Oi!
Making sprites can be a pain, especially when you need to make many NPC sprites from scratch. I've always liked the idea of just making the body parts and clothing articles and mixing them to create a variety of sprites. It's similar to what you see in some 2D MMORPGs, but my main inspiration was the Charas Project (http://charas-project.net/), which offers an online program that allows you to mix and match different images to create your own sprite. Charas has its problems though, like only supporting a fixed sprite template and being online, the offline version isn't much better. Other sprite generators exist, but none of them were satisfactory enough for my own needs, so I figured I'd make my own. The result is Sprite Mix.
Some of the features of Sprite Mix include supporting virtually unlimited number of layers, the ability to change the color and opacity of individual layers, loading and saving several image file formats, and some more that you could read about in the readme file. No actual images are provided with the program. I used sprites by the Half-Kaizer Construction Project (HKCP) for testing, so you might want to check that out.
Sprite Mix is a C# application that allows you to merge several layers into one image, and also edit individual layers a bit. Being a C# program, it is tied to the .Net framework and therefore having version 2.0 or later of the .Net framework installed is required. Windows Vista comes preinstalled with version 3.0 I think, and for the rest of you (Windows XP mainly), you could download it at Microsoft's website. It's a nice framework to have anyway, as other applications might require it (think Java runtime).
This is the download link for Sprite Mix v1.3
Version History:
1.0 - August 19, 2008:
- First release
1.1 - August 20, 2008:
- Added several keyboard shortcuts (W, S for moving layers up and down, Del to delete layers)
- Added the ability to add several layers at once by selecting multiple files in the open file dialog
1.2 - August 21, 2008:
- Added X, Y, Width and Height to layer options to allow moving layers and resizing them (thanks to Xilef for the idea)
- Altered the layout a bit and changed the size of the image preview panel to 450 pixels instead of 400
1.3 - October 21, 2008:
- Added a custom icon (thanks Xilef!)
- You can now resize the window to accomodate for sprites of any size
- The full source code is now available with the program
Please check the attached Readme.txt file for instructions and usage information. I only tested this on 3 computers, so I'm not even sure it'd work (make sure you have the latest .Net redistributable), so please report any bugs. I'm also open to suggestions and ideas.
Making sprites can be a pain, especially when you need to make many NPC sprites from scratch. I've always liked the idea of just making the body parts and clothing articles and mixing them to create a variety of sprites. It's similar to what you see in some 2D MMORPGs, but my main inspiration was the Charas Project (http://charas-project.net/), which offers an online program that allows you to mix and match different images to create your own sprite. Charas has its problems though, like only supporting a fixed sprite template and being online, the offline version isn't much better. Other sprite generators exist, but none of them were satisfactory enough for my own needs, so I figured I'd make my own. The result is Sprite Mix.
Some of the features of Sprite Mix include supporting virtually unlimited number of layers, the ability to change the color and opacity of individual layers, loading and saving several image file formats, and some more that you could read about in the readme file. No actual images are provided with the program. I used sprites by the Half-Kaizer Construction Project (HKCP) for testing, so you might want to check that out.
Sprite Mix is a C# application that allows you to merge several layers into one image, and also edit individual layers a bit. Being a C# program, it is tied to the .Net framework and therefore having version 2.0 or later of the .Net framework installed is required. Windows Vista comes preinstalled with version 3.0 I think, and for the rest of you (Windows XP mainly), you could download it at Microsoft's website. It's a nice framework to have anyway, as other applications might require it (think Java runtime).
This is the download link for Sprite Mix v1.3
Version History:
1.0 - August 19, 2008:
- First release
1.1 - August 20, 2008:
- Added several keyboard shortcuts (W, S for moving layers up and down, Del to delete layers)
- Added the ability to add several layers at once by selecting multiple files in the open file dialog
1.2 - August 21, 2008:
- Added X, Y, Width and Height to layer options to allow moving layers and resizing them (thanks to Xilef for the idea)
- Altered the layout a bit and changed the size of the image preview panel to 450 pixels instead of 400
1.3 - October 21, 2008:
- Added a custom icon (thanks Xilef!)
- You can now resize the window to accomodate for sprites of any size
- The full source code is now available with the program
Please check the attached Readme.txt file for instructions and usage information. I only tested this on 3 computers, so I'm not even sure it'd work (make sure you have the latest .Net redistributable), so please report any bugs. I'm also open to suggestions and ideas.
