creatures caves welcome, guest
downloads   gallery   dev   community   creatchi   forum   mycaves
ccsf | links | advice | chat | polls | resources | post

Setting Up For Breed Spriting: Step 1   Development   Spykkie | 7/15/2013  log in to like post  4

updated7/15/2013
How to find the base sprites you need to start work on your new breed, and the first steps to setting things up!

Hey guys, though I'd share some breed making info to make the job easier for all the aspiring breed makers out there!

When I make a breed that is physically comparable to normal norns, I actually use chichi sprites as a base. But finding them in the ever bloated image folder can be a tedious task of it's own... So here's how I do it now.

First:
Go into your game's image folder (while the game is not running) and look for the kind of sprites you need.

How to find the right sprites:
The easiest way of finding the breed you're looking for is to look at the head sprites list one by one with the help of sprite builder or a similar programm. All breeds have heads, and you can usually tell them apart using those. a00a, a00b, a00c, a00d- ah! we found ourselves a chichi! Indeed, chichis are DS breed slot D.

Quick tip:
a00b.c16 = bodypart+gender+age+breed.c16
Head of male baby Chichi norn: a00b.c16

Sorting out the right sprites:
So now that we've found the name of the breed... whadoowedoo? Cherry pick the sprites one by one- WRONG. That process is terribly time consuming and disheartening when you're eager to work on your new breed!

Instead, find the search function on your window. I have a small search bar at the top right of every window, I use that to make my search for me. And here's how!

We know that we want a chichi and chichis are breed slot D. We know this because we found the baby male chichi head, a00d.c16

if we want every baby bodypart sprite sheet, we can make a search like this in the search bar: *00d.c16
* = anything. If you don't include it, the system will only look for a file named 00d.c16 and find nothing.

If you want to find all the chichi sprites for all ages, the search looks like this: *d.c16
Anything that ends in d.c16 in the image folder you was currently searching in will come up, thus you'll have your entire breed sprites list for the chichi breed.

This type of searching also works great for att searches.

Not being a doofus:
Now that you've found your base/reference breed, select all those files and make a copy of them in a folder somewhere on your computer. Those will serve as a safety back-up for later... because having to reinstall the game to get your chichis back to normal once you're done with your in game sprite testing and are moving on to other parts of breed making, is also needlessly tedious! What doofus would even do that?
...*raises guilty hand*
Learn from my mistakes, folks. Make back-ups before you start.

It's also a good safety precaution in case your screw something up on accident, especially if you're working the atts. So always make safety back up copies of the original files before you start messing with them.

The end! [nlaugh]

 
 
Spykkie | 7/16/2013  log in to like post

I thought having them together would be easier, but i suppose if someone is skipping step 1, they won't find it. >.<;

If it's not too much trouble, we could make it a separate resource.

I'm having a hard time finding them in my favorites though, maybe I'm just looking for it wrong. XD;
 
Jessica | 7/16/2013  log in to like post

Would you rather have the second step as a separate resource article, rather than a comment? Might be easier to locate for people seeking this information!
 
Spykkie | 7/16/2013  log in to like post

Setting Up For Breed Spriting: Step 2

You've found and copied the base sprites you need, now what?

Important: This method uses with a layer-capable art program.

Cracking a sprite sheet open:
So now that you have your base sprites, you want to mess with the contents, but how?
Programs like sprite builder may have an export option built in, but I find working on 1 sprite at a time tedious. And we're not here for tedium, we're here to have fun and create!

-Open the sprite sheet you want to work on.
-Change the size of the sheet's window until you have nice rows of 4 sprites.
-Take a screen capture of your screen (there's usually a keyboard button for that).
-Open your art program, open a new document, and paste your screen capture in it.

You should now have a nice flat image of a few rows of 4 sprites from your sprite sheet.
Parts like hips and feet can fit the whole sheet in one screencap! Only the long files of the body and head are more difficult.


The blanket:
I've struggled with floating pixels in the past. So many floating pixels, in fact, that I just had to find a way around them, because back tracking to remove invisible blemishes is tedious.
Here's what I do:

Quick Tip:
Layer 1 Black blanket
Layer 2 Colour
Layer 3 Base Sprite


I paste my sprites screencap on the bottom layer (Layer 3), then I use the select tool to select the black around the sprites. The chichi sprites are already clean cut, so copy and paste the blackness on a layer above (Layer 1) and if you make the base layer invisible, you're left with the perfect sprite size with a perfect hole in the middle in the shape of an arm or something.

Then make another layer in between (Layer 2) and colour your new part in, using the base part as reference for lights and shadows.

If you need to change the shape of the hole... well, just do it!
You can use the eraser tool in pencil mode to remove clean cut pixels.
Remove the pixels you don't need and change the hole shape to what your new breed needs!

Exporting:
This part can't really be simplified. To export all the images once they are done, I select the first sprite, copy it, create a new document of the right size, and paste it in. if the document is the right size and i didn't accidentally pick up anything unwanted (like the outside of the sprite) then i use the same selection shape and do the same copy pasting for all the sprites onto the same document. The sprites of a same type in C3/DS are all in the same size of black box which makes things easier.

Once all the sprites are in the proper sized document, I export them one by one as BMP files. Then use sprite builder to import them into the sprite sheet file I'm working on.

Thanks to the blanket method, I've stopped having to struggle and back track due to floating pixels.
It saves me a ton of time and frustration, so I can keep spriting.


downloads
cobs
adoptions
creaturelink
metarooms
breeds
 
gallery
art
wallpaper
screenshots
graphics
promos
sprites
dev
hack shack
script reservations
dev resources
active projects
dev forum
 
community
links
advice
chat
polls
resources
creatchi
 
forum
bookmarks
general
news
help
development
strangeo
survivor
mycaves
log in
register
lost pw
0 online
creatures caves is your #1 resource for the creatures artificial life game series: creatures, creatures 2, creatures 3, docking station, and the upcoming creatures family.

contact    help    privacy policy    terms & conditions    rules    donate    wiki