Spriting Tutorial - V.2 - Two-Point Perspective Added

[Captain Awesome]

On the subject of rather or not to show off all the "trade" secrets I've learned over the last 12+ years of doom spriting and editing, I too have wondered rather it would be in my best interest. It's true that professional artists (those that are smart) will never show their secrets to you, since their living and income depends on that they have an edge over their fellow artist. Given how competitive the art-field is, rather an artist will land a contract or land a job depends on the tiniest margin of skill differences between him/her and the competitors. So it's reasonable for them to hold on to their know-hows.

But, truth be told, I'm by no means a professional artist, nor would I ever be one. My income doesn't depend on my artistic skills, and it certainly wouldn't come from making a few doom sprites even if it did (not in this day and age, anyway). So in the end, it all boils down to pride. The question is, would I feel less proud of my work, if I shared my shortcuts, and risk someone using these hard-learned skills to somehow surpass me? The answer to that is simply - no. There are several reasons why that is.

For one, the concept of "best" or "the top" is simply an illusion. There is a Chinese saying that "there will always be a taller mountain", and it's something I believe to the fullest. Ergo, its only inevitable that I be surpassed, especially given that I'm very far from the "best" spriter. So then it all boils down to rather I would help someone surpass myself, or selfishly hog my secrets in a feeble attempt hold him/her back. If I did the latter, I would be doing my dignity a great injustice.

Second of all, regardless of what people do with what I've shown them; rather they will, in return, belittle me, or go on a massive ego trip over the tiny amount that they've managed of understanding to acquire from me, they can't take away the only thing that makes art worthwhile - the enjoyment. I am an amateur, and I do art simply for enjoyment and to improve. And sharing isn't going to rob me of the satisfaction that I managed accomplish something on my own.

Finally, my goal when I originally started DE was to expand the resources available. Sharing what I've learned during this course is just one form of expanding the resources.

Given that, I have no problem sharing the shortcuts I've learned. Besides, I'm always looking for new methods to speed up my production times. Reevaluating my own skills during the production of this tutorial is only one form of practice that will probably lead me to something better that what I have now.

However, do not get any false hopes for this tutorial. As I've mentioned, there are many things I cannot show with words or with examples. The instantaneous decisions that I make during production cannot be shared. Art, like many things, is as much of a mental process as it is a physical process. Training the mind to know when a design or art piece will succeed or fail is up to the artist, no one can teach you that. Also, even with the best tutorial I can muster, it's ultimate up the to artist to take the time to learn it. It won't be an easy path to take, and the first steps will undoubtedly be filled with failure and disappointments. I've learned over the years, that no amount of hardware, software, or tutorials will magically give you the skills to produce art. As a teenager, I thought getting photoshop would somehow magically make me a better artist. It didn't happen. Later I thought getting a tablet would make me a better artist, that didn't happen either (although it did make doing what I know a bit easier). In the end, the only thing that counts is practice and dedication, and the inability to be prematurely satisfied in one's work.

One worry that I have when I get to the actual coloring and spriting sections in the tutorial is that I would subconsciously force my style one people that are reading it. This isn't a problem for already established artist, but has a danger of misleading new artists in the wrong way. I have yet to master any of the subjects in this tutorial, thus there is a risk of pointing people down the wrong way.

I like you, man.

[esselfortium]

But do you like him like him?

[Captain Awesome]

[Marisa the Magician]

seconded~

[David Ferstat]

Some comments.

1) Sendspace seems to suck. I counted five different links on the final page that said "Download". That's not pleasant. Have you considered hosting with DRD?

2) Some proof-reading comments:

P1, para 3: "The understanding of these fundamentals is paramount for most forms of art, ..."

P3, para 2: ".. or if you can see ..."

P3, para 4: "This is how high, relative to the table their eyes." You could be saying one of several things here, but I don't know what.

P4, para 1: "Below is what the two children see."

P5, para 1: "You might have noticed that the an object gets appears to be smaller as it gets further away."

P5, para 1: "...because there is only 1 set ..."

P5, para 3: "... since their plane is parallel to your viewing plane ..."

P5, para 3: "... The reason of why this is shown in figure 5 below."

P6, para 1: In a discussion of apparent size, you don't actually need to discuss your assumed human field-of-view. You only need to use two diagrams to demonstrate the change in apparant size over distance. As such, you can safely delete diagram A and any references to it here, especially as you're not actually discussing the field-of-view. Also note that any difference btween the shape of the view that you see and the surface that you're drawing it on is irrelevant.

P6, para 1: "... the edges closer to you occupy a larger view-angle than the edges farther out, face farther away which then appear smaller, and thus the boxes looks like they converge toward a single point in perspective."

P6, para 2: "As you can imagine, a one-point perspective is a bit limited in application since it limits you to depicting objects that are within 90º or 180º relative from your view."

P6, para 3: "... since rarely do ..."

P7, para 1: "The next level of up in understanding ..."

P7, para 3: "... several methods to find rather determine if your vanishing point is on or off ..."

P8, para 1: "The canvas in figure 7 is represented by ..."

P8, para 2: "To show how this method works, both one-point and two-point perspectives." This isn't a statement. What do you mean?

P8, para 3: "There are two things that determine rather if your VPs ..."

P8, para 4: "... second thing that determines rather if the VPs ..."


Apart from that, it's a good basic introduction to perspective technique for drawing.

(As a friend told me many years ago, "If you don't want me to proof-read something, don't ask me to read it".)

[Gez]

That's not pleasant. Have you considered hosting with DRD?

Unfortunately, the upload script has been broken by the server update so this is not an option at the moment.

[cq75]

I still like the zip it and attach it idea

[Xaser]

I've got an idea:

http://ionline.vectec.net/hosted/Erianc ... rialV2.pdf

[Ethril]

Wait, wait! What if Eriance is subject to the Inverse Ninja Law? Cloning him would just dilute his talent!

if we only make 2 or 3 clones it'll be okay
the diminishing returns caused by inverse ninja law don't really show up until you get past 3, and they're still outweighed by the positives until 5 or so, where you roughly break even until around 8.
thus, optimal number of ninja is 3 or 4. any more than 7 is asking for trouble unless you're massively outnumbered.

[NeuralStunner]

thus, optimal number of ninja is 3 or 4. any more than 7 is asking for trouble unless you're massively outnumbered.

It depends on what you mean by "ninja". If you mean "dudes dressed in black body suits that stick out like a sore thumb basically anywhere", then 1 is possibly too many.

---

The ninja outfit is ridiculous, if you think about it. If you're an assassin and your job is to blend in, you don't do that by dressing in a black bodysuit that screams "ninja" from a mile away. So, they dressed like normal people--workers, monks, merchants, basically anything that looked as un-ninja as humanly possible was the perfect disguise. This way, they could sneak around unnoticed, day or night.


Hidden inside those bushels are like a million katanas.

On rare occasions when they needed to move through the dark undetected, they still didn't wear black. Dark blue is the color you want if you want to blend in at night; someone in all black would stand out like a silhouette.

[Amuscaria]

Yes, my artistic talent works just like this:



And following the advice of the said movie, I've "learned" to get better over these years. Now...only a few more to get rid off...