Utility: Sprite Editing Tutorial

[Stavis_L]

Originally Posted by DaveCG

...next on the list will proberly be my insane idea for a underwater blood nation...

Yeah you heard! :P

(will the blood slaves drown as soon as a battle starts if the command that has them 'equiped' doesn't have something like share water breathing?)

Dunno about the drowning (I *assume* they would...) but you should know that you cannot blood hunt an underwater province. So your proposed underwater blood nation would need to get some tentacles onto land before they could start siphoning off the virgin blood...

BTW, on topic, nice sprites :-) I especially like the "spirit tree" attack sprite, though I'm not sure how it'll look in situ considering the brevity of the attack animation. However, wrt/the Lion Head pretender, I think the head should move a bit lower down onto the torso, or else it looks like the neck is too long.

[DaveCG]

Originally Posted by Stavis_L

Dunno about the drowning (I *assume* they would...) but you should know that you cannot blood hunt an underwater province. So your proposed underwater blood nation would need to get some tentacles onto land before they could start siphoning off the virgin blood...

BTW, on topic, nice sprites :-) I especially like the "spirit tree" attack sprite, though I'm not sure how it'll look in situ considering the brevity of the attack animation. However, wrt/the Lion Head pretender, I think the head should move a bit lower down onto the torso, or else it looks like the neck is too long.

Ah, damn. There go my hopes and dreams-ish, like you said I'll have to adapt it, oh well, should really look into these thing more often, maybe a land blood nation, with extensive sea units? oh well, brainstorm time. Thanks very much for the compliment as well, and I think I'll take your advice regarding the head, it did seem alittle off, maybe it's the length.

Also in other news, as I've been writing the .dm file I've realised something, I need a scout, a non cap mage, one more hero and two multi heroes...well, maybe not need on thoses hero parts but dammit I like heroes!

[esd29a]

Originally Posted by DaveCG

Ah, damn. There go my hopes and dreams-ish, like you said I'll have to adapt it, oh well, should really look into these thing more often, maybe a land blood nation, with extensive sea units? oh well, brainstorm time. Thanks very much for the compliment as well, and I think I'll take your advice regarding the head, it did seem alittle off, maybe it's the length.

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'd like to throw out an idea. How about LA Oceania for a sea-themed blood nation? Pushed out of the sea just like atlantis but where the atlantians turned to death magic and enchanted ice, the capricorns sought to regain their power and the seas by spilling the blood of the land dwellers.

[DaveCG]

Originally Posted by esd29a

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'd like to throw out an idea. How about LA Oceania for a sea-themed blood nation? Pushed out of the sea just like atlantis but where the atlantians turned to death magic and enchanted ice, the capricorns sought to regain their power and the seas by spilling the blood of the land dwellers.

That's basically what I wanted to do, except them still being in the ocean and being forced to use blood as a sorta last resort type deal, but yeah, I think I'm going to go with pushed out the ocean and wanting back in at any cost, it just seems like a cool idea to me at least, just the matter of small land roster and large sea recruitment...but yeah, derailment!

I know I've said it about 6 times now, but I have to give a huge thank you to burn for opening my eye to retooling standard dom3 sprites, I always wanted to make a nation, I can work my way round the .dm pretty easy (thanks to the modding guide and all the hard work by edi and co!) but I kept getting annoyed that I couldn't make sprites at all, and thanks to burn I can now at least get somewhere in the general area admittingly I'll never be anywhere as good as someone like Amos, but I think I can live with that now

Anyway, like I said earlier I need to make a scout, another mage and 3 heroes, so if it alright I'll drop them by here for a quick glare-o-critique (tm) by burn and co, thanks again!

[Burnsaber]

Well, glad to hear I could be of assistance. Remember to give yourself some credit too, thought.

Those sprites look pretty good. Can't wait to play the actual nation.

I remember talking with someone about a LA oceania on IrC. IIRC the idea was about the nation revolving on volcanic themes. As Atlantis is pushed into the cold north, Oceania flees into the volcanic islands in south. That's an easy thematic way to go to blood slaves (The volcano gods are not pleased! Throw in the sacrifices!). You could search for some hawaijian/philippines/indonesian myths and work them in with some oceania twists.

[DaveCG]

Originally Posted by Burnsaber

Well, glad to hear I could be of assistance. Remember to give yourself some credit too, thought.

Those sprites look pretty good. Can't wait to play the actual nation.

I remember talking with someone about a LA oceania on IrC. IIRC the idea was about the nation revolving on volcanic themes. As Atlantis is pushed into the cold north, Oceania flees into the volcanic islands in south. That's an easy thematic way to go to blood slaves (The volcano gods are not pleased! Throw in the sacrifices!). You could search for some hawaijian/philippines/indonesian myths and work them in with some oceania twists.

That's pretty badass, adding extra flavour and all, hmmm. Anyway, like I said chances are after I've made the final units and had them looked over I'll start up my own thead and stop hogging yours

[DaveCG]

Well, looks like this is it, the last sprites for now anyway, crits as are always welcome and after I finish off the last 30% or so of the .dm file I'll put my thread up, like I said before thanks for all the help guys, looking forward to your input when the nation needs balance and all that jazz.

A is the sorceress unit, just a nice happy recolour for her nothing major yet.

B is the black spider unit, a scout with a blowpipe, I think I need to lighten him up alittle, he's kinda dark...well they're all 'dark' but you know what I mean.

C is the assassin, I was thinking about making him a multihero, like the spider he's too dark I think.

D is the afro hero, sporting a gi and the number 2 headband, along with a bad mofo afro and jazz, I really liked how this one turned out, the only downside is I got lazy with the attack sprite, once I'm more confident I'll be coming back to this one.

E is the white elephant I was on about, I still haven't heard back off juzzi but once I do I'll add it in, chances are he's going to be a summon of somekind.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any and all crit/comment/etc guys!

[Aezeal]

Well I'm gonna post the changes I've made from a few sprites too. I've started with A and B, the original pictures I've got no chance I'll ever be able to draw in my live.

Then I resized and touched the results up a bit (mostly working on the edges, which I forgot when I started but it's really important since a line for greyish/blackish of even 1 pixel around your sprite will annoy in the end) and gave the sprite the magenta shadow. I usually work on 400% size.

starting with the shooting orc:
after touching up I got to C. For the attack sprite I just added a fiery blast to the barrel. I did this with a brush of white, then yellow and then red in the middle.
And I added blood to the blade , first a layer with darkish red also with a brush so it get's automatically different sorts of red and then in the middle of that a brighter red.

A while later I did the flamer (E/F) first I removed the bladethingie and for E I added the gastanks to his back. I did that by selecting all the black, then reverse the selection so I just had the orc and I stored it somehwere. Then I just made a gas tank (it moves behind his back) a sort of long cilinder with a high sized pencil (sharp edges, not flowing out in different colors like the brush tool) and I added the light reflection to it with a brush and lighter red (very light) then I gave it a cap on top (greyish line) and a brownish line to the weapon (the gas goes through it)

For the attack sprite I just added flames basicly, same as the barrel in the other sprite but I started with a red, brushing it out in the general shape then yellowish inside it and whitish near the barrel. The brush will create a whole range of different colors which on the edges will be nearly black, in game that will look like a black line around the flame and is not good. You usually need to remove most of that (paint over with pure black) and just leave a few variations of color on the edges (all of which should be pretty bright red or it will resemble the dreaded black line.)

For G and H (shaman) I remove the chopper again and soemwhere in the process when I noticed I needed more room I scaled the canvass to 128x128. I'm not really sure what I did next but I think I drew a straight line and colored it with a think brown (the lighter color on the left) then I brushed over the right side with a darker brown. I drew the crossbeam by hand with same process, first light brown, then dark. Took me a while to get the angle and sizes right. Then I painted the skull, it's not perfect but on in game size it's decent I think.

For the attack sprite I just copied the fiery barrel from an older sprite and put it in the right place.

Ow and tehre are spaceversion with helmets of some of these too.. same process I'll tell about in the next sprite.

B resizing to I, touching up borders , adding shadow etc.

The attack sprite was a hell of a job, cutting the orc out, copying his weapon trying to rotate it in several posistion which always looked awfull. In the end I think I just turned it 90 degrees (so no deformation or rough edges and positioned the arm around it (I copied the distal part of his other arm, turned that around abit and then used some of those colors to touch up the edges) After that I added the blood in the way as described before (brushing with dark red, then adding a bit of brighter red on the edge.)

For K (orc crafter (the one building ships and tanks) I took the light color the axe has and used that to draw the upper side of the hammerhead. THen I changed the color slightly and drew the other side, I brushed the upper side a little bit with this color too so it's not to uniform in color. Then a very dark color for the part he hits with. I think this worked out very nicely and even the dimensions and proportions worked out right for me in the first try

L was just adding blood again

M (orc rager) got a jumppack on his back (he has flying) Under his arm I created the pack first with grey no real science involved and then the fire red brush, orange brush and a touch of yellow in the middle. Ow and becuase he's a rager he got a bit more blood on the axes to start with.

Personally I like N (rager attack sprite) a lot, I just copied and flipped the other arm and touched it up a bit. I think this one as rager attack sprite is nice compared to the regular attack sprite.. much more fierce as it should be. The attachment of the arm to the body was probelmatic. I put the layer with the new arm behind the rest of the orc and just added dots of color (copy form other arm) where needed.

O-R are spaceform (forest form) sprites of the ones before (crafter doesn't get one since that sprite is only for a commander and they get spaceships in space) basicly adding a helmet.

Selected a greenish color, and put a dot that fitted over the head as a new layer above it. Then I palyed with transparancy untill I thought it was right (face somewhat shining through but helmet still visible) after that I added the whitish reflection by brushing with white on the upperleft part and pressing firm on the most white part so it would become nice and white.

That leaves the orcish war drum S-W. I first created the drummer, removing the heads of his weapons and adding a brown ball, which I gave a lil shine with a lighter brown on top.

Then i created the drums. the result can be debated (I know it's far form perfect) but for something I created from nearly nothing with my art skills I'm satisfied. I drew an oval of the light brown, put the red head (copy, not original) in there then I extended the black thingies that come out of it and added the darker points of brown with a brush. THen I drew the oval again (actually I did this before filling it) and drew it as a line with another color the edge) and drew it again for the backside, just a lil lower and more to the right. I filled the back oval (layer behind the other with the darker brown you mostly see on the side of the drum and then use that color to fill all the space on the side) then I used a very dark brown to draw the lines on the side which connect to the (grey) nails on the front. I created the speakers about the same way and then just added the box with the switches and lights. THen I put a flipped copy of the drummer behind it. The drummers in the attack sprite have blood on the weapons and there are a few versions (first loose one drummer 2nd shape to drum + 1 durmmer then loose the other durmer and the immobile drum remains.)




PM due to quality loss when saving the pics look a bit less nice than they really are (it really shows when I look at them on 400% size)

[DaveCG]

Wow aezeal that's pretty cool what you managed to do with thoses two source images! I really like the flame effect on F, looks like your dom3000will have to start gettin' orky! I also really like M and N, very cool.

[Aezeal]

Well Dom 3K is already orcy.. orcs are probably one of the most finished races in there and have been for a while. You are very welcome to try the mod though, I can always use feedback and I'm pretty sure that once you are playing you will have fun and be surprised by what I've added in the mod. If you do use the new larger galaxy map which uses the new mod commands to give space provinces a spacy look.

Anyway I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks my sprites are decent. My mod has some fierce opponents but since this thread was about sprites n stuff I thought I'd show how I did my things. Most other races are just single sprites though not a string of sprites all derived from each other. Orcs just worked out well for me this way.