Tales of the World: ND3 Spriting Tutorial
NOTE: Please know that this isn't complete yet.
Key Terms:
Eyelash Coloring: Eyelash coloring is the adding of dark pixels on the character's eyes to simulate eyelashes.
Solid Tracing: Solid Tracing is drawing a piece of the sprite with the darkest shade that's being used for the piece.
Light Fill: Light Fill is a follow-up of Solid Tracing in which the brightest shade is used to fill in the shape made from Solid Tracing.
Height Scale:
Use this height scale if you want to. It can be helpful for sizing out the character you're spriting.
Making the Sprite:
There's one thing to remember right off the bat, always make your sprites in pieces when spriting in this style. It makes it easier in the long run.
Basic Proportion Factors:
The thinnest part of a character's midsection should be about 5-7 pixels wide. Take Lloyd for example, the skinniest part of his midsection is 5 pixels and the widest it is is 7 pixels.
If a character's skinniest part is 5 then the rest should be 7, 6-8, 7-9. Bulky characters like Kongman are another situation though...
Since proportions are warped in this style, have the character's arms go down either 3/4 of the leg, or 3.5/5 of the leg.
Characters only have four fingers in this style.
Creating the Head:
The head of the character should always go first. Follow the steps along with the pic.
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1. Start off by Solid Tracing the chin of the head. That part is usually 4 pixels, but it can flux from 3-5 or even 6 depending on the character being sprited. Once the chin is there, work in the ear then the front of the face. The shape of the top of the head doesn't matter unless the character is bald or has a mohawk or something. Anyway, once the Solid Trace is done, fill it in with Light Fill.
2. Next, shade the head with the light source in mind. (refer to Lighting/Shading if need be.)
3. Time to add in the eyes. Since Solid Snake's an adult, he's gotta have the Older Eyes eye type. But since he's got that headband of his, it's included. Either way, ocn the eyes is there, adjust the shading to the face if nessecary. Solid Trace the headband then Light Fill it.
4. For the sake of completion, detailing Snake's headband will be included in the explaination. Do the same thing you did with the face and shade the headband accordingly. With that out of the way, Solid Trace in the hair and then Light Fill it. Don't forget to add a little near the ear for any sideburns, oh yeah and add in a mouth as well.
5. Shade the hair light you did with the other parts.
6. Add in any extra things needed and then the head's done!
Making the Body:
We'll keep working on Snake, shall we? The body goes next obviously. Follow along with the pic.
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1. Solid Trace the body then Light Fill it. Refer to the Basic Proportion Factors section above on how to work out the shape. Snake here has 6 pixels at the thinnest part and 8-9 on the widest parts.
2. Next, use the darkest shade to add in details such as a jacket or in this case, a vest. For a bare chest, refer to Kongman there since he's got enough detail there to help you out. >_>;;
3. Use the second darkest shade to etch out some of the details and fill in some spots to determine what's what. I.e. what's the vest and what's the parts underneath.
4. Last step, now you can shade the body accordingly to the light source, refer to Lighting/Shading section if need be. Then ta-da! Body's done! You can add the head onto the body to see if the go well together before moving on.
Eye Types:
There 're several types of different eyes. Below are examples of all the types that I know about.
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° Child Eyes: Due to child characters' heads being slightly smaller, Child Eyes seem to take up more room. Despite that, they're usually the same height as Female Eyes and use the same kind of eyelash coloring.
° Female Eyes: Female Eyes are the second highest eye types. The eyelash coloring goes from the top of the eye to the first pixel of the back of the eye. Female Eyes are about four pixels high.
° Angry Eyes: Angry Eyes are called that because that's what it looks like. These eyes are only three pixels high, including the eyelash coloring. The eyelash coloring covers the whole top part of the eye and then two pixels in the front.
° Stern Eyes: Stern Eyes have the same pixel height as Angry Eyes. The two types are almost the same, except that Stern Eyes has no eyelash coloring in the front part of the eye.
° Older Eyes: Older Eyes are the smallest pixel height-wise, being on two pixels high yet four pixels long. They share the eyelash coloring with Female and Child eye types.
° Male Eyes: Male Eyes are the same as Female Eyes, except that the eyelash coloring goes from the top to the front rather than the back.
° Glasses: Glasses are the tallest eye type. Since it's impossible to sprite both eyes and glasses together, the glasses themselves are sprited, thus they are an eye type. Five pixels high and four pixels long.
° Glowing Eyes/Masked Eyes: This is a unique eye type, as it can vary in it's height and length. If this type is being used, keep in mind the shading tips in the next section.
Lighting/Shading:
No matter what you do, remember this!
The lighting is always coming down onto the character from a high angle, and thus should the sprite itself be shaded with that in consideration.
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Credits:
Link, Meta Knight, and Solid Snake sprited by Angelglory.
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