So! My SoRR sprite-smithing venture didn’t work out. Well, it did and it didn’t. Technically, I learnt new techniques and made some great sprites, but unfortunately that’s not an end of it. No-one in the community seemed to like my artwork and the general tone of the members was inappreciably snippy. I don’t know what I expected, after all it is the internet and—even worse—they are forum dwellers. It isn’t all bad though. Afterwards, the experience left me feeling somewhat sour but also made me think about Paraplu again.

Resultantly, I pretty much just sat down and drew 20 items right off the bat. Then I updated Grubby Metal Statue (to look more “goofy”, at the request of my cohort). Last time I attempted to make item-sprites for the game it was a major brick wall for me; finding an appropriate tonal angle was frustrating me intensely and ultimately it was likely what halted my last creative streak. I honestly think drawing Gallagher was what gave me the perspective to bring me to my feet again, studying the original early-90s SEGA art taught me some really useful things about animating sprites, namely:

  • You can do it with even fewer colours than you think you need
  • Fewer colours makes animation easier
  • You can do it with fewer frames of animation than you think you need
  • No-one will notice if you copy and paste parts during animation
  • Motion blurring is easy and can save you from fully drawing tons of original frames

Animating a sprite that was about 5 times bigger than anything I’d ever attempted before seemed very daunting; but when I look back at some of the best sprite art I’ve ever seen I realised just how cheap they were about creating these things. It doesn’t have to be hard, you just have to be clever. Even that’s not specifically true… it’s not really about cutting corners, it’s about knowing which areas to concentrate your efforts on.

Something that I’m bad at, apparently.

 -LEARNING POWER -

WE CAN ALL LEARNING.
LEARNING WILL GET THE MOUSE TO THE CHEESE PLATE.