Sprite Detailing [Unorthodox]

[liliputian7 4]

I've been building a sprite from scratch for a while now. The sprites I'd like to use are 36x48. I've encountered no problems with importing and using the sprite, but I don't like how it looks.

 

 

I'm alright with the up and down - I can clean them up rather easily - but the left and right just look like a shuffle. I have a feeling this is due to the static frame in the middle, but I rather like the dynamic pose. Is there another way to use the pose while substituting a proper static frame? Perhaps an idle "animation" defaulting to this pose?

 

I've been getting carpel tunnel over this for four hours now. Like, I fear for my fingers. Anything I can do about this? (The sprite issue, not the fingers.)

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

I think the main issue I see is the size. The sprite itself looks fine (I don't think you can fully fix that "shuffle" unless you use a scriptt o make more frames, that way you can make a "bend knee" frame).

I imagine if your using that size of sprite in game, then furniture around the sprite would seem rather large. I could be wrong, depending on how you draw everything of course, but just now it seems strangely small.

 

Maybe post the sprite in an in-game screenshot to give us an image of how it looks against everything else?

[liliputian7 4]

Oh, this is very early on in the process. I haven't even begun to create scenery yet - since, of course, I wanted to create it based on this scale. I've fixed the walk cycle - kind of - but I'd still like to find a way to use that dynamic center pose in, perhaps, an idle animation of some kind. Any way that's possible?

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

I remember there being an "idle animation" script for ACE. I think Galv was the creator (can't search it just now due to being on phone) so having an idle "bounce up and down" animation would probably work for that pose to be honest.

 

I also think you may have to upscale the size of the sprite for future tiling purposes. Unless your parallaxing, having walk permissions on items may get hard.

By that I mean, if you have a 32x32 table, it would seem to big against the player. If you make a smaller table within that 32px grid though, then your charater may not go against it as nicely as you want (to far away from it, ect.).

 

Of course, I may be entirely wrong haha. I'll let you do your thing until then and see what happens~

 

For the question asked; yep. Using a script would allow you to have a walk cycle and a separate idle animation as far as I remember. I'm sure Galv has both the "More Walking Frames" and "Idle Animation Frames" on his site, so you won't need to worry about compatibility either.

[liliputian7 4]

Thank you for the references. As to scaling: I'm not sure what 'walk permissions' are - again, I'm very, very novice - but I do plan on creating original art for everything in the game. I hope that I'll be able to bypass any normal 32x32 tiling issues by doing this.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

"Walk Permissions" are the permissions within the editor under "Tilesets".

 

Essentially they are an X, O and a *;

X means you cant walk over it, so furniture and holes and such.

O mean you can walk over it freely

* means the assigned tile will appear above the character so doorways or behind bigger furniture.

 

No worries though, you learn from experience ;P

You already do alot better pixel spriting than me so your off to a good start~

I recommend using grid guides (I have some online if you want them) to make sure everything is following the "grid rule" since RPGM uses a strict grid system. Especially for tilesets later, but of course thats a later task for you ^-^

 

Experience is the best thing to get though, to be honest. I spent alot of time just messing with the program to learn how it worked. You already have the basics of spriting and such, so you'll be fine

Hope you get everything sorted out!

[liliputian7 4]

By the way, I made a mistake in my main post. The sprites are actually 32x48, not 36x48. Does that change anything?

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Nah, it doesn't really change to much. The default grid size is 32x32. I actually highly recommend - if your going for a taller sprite height - to use 32x64. 48 is a half tile, which means it might not correspond properly against certain tiles and events. You don't have to change the actual sprite, but I do recommend making the "grid" they sit in a 64px height.

 

I don't think it causes major problems though, but I have heard it causes some minor graphical stuff later. 

[liliputian7 4]

Ah. I'll see what I can do. Thanks

[Tsarmina 2,612]

A way to help get rid of the "shuffle effect" is to swap out the middle image for one where you can only see one leg. For example, yours is kind of in a 3/4 view at the moment, but it was a perfect 2/2 profile view, the transition and resulting anim would look much more walky  

For example, in this example I unceremoniously grabbed from google (spoilered due to its huge size), in the second frame (which would be equivalent to your middle side frame), you can really only see one of the girl's legs. 

 

 

 

 

This gives the anim a much cleaner, not to mention more symmetrical motion XD

[liliputian7 4]

Thanks for the advice. I've already edited the sprite to get rid of the shuffle effect. However, I'd like to keep the dynamic pose above, perhaps in an idle animation. I've been told there are scripts that make this possible, and I'll be investigating later on.