How do I use a sprite set?
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I know how to save them on my computer and use various graphics programs to view them. The problem is implementation. Do I just take that sheet of sprites and copy and paste them in the image editor, making the baground of the small tile transparent and the character itself intact? Thanks.
I'm using Gamemaker and just don't know how to use all those tiled sets of characters, explosions, etc. If I can isolate the graphic I can use it (I think). Thanks for any help.
For example:
http://www.molotov.nu/?page=graphics
Click on one of the sets and there are all the sqaures ready to use. I hope this makes sense.
When you have a sprite set, you usually have to rip them yourself. (i just rip them into seperate paint documents) If you use paint, you can just rightclick the set, and choose edit. It should show the tileset in paint. Then, I open a second window of paint. This is the tedious part. For evfery sprite you seperate, you first have to use the selection tool to highlight the sprite, then copy it to the second window of paint. Then you have to save the single sprite, and open up a new window of paint. You do this until you seperate all of your sprites.
If you are not going to use paint, im not sure what to do. (Im a student and cant afford any editing programs.) I hope this helped at all.
If you are not going to use paint, im not sure what to do. (Im a student and cant afford any editing programs.) I hope this helped at all.
Author
Thank you. What about the background being transparent? How can I get it so that I don't have a square walking around, if you know what I mean as opposed to a cutout of the character?
I don't know if/how you can use transparency in MSPaint...
http://www.gimp.org/windows/
The GIMP is a pretty advanced image editor, open source & (of course) free. I know it can put down transparency - don't know if it can make the sprite-sheet job any easier, though.
Good luck.
http://www.gimp.org/windows/
The GIMP is a pretty advanced image editor, open source & (of course) free. I know it can put down transparency - don't know if it can make the sprite-sheet job any easier, though.
Good luck.
Aren't you suppose to load them programmatically into memory at runtime, with a loop that cuts each time a different tile of the sprite-set? Almost sounds easier than cut+paste with MSPaint.
Author
Quote:Original post by Anonymous Poster
Aren't you suppose to load them programmatically into memory at runtime, with a loop that cuts each time a different tile of the sprite-set? Almost sounds easier than cut+paste with MSPaint.
I don't mind that, but I'm not sure I can do that with Gamemaker. I would probably have to use the copy and paste method for very simple games. Larger scale with languages, probably your method.
My main problem is transparency. I don't have a problem using Gimp. I guess I could just use the Intelligent Scissors and cut around the figure and do...whatever it is I am supposed to do.
I think (at least the old version of gamemaker I used) gamemaker handles transparency itself using color keying (or that is one of the methods it can use).
What that means is aslong as the backround of your sprite is a uniform color then transparency can be set within game maker. Just to clarify, sprites are normally always square images (well bitmap sprites anyways, which is what game maker uses).
The trick is that the game decides what parts of it to draw and what not to draw.
What that means is aslong as the backround of your sprite is a uniform color then transparency can be set within game maker. Just to clarify, sprites are normally always square images (well bitmap sprites anyways, which is what game maker uses).
The trick is that the game decides what parts of it to draw and what not to draw.
The PNG format has native transparency. PNG is very much like GIF, except PNG images can't be animated like GIFS. I use PNGs everywhere in my game and they work great. [smile]
As for whether you should save your sprite frames individually, or put them together in one large congregate file, that's really up to how the programmer (either you or the other guy on your team) wants to implement it. We just keep frames in their own files in my game, because we are open-source and not-for-profit, so we don't worry about people seeing our artwork outside of the game. [wink]
As for whether you should save your sprite frames individually, or put them together in one large congregate file, that's really up to how the programmer (either you or the other guy on your team) wants to implement it. We just keep frames in their own files in my game, because we are open-source and not-for-profit, so we don't worry about people seeing our artwork outside of the game. [wink]
something i just recently learned (i dunno maybe i am quite stupid :D) is that if you are using photoshop and want to save all your images into one giant texture but are having problems organizing your sprites use the grid option in photoshop, also you can say how big you want your grid when goin into preferences (that was the thing i didn't know)
hope that is helpful to someone!
hope that is helpful to someone!
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