Hi GameDev! I want to start designing a 2d platformer game, and I was looking into making sprites.
So far from what I've read is that the most fluid sprites are made using flash, however, I have no idea where to start.
If someone could link me to a tutorial where the person shows step by step how they make a sprite using a wacom tablet (or any other drawing tablet for that matter) I would be extremely grateful.
It depends what you mean by fluid -- Flash games typically use a vector art style with skeletal animations -- that is, you have a single "sprite" that's made up of many smaller, independent parts (head, body, upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs, hands and feet), and you animate the sprite mostly by posing all those parts in relation to one another -- kind of like a claymation model with a metal armature inside.
This kind of animation has a look that's fluid, but also tends to have a peculiar, almost mechanical look about it. Of course, it looks as good as your animation skills allow, but producing natural-looking animations in this way is not straight-forward.
Another kind of animation is to draw separate images for each frame of the various motions your characters can make. Its a lot of work, but the end results have a very different character than with skeletal animation.
The first step is to understand the requirements and ramifications of both of these approaches, both artistic and technical, and then to choose which style suits you. Then you can worry about how to begin production of the assets.
I'm just a person who just finished high school who wants to start having a go to make a simple game. Previously I have only used the wacom tablet for drawing, with no experience with animation whatsoever.
Skeletal ones should be fine, but would that technique also apply for other more complex animations, eg. a bathroom curtain being drawn back, a person using a key to open a door etc?
I wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything- sorry if it came off like that. It's easier to answer the question for me if I have something to go on. You don't have to use Flash(and keyframes) to get real fluid motion if what ever tool you have will do onion skinning(where you can see what drew on the previous frame). There are plenty of tools out there that have onion skinning but I prefer Gimp(will also output animated gifs). All of my animation is done in Blender because it is 2d or 3d. See here: http://flatank.blogspot.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_skinning
Hi GameDev! I want to start designing a 2d platformer game, and I was looking into making sprites.
So far from what I've read is that the most fluid sprites are made using flash, however, I have no idea where to start.
If someone could link me to a tutorial where the person shows step by step how they make a sprite using a wacom tablet (or any other drawing tablet for that matter) I would be extremely grateful.
Here are some cool tutorials
http://watertrainer.deviantart.com/art/Sprite-Tutorial-268955357
http://ghost0311.deviantart.com/art/Sprite-Tutorial-30322970
I had tried graphicsgale, which was pretty decent for pixel art and animation.
Yacht Club is using Promotion for their game Shovel Knight, which I've been meaning to check out.
http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php
Other than that, even photoshop is usable for pixel art, just make sure you use the pencil/pen tool instead of the brush.
That's bout what I've got. I only just started doing pixel art, and http://cerberust.deviantart.com/art/NFL-Man-32-Megaman-NFL-Helmets-296127089 is the best example I have of what I've figured out to this point..
Good luck! Feel free to post progress and artwork!
