William's Homeroom

I am William, formerly IceHockeyGoalie, and I am here to teach to the ways of spriting. I am currently the only teacher on the subject, so choosing me to be your teacher should come easy if you're interested in spriting. You will learn to:

• Create Bases
• Shade Correctly
• Recolor Quickly
• Splice Effectively
• And most importantly: Create Customs!

I also plan to teach how to create sprite comics for those who wish to learn from me. So this homeroom will act as a haven for everything sprite-like.



To apply as a student, you must PM me the following information:

1. How long you've been spriting, if applicable
2. Why you'd wish to learn under me
3. Any examples of previous work you may have

If you've never sprited before, no sweat, just tell me that in the PM and as long as you're dedicated, I will teach!



Task One: Shading

Assignment #1
Assignment 2
Assignment #2 Help



Dog Dog 123!

I want you to have fun with this and become better at a skill worth getting better at.

- William

Bump

The first assignment is up for future students, it's in ^ post but I'll post it here as well:

My attention span would like to request a smaller block next time.

Anyways, I tried.



Good? Bad? I think I put my first color in the wrong spot.

Alright, review time!

The basic shading technique was a good one; you positioned the colors where the light source demanded them to be, which is good.

The colors themselves were just a bit lacking. The shading how it is looks like a gradient, where shading should blend in with the rest of the sprite to show depth and detail.

The technique I take to add proper shading is to first pick the color you'd like to be the "middle" color, meaning it be the line, or several pixels, positioned across the center either vertically or horizontally.

If you go to paint, then double click on the color you'd like to be the "middle" color, follow the menu under "Define Custom Colors" where a menu pops up.

You'll see a box titled "Lum" The way you want to go about it is: The higher the number, the lighter, the lower the darker.

Now take your original "middle" color and add, or subtract, 5 or 10 (depending on the size of the space)

Once you get the lighter color, for this example, you'd put it to the right of the "middle" color, and put the dark to the left of the "middle" color. You repeat this process going up and down by 5 or 10 points until your square is shaded to perfection!

However, this trick won't work in all situations. Such as in 8-bit and sometimes 16-bit sprites. In those sprites, the space for shading is limited greatly and you'll have to use your spriting abilities to figure out a way to incorporate shading into the sprite.

Overall, you did well! I'll have the second assignment up by tomorrow at the latest.

- Will

Double post for an update: here is assignment number two.



If you have any questions about it, ask me here, or pm me.

Remember, you're just making your character's head.

And... I'm lost.

Any chance you'll give a little guidance? I'm rather hopeless at this, just cause it's being thrown straight into a big project with absolutely no help on how to do any of it. Well, I suppose it's not a big project, but any suggestions for making a new head for a character?

XD alright, I'm glad you ask questions!

The first thing you should do is to take the head off either mario or luigi. I'll do luigi.



If you need anymore help, ask here!

(Remember, do mario! )

Well I see your off to a good start willy but to be a bit blunt your student seems confused mostly because your not letting them fly, mostly instead of lessons that dont mean squate though there nicely done william.
I think you should let your puplie make something of he's/her own the apply the lession as you help him/her with her creation!
but your the grapics teacher?

Luuuuuure needs to learn to type. I can hardly read that post. Anyways, no, student is not confused. Student just has issues with being handed big-ish projects with no help at all, which is what every other teacher here also has a tendancy to do.

Loading... loading... load- HA! Found it. ^_^



I know it sucks. And I was having color issues. So the hair ended up pink. I might change it eventually, but it would definately help to recolor the clothes first to make the hair look any good. So I'm being lazy and leaving it as the last color I tried before giving up on making it look nice.

Good? Bad? Terrible?

Well I see your off to a good start willy but to be a bit blunt your student seems confused mostly because your not letting them fly, mostly instead of lessons that dont mean squate though there nicely done william.

I see what you mean, and I needed to hear that. Lol.

I think you should let your puplie make something of he's/her own the apply the lession as you help him/her with her creation!

There's just a problem with that. She said she was clueless on the subject, and called that simple edit

being thrown straight into a big project

I could allow her just to create something, and critique and help her along; but I think she needs to learn the baby steps first. If she wishes to try it that way, she can ask. I wouldn't mind. Lol.

but your the grapics teacher?

Heck yes! I was the first of the shanty to become a teacher. Then Blizz, then Goldstud.

@ Meh Pupil: That was mighty quick! And I suppose the tutorial answered your questions huh?

The sprite itself, is a little sub-par. However, it isn't far from good. The things you need to fix are as follows:

The head shape. If you look at it, it looks like a trapezoid placed ontop of a rectangle. That isn't what heads are shaped like silly! On either side of the head, you need to puff up the line of pixels to make a semi-circle, then maybe add some stray hairs off the top of the head, just to add actuality.

The hair color isn't much to my favor, but I like the shading positioning. However, the darkest pink color contrasts too much with the others, making it look like she has lines in the middle of the hair. You need to make that darker color just a smidge darker than the "middle" color to make it look proper.

The mouth: I see you put it off to the side. Ehh...it's alright, there is nothing completely wrong with it, but I'd suggest fiddling around with the pixel placement.

The nose: This one is easy to fix. You did well with the nose, but the problem is, the nose pixels are touching the eyes. Remove the two pixels touching the eyes and you're set.

_____

Okay, I wasn't going to say, just for the natural progression happen, but I'll tell you my agenda.

The next assignment, as you can guess is to make the clothes for your person, and slightly edit the arms and legs, to make them suit. It's a bit harder than the one before.

Then you would create your character's front walking poses. Then I'll refer you to an animation program, that's free, to test out your sprites.

Then, you would create the other walking poses.

THEN, you would create any bonus poses on the sheet. Or maybe some of your own?

Then, we'd move onto some battle poses.

Then, after you're done all that; we will test your sprite's greatness in two ways:

Posting it in the sprite comic shantytown, for extra criticism and the kicker: submitting it to the spriter's resource under M&L styled sprites.

So, what do you think? ;D

Wow, a teacher with an actual plan. I wonder how long that'll last.

Heck yes! I was the first of the shanty to become a teacher. Then Blizz, then Goldstud.

Wrong. There was definately another teacher teaching spriting about a year ago. First guess says it was Rantick. Anyways, you're not the first.

That was mighty quick! And I suppose the tutorial answered your questions huh?

Well, it's only a few pixels to work with, so no reason for it to take hours and hours. And yeah, the tutorial gave me a place to start.

That isn't what heads are shaped like silly!

Really? Gimme a sec to go find a mirror.

The hair color isn't much to my favor, but I like the shading positioning. However, the darkest pink color contrasts too much with the others, making it look like she has lines in the middle of the hair. You need to make that darker color just a smidge darker than the "middle" color to make it look proper.

Yeah, that part was bugging me alittle. But it seems like it's usually better to have too much contrast rather then too little, so I went with a bit of a bigger difference. Right, I'll get around to fixing eventually.

The mouth: I see you put it off to the side. Ehh...it's alright, there is nothing completely wrong with it, but I'd suggest fiddling around with the pixel placement.

Yeah, I was having some trouble with that. I didn't want it to mirror the neckline and I was trying to avoid putting it against the nose. But it looked empty without a mouth.

The nose: This one is easy to fix. You did well with the nose, but the problem is, the nose pixels are touching the eyes. Remove the two pixels touching the eyes and you're set.

But... but... but... The nose in the original was touching! It's not my fault! Well, maybe it is. I honestly cannot see a difference between whether those two pixels are light/dark when zoomed out... maybe I'm just going blind... Or is it one of those things that only matters when zoomed in and carefully looking at something?


As for your super duper agenda, that sounds fun. ^_^ So I assume my current task is to fix up spots on the head and then play with clothing? Okay then.

By the way, I already have an animation program on here. And it's easy. And it works. So I think I'll stick with that one rather then being referred to whatever you're using.

And... gah... I'll get to it tomorrow. Or the day after.

Wrong. There was definately another teacher teaching spriting about a year ago. First guess says it was Rantick. Anyways, you're not the first.

By first from the shanty, I mean the recent 3-teacher wave to come from there.

Well, it's only a few pixels to work with, so no reason for it to take hours and hours. And yeah, the tutorial gave me a place to start.

Glad it helped.

Really? Gimme a sec to go find a mirror.

[/sarcasm]

[Comments about critique]

Sounds good. ;D

As for your super duper agenda, that sounds fun. ^_^

Good! I do my best. ;D

By the way, I already have an animation program on here. And it's easy. And it works. So I think I'll stick with that one rather then being referred to whatever you're using.

Okey-dokey

And... gah... I'll get to it tomorrow. Or the day after.

No rush. ;D

I'm jumping in at Assignment 2. ^_^

Here's mine:



And yes, I've seen guys with bleached hairdos that look like that.

So, Blizz, you decided to join? Well I'm glad!

Critique time!

Actually...Blizz...are you kidding? ._. You barely changed anything...Nothing at all in Mario's head. If you're serious about joining, then I'd suggest redoing it, with some effort!

If not, then, I must say....

[/sarcasm]

I missed the part where you said edit the whole head. I remember the example with the hairdo.

*Goes back to fix*

And yes, that was effort. I spent a half hour on that.

EDIT:

Here you go.



I built his head from the ground up. So if it looks like Mario's head, that's entirely coincidental.

Alright, Critique time!

I see the shading on the hair, and you followed instructions well, making the colors blend well; the only thing I can suggest is to throw another color in there. To make the shading awesome. 3 colors is the normal rate for shading.

The eyes aren't in the M&L style, sorry if I didn't mention the M&L styled project to you. All you need to do to make them follow suit is to bound the blue within some white pixels. (See Mario) also, you could add some shading into the eyes, if you'd wish.

The mouth isn't perfect, your sprite so far looked very symmetric, but the mouth throws that off. It's your call to change it or not, but it's not "required"

Your sprite lacks a nose! There's just a big empty space! If your character doesn't have a nose, then this comment is void. ;3

Lastly, the face shading could also use another color of shading. Also not "required."

I'm glad you joined my class Blizz, I'm honored. ;D

What's this M&L style thing you keep mentioning? Mario and Luigi? Why is it important? Or is it just making parts of sprites match?



Whee, posting. Looks bad. I think I need brighter colors. And the sprite looks fat. Not sure how to fix that. But my lack of sleep, too much sugar, and short attention span say that it's good enough to look human-ish. How bad is it?

Originally Posted by William

the only thing I can suggest is to throw another color in there. To make the shading awesome. 3 colors is the normal rate for shading.

Righto, then. I'll look into it.

Originally Posted by William

The mouth isn't perfect, your sprite so far looked very symmetric, but the mouth throws that off. It's your call to change it or not, but it's not "required"

Originally Posted by William

Your sprite lacks a nose! There's just a big empty space!

Not my fault your directions weren't specific enough. Otherwise, that's entirely opinion.

No, it isn't. And I'll tell you why: It's a facial expression. It wasn't meant to be perfectly symmetrical.

Sorry for not being specific, but I thought it would go without saying to give your sprite a nose. Breathing through your mouth rots your teeth you know.