Pixel Art Video Tutorials

[Tana]

Okay, I'm not doing a whole lot for PA, here's a gift for you all. Well those who want to know exactly how I work.

I made a pirate chick sprite based on the drawing by Naramura. It took 56 minutes for this single frame. I recorded the whole thing for you.

I've sped up and split the video up into three parts and uploaded them to Youtube.

As you can see, I'm using Photoshop 9. I've set up a few keyboard shortcuts for things such as Flip Horizontal, and Flip Vertical, as well as I know the keyboard shortcuts to bring up the tools and adjustments I use.

I have a TabletPC that basically means I can draw directly on the screen, but that just allows for a faster working time than working by mouse.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3




Another video for everyone. This one has the creation of a Behemoth from Scratch. Again the video is sped up, and I zoomed in for clarity.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


And no, the Behemoth wont be Public Release.

 

[Kraft]

Wow, thanks Tana!

I have been trying to improve my spriting skills, but was unsure where to start... or even how!

*goes to watch*

Thanks!

~Kraft

 

[BlueScope]

Brilliant idea... though I gave up on spriting myself, I still like to look at stuff like this...

BTW, I have no idea why, but one tends to learn more from videos like these than is actually shown... so I guess it's a nice thing to do... to bad it won't work for scripting as well :p

 

[Scribblette]

Aye, videos are a great help to learn from.

I love TabletPCs. *green* Here's hoping I get insanely wealthy within the next few months and can afford one. Or that my dad's work expands into something that gets him an excuse to get one. ^_^

Watching it now. This is likely more helpful than you realize. Thanks!

And aye, Bluescope. If only one could pick up scripting from videos. Heh.

 

[Draken]

Wow, looking at your methods of spriting seem to actually make things a lot simpler. of course, In practice it still won't be that easy, but I have learned a lot from this! :D

Thanks, Tana!

 

[Showkaizer]

This is a pretty good Idea tan ! . Though honestly I don't know how the hell you can stand spriting in PS O_o How do you check the animation? Eh I guess its not weird a lot of people give me flack for still using IDraw lol. But what can I say , it has some great functions aside from the glitches ^^

 

[Tana]

Photoshop does have an Animation Palette... at least in 9. I make animated gifs basically.

 

[Kiniko]

Sexy!! If we could get some more of these, thatd be something.

 

[Ratty524]

So... you make that kind of sprite almost the same way as drawing a sketch on a piece of drawing paper? Interesting, I might enroll here in the future.

 

[Nidhogg]

I have a question.
Does drawing this kind of sprites require onl skill, too?
I have a crappy mouse(that only moves when it wants to move), so I couldn't draw a sprite like you do with a tablet. Instead, only make it pixel by pixel(that s_cks). But I can't make the lines the way I want them to be, if you know what I mean.

So, if this only envolves technique, does it have any kind of way, or rules, when making curved lines?(EDIT: for that I mean like a, to-do and not-to-do some things)

Thanks!

P.S.:Oh, and sorry if this is dificult to understand. My english isn't as good as I wanted it to be...

 

[Tana]

Depending on the program you use.... You can use things like the Pen Tool in Photoshop to create a smooth curve, then clean it up by hand. The downside is it takes some time to get used to. You can google tutorials for it tho quite easily.

I'm sure a lot of other programs have something similar.

One thing that can help is value. A lighter line appears to be thinner, where a darker line appears to be thicker. So it can help to make the shape appear rounder to highlight the line.

 

[insomniacmg]

Reading your Pixel Academy post makes me angry at losing my tablet pen... the thing just up and vanished one day.

 

[Nidhogg]

Depending on the program you use.... You can use things like the Pen Tool in Photoshop to create a smooth curve, then clean it up by hand. The downside is it takes some time to get used to. You can google tutorials for it tho quite easily.

I'm sure a lot of other programs have something similar.

One thing that can help is value. A lighter line appears to be thinner, where a darker line appears to be thicker. So it can help to make the shape appear rounder to highlight the line.

I see. I'll try to do that, algthough I don't have photoshop. As you said, most programas should have it, so I'll look for it. And I never thought about the value! Actually is pretty cool that it can help me this way.

Thanks!

[OFF]Well, I just wanted to say that actually the pixel academy is much better now, with the videos you're posting. It's better than doing assignment after assignment just to get a badge and a few points, and it's also better to learn, since you can just try to make your own, whithout expecting to get graded... If someone wants, there's always resource analisys, Design and development, or even someone from the academy to comment about your work. I think all academies should be the same way[/OFF]

 

[Scribblette]

Only just spotted this. I did want to study how you painted fur after seeing your dog, so aye, thanks. *watches*

Yep. These videos are incredibly helpful, Tana. Thanks muchly for recording your work process for us! It's like a full blown tutorial for me, and it's probably less time intensive to record and upload than it is to write out a tute with all the stages.

*returns to further template refinery & his ever-elusive cliffs with tufts of foliage*

 

[The Sea King]

Question:
Where did you get the empty character set? I need a male one though...

 

[Tana]

http://www.rmxp.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4142
All the templates you could possibly want.
The one I used was the HalfKaizer made by ShowKaizer.

 

[Scribblette]

Query on tablet PCs moved as appropriate.

 

[Tana]

Ya know, there's a whole forum called Video Games, Computers, and Consoles. Please ask your question there.

 

[M4ncox]

I don't know charsety

 

[bojox3m]

at first, i only do sprites w/ ms paint. but after watching tana's vids.. i learned how to sprite in Photoshop! yay!
thx tana!

My first "succesfull" sprite in photoshop
"The Armored Monk dude"
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/h ... 05/001.png[/IMG]