helmet.

Alright, how can I make the face look less squished? Also: Heres a sprite for said portrait. I only like the the two blown up views though, I cant quite get the helmet right on the other two.

(http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/5995/feinall.png)

Edit: Just noticed grieve was messed up on right leg, on backside view.

Your new sprite is a much better effort but I can't properly tell you whats going on because it looks like you havent resized the sprite properly or something. See how some pixels look really thin?

What happen to his right hand in the rearview?

Quote from: "jimmyjw88"What happen to his right hand in the rearview?

Holy Crow! I didn't touch it, it was all part of the Dragoon Sprite.

And, thank you Asmos. I resized it in paint because I was being lazy and didn't do it in another program, and for some reason paint does that to me.

you should resize it 200% or 400%. You could run into problems otherwise.

I get it. Its because of the cape. The dragoon's rearview hand was block by the cape and now that you remove it, the hand is incomplete.
Try look at its left hand (rearview) and copy/paste its shading.

the pillow shading of the hair really sticks out as an eyesore... work on where the light source comes from

Quote from: "Fein"I resized it in paint because I was being lazy and didn't do it in another program, and for some reason paint does that to me.

Yeah, you can resize it in Paint proportionally too: box around it, right click, hit Resize/Skew and just type in 200 or 400 for the percent and you'll be good to go. Right now it looks like you resized by hand. Which is both tough and shoddy.

Quote from: "dwib"the pillow shading of the hair really sticks out as an eyesore... work on where the light source comes from

Here's a link on shading pixel art if you are like me and didn't know exactly what "pillow shading" means:  http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/shading.html (http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/shading.html)

To summarize, choose a direction for your light source and stick with it for the whole sprite.  I think most sprites here assume light comes from the top left of the image, but I don't think that matters because the sprite poses are mirrored in game.  As long as your light direction isn't "from the viewer" you should be good.

Thanks for the resource Tersius.

That's a great link there, Tersius.
I must say.. I have read that also when I started pixel art.

Sorry for the bump, but I just wanted to get some critique here.

So, I started to kind of make the Solder from FFTA, but It just kinda turned into this:

(http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8347/t3hc00ln3ss.png)

I still like it though. The colors are a bit bright because that's the way it was in FFTA, will probably tone those down, and then do a portrait.

use blue from an existing sprite's color palette

that is over saturated

Yeah, I plan to change it.

It needs more color in general. Most 2-tone sprites look pretty bland. It's a good start though.

(http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/366/soldiercloseview.png)

Okay, so I changed the pallet to the Blue Squire, and I added a bit of armor to "spice" it up. Portrait to come.

Hmm.. Looks too light, but fine. Maybe borrow the blue shades from the black mage?
The armor is way better, btw.

survived 666th post!

getting closer

Haha, lucky you, most people get dragged to hell.

Alright, I'll see what it looks like with the blue mage's blue.

What else do you think I could do, Zozma?

well the belt on the side view doesnt look like the front one which curves in around the armor. which one is the right way?

but its looking better, the hat seems to have more depth with the new colors as well which is good

Yes, blue mage's blue should be worth a try.

(http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8619/solview.png)

So, I like the Black mage's colors better. I also made the belt so it isn't curving around the armor. I'm not sure if I did it right though.

Good colors, I suggest you lighten the lightest blue, and darken the darkest blue a bit.
Belt before was better, since it's aligned with the pants.

(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8619/solview.png)

Portrait, I still suck at them, This is a rough draft, still working.

Great start. You definitely got rid of most of the problems.
What's left are some touching up with the shadings, mainly between the transition
of the blue thing (don't know what it's called) and the skin\hair.

I edited it.. hope this helps..

Thank you so much! That looks much better.

Belt still has to curve up at both ends in the front view. Also, the face on the front view is a bit cartoonish. No shading around the bottom half. Copy/paste a face if you have to.

Quote from: "Fein"Thank you so much! That looks much better.

Welcome. Although not perfect, you should learn from it.
Study the changes, and wonder why did I change them. Hope I helped.

Also, be sure to follow Asmo. hahaha.

Looking great ^^

Neat stuff.

Thank you both.

Sorry for double post and bump, but I just did my first truly custom portrait.

I did the hair from scratch: 100% original stuff, no copy and pasting, same thing with the turtle neck. I know it has a lot of colors, but I will probably redo it with minimal colors. Anyways: here it is!

(http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1415/feinreal.png)

Quote100% original stuff, no copy and pasting

Good Job.
You need to have strong shades for the hair color. I mean, contrast between the shades.
Nicely done, just change the color of the things (what are they in english?) below the eyes to a skin tone color.

Freckles? Lighter? Darker?

ahhh Freckles? haha.

Try making the darkest shade darker and the lightest shade brighter. (hair)

Alright, I'll do that as well as decrease the amount of colors used in the hair. Also: fixed the freckles, latest is my avatar.

Not sure if I did it right:

(http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8512/feinexp.png)

Yeah that looks great!

I think I finally got it. Whats better the above in the previous post, or the one right here? In this one I made the lightest slightly darker, and the 2nd darkest slightly darker.
(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8512/feinexp.png)

I'd go for the latest one.
Your call.

I was thinking the latest as well. The light on the other was almost pink-ish. Now, I'm off to make the sprite! FFT needs more redheads!

Very nice.

Thank you.

The hair still looks pillow shaded, but that's to be expected when hair is done from scratch.

So, I started making my sprite. I trying to use my limited amount of colors in the best way I could, and I tried to make the boots skin colored. Well, it looked like garbage, but then I figured "Hey, why not make him barefoot?" So, I decided that he would be Fein: The Poor Barefoot Irish Knight. I plan on keeping him barefoot, because I like it that way.

(http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/8512/feinexp.png)

Good start but that black outline between the body and his left arm, remove that/replace with some dark colours instead of black. The hair needs some touch-ups. Looks good though ^^

So, I'm working on the Sprite sheet for my sprite, and i wanted to try it on shishi. I made sure it had 16 colors, and it did. But, Shishi won't let me import the bmp. Can anybody tell me what's wrong?

(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5127/feinfull1.png)

The hair is a little strange on both the sprite and the portrait. He reminds of that guy from Pete and Pete.

Hahahahahaha. I nearly shit myself when you said that. You're right, he does in fact look like the older brother, hahaha.

Yeah, 16 colors, but 256 color depth is needed. Did ya forget that?
Or.. size must be 256x488.

Yup, it needs to be in 256 colours, Fein.

Doh! Alright, thanks guys!

Double Post

So, I was fooling around with a portrait, because I'm not too fond of my current one anymore. Sooo, what do you all think?

(http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8480/feinportraitv2.png)

Nice avatar Fein.

Thanks jimmy.

your avatars ears are bothering me, they either stick out too far or are too thin. makes him look like an elf
otherwise it's pretty good

Fixed the ear. Here's a few sprite concepts as well:

(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9463/feinconcepts.png)

that ear looks much much, nice work on that.
I would choose the second sprite

i would go with the second one too. although the third one isnt without it's charms lolz you should finish these up and submit.

He seems to have last his left eyebrow on the portrait, but it's pretty nice. I personally like sprite 1 and 2; 1 looks the most unique but 2 looks better.

Second one,Mediator with leg armor,not pants

Portrait: I would recommend bringing it all down a pixel or too, seems like a bit too much body is showing and not enough hair/head. It hardly matters though.

Sprite: I'm with the majority on the middle design being the winner. A couple changes to the hair might be needed though. Looks like you missed one lighter hair pixel on the top right of his head that needs to be deleted to make his hair not look so blocky. His hair will still look a bit too much like Malak. Maybe try to add a whispy somewhere to represent the bangs (I'm not sure)? Oh and maybe mix up the arms to different sleeves, just a thought.

This hair looks nothing at all like Malak's. I think it's pretty cool as is.

Looking great, Fein. And yes, second design, definitely ^^

(http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2759/feinconceptsb.png)

Played around with the first version, because it's my personal favorite. Still trying to decide.

That hair for the first one is not bad. Very nice ^^
Also, what's that in his back? Bag? Design?

Design, yeah.

Hmm...perhaps darken it a little? Right now, its hard to see. The colours of that design and the greens are clashing.

Do darken the emblem on his back. I'm really liking the jacket version, after seeing the other views. And the new hair is an improvement too, just make sure you update the portrait to match the sprite. Very nice though, very nice.

Oh great job with the new hair, I like it. The improved design one is looking better. I have to say that I hate hoods and it doesn't seem to match the portrait, but it is your call. I like the design on the back.

the first one in the recent picture above is the best concept i think.

it looks a lot more unique then having another sprite use the mediator outfit.

Yeah, I'm probably going to use the jacketed one. I'll get rid of the hood too probably.

Double post , because nobody notices edits.

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9015/fpnew.png)

In an attempt to match the sprite more. Still doesn't match it too well, but I like the way it turned out. Haha, I noticed the hair on the sprite is going the wrong way as opposed to the portrait, lolololol.

Since the sprite gets mirrored when facing the other direction it doesn't really matter which way you have the hair going. The new hair looks good too, though I kind of prefer the original for some reason.

I too am more partial to the original, I was just trying to make it fit the sprite.

Both look very nice--you used the dark shades very well. I think the second one looks quite nice; it comes off as a bit more unique.

By the second one, do you mean the second one I made, or the second in the order of the above picture?

The second one you made. Sorry about that.

I kinda like the new hair look. Very nice Fein.

Thanks Jimmy. I'm torn on which hair I like more. The last one I made is more original and had a ton more original work than the first portrait, though.

Well, both are looking great. For uniqueness, perhaps that new hair because the first hair, a glimpse of look will know that its Malak based. Though, its your call.
Overall, well done ^^

I dunno if I'd say it's Malak based, it's just not that exciting: too many portraits in FFT are clean cut; let's see a dirty ragamuffin somewhere. And fix his left eyebrow on both portraits.

I like the first one better. (sprite and portrait(latest pic))