Would like to learn

[LBD]

I'd like to learn how to sprite, so may I ask if there are any programs that make it easier, what resolutions and color depth are best, and some advice for keeping the proportions reasonable? As well as any other advice the regular spriters can think of.

I run a mac, by the way, so that limits my program choice a bit.

[thespaceinvader]

Get GIMP. I think it's available for mac, if you can't afford (or don't want to steal) Photoshop. Beyond that, I suggest you get some mainline sprites and look at them. See how they are constructed, what the lighting is like. Try moving bits of them around to create new units, try making animations. It's difficult to give you advice about how to do such things, without first seeing at what level you are working.

[Blarumyrran]

I use gimp too, but a free graphics program that some of the more professional pixel artists have claimed to use: grafx2 (specifically for pixel-art)

Have no shame in stealing some bodyparts (head, sometimes shoes) from current mainline wesnoth sprites, and then drawing over them - it will likely be difficult to do those from scratch yourself in a way that makes them look consistent with mainline ones.

[Turuk]

Get GIMP. I think it's available for mac,

Just to confirm in case you had not yet checked LBD, it works just great on a mac, I use it on mine.

[LBD]

Alright, I shall use this GIMP then. *Surfs web for download site*

It's free! I figured it was some low budget version of Photoshop, but it one-upped my expectations by being free!

Thanks for the advice guys!

[potatomanjack]

Being a pretty new sprite maker here, one thing that I found was absolutely vital to learning and getting better, was to take all advice on board in the early stages. The people here really know what they're doing, and even if you might not agree with the advice, try it out anyway.Also, Many times, I would think that my sprite was 'good enough' but after a couple of chages and suggestion, I saw just how much further the sprite really could progress.

Making my own sprite from scratch which was a huge step in getting better for me. After frankensteining a couple of sprites, I thought I had things down, but when trying to build my very own sprite, i realised just how much I needed to improve (and still do).

Also, having a mainline sprite (or three) open next to your own sprite is fantastic for giving direction in making your own sprite.

Hope this helps a little bit!

[thespaceinvader]

There are a few generic things now that I think about it:

1: work zoomed in. RIGHT in. I usually work between 600 and 800 per cent zoom, sometimes closer.
2: but also, have a normal scale copy open - GIMP and PS both have features which can show a separate view of the same image in a different scale. IN GIMP this is done from the Images dialogue. This is perhaps somewhat less important for animations, but that's mostly down to the method I use for my blocking, which involves a very large canvas.
3: work with a single pixel, hard-edged, full opacity pencil tool. This is particularly important - our sprite style doesn't use fuzzy, paintbrush-type tools. This is particularly important when applying Team Colour to your sprites.

[Lord Ork]

I didn't know #2, but have missed it a lot when "spriting". Many thanks!

[thespaceinvader]

#2 is more of a time saver than anything else - you should be working up close, but constantly checking the normal scale. You can do this just by scaling in and out (it's easy to set that up to hotkeys in GIMP, and I still use this method for animations, probably shouldn't, but still), but it's quicker and easier to use that sort of tool.

[A-Red]

I don't know about GIMP, but in PS the transparent-background grid goes to exactly one pixel per square at 800% zoom, so that's *always* the zoom I use. Very handy.

[Zerovirus]

Well the only bit of semi-helpful advice I have is never use the pencil tool. (At least in MS Paint.) The line tool can do everything a pencil can and more. With a pencil you have a chance of messing up badly due to outside influence (Little brother goes 'boo' behind your back) and you rip across your hard work, messing it up. Of course you can undo but it's really annoying. With line, though, you can control it more because you know the start and end points. Even if I just semi-accidentally disagreed with thespaceinvader.

I'm pretty sure I do all my sprites in pure linetool. That zoom tip is so useful- Pity I didn't know that before...

[Blarumyrran]

Well the only bit of semi-helpful advice I have is never use the pencil tool. (At least in MS Paint.) The line tool can do everything a pencil can and more. With a pencil you have a chance of messing up badly due to outside influence (Little brother goes 'boo' behind your back) and you rip across your hard work, messing it up. Of course you can undo but it's really annoying. With line, though, you can control it more because you know the start and end points. Even if I just semi-accidentally disagreed with thespaceinvader.

I'm pretty sure I do all my sprites in pure linetool. That zoom tip is so useful- Pity I didn't know that before...

Im sure thats really useful as long as you draw magical air conditioners

But the default transparency grid is certainly annoying in gimp, i imagine its roughly the same in PS, why would you draw your stuff on transparent backgrounds instead of i dunno, a wesnoth terrain or solid color

[Zerovirus]

Hey! I like my magical air conditioners! They're really helpful yannow, it's summer after all. And they double as (magical, 3-12) Cold Wave shooting guards in case of fire elementals. You can never be too prepared for fire elementals and velociraptors.

I used to have PS and I hated the grid too.

[Jetrel]

1] Learn to draw in general.

Most of the skills involved in doing great sprite art are not exclusive to any art medium; they're things that are just as fundamental to painting, airbrushing, pencil art, mosaics ... anything.

You need to understand anatomy.
You need to understand shading.
You need to understand perspective.
You need to understand visual psychology (e.g. the way the mind filters what it sees, and selectively ignores/distorts the perception of things).

The good news is that all of these (especially the first 3) are not "artsy", intangible fields of speculation and contradictory opinions. Instead, they're hard science. You can learn them with confidence that they are relevant, they will be useful, and they won't be subject to interpretation or fashion. They're simply how reality works. (even mondrian and purely abstract art bows before the efficacy of visual psychology.)

Sprite art is really just a set of special tricks to render drawings with pixels, but sprite art won't be any good if the above 'cardinal principles' aren't being done well. All forms of drawing are taking a 'virtual/imaginary image/scene' and rendering some representation of it. The specifics of pixel are are just some really frivolous tricks to make the act of drawing look good when you're working with the specific limitations of the medium. But absolutely, positively, the vast, vast majority of what makes any sprite art good has nothing to do with whether it's pixel art or not - it just has to do with more general principles of drawing/painting.

[thespaceinvader]

Well the only bit of semi-helpful advice I have is never use the pencil tool. (At least in MS Paint.) The line tool can do everything a pencil can and more. With a pencil you have a chance of messing up badly due to outside influence (Little brother goes 'boo' behind your back) and you rip across your hard work, messing it up. Of course you can undo but it's really annoying. With line, though, you can control it more because you know the start and end points. Even if I just semi-accidentally disagreed with thespaceinvader.

I'm pretty sure I do all my sprites in pure linetool. That zoom tip is so useful- Pity I didn't know that before...

Two things on this: working zoomed in will improve it, and that's what UNDO is for. I know paint has godawful undo history (what is it, 6 operations...) but that's why a higher-end program is useful. Even on the very rare occasions I use paint, the pencil tool is my choice.

Another thing that's worth saying, once you're starting to get the hang of your higher-end program is: USE LAYERS. Once you get good enough, they can become less useful (i know Jet doesn't use them much), but i still find them invaluable, particularly with animations. They mean you can do non-destructive editing (duplicate, edit, and if you like the results, merge back down), easily reposition things which are z-ordered behind or in front of other things, easily do shadows for an animation en masse (if, like me, you work your animations in one big sheet) etc etc etc. I still find them extremely useful.