Idea Pixel Template

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Hi everyone!!! My question is, is it easier to design characters based off a template and if so. is this a good start?



PS: I don't draw men well and also I realized I type "is" twice :confused:
 

RangerX

Member
Its cool. But the best would be to draw characters with it. Its the only way to know your canvas is good for you. Here's mine for example:



I obviously draw all my characters for The Life Ruby's with it (as you can see in my signature)
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Templates lets you create stuff faster, but it's easy to have every character look exactly the same if you use them IMO. I usually copy an existing sprite and edit that rather than making templates I base EVERYTHING off, I feel like it's a more flexible approach in the long run... in one way, every sprite is a potential template to me.
 

Simon Gust

Member
Have to agree with @Yal here. I only use templates for animation to know in which posture a leg has to be for example. This is more useful with animations that have 8 frames or more.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
This is more useful with animations that have 8 frames or more.
I'd actually say "more than 4 frames" for that, with 4 frames you get away with 2x arms/legs in extreme positions and 2x "everything pointing straight down"... for anything above 4 you need to know how human[oid]s actually move their limbs when walking, but 4 and below lets you get away with keyframes. But I guess there's not really any reason to use something that doesn't have a power-of-two number of subimages? Sorry for being so nitpicky :p
 

Simon Gust

Member
I'd actually say "more than 4 frames" for that, with 4 frames you get away with 2x arms/legs in extreme positions and 2x "everything pointing straight down"... for anything above 4 you need to know how human[oid]s actually move their limbs when walking, but 4 and below lets you get away with keyframes. But I guess there's not really any reason to use something that doesn't have a power-of-two number of subimages? Sorry for being so nitpicky :p
Are there animations of characters with 5-7 frames though?
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I've made a bunch of run cycles with 6, so it's definitely a possibility. (That was following templates I found online, in particular a bunch of Sonic games, so I'll assume they also used 6... I don't really remember anymore).

EDIT: indeed, Sonic 1 used 6-frame animations for some of the sprites.
upload_2017-7-10_16-29-24.png
 

RangerX

Member
The minimum number of images for a walking cycle is 3. (left arm up, middle, right arm up).
Some old 2d games were even using only 2 (left arm up, right arm up). (In my game The Life Ruby my villagers have 2 frames but I use "middle" and only one image for "arm up". I feel its better when using only 2 images)
4 images appears odd to me.
5 images should make your character very smooth. (extreme left arm up, left arm up, middle/idle, right arm up, extreme right arm up)

At the end of the day its all about the style you want going on and how much time you wanna spend animating/drawing characters. Making the graphics is what takes the most time really. Think about it.
 
Last edited:

NightFrost

Member
Using eight frames you can make a very smooth walk animation.

For smaller sprites (16*16) four frames is what I use and seems to be enough (contact-passing-contact-passing).
 
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