Work Smarter, not Harder (Tutorial and Tips when starting a character)

Tutorials about compatibility, tools, etc

Moderator: Moderator

Hazaz
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:27 pm
Location: Banania
Contact:

Work Smarter, not Harder (Tutorial and Tips when starting a character)

Post by Hazaz »

There should be more than enough sources to start working own fighter (Gettag being a reference for example) but often, I see users struggle when starting their first character.

This guide is mainly composed of simple tips that are often overlooked, which leads a fun journey turning into a boring chore.
Of course, this won't do any miracles, but should be a good start.

This tutorial is made to exemplify the process done for UrbanDragon Character, using MoonDragon as a reference.

Image

1- Why you should start with animations (be GIF or other formats) instead of doing fPNG by PNG.
While it's normal to start by trying it out the first frame, it's also where most get stuck into. Even when one decide to do one PNG to PNG, it ends up consuming alot of unecessary time, burning one own incentive in the process.

Taking some basic steps (Planning what your vision is) and having a path is necessary to bring your ideias to life. :)
Let's say you want to start with something basic, like using a existing character to make your own.
"But why not do from scratch? would be bett..." (Doing a character completly from scratch, even with knowedge will take time as I'm crazy enough myself to go trough it. If you are starting, go easy on yourself and it will be more rewarding in the ending. Believe me, you will thank me later ;) )

With the character that matches your project.:

1-Open Fighter Factory and with it, load the target character to be edited. (MoonDragon) https://i.ibb.co/SwJG3tP/Pic1.png
2-With the character loaded, go to the animation tab (A) and choose a animation block of choice (B). Optionaly, go on the group and add more animations, (In this example, the walk foward) (C) as it's viable/smart to combine animations on FF itself as they will come out all aligned, instead of doing one by one.
3- With the block ready, save it (D) (Cactus icon, may change with the version), as you will notice, the stance animation (0), now includes the walk animation (20) in a single file. https://ibb.co/0sDNr6y
Don't worry if it is in GIF format, as it will come in hand later. Create a Directory to host it, naming it as the target to be worked.

Now you have all the frames for your character... just not the way you want yet... :mrgreen:

4-With this step done, open Aseprite or PS to convert MoonDragon to start to turn into your project, when loading the GIF file, the character will display each frame in a row. (Unless this option is set off, then turn visible) and the pallet may give some restrictions.
This can be solved by. Setting the color mode to RGB.

5-In the case of Dr.Lavely Scales (I will just nickname it as Dr.Avell), two things are required to transform it.
A) Make the size match to the end concept.
B) Optimize with layers and CS, aka color separation. (Lab coat, Inner Skin and Outer Skin)
C) Recycle usable parts (reduce Moondragon cape to a coat size) and add other extra parts like the Tail. (Not included for now in this tutorial)
D) And to finalize, the core part. (Drawing the head and turn Moondragon underwear into a sport outfit for Dr.Arvell.

That's it. =D, might look boring or complicated at first but will be done far easily with some patience.


Back to the tutorial.
6-With Aseprite open, load the created file to be worked on, to organize the animations later, add tags at each block of animation. (A) https://i.ibb.co/XZvKrMv/Pic-4.png
7-Sometimes the canvas size will start larger than the frames, depending on the case, this may come in hand or not. For this part, it's necessary to optimize it, simply use the "Trim" option, (cuts any bloat part automatically)
8-With the select tool, select the entire canvas and don't unselect it. It will be continued later https://i.ibb.co/CQfw5tL/Pic-5.png
8-afterwards select "Canvas Size" to increase the space to edit. Let's say 12 pixels horizontally, 6 to the left, 6 to the right.
9-on the animation tab, (below by defualt) select all frames, and go back to the selected frame. By pulling 6 to the left, plus 6 to right, all frames will be adjusted automatically. Making the process simpler. Or as people say.: "Work smarter, not harder".

10- Now to the conversion part (B), often one would CS a character frame by frame. Where while not wrong, will consume a big amount of time. There are multiple ways to handle this (Which is why I recomend to simplify as animations instead of doing PNG by PNG) the way a good amount of people use, and should be familiarized is with Layers.

11- With this character will be required 3 new layers, one for the lab coat, one for the outer skin (purple), another for the inner (yellow) and the last reserved for original part. (Face, outfit, etc) This is done so if one piece from the custom layer can be utilized, it's not attached from the core, making all the rest easier instead of unecessary work.

12-On the animation tab, rests the first layer, on it, right click and create three.

13-On the first layer still, select MoonDragon cape with the Lace tool, select to cut, and paste on the first new layer (Lab Coat Layer). After, go to the second frame of the animation and repeat the same. (Yes, it may look boring but once you get the hang of it, It will be so efficient that you will regret doing everything frame by frame manually.)
Sometimes, the selection is mirrored to other frames, so instead of selecting each, take notice of the one that won't require it. https://i.ibb.co/C9NSSSy/Pic-6.png

14- Once the cape is separated from MoonDragon, go and move the layer below the default, so any change won't overlap over moondragon.

15- Paste the tone of the cape you want close to it, select the lab coat frames on it's respective layer and press CTRL+R to replace each color to match Dr.Arvell.

16-Back at MoonDragon select her boobs, tummy, part of her tights and repeat the same process. But now, Create another layer. "Inner skin" (Can look boring at first, but believe me, you will thank me later)
Paste the target colors for her intimate on it's respective layer and replace it accordinly.

17- Moondragon is now with her cape and part of her torso matching Dr.Arvell, all it's missing is the outer skin.
On the default layer, replace it's name as such and repeat the same (purple colors) and the CS part is done. Oh, replace the green colors as well with the sport outfit tone.

18- With this, a great part of the character will be done. Lacking only the head, and some minor details.
Once the rest is finished, use "export spritesheet to get everything automatically in order.

UrbanDragon character has a Lab coat, and MoonDragon cape can be easly be used as such with some tweaks. Select with a combination of magic wand and lasso to outline the cape, cut it, create a new layer. (name it as Lab coat) and paste on it.
Do the same for the other frames, (The stance uses subtle/parent animation, so it will be easier, but the walk has to be done manually)
With the select tool on the Lab coat layer, (stance frames only) move it in a negative direction until it forms the coat.
To start to look like a outfit and not a cape, select the shoulder and hair in the same process and send to the Lab Coat layer.
Finally, replace the color by using the CTRl+R shortcut.

Optionally, use tags to separate the animation in blocks, which will be usefull when exporting the spritesheet.
Vikal
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 3:35 am
Location: Discord
Contact:

Re: Work Smarter, not Harder (Tutorial and Tips when starting a character)

Post by Vikal »

Great step by step tutorial for beginners! Also for anyone who wants to start working on a project, remember to be patient if something doesn't work on the first try. Take your time, review the steps and keep trying.
Cry about it.
Post Reply