Dark Saturn's Spriting Tutorial
Alrighty, I noticed in Song of Amazon's journal on Deviantart when she posted that we were accepting new applications- that some said they would try out, but they couldn't make sprites. Sooo, I desided to make a tutorial...sometime (Especailly sense people have named me the 'sprite master' *blush*). And now I have o_O This is done in your basic Microsoft Paint (found in accessories). I used to make sprites this way- but now I use Paintshop Pro 7 to make them. So anyways...
Things this Tutorial will teach you:
- How to make decent sprites without looking like blobs that ate the Senshi.
- How I, Dark Saturn, made (made being the key word.) sprites that you see around the Tower.
- How to use MS paint o_O
Things this Tutorial will NOT teach you:
- How to make Gifs transparent (MS paint doesnt have this capiblity).
- How to increase the colors on the Gif/bitmap (I dont know how to do this...I'm not sure if one can o_O).
- How to shade/highlight (It would be far to complex to teach you how to shade...)
- How to edit WELL (Editing sprites, like everything art-wise, takes practice to get good at).
The first thing you need is a clear mind...and a base sprite ^_^ Just cruse around Lycienta's to find one. I am using Venus. Once you have a base, think of what you want...for example, I will be making my Libra. <3
Once you have the sprite open, save it as a bitmap...maybe you're computer will cooperate and let you use colors -_-;
Now, make it bigger...yesh, bigger. It makes things MUCH easier. I usually make it x8 in paint, as seen here. Notice how big the dang thing is now? :3
Now, select the dropper tool, as highlighted. Once this tool is selected, RIGHT click on the background color. This is so that when you mess up, or want to get rid of extra lines, just go over it! Volia, the mistake is gone o_o
Next, make the canvas size bigger, buy clicking on the circled square, that is diagonal from the top. Drag it to increase the image size like so. Once that is done, click on the SQUARE marqee thing (Arrow pointing to it), and select the whole image.
Now that you have your image selected, move it to about the center of the canvas. Then just click outside the canvas (the gray area) to un select it.
Select the brightest, least-used color in the image (Like orange- but if your MS paint cooperates, I favor bright green :3), and put a dot somewhere on the image. Fill in the rest of the areas with this color now ^^
Once this is done, put all of the colors of the image to the size, like highlighted. ^_^ Then, to kill two birds with one stone, select your bold color (orange, green, whatever) to outline the actual part you will edit.
Now comes shading. As I said, I really can't teach you how to shade...except pick a light spot and go from there. Use the colors that you can to shade~ Also, get rid of the stuff you dont need (Like Venus' hair ~_~)
Keep editing...this part gets better and better as you practice, much like shading. If you want to see the big picture, shrink it back down to x1, and see if you like it. This is my finished editing part.
Get rid of your color guide/wheel thing now ^^ Then, again select the whole image.
Now, move it back to the far corner, so that your fit now fits properly into the canvas. Then using the lower-right square resizer thingy, resize it so it looks nice.
Well, this is all I can teach you- I cant show you how to color it properly or make it transparent..sense its MS paint and there's limits to what it can do. You can, however, search on Google for some free gif makers...or beg your parents for Paint Shop Pro or something ^_^; I may make a tutorial using Paint Shop pro, and/or Jasc Animation Shop. Ja for now! *scurries off*
