New Spriting Tutorial - Angled Weapons Up! (P. 1)

[DoomRater]

I wish someone would properly finish GIMPshop.

Anyway, why is it that I always feel like my vanishing points should be formed slightly off? When making angled weapons, they always seem more correct to me when the vanishing point is a few pixels towards the gun. I'm guessing that's my head correcting for where the weapon origin would be.

Will demonstrate after I take care of IRL drama stuff.

[Amuscaria]

You can have as many vanishing points as you want, it's just what your weapon is pointing at. If you gun isn't pointing towards the center, then your vanishing point will be slightly off to either side.

[bagheadspidey]

The GIMP has one of the worst selection command ever seen.

You the rectangle selection tool? What's wrong with it? Most people complain about the weird interface, but I've never had any problems with the selection tools...

[DoomRater]

You can have as many vanishing points as you want, it's just what your weapon is pointing at. If you gun isn't pointing towards the center, then your vanishing point will be slightly off to either side.

What I am saying is that guns that point towards the center seem to be to be pointing too far. To me they seem like they should vanish a pixel or two to the same side they are on.

[Remmirath]

You the rectangle selection tool? What's wrong with it? Most people complain about the weird interface, but I've never had any problems with the selection tools...

It just sucks. I am not able to select anything with it.
Photoshop FTW.

[Unholypimpin]

yah i need to know how to shade and stuff trying to make a cool hellstaff for my mod

i wanna know is this tutorial showing us that still draw stick figures how use photoshop and or other programs tools to make realistic sprites or is this section all for art people

i hope its the first 1

[Amuscaria]

You can have as many vanishing points as you want, it's just what your weapon is pointing at. If you gun isn't pointing towards the center, then your vanishing point will be slightly off to either side.

What I am saying is that guns that point towards the center seem to be to be pointing too far. To me they seem like they should vanish a pixel or two to the same side they are on.

Shorten your gun then? O_o Cuz the perspective is right, IF you are on a 4:3 ratio canvas when you sprite your weapon. If you're not using the same ratio as mine, then I can't say it will look right in the game.

[Captain Proof]

Could these tips be applied to melee weapons?(axes,swords,etc)

[Amuscaria]

Could these tips be applied to melee weapons?(axes,swords,etc)

Depends. In the final section of the weapons tutorial, i will demonstrate moving weapons, such as swinging and stabbing, as well as rotating. These are the hardest to sprite, although with patience, can be done pretty effectively. Swinging weapons is the hardest by far, since the weapon's orientation changes with each frame, thus there is no single vanishing point. Stabbing weapons will follow the same rules as I demonstrated in parts 1 and 2, however.

It's hard to show people to sprite melee weapons effectively because it requires them to know how to draw the hand, which is the hardest part on human anatomy.

[Captain Proof]

I've been drawing (pretty well from what I've been told) for years and the hands are the hardest to draw for me.

[CaptainToenail]

I think most hands e.g. Doom, ROTT, perhaps Duke3d, are from edited photographs, rather than hand drawn.

[skadoomer]

i wanna know is this tutorial showing us that still draw stick figures how use photoshop and or other programs tools to make realistic sprites or is this section all for art people

The hardest part for you is going to be understanding how light falls on an object. If you look at the base sprite of this object, its nothing more than stuff assembled out of basic shapes. What makes it look badass is when its shaded, and you can see the shadows between the sections as well as the highlights on the green.

Now take a skull. A skull is more or less a circle with a rectangle for the top for the teeth and two more circles for the eyes (and a nose hole, which looks like an upside down heart). What makes it look like a badass skull is how you shade those basic shapes to give them depth. That takes a bit more time to master than a simple paint-by-numbers tutorial.

If your serious about wanting to improve your skills, I suggest you look into how photoshop layers work, and how brush opacity and size can assist you in making your painted lighting look better.

[Amuscaria]

I think most hands e.g. Doom, ROTT, perhaps Duke3d, are from edited photographs, rather than hand drawn.

Yes, i'm aware. Which puts me in a dilemma - should I show the swinging weapons tutorial based on existing hands or hands taken from photography, or base the hands on the weapon that is drawn?

[Captain Proof]

I like the drawn hands idea better,Or do both maybe.

[Project Shadowcat]

Another thing to note for swinging weapons -- yeah, still going to require the drawing of the hand -- is that in most cases you will have to show a good animation of a custom shotgun pump. I'll have to do one soon (perhaps I can provide some input to the tutorial?). Not all people put their gun up high to pump, and I personally prefer an across action.