Sprite workflow

[oldmanfoltz]

I'm curious about your workflow for sprites after seeing your screenshots of Han Solo walking. I'm somewhat familiar with Autodesk Animator Pro, and some other older tools for producing sprites, but when I got back to tinkering with sprites a few months ago, I never found a workflow with modern software that I like.

What's your solution for sprite production?

[Stacy Davidson]

Great question oldmanfoltz!

I actually use Photoshop, but if you're looking for some high end options, check out these links.

This one used to be for sale, but is now being offered as a free download:
http://www.creatoon.com/

This page talks about the very popular TVPaint, and the freeware tool Delineate which creates vector art from your ink drawings:
http://inklingstudio.typepad.com/
Software links: http://www.tvpaint.com/ and http://delineate.sourceforge.net/

A really huge list of 2D animation software and other great animation links:
http://www.animationnation.com/links1.htm


Hope that helps!
-s

[Stacy Davidson]

A couple more very cool looking 2D animation programs:

Toon Boom Studio
http://www.toonboom.com/main/

FipBook
http://www.digicelinc.com/


-s

[oldmanfoltz]

Thanks for the replies! I use Photoshop all the time - I just haven't used it much for sprite production. Do you use the animation palette, or something else to aid the process?

[Stacy Davidson]

If you're working from a palette, yeah you can create a palette with the colors you're using. I also keep it layered, with a solid pink background layer. When I save the in-game version, I save a .png copy, always keeping the .PSD in tact.

I also generally create animation sequences either in layers or in one tiled image. In layers, it's nice to be able to adjust the opacities to create an onion skinning effect.

-s