Judge Sprite - Opinions?..Please?

[Azul]

So I was told if you want something sprite-wise done, you have to do it yourself. I'm a total novice and have no idea what I'm doing. Nonetheless, this is what I've come up with any suggestions, comments and/or concerns? (I know it's small..sorry. I guess I could blow it up if someone wanted me to?)

[Asmo X]

Post a version that is twice as big please.

[Jon]

I can see that it lacks shading. Post it double as large. Also, post the 2 most important frames - the front side frame and the back side frame, the 2 that get used the most in FFT.

[VampragonLord]

great going on the effort! and its got some definite shape to it started, but it needs work on the shading. Post a larger version (x2 or x3 is the general concensus) so we can see it more clearly. Commissions/requests are still completed, but generally only if somebody has none of their own projects going on/is looking for an idea. Many people are also a lot more willing to help if somebody else has at least started it on their own (some spriters may offer to touch up a sprite/help with a particular pose, but the task of making  an entire sprite simply cause one person "wants it" is a bit daunting). good luck, i look forward to how this progresses!

[Azul]

Well I worked on the shading, I did some recolouring of the body and cape. The helmet still needs work. And I haven't spent a lot of time on it. But pretty much have a sprite sheet of it, however it has ramza's head in most of it for now..as I said..not really so good at this whole thing.

[Jon]

This shouldn't be too hard considering there is an existing Judge sprite in FFTA style. Just imitate the helmet there with FFT shading.

[Azul]

This was my initial thought. However going back to the, "I'm not very good at this" thing..I'll post the helmetless sheet after I clean it up a bit. But I also have no idea how to go about a portrait...

[Jon]

I guess thats okay, you can post the sheet, but cut out the first 5 frames and post them double size so we can see it clearly please.

[Azul]

Here is the Weiss (ff7 dirge of Cerberus) sprite I was working on. Let me know if I should change something. I have a half ass portrait..but I"m getting there..

As well as the ramza headed judge..it has the two sprites with the helmet I did. the issue being I have no idea how to make a good looking helmet. I tried to create a Cecil mock with the helmet's horns flipped. Didn't go well so I gave up.

[Jon]

That cape looks so familiar, is it Lijj's by any chance? As for Weiss, its really badly colored, I see random blues and the yellows are way to bright due to saturation. Try to always use existing colors from the game. That would put you on the right track color wise. Also, you probably didn't know this so its not your fault, but always post files on here as pngs because jpegs or anything else become a bit gritty. The concepts are good, try changing the colors first and look at helmets from all kinds of games besides FFT, like Tactics Ogre for example. Good luck!

[GeneralStrife]

That's balmafula's cape.

[Azul]

Yeh something about Weiss got messed up? The colouring was better. I'll see if I can't fix that and re-upload it. And I'll be sure to post as png. Also, how do I know what colours exist in the game for me to utilize? When I tried to import Weiss into the sprite editor he went all funny colours..Likely due to not using game colours. I editted these up in CS2, so the colours were just what were produced from that.

Also, it's the cape the was on the female redmage (I think it is balmafula's).

[Jon]

The colors you can get by exporting a bmp with shishi, then use those. Hope this helps.

[Azul]

Heres the (hopefully) correct Weiss Sprite. I really don't know what colours I get from exporting a bmp from shishi. I mean am I supposed to export a bunch and built a colour pallet from that? ://

[Jon]

You need more shades of gray in the hair. Also a darker outline on the bottom part of the hair. Which hair did you base this on?

[Azul]

The one used for Vincent Valentine. I was thinking of adding sheaths to the back of his pants, but I don't really know how to go about it. Any ideas? Also, any thoughts on how to do up a helmet for the judge? Do you want me to re-upload that as a .png too?

[Jon]

I dunno man, thats up to you if you wanna reupload it. Don't make sheathes for the back of his pants, it'll look bad in FFT. Its late for me, so my final tip is that you look at a lot of female unit's hair and imitate how the shading is done, or just figure out how to get 1 or 2 more colors of gray in there. Is Weiss the same guy as your avatar? Are you sure he has long hair? If he does, you might want to look at the Sephiroth sprite for shading and color ideas. That is Zozma's Beserker as a base I assume? It is a good solid choice to work on. I think if you don't give up and really work hard on this (sprites aren't made over night, they can take days, so be patient and chip away), I believe you will have a nice sprite in the end. One very last thing, you can only have 16 colors, so check on CS2 by the Save for Web trick, it shows you how many colors you have in your palette. If you have no idea what I am talking about, tomorrow I will help you clean this up if you want my help Alright, I gotta roll...

[Azul]

Thanks Jon. Yay for having taken at least a few courses on how to run Photoshop. I'm going to see if I can't find that Save for web trick thing...

[Azul]

So I found the 16 colour thing. And after setting that up, it uploaded with the right colours into shishi. However, when I was looking though the frames and animation I had an issue. See? (it's a type 1, but I wanted to see if type 2 made a difference. Do you know if it's just that the back ground doesn't match the transparency colour? And that if I fix that it should be fine? Maybe?

[Twinees]

Azul, to fix this, go 'image -> mode -> indexed colour -> palette, change it to local (selective).
That should make it so the black colour, used as transparency, is first on the palette (and will fix your probelm ).