General Category > User Created Content
Graphics Resources: Portraits and Sprites
Joseph Hewitt:
I've decided to split some of these resources off from the Graphics Programming thread, and collect all the information for people who might want to create portraits or sprites for GearHead.
Colors
GearHead uses a color swapping system. Pure red, pure yellow, and pure green are converted to different colors. Greys pass through mostly untouched, and blue 0000ff is transparent.
The color swapping process is not perfect; the output image will only have 8 value levels per color channel. Attempts to fix this problem have so far been unsuccessful.
Resources
The canon portraits, which are also a good style reference for sprites:
A GIMP palette containing the GH2 game colors:
http://www.ataraxiatheatre.com/stuff/GH2_Game.gpl
A GIMP palette containing the colors recognized by the color switcher:
http://www.ataraxiatheatre.com/stuff/GH_Minimal.gpl
Ladi's big sprite template, shrunk down to the current sprite size:
The same thing as a gimp xcf image with layers:
http://www.ataraxiatheatre.com/stuff/worksheet_sprites_ladi_small.xcf
The template for arranging game sprites:
Next, I'll post a list of the character sprites which need doing.
Joseph Hewitt:
Character sprites are selected by job. If a specific sprite exists for the character's job, that one is chosen. If not, the game checks to see if a sprite exists for the character's job category. If neither of these sprites are found then the default Citizen sprite is used.
I think there's a lack of consistency in the sprites which exist now. Some of them are hand drawn, others are 3D renderings. Their height varies too much. Many of them are just plain ugly.
No Specified Job- The Citizen
This is the default sprite. I think the pants color should be changed to red or dark grey.
ACADE- Scientists, Teachers, Professors
No sprite.
ADVEN- Bounty Hunters, Arena Pilots, Explorers
Sonata can be seen wearing this armor type in the GearHead comic:
http://ataraxiatheatre.com/2009/11/25/toast/
CORPO- Corporate Executives, other office workers
Edit- I forgot that Phil did this male corporate sprite. That's what I get for posting right before bed. No female sprite.
CRAFT- Mechanics, Engineers, Carpenters
FAITH- Monks, Warrior Monks, Priests
LABOR- Truckers, Miners, Factory Workers
This sprite is based on the character Tama from the GearHead comic. No male sprite currently exists.
MEDIA- Singers, Reporters, Pro Athletes
No sprite.
MEDIC- Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics
MILIT- Soldiers, Mecha Pilots
POLIT- Politicians, Bureaucrats, Lawyers
No sprite.
POLIC- Police Officers, Forensic Investigators
This image is based on the Guardians from GH1, who are a rough-and-tumble Judge Dread-style law enforcement faction. A different image is needed for the officers of L5 Law.
THIEF- Bandits, Thieves, Hackers, Pirates, Street Punks
Several characters can be seen wearing this armor in the GearHead comic. Gronda is based on the female bandit sprite.
http://ataraxiatheatre.com/2009/07/10/bar-brawl-of-tragedy/
TRADE- Shopkeepers, Traders, Venture Capitalists
MOOK_- Bad Guys
This is a special job type which sometimes gets applied to enemy henchmen. No sprite.
Phil Munoz:
Regarding character sprites, would you prefer 3D rendered ones or 2D hand drawn ones? sorry if the answer to this question was already expressly mentioned in a post somewhere. brain not working too well when i just woke up.
Joseph Hewitt:
I don't really have a strong opinion there, as long as the sprites look good and there's better consistency than now. IMO currently the hand drawn ones look better, but that may just be because my 3D models were crap. 3D models do have the advantage that they can be scaled to different sizes, and may be usable as meshes in the 3D interface.
SharkD:
Maybe you should require that artists provide a high-resolution version of their hand-drawn character sprites as well as a low-resolution version?
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