Character Sprite Expressions

[Evy]

So I'm curious to see what methods of switching between character expressions people use. I've done character sprites for my project in late 2015 (though I'll be redoing them from scratch in the future), and what I did was make a group of layers for every different expression that I could hide or show whenever. At least, that was the process I used in the .sai/.psd files.

A while ago, I got my hands on the character sprites from BlazBlue. They kind of functioned like Mr. Potato Head in that you had to place each facial feature (minus the nose) ontop of the sprite, and make sure each variation of the eyes, eyebrows, mouth, tears, sweat and blush were aligned properly. This was particularly tricky due to the series' sprites having blinking and lip flap animations.

From my understanding, the BlazBlue method would allow for much more variety in expressions, but I can't help but get the impression that putting all the possibilities together would be quite time-consuming.

This isn't even covering the question of different outfits and poses, but I suppose it's kind of in the same vein.

So yeah, what method do you guys like to use?

[Mammon]

I did the 'Mr. Potato head' thing. It is as you said indeed much easier to keep track of expressions when you're using a lot of them. Instead of a large amount of sprite names or numbers you just remember the mouth- eyes etc. names. No need for lists and wondering if you even have a specific combination already in sprite. However, it also makes the coding a lot more tiresome.

I'd say: If you have a large amount of expressions and/or a schedule that doesn't allow you to code them while being able to look at the sprite changes the same time, use the Mr. Potato head technique. I had a character with over 320 different combinations, but if it's a normal amount of expressions then just use regular sprites.