Using flash to make game sprites

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[Alpha Proto]

I noticed this really good high-res Son Goku character and it got me to thinking about using Flash to make my character sprites.

Pixel art is nice but a real time killer for me. Pixel art allows a lot of control over pallet and editing, but it cant beat the full animated feel of a full drawn character you can get from flash.

Has anyone here tried this before?

[HeadShot]

If I remember correctly, Ryanide did it with Maxime and it worked out well. I am also planning to use Flash to make my sprites, but instead of just exporting them I think I'm going to trace them and do the details by hand to keep the pixelly goodness of sprites.

So to you I say, go for it. There's nothing wrong with using a tool that'll make your work easier.

[Julia~]

mugen 1.0 allows you to go for even higher res, so flash might be a good idea.

[ZXIndustries]

well, it really depends how good you are at pixel art.
i've seen some incredible shit that's mind-boggling that's mere pixel art.

either one will do..
just depends on how u use it.

[MirageAtoli]

liero116's Cross Fighter Project is using flash for sprites.

CS4's output settings allow you to export a GIF or PNG sequence as a sequence of images, if you are interested

[Alpha Proto]

Thanks for all of your help.

I've always been a big fan of pixel art, but when it comes to making a fighter the attention to detail that making each sprite takes kills my insperation.

That's why I've testing new methods of making charcters.
 Like digitalized sprites from pictures; like my avatar.

Still like I noted before getting  a high qulity  finished producted may be more imporatant than the pixel art tradition.

[MirageAtoli]

Still like I noted before getting  a high qulity  finished producted may be more imporatant than the pixel art tradition.

It also depends on the aesthetic you are trying to capture.

Another cool think about vectored sprites is that you can output them at various resolutions perfectly, for hi-res, lo-res and everything in-between.

[Julia~]

"perfectl" you have to revolutionize the way palettes are handled. or just use hue/saturation like mortal kombat.

[MirageAtoli]

"perfectl" you have to revolutionize the way palettes are handled. or just use hue/saturation like mortal kombat.

As long as each shape is a solid color, I don't foresee a problem. I may have to test this theory, later.
Flash can also export a sequence of images based on a color palette.

[Julia~]

I did not know about the last one; the only foreseeable problem is the antialiasing, but if you can turn it off, then there is no problem. Or you can just revolutionize palettes.

[Alpha Proto]

Ok before I go any farther. Here is something I've been working on.

I drew the characters in Flash, and saved the image as PNG. Would the png file's transparency properties carry over into MUGEN? Or would I have to clean the characters outlines to be more crisp?

[Iced]

some of your sprites look gorgeous.
this might help on your doubts about transparency
http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=104470.0

[.(O).]

That Goku was made by Xande Toskomics, a great friend of mine. He is freak skilled and was making a Hajime no Ippo full game, which I helped him a bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQW9RFB4RY&feature=PlayList&p=6613EC20F2CA6727&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17

CS4's output settings allow you to export a GIF or PNG sequence as a sequence of images, if you are interested

Actually, you can have it on early versions too.]

btw, nice sprites!

[HeadShot]

While it is indeed possible to export the sprites form Flash, if you want anti-aliasing, you'll have to do it yourself Ain't that hard once you get the hang of it.

And unfortunately, Mugen doesn't support alpha channels, so transparency will do you no good and anti-aliasing outside of the lines will look fugly.

Nice sprites, by the way!

Anyway, I heard about a certain Bone Tool that's new in CS4. From the looks of it, it might be nice for sprite making. Does anyone here have any experience with it?

[MirageAtoli]

PNG-8 and not PNG-24, not sure which you are using, but definitely use PNG-8 or GIF.

Smooth
Applies anti-aliasing to an exported bitmap to produce a higher-quality bitmap image and improve text display quality. However, smoothing might cause a halo of gray pixels to appear around an anti-aliased image placed on a colored background, and it increases the PNG file size. Export an image without smoothing if a halo appears or if you’re placing a PNG transparency on a multicolored background.

from: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Flash/10.0_UsingFlash/WSd60f23110762d6b883b18f10cb1fe1af6-7bc6a.html

May want to test with the smoothing option selected and not selected.

[Alpha Proto]

That Goku was made by Xande Toskomics, a great friend of mine. He is freak skilled and was making a Hajime no Ippo full game, which I helped him a bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orQW9RFB4RY&feature=PlayList&p=6613EC20F2CA6727&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17

CS4's output settings allow you to export a GIF or PNG sequence as a sequence of images, if you are interested

Actually, you can have it on early versions too.]

btw, nice sprites!

Oh, yeah! I've been following his Ippo work since I first ran into it on youtube! He is one of the reasons I wanted to try and work on this sprites this scale. I also just want to avoid  pixel art. I nit-pick over pixels, and it slows down my progress.

What is Cs4?

[HeadShot]

What is Cs4?

Adobe Creative Suite 4, the latest version of Adobe's toolkit consisting of Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and a bunch of stuff nobody cares about. It seems Flash got a ton of new features in this revision.

[.(O).]

PNG-8 and not PNG-24, not sure which you are using, but definitely use PNG-8 or GIF.

In fact, its better to extract in PNG-24 from Flash then you work on the images on photoshop.

And here is a quick trick:

If you wanna blend the sprites border in a better way (without half tones of the background, for example), do the following:

- Export the image in Save for web (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S heheeheh its a big shortcut but you can do it with one hand, believe me)
- Choose GIF and on MATE you put BLACK and TRANSPARENT (no color). This will add a solid black border on your sprite, giving you less headache.
- after that, open the image again and convert it to pcx.

If you try to convert right for PCX, you will have some issues with the background colors.

see ya

[Alpha Proto]

PNG-8 and not PNG-24, not sure which you are using, but definitely use PNG-8 or GIF.

In fact, its better to extract in PNG-24 from Flash then you work on the images on photoshop.

And here is a quick trick:

If you wanna blend the sprites border in a better way (without half tones of the background, for example), do the following:

- Export the image in Save for web (CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S heheeheh its a big shortcut but you can do it with one hand, believe me)
- Choose GIF and on MATE you put BLACK and TRANSPARENT (no color). This will add a solid black border on your sprite, giving you less headache.
- after that, open the image again and convert it to pcx.

If you try to convert right for PCX, you will have some issues with the background colors.

see ya

WOW! You just saved me from hours of extra work!
Thank you for the tip!