Creating character help - Sprites issue

[Blacksaiyen]

Hi guys, I really hope that you'll be able to help me, 'cause I've been reading tutos on 10 different sites for days (which means an amount of several hours... no joke) and I'm still lost. I gave up twice 'cause I'm not patient enough (I'm working on it  ^^), but since Acey, Scar, Apoc, Buyog, Loganir & Beximus etc can make it, there's no reason I can't. And damn, it's time to give back what I've been given, dammit ! 

*My 1st question is, considering that you want to make an original character (let's take The Punisher as an example), is there a way to apply the changes you've made on an existing sprite (= Cable STANDING + new gun design + skull on the clothes + new colours indexed etc) to all the others (= the rest of Cable's existing sprites) without doing it manually, sprite by sprite

*The 2nd question is concerning the shading. Can you apply an unique colour (for example light blue) to a clothe or to any part of a character when u make a new sprite, considering that you'll see different level of that colour (light blue, dark blue, black etc) when you'll focus on the shading part

Any help (as few as it can be) would be appreciated, but please, in order not to waste your time answering to some new questions, try not to use any 'barbarian' word, my knowledge in creating is newbish ('til the day when I made something and understood how it works).
Thanks in advance 

PS : I'm afraid that your answers might ruin my day............................

[aPoCaLyPsE]

Hi guys, I really hope that you'll be able to help me, 'cause I've been reading tutos on 10 different sites for days (which means an amount of several hours... no joke) and I'm still lost. I gave up twice 'cause I'm not patient enough (I'm working on it  ^^), but since Acey, Scar, Apoc, Buyog, Loganir & Beximus etc can make it, there's no reason I can't. And damn, it's time to give back what I've been given, dammit ! 

*My 1st question is, considering that you want to make an original character (let's take The Punisher as an example), is there a way to apply the changes you've made on an existing sprite (= Cable STANDING + new gun design + skull on the clothes + new colours indexed etc) to all the others (= the rest of Cable's existing sprites) without doing it manually, sprite by sprite

*The 2nd question is concerning the shading. Can you apply an unique colour (for example light blue) to a clothe or to any part of a character when u make a new sprite, considering that you'll see different level of that colour (light blue, dark blue, black etc) when you'll focus on the shading part

Hello BlackSaiyen.

1.) If your asking to edit over my character, I'd have to say  I got way too much time attached to it... but if your asking as if you had a cable spritesheet and wanted to adapt the colors without having to do them one at a time, you could do it using Photoshop by indexing colors and "group spriting" them. But if your only using Paint, it's one by one..
 
2.) Yeh, just offset them as two similar shades of blue and alter it when you make addition pallettes.

-"aPoC."

[Blacksaiyen]

Thx Apoc for your answer ; however I'll have to make some points clearer (I thought they were, but, hmm, nevermind).

1. Don't worry, I'm not planning to ruin your efforts with a crappy edit etc, I simply needed an example to illustrate what I said (so that it was easier to understand my both questions and answer them). I could have talken about Urien, Ralph, Ky Kiske or whoever else.
=> The question isn't fully answered yet ; I've read about the fact that you can use a homemade script in Photoshop to modify several pics fast (correct me if I'm wrong) BUT what about the rest of the things you've added (additional clothes, weapons, etc) ? How can u add them to the other images without doing it picture by picture ??

2. I didn't understand, sorry. At the moment I need to know if (same example, don't feel offended xD) ... :
- ... you could have made all your Punisher sprites with only 3 colours (white, black & skin mostly, AND NOT 3 different black, white, grey, etc from the 1st pic !!!!) and take care of the shading later (I'll come back another day for that next stage)
- ... OR if you had to put the definitive shades on the 1st pic you've worked on and THEN applied the same modifications using the "group spriting" action (or whatever it consists in) to the other pics.

[Blacksaiyen]

THen, can't anyone help me ?   

[ZVitor]

is there a way to apply the changes you've made on an existing sprite, without doing it manually, sprite by sprite
.....
 How can u add them to the other images without doing it picture by picture ??

i dont know if have some thing to do that, but i like to work pixel by pixel in paint with zoom 6x or 8x , is therapeutic to me, make me tink about a lot of things

[aPoCaLyPsE]

Thx Apoc for your answer ; however I'll have to make some points clearer (I thought they were, but, hmm, nevermind).

1. Don't worry, I'm not planning to ruin your efforts with a crappy edit etc, I simply needed an example to illustrate what I said (so that it was easier to understand my both questions and answer them). I could have talken about Urien, Ralph, Ky Kiske or whoever else.
=> The question isn't fully answered yet ; I've read about the fact that you can use a homemade script in Photoshop to modify several pics fast (correct me if I'm wrong) BUT what about the rest of the things you've added (additional clothes, weapons, etc) ? How can u add them to the other images without doing it picture by picture ??

Hm... I highly doubt thats possible but if I'm mistaken, someone please correct me and introduce me to this method. Yes, you can modify multiple sprites at once, in fact thats how I sprite most all my characters out, by the grouping (all punches, then all kicks, all jumps, all gethits etc.) but as for additional editing like adding a knife in hand or a different style shirt, thats all picture by picture. You come to find out just how detailed a creator can be when you pay attention to the minor details like as such to a character.

Take my Punisher/Cable base and the skull printed suit for example.
(Sorry, it's a very old screenshot)



From it's consistantecy, to the proporsion, to the fit, and perspective; I've handdrawn every single skull on the character and only sample the skull from a previously made sprite about less the 20%, do to the fact that I didn't wanna resize or do much on touch-ups. As for the Blue Cable suit to a black Punisher Suit, unfortunantly, i wasn't aware of how to group sprite like i do now, and I even went as far as making the suit picture by picture and pixal by pixal; means "0" indexing, all MsPaint. It was and kinda is a pain but it's the little things that make a big difference in Mugen.

2. I didn't understand, sorry. At the moment I need to know if (same example, don't feel offended xD) ... :
- ... you could have made all your Punisher sprites with only 3 colours (white, black & skin mostly, AND NOT 3 different black, white, grey, etc from the 1st pic !!!!) and take care of the shading later (I'll come back another day for that next stage)
- ... OR if you had to put the definitive shades on the 1st pic you've worked on and THEN applied the same modifications using the "group spriting" action (or whatever it consists in) to the other pics.

You kinda lost me on this one...I suppose both of those could work, I made my Punisher with your 2nd Option.. i think. It's more then 3 main colors, it's about 4 shades of Black (highlight black or lightest black color, filler black or 2nd lightest, Shadow Black or 3rd lightest color, liner black or darkest black color), plus the same for the whites and the skin tones, with 3 tone shades (that are separate from the suit colors for more pallette options) for the gun and hair... about 27-30ish colors in the pallette give or take. All the color you use in your first sprite should always be carried over to the remaining sprites otherwise creating can be a nightmare. I hope i covered it enough for ya

-"aPoC."

[Blacksaiyen]

Thank you so much, both of you !  I'll try to wok according to these tips, then. ++