Okay…. I figured that since sprites are popular, I’d write and post this tutorial. Most people use MS Paint to make sprites, but since I feel that Paint is far too limited for in-depth spriting, I use Adobe Photoshop (v. 6.0, if you must know, but this tutorial should cover earlier/later versions as well.
Acquiring Base Sprites
First, unless you plan on building your sprite from the ground up, you need some base sprites. Search Google using the words “pokemon sprites” (or any other video game sprite you want to make). Some sites have just sheets with pics of the sprites on them, and I promise that will get you no where fast. I get all mine from Pokémon Forever ;they have every GBA sprite, including Emerald, as well as a large G/S/C sprite collection, if recolors are your thing. Right click save the sprites to your computer, then you can go onward to the next step.
Starting your sprites
Once you have your base sprite, right click it, then Open With>Adobe Photoshop. Once you’re in Photoshop, you’ll need to do a little tinkering, unless you want to be stuck with the indexed colors, which can suck, since most sprites use only 5 or 6 colors anyway.
Click Image>Mode and change from Indexed Colors to RGB. Now you can begin your sprite.
Sprite Recoloring
Zoom in to roughly 645% (this is really easy if your mouse has a scroll wheel, just put the cursor anywhere in the picture's window and scroll it). The pencil tool is best for sprites, since it colors an area of exactly one pixel. The trick with sprites is to stick to the basic scheme: use three tones of a color. Attached is one of my first recolors, a Giovanni sprite. Note that, well, it kinda sucks. This is because most sprites, in their shading, use three tones for shading. Find the three tones you want for your color, a basic, a dark, and a really dark (ooh! Scientific!). The sliding bars on the color tab of the color window are a good place to find your tones. If you want to get really deep, you can skip ahead to the “Anime sprites” section of my tutorial. Now, go through, using your Base shade, and paint all the areas of basic color with that shade. The fill bucket can be quite handy for the large areas. Repeat using the other two shades, and voila, c’est un recolour!
Adding on to your Sprites
Adding to your sprites, say, a ponytail, a new hairstyle, or a different cut of jeans, may be intimidating, but it’s actually rather fun. Simply use black and roughly sketch what you’re adding. Below is my self portrait sketch, which is basically just an Artist from FR/LG with bell bottoms and brown hair. Then feel free to add color, but watch your shading, lest your sprite end up like poor Gio-sama. After adding color, erase anything not sprite related. (See? It’s just like drawing. Only with a mouse!)
Anime Sprites
Many spriters like to sprite anime characters, simply to see how they’d look in the games, or just to make propaganda for their favorite ships. Such is the case with my Neoship sprite below (which I made using the Young Couple sprite from R/S). Anime sprites are easy. Use the steps described above if you need to add hair, different styles of clothes, etc. The real problem is getting your sprites to look like their counterparts. Again, use three shades, only this time, you want a base, a highlight, and a shadow. To get perfect shades, open pics of the characters you’re spriting, then click on the colors you want to use with the eyedropper and add them to your palette by clicking the add new colors icon on the palette. Basically, you just follow the instructions above in Sprite Recoloring, and your sprite should look pretty nice.
Saving your sprite
It can be confusing to choose files to save your sprite under; PNG’s are high quality, but take up a lot of space. Jpg files are small, but they can lose quality. Personally, I’d go along with GIF files…. They’re high quality, but kind to disk space. If you plan on posting your sprites on a web site, forum, etcetera, and you save it as a GIF, click “Interlace” when the dialogue box comes up… the sprite will look gorgeous on the computer screen.
Well, hopefully this tutorial will be of help to someone. I hope this wasn’t too long. Feel free to PM me with any questions!
Acquiring Base Sprites
First, unless you plan on building your sprite from the ground up, you need some base sprites. Search Google using the words “pokemon sprites” (or any other video game sprite you want to make). Some sites have just sheets with pics of the sprites on them, and I promise that will get you no where fast. I get all mine from Pokémon Forever ;they have every GBA sprite, including Emerald, as well as a large G/S/C sprite collection, if recolors are your thing. Right click save the sprites to your computer, then you can go onward to the next step.
Starting your sprites
Once you have your base sprite, right click it, then Open With>Adobe Photoshop. Once you’re in Photoshop, you’ll need to do a little tinkering, unless you want to be stuck with the indexed colors, which can suck, since most sprites use only 5 or 6 colors anyway.
Click Image>Mode and change from Indexed Colors to RGB. Now you can begin your sprite.
Sprite Recoloring
Zoom in to roughly 645% (this is really easy if your mouse has a scroll wheel, just put the cursor anywhere in the picture's window and scroll it). The pencil tool is best for sprites, since it colors an area of exactly one pixel. The trick with sprites is to stick to the basic scheme: use three tones of a color. Attached is one of my first recolors, a Giovanni sprite. Note that, well, it kinda sucks. This is because most sprites, in their shading, use three tones for shading. Find the three tones you want for your color, a basic, a dark, and a really dark (ooh! Scientific!). The sliding bars on the color tab of the color window are a good place to find your tones. If you want to get really deep, you can skip ahead to the “Anime sprites” section of my tutorial. Now, go through, using your Base shade, and paint all the areas of basic color with that shade. The fill bucket can be quite handy for the large areas. Repeat using the other two shades, and voila, c’est un recolour!
Adding on to your Sprites
Adding to your sprites, say, a ponytail, a new hairstyle, or a different cut of jeans, may be intimidating, but it’s actually rather fun. Simply use black and roughly sketch what you’re adding. Below is my self portrait sketch, which is basically just an Artist from FR/LG with bell bottoms and brown hair. Then feel free to add color, but watch your shading, lest your sprite end up like poor Gio-sama. After adding color, erase anything not sprite related. (See? It’s just like drawing. Only with a mouse!)
Anime Sprites
Many spriters like to sprite anime characters, simply to see how they’d look in the games, or just to make propaganda for their favorite ships. Such is the case with my Neoship sprite below (which I made using the Young Couple sprite from R/S). Anime sprites are easy. Use the steps described above if you need to add hair, different styles of clothes, etc. The real problem is getting your sprites to look like their counterparts. Again, use three shades, only this time, you want a base, a highlight, and a shadow. To get perfect shades, open pics of the characters you’re spriting, then click on the colors you want to use with the eyedropper and add them to your palette by clicking the add new colors icon on the palette. Basically, you just follow the instructions above in Sprite Recoloring, and your sprite should look pretty nice.
Saving your sprite
It can be confusing to choose files to save your sprite under; PNG’s are high quality, but take up a lot of space. Jpg files are small, but they can lose quality. Personally, I’d go along with GIF files…. They’re high quality, but kind to disk space. If you plan on posting your sprites on a web site, forum, etcetera, and you save it as a GIF, click “Interlace” when the dialogue box comes up… the sprite will look gorgeous on the computer screen.
Well, hopefully this tutorial will be of help to someone. I hope this wasn’t too long. Feel free to PM me with any questions!