The Moosader Community

hi all , i am basically looking to either find or last resort try to create some sprites for a "jail/prison" theme but was kind of hoping to get some graphics that are similar to games like maplestory. i notice that most free sprites i can find are very pixelated yet the maplestory sprites seem to be of a better graphcial quality. , what kinda of graphics are they i should be looking for or is it the case of drawing onto paper, scanning into computer , resizing and coloring using something like photoshop?

my first step fo making the game is to be able to get the graphics as that is the hardest thing for me as my drawing is at Stickman level lol , but i have people who can draw and as its a hobby "help me improve" game i dont want to spend money on hiring artists etc

thanks

It sounds like you're looking for more modern style pixel art rather than retro. Old school sprites look the way they do because of the limitations of the old consoles, i.e. sprites could only be so big, could only use so many colors per sprite, and only so many colors total. Modern style pixel art is basically trying to convey that old school look, but it won't have all those limitations, make sprites any size with an infinite selection of colors.

I have a hard time finding free art that really fits what I'm looking for too. I'm no artist, but with a few tutorials I can kinda hack some stuff out that I like. It helps that pixel art has "rules" to it that makes it pixel art and not just crappy ms paint drawings. Once you learn the rules, you can make it as old school or modern as you like.

Here's a few tutorials that helped me out:
http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=218

http://www.natomic.com/hosted/marks/mpat/

Photoshop can be used for pixel art, but it's not really made for it so it can be kind of a pain to get it configured right. A lot of people use Gimp, but I find that kind of overkill as well. I would use something like plain old Paint. Using a basic drawing program will help stop you from doing things that shouldn't be used in pixel art (filters, fancy brushes, etc) I personally use GraphicsGale http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/ It's made for creating pixel art specifically. It's basically just Paint with some nifty features to help with animation and creating sprite sheets.

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