Clicky

At least, I think that's the link. It's blocked here at work so I can't verify it's the one I'm thinking of. Google "spritelib" if it doesn't have space sprites.

At the risk of revealing exactly how little I know, I am going to go ahead and put out some questions.  I too am hoping to start by creating some 2D games.  I do have artist skills, but not of the digital variety.   I have a vision, but am so lost on the technical aspects, that I need to just get this all out.   Thanks in advance for any and all help.   (PS - I am going back to school in the Fall for art/digital game design, but want to get some practice in first).

1.  I was making the assumption that I could create art in Photoshop/Illustrator and somehow transition that in to a game.  Is that way off?  If that is possible, how much converting/etc is neccessary?

2.  Are there programs specifically created for 2D game art?

3.  What's all of this "sprite" business?  Whenever I see examples, it usually looks really outdated (not always a bad thing) - but how are more current looking 2D graphics created? 

4.  My first major goal is to create 70-100% of the game art for a 2D top-down adventure game.   Does anyone here have experience doing something like that?  You have to draw out every rock, tree, wall, etc.  And for anything animated you need to draw out an animation for each movement (walk, attack, block, jump, etc) right? 

So there you have it.  Now everyone else should feel really smart. :)

Thanks again.

CVO:

At the risk of revealing exactly how little I know, I am going to go ahead and put out some questions.  I too am hoping to start by creating some 2D games.  I do have artist skills, but not of the digital variety.   I have a vision, but am so lost on the technical aspects, that I need to just get this all out.   Thanks in advance for any and all help.   (PS - I am going back to school in the Fall for art/digital game design, but want to get some practice in first).

1.  I was making the assumption that I could create art in Photoshop/Illustrator and somehow transition that in to a game.  Is that way off?  If that is possible, how much converting/etc is neccessary?

2.  Are there programs specifically created for 2D game art?

3.  What's all of this "sprite" business?  Whenever I see examples, it usually looks really outdated (not always a bad thing) - but how are more current looking 2D graphics created? 

4.  My first major goal is to create 70-100% of the game art for a 2D top-down adventure game.   Does anyone here have experience doing something like that?  You have to draw out every rock, tree, wall, etc.  And for anything animated you need to draw out an animation for each movement (walk, attack, block, jump, etc) right? 

So there you have it.  Now everyone else should feel really smart. :)

Thanks again.

1.  I use and will use photoshop for everything 2D.  It can be a general image, or game art.  Photoshop will work just fine.  I just need to see some tutorials/examples to learn how to do it nicely.

2.  Not sure

3.  Generally, any 2D game image is considered a sprite/texture besides the background.

4.  I have some drawings, but I could use some examples of a photoshop document created art if anybody can provide that I would really appreciate it.  Yeah its a good idea to draw stuff out first. 

Thanks for the reply man.  Yes I am in a similar boat.   I'd like to know how that process goes after concept > sketch > photoshop (or whatever program) > ?

So if you take your average nice looking 2D spaceship sidescoller - were all of those pieces/ships/explosions/etc at one point a simple photoshop images that are then sequenced to create animation?

CVO:

So if you take your average nice looking 2D spaceship sidescoller - were all of those pieces/ships/explosions/etc at one point a simple photoshop images that are then sequenced to create animation?

There are two basic techniques for generating sets of sprites.

1) Old school

You sit with a graphics editor and draw every frame by hand. Use an editor that supports animation so you can see your sprites dance to your tune.

2) New wave

Build 3D models of everything, rig them, animate them, then render them into a set of sprites frame by frame.

The end result is a lot of small graphics, not very efficent for use in a game. So they are organised into a small set of bitmaps holding multiple sprite images. Typically they are organised into a grid with each sprite being a fixed size, say 32 by 32 pixels.

The game code then sequences them in the right order to animate the sprite.

Think of a sprite as a small cartoon, and the game as the animator that makes the movement and photgraphs it and you will get the feel of it.

The moderator may kill this as they may be ripped graphics, but this link shows an example set of sprites

[Mod: Removed link to copyrighted material]

Thought so [;<]

Just google for "sprite sheet"

Stainless:

The moderator may kill this as they may be ripped graphics, but this link shows an example set of sprites

[Mod: Removed link to copyrighted material]

Thought so [;<]

Just google for "sprite sheet"

Looking at a set of graphics ripped from a game is NOT illegal. Even ripping them from the game is not illegal.

Using them in your own commercial project IS.

This particular product is now freely available as abandonware. The publishers have no interest in it anymore, so even the legal state of the product itself is a gray area.

When it comes to educating someone about the correct way to do sprites, there is nothing better than looking at how the professionals do it. Big lessons can be learnt from studying just how much difference between frames is acceptable.

That graphic I linked to shows all the animations for the main character. It gives the wanna be graphic artist an excellent idea of just how many graphics need to be drawn to put a single character into a game, and just how big a task doing a full set of sprites is.

The folks at Microsoft have asked that we not link to or display games or content that have such dubious IP issues. This is their website and they defined the terms of service. Us mods just have to help them implement it. You are perfectly entitled to disagree but that doesn't mean you can ignore the TOS. You even knew it was going to happen when you posted it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware
Copyright law does not recognize the term or concept of "abandonware".

But I agree that looking at sprites is a great way to learn... so link to sprites without an IP issue or link to your own personal blog in which you can choose to link to whatever you like.

And please... no more debate in this thread as its not on the original topic... you know I will just delete all the posts.

Debate aside, thanks a ton for the info - that really helped.

I just found one for pixel art, Graphics Gale, don't jnow if it works with XNA but from what I saw it looks pretty awesome.  Just Google Graphics Gale. Google

This isn't a quote, I just don't know how to use this interface yet.