ALright so the RPG Starter Kit uses the 6 x 8 tiles, with the characters moving in 8 directions....I know that there is a code to use the regular RMXP charsheets, but I want to use the 8-way ones.....

Has anyone done this already that can point me where I can get a generator for one, or whatever I want to know before I get them drawn out pixel by pixel and find one and then feel like a tool for it.....

Thanks, I made a template for the spritesheets if anyone wants to use it if they draw, it's a lot of work tho I was hoping to save an assload of time.....

heres a link to the .png if you want to use it....

What high-end studios do is model the characters in 3D, and use a script to render them out in different poses from different angles.

That's what I do for my sprites. I used to use Poser 6 to pose and render out my characters but now as my experience with 3D art tools has grown I've moved over to ZBrush to pose and render. The only thing ZBrush won't do is animate but I use 3DS Max to do that if I need it. Usually I can get by with just posing in the proper order and tweaking the poses to get the right animations.

Cool...I've pretty much only used paint to do pixel chars with, im gonna try that zBrush out tho....ill worry about doing the battle chars later, i still have to come up with the chars themselves.....its too hard to make char with depth 8-way tho using just paint or pen and pencil in photoshop....

this is all based on the rpg starter kit, but i want it my own as it can be u know?  any advice on it, have u tried working with that or?

thanks man

This conversation is right up my alley.

I'm using ZBrush for all of my artwork along with Photoshop.  You can see what I have so far at my website www.xnascratch.com.

I create my objects in Zbrush then use Texture, GrabDoc, Export and then edit all of the frames in Photoshop.  I have a script in photoshop that will put all of my layers into a spritesheet.  I found it on the internet.  If you want the script, just let me know.  It has saved me tons of time in creating spritesheets.

The problem is ZBrush is completely inadequate in setting up the number of poses you need for character animation.  I just takes forever to get one good pose much less the 100s for all of the frames you need for every character direction for walking running etc.

What was your experience with Poser and ZBrush together?

I'm seriously considering creating my characters in ZBrush and then exporting them to Poser to create my animation frames.  I assume Poser will let you do screen captures or frame captures so I can then edit the frames in photoshop and get them into spritesheets.

I'd really like your opinion on Poser and the workflow from ZBrush.

Allan Chaney

I would like a link to where i can get that Script that creates spritesheets Allan!

Another thing you can do, if you are really good at art, is draw out all your images (You don't have to color them it) then scan the images in and edit them in Photoshop or GIMP or something, and perfect them from there.  It's a lot easier than drawing stuff from scratch in Photoshop, but if you have the skills for 3D modeling, I would go ahead and do that.

MasterNu:

I would like a link to where i can get that Script that creates spritesheets Allan!

It's not a script but I do believe this does what you want: http://www.envygames.com/content/?page_id=65

MasterNu,

Here is that link.

The script works really well in Photoshop.

The first thing I do is use the built in script that comes with Photoshop called Load files into Stack.  In Photoshop click Files, Scripts, Load Files into stack.

This brings up a file folder dialog to load all of your mages into layers automatically.  Just select all of your images off of your hardrive and use this script and they will all be loaded as layers into Photoshop.  That's the first step...getting all of your images into Layers.  Once in layers, you can delete the backgrounds, Trim to center your character etc.

Next you use the script found here to load all of your layers into a sheet.

http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/11527

Layertospirte.zip is the file, found at the bottom of the page.  The author spelled it wrong. :)

Anyway...you'll need to save the script in Program Files, Adobe, Presets, Scripts unless you have photoshop in some other location.  Then you will find the script in Photoshop under Files, Scripts.

Use Notepad to load the script so you can look at the code and make one simple change.  Make sure you take Notepad off of only looking at .txt files or it won't see the script file. 
Using Notepad, you can change one variable in the script in order to set the # of columns (across) you want in your sheet.  Then run the script on your layers and watch it make your sheet automatically.

Very sweet and a huge huge time saver.

Allan

Allan,

I just bought Poser 7 and am using it for all of my player animation.  I'm really really impressed with it.

Now I'm not doing 3D animation so I don't have to worry about Poser's rediculous licensing.  Since I'm only rendering my images for entry into spritesheets, I'm free to do that for commercial purposes.

Of course I'm referring to the use of the stock models in Poser and any you may buy for the application including clothes etc.  You are free to use renders for anything commercial but not the actual model meshes.

I would love to be able to model in ZBrush and then get all that's needed into Poser for animation but I've read that's not really doable.  That Poser uses super high mesh models for smooth animation and those kinds of models are no good for gaming.  I don't think Poser would work so well for animating low poly models that you would need in a game.

Frankly I still don't have a good idea of what a good workflow is for 3D modeling to animation to XNA. 

But right now for my 2D purposes ZBrush for all of my organics and Poser for my characters is working very very well.

Allan

Hi, my best bet would be to take a look around the pixelart community for tools/help.
Other than that there is a free option to poser - Daz3D studio which would be one of the "timesavers" i guess.

hth;Jt

Fragmotion is cheap and has a feature to do this for you, right out of the box.

http://www.fragmosoft.com/forum/index.php?topic=91.0

Allan Chaney:

Frankly I still don't have a good idea of what a good workflow is for 3D modeling to animation to XNA. 

I try to get a grip around "bvh" for the matter since that was/is kind of standart for preserving motion data afaik. I had a good link to something similar to "motionbuilder" but lost it somehow. :d

PS: for zBrush and the "indy" sample - one could build the character from and keep Zspheres while preserving/animating the sphere rig and use adaptiveSkin for snapshot/render within zBrush. Didnt thought about that option till now. :)

hth;jt