Let's Create A Shoot 'Em Up Boss - Ridley - Day 1- Speed Spriting and Puppet

A days worth of work cut down to a 9 minute video. Brilliant.

People have often asked why they haven't seen more information and videos regarding "Shoot the Core", the Gradius fangame i'm working on. Well the answer's simple. I'm one guy. Doing it all. (Well.. except music and sound effects - those are ripped... but nevermind.)
Naturally it takes time. What probably doesn't help - is the game's Graphics are borderline HD.

Still, want to be more timely with updates - so let's put some videos up of the creation process. Why not eh.

Whilst Shoot the Core is a Gradius fangame, it will feature guests from other Shoot 'em Ups as well. Such as my current Sinistar avatar.

But some Non-Shoot 'em Up bosses seem perfect for a little Ship vs-thing action... so... I guess a few non-shooter bosses can't hurt.

This brings us to this video.

I've always thought Ridley from Super Metroid would be a great boss fight in a Space Shooter.
So. Let's port him!
Of course just plonking the Super Metroid sprite in the middle of the game would look really daft. So I guess that means I've got to re-create him by hand.

And what the hell. Let's try and smooth his movements up. This is a Konami fangame, and it needs it's Multi-Segment bosses.

So this video has three stages:
1) The basic sketch. Er.. I skipped filming this. Sorry.
2) The sprite work. Sped up. Alot.
3) Testing the sprite - via a digital puppet.

Ridley is a fairly simple sprite in all fairness. Most bosses take alot longer to get the basic spritework out of the way. Some bosses have taken a week of on/off sprite work. Making a "smaller" sprite like Ridley has been a nice change of pace.
Naturally the sprite is STILL alot bigger than the original Super Metroid sprite.

This is Day 1 of Gradius Ridley's creation. I will NOT be posting these daily, but when I have updates, I'll sure to keep you guys up to speed.

Most time spent will probably be in programming him. The puppet will help wonders for that. You'll see it's perpose in a later video.

Music:
Retro Remix:
Life Force - Posion of Snake
Smash Brothers Brawl:
Brinstar, Metroid Ending, Meta Ridley

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Shoot
• the
• Core
• Gradius
• Nemesis
• Metroid
• Ridley
• Konami
• Nintendo
• Lets
• Create
• Speed
• Spriting
• Painting

[danjohnellis]

will ridley be in 'shoot the core'?

[CirqueDuFreak2000]

brilliant question. don't supppose you ever read the description. Or watch the video at that.

ACE, would you mind some suggestions for other non-shootemup guest bosses, or have you basically got all that planned out?

[ACESpark]

As it stands, I won't be putting in many Non-Shooter bosses, Ridley just felt like a good fit. If you've got any suggestions though, I'm up to hearing them.

[ACESpark]

Yes he will. I am keeping an up to date list on the Gradius Wiki of what bosses I will be including.

[gagaman]

Incredible sprite man. The shading you do is brilliant, considering it's all pixels and all that. You should try applying to work for a Nintendo DS games developer or something. :)

[phanface]

ACE, I'm glad I've subscribed to your account.

[PsychoJosh]

Any Parodius bosses? Perhaps the return of Chichibinta Rika? Yes~?

[sicnarfkcin]

what software did you use make and animating the sprites

[WorldsOfDigital]

That is Awesome :D (thumbs up and favorite)

[IvoryGecko1993]

@ACESpark What program did you use, Ace? I'd like to know.

[randomancrossoverfan]

another suggestion is "spiritual larsa" from "mushihimesama futari"

[randomancrossoverfan]

at 8:14 ridley might want to see a doctor about that xD great sprite though, wow that was awesome watching you make that. i guessing puppet is to make sure it moves right and doesnt do things like 8:14 when you are done making? if you are taking suggestions, how about the boss from galaga arrangement?

[gamerTai]

What program did you use to puppet the sprite?