How to make sprites?

[Kokoro Hane]

I can't be using free art forever, and I really love to draw. However, I am a bit confused as to how one makes sprites. Backgrounds are no problem, since my brother is excellent at that. As far as characters, that's a little more in my department. Is there a simple way to start creating sprites? I know my first ones will probably not be very good, but I'd be fun to give it a shot and develope new skills ^.^

So if you have any advice, or instructions, let me know!

[Hijiri]

That really is up to you. If you got a tablet, just open up a program like Photoshop, Sai, or GIMP and start drawing. But if you don't have a tablet, but you have a scanner, just draw out your sprites on paper and do the lineart on an image-editing program. Lack both of those things, you can try your hand at mouse art. Just know that your wrist might die from that.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Are you looking for information on what to use to make sprites, or more about the technicalities involved in creating the sprites themselves?

[Kokoro Hane]

That really is up to you. If you got a tablet, just open up a program like Photoshop, Sai, or GIMP and start drawing. But if you don't have a tablet, but you have a scanner, just draw out your sprites on paper and do the lineart on an image-editing program. Lack both of those things, you can try your hand at mouse art. Just know that your wrist might die from that.

Sadly I do not have a tablet. I DO have a scanner, but for some reason, it's NOT working anymore. Mouse art....I use to do that all the time, but for some reason, I can't get the head shape right. If you have any advice or know of any free programs that have tools that can make the head shape the way I want, then it'd be really easy to create. I have GIMP, but I don't think there is any shape tools on that.

Are you looking for information on what to use to make sprites, or more about the technicalities involved in creating the sprites themselves?

Mostly the latter, but a bit of the first. I mean, I use GIMP and MS Paint for most things, but mainly I am trying to figure WHERE do you even star tdrawing the things XD!!!

[MusicaFate]

O: ... Welll....There are some..."illegal" ways to get some other programs >_<... I know that's a bad bad BADDD BADD way, D: but it is possible to get torrents of paint tool sai and photoshop. I recommend you use paint tool sai for line arts and photoshop for coloring. ~
Well, most people use folders for stacking there layers, but since you do not have folders, I just recommend you draw each expression, color it, and then make it into one layer D: so later on you can just make it invisible and place another expression on top of the body base. If..that makes any sense anyways >_< ...

[Hijiri]

O: ... Welll....There are some..."illegal" ways to get some other programs >_<... I know that's a bad bad BADDD BADD way, D: but it is possible to get torrents of paint tool sai and photoshop. I recommend you use paint tool sai for line arts and photoshop for coloring. ~
Well, most people use folders for stacking there layers, but since you do not have folders, I just recommend you draw each expression, color it, and then make it into one layer D: so later on you can just make it invisible and place another expression on top of the body base. If..that makes any sense anyways >_< ...

GIMP now has folders as well, in GIMP 2.8

[Auro-Cyanide]

Looks like you are stuck with a mouse for the moment since you have crossed out both tablet and traditional work. I'm terrible at mouse art, so the best advice I can give is to use the pen tool and section of areas for colouring and shading.

As for how you make them, it's all about layers. First you need to figure out what elements are going to be changable. Emtoions obviously, but are you also planning on changing outfits and hair? However, sometimes it is still good to put clothes and hair on their own layers, either incase you change your mind or you want to have something overlap, say have the hair sit on top of the emotions. Nexdt you want to create your base, usually either just the body or the clothed body. Get that all finished however you want. Then you want to add the clothes on different layers, the hair on different layers, all the emotions on different layers. I put each set of eyes, eyebrows and mouth on seperate layers so I can mix and match them, but you can do whole emotions on each layer if you want. I arrange all these layers in folders. So base folder>clothes folder>emotions folder>hair folder etc.

Do you have any specific questions?

[dracothrope]

Oh gosh, mouse painting. D: I recommend going to your local big-box grocery store or what have you and picking up one of those tensor bandages to pre-emptively wrap around your wrist. It'll save you a life-time of crackly-wrist. I speak from experience!

Secondly, if you're able to, I'd recommend googling for a relatively inexpensive tablet. Bamboo tablets are effective for new users, and while they're a little under $100 for new, you may find a second-hand one for much cheaper!

If you can't or won't pick up a tablet, start simple. Don't even bother with shading your sprites until you are comfortable with linework, as I think that will prove pretty challenging while you're using a mouse AND learning how to draw.

Use photo reference. Use reference of drawn images from people whose art style you adore (see some great examples that people have posted in this thread!) but remember not to trace. There's a caveat here that I'd like to make clear: If you are learning how to draw, tracing is a-okay so long as you keep the resulting drawings in your personal pile of practice work. I would strongly recommend against tracing (or approximating exactly from one image, photo or drawn) for work that you'd like to show off to others, as that gets into the realm of plagiarism. Most folks know about that already, but hey, I figure you're probably not the only one starting to draw your own sprites! Someone might benefit from that sort of nudge!

Anyways, regarding getting your head shape correct, I would suggest looking up tutorials. I'm guessing you're probably looking for an anime/manga style, since that seems to be what the majority of folks here draw, so places like Polykarbon tutorials are always a good standby. (That site has been around for ages. I remember looking it up when I was first learning how to draw! ) Be open to looking at things closely and trying to dissect them into their basic, geometrical shapes. If you can draw a planar face in the style that you want, you'll really begin to understand how it would look from different angles -- and more importantly, how to shade it and colour it... providing you want to get that in depth. :3

Take your time, and keep at it. The biggest thing about learning how to draw is that you just need to keep drawing, erasing things that don't look right, starting over, and observing from life and inspirations around you. If you've played a lot of VN's, make note of the kinds of expressions that are often used, what sort of poses often denote what emotion or action, and so on. Your biggest goal here is to draw a person that communicates the emotion at hand, so pay attention to what looks best (and what looks bad, in order to avoid the same mistakes!)

[Sharm]

If you don't have a working scanner or a tablet, you can use a digital camera to get your sketches into the computer. It's a lot trickier to get a clear image than a scanner, and it will only really be helpful as a guideline for your mouse work, but sometimes that's a lot better than drawing from scratch with a mouse.

[Kokoro Hane]

Oh wow, thanks for the advice guys! ^.^

As far as any more questions? I DO want to try doing it the traditional way (I love drawing on paper), I might be able to get the scanner to work on the other computer, so....any advice on how to do it traditionally with pencil and ink?

[dracothrope]

I used Staedler pens and preferred them over Micron pens when I was starting out -- Microns tended to leave a line that would fade when you erased away the pencil lines. I have since switched over to using a Crow quill pen (think those pens with nibs that you dip into ink) because I really like the variation in line width -- something that technical pens lack. If you love drawing in that anime style, though, I'd suggest Staedler or Micron pens to start when you're inking. Brush pens are quite fun, too, and I would suggest picking up a Faber-Castell brush pen (black or brown are nice!) and trying a few pictures with those. They really help you to learn about line width variance, which ultimately can lead to a more interesting picture once you start to get comfortable with the whole inking thing. They're also more fun once regular inking begins to feel more monotonous or you begin to grow bored of the crisp, simple line work that a lot of anime images employ.

As for drawing, start out quite light, so you can erase the lines if need be. You may want a harder pencil (2H or so) for the lighter lines. You may also want to try picking up a red or a dark blue pencil to do under-sketches with. They do not erase as well as regular carbon pencils, so you either have to draw very lightly without much pressure, or you will have to find a way to edit that colour out on the computer. A mechanical pencil with a .5 or a .3 diameter lead is something I'd suggest trying if only because it forces your lines to be thinner, which can lead to better exact linework -- but again, be careful with the pressure you're using, pressing down on the paper. Those leads can snap if you're pressing too hard!

I do all of my traditional drawing these days on plain old printer paper because it's an easy size to scan in and the paper is quite smooth and cheap, so I can just throw away the sketches or store them in a pile when I'm done with them; alternately I keep a half a dozen sketchbooks lying around with different kinds of paper. My favourites are moleskins for their smooth feel and creamy colour, not to mention their relative durability, and some fairly cheap black-bound fold-open sketchbooks with a slightly rougher tooth to the paper. I also have a sketchbook which I don't use often -- but which I adore regardless of that fact -- that is composed of brown recycled paper that's relatively smooth to the touch. Going at one of those pages with some black and white ink can make for a really lovely sense of depth that you might not get from pencil and ink on a sheet of white paper. The same can be said for grey paper, too. If you have an art store near your house, picking up paper ends and drawing on them can be a wonderfully educational experience, and you might find something you didn't realize you liked, just going in thinking you wanted to draw in an anime style.

[Kokoro Hane]

^ Ah, thanks for the advice! I already use mechanical pencils (usually 0.7 and 0.5 lead), as well as Sakura Micron for inking <3 I should try the others you have suggested, however. I also use printer paper, too! KINDRED SPIRITS!

[Anthy]

I always use a 2B lead since it's so soft, I don't have to use much pressure to get a visible line. It also erases very easily.

Pen nibs + ink is my favorite way to go too. The kind of nib you use will wield very different results. Crow quill and G-pens are the best I think. Crow quill lines are thin, but as the nib gets used more the line gets heavier so you have to keep that in mind (can keep old tips for bold lines and switch out to new ones for thin lines). And G tips are very elastic and sensitive to pressure so you can get many different line thicknesses with it. You need a good/fresh ink, though, otherwise it might be hard to get a nice line.