Zigg's Sprites

[Zigg]

This is my new sprite thread.

[Archanix]

It's either too narrow or too tall, and the left shoulder seems to be too high. You also might want to consider lower and/or spacing the shield a little bit. Other than that, it looks like it could be a good starts for a nice UMC unit.

[Crendgrim]

[non-artist-comment]
I think there are way too many different colors, and too much contrast between very little areas. This makes the shield very hard to see, and the whole sprite hard to read. I cannot say for sure where exactly the head is...
[/non-artist-comment]


Crend

[Zigg]

Better?

[Archanix]

Much. But now the shield looks too small, and comparing the left arm with what the right arm would be like, the right arm is too small or scrunched in. For this unit, I think a tower shield might work better.

And I think the height problem is that you might have the legs a little too small as well. Try fixing that, and also consider making the body a little less blocky. Straight lines are a no-go for most units.

Other than that, the shoulder looks better placed, and the mask gives it that assassin-like look. I'm not sure if this is what you are aiming for, but it looks good.

[Zigg]

The Tower Shield doesn't really suit his style - he's a Knight, not Legionairre.

But I made a new guy.

[Archanix]

The archer looks great!

He is missing the shadow, though, and what is he wearing? Armor or clothes? With all black, it's a bit hard to tell.

[BlackJack25]

In my opinion, the archer looks pretty good. The Knight, instead, is a little confused. I mean, the shield or the head aren't clear. I can't see the sprite clearly. But afterall, you are pretty good in spriting

[Zigg]

The Archer is wearing Black Clothes. And I think that the Knight is at the best I can get it without re-doing the whole thing. And I can't do shadows

[BlackJack25]

Maybe if you adjust only the shield and the face I think it will be good.
For the shadows!

[Zigg]

I'm working in Paint, so that doesn't help.

[Great_Mage_Atari]

Archer looks ok, but the right foot (left from our perspective) looks like it's at an awkward angle.

[Trubbol]

I know your pain dude, paint is pretty much useless for anything but it's all I got currently.

[Shinobody]

But GIMP is free...?

[Archanix]

Paint lacks the ability to use 'real' shadows and a few other things seen in most units, but in truth, paint can be nearly as effective as any other program. I think the biggest problem is because of it's set of basic colors, and the lack of both reading and creating a transparent layer. (Just try to import a Wesnoth unit into Paint and see what happens. )

I myself use IcoFX to create the unit, and follow up with GIMP if I need to add any effects (such as glow or anything like that). Both programs are free and take little practice to use effectively. But paint is a fairly nice way to start spriting.

However, if you get into semi-transparent units (such as ghosts), magic effects (such as the Halo effect some units have), or wide lighting (such as torches), paint will prove useless. For now, paint is all you need. But I suggest you look at getting a program that can handle transparency.

Along with IcoFX and GIMP, I also found Photoshop useful and (believe it or not) Game Maker 8.0. It contains a couple features that I haven't seen in any other program, such as two-color swap and color removal.

For now, though, stick with paint. Placing a plain grey or black color in replacement of the shadow will prove as a fairly nice substitute for 'real' shadows. You only need to worry about these more... erm, 'advanced' features in the future.