Sprite Editing Tutorial

[Burnsaber]

This is a tutorial on using excisting Dom3 graphics to make new units. If one has artistic talent, he probably is able to create good looking sprites from scratch (see some mods by Amos, for example), but the rest of us will have to do with what we have got. When I first started modding and tried doing my own artwork, the results were.. not too encouraging. Then I decided to take a easier route and even managed to get some compliments for my artwork. In this tutorial, I'll show step-by-step on how I edit the humble Peasant into a fierce Rabble Rouser.

I use GIMP. So if you prefer some other image edit program, you might have difficulties following on what tools I exactly use. However the stuff I do is quite basic and should be able to be reproduced in all-image altering programs.

There are some things you should have done before starting to make a unit.

1)Have the spritedumps. If you don't have them, you can load them from this post (they're in the Spritedumps3.21.zip) They are large pictures which contain most unit sprites in the game. They are a must-have tool when editing, allowing you to easily skim large amount of graphics for intresting poses and equipment. Organized sprites are also a must have. Orginally done by EricM and expanded by other users. I've added the combined download to this post.

2)Have a clear picture on what kind of unit you are making and how it will look like. You'll notice that not having a proper plan cost me some extra work in the making of the Rabble Rouser.

3)Be prepared to quickly view the unit ingame. Use a modded SP game and alter one of the mods so that you'll replace some unit graphic with your own.

So the we'll be making today is a Rabble Rouser for my Holy War mod. Thematically speaking, he is a charismatic and religious peasant, able to recruit fellow peasants into the service of the awakening god by their immense charisma and fiery speeches alone. Artistically speaking this means that he is dressed like a peasant, unarmored, but he will have an inspiring pose.

I decide that the attack sprite of the regular dom3 Peasant will work as our base. Why the attack sprite? Well, this guy will be summoning regular peasants and thus be often seen with them ingame. It will help to differentiate him from regular peasant if he has different pose. The regular attack pose isn't too inspiring though, so we'll use a random guy I found in a spritedump as a help.

Step 1
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=228

Our starting point. When doing size 2 troops, I usually use a 64x64 canvas. The extra space is useful, especially when using parts from several sprites. Let's start by ”removing” the pitchfork. He'll have a pitchfork, but he won't be holding it like that!

Since I'm going to need the Pitchfork for later use, I first select it by lasso and copy paste it for later use. Then I remove the pitchfork with black pen (expect on the parts where it overlaps with the guy).

Step 2
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=229

Now let's put that random guy to use. I'm actually only intrested in his left hand, so I select it and fuse it with our peasant. After removing the peasants orginal left arm, we have a lot more inspiring pose, with slight miscolorings.

Step 3
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=230

Now were going to start recoloring the new arm. I first pick the lightest shade of white in the arm and do a box of it. Then I take the second lightest shade and make a box of it right next to the old one. Repeat until you have done a box with the darkest shade. This will give us a nice thick line of showing us the the different shades in the white arm. Now, since we will recolor the arm to the ”Peasant Brown”, I'll create a same kind of line but it will feature the shades of brown from the peasant garb. This line will be placed exactly beneath the old one.

Step 4
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=231

Okay, we have lines. What now? We can use the lines to easily view which white colors will be replaced by which brown colors. This way we can recolor it and still have the advantage of the shading in the orginal work! I usually fasten the job by using ”select by color” and ”fill with color” tools.

Let's see how the arm looks after we have replaced 3 lightest shades of white in the arm with the 3 lightest shades of brown from the garb.

Step 5
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=232

See the difference? Let's go all the way baby!

Step 6
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=233

Done! There are some pixels untouched, but we'll get to those later.

When I stated doing sprite works I constantly used this ”boxing” method and slowly got the hang of shading by seeing how KO had done it.

Enough rambling, onwards! Let's finish his pose and outlook. That Pitchfork has been laying around for too long. Let's give it back. I select it and rotate by 90 degrees.

Step 7
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=234

Ta-Daa! The pitchfork still has the fists of the orginal peasant sprite, but we will tackle that later.

This guy still looks a tad too much alike the orginal peasant. Beard will be a good way give him some authority. There are many well-haired inviduals in Dom3, but after some pondering I decided to use...
* drumroll *

Step 8
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=235

But, look! It's your friendly neighborhood EA Philosopher. Let's take his head before he starts to wonder where his legs went..

Step 9
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=236

Just in the spot! Remember, with beard comes great authority.

You're probably wondering about that torso of an Rhuax Anointed. To tell the truth we are not intrested in the guy itself, just his flaming fist. You see, the pitchforks and torches are clishee weapons of your average angry peasant mob. Making this guy wield both at the same time will give him ”the champion of peasants” look we are going for.

So what we do is make a makesift shaft and put the Spenta's flaming fist (after mirroring it) on top of it.

Step 10
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=237

Look at that, it worked! The shaft is a tad too long, but we'll fix that later.

That peasant head is there to provide his hat back (which I accidentally lost when replacing his head).

Step 11
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=238

Hatless man no more, our Rabble Rouser is starting to shape up. There a numerous clitches on him thought. Let's start to fix those.

Let's remove the extra fists from the Pitchfork and give him a proper grip on his large tool.

Step 12
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=239

Now that he is wielding his trusty pitchfork, our trusty (a)Rouser will be safe from any nearby Igors.

His right hand looks odd thought. Probably because it still has part of the orginal horizontal pitchfork shaft on it. Let's draw some peasant brown on top of it..

Step 13
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=240

His right arm is okay now. But the shaft of the old pitchfork still haunts us! His waist has that odd dark line because of it. Let's draw some brown on top it..

Step 14
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=241

Waist? Check. Remember how me missed some spots when recoloring his arm from white to brown? Let's fix that now.

Step 15
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=242

Now we are getting into fine detail, but he has that odd vertical dark line in his chest (it's from the orginal peasant sprite). Let's fix that.

Step 16
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=243

Now let's make that Torch more ”Torchy” by shortening it and giving some basic shading. We'll also fix the akward angle.

Step 17
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=244

Ok. All the minor clitches from our little game of ”mix & match” have been fixed. Let's see what we have created. Hmm.. This guy looks a bit too meek and orginal to be a charismatic leader. Those shorts look pretty redicilious on a old man. Let's try giving him a robe.

I pondered on the possibilty of using the under-waist of an existing unit, but I'd also like to show some ”heavy” editing in this tutorial, so let's draw him a robe by expanding his under-waist areas.

Let's start by recoloring his bare feet into peasant browns.

Step 18
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=245

Note that we could now easily go for leathry pants if we just erased his kilt. But I decided to do a robe and robe it shall be.

He has that empty space between his legs. Let's fill that with dark brown.

Step 19
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=246

Much better. But as you can see, the shading is not quite right. That's because I used just a single shade of brown. I'll now improve the shades by using several shades of dark brown (the darkest shades are reserved for the middle and lighter shades to the edges of the are we just drew).

Step 20
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=247

Ok, he now has a robe. At this point he felt confident enough to view this unit in-game. I can't provide a screenshot thought, because my laptop has a problem with that. Graphically speaking, he looked okay, but..

He still doesn't look too charismatic. It's probably his white hair. Why won't those damned young chaps of today listen their elderly! In my time I remember...

You see? Let's make him younger. But the Beard of Authority must stay. So let's just recolor his body hair. Ignoring Anime, we have 4 options for the color of facial hair. Black, Blonde, Brunette and Red. This guy is already too brown so brunette is out. And I'm not too hots on red hair myself. Black.. meh, he's not emo. So he'll be long beared blonde. Vikings for the win!

”Ok. You're going to make him blonde, but how will you know what colors to use in the recoloring? There are no blondes in the picture!” - Good Question. The anwser lies in the next pic.

Step 21
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=248

Our decapitated Ranger will provide us with his lustry long blonde hair. Using his hair as a palette, let's recolor the beard.

Step 22
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=249

Armed with the lustry blonde facial hair of a hero metal guitarist, our Rabble Rouser looks a lot more charismatic. But alas, his head looks a bit odd. Let's adjust it a bit..

Step 23
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=250

A lot better don't you think? He's still hunching a bit (like the regular peasant we used as a base). But this rabble rouser is full of religious fury, he won't hunch! Let's make him a tad taller so that he can stand over his fellow Peasants.

I select his torso and move it up by exactly 1 pixel.

Step 24
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=251

The path is clear! Let's clear that gap.

Step 25
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=252

Lot better. You just witnessed an easy way to make a sprite taller by couple pixels. The shading in his waist and chest looks a tad odd, thought. Let's address that.

Step 26
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=253

Now I viewed him in-game again and was happy with the results. Yipee! We're done! Call the dance orchestra! Let's paaarty!

Oh right... He still needs an attack sprite. But trust me, those are easy. The attacksprite is only visible for 0,5 seconds at a time, so you can slack a bit while doing the details in it. No-one is going to notice if the shading is a bit wonky or pose slightly akward. It's enough that there is some movement and that the sprite is ”attacky”.

We'll be using the basic Peasant pic as base. Let's go to business.

Step a26
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=254

When making attack sprites, it's good to put the units next to each other like this so that you can easily compare them.

The peasant has the attackery pose but lacks the facial hair and robe of our Rabble Rouser. Let's do some copy-paste magic..

Step a27
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=255

Ok. Let's ditch the pitchfork.

Step a28
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=256

Now that the hands are empty, we can give him something to hold on to.

Step a29
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=257

Torch? Check. Let's now give him his Pitchfork back.

Step a30
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=258

Ok, looking good. Let's do some fine-tuning thought. I'll select his torso and move it forward by couple pixels.

Step a31
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=259

Lot more aggressive, don't you think? Let's ditch the base sprite

Step a32
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=260

I viewed this in-game and was pleased. Remember to always test your sprites in-game. The different backround will usually reveal some graphical glitch that's hard to notice while editing the unit with a zoomed view.

And here are all the steps in a single pic.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=261

Now that wasn't that hard, was it? If you feel like that was too hard, don't get depressed. When I started, I probably wouldn't have been able to make this kind of graphic, even with instructions from future me. Below are some pics of my earlier works and their base sprites. You can probably see how much simpler they are. I just wanted this tutorial to show lots of different tricks and perhaps even giving a tip or two to unit makers with some experience under their belts.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/picture.php?albumid=34&pictureid=262

As a finale here are some tips on sprite editing
- The quality of KO's artwork has just gone up in the years. If you want especially high quality base sprites, aim to use sprites from newer nations, like Hinnom, Tir'na' Org, etc...
- Watch the sprites you are editing closely. Sometimes, do not copy-paste things right on top of the pic. Just take expample from the piece and reproduce it by pen. I learned to do shading by taking example from KO's sprites.
- From time to time, do small areas of sprites (arm, swords, jewelry) by yourself to hone your skills. Attack sprites are good for practice, since it won't matter too much even if it's not quite high quality.
- Your fellow modders have also made numereous good sprites. Don't be afraid to use them as base sprites (it would probably be best if you ask them for permission first.)
- Read all of this thread, there is some useful art discussion from page 2 and onwards.
- If some part of a sprite is proving difficult, ponder on options: Can you 1)copy it somewhere? 2) cover it with something (shield?) 3) Change pose so that the difficult obcejct is no longer visible? 4) Just change the theme of the pic so that you delete the difficult item (head proves difficult? Why not give it a helmet? Long hair? Hood?)
- If something just seem impossible and/or frustating, work on something else for a while to hone your skills and then try again. Try to keep it fun!

I'll also show my hearthful support for you soon-to-be editers out there. If you post your pics to this thread, I'll give some comments on them. Besides, it will be useful to have lots of that kind of discussion in single thread.

[llamabeast]

You're a legend Burnsaber, that's a really excellent tutorial. It seems we use very much the same methods on the whole. I think that kind of systematic bit-at-a-time with lots of copying and comparison with existing sprites is definitely the way forward.

Once or twice I've made original sprites from scratch (like the Anubite in Tomb Kings, which is definitely not my best work but is tolerable). When I did that I simply drew something from scratch which was absolutely terrible, and then went through similar processes to those here to gradually converge on it being tolerable.

Oh, one other thing. When you want to change the colour of something, you can just select it (using the select-by-colour or some other clever method in GIMP), and use Hue-Saturation (or Colourise for grey things). I use these loads, and might, for example, use them to make that grey arm brown. It generally takes a bit of messing around to match the colours correctly, but probably saves time. In simpler cases (e.g. I want this red robe to be blue) it saves loads of time.

Actually all the options under "Colours" in GIMP get lots of time from me. I like Brightness-Contrast too. For example, when doing the skeletal horse in Nehekhara, I started by copying KO's skeletal horse, but it didn't have proper ribs. So I just drew the ribs in, using only two colours (light for rib, dark for in-between-rib). Then I needed to add shading, which could have been laborious. Instead I selected say the bottom four-fifths of the rib cage, and made it darker using Brightness-Contrast. Then I selected say the bottom three-fifths and did the same again. Then a few times more with smaller sections each time, so the very bottom bit got darkened quite a few times. I might then have decided that the back of the ribcage should be darker than the front, and darkened another couple of selections. By darkening regions in thsi iterative way it's easy to end up with really nice shading without too much work.

[llamabeast]

Actually maybe the horse ribcage was a bad example, because the shading there isn't especially complex. I guess I did that in maybe three selections-and-darkenings. I've been doing bigger sprites recently (for my forthcoming late-game summons mod), and shading them is rather more arduous.

[Sombre]

Man my methods are completely different from that. A cool tutorial though. Hopefully it will wean people away from copying resizing and pasting graphics from other places (which looks awful in my opinion).

I guess I could do a step by step for the next unit I do, though it wouldn't involve tool explanations since I doubt anyone else uses PSP. Would probably just be a series of graphics with comments.

[llamabeast]

Hmm, intriguing. I wonder what your methods are Sombre.

[Burnsaber]

You're a legend Burnsaber, that's a really excellent tutorial. It seems we use very much the same methods on the whole. I think that kind of systematic bit-at-a-time with lots of copying and comparison with existing sprites is definitely the way forward.


Oh, I'm a legend now, like Conan the Barbarian? Sweet. Now I just have to wait for the scantily-clad busty chicks to show up.

Yeah, the constant copying also has the nice side-effect of making the finished sprite seem "dominionsy", easily fitting in with the rest dom3 graphics.


Once or twice I've made original sprites from scratch (like the Anubite in Tomb Kings, which is definitely not my best work but is tolerable). When I did that I simply drew something from scratch which was absolutely terrible, and then went through similar processes to those here to gradually converge on it being tolerable.


Well, I've also done sprite by hand. The "Manifestation" pretender in Alugra. But he's not a human, more like a geographical shape so he doesn't count (anyone can draw a star).


Oh, one other thing. When you want to change the colour of something, you can just select it (using the select-by-colour or some other clever method in GIMP), and use Hue-Saturation (or Colourise for grey things). I use these loads, and might, for example, use them to make that grey arm brown. It generally takes a bit of messing around to match the colours correctly, but probably saves time. In simpler cases (e.g. I want this red robe to be blue) it saves loads of time.

Actually all the options under "Colours" in GIMP get lots of time from me. I like Brightness-Contrast too. For example, when doing the skeletal horse in Nehekhara, I started by copying KO's skeletal horse, but it didn't have proper ribs. So I just drew the ribs in, using only two colours (light for rib, dark for in-between-rib). Then I needed to add shading, which could have been laborious. Instead I selected say the bottom four-fifths of the rib cage, and made it darker using Brightness-Contrast. Then I selected say the bottom three-fifths and did the same again. Then a few times more with smaller sections each time, so the very bottom bit got darkened quite a few times. I might then have decided that the back of the ribcage should be darker than the front, and darkened another couple of selections. By darkening regions in thsi iterative way it's easy to end up with really nice shading without too much work.


Sounds cool. I'll try that sometime.

I really don't use that "boxing" method I descripe in steps 4-7 anymore , but I remember that it was a great help to me when I was starting.

I'm just a bit scared of the advanced GIMP tools. I remember completely spoiling some graphic of mine with the "smudge" tool. Since then, I've just been using my trusty Pen. You can't go wrong with Pen. But on the other hand, my biggest sprite is the Big Ape hero (size 4), so I haven't encoutered any super-large areas to shade.

Man my methods are completely different from that. A cool tutorial though. Hopefully it will wean people away from copying resizing and pasting graphics from other places (which looks awful in my opinion).

I guess I could do a step by step for the next unit I do, though it wouldn't involve tool explanations since I doubt anyone else uses PSP. Would probably just be a series of graphics with comments.

Yeah, I also find the copy-elsewhere graphics horrendeous. They often have wrong perspective, proportions, size and just do not fit in.

I'm also intrested in hearing about your methods.

[Endoperez]

Excellent! I'm doing basically the same thing, except that I haven't tried to change the existing sprites that much.

This really should be put into a FAQ or something.

P.S. Llama, your first post appeared twice.

[hEad]

Excellent tutorial Burnsaber. I have been wondering how to get into sprite making and this is the very thing, thanks very much!

[Edi]

Hmm, I thanked, but seemed to forget to post. So, better late than never...

Absolutely excellent work, Burnsaber. As llamabeast said, legendary. The community owes you one for this. :D

[Aezeal]

I love your guide, might need to do things that way too, probably should actually.

my way of giving shades etc is that I just select the region I want shaded (usually select color and then a smallish value as treshold, I usually just try a few time and then decide which area I like best, goes very very quikcly) and then "brush" it with a lighter color on one side and a darker shade on the other side.. GIMP creates all sorts of inbetween shades that way. I think I mean that I use pressure sensitive coloring.

reading back I guess it's a bit what llama means, Burnsaber has a point, you can completely ruin a pic by doing to much.. but luckily Gimp give the option to undo step by step soo you can go back to where it's still good.

I also love doing bloodstains on weapons this way.

other stuff I've learned the hard way:
copy pasting from sprites = good
rotating 90/180/270/360/inverting etc = good
rotating it at any other angle = not good = ugly

And while Sombre has a point that resizing will nearly never get near the quality of his artwork it might still be better than you can create yourself if you are less artistic.. and your wanted sprites don't resemble anything existing. Just mind the edges is a thing I've learned :D.

[hEad]

Man my methods are completely different from that. A cool tutorial though. Hopefully it will wean people away from copying resizing and pasting graphics from other places (which looks awful in my opinion).

I guess I could do a step by step for the next unit I do, though it wouldn't involve tool explanations since I doubt anyone else uses PSP. Would probably just be a series of graphics with comments.

I missed this comment some how, anyway, I use Paint shop pro, have done for years, albet rather basically. A few pointers in the use of the software to churn out some reasonable sprites and i'd be off and running!

[Burnsaber]

Thanks for all kind words. It really wasn't that hard, the graphic took about an hour + typing the comments, hosting the pics and combining the downloads took about 3 hours. 4 hours well spent, it seems.

There is still more to come thought. The Spritedumps are quite old (they have the old pics for pythium mages, lack all Hinnom + Bogarus + Fomoria stuff and have some other outdated stuff), so once I'm done with Holy War I'll probably update them.

I'll also make a spritedump out of all my works and perhaps start to pester other modders to make their own. Having modder spritedumps will also be useful in the sense that they could act as a "permission" to use them, so that if someone wants to use your pic he can just take it from the dump without having to bother you for permission. IMHO, spritedumps are absolute necessity when working this method. Viewing the Organized Sprites is just time consuming and tedious.

Since it seems that there are a lot beginners to sprite art ogling this method, I'd like to restate that if you post your pics in this thread, I'll be 100% sure to give feedback and suggestions. It should prove useful to have lots of art discussion in a single thread.

http://xs538.xs.to/xs538/09140/preview498.jpg

Oh, right. Almost forgot. I just happened to use our Rabble Rouser as base to another pic today, so I decided tobriefly show what I did. It's important to note that you can use pics made yourself as base too. So I recolored the robe, changed hair color, gave different weapons and some open wounds and we got Zealot (Flagnellant commander). The lower guy is Warrior Priest and I decided to show him just to demonstrate the power of small changes.


...
reading back I guess it's a bit what llama means, Burnsaber has a point, you can completely ruin a pic by doing to much.. but luckily Gimp give the option to undo step by step soo you can go back to where it's still good.
...
other stuff I've learned the hard way:
copy pasting from sprites = good
rotating 90/180/270/360/inverting etc = good
rotating it at any other angle = not good = ugly

And while Sombre has a point that resizing will nearly never get near the quality of his artwork it might still be better than you can create yourself if you are less artistic.. and your wanted sprites don't resemble anything existing. Just mind the edges is a thing I've learned :D.

Yeah, undo is awesome. Ctrl-Z is my friend. But like I said, I've mostly drawn humans, so I haven't really encountered any large areas to shade. Besides, shading by hand isn't that hard. I usually just slide the colors I need manually.

Yeah to that too, the rotation thing is annoying. Explanation to those who have idea what we are talking about: if you rotate an object in GIMP with angle other than 90 or 180, the GIMP will smudge the whole object. Really annoying. I've been digging the options to turn it off, but no luck. I still use it sometimes, althought the object needs *a lot* fixing afterwards.

Dom3k is quite an odd beast of an mod. You might have trouble finding a base sprite in vanilla :p.

[Gandalf Parker]

If you ever want to spark your imagination:
try doing a google for icons. There are tons of libraries of old simple icons (such as Win95 or win98 versions) which cover a nice range of subjects.

Try googling for icons win98 fantasy

Gandalf Parker
--
I have a very fertile mind.
Just ask mention something. I can fertilize anything.
(wait, that didnt come out right)

[Aezeal]

yeah I usually lend pics from the net.. I've improved adapting them and even though Sombre would probably agree I think that quality wise a lot of them can stand up to about dom 3 standards (for ref, Sombre's I value higher). To be honest I don't care that much for graphs in this game anyway.

The styles of the graphics are lend of course and usually aren't very dom 3 like... and even within nations styles can clash.. I don't mind... I think Sombre would, well he can aford to be picky I guess :D (not sure he's seen the latest work or the polishing I did on the earlier ones though)

Anyway.. I've totally stopped rotating any thing except 90/180 etc.. IMHO you can't even fix it up decently and trust me I've tried, if it doesn't even get to my standards it must mean it's really unusable :D

Another option I really like is Colorize.. if you use it on your WHOLE pic it will ruin it.. if you select a color first (with a certain treshold) and the colorize that selection it makes for rapid changes in color and keep intact shading (mostly keeps it intact, if you use it and decide to use otehr color UNDO till before the first change. Colorize over colorize will give unicolorish results in the end)

[lch]

Yeah to that too, the rotation thing is annoying. Explanation to those who have idea what we are talking about: if you rotate an object in GIMP with angle other than 90 or 180, the GIMP will smudge the whole object. Really annoying. I've been digging the options to turn it off, but no luck. I still use it sometimes, althought the object needs *a lot* fixing afterwards.
That is not a limitation of GIMP, that's because the problem is really hard in general. You can rotate multiples of 90° without trouble, of course, because that just means that the pixel data is using another orientation. But you can't safely say how you can rotate odd values and keep the pixely image intact. Especially with low resolution graphics. If you have high res photographs, then the algorithms are good enough so that you almost don't notice that things were rotated afterwards, but for sprite graphics, you'll have to do it by hand, at least fix the image afterwards, no way around it. That's because the image consists of pixels, and the computer has no means of sampling new data.

[DaveCG]

Hey burn just letting you know thanks alot for this, it's inspired me to start doing unit, it's off to a alright start, I'm having fun, I'm not sure the lion tribe are enjoying my fashion makeover though :)

[Burnsaber]

DaveCG, those look pretty good. I really like the Orange/White + Black color theme. Nice contrast. I really couldn't find any flaws in the regular guys. Good job on those.

The pose on the (hero probably?) on the golden shield-guy* looks a bit.. epic? I mean that he has his back facing on the enemy and fighting backwards. If he's a hero or rare unit of some sort, I'd think that he's okay (rare units can look special), but if he's a recruitable of some sort**.. I also noted that his swords hilt is fully visible (meaning that he isn't actually holding it, since his fingers should be around the hilt).

If you want to change the pose, I'd suggest you just select the head and mirror it vertically. Then he should be facing in the right direction.

You have really good advantage on doing black-skinned units. Since those are quite rare in dom3, you could probably get away with just turning former white guys to black guys and changing their equipment a bit. If you need new mage pics, I'd suggest recoloring some Mictlan priest (the highest quality half-naked dudes). Also, easy alternative on the Sorcerer would be if he was holding his staff two-handed (you don't need to change his pose, just make him hold the staff vertically)

* free tip: In the future, you should remember that "naming" the units in the pic are helpful reference points (example in this post http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showpost.php?p=682809&postcount=33)

** Note: This is just a personal preference. Poses like that probably have their fans.

[DaveCG]

Thanks for the tips! the golden shield guy is meant to be the king of what is to be a EA Machaka, a cap only special dealy type thing, I was playing Dr P EA Machaka mod and noticed he had a king unit, and I thought I'd try and make a sprite for it, then it got on to "Hell, I'll make an entire EA Machaka, based around lions and the sun (hence the orange deal)" and yeah, epic might be the right word there :)

As for the hilt thing, I'll be sure to tidy that up, could you tell me how to mirror in GIMP? I've worked out rotation thanks to you, but in the tutorial you said mirror as well, and for the life of me I can't find the button/thingy, is it possible to mirror in such a way that he strikes forward with his sword? or will it auto mirror him ingame? I've been meaning to set up a file to test them ingame, but I was having too much fun messing about...

Thanks for the suggestion about Mictlan, I was sort of going for their head pieces anyway, might as well take their bodies too :P

Anyway, like I said thanks for the tips and I'm going to keep trying, got too many ideas and not enough skill/time, I just made a horrible failure of a creature, spearmen riding lion don't look right, heheh.

[Burnsaber]

First just select his head, then click on the icon that's third from top and third from right. It has this two-faced arrow on it.

On the lion rider, see if there are any quite naked riding units in the game(I can't think of any at the moment, but there must be some, amazons perhaps?). Just then pick the rider and recolor his skin (and give breast reduction surgery if they're amazons).

[DaveCG]

Cool thanks alot, I'll be sure to find me some naked folks to use...ermm..yeah.

Also, last question I swear, I think I've done something horribly wrong, I've started testing out my unit ingame and my kings normal sprite appears fine, but when they attack, it's the giant black box of doom, with purple shadow, attack sprite in the middle of all this, I'm guessing I coloured something in I shouldn't have? I've been round all of them filling it in black, just incase but I really have no idea about this sort of thing, any help would be great, and chances are I'll be back tomorrow with a couple more crimes against good taste.

[Aezeal]

I think you either chose a wrong color, or.. more likely since it's what I've done about a zillion times (as the dom 3 K crew can confirm) you've got an alpha channel in there.

[Aezeal]

PS dave I love the sprites

[DaveCG]

Thanks on both things Aezael!

I think there is an alpha channel in there somewhere, from combine layers maybe? I'm going to go check now, and then I'll post the minor touch up (they're still fashion disasters, but now they're slightly less disastery) and the couple of new units, complete with NAMES(dun dun dun).

Anyway, thanks for all the help and support!

EDIT

Yeah, there's an alpha channel in there, but it seem like it won't let me delete it, am I boned? it's in the section with the RED/GREEN/BLUE and when I right click on it the delete channel button is greyed out, anyway ideas? or will I have to redo?

EDIT2

Nevermind, just found it, online help for gimp is great!

[DaveCG]

Alright, first things first, sorry for the double post, bad internet form and all that.

Second, sofar2.jpeg is go!

In order...

A = Lion King (no, not mufasha) the capital city only king, boasting a epic fighting style and minor 'bling' I must admit I really like this one, being as it was the witch doctor sprite, and I butchered it.

B = Great Hunter is a would be hero unit version of the half white toga folks, I'm not too happy with this one atm, I feel that the white is too white, and you can't really make out the gold bit on the head set, I might darkern him over all, but what does everyone else think?

C = King Hero, sporting major bling and a royal purple plume (totally bad ***) I must admit I just went silly with this one, what I'd like to know is does the armour look too messy? should I tidy it up? if so what would you guy reccomend? I tried burning and dodging it to shade it, but I'm hopeless with shading.

D = Lion Cubs, poor guys, just a orange-y toga recolour for you, oh well, you'll die in thousands.

E = Generic witch doctor! I like this one, although I can never tell if it's a guy or not, if it is, it's got a hell of a chest...

F = Sacred archers, otherwise know as huntsmen (hinting towards poisoned bows, the whole spider thing in the furture) I like this one, I think I've darkened the toga just right, I'd like to get the hero in line with this one.

G = Lion Spears, Bog standard long spear guys.

H = Lion Bows, Bog standard archer guys.

I = Sacred warriors, something epic like "ROARING LIONS!" or something jazzy, fresh from stealing mictlan hats, this was the first one I did, I've got back and touched up the hat alittle, I quite like them.

J = Lion Javs, bog standard one shot ranged guys, like a unsacred I.

K = Woo, body choping, part Lion Cub, part marvini slinger! I'm happy with how this one turned out.

And that's it, any comment would be great, I'm just so blinded by the lion heroes bling I can't see!

[lch]

Dark colored sprites on a black background is a bad idea... ;)

[DaveCG]

That's a good point, hmm, I've a cunning plan...

Nope, changing it to white was a bad idea, and so was shocking pink to be honest :)

Joking aside, do you mean for working on? I've seen the odd sprite thing with white instead of black background, or do you mean for previewing?

[llamabeast]

Try dark green.

I have a comment, for both your and Burnsaber's sprites - the whites and yellows are significantly too bright. White clothing should be coloured actually grey, with highlights which approach pure white only at the very brightest points. In some points (the bottoms of folds and so forth), the white clothing should be really quite dark grey. I learned this with painting miniatures, it's very unintuitive but it's true, honestly! Try it.

For gold, find some vanilla units (or else my Tomb Kings) as examples. I spent quite a while on the gold for my Kings (the ones who look like pharoahs). They're meant to be wearing ridiculously bright gold, so they should probably be an example of an upper limit of brightness. Mostly I think gold should be rather darker. I you think about it, gold is more shiny brown than shiny yellow.

[llamabeast]

Sorry, by the way, I think your sprites look excellent with the exception of the white and gold. I thought that in my head earlier on so I was imagining you obviously already knew that!

[llamabeast]

Oh yeah, Burnsaber, the thing of yours I thought was too white was the crusader's shield, on post #13. The robe of your avatar is actually an excellent example of how I think white should be done. :)

Now I seem like some crazy white-and-gold obsessed nutter!

[DaveCG]

Thanks for the advice llama! funny enough I've been recolouring my guys, darking them up, and praticing shading, I'll keep at it untill I'm happy and then as long as noone minds I'll show them off again, thanks again!

[Burnsaber]

Thanks for the advice llama! funny enough I've been recolouring my guys, darking them up, and praticing shading, I'll keep at it untill I'm happy and then as long as noone minds I'll show them off again, thanks again!

Sure, keep on showing them. This kind of discussion in plain view will help other starting modders. About that armor on the unit c. I'd probably shade it darker on the waist. Armors usually have the "chest" area in lighter colors and darker colors on the stomach (two very light areas for breasts if the unit is female). I usually copy all my armours, since it is probably the hardest thing to draw and make look good. One good "trick" to get past the armor problem and some other issues too is to cover the "difficult areas" with something (shields are good for this purpose). See that belt on my avatar pic? I copy-pasted it from another pic because I was having a hard time shading his waist right.

To Llamabeast: Oh right, the warrior priest. I used the same shades I used in templar shields, but it seems that the whitness really shows out without a logo on the shield. I'll make it darker and put a red X on it.

[DaveCG]

Alright folks, once more with SHADING DAAAAA!

Well, attempted shading, I don't know if it's alright or not, looks ok to me, but then again, my guys now look more "correct" than "good" I feel, oh well, can't have bright white outfits for everyone :)

Alright from the top...

A and B are just touched up from the last showing, abit darker with attemped shading on the skirt-thing between the legs.

C is my new unit, the wiseman, although my main beef with this guy is that it took me ages tidying up his skirt, making it look nice and clear, that I couldn't be bothered to tidy up the attack sprite yet, it's on the "to do when I'm crazy bored and want to kill someone because OMG IT JUST WON'T BLEN-ARRRGH!" fun.

D is polished up, with added shading on skirt.

E is my first proper attempt at the select by colour lark you had in your tut, I think it's turned out well, a black giant, hey we have white ones, I thought it'd be cool to have some black ones too, very happy with how his skirt turned out as well, I couldn't do that with the select/etc button, so I did by brush/burning and I think it looks good, abit too dark for the nation maybe, but alright.

F/tidy/shaded
G/same

H is HAH! my first attempt at real toga shading, I thought it went really well and I must admit, when it came to his attack sprite I sorta well "OH GOD NO" and thought of a lazy/AMAZING way do to his attack, keeping with his character of being the oldest wiseman/hero wiseman unit, I'm going to call the weapon 'Tree of souls' 'cause, let's be honest it's a giant red tree of lazy.

I/see G/etc

J MY FLAG! I'm really pleased with this, I thought it captured the nations feel really well, the hope sun aspect and the new dawn of the Early Age, needs some cleaning but I like the slightly tattered look.

K my king unit, now with slight toned down colours on the idle sprite, I left the attafck sprite the same being as I'm quite lazy and..well...I love the shiny bling.

L thanks to burnsabers suggestion I think I've managed to do the best I could with the armour, I really like it myself, and I'm keeping him shiny on purpose (not laziness) being as he's a king hero, I thought it'd add to his "I'm totally bad ***"-ness.

M the Caveman King hero unit, although he's got some issues I've worked them out, but I hadn't updated the .jpeg, really liked the way his toga turned out, I think I've nicely shaded the fold in it, but then again I could be wrong...

N not much done on witchy, looked fine I thought.

O+P redone from base again, I wasn't happy with the other ones, the regular unit had the right tone of white/grey, but was really messy, and the hero(P) was clean but too bright, so I redid them and I'm very happy, although attack sprite whites are alittle off, I don't think anyone cares.

Phew, that's it, comment are great as ever, and any suggestions for units would be cool too, I'm having a blast doing this, even if they're not the greatest in the world.

Thanks again everyone!

[DaveCG]

Abit better quality picture! hope it's abit more clear and less blur-o-scope.

[Endoperez]

Wow, that's a grand flag! :D

[DaveCG]

Thanks very much endoperez! I must admit, I took alot of inspiration from zepaths amazing flags, also I really should stop doing this...sofar5.jpeg, with only new editions.

A is the lion-man, what I would think will be a summon for the nation, my first attempt at making a head from scratch, it's abit hard to tell where it's eyes are, but I'm happy with it, if I do managed to get better I'd certainly like to revist him.

Below him is the lion-man spearman(lion?) just for something other than hand to claw chaff.

And the last three fellows are my golden lions, top is the standard golden lion rider, I think these turned out really well, following burns advice I start trolling the sprite files, and lo and behold I had forgot about, spider riders! so I did abit of the old lasso and some joining and added a nice white skirt(naked is so pre early age) and blam o, quite nice I think, below him is the hero, riding the king of the golden lions, just jazzed the regular sprite up alittle, and then the last two are standard non-mounted golden lions, for summoning and jazz.

Comment/crits/anything at all is great, it's almost time to start writing my .dm, just need a pretender now.

[Endoperez]

just need a pretender now.

Tarzan the Tarmangani, the King of the Apes, is a pretender god trying to take over the world. After perfecting his pectoral muscles, Tarzan is bored, so Tarzan take over the world! :D Autosummons Great Lions, randomly summons some elephants (#domsummon20) and has #onebattlespell "Howl".

[Burnsaber]

Whoa, Dave! You've been productive. I'll just equip my +5 monocle of criticism and be on my way. If I don't comment on unit, my opinion defaults to "it's awesome"

C: I really like the pose. He seems to be meditating/mourning. I'd remove some of those dark pixels in his armpit and backside, thought. His waist also looks a tad too dark, I can't really figure out where his stomach is. The skirt is too square as 90 decree angles are very rare in clothing. You also should probably copy-paste the same skirt to both attack sprite and base sprite.

H: This pic probably got deformed in the "sofar"ing process. Is that thing his head? The toga is a bit too square in this one too. That "few dark lines" effect to create shading in the toga looks good.

J: Remember how I said that my opinion defaults to awesome? I mention this Flag because it is awesome to the power of two.

K: Oh. From your first pics I thought that his guy had a afro/ manly large cache of hair of sorts. Sad to see it gone, it looked pretty good. Like a lion mane.

L: The armour looks a lot better now. Good job.

The Lion-guys: You shouldn't worry about eyes. All size 2 troops on Dom3 do not have eyes at all. Just a 1x2 pixels white box with a tad darker colors.

Those Lion riders look very good. Very nice choice of colors for the hair and mane. Looks majestic to the extreme.

[lch]

Abit better quality picture! hope it's abit more clear and less blur-o-scope.
There goes my dream of having MCP in Dom3...

[DaveCG]

Tarzan the Tarmangani, the King of the Apes, is a pretender god trying to take over the world. After perfecting his pectoral muscles, Tarzan is bored, so Tarzan take over the world! :D Autosummons Great Lions, randomly summons some elephants (#domsummon20) and has #onebattlespell "Howl".

Hmm, damn although silly (which is +2 to awesome btw) I'm so tempted to try this, what I basically did was recolour the lord of the sun sprite with the golden lion colours, and give him a golden lion head, but..now...man...tomorrow when I finish work I'm so trying this.

Also thanks for the crits burn, I'll do some more work on them and show them off tomorrow, thanks for the help again!

Oh, and burn I'm so going to make another hero with a afro now you've said that...maybe a young machaka prince with a afro whos father was killed infront of him, so he went to jomon(wrong age I know) to train in the samurai arts :)

Hmm, next idea try to make a afro samurai mod, oh lordy...

EDIT: about H, he's got a bowl of blood and a book in both hands, and his attack sprite is my attempt at making seem like the blood is forming souls (little head, two arms) to attack people, and then making it it's own weapon, called tree of souls or something jazzy, being as it sorta looks like a tree, it's not too clear, but I wanted to tie it to him history and junk, other than you just reading about it and not seeing it in action.

[DaveCG]

Alright, besides one tarzan, and maybe afro prince hero, I think I'm done for now, I mean I've got loads of ideas, but I don't think a single nation should have 30+ troops :)

Here's sofinished.jpeg for you gent to gander at, I might try making it smaller for better quality (sorry ich, no MCP ((multi cat party!?)) but for now, I think that's it, I'm going to try to make a decent tarzan, but for now explaining time, yay.

A = Summons, featuring golden lions, and both types of lionmen and hopefully some white elephants, but I've got to fire off a message to juzzi asking if it's alright to use his elephant sprite without riders, don't want the first thing I ever do to contain a 'dick move'.

B = Pretender(s) currently just lord of the golden plain, I know the head looks cheesy, but I quite like how the rest of him turned out, I tried following the shading from the original sprite, and it turned out pretty well.

C = Heroes! all as normal expect one thing, both the wiseman and hero wiseman have had their togas MC Hammered, going for a sorta pantaloons style, I wasn't so sure on how to make them seem less 90o angle, so I thought I'd try this, lemme know if it's alright, or if I should go for more of a triangle look, classic robe style.

D = My general army, recuitable everywhere, I wasn't so sure about putting the caveman there, but I can work things like that out later, one new guy is the tribal leader commander, mostly taken from MA Machaka, but with orangey toga thing, and darker red feathers.

E = Cap only/sacreds lots I know, I'm going to work out the details later but for now this seems about right, I could maybe do with another non-cap mage, other than the witchy, but like I said, working out later, last new guy here is the bottom white guy, being a prince came out pretty well, although I feel his regular sprite is alittle light torso and up, any shading advice for that?

All in all, very little left to do, I'm sort of dissapointed, I might keep adding to theses guys though, like I said, loads of ideas and stuff but nevermind for now, next on the list will proberly be my insane idea for a underwater blood nation...

Yeah you heard! :P

(will the blood slaves drown as soon as a battle starts if the command that has them 'equiped' doesn't have something like share water breathing?)

[Stavis_L]

...next on the list will proberly be my insane idea for a underwater blood nation...

Yeah you heard! :P

(will the blood slaves drown as soon as a battle starts if the command that has them 'equiped' doesn't have something like share water breathing?)

Dunno about the drowning (I *assume* they would...) but you should know that you cannot blood hunt an underwater province. So your proposed underwater blood nation would need to get some tentacles onto land before they could start siphoning off the virgin blood...

BTW, on topic, nice sprites :-) I especially like the "spirit tree" attack sprite, though I'm not sure how it'll look in situ considering the brevity of the attack animation. However, wrt/the Lion Head pretender, I think the head should move a bit lower down onto the torso, or else it looks like the neck is too long.

[DaveCG]

Dunno about the drowning (I *assume* they would...) but you should know that you cannot blood hunt an underwater province. So your proposed underwater blood nation would need to get some tentacles onto land before they could start siphoning off the virgin blood...

BTW, on topic, nice sprites :-) I especially like the "spirit tree" attack sprite, though I'm not sure how it'll look in situ considering the brevity of the attack animation. However, wrt/the Lion Head pretender, I think the head should move a bit lower down onto the torso, or else it looks like the neck is too long.

Ah, damn. There go my hopes and dreams-ish, like you said I'll have to adapt it, oh well, should really look into these thing more often, maybe a land blood nation, with extensive sea units? oh well, brainstorm time. Thanks very much for the compliment as well, and I think I'll take your advice regarding the head, it did seem alittle off, maybe it's the length.

Also in other news, as I've been writing the .dm file I've realised something, I need a scout, a non cap mage, one more hero and two multi heroes...well, maybe not need on thoses hero parts but dammit I like heroes!

[esd29a]

Ah, damn. There go my hopes and dreams-ish, like you said I'll have to adapt it, oh well, should really look into these thing more often, maybe a land blood nation, with extensive sea units? oh well, brainstorm time. Thanks very much for the compliment as well, and I think I'll take your advice regarding the head, it did seem alittle off, maybe it's the length.


At the risk of derailing the thread, I'd like to throw out an idea. How about LA Oceania for a sea-themed blood nation? Pushed out of the sea just like atlantis but where the atlantians turned to death magic and enchanted ice, the capricorns sought to regain their power and the seas by spilling the blood of the land dwellers.

[DaveCG]

At the risk of derailing the thread, I'd like to throw out an idea. How about LA Oceania for a sea-themed blood nation? Pushed out of the sea just like atlantis but where the atlantians turned to death magic and enchanted ice, the capricorns sought to regain their power and the seas by spilling the blood of the land dwellers.


That's basically what I wanted to do, except them still being in the ocean and being forced to use blood as a sorta last resort type deal, but yeah, I think I'm going to go with pushed out the ocean and wanting back in at any cost, it just seems like a cool idea to me at least, just the matter of small land roster and large sea recruitment...but yeah, derailment!

I know I've said it about 6 times now, but I have to give a huge thank you to burn for opening my eye to retooling standard dom3 sprites, I always wanted to make a nation, I can work my way round the .dm pretty easy (thanks to the modding guide and all the hard work by edi and co!) but I kept getting annoyed that I couldn't make sprites at all, and thanks to burn I can now at least get somewhere in the general area :) admittingly I'll never be anywhere as good as someone like Amos, but I think I can live with that now :p

Anyway, like I said earlier I need to make a scout, another mage and 3 heroes, so if it alright I'll drop them by here for a quick glare-o-critique (tm) by burn and co, thanks again!

[Burnsaber]

Well, glad to hear I could be of assistance. Remember to give yourself some credit too, thought.

Those sprites look pretty good. Can't wait to play the actual nation.

I remember talking with someone about a LA oceania on IrC. IIRC the idea was about the nation revolving on volcanic themes. As Atlantis is pushed into the cold north, Oceania flees into the volcanic islands in south. That's an easy thematic way to go to blood slaves (The volcano gods are not pleased! Throw in the sacrifices!). You could search for some hawaijian/philippines/indonesian myths and work them in with some oceania twists.

[DaveCG]

Well, glad to hear I could be of assistance. Remember to give yourself some credit too, thought.

Those sprites look pretty good. Can't wait to play the actual nation.

I remember talking with someone about a LA oceania on IrC. IIRC the idea was about the nation revolving on volcanic themes. As Atlantis is pushed into the cold north, Oceania flees into the volcanic islands in south. That's an easy thematic way to go to blood slaves (The volcano gods are not pleased! Throw in the sacrifices!). You could search for some hawaijian/philippines/indonesian myths and work them in with some oceania twists.

That's pretty badass, adding extra flavour and all, hmmm. Anyway, like I said chances are after I've made the final units and had them looked over I'll start up my own thead and stop hogging yours :D

[DaveCG]

Well, looks like this is it, the last sprites for now anyway, crits as are always welcome and after I finish off the last 30% or so of the .dm file I'll put my thread up, like I said before thanks for all the help guys, looking forward to your input when the nation needs balance and all that jazz.

A is the sorceress unit, just a nice happy recolour for her nothing major yet.

B is the black spider unit, a scout with a blowpipe, I think I need to lighten him up alittle, he's kinda dark...well they're all 'dark' but you know what I mean.

C is the assassin, I was thinking about making him a multihero, like the spider he's too dark I think.

D is the afro hero, sporting a gi and the number 2 headband, along with a bad mofo afro and jazz, I really liked how this one turned out, the only downside is I got lazy with the attack sprite, once I'm more confident I'll be coming back to this one.

E is the white elephant I was on about, I still haven't heard back off juzzi but once I do I'll add it in, chances are he's going to be a summon of somekind.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any and all crit/comment/etc guys!

[Aezeal]

Well I'm gonna post the changes I've made from a few sprites too. I've started with A and B, the original pictures I've got no chance I'll ever be able to draw in my live.

Then I resized and touched the results up a bit (mostly working on the edges, which I forgot when I started but it's really important since a line for greyish/blackish of even 1 pixel around your sprite will annoy in the end) and gave the sprite the magenta shadow. I usually work on 400% size.

starting with the shooting orc:
after touching up I got to C. For the attack sprite I just added a fiery blast to the barrel. I did this with a brush of white, then yellow and then red in the middle.
And I added blood to the blade , first a layer with darkish red also with a brush so it get's automatically different sorts of red and then in the middle of that a brighter red.

A while later I did the flamer (E/F) first I removed the bladethingie and for E I added the gastanks to his back. I did that by selecting all the black, then reverse the selection so I just had the orc and I stored it somehwere. Then I just made a gas tank (it moves behind his back) a sort of long cilinder with a high sized pencil (sharp edges, not flowing out in different colors like the brush tool) and I added the light reflection to it with a brush and lighter red (very light) then I gave it a cap on top (greyish line) and a brownish line to the weapon (the gas goes through it)

For the attack sprite I just added flames basicly, same as the barrel in the other sprite but I started with a red, brushing it out in the general shape then yellowish inside it and whitish near the barrel. The brush will create a whole range of different colors which on the edges will be nearly black, in game that will look like a black line around the flame and is not good. You usually need to remove most of that (paint over with pure black) and just leave a few variations of color on the edges (all of which should be pretty bright red or it will resemble the dreaded black line.)

For G and H (shaman) I remove the chopper again and soemwhere in the process when I noticed I needed more room I scaled the canvass to 128x128. I'm not really sure what I did next but I think I drew a straight line and colored it with a think brown (the lighter color on the left) then I brushed over the right side with a darker brown. I drew the crossbeam by hand with same process, first light brown, then dark. Took me a while to get the angle and sizes right. Then I painted the skull, it's not perfect but on in game size it's decent I think.

For the attack sprite I just copied the fiery barrel from an older sprite and put it in the right place.

Ow and tehre are spaceversion with helmets of some of these too.. same process I'll tell about in the next sprite.

B resizing to I, touching up borders , adding shadow etc.

The attack sprite was a hell of a job, cutting the orc out, copying his weapon trying to rotate it in several posistion which always looked awfull. In the end I think I just turned it 90 degrees (so no deformation or rough edges and positioned the arm around it (I copied the distal part of his other arm, turned that around abit and then used some of those colors to touch up the edges) After that I added the blood in the way as described before (brushing with dark red, then adding a bit of brighter red on the edge.)

For K (orc crafter (the one building ships and tanks) I took the light color the axe has and used that to draw the upper side of the hammerhead. THen I changed the color slightly and drew the other side, I brushed the upper side a little bit with this color too so it's not to uniform in color. Then a very dark color for the part he hits with. I think this worked out very nicely and even the dimensions and proportions worked out right for me in the first try

L was just adding blood again

M (orc rager) got a jumppack on his back (he has flying) Under his arm I created the pack first with grey no real science involved and then the fire red brush, orange brush and a touch of yellow in the middle. Ow and becuase he's a rager he got a bit more blood on the axes to start with.

Personally I like N (rager attack sprite) a lot, I just copied and flipped the other arm and touched it up a bit. I think this one as rager attack sprite is nice compared to the regular attack sprite.. much more fierce as it should be. The attachment of the arm to the body was probelmatic. I put the layer with the new arm behind the rest of the orc and just added dots of color (copy form other arm) where needed.

O-R are spaceform (forest form) sprites of the ones before (crafter doesn't get one since that sprite is only for a commander and they get spaceships in space) basicly adding a helmet.

Selected a greenish color, and put a dot that fitted over the head as a new layer above it. Then I palyed with transparancy untill I thought it was right (face somewhat shining through but helmet still visible) after that I added the whitish reflection by brushing with white on the upperleft part and pressing firm on the most white part so it would become nice and white.

That leaves the orcish war drum S-W. I first created the drummer, removing the heads of his weapons and adding a brown ball, which I gave a lil shine with a lighter brown on top.

Then i created the drums. the result can be debated (I know it's far form perfect) but for something I created from nearly nothing with my art skills I'm satisfied. I drew an oval of the light brown, put the red head (copy, not original) in there then I extended the black thingies that come out of it and added the darker points of brown with a brush. THen I drew the oval again (actually I did this before filling it) and drew it as a line with another color the edge) and drew it again for the backside, just a lil lower and more to the right. I filled the back oval (layer behind the other with the darker brown you mostly see on the side of the drum and then use that color to fill all the space on the side) then I used a very dark brown to draw the lines on the side which connect to the (grey) nails on the front. I created the speakers about the same way and then just added the box with the switches and lights. THen I put a flipped copy of the drummer behind it. The drummers in the attack sprite have blood on the weapons and there are a few versions (first loose one drummer 2nd shape to drum + 1 durmmer then loose the other durmer and the immobile drum remains.)




PM due to quality loss when saving the pics look a bit less nice than they really are (it really shows when I look at them on 400% size)

[DaveCG]

Wow aezeal that's pretty cool what you managed to do with thoses two source images! I really like the flame effect on F, looks like your dom3000will have to start gettin' orky! I also really like M and N, very cool.

[Aezeal]

Well Dom 3K is already orcy.. orcs are probably one of the most finished races in there and have been for a while. You are very welcome to try the mod though, I can always use feedback and I'm pretty sure that once you are playing you will have fun and be surprised by what I've added in the mod. If you do use the new larger galaxy map which uses the new mod commands to give space provinces a spacy look.

Anyway I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks my sprites are decent. My mod has some fierce opponents but since this thread was about sprites n stuff I thought I'd show how I did my things. Most other races are just single sprites though not a string of sprites all derived from each other. Orcs just worked out well for me this way.

[DaveCG]

I must admit I tried you mod awhile ago, 0.71 I think? I really liked the idea, it's just as soon as I attacked somewhere and it went to green fields with spaceships I was kinda.."ah..." but you've got the battlefield commands sorted out now right? I'll have to give it another go, I'm a huge 4x nerd, one of the reasons I love dom3 so much, it's like a 4x game...but...argh, can't put my finger on it, I love it either way though, but yeah, like I said I'll be sure to try it out again.

[Aezeal]

yeah the battlefield commands are sorted out.. I hear a few space provs are still forest (I edited certain terrain types which should have been all forests but I guess I missed one.. it will be fixed once I know which ones I missed) but in general it's better now. Lots of small things have improved and more will be improved (created about 15 new sites last 2 days for example) workign on Machaka in space too.

If you have feedback I'd love to hear it in the dom 3 K thread though.

[BandarLover]

So I also thought I would try my hand at sprite making for my sad little barbarian mod and decided to start with the nation flag. I had been using Foodstamp's Haida Gwai flag, which is nice, but a killer whale doesn't seem to do a roving band of plain dwelling barbarians justice. I will attempt to post the image of the flag I made now. I've never tried this before and I don't expect to get it my first try :)

OK so that didn't work at all :P

Maybe I'll figure it out sometime...

[Burnsaber]

So I also thought I would try my hand at sprite making for my sad little barbarian mod and decided to start with the nation flag. I had been using Foodstamp's Haida Gwai flag, which is nice, but a killer whale doesn't seem to do a roving band of plain dwelling barbarians justice. I will attempt to post the image of the flag I made now. I've never tried this before and I don't expect to get it my first try :)

OK so that didn't work at all :P

Maybe I'll figure it out sometime...

You have the image right?

You need to host the image in the interwebs so that you can show it on these forums.

I use http://xs.to , but there are many others.

Once you have succesfully uploaded your preview pick, find the "direct" link (the one that leads to completely empty page,expect for your image).

Then put that link between IMG-tags. You can quote a post with a image to see how the exact code is done.

[Burnsaber]

Remember how I promised to do something about the outdated spritedumps once I finished Holy War?

I've now come to make good of that promise. The attachment in this post contains spritedumps of all units in version 3.21, I also put in some updated graphics that were missing from the original spritedumps (like the new LA ermor Spectator & Elder sprites).

I also included a spritedump of all my graphics, since I really don't mind if someone wants to use them. I also welcome any modders to add their own pics in the dump, trust me, it won't take long (my pics took like ~15 minutes). Then just send me the updated dump and I'll upload it to the first post.

Putting your pics in the dump could be considered a sort of "permission" to use them for one's own means. That way the new modders wouldn't be too intimitated/confused about if they can alter a pic or have to pester any modders by constant requests of permissions.

[llamabeast]

I'm intrigued Burn, how do you make these?

[Burnsaber]

I'm intrigued Burn, how do you make these?

Actually I didn't make the orginal 8 dumps (1 to 8), they were originally online. I remember seeing the orginal link to them in some thread. I found them extremely useful, so I saved them on my computer. I used them to find sprites before EricM did his Organized Sprites.

I updated the dumps by hand (a'k'a opening the new dom3 pics in GIMP and copypasting them to the dump manually), don't know if the mystery author did the orginal pics manually, but it is plausible.

Actually, I probably should find the original author to give him some glory.

*forum search*

Damn. No luck. I simply can't find the orginal link. Should the real author read this, would you please stand up?

[llamabeast]

You should probably make a new thread for these anyway, lots of people would find them helpful and they're slightly hidden here.

[Edi]

Thread stickied.

[Trumanator]

Is there some sort of tutorial for GIMP? I am trying to make some sprites, and I am just completely befuddled by GIMP 2.0 ATM the most annoying thing is that I can't figure out how to deselect the whole pic so it isn't always trying to move it.

[Burnsaber]

If you want to remove selection, just draw a simple line with lasso, then it will select "nothing".

Also, there are a lot commands in the menu you get when you right-click on the image.

[Ballbarian]

Also, at the top of the image (in windows at least) there is a "Select->None" menu item, or you can hit Shift+Ctrl+A.

GIMP certainly takes some getting used to, but it is very slick once you start getting a feel for things.

[llamabeast]

It would only be trying to move it anyway if you had the drag tool selected. If you have the pencil selected it won't try to move anything. I think perhaps having the whole image selected is the default, but I've never noticed because I don't normally have the drag tool selected.

[mabelode]

Hi everybody, first post here, i would like to say that this thread is really useful, reading it gave me the envy to create my own nation.

I had almost used photoshop before ( except at school ) and i've never been gifted in any form of art but i think the sprites i've created are not so bad.

I've put all the sprites i created in the jpeg file attached to this post so anybody can see them and give me some advices.

On the methods i've used: it was a mix of altering sprites from the game, using parts of resized pictures and some things i did myself. Each sprite has already an history and a place in my nation but i still have to organize all my ideas and write it all.

[Burnsaber]

First of all, welcome to the forums! I'm glad that this thread proved of inspiration to you.

I have a small personal dislike for taking pics of the internet and resizing them, but no worries, that's just my personal preferance. When I comment on the pics I'll use numbering starting from the top left and going right starting back from the left at the second row.

1) His right leg looks odd from knee-down. It should probably go straight down instead of curving inside. Otherwise it looks nice. What did you use as a base, if I may ask?

2) His grip on the trident is odd. He's holding it like a praying mantis. Try holding a broom or something horizontally and you'll notice it too. You could also shade the trident shaft a bit. If you can fit two colors, you should use two colors. The robe could perhaps use some shading.

3) The shoulderpad on the right probably shouldn't be that dark. It creates the feeling that he's holding his left hand way behind his back. The heads a bit blurry too.

4) I like this guy. He seems to be facing backwards thought. I'd suggest mirroring him horizontally and giving him more of a facial features (hair? face?).

5) the robe could use some shading here. Also the shield is a bit blurry, can't really make out any patterns. Is that supposed to be writing? If so, cool. Just make the writing darker (to make it stand out more) and take some lines away. Also the blade is tad too thick. It looks like total.. overkill. You know, it's tad more ridicilious than badass. I like the chest.

6) The same blade thing applies here. Also the insignia in his chest armor doesn't really stand out. I'd make it smaller but brighter. remember that it doesn't have to be a real symbol, just seem like one.

7) Apparently machine of some sort. Looks pretty good.

8) Sword thickness is problem here too. His left arm is also a bit too dark.

9) Sword thickness and robe shading. Otherwise pretty cool

10) Chest insignia. The sword isn't as thick as other, but could perhaps use some trimming.

11) His chest looks odd, but can't really put my finger on why.. He also deosn't seem to have any grip on the staff. Where is his hand? I really like the robe.

12) That red spearish thing needs shading. As does his robe. His pose is very menancing, I like it.

13) Sorry to sound so harsh, but this one needs a great deal of work. His pose is all over the place and he seems out of focus. Also if the guy is using a heavy two-handed weapon, he should wield it two-handed, otherwise it just looks silly.

14) Now this is one scary guy. He could use some shading below his head. I can't really say where his chest armor ends and head begins. The grip on the sword also looks odd. Perhaps show some hilt?

15) Pretty good.

I may sound harsh, but remember my prejudice against internet sprites. It may have affected my judgement. But I promised to critizise and that I will do.

I'd explain in more detail, but I'm in rush to go drinking.

[mabelode]

First of all, welcome to the forums! I'm glad that this thread proved of inspiration to you.

I have a small personal dislike for taking pics of the internet and resizing them, but no worries, that's just my personal preferance.

Yeah i know that some people don't really like this method but i just take some parts of pictures, like an interesting helmet on a guy from a game, a good looking weapon in a drawing, never the entire picture.

When I comment on the pics I'll use numbering starting from the top left and going right starting back from the left at the second row.


1) His right leg looks odd from knee-down. It should probably go straight down instead of curving inside. Otherwise it looks nice. What did you use as a base, if I may ask?

The base is a rain priest from LA Mictlan, and the legs are already like that on the original sprite :happy:


2) His grip on the trident is odd. He's holding it like a praying mantis. Try holding a broom or something horizontally and you'll notice it too. You could also shade the trident shaft a bit. If you can fit two colors, you should use two colors. The robe could perhaps use some shading.

Shading of the robe: that's a thing i have to do on all my sprites with robes, i already try but i'm not good at it, i hope i will improve with time.

The grip of the trident and the trident's shaft: i did not see these details but i think you're absolutly right, i will work on that.

3) The shoulderpad on the right probably shouldn't be that dark. It creates the feeling that he's holding his left hand way behind his back. The heads a bit blurry too.

Will work on that

4) I like this guy. He seems to be facing backwards thought. I'd suggest mirroring him horizontally and giving him more of a facial features (hair? face?).

Personally i like the pose, i find it twisted and dynamic so i think it will stay like that.
For the face: the concept of the sprite is a guy trapped in an armor covering all of is body and also his face ( but of course you did not know :angel ) so no change needed.

5) the robe could use some shading here. Also the shield is a bit blurry, can't really make out any patterns. Is that supposed to be writing? If so, cool. Just make the writing darker (to make it stand out more) and take some lines away. Also the blade is tad too thick. It looks like total.. overkill. You know, it's tad more ridicilious than badass. I like the chest.

the blade: yeah, i wanted to make it big but i overdone it, will fix it

The shield: it is actually not writing, just some sort of texture but the writing idea is cool, i'll try to do it!

6) The same blade thing applies here. Also the insignia in his chest armor doesn't really stand out. I'd make it smaller but brighter. remember that it doesn't have to be a real symbol, just seem like one.

Will work on the chest but i like the blade.

7) Apparently machine of some sort. Looks pretty good.

In fact, that's a huge beast recovered with an even more huge armor but yeah it looks like a machine. But i already worked on that ( see the picture attached to this post)

8) Sword thickness is problem here too. His left arm is also a bit too dark.

Will fix that

9) Sword thickness and robe shading. Otherwise pretty cool

10) Chest insignia. The sword isn't as thick as other, but could perhaps use some trimming.

11) His chest looks odd, but can't really put my finger on why.. He also deosn't seem to have any grip on the staff. Where is his hand? I really like the robe.

did not realize his lack of a right hand, it will be fixed.

12) That red spearish thing needs shading. As does his robe. His pose is very menancing, I like it.


13) Sorry to sound so harsh, but this one needs a great deal of work. His pose is all over the place and he seems out of focus. Also if the guy is using a heavy two-handed weapon, he should wield it two-handed, otherwise it just looks silly.

I think i will change his pose to make him hold his weapon with two hands.



14) Now this is one scary guy. He could use some shading below his head. I can't really say where his chest armor ends and head begins. The grip on the sword also looks odd. Perhaps show some hilt?

Shading and a hilt, good ideas.
And he better be scary, he is the big badass leader of my nation ;)

15) Pretty good.

Thanks ( he is my nation's pretender)

I may sound harsh, but remember my prejudice against internet sprites. It may have affected my judgement. But I promised to critizise and that I will do.

That was not harsh at all don't worry, just some honest and constructive criticism and that's what i wanted :)

I'd explain in more detail, but I'm in rush to go drinking.

Attached to this post is the picture of my sprites but with a changed armored beast looking less robotic and a new guy that i just finished.
Oh and sorry if my english is not perfect but it is not my first langage, hope nobody is gonna hate me for that.

[mabelode]

Sorry to double post but i did not find way to edit my precedent post.

Here is, attached, the picture with all of the sprites modified, and most of the problems fixed, still have to work on the robes shadings.

[Burnsaber]

Yeah, the blades look a lot better now. I especially now like the number 5 now. The robes could use a tad more shading still (when shading areas larger than 20 pixels, you should use at least 5 different shades of a color). I've just started experimenting with a techinque to use the "smudge" tool for shading. Results have been great, I'll probably make a pictured tutorial of it this weekend.

But anyways, here are some nitpicks.

12) I see you gave him the hand on the staff, but you overdid it. Should his hand be behind the staff with his fingers around the staff? Now it looks like his hand in front of the staff.

14) The two-handed grip is a lot better, but I think that his left shoulderpad is too close to his head, there probably should be some backround to separate them.

But anyways, these look a lot better than the first version. Keep up the good work! What kind of nation are you doing, by the way?

[mabelode]

Yeah, the blades look a lot better now. I especially now like the number 5 now. The robes could use a tad more shading still (when shading areas larger than 20 pixels, you should use at least 5 different shades of a color). I've just started experimenting with a techinque to use the "smudge" tool for shading. Results have been great, I'll probably make a pictured tutorial of it this weekend.

But anyways, here are some nitpicks.

12) I see you gave him the hand on the staff, but you overdid it. Should his hand be behind the staff with his fingers around the staff? Now it looks like his hand in front of the staff.

14) The two-handed grip is a lot better, but I think that his left shoulderpad is too close to his head, there probably should be some backround to separate them.

But anyways, these look a lot better than the first version. Keep up the good work! What kind of nation are you doing, by the way?

My idea is a nation that use magic crystals to make their weapons and other things. These crystals are only in some rare obscure caverns. So the has evolved around these caverns, building their cities on top of them to easily use and protect the crystals.

There are three styles of troops:
-Mostly heavily armored humans
-weak little amphibian grey creatures
-some huge beasts

The weakness of the nation will be: almost no ranged weapons, costly troops, no stealthy units except for one hero and limited magic ( water, earth and nothing else except for one hero )

I still have to develop some things but this give you a little idea of what will be this nation.

Since yesterday i've made new sprites, i think that i have all the units i need now, just have to do the attack sprites.

[BandarLover]

These look very good mabelode! I've no real critique on the pics themselves, Burn hit on everything that needs to be fixed but I love the stylized look you gave them. Kind of reminds me of some of Amos' mods.

My only question is, What the hell is the giant blue summon thing?! It will haunt my dreams, what ever the hell it is. :D

Good job!!

[mabelode]

These look very good mabelode! I've no real critique on the pics themselves, Burn hit on everything that needs to be fixed but I love the stylized look you gave them. Kind of reminds me of some of Amos' mods.

Thank you! I have a bunch of mods made by amos and i must say that his style was an inspiration.

My only question is, What the hell is the giant blue summon thing?! It will haunt my dreams, what ever the hell it is. :D

It will be a late game water magic summon, some huge aquatic monster :)

Good job!!

I've attached a picture with the latest things i've done: some color changes and a new unit.

[Sombre]

Really does look like the same style Amos used.

[lch]

The images from the tutorial are gone! :cry:

[Burnsaber]

The images from the tutorial are gone! :cry:

Hmm. It seems that xs.to has failed me. I'll upload the images to imageshack and fix the links when I have the time.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Ballbarian]

Why not just host them here? Use your user profile photo albums, or if that is not possible, shoot me a pm.

[Burnsaber]

Why not just host them here? Use your user profile photo albums, or if that is not possible, shoot me a pm.

Whoa, I can do that? You learn something new everyday.

[Burnsaber]

Ok, just to educate everyone who is just as oblivilious as me a week ago. Apparently everyone has a "album" in his user profile. You should upload your preview picks and stuff there, you know, just in case that your "reliable" hosting site decides to switch servers and replaces all old images with ads for the new server.

Anyways, pictures are up again.

[llamabeast]

The longdead sprites were changed since 3.21 (3.24 perhaps?), but until now the sprites were not available. Since they are a fantastic starting point for anyone wanted to make any undead units, I've managed to extract them, using a program written by the legendary lch. For future convenience, I've abused my modding powers to add them Burnsaber's first post in this thread, along with the rest of the sprites.