Artist looking for mentoring and or project

That can all work just make sure that each sprite shares the same pal if you want him to have pals in your game.  Also make sure that the pal is only 256 colors.
 
>Piccolo

IDDLE and WALK are done.  JUMP is two sprites, PAIN one or two. That will be done fast.
FALL refers to falling after jumping or being on the ground after a knockout hit ? Either way it will be fast too. ATTACK is what will cause me pain (ironically) but it's all good, I got this.

>Esn23

Yeah, I figured it would be something like that. I will index color definitely when all the sprites are done, and in the meantime, I will keep the full sized originals preciousely
 
Well I guess it depends on how much time you're willing to spend on it.

I'd reduce it even more, if you look closely the 50 colours image has more detail in the face, there is extra shades.  This is what I meant about forcing colours into the palette when you reduce it, so these are retained.

50 -
image.png


60 -
image.png


Just quickly I identified the main colours used by your sprite, it's only about 6-8 shades needed for each colour.  Technically you could reduce him to about 32-48 colours
pal_example.png


Building a palette first is a good idea.

 
Cathar said:
IDLE and WALK are done.  JUMP is two sprites, PAIN one or two. That will be done fast.
FALL refers to falling after jumping or being on the ground after a knockout hit ? Either way it will be fast too. ATTACK is what will cause me pain (ironically) but it's all good, I got this.

Actually basic animation requirements have been reduced a lot. You can even make a playable with only IDLE and DEATH if you'd like. Of course that's not beat'm up standard  ;)
So for animation requirements, you can prepare what Piccolo suggested + RISE animation

FYI, there are two kinds of attacks based on knockdown power : knock down and non knock down. Characters which get hit by non knock down attack will play PAIN animation. After that animation ends, they will return to IDLE
OTOH characters which get hit by knock down attack will play FALL animation and usually knocked back, hence the name. After that animation ends, they will play RISE animation then go to IDLE
However, if the attack were final blow, characters will play FALL (and get knocked back) regardless of knockdown power. By default, the character will blink and animation won't change to RISE nor IDLE aka just lying on the ground playing last frame of FALL animation
 
So, I played around with colors to try and reduce them at the bare minimum without spending too much time on it (yes, time is a big constraint for me), and without destroying everything, and so far the best compromize I have is this
eh_by_number_seventeen-d9xjnj4.png

30 Color character over a 50 Color background

I emphacized the outlines a bit, and I manually reworked the screwups of the indexation. It doesnt take too much time and give okay-ish results

Edit : Thanks a lot for the clarifications. I still have no idea of what I'm doing but I'm sure I will come to it soon. Maybe what I should do is to finish the "skeleton" of this character, give him enough animation to be playable, make some quick opponents, play with the system until it gets playable, then start a new project with the earned knowledge
 
Cool just make sure that all the character sprites share the same pal that will be important and that the top first color of the pal is the background color of the character.
 
I will need you to explain to me how to do that...or what this even means ^^'

Edit : Also just a quick edit to tell you guys I'm working on that big attack animation and it's taking a turn I like. And after that, the anims I still have to do will go fast and smooth. Unless a tornado happens Im positive I can get this character playable this weekend. Ill try not to fail you and thanks again for your support

Edit 2 : Attack sprites done. Those have not be reworked manually, I'll do it at the end. But god I like how it's coming out.

eh_by_number_seventeen-d9xly64.png
 
I will need you to explain to me how to do that...or what this even means ^^'

The PINK background has to be  index 0 (the first entry) in the palette.  All images from this character must use the palette.  Don't worry about reducing the stages, each stage can have it's own 256 colour palette.  Stage images can (and should) be cut into separate parts.

testt.png



You could tidy up the colouring, there is many patchy areas on the skin that are still white/grey.

(rough example)
test3.png

BEFORE / AFTER

test22.png
 
As you said, as I did. I started cleaning up the sprites manually (which means...pixel by pixel). It's incredibly long, but rather chill job. Like sewing or doing patchwork.  I will have to do that to all the sprites, but that's fine. I'll do that before going to bed, a bit every night.

eh_by_number_seventeen-d9xmkh4.png


Tomorow, I'll finish the "unrefined" version of the sprites. Could you help me building my character once it's done ?
 
esn23 said:
Cool just make sure that all the character sprites share the same pal that will be important and that the top first color of the pal is the background color of the character.

esn means that all sprites used by a character must use same palette. Other character can or, I should say, should use his/her own palette for his/her sprites

About attack animations, nice combo you have there. Speaking of combo, you can create your own combo. For instance, for your character, you can make left punch, right punch, left punch, right punch and kick
 
Cool, that's a much nicer looking sprite now and it can easily support remaps.

Code:
Could you help me building my character once it's done ?

no problem, just post in this thread and we'll help you get started.  Thou just make sure to read over the manual and any guides you can, it will help you understand and save a lot of explaining.

Have you thought about what resolution you want the game to be?  These are pretty big sprites, so you will need a high resolution.  Otherwise you could consider resizing the sprites, thou some detail might need to be fixed on the faces.

60%
60_PCT.png


50%
50pct.png


 
>Bloodbane
About the combo :
Yes, it was my intention all along... Although I will need to add some alternative attacks not to make the game a X button masher. I haven't thought that over, but I will.

And about the color pal, I think I understood. I will put all the sprites into the same file with the palette loaded on, so I'm sure it will work. I also saved the palette , just in case.

>Beastie

Thank you sempai ! For the resolution, yes - I'm aiming for 600x800. The mods I played from the forum looks so small on my computer I have trouble understanding what is going on... It would be great on mobile devices, but for a stationary computer, that's not the best at all.

But alright, I have continued my sprite cleaning. I'm going to get some sleep, work on the miscelanea sprites I need for my character, and then I'll be ready. I've read the tutos, but I'll be sure to read them again before I call for your help

eh_by_number_seventeen-d9xn50t.png

Let's get down to business...tomorow

Thanks again, it's really appreciated

Edit : I ran a battery of tests tonight after having finished cleaning the picture. And comparing the size of it with studio made sprites just opened my eyes. Gosh those things ARE small. Sad thing is, with a realistic style, there is no way one can see the face of the character with such resolution, that's probably the reason most studio use cartoon/manga style.

Oh well ! Still first try.

spritesheetlandrelowres_by_number_seventeen-d9xnxv5.png
 
Yes, totally does and I will have to add the transition frames, but in the same time, look at what a real sprite sheet looks like, compared to my silly one done in 48 hours.

This is insanity. I clearly overlooked the amount of work to do... but I'll do it because I'm a true warrior.

But first things first I'll do those miscellanea sprites
 
A full project will take days.. Im doing an original full project with everything from scratch and it takes days.. lol
 
You need video.txt if you want a custom resolution. To get you started, copy this:

Code:
######################### Video Modes #############################
#
# Syntax: video [value]
#
# [value]:  0 = 320x240
#
#           1 = 480x272
#
#           2 = 640x480
#
#           3 = 720x480
#
#           4 = 800x480
#
#           5 = 800x600
#
#           6 = 960x540
#
###################################################################

video 0
######################### Colour Depth ############################
#
# Syntax: colourdepth [value]
#
# [value]:  8bit
#
#           16bit
#
#           32bit
#
###################################################################

colourdepth 8bit

Make a new txt file, paste it, name it video.txt, and save it inside the data folder of your project.

Fortunately, you can possibly customize resolution with any size you want.

Example:

Code:
video 560x730

It's a resolution you can customize.

For the color mode, 8bit is default, but it's kinda old. Use either 16bit or 32bit for going with more colors.

===============

For combos, you can use atchain (in the character header for player) to combo attacks but you have to use the attack button.

Code:
atchain 1 2 1 2 3

If you don't want to mash with only one button to attack, it's possible to use a2 for another attack button to press. Like, you press punch button, and the other one for kick button for example. To get you started, you're going to need this that's gonna be in the character header for player.

Code:
com a2 freespecial

After that, you will need a freespecial anim (like anim freespecial2 from the header) that you want for pressing an alternate attack button.

Code:
anim freespecial
delay 6
offset 120 183
bbox 34 56 60 21
frame data/chars/xxx/sidekick00.png
attack 45 83 56 45 10 0 0 0 0 0
frame data/chars/xxx/sidekick01.png
attack 0
frame data/chars/xxx/sidekick02.png
frame data/chars/xxx/sidekick03.png
 
Hi, newcomer! And a late welcome.
Glad to see some project with original characters and sprites.
I highly recommand you to use references of existing animations to have something great in term of movement.

Also, your colors seems to lack of contrast.

Be sure to make backups of your sprites before.
I can make 30 backups for the same anim sometimes... ::)

Keep it up.
 
>Maxman
Thanks a lot. I'm still stuck to the step where I have to explode PAKs, but when I get to it, I'll definitely keep this tuto handy.
Also, I'll try to stick to 8 bits for various reasons ; mainly I saw what studio artists can do with 20 colors and, while I have little hope to achieve that level within my lifetime, I don't want to go the easy route on this.

Edit : altho tbh, I have no idea about what I'm doing

>Nedflandeurse
Salut !

And thank you. That's what I'm actually doing, mostly taking reference of street of rage sprites. Tho I have a long way to go.
The colors look dull indeed. I'll play with the palette once the main animations are done.

Talking about that ;

eh_by_number_seventeen-d9xqz9n.jpg

It's taking me longer than expected,
but it's nearly done

...I'll have to finish the inking, add the shadows, resize, index colors and clean the pixel arts. Not as long as it seems.

My current objective right now is not to revolutionize the gaming world, but to get a grip on the basics of openbor, which is completely hermetic to me atm. So I'm making a quick character so the awesome people of here can help me to break into it.

Je rame aussi, mais ça va de mieux en mieux o/

Thanks again people
 
Can't find a proper link for paxplode files, so I uploaded it for you
http://www.filedropper.com/paxplode 

Just drag and drop PAK files onto PAXPLODE.BAT and it will decompress it to a folder called DATA. 


--- Don't use 8bit video mode, you will have palette issues.
 
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