Tutorial - A 2nd way to make Custom Sprites

Hello there ! Welcome to Sunder4321's tutorial on how to make Custom Sprites my way.

NOTES BEFORE STARTING:

• You're gonna need to have an image editor software for this. Right now I'm using Paint.net which is my default image editor, but you can use other, more familiar image editors (examples are Photoshop or GIMP).
• This tutorial is a bit more challenging because it will include custom-painting. For an easier sprite tutorial, go here. I also suggest you read that first before reading this because it will give you more insight.
• To be able to finish an actual sprite, you're gonna need self-confidence. :p No, seriously. If you think you don't have the capability of making a sprite (which is always not true), just have self-confidence.
• There are some optional steps in this tutorial, so just skip them if you don't really want to do them.

Step 1: Choosing the character

So if you have all the requirements above done, we need to choose a character. Since we'll be doing custom-painting, it's fine to experiment and go crazy with the character, either a monster with a dog's face or My Little Pony. I'll be doing Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars franchise today. We should now get images from the internet for reference:

http://i.imgur.com/KV7a1Gf.png

Optional: Sketching out how we want the sprite to look like

This is an optional step so you don't actually have to do it as explained above. We're going to sketch out the pose and proportions of the sprite, so that we can use it as a guide while making the base later. If you're not the artistic type, just draw a stickman.

http://i.imgur.com/7Cf5Gfh.png

Its a bit hard drawing the same style as real M:AA artists, so I suggest choosing a pose from an actual M:AA sprite or an image online as a guide.

Step 2: Choosing in-game bases

We'll now choose in-game sprite parts so that it looks like M:AA sprites and not just random artwork. Go to Spriters' Resource website (the link is in Loupi's tutorial) and do some exploring there. Now choose the parts that fit into the sketch perfectly, and as much as possible, have the similarities of what the character looks like.

http://i.imgur.com/KOuQ4ec.png

I went with Cap Marvel's head because it looks young and it has a similar hairstyle to Luke's. And I know Captain Marvel is a girl but the head looks like a boy to me when manipulated properly. I also went with Shatterstar's torso because it has loose cloth like Luke's robe. We'll decide on the legs later.

Step 3: Painting it!

This is where the painting comes in. You must have already known about Hues/Saturation thanks to Loupi's tutorial, so I won't talk about that too much.

Step3a: Head

So we just paint the head first. We'll manipulate the head by covering the head with a paint over the face. Do this coverage in another layer so it won't destroy the face.

http://i.imgur.com/mtGNy6d.png

Now we can erase some of the painting coverage in the second layer so we can see the parts of the face from the first layer and start there.

http://i.imgur.com/xj2kHje.png

It looks weird for now but we'll adjust the colors so that it will be balanced. Now we select a darker colored beige using the eyedropper tool and lessen it's opacity. We can now make it balanced and add some other details, like with the teeth showing better.

http://i.imgur.com/SnqJcUh.png

Now let's do the hair. Like I said awhile ago, you should know by now about Hues and Saturation. We'll make the hair a blondish brown and remove excess hair.

http://i.imgur.com/uIKwWh0.png

Then just paint even more hair and adjust the hair and head a bit until it looks good to you.

http://i.imgur.com/4wdpuq5.png

It looks good to me, so I'll set it aside and start with his body.

Step 3b: Torso

Okay, so let's start with this torso using Shatterstar's torso as a base. I like the fact that Shatterstar's torso looks very similar to Luke's. It's white, has hanging cloth, and it has a belt that's similar to Luke's belt! So why not use it? We make a new document and add the torso.

http://i.imgur.com/izmsU7C.png

Now let's paint, paint, paint! So let's color in the torso with a plain color in a new layer like what we did with the face, get a darker color, and make fabric lines. Make the color dark because for some reason, M:AA sprite art has very light and very dark mixing well together, and if its just a bit darker kind of color, it won't really look like M:AA. Not to mention the white lighting in the edges.

http://i.imgur.com/7z4kWST.png

Here's the finished torso:

http://i.imgur.com/wDL5N7k.png

I erased some of Shatterstar's torso so that it looks more thin. Then we'll just paint a neck by using eyedropper tool from the face and make a gradient with a much darker beige like before.

Step 4: Finishing it off

So I used Maximus The Mad's legs cuz they're casually standing and I like that. I feel like I shouldn't really do a seperate section on the legs because you get the idea from the head and torso.

http://i.imgur.com/ZWuMU1U.png

Right now Luke has no lightsaber and wears metal pants, so let's tweak it.

http://i.imgur.com/npGqTCp.png

It's finally finished! The boots are just a recoloring of the legs and adding darker lines. The lightsaber is Mockingbird's poles or sticks or whatever you call them. I made them silver using Brightness/Contrast. Then I just used Psylocke's sword as a base for the lightsaber. See how these separate pieces can help us construct our sprite?

Optional: Lighting

For some extra quality, let's add some lighting. Wynter taught it to me (in the most briefest way possible) so kudos to him. It really depends on what image editor you use. If you have Photoshop, again, go to Loupi's tutorial about mask layering, and do the same to this but just mask the edges that's closer to the lightsaber or anything else that is causing the lighting, then change the Hues and Saturation of that layer with any color (depends on the thing causing the lighting again). If you're using anything else such as Paint.net (this is the method I do), I simply duplicate the layer and erase all the parts but not the edges. Then I color that layer light blue and maybe adjust the layer's brightness. I don't really know much about GIMP but I guess it has similarities to these two methods.

http://i.imgur.com/YnfWaDi.png

Thanks for reading! I hope you picked up something from this tutorial (and maybe something from Loupi's tutorial, too). See you next time!