Shiny Motley
2016 Singles Football
I know we already have a few of these, but I thought I'd give my hand at it as well. Anyways, I'm going to do this bit by bit, as I don't have too much time to do a huge "this is how I sprite a complete trainer!" tutorial. ^^;
Outlining
I see a lot of people having problems when making outlines and stuff, so I thought I'd give some pointers for them.
1) Avoid using straight lines
I know straight lines are easier to draw, but in reality, very few things are actually completely straight. People and living things are definitely made of curves, and while a few straight lines here and there are fine, your fakemon's tail should not be a rectangle. And I really hope your trainer's pants don't look like the first example at the top.
2) Avoid overlapping lines
Similarly, when scratch-spriting, especially with the pencil tool, your lines often look something like the image on the left, right? This makes your outline look clunky and messy. I highly suggest cleaning up lines so that you have as few right angles as possible. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule (if you want something to look pointy, lines often overlap), but in general it's a good idea to go back and erase the bits at the corners and around curves.
For more in-depth about overlapping lines, curves, and angles, Cave of Dragonflies has a pretty decent guide here. I suggest you look at it! (It also has other good spriting tips, if you want to read more, but yeah)
3) Use colors other than black
versus
The difference is subtle and might not be immediately noticeable, but alternating between black and another color can bring more depth to your sprite. This isn't to say to never use black; in fact, black can help add depth to your sprite when used right. I had to learn this myself as I used to never use black for a lot of my sprites, and I realized black helped make the sprite pop out more.
4) Don't use the shape tool
If you're using MS Paint, you probably have the shape tool. Avoid using it at all costs, it's clunky and has a lot of flaws. If you must use it, keep in mind you might have to go back and rearrange some pixels to fix things.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any other spriters who has tips for peoples for anything, feel free to contribute! I'll probably talk about shading next week, since that's another big thing, eheh.
Outlining
I see a lot of people having problems when making outlines and stuff, so I thought I'd give some pointers for them.
1) Avoid using straight lines
I know straight lines are easier to draw, but in reality, very few things are actually completely straight. People and living things are definitely made of curves, and while a few straight lines here and there are fine, your fakemon's tail should not be a rectangle. And I really hope your trainer's pants don't look like the first example at the top.
2) Avoid overlapping lines
Similarly, when scratch-spriting, especially with the pencil tool, your lines often look something like the image on the left, right? This makes your outline look clunky and messy. I highly suggest cleaning up lines so that you have as few right angles as possible. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule (if you want something to look pointy, lines often overlap), but in general it's a good idea to go back and erase the bits at the corners and around curves.
For more in-depth about overlapping lines, curves, and angles, Cave of Dragonflies has a pretty decent guide here. I suggest you look at it! (It also has other good spriting tips, if you want to read more, but yeah)
3) Use colors other than black
The difference is subtle and might not be immediately noticeable, but alternating between black and another color can bring more depth to your sprite. This isn't to say to never use black; in fact, black can help add depth to your sprite when used right. I had to learn this myself as I used to never use black for a lot of my sprites, and I realized black helped make the sprite pop out more.
4) Don't use the shape tool
If you're using MS Paint, you probably have the shape tool. Avoid using it at all costs, it's clunky and has a lot of flaws. If you must use it, keep in mind you might have to go back and rearrange some pixels to fix things.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any other spriters who has tips for peoples for anything, feel free to contribute! I'll probably talk about shading next week, since that's another big thing, eheh.
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