i'm thinking of making a free to use character sprite

Questions, skill improvement, and respectful critique involving art assets.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
SkinMedley
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:24 am
Tumblr: skinmedley
Location: somewhere in the south east...
Contact:

i'm thinking of making a free to use character sprite

#1 Post by SkinMedley »

or maybe two, we'll see. i have some (stupid) questions if ya'll don't mind me asking. you don't have to answer them if you don't feel like it

1) let's say you are looking to use free sprites. what do you look for when choosing one? a character with flexible or unique appearance? subtle or emotional expressions? simple or detailed art style?
2) where should i post them when i'm done? Creator's Corner < Creative Commons? i'm still a little blurry on what is even creative commons so if anyone is willing to give me a simple explanation or a link, i'd deeply appreciate it
3) any mistakes that i should look out for when making sprites? like the sprite image is too big/small or anything else?

this one is just a sketch. what do you think?
Image

i think that's it for now, if i have more questions i'll update ^^
if you have sprite suggestions, feel free to comment. i may or may not actually make it, depends if other people also want them.

User avatar
Zelan
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2436
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:23 pm
Completed: The Dark
Projects: Cosplay Couple
Tumblr: evns
itch: Zelan
Discord: ltnkitsuragi#7082
Contact:

Re: i'm thinking of making a free to use character sprite

#2 Post by Zelan »

1. A game looks better if the sprites are in the same style, or at least similar styles. People are more likely to use your sprites if you make a set with matching styles. (Doesn't mean that a single sprite will never get used, of course, and ultimately you are doing this for free, but it's something to think about.)

2. You should post it in the Creative Commons forum. Basically, creative commons is a set of descriptions of how your art is allowed to be used (i.e. free products only or commercial products allowed, edits allowed or not, credit required or not, etc). It makes it simpler so that you don't have to list out the rules yourself, you can just name or link the accurate license. This forum post has links to the creative commons licenses that can be used for VN assets. If you don't want to use a creative commons license, there's also the Free to use but not CC subforum. If you use this forum, you'll have to list out your restrictions on how the material can be used. (Although, a lot of people who post in the Creative Commons section don't actually list a creative commons license, so this isn't really a hard rule.)

3. Art assests being too small is definitely a problem. Assets which are too big can at least be resized with a little bit of knowledge of an editing program. I'm not sure what the average size for a sprite usually is. Maybe take a look at some other sprites and see how big they are? And if you're caught between two sizes, pick the bigger one.

Also, I like the sketch - a lot of the free assets are high schoolers in school uniforms. Anything different from that brings some much-needed diversity to the Creative Commmons section. Good luck!

User avatar
SkinMedley
Newbie
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 2:24 am
Tumblr: skinmedley
Location: somewhere in the south east...
Contact:

Re: i'm thinking of making a free to use character sprite

#3 Post by SkinMedley »

@Zelan
that clears things up a lot, thank you!

User avatar
DarkChibiShadow
Regular
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2016 3:33 pm
Completed: Tomai (BxB), Disaster Log C (GxG), One-Eyed Lee P.1 (Point-and-click)
Projects: Solanaceae: After All
Tumblr: dcsart
Deviantart: DarkChibiShadow
itch: darkchibishadow
Contact:

Re: i'm thinking of making a free to use character sprite

#4 Post by DarkChibiShadow »

Hi there! Your style looks great!

1) I want a character with lots of expressions, but more so ones I can mix and match. Sprite sheets that include separate eyebrows, eyes, and mouths, in all different folders work the best! A .psd is a must have.

2) What Zelan said seems right! But, I will also add you can put sprites up on Itch.io and people will be able to tip for them there, or buy them! That way you can get a little something more out of your hard work.

3) The bigger, the better. If you want to go smaller, at least make it 300 dpi so it can be scaled up by putting the dpi lower. But yes, bigger is better, try to name all your files clearly, and don't merge anything you don't need to.

Good luck!
Image

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users