Sprite Lessons., By Medri Fogmatio

.::Saturation and Your Sprites::.

Hi There, I am here to teach you of the ignored and overlooked aspect of spriting; Saturation.

This ability, this "technique" of saturation is a complicated process at first. But what is saturation? The dictionary states: Vividness of hue; degree of difference from a gray of the same lightness or brightness. Also called intensity. However I like to call it the degree in which light is diffused enough to create a mood or emotion using the intensities of gray. Sounds complicated yes? Well it isn't.... It is just a method to give your sprites or pixelart a sense of "seriousness" or happiness by using colors.



Here is Our buddy Smiley Bob and he will demonstrate the diffrences with saturation and how his "mood' changes according to his Saturation state.


You all can see the progression of his emotion due to the colors. Now mind you, these color shades are all the same, it is the same level of colors, just dulled due to saturation.


Any and all sprites can be modified to fit a mood... The dimmer the tone of colors the more "serious" your sprite becomes. The more bright it is, the more people see it as a Cartoon and happy-go-lucky.



This process can also work with art.... however with art.... you must mix detail with saturation... more detail with saturation will create a much more meaningful mood.



Hopefully this Lesson will make you think more about your sprites and will help you become a better spriter. As for me, This is Medri Fogmatio, Signing out.

This post has been edited by Medri Fogmatio on Oct 6 2007, 12:19 AM

invistopic

but very very very helpful

Lesson #2 Form.

.::Form and Your Vision::.

Sprites are not always made with perfect circles or Squares.... many of times they are organic forms forced to be shaped with a grid. Do not forget on any account that you are dealing with a grid. As much as you think it is a free range canvas, it isn't. You are almost always forced with a sharp edge, so don't worry about that.. This part is to indicate that you must take a Grid, and make a desired shape on a forced plane.

A good way to practice spriting, even away from a computer is with graph paper. Draw an organic line on it, then fill in the blocks around that fell on that line, to create a pixelated version of that line, that way you know what to do. That's just for practice though, sometimes you need to improvise.

Form also has to be Proportionate to your desired result... you can't just have it be this oblong shape, and expect it to look like something off the television or your favorite video game. You must be able to create Form without the feeling of that pencil, because believe it or not, your mouse isn't a pencil. And Unlike one, it has it's tricks. In Microsoft paint you are able to use the mouse to create a lone pixel with one motionless click. that is equivalent to filling in a block on graph paper. If you set your mind into that ideal.... you can then start to improve yourself.

Now, in Microsoft Paint, there IS a way to make a grid. That way if you become comfortable with the graph-paper style of creating shapes, you can then adapt it to the Computer.

I will Illustrate how to do so.



Here is the Microsoft Paint Menu.

1. Go to VIEW While you are Zoomed in.



2. Select the Zoom and then Show Grid (NOTE, the Grid only works on X6 and X8 Magnification)



3. Then you have the grid whenever you zoom Into X6 and X8 ^^




I hope this one should help you out and let you use your head more when you sprite in MS paint.

wow, it does.

I've been testing the saturation of my pallette lately, and this guide definitely helps!

You can also use Ctrl + G


But this guide will really help!

this is a really great idea, medri

click one pixel below x8 to get x 10 magnification

IMO this should be stickied.

Damn straight. I'ma contact Rage ASAP.

because everyone asked nicely ill let it be a sticky for a while :V

(i'm still gonna keep this in mind for the re-tooling of the Drawing Tutorials topic I probably won't do.)

This is SO helpful! I'm making a Mother (Earthbound) style ref. Thanks, Medri!

This is really helpful!

Hmm, this could be useful.

This... is useful.

I would love to see one on shading.

Yes, that has been the bane of my avatar for ever since I introduced it.

one on limbs would be great also

Don't worry, guys. Medri's workin' on a shading one. But there's a special surprise coming up too!

What I'm mainly interested in is a tutorial on textures and details.