Final Fantasy Hacktics

Watch the paint work!!

Now that I have the catchphrase out of the way...

Here is where I will be working on sprites of any kind, including facial expressions and such that don't exactly have anything to do with the in-game portraits, but still have SOMETHING to do with FFT. c: Here will be a clean list of what I have finished, where it is, and what else I'll be working on.

Finished- Full Sprites:

*Aida the Cleric (OC) (On this post)
(Thank you, Celdia, for helping me with the portrait~ <333)

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Ideas/To do:

*Isabella the Chocohume (OC)
*Stella (http://asset.103.ggftw.net/wiki/to-w/images/3/31/Stella.png) (Trickster Online)
*Mireru (http://asset.103.ggftw.net/wiki/to-w/images/2/23/Mireru_big.png) (Trickster Online)
*Mercury (http://asset.103.ggftw.net/wiki/to-w/images/7/78/Mercury_big.png) (Trickster Online)
*Mars (http://asset.103.ggftw.net/wiki/to-w/images/f/fa/Mars_big.png) (Trickster Online)

I like the colors personally but in before everyone else "not fft colors"

Quote from: Mando on May 14, 2011, 12:52:54 am
I like the colors personally but in before everyone else "not fft colors"

Beat me to the punch. :evil: An excellent first sprite, but, like Mando said, it's too bright. Needs an fft palette. Glad to see we have a new spriter here, though. Looking forward to your upcoming work!

Red, you have an account on Deviant Art, right? I could swear I saw this portrait you use with many expressions and the sprite as well. There was also another Bard-like character with many expressions. Anyway, portrait needs some work on hair, the strand on our left is too linear, and as you see head is leaning a bit to the side, try to fix the allingment. About colors, take them from FFT all the time, heh.

First of all: I knew they weren't FFT colors. xD;; I was using Graphicsgale palette to figure out what colors to use for her and it ended up that they were going to be a light orange and a light pink. I'll remember to use the colors from now on~ I mean, I would love to see it published on the site, but if not, I can always make a V2.

Second: The hair. Yeah, I was having trouble on that stuff. I know I need work on it. OTL Like I said though, V2! 8D;;

Third: The bard character. I know who it is. :3 It's a character named Edward. That's what I based the expressions off of. X3

Good job,Red. Well, the hair in the portrait looks too linear as Kage said,you should use as reference Teta/Tietra's hair. And the sprite is a great work but the arms in the frontal frame look odd to me.

Considering its your first thing, Bravo!
But the FFT style is hard to conform to. We are going
to be picky.

Welcome. Good start, but a couple things: your shading on the pink part of the skirt is too flat, the pinks and orange look too similar, so it's hard to tell that those are two different pieces of cloth in some poses, and there's some weird line on her hair on all the diagonal poses (on our left, her right).

As for the portrait, aside from the linear side on our left, the right side is choppy and flat. Look back at the female Oracle and basically any long-haired sprite for ideas on how to patch that up.

Good work, welcome aboard.

I like the orange on the sprite myself.. the fuschia should be changed to better distinguish it from the orange. the portrait indeed needs work; the black pixel on the oracle hat bugs me a bit and the reds are way too saturated for a portrait. Also as everyone else said about the hair.
I greatly suggest to any new spriter that you thoroughly check every frame in shishi's using a magnification program and use the yellow boxes to guide you in your clean ups and edits.

Ah, so you're the lady who made that expression portrait? I planned to use that as a template for expressions in a project of my own. I am glad to see that you joined us after all! I do hope that you are good at managing with criticisms though, as long as you're able to conform to this particular style in the end I am sure you will have a long stay with us.

On closer inspection I've also noticed that you have shared on shade between the pink and the orange for shading purposes. Look at the bow for an example of what I'm talking about. Although it's good to share colors between your palette, doing it here has been counterproductive. What's happened is that you can no longer tell where the orange ends and the pink begins. This is going to make adding new palettes for this sprite tough (if you plan on making additional palettes, which you totally should). Consider using one of the shades from the hair for some of the orange shadows. I was messing with this sprite and decided to replace the pinks with Teta's purples and it looks pretty interesting, aside from the shading on the bow.

Anyways, keep at it.

Out of topic, but mav, do you read your pms? :S

No I don't think this is the same person who created those portraits. I've  seen the other version on DA by a boy named Edward or were the ports of Edward. Anyhow it's a different individual. The person who did those expressions has also made more just lately. More custom than the ones you posted in Mercenaries Lasting Dawn.
Anyhow nice work so far. Better than I've done. That's why I haven't posted.

yes.. this person:
http://tehalmightykoh.deviantart.com/ (http://tehalmightykoh.deviantart.com/)

Ah, the idea was never fully put into effect... we only had four basic expressions for a few of the main characters in the end, we thought that would suffice, I am only saying that I took the idea of expression based on event from that person's ideas. Considering FFT rarely ever uses it and it is mostly used to show an injury or something similar at the time.

Though my mistake, I saw Edward the Bard and as I recall it was similar concept to the other person on deviantart.

Thank you for your feedback and such! I'm glad you guys aren't giving "dickism", which is what I will not tolerate. >< But anyway, I'll be sure to make a V2 when I can. X3

@mav: May I see your version. ;w; It must look really nice! <3

Anyway, I have been working on Mercury's portrait. Truthfully, I'm very very iffy about the hair... To me, it looks too poofy, but his hair is supposed to be like that.... >< Here, I'll post it up to see what you think: This time, I did use FFT palettes, so it looks more like the original game. c:

In .png to keep the colors for now. I was lazy and pasted it on Paint. ><

Top left blend in a bit more it transitions to fast from light to dark.

Lighten up the edges of scarf/neck makes it pop too much.


I like this portrait though! Very good  :) Can't wait to see the sprite!!!

o_O How did I miss the part of the scarf on the back of his neck!? OTL

And about the hair, not all of it was pasted on. I've gotten the hair from Chapter 2-3 Ramza and used Altima's 1st form's hair color to make Mercury's hair color. I just started to add with it to make Mercury's hair. Unfortunately, I didn't get there. I'm still getting the hang of epicly spriting something. I'm getting better, yeah? ;w;

But anyway, I'll get on that~ I'll post it once again when I get the fixes done. c:

EDIT: Finished with the changes! I hope they are better than the last! <3 *is now iffy about the scarf. FFFFFFFF*

No doubt your getting better ^^; I didn't mean you actually "pasted" it on... just a figure of speech in a sense where it pops out too much and doesn't seem blended in with the rest of the hair.

However yes I do like what you are doing with this sprite!

The trick to custom sprites is finding the balance between the FFT style and the reference/character art you are going by.

@Mando: ;w; I'm sorry about the misunderstanding. I just wanted to point that out. xD

@GeneralStrife: You are right, and I am doing that, but it's so hard. ;A: But I'll get the hang of it~ <3

Quote from: RedWorld on May 16, 2011, 06:38:32 pm
@mav: May I see your version. ;w; It must look really nice! <3

Sure. See the attachment. It's just a quick palette change. Zoom in on the bow to find the error spot.

looks more like two separate pieces now; look good. Glad you kept the orange tone.

love the sprite, FFT needs more "spring" and "summer" style'd sprites like this one.  im bored of FFT's overall "autumn" look. just touch up the portraits hair and its all in the clear ^.^ more more more :D

Mercury's portrait has way too big hair IMO, poofy like you said. It should be sized similiarly to the hair on Mav's avatar. Since it is in character design, try making face wider and longer, that way hair will hide in the corners and make it less poofy. It's a great design though.

Ahh mav! The purple looks awesome! X3 I will have to look into further making this sprite better~ <333

@Kagebunji: I KNEW IT!!!! XwX Well thanks for the tip. I'll do that. X3

Hah, nice to hear that, Red. If you need help with your palette, let me know. I've spent more than my fair share of time working on FFT palettes (some custom, some not).

Anyways, this new portrait isn't too bad. It can be fixed up pretty dang easily. The first think you need to do is de-poof the hair (which you can pull off by erasing the part on our right and by bringing the top down like three pixels and the left part to the right two pixels). Then just give him a more kiddish looking face (just move the bottom half of his face up a pixel and give him a very light smirk) and then work on his scarf thing so it matches the art a little more closely.

Good luck.

Haha! Thanks Mav! I hope I can follow what you're trying to tell me! ^^;; But I'll try my best~ <3

EDIT: Alright! I did what you said and you're right! It looks a lot better. X3 But I'm really iffy about the scarf now... Mind giving me the probs?

I am not certain about those outlines in the upper left corner, you could try to soften it. Also, smiles don't really fit in FFT, it is fine for an avatar though. About the scarf, well I am sure Mav, Twin or Lijj have better suggestions.

Haha! I'm not so sure myself. I would love to try to do better Kage, but I'm not exactly sure what to do. I hope Lijj and co. will help me on Mercury! ;3;

In the meantime, welcome Isabella! Check her out and tell me what you think so far. c:

Nice sprite,Red. It's really cute but the dress and hair look flat.

Thank you Wolf! c: I do agree a bit and I'm trying to figure out what else I should do to make her look better. Any suggestions, guys?

Here's some advice: take parts from existing sprites and always be aware that a yellow palette is excruciating to pull off. Trust me, I re-paletted every generic sprite and yellow was almost always the most problematic (but it could look pretty badass when done right).

As for criticisms, well, Wolf said it all.

Which I've been doing. xD I actually got some of the colors from all of the FFT sprites, which should be alright. But I've been using Paint.NET once again (since GraphicsGale doesn't support multiple selecting) and nothing can always look perfect. ;w;

I was thinking why don't put some feathers like the chocobo's tail afterall she's a chocohume. And about the pallete I think is a good idea to use the chocobo's one.

Hmm... You are right. o: I should recolor it. c:

I did try to put the chocobo's tail on her, which is why if you zoom in upon it, there will be a few random lines behind her, and I did get the tail from the chocobo sprite. Should I make more of it show then or...?

Could make it bigger, lol.

FFFFFFFFFFFF True. Well, I just edited it and I don't believe it looks as flat as it used to, but I'll let you guys decide. X3

I also uploaded one at 200%, so look at that one as well.

It's not that bad....where the hair meets the shoulders it looks strange....could be cause its a straight line. Should wait for one of the pro spriters to give more input on that, I'm a substandard one. Lol.

IMO the blonde and yellow clash way too much, makes the sprite kinda boring. Either try making it black or brown(the hair of course).

EDIT: I would also be careful with the chocobo tail, it might be tricky to properly implement. I am sure unmasked Mime from main page can be a good reference. As to the straight lines near the top of the arms, just erase the ones at the edges with second brightest shade of hair.

D'aaaaaaawwwww~ But her hair is blonde. D': Ahh well, guess you can't have everything you want in a sprite. xD I'll try to darken it, but at the same time, keep it blonde. Somehow. x.x;;

Hmm... Thanks for the input. X3 I'll be sure to take a look at the unmasked mime as I go along. c:

EDIT: I finished with recoloring! I did as you said, Kage, and tried both a darker blonde and a brown. I rather keep the blonde, but I want to see what you guys think as of now. In the first one, I colored the boots yellow because I didn't think the darker blonde color would work well on the boots. ><

The legs look way too pointed inward... like she just had something smack her butt or something >.>

also its way too pillow shadded. in the clothes/ armor yellow will be too hard look at the skin color on the top shoulder and where the dress part stats... hard to tell its even different.

Now... if it was RAFA skin tone with a better shaded outfit... would be cool

Lastly you should stick those feather up in the back... i'm warning you right now your movement frames will be very awkward

FFFFFFFFFFFFF Well, you're right on that. Then again, I used the mime's legs, which look inward themselves. This shouldn't be a very hard fix. c:

You're right on that... I'm gunna try to fix it then. That too shouldn't be too hard, but yet...

Right. I was kinda iffy about the back feathers myself. Dunno exactly where to put them, but I'll find out where! ;w;

Like I said, be very careful with the feathers, I wouldn't add them at all tbh. Definitly the brown version, it realle contrasts well with yellow dress. I really don't like criting forward frames when in designing stage, perhaps you have forward side view done? It would be easier that way, since forward frames tend to look weird, hehe.

Right, but then she wouldn't be a Chocohume. D': She would be like, a Chocobo Knight or something. xD;; But yeah, I always work on the front frames first. It's as if I'm looking right at it and I'm creating something awesome. X3 But anyway...

Here's another one. I tried outlining the outfit in a more darker color to contrast with the skin. Don't know if it looks well to you elite spriters, but check it out! X3

Hmm, mando's suggestion of Rafa's skin tone is good tbh. Maybe try it, just to see how it would look? Once you made the skin dark like Rafas, there would be no problems at all.

Right. I slightly disagree, but zoomed in, I felt more content. Check it out and let me know. c:

rofl, rafa skin tone looks weird.

That is a really bad suntan :\. I like more pale and blondie btw archer boots +10 :D

Ugh blonde hair + dark skin doesn't work redworld. Is that some weave action she has going on?

Try using a different Chocobo palette (i.e. black Chocobo, Red Chocobo) with your original skin-tone until you get the sprite done. You can create a working yellow palette later--right now it's just gonna waste your time.

Lol, is Rafa's skin that dark? I thought it was brighter, oh well. I would stay with Mav here, just continue with the sprite and leave palette till you are finished.

Right, right. I would deal with the palette last, even though it probably isn't a good idea. I agree with the lighter tone. It looks a lot better. ;w; But yeah, I was thinking about using generic chocohume as well, so I was going to start on different colors and designs as well, seeing how they turned out. c: I'll try to work on one today and see what you think. X3

EDIT: Finished the Red Chocohume! I used a generic archer and a dancer's arms to get more of a "semi revealing" costume feel. Check it out!

Hey, I like that. Red hair ftw.

I'm glad you like it! ^w^ Hmm... Should I use the same character to make a normal and black chocohume or should I use different? c:

If you would use your previous dress over Archer's one, and made a different hair(not Archer's), it would win.

You know what? I think you are right. :'D

I did one of the red chocohume, using the dancer's hair as a guide-ish. Her bangs also come down as well, so I hope you enjoy! X3

(Though I think I should've used the red for the hair from the previous one...)

Ridiculously flat shading. And don't make the hair and clothes the same color. It's just a bad idea.

Yeah, I was iffy on that too. >< But I'll have you know that I just fixed it! Check it out! <3

I see some pillows! Pillow shading :/ look at how the original archer's body was that's what the shading was like on it. It might be wise that once you finish this sprite take an unfinished one and work on it that way your not tempted by your own ideas and see proper shading.

I by no means have made a sprite yet outside edge concept, but I think everyone has gone through the small steps phase.


I decided to be nice and play with it. Your sprite was flat because your coloring I don't think was originally 16 colors... also you wasted like 2 colors because the streak in the hair looked more of a flesh tone than the face did so I combined those 2 colors to give you a 3rd color to use for the body dress.

Play with it some more now and fix hair/legs

Dont worry about the front view too much right now, show us a front diagonal view so we can comment further. You may even end up wanting to change the design or colours after you have fiddled around with it.
I like where this sprite is heading, keep it up.

Right, what twinees said is true. Also not that  shading on the bottom of the dress is very imporant. I assume you want a "feathered" look. I'm not saying what edit I made is a feathered look but its heading in that direction. Also don't forget you still have 1 spare color as I told you on irc yesterday.

I would use that last spare color for the hair, so it wont be flat. That would give you around 3 hair colors, 3 for the dress I think your using about 3-4 skin ton then 3 for the feet. Of course and playing your cards right with the brown on the feet/legs you could share some with skin tone.  I would suggest darkening the shading just a bit where hands meet thighs. (Thats just me though)

Thanks for the words of encouragement~ <3 I'll do my best to keep working on it. In the meantime, there are more projects to be done! (9owo)9

EDIT: Meanwhile, I started to work on a fresh portrait and then started to fix Mercury's. The fresh one was supposed to be the Light Mage, which I used Micaiah's Radiant Dawn portrait. c: Basically, what it is is Altima's head with a Time Mage's bangs. I wasn't too good with the scarf part, but... Speaking of scarves, I THINK I fixed Mercury's! :D

BTW, about the palette, I finally figured out that I do more colors on purpose. When I do edit sprites and portraits, the colors from the previous sprites usually stay on or aren't detected and I use a program called Usenti to reduce the colors before I save. And they actually look really good. X3

Anyway, I give you a Light Mage and Mercury (once again)!

Those look sweet

front hair of mercury's hair doesn't look right look at the top... the outline isn't closed in and that shading in contrast to the real dark part, is too dark compared to the front of it... I do understand the whole "the source of light" but that is still a bit off.

Thanks for the input guys! Yeah, I'm not the god of knowing how to shade. xD;; But I will learn slowly, but surely! I promise you, Mando! ;w; <3

EDIT: (Wanted to do this because when I went to different forums, double posting was prohibited. FFFFFFFF)

I'll be going home in the morning tomorrow. I've got a hell of a lot of things to do, like go to a friend's birthday party and a graduation party, and hang out with my crush who I know I will never get. XP But at home, I have another monitor that I can use and not only will I be able to chat with you guys VIA IRC, but I will also be able to sprite without distractions and such. I also have a lazy eye and with this monitor, I will be able to see the sprites a lot better, which is probably why my sprites are so horrible. LOL! So starting tomorrow, probably around night time, I will be able to sprite much more than I have. c: I will also try to sprite on the plane as much as I can, just as long as my brain can take the tiredness. XP

RED! We're LOSING HER! GET THE DEFIBRILLATORS!
(http://www.uemtc.org/wp-content/uploads//2011/02/ii_defibrillator.gif)

OH LAWRD!!!!!!

LOL! I haven't been inspired lately. xD;; But anyway, I'm finishing the Gambler one (forgot who the design was by) and I'm having a bit of trouble. ><

I also found errors on Aida, so I'm going to have to make a second version. :'D Have you ever put her in the game and noticed her shoulders? They show signs of Reis' shoulders and it must be fixed. I'm also going to fix the bow so it doesn't look retarded. xD

EDIT: And so I did! I also fixed a few other problems that went along with it, like the color of the pink and orange. I'm sure you'll find it to be much better, even though it still may not be 16 colors just yet. (I worked on my old PNG, so...)

Just a bit of shading on top of shoulders and near hands (sleeves) and that looks amazing the subtle transition from the orange/pink is awesome.

I like your gutsy choice of colors yesh. This would be a cool ovelia replacement

PFFFFFTPFPTTPFPTT I didn't post for a while because the number of replies was on 69.  :lol: LOL! j/k

I just haven't been in the mood to be very artsy, especially as of late. I think it's depression, but I dunno. >< Also the fact that I've been busy for a while, so I had to get off or whatever.

But I'm spriting a bit again and this time, I actually found something besides my OCs that I want to sprite! I found this image on Pixiv and I thought it looked awesome enough to be a sprite. >w< Here's a portrait. I know it looks rusty. Also the fact that I used Photoshop this time around. c:

Good job, well I don't know who it's supposed to be but the portrait looks good....except I'm not sure what is goin on at the base of the neck, if thats a piece of clothing under the purple scarf colored like her skin or she has a weird neck disease.

YES. SHE HAS NECK CANCER AND IT WON'T BE CURED AT ALL. LOL!

No, I actually noticed that last moment and I need to fix it. >< I'll probably go and do that soon. xD

EDIT: Just a minor fix. LOL! I might've messed up a few things but oh well~

Okay yeah, much better. No more alma disease.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF Yeah, that wouldn't be good. xD

Anyway! I was bored tonight and did her map sprite as well. I know it doesn't look too awesome, but meh. I'm tired. Give me some slack. xD

It's hard for me tosee what is on the bottom part of the sprite, it is a skirt I think, but it is too low for a skirt, as if it started on her knees. Perhaps make it a little higher.

I should've posted a picture of her, but she has a triangle-like skirt and then she has a longer pink skirt underneath. I know it doesn't look too well, but ehh. XP

I would post a picture, right now there is quite alot going on in the sprite.

you need to change the color of the skirt and remove the mini red triangles at the bottom of the shirt(the red looking ones) or it will not look good :|

Probably a good idea GS. LOL! Well, here it is. (Big picture warning)



Besides, it wasn't anything important. It was just a semi-practice/boredom. xD

Beautiful. ^.^

Wow, amazing picture.

My finds seem to always be amazing when I look on Pixiv. X3 I bet someone has already stole my idea on a chocohume on there already! D< I'll go and look for fun in a bit. xD

Fun time over? :P
I really would like to see your whitemage sprite finished, She looks great!

Quote from: st4rw4k3r on February 10, 2012, 08:33:09 pm
Fun time over? :P
I really would like to see your whitemage sprite finished, She looks great!

Ditto. Awesome concept you found there, RedWorld.

Alright guys! I'm back to spriting! >D I've missed you guys so much!! *huggles everyone* But that's for another day!

This week, I'll be a bit busy, taking care of my almost intolerable nephews, but for a long time, I've wanted to do a concept sprite of a Homestuck character. The reason why I did this was because in Homestuck, the zodiac represents trolls and maybe one day, I'll reenact Homestuck with a patch, one like you've never seen! But once again, it's for another day!

This sprite is an exclusive for now, and when I'm done with my concept of monster humes and new characters for the patch I'm making, then I shall make a full sheet! But for now, enjoy John! :D I'll be working on some other sprites later, especially Isabella!

I'm glad you're back! Especially cause your posting sprites! Can't wait to see more characters.

did u ever finish the redchocohume ? i love it and would so like to see it on the site for everyone to use