Spriting for Video Games Tutorial 01

[dragonhuv]

hey,uh,remember the video on pickin' sticks?does it require the code to be in order?or i can just put it anywhere?

[CoderRach]

@dragonhuv Where the images need to be on the sprite sheet depends on the code inside the program- you specify all of this yourself when writing a game.

In general, it's best practice to have them in some sort of logical, equal order.

[SilentCrusades]

Nice video , although you didn't get the bit rate right .

[Kajidimeh92]

if you want your sprites to go behind a tree...would it be a good idea to add a proirity system for which sprites are blit-ed to the buffer last? (if blited is even a world.) or is there an even better to do this. Like a masking layer that is blit-ed to the buffer last. I use Allegro. Thanks for so much help! love your videos...I<m gonna check out your games. :P Also do you make your own game music?

[CoderRach]

@Kajidimeh92 Yeah, there are multiple ways you could handle this. For my RPG-ish projects, my maps will just have multiple layers, with the higher layers being above the player. If you're doing something like a beat-em-up where lots of characters move and can change Y positions, then you'd want some sort of ordered list to render based on.

I try to write my own music, sometimes I use public domain stuff.

[sx7888]

This is pretty cool. I've been in the industry for 5 years, and it's nice to see people sharing their knowledge.

Great work!

[pufixas]

OH!!! You're that same girl! Awesome!

Whenever I search something for my game, I always find you - helping me out :D

[LusikkaMage]

@pufixas Hehe, cool. :)

[pufixas]

@LusikkaMage

:)

[MisocapnistLord]

Did You Make That Animation?!?! Thats Awesome!!!! This Video Helped A Lot 

[Sub4SubsChannel]

I too enjoy potatoes :)

[karagu1]

awsome tutorial man ive been wanting to make my own sprites and such for fighting games but im not that good at spriting and animation much but im a good artist you can see mydeviantart profile for all my works and also i made a vid of making my mugen chars sprites with graphics gale by using youre methods on making sprites

[NOSFERATUalu]

I subscribing! Do more! If you please =)

You're great! Awesome explanation!

[LusikkaMage]

@NOSFERATUalu Thanks! I'll try

[charlegamer]

Im walking with my right arm in the same area as my right leg from now on.

[LusikkaMage]

@charlegamer Did I animate that way? I normally don't, I know the opposite limb goes outwards.

[LunaBunnies]

@charlegamer

You wouldn't have good balance if you did that. You just might fall over.

[ryancfcsas]

Amazing tutorial! Love potatoes too!

Wanna ask how was your Bac. in CompSci? Start the course in September in the UK, kind of would like to know what it's like...

[LusikkaMage]

@ryancfcsas It can get really hard at times, particularly stuff like probability, numerical methods, and computer architecture.

[Regards200800]

i hate potatoes

[LusikkaMage]

@Regards200800 Potatoes are f'amazing!

[NeoAndyDS]

Do you draw them using just your mouse or do you use a tablet?

[LusikkaMage]

Teh mouse

[megaman3714]

gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo­oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo­oooooooogggggggggggggggggggggg­ggggggggggg :D

[gamertillman]

graphics gale is great because I can easily and quickly access a straight line and curved line too. People really take for granted how great it is to not have to draw the back bone of a sword all the time or the curve of a coat completely from scractch. I switch between Gimp for cutting and Gale to edit.

[MightyExseven]

really nice, helps a lot.

[60Centttttt]

That's awesome! :D

[HomocidalCanineK9]

Misinformation much?

[LusikkaMage]

Pardon?

[HomocidalCanineK9]

You tell peeps how to shade wrong. :O

[xXKiTheifXx]

ohh Gale looks cool :]

[spookzw10]

nice one mate

[MagT800]

damn!

this is cool

[LusikkaMage]

Your MOM is cool!

Wait, that didn't work quite right...

[DAaaMan64]

Thank you!

[RunandGunPictures]

I see you are using pillow shading, is that your preference for sprite art, or do you do it, because it's quick? I lack artistic ability, so I do it so that I can get something usable... Meaning if I try another method the characters generally no longer look human. :P

[LusikkaMage]

I don't really know what "pillow shading" is particularly.  o_O I guess as opposed to a more subtle gradient?

[RunandGunPictures]

It's when the light source is coming from the point of view of the player looking at the screen, rather than the upper left/right... Actually looking over the video again, I see your dog is light from the top, girl with orange hair from the top, heck I was wrong. Sorry about that. You do have a directional light source, I don't know what I didn't catch it before. I am definitely not a professional sprite artist, but I'm learning...

[LusikkaMage]

Ahh, I see. Well I'm not much of an artist so I just shade wherever I feel. XD

[NeedHelpIGotYa]

Lol, true dat.

[NeedHelpIGotYa]

sarracatuf, unless you have at least 2 YEARS worth of experience with C++ I wouldn't even think about making an MMO, or even an RPG, start simple and work your way up.

[GreenBlaze75]

There's always GameMaker. You could attempt an MMO after about 6 months.

[sarracatuf]

hi rachel, just wanted to ask u if u usually connect on msn (i added your gmail account to my list) cuz it would be great to talk with you.

i have the same interest as u do, i'm a starter of c++ and im planning to make a kind of mmorpg with a friend, using winsock and so on, so there are few question i have to make to something that is advanced on c++

btw, the video is cool, makes me remember my spriting for tibia servers XD

thanks

[LusikkaMage]

I don't really log on MSN very much. I prefer talking about code via email anyway, I have a tendency to keep everyone but my friends blocked on AIM. :P

Also, please don't try to make an MMO straight off the bat. Everyone wants to, but it's so much harder than one usually realizes.

[sarracatuf]

ty for answering.

oh it's a pity that u don't login to msn, but i know how annoying sometimes it is :p

about my "project", maybe i can first make the single player client, and then work on a server.

a question that i have for you:

can you make a multiclient server with winsock? to do like, instantly "answer" to the petition of each client? like i have 10 online players and one ask for buying an armor, the other asks for movement, and the other asks for attacking a monster and (char limit)..

[sarracatuf]

so on, can it be done with winsock? of course i will do that later on when i learn more about it :P

btw i'm making the client with SDL, do u know if it's the easier way for 2d graphics?

thanks =D sorry for being so annoying.

[tigerseyecreations]

LusikkaMage is correct all the way through because making an mmorpg is just SO HARD!!! even in Visual basic it takes about 5 years.

[thejahooli]

And that's probably even with a few years of experience

[tigerseyecreations]

Yea with just a few years and you start working on one it takes ages srry for not answering earlier my computer got fked up.

[hares295]

Like, did you speed up the video, or you realyl draw that fast? I mean, it was really fast how you did the drawing, and in just a few minutes if you can make a sprite that fast, you could make a lot of sprites in less time.

[LusikkaMage]

I did speed it up 2x after a while, as the whole video wasn't fitting under 10 minutes.

[element1988]

i haven't watched many of your vids yet, but I've noticed alot of them sprites are really small, y do they have to be so small? i mean can u completely rule out big detailed sprites?

[LusikkaMage]

It's kind of a pain in the butt to draw and animate large sprites.

Most SNES type games have sprites ranging from 32x32 to 64x64.

They can be bigger, like Street Fighter sprites, but I don't really fancy spriting or animating, so I try to keep it as basic as I can while still looking good.

[x0mark0x]

hey what game maker software do you use? jw and great movie

[LusikkaMage]

I don't use any game makers, I code my stuff with C++.

[DORIANWAZHERE]

U ROCK u explain everything great

[LusikkaMage]

Thanks! :D

[MarssPP]

When's the next one coming out?? I need to see it!!!! :)

[imranhoshimi]

Wow! Rachel. Great work there. I really liked the tutorial.

[IonDuel]

Oo My Goodness! Your really good at explaining things! Out of every drawing tutorial, you have explained most of what I needed to know! And this is just spriting! Overall 5/5!

[darkdonkey147]

thanks :D

[darkdonkey147]

umm where can i download this program? i looked but i cant find it,link or trial would be great thx :)

[LusikkaMage]

You might try "Animation Graphic Editor". I'll put a link in the vid description.

[ThePearI]

Woah, you make it look so easy! But how are we supposed to be able to sprite for a game when we have no game to sprite? Since SOMEONE left the SB8 coding project? :P

[KuramaYoko10]

That was pretty good!!

I am just a newbie programmer but I like to play with sprites on my free time, and that was pretty helpful =D

[patio87]

I can't believe you use that crappy old program, it's so funny seeing people do that thought. Get stuck on some old program but are so used to it. You should try cs3, just learn it, it's great.

[LusikkaMage]

Sure, once you give me the $650 to buy it.

[GP4Vid]

I also like Potatoes.

[LusikkaMage]

mashed potatoes?

[GP4Vid]

Totally! one of the best foods ever.

[LusikkaMage]

Yes! Closely followed by seasoned potato wedges.

[GP4Vid]

Oh, I had a bad experience with wedges so I haven't had them in ages now :(

[LusikkaMage]

;_;

[dandymcgee]

Lol? What bad could possible come of wedges of potato? :P

[GP4Vid]

Lets just say, lots of vodka before eating wedges followed by more vodka after eating them is bad... Really bad when you're sitting next to a laptop that's turned on, as well.

[ZidaneDaMan10]

lusikka is hot!

[faszika]

im doing a half life mod which uses the source game engine its cpu heavy =D uses lotsa computer power... you also make video games basically but this is not cpu intensive stuff :)

[LusikkaMage]

Yeah, but I can actually code.

[MarssPP]

Wow! For you to say that's not that good! That was amazing for drawing that up in four minutes!

One question:

What do you think is the best sprite drawer or creator that is availabe free off of the internet?

[asams12]

gimp is great for sprite drawing(free).

[LusikkaMage]

GIMP doesn't seem like a spriting tool to me. I use it for drawing with my tablet, but I guess I don't really know how to use it right.

[KaertSerif]

nice art style.

thanks for sharing :)

[ProgrammerInProgress]

Thanks for the tutorials, in terms of game development, art is somewhere that i'm definately lacking in (experience more than anything)

and it's nice to know theres people out there who are willing to share a bit of the knowledge, thanks, i'll try and make some sprites for my own project.

keep it up :-)

[faszika]

i guess its less demanding on CPU than the Source engine =D

[LusikkaMage]

...what?

[dandymcgee]

Very helpful, I love your artwork.  Thanks for the video :P.

[patio87]

Thanks so much for this LusikkaMage, this is really going to help me out.

[JaySkuh]

I agree mouse is is just like more egornamic for some things

[LusikkaMage]

Yeah, it offers a lot more control when you're working on something fairly exact.

[Zereox]

You own!! There should be more people like you. :P

[Noctambulist47]

WOW, your good at making sprites. Please post more videos. :)

[DIABLOVT12]

That's a good tutorial. Please make more, they're very entertaining. A thing I'm into right now is Isometric Pixel Art, I love it. :)

[JaxDragon1]

Yess!!! I just started spriting today but the tuts on youtube suck so far... But yours actually goes in-depth and I greatly appreciate it.

[LusikkaMage]

Wow, why are all the spriting tutorials pokemon-themed?

[JaxDragon1]

I do not know.

[LusikkaMage]

Slightly off topic, but don't you LOVE how pokemon fan-games attract... 12 year old newbs who are quite rude? :D

I love it in the same way I love Action 52, but I can't quite describe it.

[JaxDragon1]

I agree. Stupid mean pokemon online players....