Making sprites in Microsoft Paint

Make games! Discuss those games here.

Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

Post Reply
Alk
Red Slime
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:40 pm

Making sprites in Microsoft Paint

Post by Alk »

Basically, I already had several sprites made in Microsoft Paint with standard settings. Is there an easy/easier way to get these sprites into custom without losing too much color? Or is my best bet to pixel by pixel the original colors in once I put them into custom?
User avatar
Feenicks
Metal Slime
Posts: 696
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: ON THE AIR IN THE AIR
Contact:

Post by Feenicks »

Honestly, I think the best thing to do here is download a program that's better suited for spritework (I use GraphicsGale - google it), and do whatever spritework you need to do there (or in OHR, but sometimes an outside program is easier to handle and whatnot). MS Paint and palettes don't exactly work well together, which may be one source of your woes.
However, in the upcoming release (and the nightlies preceding it), there's a nice color replacing tool - not sure if it's in older ones, so you might want to go have a look for it. Just use that for what you have right now.
Also, remember that sprites usually need to use 15 or fewer colors, and it helps to be using colors directly from whatever palette you're using.
Hope this helps in some way.
Alk
Red Slime
Posts: 40
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:40 pm

Post by Alk »

So my best bet is probably to just import as is into custom and redo the colors inside.

And from now on try something such as graphicsgale if I want to make sprites outside of custom.
User avatar
DukeofDellot
Red Slime
Posts: 74
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:44 pm

Post by DukeofDellot »

Though if you really want to use MSPaint...

Take the master palette image, copy/paste it into the corner of your image (since your image is likely smaller, you'll need to add some space to fit it), then single out the 15 colors that you want to use and pull them to the side.

Ditch the full master palette and draw your image with your smaller palette, after your done, shrink your image altogether, and it will import with fewer flaws (I've never seen any, but your mileage may vary).

Another option, the sketchpad approach, is to have an image much larger than the one you're making, with the master palette in one corner, a space to insert your current palette, and a workspace. Before you start, draw a little box, to the size of your image, when finished, copy/paste the image to a correctly sized bitmap file before importing.

...

But I'm in the mode to draw my sprites in custom...
Last edited by DukeofDellot on Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Baconlabs
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1067
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:29 am
Location: Middlin, TN

Post by Baconlabs »

Quick note about GraphicsGale:
A really useful tool I've found lately in GG is the ability to take a high-res picture and reduce the color count. Go to ALL FRAMES > COLOR DEPTH, and you have several options on what to do. Obviously, for the OHR, you're going to want to switch over to 4bit (16 colors).
When I do this, I always have to make color corrections in the editor, and every single sprite that uses this method ends up with a unique OHR palette, but if you ask me, it's a lot less trouble than drawing things in the OHR drawer or MS Paint.
User avatar
Nathan Karr
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1215
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:51 am
Contact:

Post by Nathan Karr »

What I do is I draw things with the default 16 colors for MSPaint, then import them knowing that the colors will appear on the palette in this order:

Black -> Dark Red -> Dark Green -> Dark Yellow -> Dark Purple -> Dark Cyan -> Light Gray -> Dark Gray -> Bright Red -> Bright Green -> Bright Yellow -> Bright Blue -> Bright Purple -> Bright Cyan -> White

So as long as I remember which positions I keep the colors in my palette, I can draw these really weird looking things and import them with "Import Without Palette" and have everything turn out fine.

That's how I've been doing it since 2003.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
User avatar
shakeyair
Slime Knight
Posts: 217
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:15 am

Post by shakeyair »

Nathan Karr wrote:What I do is I draw things with the default 16 colors for MSPaint, then import them knowing that the colors will appear on the palette in this order:

Black -> Dark Red -> Dark Green -> Dark Yellow -> Dark Purple -> Dark Cyan -> Light Gray -> Dark Gray -> Bright Red -> Bright Green -> Bright Yellow -> Bright Blue -> Bright Purple -> Bright Cyan -> White

So as long as I remember which positions I keep the colors in my palette, I can draw these really weird looking things and import them with "Import Without Palette" and have everything turn out fine.

That's how I've been doing it since 2003.
This just sounds... painful.

I don't understand the logic of anyone with a windows computer who doesn't use GraphicsGale. (unless they have ProMotion or something)

Here's my workflow in windows:

Pick colors for a palette I'm likely going to use in OHR. Export blank picture. Load it up in GraphicsGale. Draw. Import flawlessly. (But I usually mess with colors at this point)

In Mac (usually) I just draw in the OHR since I hate hate hate every other art program for pixelling.
User avatar
Newbie Newtype
Reigning Smash Champion
Posts: 1873
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:44 pm

Post by Newbie Newtype »

It's Nathan Karr. If you've seen his work you'd suspect his advice.

Graphics Gale is the most logical step up from MS Paint.
<TheGiz> oh hai doggy, oh no that's the straw that broke tjhe came baclsb
User avatar
Nathan Karr
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1215
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:51 am
Contact:

Post by Nathan Karr »

With my new palette, the only thing that changes when I import stuff is that dark purple changes to orange, everything else becomes an equivalent (but less painful) color. That said, I've come to prefer using the engine's art program, and would use it to draw backdrops if that were possible. (Well, other than drawing it as a maptile set, exporting it, and then importing it; I'd rather throw something together with MSPaint).
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
User avatar
NinjaOverdrive
Slime Knight
Posts: 105
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:27 am
Location: Honestly, I got no clue...Margaritaville sounds nice....

Post by NinjaOverdrive »

Okay, wait a second. I been using PSP8 to draw sprites as you can define your palettes pretty easily. Is this Graphic Gale more ideal for spriting? I've never used it before but will be looking it up shortly.
Post Reply