Sprite Creation Tools / Methods

FUBAR

FUBAR

First time out of the vault
:help:

A few weeks ago I began banging my head against Sprite Creator, creating custom weapon sprites with this method:
Simple sprite tutorial


About a year ago I successfully used this tool, and after considerably less trial-and-error, was doing so again. However, there is a persistent issue I cannot resolve, one that has only begun plaguing me whilst making sprites in quantity.

For some reason Sprite Creator simply does not like specific images, in particular the big/small GUI images. What is so odd about this is that the ground images import perfectly fine; these are the exact same image, created alongside their counterparts, converted and saved exactly the same. Yet, the larger images sometimes provoke a message declaring "Too many colours in Layer's palette!". Worst is that this error doesn't manifest until the last steps, and I've a growing folder of nigh completed sprites; I'm tired of this effort wasted..

I've restarted the process with these images, double checking every step, even attempting slightly smaller versions. No dice, at least not without colouring the whole damn image one solid colour. If a sprite decides it's not going to work, I either find another image, or omit the addition entirely.

This has grown from moderately bothersome, to broken-mouse irritating. At this point, I'm either wasting my modding time chasing this goose, or I'm hoping like hell the image I'm working over isn't a dud. My skull is rather sore at this point...:wall:

So.. I'm wondering what other tools and/or methods others ::cough::nadeauhugo::cough:: might have for creating simple sprites, particularly techniques to speed production. Any and all advice is welcome.
 
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Oh I have something right here that I'm sure you'll LOVE to use! And it is about time I release that! With it, I can make a sprite in a minute and it is so simple I don't even care on keeping backups on any sprites. I just keep original hi-resolution .PSD or .PNG of my items and remake them from scratch if I need to.

Since I managed to figure out how to do decent sprites, I started working on Photoshop Actions (automated scripts) to save some time and get less display and Sprite Editor errors when doing sprites. And now I have some scripts that can create a Import-ready BIG and SMALL .BMP on the desktop from a single button. The original file just have to be the way you want to see it in the game. I think my actions works with any recent Photoshop version, like CS and later. You may experience a bug with the path to the Desktop (my Windows is in french) but I explain how to change the path in the Readme file.

Here is the link! Feel free to use, change and share the action pack as you wish!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/thesum/addons/the-sum-tools-10-photoshop-actions-pack

Oh, and regarding the sprites and the "Too many colors" bug, I think this is because BIG image mostly use ALL 256 colors of the palette. So from the moment you add a .bmp to Sprite Editor and then try to add the BIG image, if it does not have the exact same palette, there are more than 256 colors on the image and you get the bug. And maybe, just maybe, the Ground image (because it can be almost any size) use another set of 256 colors. If not, the bug don't happen with ground image because it is normally so small that it only use some of the palette colors and there a still a lot of space left for another image.
 
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Yeah...the same mod...the sum.

I don't know i wanted to create some tiles but redviewer is giving me errors when tryin' to open it.
Also i can't do anything with sprite creators it won't let me making sprites

Reason:it needs some 256 color idk...in any cases it gives me error.
 
For myself I just have problem making animated tiles with redviewer . Trying to make them result in loosing some colors on each frame, so the more frame I use, the worst the colors gets! First image is clean, second is ugly, third look like ghoul shit and so on...

Using my action pack with your version of Photoshop AbullSinCara, you will not have to care about the 256 colors problem anymore I guess! The action will automatically put your image to the right 256 colors palette, switch back to RBG and then save as a .BMP with an automatic CHANNEL on your desktop. Only have to import them to Sprite Editor and Voilà!
 
OK, I'm home, I'm awake, and I've time to post. Maybe a nap first... :zzz:

This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you again, Hugo!

Now that I've had time to play with it, it is functioning more or less fine; just a few compatibility issues with CS. The action string "CREER FOND" won't run, and it's beyond my knowledge quite why.. aside from that, CS has a small triangle in the corner of it's action window, and anyone else using CS needs to find that little menu to load the actions.

This is great, it's like you said, there's no longer a need to keep multiple back ups even! Quick, easy, love it! :grin:

I'm actually looking at a new (relatively speaking) computer in the next few weeks, and in the spirit of needing to reinstall software, what version of photoshop are you using?

Also, Hugo, take a look at this: Last Winter Survival RPG

Edit: Hah.. Silly bugger's hid the free demo here: Get your Last Winter Survival Game here!!
 
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Hi again! Sorry for the delay,

It's strange, CRÉER FOND works on my computer. Sometimes some actions don't work because of many reasons, like the layer is the background layer and it is locked, or the layer don't have the right name, or it is not visible, or more than one layer is selected, or many many other things. Hard to tell why the action don't work on your computer. But I don't think it is broken. This actions simply duplicate the layer some times and get it behind the current layer and bigger, so there is no white border ingame.

Tell me if you manage to get something done out of it, or if somebody is able to make it 100% work. Or I will try to update a new, more usable version.

I am using CS5.1 (64bit) and CS5.5 on my Mac. I'll say just grab a copy of CS4 or higher, you'll have something great to work with I am sure.

And Woh that game is really strange! It seems to be translated from french to english because sometimes I see french terms appearing. I'll try to get my hands on the french version. I never seen something like that. It's really something! I find it hard to have a clue on what to do or see some landscape (I guess there are none), but when you get used to it it must be easy to get the rights items to do the right actions. Thanks for the link! I found a thing called Neo Scavenger a while ago and I really liked it. It is very intuitive and you can make a lot of crafting, hunt and get all kind of medical problems and scars, it is verry nice! I guess a lot of my ideas come from it. http://store.steampowered.com/app/248860
 
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