Fastest way to build player spritesheet?

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 5:21 am

I am currently working on building my own version of Birdo, as Shocker's lacks overworld sprites, and some of the in-game sprites appear to have been "rushed" (such as the "pipe entry/exit" sprites). I've already nearly completed the initial spritesheet (contained within a file ripped from Super Mario All-Stars), but I'm not exactly sure of the next step (how to turn a set of sprites into an actual playable character in SMBX).

I've downloaded several freeware pixel-art programs, but they each seem to have some, um, issues:

Piskel appears to be somewhat limited in terms of features (have to actually BUY certain plugins in order to achieve full functionality)

GIMP takes FOREVER to load, even on my laptop. Even worse...it seems to load, then just...hang, forcing me to "kill" it (it won't close willingly).

Piq (or whatever it's called) seems to require a specific file extension (can't simply import existing .gif, .bmp, .jpg or .png files)

Paint.NET is another "slow starter", and also has a somewhat clunky interface.

I'm not even going to bother with Photoshop, Graphics Gale (which you have to BUY in order to even open .gif files), or Aseprite (I remember this one being free, but it seems you have to pay at least 10 bucks now).

I'm looking for a freeware pixel-art program that has an easy-to-learn, intuitive interface, and with a lot of useful features (such as unlimited undo/redo).

PixelPest · Postby **PixelPest** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 8:01 am

Use Paint.NET. It is by far the easiest to learn, the best for pixel art, and easily customizable (many additional add-ons). I find it really fast to load and very user friendly. The interface is very well organized and the program itself is very stable.

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 8:14 am

Paint.net actually loads really quickly. I have a million plugins installed and it takes like 5 seconds. Compare with photoshop which takes 30.

The thing you have to keep in mind with playable characters is that the spritesheet is a 100x100 pixel grid, and the player is put at the top left corner of each square. With this tool, however, you can place them anywhere in each square, and even adjust the hitbox.

HenryRichard · Postby **HenryRichard** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 12:51 pm

I've used GIMP to make several custom playable characters, but maybe your computer just can't handle it.

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 3:09 pm

I've created the first of what will be literally dozens of customized Birdo sprites (most of which will be simple palette swaps of the standard Birdo sprites (roughly 32x64 via resizing).

The main thing that is going to take forever is placing the individual sprites in the correct position on the 1000x1000 sheet. I already know to place individual sprites at the top left corner of their respective 100x100 fields, but I believe the trick is going to be using a bright background for each individual sprite, then a black background for the 1000x1000 square. After the sprites are correctly placed, then change their backgrounds to match that of the 1000x1000 field. It will be like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle...only you have to MAKE the pieces first. :p

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:09 pm

xirtamehtsitahw wrote:I've created the first of what will be literally dozens of customized Birdo sprites (most of which will be simple palette swaps of the standard Birdo sprites (roughly 32x64 via resizing).

The main thing that is going to take forever is placing the individual sprites in the correct position on the 1000x1000 sheet. I already know to place individual sprites at the top left corner of their respective 100x100 fields, but I believe the trick is going to be using a bright background for each individual sprite, then a black background for the 1000x1000 square. After the sprites are correctly placed, then change their backgrounds to match that of the 1000x1000 field. It will be like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle...only you have to MAKE the pieces first. :p

You can place them anywhere in the 100x100 squares if you have LunaLua, using this tool http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... =69&t=6180

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 7:47 pm

The issue is in building a proper 1000x1000 matrix (featuring a checkerboard pattern so as to prevent "sprite bleedover") on which to cut-and-paste sprites.

I may have to use Paint.net for that, as Irfanview seems rather finicky when trying to build the proper sized squares (for the checkerboard).

FanofSMBX · Postby **FanofSMBX** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 9:37 pm

What I do is give the sprite sheet I'm ripping from a black background, then match up the top-left corner on the pasted sprite with the original sprite.

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:47 pm

I discovered a really handy player-spritesheet template, complete with red-and-green checkerboard, amongst the huge mountain of graphics that is the Community GFX database download. This will REALLY come in handy when it comes to building a decent Birdo player character. There's STILL one question: how do I set up a collection of sprites for Birdo's map movement? I know that you do the front frames, then left, then right, then back, but what size should I make them? And, does it depend on the episode, as to what size the map sprites are allowed to be?

Emral · Postby **Emral** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 5:54 pm

xirtamehtsitahw wrote:I discovered a really handy player-spritesheet template, complete with red-and-green checkerboard, amongst the huge mountain of graphics that is the Community GFX database download. This will REALLY come in handy when it comes to building a decent Birdo player character. There's STILL one question: how do I set up a collection of sprites for Birdo's map movement? I know that you do the front frames, then left, then right, then back, but what size should I make them? And, does it depend on the episode, as to what size the map sprites are allowed to be?

32x32 per frame. Can probably be changed with LunaLua.

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:19 pm

How on Earth does LunaLua even work? It appears to be some sort of add-on to a compatible build of SMBX. Other than that, I have no idea how to "use" it. All I keep hearing is "if you use LunaLua", "LunaLua might help with that", and other such things, but no mention on how to actually USE the program/patch/whatever. And, I don't want to have to spend possibly hours digging through the mountains of Help & Support topics to try to find even a smidgen of information VERY deeply buried on, like, the 50th page or so. I apologize for my impatience and seeming neediness, but the more I can learn in a short amount of time (with minimal frustration), the better.

HenryRichard · Postby **HenryRichard** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:47 pm

xirtamehtsitahw wrote:How on Earth does LunaLua even work? It appears to be some sort of add-on to a compatible build of SMBX. Other than that, I have no idea how to "use" it. All I keep hearing is "if you use LunaLua", "LunaLua might help with that", and other such things, but no mention on how to actually USE the program/patch/whatever. And, I don't want to have to spend possibly hours digging through the mountains of Help & Support topics to try to find even a smidgen of information VERY deeply buried on, like, the 50th page or so. I apologize for my impatience and seeming neediness, but the more I can learn in a short amount of time (with minimal frustration), the better.

http://engine.wohlnet.ru/pgewiki/Category:LunaLua_API

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:47 pm

The link you posted keeps timing out due to engine.wohlnet.ru taking a VERY poorly-timed sabbatical. Is there an alternate site where the information you intended to link me to is stored? If not, there SHOULD be, in case of this type of incident (main site is down; going to backup site). There should always be a "plan B".

PixelPest · Postby **PixelPest** » Mon Dec 07, 2015 10:06 pm

xirtamehtsitahw wrote:The link you posted keeps timing out due to engine.wohlnet.ru taking a VERY poorly-timed sabbatical. Is there an alternate site where the information you intended to link me to is stored? If not, there SHOULD be, in case of this type of incident (main site is down; going to backup site). There should always be a "plan B".

Try it again. The link works fine, even on my slow cellphone. The site also could have just been down for that time.

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:56 pm

Link is working now, but wondering if map sprites are intended to be smaller than in-game sprites. In-game sprites tend to be around the 32x64 size range (32x32 for small), while map sprites are limited to 32x32 per frame. I could just use default-sized 16x32 sprites for Birdo in this case.

However--how do you make the map sprites differentiate between small and big sprites? I seem to recall playing at least one episode featuring this sort of map sprite behavior. I could be mistaken, though.

RudeGuy · Postby **RudeGuy** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:12 pm

SMBX doesn't have different map graphics for any form of the characters. It only has one for every character.

xirtamehtsitahw · Postby **xirtamehtsitahw** » Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:19 pm

Oh, okay. That should make it a bit easier. Also, map graphics do use smaller fields per sprite than the in-game sprites, so I'd imagine using a default-sized Birdo spritesheet for the map sprites should work. Even so, it's going to be a bit tedious (even if I simply use Construct101's Birdo sprites). I'll have to build a few of them from scratch (mainly the Small Birdo sprites), but I should be able to then simply copy-paste the large-Birdo sprites and palette-swap them (with slight variations for the Raccoon/Tanooki powerups).