Size Tutorial
- What I use is a 16x16 grid square and this will be one of the few sets (because the hair is rather large, that I'll be going with a 4x4 scale. Which mean's it'll be 4 16x16 boxes up, and across as seen here. In basic terms, it's 64 pixels up and 64 pixels across, OR (if I did my math right) a total of 1024 pixels.)
- The typical sprite that most people will be using is a 3x2 scale. Which is 3 Up and 2 across, as shown here. Either one is easy to use for RPG Maker XP, as it recognizes either size automatically, so no modification is needed!
Shading Tutorial
- Just a quick sample of how shading is your best friend. I usually fill out my outline with a solid color, AFTER I put in two different darker colors to represent a base line of where my shadowing goes. Then I add the third darker shade to make it pop out better. One thing you don't want to do, is CLOUD SHADING, which is basically repeating the outline and getting lighter shading toward the center. It looks bad, it feels out of place, and many sprite artists starting out will fall into doing this. Trust me, it's a type of behavior that you have to practice getting out of. Instead, determine where your light source is going to be, and build around that. See the diagram below, the one on the left is a prime example of Cloud Shading, where as the one on the right is the proper way to shade. (granted the coloring isn't that great, but it's 2AM here.)
- This applies to skin tones, clothing sets... pretty much everything, shading is meant to show depth, texture, and light source all rolled into one. It makes or breaks many sprites and animation sets. The diagram below shows how this is done correctly, the one on the right, shows the first stage. Fill out your outline with two colors, the first is your first line of shading, usually to bring out the outline, and then fill it with your main lightest color. This helps in the long run because you'll get a sense of what the eventual sprite will look like. Finally, add your 4th and hopefully final color, typically I don't use more than five colors for a single type of object, (ie clothes, skin tones, ect.) Remember that shading also represents texture, such as is seen in these clothes.
That's it for now, lots more to come. =3