What's a good way to draw them without all the hassle of having to do things pixel by pixel? Or where can I find a library or something on them? I'm spending waaay too much time on spriting.
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Unfortunately I don't have an answer for that, but I feel your pain. I hate drawing sprites. I try to do my graphics in 3d Studio Max if I can. Easier to pose and animate, don't have to draw anything, but you have to be good at making halfway decent models
I find the more I sprite, the more anal retentive I become while spriting and end up wasting lots of time. And then of course, it's so much better than everything else in the game, that I redo the GFX. It's a vicious cycle really.
Use an advanced graphics editing program and make high-res graphics. If you want to be ultra-lazy make a top down game so you never have to draw any animations, or different directions.
Yes. What Hamish said is true. But if you really do want some nice oldskool pixel art then you'll have to be willing to put the time and effort in. There are no short cuts.
OK, so, what's a good "advanced graphics editing program"?
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I foound that if you do a little bit at a time you don't get bord... its just animating the bloddy things that take the time. For instance, I have made a hot chick but she doesn't walk or attack yet because I relly don't want to make her legs Its going to take a while... oh GOD!!!!!
lol... oh well... plug away and then you will be happy!
Good luck
"I have dreamed a dream... But now that dream is gone from me."
i'm good at drawing things (10 grade in school) but i just hate making sprites . And it's even more pain in the arse using MMF. I usually ask my bro to do them for me ...
@Hamish - I tried that, and still the same damn thing happened, I ended up breaking it down pixel by pixel. I just need to learn not to be so damnd anal retentive.
You dont actually have to make the sprites in MMF. You could make them in Paintbrush or some other program like that then import them into MMF.
"Actually sir, we found a tiny unicorn in your exhaust. It was jumping around poking holes in your gas tank." "Oh thank you I did not know that. A tiny unicorn? Wow."
My sprites are usually quite simple anyway, I draw the first frame and all the others are simple edits of that. Then I usually add more detail later on, never all at once.
Of course if you make a fangame you don't need to draw sprites at all, but you still need to rip them, which can be a pain too.
1) Draw a rough outline for each frame.
2) Do a rough fill on the character so that the basic colors are correct.
3) Use Paint Shop Pro's Oil Brush on the colors (make sure you do a Magic Wand selection) and smear it a bit.
4) Use the burn and dodge brushes as needed for shading.
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Hmmmm... interesting for I create my spirtes in almost the same way.
The outlines are fairly easy but the coloring is a personal thing. If I want to make pixel like sprites I would NOT fuzz out the color so it looks "shaded". I would simply place, for eg., blue then in the shaded parts I would place dark blue, then darker blue in a smaller area on top of the dark blue, etc. It is also hit and miss. If it looks good keep it. If not redo, etc.
"I have dreamed a dream... But now that dream is gone from me."
There really is no "easy" way of making sprites... but I guess that's already been stated. However graphics are what gives a game style, so it's worth taking the time to do them right. There are a few pointers I can give that will help make it less tedious though.
1. Figure out all of the shortcuts in your graphics program. Most graphics programs have keys you can press to grab colors and switch tools, etc, even Multimedia Fusion has this. Using the keyboard and mouse together will make spriting much faster, and consequently much less tedious.
2. Save the details for last, until you're completely happy with your sprite. If you like to use outlines, create the shapes and animate those BEFORE you add outlines. That way you don't have to redo the outlines (which takes a long time) every time you make an adjustment to the animation.
3. When you're shading avoid using too many colors. Capcom and Square who are both responsible for some excellent 2D graphics only use two or three shades for each color, unless the sprite is like huge.
4. If it's really taking you way too long, you may have to simplify your style. Detailed sprites are great, but finished games are even better.
Last time I had lobster, it reminded me of biology class. Except in biology class the professor didn't make you eat the frog when you were finished.
Well, yeah, creating ONE sprite is easy. How about animating it? You'd have to redraw the damn thing each frame... then make sure that it goes well with the one with the previous frame..
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Advanced graphics editing program = Photoshop and the like. Making high-res Photoshop graphics is alot less tedious and repeditive than pixel art. Animation can be a problem though. If you want to make a game with lots of animations I would suggest 3D pre-renders, but get yourself a good renderer and spend some time on textures so it doesn't look like a Biebersoft game.
Well, I once tried to do outlines in MMF, then coloring/shading them in Photoshop, but at times I forget about the whole anti-aliasing thing and end up with ugly white specks around the sprites.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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. And it's even more pain in the arse using MMF. I usually ask my bro to do them for me 
