Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hi, I'm a new here, and I love what you have done (the hacking and the sprites ^^)

I use this these time, and become interessed by this, so I decided to join you in the forum. SOmetime, I get problems, so it's will be usefull. But this topic is not to present myself ^^

I'm, too, a spriter, but not more good than you all. My problem is this... when I create the sprite, first, I have difficulty to make the palette. Second, when I do one (but this is horrible), I don't know why, but Shishi don't take it. I just hope you can help me to make my creations live

(in other term, I create bodies, but I'm not able to make them move!!!!! T.T)

There is one of my creation, I called the dragon knight. (Also, it's my avatar ^^)



But, about this one, my plan was to have a character with a dragon head in the shoulder (for a dragonic style ^^), so I used the head of Lancer to do this... but it's kind not as I have expected. So I do this one.



So, what you think? 

I think your portrait's eyebrows are too dark and just one color. It looks alright, the ch.2 Ramza crossed with Sephiroth's hair. The sprite looks interesting, but could you please post them from now on at about x3 size? Its so tiny. If you're gonna make new arms, you're sprite is going to take ages to do. You will have to make all those new arms. Why isn't Shishi accepting your sprite? Is it 16 colors? If not open up Graphics Gale and then select All Frames > Color Depth and set it to 4bpp(16 colors), then revert it back to 8bpp(256 colors) and don't change anything color-wise from this point and save as a BMP. Shishi should accept it if it only has 16 colors on a 256 color palette.

There is more big, I know how much this will be hard, I'm just thinking if someone can help me about it.

You think the eyes are not good? I will check this.

The eyebrows, the eyes are okay.The eyebrows are just the darkest color, should be several colors like the hair has. On the character itself, does it have only 16 colors including the black? So the black background (yes this counts as one color) plus 15 on the sprite.

Maybe, it's supposed to be red, but I should make them less dark.

About color, well I don't know how much he as.

Do you have Graphics Gale? You can see with one click how many colors. Download it from here:

http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/

I think there used to be a direct download link on FFH somewhere but I can't find it.

Once you got that installed, obviously open it and your sprite and click Image > Count Colors Used. If its more than 16, do what I wrote before:

QuoteIs it 16 colors? If not open up Graphics Gale and then select All Frames > Color Depth and set it to 4bpp(16 colors), then revert it back to 8bpp(256 colors) and don't change anything color-wise from this point and save as a BMP. Shishi should accept it if it only has 16 colors on a 256 color palette.

Well, there is how advance my projet (finally... I will try to make it, never do this, so why not ^^)

There a difference when changed with your method, Jon. That's not more beautifull, but you think that will work?

I like the concept you are working towards, my issue, besides the obvious, is that the head on his shoulder doesn't have the correct angles, it is only 2 angles repeated for all the frames.

I was working on a similar idea once.  I really wanted a warrior with skull like shoulder pads.  If you want to keep trying something like this, I suggest you adjust the hydra heads.  It will give you a couple extra head angles to play with.

That exactly I was thinking, thank for the advice ^^

I decided to change the head for the hydra one, and it's true it's more beautifull and simple to use. I will post soon the result, and other advice will be good 

Sorry for the double post, I was with an another computer when I have answered, lol.

there is the result.

Okay, so the problem that you have is that your 16 colour version is less pretty, which is true, but unfortunately you need the sprite to be 16 or less for it to show properly in shishi (and in game). So we need to make your 16 colour version look similar to your 32 colour version.

So, I did that for you, and it pretty much looks exactly the same as your original. It basically depends on what method you use to reduce the sprite to 16 colours. Here are some things you should know with sprites:

- The sprite sheet has a palette of 256 colours aligned into 16 rows where each row has 16 colour slots. For Final Fantasy Tactics sprites, the first 8 rows correspond to the sprites palette. But only one row is used for a single sprite's palette, the remaining 7 (of the first 8) are used for alternate palettes. So this means you have to only use 16 colours for the sprite.

- The portrait works in the exact same way as the sprite, however the last remaining 8 rows, i.e. rows 9 to 16, are used for the portrait palettes and alternate palettes.

- The first colour of each of the first 8 rows must be #000000, and the first colour of the last remaining rows (9 to 16) must be #a8a088. In the case you arent using those rows for alternate palettes, just leave them as #000000.

Yes, its extremely important to have this color Twin mentioned, #a8a088, for portraits as the first color in the portrait's palette. Otherwise you will get the dreaded white/light blue line appearing in game. You have to have it at 16 colors, but don't be lazy now, just because it auto adjusts and makes usually the darker colors look weird, like in yours the darkest color is like dark red (not talking about the black background), you should just change it manually to something you're happy with. Always always always work with 16 colors and it is very wise to choose your palette before you begin, that's what I do and I believe almost all spriters on here do like Twin, Kage, etc.

Thank you for your advice, and thank for the model, Twi ^^

But I have some difficulty to understand (I'm a spriter, but it's the first I read that)

But well, there is the result for now. Just miss the most hard job..... the arms...

I try to test this, to see how he is, but shishi doN't accept it (and I have use your method). Please, help!!

Hi, I just wanted to say my project was a disaster, finally. I tried the heads, and that just do something horrible. But don't worry ^^

Even if that do a couple of days I don't have give news of me (school is hard), I continue to work on my sprite. I will change a little his style, like removing the dragon head.

I give result soon ^^

There, I finished my sprites!

But I have problems with the portrait and I don't understand the instruction to fix it, please help me!

For portraits, you'll need a separate color palette on the 8th row.

Check out mav's tutorial for fixing portraits here:

I have do the step (I finally understand it)

That worked... but not as I expected. The colors are messed in my portrait. It seen to have only affect the hairs. What happened?

Sorry for the double post.

I finally fixed the portrait and it now work very well. I'm proud of my work
But I think the colors become different, but that's doesn't matter, as that don't look weird

Now, what I need, is comment