Spriting 101

[Pink-kitty2]

I've noticed a few people not knowing quite how to sprite, and remember the same issue last year. As such, I thought it might be nice to have a little tutorial on how to sprite.

Placeholder for actual tutorial once I get some time off work and school. Until then, regard this link; http://www.freewebs.com/howtosprite/

Relatively old site. I remember it from when I first started spriting. As such, some of the links are dead, and some of the images too, but there's enough there to learn how to sprite.

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Contents:
1. What Is Spriting?
2. What Types Of Spriting Techniques Are There?
i. Splices/Mixes/Fusions
ii. Recolours
iii. Trainer Cards
iv. Pokemon Pokeballs and Pokemon Eggs



1. What Is Spriting?

Spriting, when used in the Southlands, generally refers to the editing or creating of a bitmap image, generally related to a game. Specifically, Pokemon.

2. What Types Of Spriting Techniques Are There?

There are a myriad of different types of spriting out there, so this tutorial will only a few of them. Whilst these are the most common styles, there are many others, and you can even be original with your sprites.

[Pink-kitty2]

i. Splices/Mixes/Fusions

This is where you combine two Pokemon together. A typical request form would look like;

Base Pokemon: Voltorb
Other Pokemon: Tentacool

The first step to splicing is to get the two sprites you need. I tend to swear by The Spriter's Resource, so I'll get them from there. You should always use sprites from the game itself, or else you're ripping someone else's sprites.



Here are the two sprites, happy and together.

Next we start the colouring. Some people make a nice big colour chart and everything, with a grid for each colour on each sprite. I am lazy. I do not use the nice big colour chart. I take the lightest colour of one sprite, and paintfill it onto the lightest colour of the other sprite, like so;



Then continue working down the shading scale. The next lightest colour goes on the next lightest colour, and so on, until you get;



After that, choose some defining details of the other pokemon. I chose the tentacles and the jewel things. Cut them off the sprite and mold (shut up. I can't think of a better word) them onto the base sprite. Tidy it up a bit, and you have your spliced guy.

[Pink-kitty2]

ii. Recolours

This one is fairly self-explanatory. It's one of the first steps of Splicing two sprites, and typically follows the same thing. Except you stop half-way. Typical request form is similar to the Splicing form.

Base Pokemon: Dusclops
Other Pokemon: Tropius

Here are the sprites;



This time both sprites have two colours! So I'm going to choose one of each colour to match with the other pokemon. In this case, I'm making the light grey match with the green and the dark grey match with the brown. So here it is with the green finished.



And here it is all finished. Doesn't he look so happy?

[Pink-kitty2]

iii. Trainer Cards

For this tutorial, I am using templates found at http://www.neopets.com/~Jolteon55_2000. All of what is covered here is also covered there.

A typical form will be something along the lines of;

Background number: 1 (preferably there'd be a listing of all the background with numbers next to each of them)
Name: Kitsa
Pokemon: Geodude, Graveler, Geodude, Onix, Vulpix, Steelix
Badges: Kanto
Trainer Sprite: Custom (I'll be using one of my old trainer sprites, a lazy recolour, )

The first thing you need to do is get the background. Here's mine;



The next step is to put together all your Pokemon. Here are there ones I have chosen, all happy;



Next copy one of the rectangle things and erase all of the stuff inside it, making an identical but empty rectangle.



Place the Pokemon inside.



Drag the Rectangle and the Pokemon together so that they line up with the original rectangle.



Repeat with all the other Pokemon. If any don't fit into the rectangle, crop them. For the love of god, don't resize them. Ever. EVER.



Add the other things, including the Trainer, the Name, and the Badges.



As a good final touch, if you lack the ability to make parts of a picture transparent, you can make the corners the same colour as the background of the webpage you're posting it on.

[Pink-kitty2]

iv. Pokemon Pokeballs and Pokemon Eggs

Both of these are pretty simple, so they should be able to be done in one post.

Pokemon Pokeballs

These are essentially what they're called. They are Pokeballs that have been edited to resemble certain Pokemon. The request form would look like;

Pokemon: Pikachu

Simple, ne? So, first we need a Pokeball sprite. Hey, here's one!



Next we need our Pokemon sprite. Hey, here's one!



Next we do some recolouring! Basically, colour the Pokeball to look like the Pokemon, like so;



Next move some details over, and you're done!




Pokemon Eggs

This one's pretty much the same as the previous one. The form would remain the same;

Pokemon: Marill

First, you need an Egg. Where can you find an Egg sprite? Well, how about an Exeggcute egg?



Clear out any eyes or cracks or anything. You want a pretty perfect egg. Make sure the shading is pretty accurate, but don't worry about the outline's shading just yet.



Now where's that Marill?



And it's time to recolour!



And add details!



Notice how these are very similar after a while?

[Pink-kitty2]

Placeholder for Trainers

[Pink-kitty2]

3. Some Advice

a) Always save in .png. It is the best format for sprites. Saving in .bmp takes up too much space and is pointless, and saving in .jpg or .jpeg makes a ton of really awful artifacts which no one likes.
b) Use Photobucket. It takes less than a minute to make an account, and it's free. Photobucket very rarely deletes your images, and I don't believe they can break due to old age, making it superior to one-off hosting sites such as Imageshack.
c) Always be open to criticism. Always.

[Kirby]

what the fuck is this

[trixie]

Must have been crashgirl's thread.

[Kirby]

PK is jelous

[Pink-kitty2]

Not jealous. Pissed off that people can't distinguish between spriting and random meshing, thus lowering the standard of spriting? Maybe.

Where the hell are all the normal Southlanders, anyway?

[Kirby]

They left long ago

long long ago

[The Editor]

Too long, some would say... Anyone seen Ninetales009?

[Pink-kitty2]

Not since I was last here, I haven't.

[Kirby]

I never knew 9 tails or el tranny

[The Editor]

Oh well.

[trixie]

It seems to be just the three of you on these boards with the occasional newcomer.

[The Editor]

I haven't been in the gallery for a long time.

[crashgirl897131]

guess what pk! you found the site ive been looking for! kthnxbai

[Pink-kitty2]

It's helped me a lot.

I kinda wish I could change the title of this thread.

[Kirby]

yeah PK when you view it from outside it says SPRITING TUTORIAL but in here it says spriting 101

[The Editor]

I miss Ninetales. She would've fixed it if we asked nicely

[Kirby]

I miss he and I ain't even know her.

[Pink-kitty2]

Do you think God would make me a local mod if I asked nicely?

[Kirby]

of what? there is nothing here really now maybe if it becomes more popular in the future