Computersight -

Ok, so this is my guide on making pixel art.

Design:

Before even starting to make something, you need to know what you’re making. I have noticed that a lot of people who have showed me graphics they have made for Legacy are great at shading and drawing, but they lack good design. Design is very important.

You need to find your own “style” that you like to draw with. I have this sort of final fantasy/anime-ish style. When I first started out and didn’t have my own “style” of graphics, what I often did before making something was search around the internet for pictures of stuff similar to what I was making to get ideas. http://www.deviantart.com is a great site I use a lot. I would take these ideas, merge them together with my own ideas, and sketch something on paper. I would then use my sketch to make graphics. I used to do this a lot. Now that I’ve better established my own style of graphics, I can sketch stuff on paper straight out of my head and come up with some really crazy stuff. Though I still check out artwork on the internet from time to time to find even more ideas that I’ve never thought of.

When I’m designing something that I want to use for higher levels, I use a lot of detail. Simple things can look really good, but generally more detail = cooler. To get more detail, I don’t just draw in random lines everywhere. I add in extra things like belts, buttons, pockets, spikes, chains, cuffs, shoulder pads, bandages, etc. Just watch out, because too much detail on something too small doesn’t work out too well (I’ve noticed I kinda overdid it on some of the avatar stuff).

Ok, so onto the tutorial:

I will be running through the process of making a piece of clothing for Legacy. I’m assuming you know the basics of Paint and Paint Shop Pro. I start in paint, because it is easier to work with for pixel art.

So I have my basic template opened up in Paint, all ready to go. Notice how the background is an extremely bright lime green. I need to use a background color that won’t be used in my clothing, because later I’ll make that color transparent. I don’t want stuff in my clothing becoming transparent. Purple is another good choice.

I start by outlining the shape of what I’m making. I use mostly the straight line tool, and I stay zoomed in all the way. If something is symmetrical, I’ll draw only one side, then select it, cut it, and flip it to save time.

I then fill it in, and add more details. I use solid, 1 pixel-thick black outlines on everything.

Then I color it in. Finding a good color scheme is very, very important. I can’t stress this enough. The colors you choose can be the difference between something really cool and something really ugly. Avoid using only the default colors in paint. They are too bright and will make stuff look tacky. Use colors that “blend” together. Even though it’s a very basic example, look at what I have above. The white and the blue look nice together. Nothing clashes. Don’t try to use a different color for each detail on your clothing, or your character will be a walking rainbow.

Notice the shade of blue I use. I like to tone the color down a bit, so it’s not such a bright blue. Instead it’s a nice, faded blue. It looks much better than the bright ugly blue in the picture below, don’t you think?

Ok, so now that I’ve done all that I can in paint, I copy and paste my image into Paint Shop Pro.

I use the magic wand tool to select the first coloured area I want to shade. I use the dropper and right click the color, then left click it. I then have that color in both of my colour slots. I make one slot slightly darker, and one slightly lighter, as shown above.

Then I scribble on it with the two shades. The picture above shows the shading pattern I use most on clothing. The zigzagging done on the shirt gives it the effect of wrinkles. You basically just wing it and try to make it look right. Think of where light will hit the object (with g2 graphics, we assume the light comes from the left side), and just make sure you cover the whole area with shading. Even if your shading is a bit off, it’s better than having your clothing looking flat.

So next I want to smudge the colors. I select the finger tool, and make sure my settings look something like this. Size and Opacity can be adjusted to what you want. Then I begin to smudge.

Smudging is done in sweeping motion. I wave the mouse back and forth in strokes and blend the colors in slowly and carefully. I don’t want to blend too much or it’ll have a really “soft” texture, I want to blend it just enough so it looks just right.

I then repeat this for the other parts that are different colors. The picture above shows the final product of a 5-second shading job (yay!). When I’m done, I erase the body so I have the shirt by itself. I save Legacy graphics as transparent .gifs. So I have to go to colors>decrease color depth>256colors, and press ok.

Then I make sure my secondary color is the same as my background, color as shown in picture above. I then go to colors>set palette transparency>Set palette transparency to current background color, and push ok.

I save as a .gif and I’m done.

For hair:

Everyone seems to have trouble with shading hair. I was actually really bad at it before too, until I got more practice. When I make hair, I make each strand of hair one by one, and keep them all outlined with black. I then color them in. When I start to shade them, I run a darker color down along the edges of the strands, and a lighter color running down the middle. Then I blend those colors a bit with smudge. After that, if I want to make it really shiny like the hair above, I’ll run a white line across the hair horizontally, near the top. I then blend this line in just a bit.

The picture above shows the steps to shade one strand of hair. Just use this pattern on every strand.

How to make weapons:

Making a weapon is pretty much the same thing as making clothing, except you don’t need to make the background transparent and stuff. You will have to worry about making it 3d, though. You’ll need to draw in the top, sides, bottom; whatever is showing. The only other piece of advice I’d add for weapons is that you try to keep it pointed at a vertical, horizontal, or 45 degree angle. If you have some crazy 24.5 degree angle, it’s hard to keep everything lined up straight with that angle, and your 3d perspective will get all screwed up.

For clothes with a negative layer:

Some clothing will have certain parts that go behind the character. For example, Sephiroth’s hair shown above goes behind his back. This means I have to save a graphic of what will go in front of the body, and another graphic of what goes behind.

Now for some extra random tips:

-In PSP, while using tools like paintbrush or fill-bucket, you can hold down ctrl to switch to the dropper quickly, click something, then let go to revert back to the tool you had before. Handy. =)

-Patience is important. You won’t draw every shape correctly on the first try. You’ll probably end up doing this: zoom in, draw the shape, zoom out to see how it looks, see that it doesn’t look right, zoom in, fix it, zoom out to see how it looks, see that it still doesn’t look right, and fix it again. Get used to doing this over and over until everything is perfect.

-Shading requires balance. You can’t shade too heavily or it looks odd, but if you shade too little it’ll look flat. Everything needs to be shaded. Even something tiny like a bracelet should have shading. Just make the shading heavier so it shows.

Wow, this ended up being really long. I hope this helps you in some way, though. I can’t really think of much else to say except: “Practice makes perfect”. And good luck with the arting. 

-dk16