Koh's New Sprite Joint

[Koh]

Another l'il update. Accounting Final Exam is this Friday, and then this semester will come to a close.

So, we're adding another choice to the player's graphical customization options. A second type of Hi-Res, Smooth Hi-Res. Smooth Hi-Res is essentially Lo-Res scaled up, and smoothened out by hand, instead of using the popular filter HQ2X. The other Hi-Res mode is what I've been doing, where I redraw the sprites to fit the new space given. A comparison with the font has been drawn up below.



I cannot stress enough how you can choose whichever you fancy at any point in the game in the options menu. The game will load the appropriate external graphics into the game based on your choices.

[Koh]

See, it turns out so much better if you do it by hand, rather than using the HQ2X filter.

[recme]

i think you should focus more on low res. and then, after youre done with the game, make alll these extra stuff. itll be quicker to deal with if you dont make this a essential feature

[Koh]

That is definitely the plan. I was just establishing what they'd look like. In terms of programming, you want to establish this fact sooner rather than later, because all the placements of objects and the code for their spritesheet management depends entirely on the scale Lo-Res is at.

Edit:

I starting having too much fun with this.



Now I'm curious how it'd turn out if LTTP had a remastered port with a graphics setting for this, lol.

[Kelvin]

*Peter Griffin laugh* Link looks like Cartman. ^^

[recme]

the problem is that link looks too fat. id make him skinnier by 1 line of pixels. also, i think you should define the shoes a bit more. they now look like blobs on his feet

[Koh]

the problem is that link looks too fat. 

See, this implies the original wasn't already fat, lol.  All Smooth Hi-Res can do is smooth things out and add a bit more detail  If you mess with anything else, it's no longer this kind of hi-res.  I tried to skinny him out near the waist there, introducing a few black pixels in the smoothening process, but since the original was already so wide, it didn't help much.  As for boots detail...not sure if the space would actually allow much of that, considering the style.

[Koh]

As I practice it, it gets more refined.

As for EP, we talked about having each party member with a field ability that can be used for navigation and puzzle solving. This would require switching the order of the party members often, as the lead party member is the one the player controls on the overworld. Unfortunately, I haven't thought of a way to do this with the ease of a single button, as all the buttons of the GBC are emulated, and have functions, and even some context-sensitive functionality.

Arrow Keys (GBC's D-Pad) - Movement. Double-tapping executes running.
Enter (GBC's Start) - Pause
Space (GBC's Select) - Map
Z (GBC's B) - Field Ability button, unless you're standing in front of something you can pick up. If you are carrying something, you will throw it (or put it down for some objects)
X (GBC's A) - Action button. If nothing is in front of you that you can interact with, you jump.

Switching the order of the party members is done by entering the menu and going to order. Unless I can get some ideas on how to allow you to change who's on the field faster within these controls, you'll have to go through the menu every time. I have thought about allowing the player to press Enter, and then press Space to switch to the next member in the party faster...

[Koh]

*dusts off the cobwebs*

Need to practice portraits more, as I have a request from someone wanting me to do RPG Maker portraits. Aye-yaye-yaye, it's been a lil while.



Toons are easy. Humans...not so much.

[Gors]

that's what you get by doing furries extensively (not saying that they're bad, let me explain!)

I for one recognize that my weakness is muscly bodies, and I urgently need to practice that. Yes! Practicing is great. And to be a good artist, you need to try everything.

Drawing humans might not be your 'cup of tea' however you need to be skilled enough in a lot of areas, the most areas you can. This makes for a more flexible artwork, with varied characters and visuals.

Look for face references in other games, draw (yes, pick up a pencil and some sheets and draw) humans in many forms (cartoon, real life, etc) and practice the hell out of it. Every style is important and to ignore one of them is to be narrow-minded, and you dont want to be narrow-minded.

Eventually the abilities you develop on paper will translate into pixelart (there's a varied percentage of success here but you get the idea) and you'll be able to consistently make better stuff.

Basically, practice a lot and have fun

[Koh]

The funny thing is, I do better with humans in pixels than on paper/digital sketching, ha ha. No matter how many times I draw them when I do my toon pictures, I can't replicate the quality I get when I draw them in pixels. I dunno what it is, and it's really aggravating I can't match up to the same level of quality xD.

Now I can easily replicate my toon style with pixel work, as shown above and in my avatar. It's just humans I struggle with drawing traditionally (or digitally, outside of pixels), and shaping them out in pixel art (for full body).

[Koh]

You know, that scaling technique, and working within the old pixels rules for that old revamp thing is actually extremely useful for making hi-res/HD versions of sprites. It ensures you keep the same general proportions as the original, while also adding more detail.

I took that updated version of Koh's old sprite and did a lil test.



You pick the dimension that matters, which in this case was Height, and try to match up to the scaled vertical dimension while you work on fixing it up. The dimension that doesn't matter, in this case width, is free to either stay where it is, or be shrunken. In this case, it was shrunken by a pixel on both sides to make him less fat and more tall.

With this setup, not only are the sprites hi-ressed, but they also stay within the collision boxes of the original. Man! If I had known this years ago when I was actually working on the 2012 version of World of Chaos, it'd have saved me a lot of time and made this whole thing so much easier xD.

[Mors]

Looks nice but I think he looks like his head is below his body. You should fix that.
Also can I use your hi-res font?

[Koh]

Sorry, these resources aren't for public use unless I explicitly say so in the same post.

[Kelvin]

What? Why not? How could you make a font and not let people use them? It's not like we can all do our own! Why would you post them here if you're not gonna share them? I WANNA USE IT! *bawws and flails on the ground* (LOLJK)

In all seriousness, though, I actually think the human sprites are as good as, if not better than, the dog sprites.