Need serious help making sprites

[The Railgunner]

I have no idea how to make them. I see so many people on this forum make the most kickass sprites, and I have no idea how they do it. Can anyone help me/teach me/or something?

[c00p]

Well, first of all, it's pretty obvious you need to know how to draw . . . good spriters usually draw good, and vice versa. Open up a lot of .sff-s and spend some good hours looking sprites, and then read some tutorials, like the ones found in this very same section.
Also, 100% of the spriters started with edits usually.

Spoiler (click to show)

Even though i'm not the most indicated to response you 

[The Railgunner]

I draw fairly well, but I mean spriting on a computer - much harder than pencil and paper.

[[[D4RK_R4V3N]]]

 Well I'll tell you how I started drawing, first of all don't read bullshit about techniques and stuff, that only makes you a copycat instead find yourself a way to get things going, I started drawing manga stuff like Dragon Ball and Saint Seiya because are too simple and the proportions are bounded to the artist likes, I kept for years into this then I started to get my interest into comics and I saw many different techniques, I usually dont copy exactly a drawing instead I try to emulate the details and draw it i a different position or perspective so I can figure out how the drawing was made.

Once you got some way of drawing get real and say which is your weak point:
-if detail gives you way too many trouble use dark technique (lots of shading, note that this fits creepy drawings and stuff and saves you a hellot of work, but don't give presentation to your work)

-if shading is your weak point (believeme some times I've seen some drawings with miss placed shading, for amateur artist and public it get unnoticed for someone sharp it mekes you look like an idiot)

-if lines keeps failing at you ( a fine single line) try the "hairy style" seen commonly in paints such as used in Hellspawn series (I think its made with some sort of painting but looks damn good)

-if proportions mess with you stick with manga stuff, those guys fuck proportions pretty damn good for the sake of aesthetics

-if you can't draw very elaborated this or visually impressive works try out coloring, so you drawing might be simple but if it's well colored at least no one will notice it that much

-finally try to be creative (this is the most fucking difficult part)

for some references check out the art of this dudes (my favorites artists):

Greg Capullo
Todd McFarlane
Jim Lee
David Finch
Steve McNiven
Bryan Hitch
Jim Balent
Michael Turner
Mike Deodato
Mark Bagley
Sean Philips
Marc Silvestri
Scott Campbell
Ivan Reis
Don Figueroa

[[[D4RK_R4V3N]]]

I draw fairly well, but I mean spriting on a computer - much harder than pencil and paper.

In fact is easier

[NiO ErZeBeTh]

well, yes and no...

easier...cause you don't need to put so much details like in a draw (depending your ambition)...

harder... cause a single pixel can destroy all your work (make the sprite looks like shit)....


but to make sprites, it's just to paint pixel by pixel, taking care of details like the shadows...

[TITAN MADRE]

Well, first of all, it's pretty obvious you need to know how to draw

lie

[Ohsky]

harder... cause a single pixel can destroy all your work (make the sprite looks like shit)....


but to make sprites, it's just to paint pixel by pixel, taking care of details like the shadows...

it´s a very tiring task, how the hell i was capable of doing that on more than 700 sprites?, i dont know.

[The Railgunner]

Except that everytime I try, it looks like shit. I have a good idea of what I want to sprite, but it never looks the way I want it to.

Namely, the styles I'm interested are Alpha and SF2.

[[[D4RK_R4V3N]]]

Except that everytime I try, it looks like shit. I have a good idea of what I want to sprite, but it never looks the way I want it to.

Namely, the styles I'm interested are Alpha and SF2.

Try drawing free the puppet, but always compare to other sprite as a base si it gets to proper size, depending if it's clothed or almost naked, male or female and constitution, you choose the sprite you're comparing to, for example you want a guy in thong like urine, but the shading and proportions of SFA use someone dunno like Sagat or adon to see the pattern of how the torso is detailed and shaded (not to copy it) if female one of the best bases is cammy I think

well, yes and no...

easier...cause you don't need to put so much details like in a draw (depending your ambition)...

harder... cause a single pixel can destroy all your work (make the sprite looks like shit)....


but to make sprites, it's just to paint pixel by pixel, taking care of details like the shadows...

That's why world moved to HR 

[The Railgunner]

Eh, was hoping on some sort of method or tutorial (I'd go to SprAc, but it's down).

[TITAN MADRE]

its imposible to make a tutorial.
if someone think is posible...well...is a idiot.

you have some reference about the number of colors and proportion, but...
even the game companies workers fails keeping the same style on all his characters (capcom,snk..etc)

the only true of pixel art is:
when you say: "Im the best"
...you are not.
when the rest say: "youre the best"
...you are not.

[Rote Zaungast]

being the best is just a matter of time and how much time spent on something

[NiO ErZeBeTh]

Eh, was hoping on some sort of method or tutorial (I'd go to SprAc, but it's down).

well, it would be online soon, but I don't know when... 

its imposible to make a tutorial.

that's not true... it's like say...it's impossible to make a tutorial on how to draw... and there's tons of them.

also, I have seen tutorials on mugenchina, sprac, mugen-infantry... of course...those tutorials are more like "how to sprite in X style" ot with "X technique"
cause you can learn techniques, and you work with the same "pixel" method... but every spriter has his own methods...so it's difficult to give a step by step tutorial...we all work in different ways...

[c00p]

Actually madre's right (except when he contradicts me) . . . it's really hard to make one tutorial for spriting. You can, however, make a ton of sub-tutorials with topics like lineart-cleaning, antialiasing, palettes, proportions and a lot of stuff that i have no name for them yet (which are acquired throw making tons of awful sprites first  8) )
But it's pretty impossible to make a "straight" tutorial from zero to a good looking sprite.

Well, first of all, it's pretty obvious you need to know how to draw

lie

prove me wrong 

[ARCoolguy]

i also need help spriting

[InterRage]

this might help, concentrate on body parts. If what you're working on looks good, continue on to the next body part....
look for references for how your character is going to look, or how it's going to stand. Start off with a stick figure, then try to flesh it out.

[NiO ErZeBeTh]

this might help you!

http://www.spriters-academy.com.ar/index.php?topic=16.0

isn't a tuto on How to sprite, cause it depends a lot of the style you are gonna use, but it would help you to see what you can missing on your designs...

[Marancv]

my 2 cents

www.freewebs.com/marancv/tutorials

[FeLo_Llop]

I guess this can helps you:

http://mugenguild.com/forumx/index.php?topic=93639.0

It's specifically for the "run" anim, but I follow the same method to sprite everything. Once you know to draw(and you said you're good at it), the whole thing comes just in painting and playing with light&dark zones. That would be the most difficult part. I suggest you to start with KoF sprites, aren't that harsh for begin. CvS are OK and easy too, but one misplaced pixel and all your work can be destroyed

PS: Good luck!!

Ad if you need something, PM me, I'll help as I can.