help teh artisticaly challenged plz!

RayneAvalon · Post by **RayneAvalon** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:19 pm

as you can probably guess i am not an artist. therefor using the ohrrpgce system to make games is going to be hard for me. if anyone knows a place where teh artisticaly challenged can find premade tiles and characters and crap it would be much appreciated.

Post by **Mogri** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 3:58 pm

The graphics in Vikings of Midgard are free to use. It's highly recommended by the community at large that you eventually learn to make your own, though.

Oh, and welcome

RayneAvalon · Post by **RayneAvalon** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:01 pm

thanks, i hope to add an artist to my local crew soon. just needed to get a game out there to see if the story is any good.

xvi revya · Post by **xvi revya** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:00 am

Might as well post it here, since this is a thread for "teh artistically challenged".

I've already checked all of the spriting tutorials and links on the wiki, and so far, only Tsugumo's has done me any good. Making heroes isn't as easy as I thought it would be. I really need help with human figures and spriting in general..

Momoka · Post by **Momoka** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:33 am

I think most of us are a little artistically challenged. We should form a support group

Revya, want to post some art? It can't be worse than mine

Twinconclusive · Post by **Twinconclusive** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:52 am

Try not to make pixel art for the sake of making pixel art.
It's wonderful when you have an idea as to what you're trying to draw.
Having this vision greatly improves anatomy, posing, etc.

That's why it's a good idea to also practice drawing in other mediums (notebook sketches).

Once you develop some basic drawing skills, pixel art and fine sprites will be much easier to get into.

xvi revya · Post by **xvi revya** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:49 am

I'm not sure if this qualifies as art. And I'm guilty of wholly basing my human figure on Tsugumo's tutorial, too.

Try not to make pixel art for the sake of making pixel art.
It's wonderful when you have an idea as to what you're trying to draw.
Having this vision greatly improves anatomy, posing, etc.

That's why it's a good idea to also practice drawing in other mediums (notebook sketches).

Once you develop some basic drawing skills, pixel art and fine sprites will be much easier to get into.

Well, I did draw pen & paper games when I was younger and it had lots of monsters, robots, etc; but it never involved human figures because I couldn't draw them.

I'm thinking of holding of Rune Arcana until I get a better grasp at drawing human sprites and starting off on another foot, (aka non-humans for everything) which I am a bit more confident on(nothing spectacular, more or less average, I think). Any thoughts on this?

Momoka · Post by **Momoka** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:51 am

I'm thinking of holding of Rune Arcana until I get a better grasp at drawing human sprites and starting off on another foot, (aka non-humans for everything) which I am a bit more confident on(nothing spectacular, more or less average, I think). Any thoughts on this?

I had similar issues, which is why I started working on Mostly Involving Robots, and it *can* give a game a unique look, but I'm starting to feel it's a cheap cop-out.

Fenrir-Lunaris · Post by **Fenrir-Lunaris** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:11 pm

xvi revya wrote:Well, I did draw pen & paper games when I was younger and it had lots of monsters, robots, etc; but it never involved human figures because I couldn't draw them.

There's no rule whatsoever that your games have to have humans in them. For an excellent example, see Walthros.

RayneAvalon · Post by **RayneAvalon** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:10 pm

i guess my biggest problem at the moment is that while i have some basic drawing skill and i can see every character in my head ive never had the skill or patience to master drawing on the computer with a mouse. if i had a drawing pad then this would be a diffrent story. but money seems to avoid me like the plague. so i guess ill try those tutorials and if anyone knows of an rpg engine that is free with premade spirtes and stuff aside from ohrrpgce then link it to me plz. i just really want to get this story out. im hoping to have it done in time for a friends birthday. never should have made her that promise.

Pepsi Ranger · Post by **Pepsi Ranger** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:48 pm

Well, don't procrastinate making the game if the only thing stopping you is the art. You could always use placeholder graphics for now (those little stickmen or Space Invader block-creatures) until you either find a way to draw better or until you can recruit someone to draw better. At least that way the story won't stall.

About drawing humans. Personally, I think it's a confidence issue. Fact is, in real life you're surrounded by far more humans than you are mystical creatures, and thus your brain is inherently wired to know how they should look. And likewise, you'd want to rise up to the standard of anatomical proportions, fluid walking, etc., because you know that if you get it wrong, you're not connecting your artistic hand to your observant brain. And that leads to a breakdown in confidence. And because you don't have that problem with strange three-headed creatures, the pressure is lightened. So, that is my theory on why fewer of us can draw humans than we can critters.

My advice is to draw humans anyway and don't worry about whether you get it right. I've spent the first couple years of my OHR time drawing people with "gorilla arms." After enough people gave me advice how to fix that, I felt like I was able to scale it down to almost realistically proportionate arms (almost). Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and then let people criticize your art a bit, and then fix things according to what they advise.

No cause for sweat.

Post by **Mogri** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 5:50 pm

xvi revya wrote:

These aren't awful, but the major, glaring problem is that they're obviously flipped. You can use the mark-clone tool to copy the head and repaste it after you flip the sprite. This makes it so his hair doesn't switch sides when he walks.

Also, he appears to be wearing some sort of jumpsuit.

RayneAvalon · Post by **RayneAvalon** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:52 pm

Pepsi Ranger wrote:Well, don't procrastinate making the game if the only thing stopping you is the art. You could always use placeholder graphics for now (those little stickmen or Space Invader block-creatures) until you either find a way to draw better or until you can recruit someone to draw better. At least that way the story won't stall.

yeah, i know. i guess ive been letting my perfectionist tendencies get the better of me. i suppose i could start with stick forms and then build on them. thanks. but still if anyone knows of a good free rpg engine with some premade stuff a link would be nice. if nothing else i can send it to my cousin as a christmas present. he wants to get into game design but wont be able to work in these kinds of environments for a while. he is cute for a 8 year old though

xvi revya · Post by **xvi revya** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:01 pm

Mogri wrote: These aren't awful, but the major, glaring problem is that they're obviously flipped. You can use the mark-clone tool to copy the head and repaste it after you flip the sprite. This makes it so his hair doesn't switch sides when he walks.

I feel ashamed. I neglected the hair and I couldn't even notice. But the rest of the body looks fine right?

Mogri wrote:Also, he appears to be wearing some sort of jumpsuit.

On second thought.. I guess not.

He isn't supposed to be wearing a jumpsuit. It's supposed to be a robe of sorts.

Pepsi Ranger wrote:About drawing humans. Personally, I think it's a confidence issue. Fact is, in real life you're surrounded by far more humans than you are mystical creatures, and thus your brain is inherently wired to know how they should look. And likewise, you'd want to rise up to the standard of anatomical proportions, fluid walking, etc., because you know that if you get it wrong, you're not connecting your artistic hand to your observant brain. And that leads to a breakdown in confidence. And because you don't have that problem with strange three-headed creatures, the pressure is lightened. So, that is my theory on why fewer of us can draw humans than we can critters.

Maybe this(^) is one of the factors, but personally, I think the main reason why some of us have trouble drawing human figures is that how they look is already set, as opposed to drawing non-humans where there is no definite form. You can make a patch of colors and call it a monster, but when drawing human figures, every pixel can make or break your sprite.

Twinconclusive · Post by **Twinconclusive** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:01 pm

I think the main reason why some of us have trouble drawing human figures is that how they look is already set, as opposed to drawing non-humans where there is no definite form.

Now you're just running from the problem.

These are all recognized to be "humans" and yet their proportions are pretty different from each other and from actual humans.

In addition to being around humans all the time, People can also identify with similar humanoid features.

Yeah, there are some basic prereqs you've got meet when drawing something to call it a human, but you can still have enough flexibility to develop a style around that.

You can make a patch of colors and call it a monster, but when drawing human figures, every pixel can make or break your sprite.

I can't agree with this either, because monsters should also have some kind of form and figure.
I would hardly call an airbrush spray of Red gradients a monster.