Blue Emerald Posted February 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 It's a good idea, but I'd rather make my sky by spriting rather than use gradients. Thanks anyway, and the tri-color sky in your file gives me an idea on improving the one I have. I guess this means I should try dithering the sky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven M Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Yeah, definitely dithered - a fully-gradiented background would look out of place against the pixelart. It probably goes without saying, but you're using S3&K backgrounds and photographs of skies and clouds for references, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rael0505 Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 You can actually put it a gradient through a program (like paint shop pro or I believe photoshop) to dither it for you... just so you know. Euan introduced me to the idea, it's how he does his skies for Sonic XG too. You can dither it by hand if you want, but it's just more work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven M Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 You can actually put it a gradient through a program (like paint shop pro or I believe photoshop) to dither it for you... just so you know. Euan introduced me to the idea, it's how he does his skies for Sonic XG too. Do you mean the 'Define Pattern' method, or an alternate method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted February 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Unfortunately, I don't have Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop; I have Picture It. Thanks for the tip, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rael0505 Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 Do you mean the 'Define Pattern' method, or an alternate method? Euan and I both happen to have Paint Shop Pro 7 (though I assume the same would work for any version), and he taught me to decrease color depth to 256 colors and check "error diffusion" instead of "nearest color." It's served me well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cstyler Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 [qimg]http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/cloudstrife2006/LCZ-1.png[/qimg] It is very very pretty! But I think you must make sky in the way like this one: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven M Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 It's served me well! Oh, that method! I thought you were talking about dithering like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZFG Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 @Blue Emerald Hope this helps you. Notice the 15 colour rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted February 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 ZFG, are you using PSP or Photoshop to do that? I'm trying to find some other program that will give me that "error diffusion" effect and won't cost me anything to use. I thought Paint.NET would have that option, but after using it, I guess it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streak Thunderstorm Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 You know, you can take any real photo and dither it down to make it presentable in your game. I've done it with lots of Mecha Madness' backgrounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I think you could use GIMP, I guess. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted February 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 GIMP works! This is definitely what I was looking for. Thanks, dnlhern. +Rep Believe it or not, but the sky was made with both GIMP and Paint.NET. I used Paint.NET to make the gradient since it allowed me to easily control the range of the gradients, and used GIMP to create the dither. Having three paint programs (four if you count the basic Paint) is really quite helpful. And since this worked so well, I'm going to do the same thing with Summer Forest's and Techno City's skies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSF Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Actually, dithering in Paint.NET is cake. A quick way: Just save the image as a GIF, then adjust the dither slidebar how you like it. Close the image, reopen, voila. Or even better, get a dithering plugin at the forum, along with the Boltbait & Pyrochild packs. EDIT: The "EdHarvey" pack comes with a series of dither plugins, try these out and see what you can get. Neat level art, it somewhat remembers me of Quack Shot... Ah, a pretty fun game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted February 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Actually, dithering in Paint.NET is cake. A quick way: Just save the image as a GIF, then adjust the dither slidebar how you like it. Close the image, reopen, voila.Or even better, get a dithering plugin at the forum, along with the Boltbait & Pyrochild packs. EDIT: The "EdHarvey" pack comes with a series of dither plugins, try these out and see what you can get. Neat level art, it somewhat remembers me of Quack Shot... Ah, a pretty fun game. When I saved it as a .GIF and altered the dithering on it, nothing changed, so for now I think I'll stick with GIMP for dithering. I might actually try the plug-in, but I've read that it slows things down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSF Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 Strange. I just tried and it worked. I might actually try the plug-in, but I've read that it slows things down. Well, I have 103 plugins, and I don't see any difference. Unless you call the plugin function through the menu, they don't do anything at all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted February 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 I used the plug-in just now and it works, and it has a lot of dithering options, but I don't like the way it handles the effect; the dithering makes it look too layered in comparison to GIMP, and I really like what GIMP has produced for me. So, from here on, I'll be sticking with using Paint.NET for gradients and GIMP for dithering, but thank you for helping out, gsoft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZFG Posted February 22, 2009 Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 The one Gimp Produced is bad, it's messy and not good looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 The one Gimp Produced is bad, it's messy and not good looking. I think the GIMP one looks good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Once again, it's time for another sprite update! This time, I'm concerning myself with Sonic's look. In the past, I've been using the Sonic 3 sprite with a palette swap to match the Japanese Sonic CD artwork. Of course, you may have heard the occasional groan about how the S3 sprite's eyes are too small and it looks too plastic. This, however, is not the reason I've decided to alter Sonic. You see, I personally feel that, in order to stand out in the crowd of Sonic fan games, I should make a Sonic that looks a bit more original -- one that I can call my own. If you look at games like Retro Sonic XG, Emerald Ties, Time Twisted, and The Fated Hour, they all have their own style of Sonic. Of course, there's a lot of hype around these games (also helps that they have something playable, but if you read the main Worlds thread, you can see that I'm still working on stuff for it), and I feel that if I want to join that crowd, I should make a different Sonic that makes my game stand out with them. In that case, I made a Sonic with a little of Sonic 3 and a lot of Sonic 1/2/CD. However, the Sonic 3 also has its merits, as I always felt it had more expression to it when compared to its predecessors. In this case, I'm leaving this up to my faithful readers to decide. I'd like to construct a poll as of now, and you can decide which Sonic you think is best for the game. After 15 votes, the winning Sonic will be used in my game. Here's the old Sonic: And here's the new one: [Edited as of 3-7-09, 2:00 PM CST] Which one do you all like better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 The stare on the new one makes him look like he's on an acid trip. But I'd rather you use him, than the old Sonic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Wow. I am hating that sprite. Looks like the Sonic 2 Sonic pumped up with helium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Wow. I am hating that sprite. Looks like the Sonic 2 Sonic pumped up with helium. Might the S3 gloves have anything to do with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FanGameRevolver Posted March 6, 2009 Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 And here's the new one: [qimg]http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k151/cloudstrife2006/sonic3CDnew.png[/qimg] Which one do you all like better? HOLY,... WOW! Thats a lot better, sweet! Also I abandoned the Sonic 2 special stage and am just going to do the Special stages in full 3D instead, sorry that I couldn't be of any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Emerald Posted March 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2009 Ah, it's okay, FGR. I'm glad to hear you like the new sprite. Also, I just edited the sprite a little to make it look less cross-eyed or inflated. So far, the score is New: 2, Old: 1 (I guess). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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