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Maybe this was posted long ago and was already answered (and I am totally sorry if it was) but I wanted to know how the artists out here make different expressions for their sprites. I have trouble keeping them consistent (mind you I mainly work in traditional media but I am open to digital media too!) So if anybody could give me a rundown of their progress or any tips in making different expressions (and poses) that would be great!

An easy way to do so would be to make layers with your characters eyes, eyebrows and mouths in seperate layers. That then allows you a chance to make multiple sprites out of only a few changes. (An example would be my avy: I used a regular smile, cocked eyebrow and evil eyes. All of these 3 parts were on seperate layers) Poses are a bit harder, and it would be wise to know your character 360 degrees to do them well.

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The easiest way I have found for me so far is to draw all of the facial features that will change on different layers as Hijiri mentioned. I also do all the lineart first so that I can lower the opacity on the first set so I can use it as a guide for the others. I also tend to reuse the colouring layers when I can to keep them consistent and change just what I have to. I work digitally so you would probably have to use tracing to get the same effect traditionally.

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ya gotta have a program that supports layers~~ I make the sprite blank-facedand draw the facial features on separate layers
i usually have 2 pairs of eye layers (closed and open)
several mouths (smile, grin, furious, sad etc)
and like, 3 eye brows, angry, normal and sad.

if you want whole new poses (like for example and jumping for joy and a timid pose would look very different) you'll have to draw a whole new sprite
but an easy way to get new poses is to just change the arms

for this one i drew the bust and arms separate. besides the face. the arms are the ONLY thing i changed. i drew each pair separate layers and switch them when needed for full sprites it would be about the same, draw the body and the arms separate,

thenn you can have like, a hands-on-face surprise and a hands-on-hips sassy pose or something

idk about traditional methods though

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Okay, so I have a quick question about layers and stuff: How do you guys keep things on layers above from going over lineart below -- if that makes sense? I'm still sort of figuring this part out, and it seems as though there can be weird moments when you have whole new lineart/colour pairs on top of others.

Generally you can just be careful. Alternatively you can redo some lineart on the new layers if you need to. Since in a lot of cases you are counting on the top layers being able to cover the layers below them, it can be a little fiddly, but there isn't really a way around it. Here is an example of what I do. Most of the time I want the top layers to cover the lineart on the bottom, but sometimes I have to carefully paint up to it's edges so it doesn't get covered.

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Yeah, my biggest concern comes in when I start to shade or add details, worrying about them not lining up properly! I was wondering if people exported whole images for expression changes or saved just a faceless base layer and added the different expressions on top in the game code itself... but it sounds like I don't have to worry about being that meticulous, as I think it must be the former?

There's no big difference if sprites have just 2 layers. The latter can be optimized file size though.
If sprites have more than 2 layers (e.g. a base + clothes + faces), the latter is better because it reduces your time to export images, not only file size.
Also, you can export layers without cropping to merge them on your ren'py game. Just export all with the base layer size.

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Ha ha, for some reason that's going right over my head right now! You're saying that if a sprite has many different poses, clothes, and expressions, you should try just saving the individual images and aligning them via code in Ren'Py, instead of saving each individual combination you'll be using as a png? I haven't yet had the luxury of exporting a game.

When you say that you can export layers without cropping them, do you mean, say, saving your 'face-happy.png' with all of the blank space around it, so that Ren'Py sees 'face-happy.png' and 'basepose.png' as being the same size? I think that sort of makes sense, but maybe I'm misunderstanding? X3 I just got off of work so I'm pretty brain-fried! For some reason I never thought of just saving everything with the base layer blank space around it!

hmmm I save my files like this
I have the sprite of the character on its default pose and with the default face....then if I want to change expresions I save a file of the same canvas dimensions and conserving the exact position of the face>

I think It could be even more optimized only saving the face without the blank/transparent space and placing it with xpos and ypos

also I like to export the expresions like this because I can do a softer transition within them>

instead of having a hard change of expresions from happy to sad in example
I have a middle point which is the idle expresion so the transition between some expresions is softer

sorry if I do not make much sense ahaha...orz

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My WIP project:The hurtful wall
:Other VNs:
+The Knife of the Traitor(Nanoreno 2012)
+Eyes of Wilderness
++Currently colaborating with other folks as an artist.

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Exactly

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To save time there is also a script in photoshop under File>Scripts that allows you to export all layers to file. So as long as each element is on its own layer you can get the program to save out each on as a png. You can have them not cropped as well so that they are all the exact same dimensions and so you can use the same co-ordinates in Ren'Py.

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