[the_grip]

i'm trying to figure out how to create sprites ala Final Fantasy, etc. style for a CRPG i'm creating... later on i'm going to make real-looking figures.

However, i don't really know how to start, 'cause them little buggers are so small!

Any advice would be appreciated

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"You call him Dr. Grip, doll!"

[jzero]

Hey, fellow Dallas-ite.

I'm not that familiar with Final fantasy, but I do know something about game graphics. Are you talking about pixel sprites, or 3d models?

I'll assume you're talking about the little characters that move around in the axonometric views. These are similar to the sprites in Myth, Marathon, or even Doom. Each pose is a pre-rendered animation frame, one for each possible move the character might make. For a 3D view (like for Myth), the character needs to have a pose for each possible direction, although some flipping can be used.

I have an example, actually, of something I did for a game that was never finished. It was an online football game, and I created a 3D player which I animated in the different poses that it might do, i.e. running, passing, etc.

Here's the Team 1 player's passing moves facing lower right.

Here's the Team 2 player's passing moves facing lower left.

Yeah, it's complicated. That enough for ya?

/jzero

[the_grip]

Another from Big D!!!

Yes, i'm sorry... i'm talking about pixel sprites.

Any advice as to how to actually draw these little guys 'n gals?

THX!!!

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"You call him Dr. Grip, doll!"

[This message has been edited by the_grip (edited April 03, 2001).]

[Frost]

I'd say "don't bother" doing them per pixel - I've done that for a long time before, and it's just a waste of time. Best thing is to model a low-res, low-detail 3d model and render him real small (with antialising off) and use that. That's what they did in many games recently.

[GreenPeach]

But if you HAVE to draw them 'cuz you dont have a 3d app then- think about this-

What's most important in a tiny drawing are the basic shapes of the figure. Take some time to decide what these are for each character. Forget about details for a while and boil whats inportant. Take your concept drawing and figure out what you might see of him as he's running by 100 yards away. If what is important about the figure cant be seen from there then that element needs to be bigger or higher contrast. So, once you found the basic shapes, draw then initially kinda small, this will force you not the waste time getting too detailed. then shrink them down to size, go back and make alterations to your drawing till it looks right. Then comes the tidius part, there is really no way to avoid going in changing things pixel by pixel, use the pencil tool of course and biuld the little guy in his own tranparent layer. It's the edges that you should really only have to worry about. And use statigic pixels to give little points of reflection and highlight.

blah

but if you have 3d forget most of what I've said and skip to the part about the highlights.

[This message has been edited by GreenPeach (edited April 03, 2001).]

[jzero]

Hey grip --

I found that the best lessons in how pixel sprites are made is to get hold of some game that uses them (i.e. Myth, StarCraft or WarCraft for axonometrics, or even Marathon or Doom for flat sprites), a game that is customizable. You open the resources file up with the custom editor and get a good look at what the individual sprites look like outside of the game engine. This has always given me a good view of how the game is actually put together. You'd be surprised how much quality is actually left out -- animation always relies heavily on your perception of movement, rather than actual movement.

/jzero

[Giant Hamster]

well, a start would be drawing lots of buddy icons for your friends, banners for your website, and drawing over other peoples stuff just to get the hang of it.

ala moose:





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-JameZ the Giant Hamster-

The Hamster Alliance
AIM: Gianthmstr
Multimedia Producer/designer/all of the above.,overall guru :)...and music music music! weee!!

[the_grip]

Thanks for the replies...

i've never done any 3D modeling... how tough is it to do what is described above?

Thanks again!!

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"You call him Dr. Grip, doll!"

[Frost]

Grip: depends on your abilities, understanding of shapes in 3d space, and animation. If these sprites are to be small, then detail can be kept to a low minimum, and you don't even need to go into deformable geometry and just stick with a model that has sepperate objects for arms, legs, head, torso, pelvis, upper/lower legs and arms, etc. Animating it would consist in you going to a point in time for the animation, rotating objects and such to reflect the pose at that current time frame. It's not all that easy the for a first time, but, I think if the solution fits the project, you might be able to get better results in possibly shorter time, learning curve included.

By rendering 3d 'sprites' for each animation frame, you don't have to do any pixel work at all, and the results will be a lot more precise than what the human eye can put out, especially when it comes to animation and movement flow.

Here are some very good points over traditional hand-pixeled sprites:
- unmatched precision on per-pixel movement and antialiasing
- the ability to re-render an entire animation sequence to any number of frames you want (with 0 effort)
- you can even save the alpha channel info and use it for edge antialiasing in the game engine (if supported)
- you only have to do an animation once, and render multiple angles as desired.
- rendered in full 24-/32-bit precision, which you can then downsample to the games limited palette if necessary.

You'd require a 3d package which has redering and animation capabilities, and some free time on your hands to learn how to use it properly and learn some of the methods behind it.

This is of course just an idea, one I would go with if I were faced with such a project, because I have no problems modeling, texturing and animating under Max, but obviously that's not everyone's skill set. Feel free to do as you wish, and there is also the fact that you'd need to purchase the 3d software if you're going to sell the game... making game dev ligit is something quite important. =)

Feel free to ask away as you like...

(fixed some real nasty typos)

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited April 03, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Frost (edited April 03, 2001).]

[Frost]

(Frost tosses Giant Hamster a pineapple ala shrapnel.)

[Subhuman]

Dallas kinda sucks.

You could always paint a low detail sprite as big as you want and shrink it down... i think

Frost: You're WRONG, man, all WRONG!!!

per-pixel = fun

(Well maybe not in photoshop, but in more pixel oriented progs -a la Microangelo- it can be kinda, um, "cool")

[Frost]

Sub: Yeah, I just made all that stuff up as I went along since I don't know anything on the matter... (uhu!)

[the_grip]

Probably a repitious question in here... but has anyone used any tutorials on modeling humans/creatures (both real and fantasy)? There are so many tutorials on the subject - if someone found one useful please do tell

Thanks again for the help.

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"You call him Dr. Grip, doll!"