Sprite Guides by JustMe

[Gespenst]

well i would like to know how to shade some parts which do not get same wave of light source
where should i make shadows in dinamic pose
all about shading

[Kashif]

made a rewamp of davis using your tutorial

[A-Man]

Damn great tutorial !!!. And that physics stuff were really awesome too. Also I loved ur shading tutorial. VOTE FOR JUSTME AS THE MEMBER OF THE MONTH!!!!!

[JustMe]

well i would like to know how to shade some parts which do not get same wave of light source

like this? its easier then you think. it wont help other people (ecxept you) since its rarely that someone get 2 light source (at least in my opinion). however i make a tut about this since it dont take that much time.

where should i make shadows in dinamic pose

same char, same lightsource, same shading i suppose? ofc he will get other shading if you rotate him. its questionable if i make a tut for dynamic shading.

all about shading

awa....you know i do spriting since 2-3 month, i´m not apoc2. but if you people wish and my time allow...might possible.

@Kashif
do you really use spray with 50% opacy? the shadinglines should get paler. the hair is also wrong. draw a backbone, because the hair follow it.

@A-Man
im glad my tuts are more useful as i thought.

[Kashif]

i mentioned it a thousand times i only have paint so i dont know whether 50% opacy or not

[JustMe]

i mentioned it a thousand times i only have paint so i dont know whether 50% opacy or not

but you dont have to use paint. its not good enough to make HQ sprite with it, at least try paint.NET

Shading (Click to View)

multiple lightsource (Click to View)

1 basic knowledge and 1 tool we need:

1: shadow
shadow is always present, it can be erased by light, but cant be added.

2: layers
to do this we need layers, if you havent a tool that can create layers then download gimp or paint.NET, they´re freeware!

if you have no experience with layers then learn how to use, its very importent for any people who works with pics on pc.

next we need a pic we want to shade, ofc

i take this one, it has 2 suns which will be our lightsources. it should be separated in 3 layers:
1: char
2: lovely sun
3: bad sun
lovely and bad suns are transparent
we take out lovely sun and shade like normal, after that make the pic half-transparent by using eraser with 50% opacy.
note: make the shading on a separate layer!
same progress again with lovely sun
next we take out the shading and color lighted areas with red
and again with other sun, here also on separate layer!
note: shading layers (blue layers) MUST BE ABOVE the red layers!
now we have 4 colored layers: 2x shading and 2x lighted areas, display them all! you see, because of the half-transparant of blue it become purple. now we need our basic knowledge, it says:
shadow can be erased by light, but cant be added.
the purple areas are made of shadow+light, but we know shadow must be erased by light, therefore we take out any blue areas which overlap with red. if we have done this there will be only red and blue areas, no purple.
red areas: they´re lighted, you should use light color on these areas
blue areas: color it with dark color since its shadow

thats our result.

[Kashif]

wow man you are too good but which software do you use

---

using your backbone advice i made this

[JustMe]

can i ask which software do you use

wow man you are too good but which software do you use

@kashif
i use Gimp 2.6, its free and has anything i need.

his legs are out of lf proportion, but not bad.
make his left arm shorter, it will break if you draw like this.

[Gad]

What about some more irregular curves, less bowlike?

I deeply believe, that sometimes people are out of balance, but they're still not breaking.

[JustMe]

looks weird but works. i add them into tut, ofc with credit.

Shading (Click to View)

metal (Click to View)

some basic rules again:
1: metal dont have the same shading as chars, they need much more antialiasing. spray will be our favorite tool for this, 50% opacity are prefered.
2: it often has a border of light and shadow. thats the point of concentrating contrast.
3: dont shade it evenly, the darkside should get paler if it goes to the light side.
4: upper/right edges from a plate also get lighted, so draw a white line on these edges. the other 2 get darklines.
note: some rules may agains the real nature, but i prefered this way to shade.

a part of a metal-armor can have different forms, every form has it own shading.

plate (Click to View)

shading a plate is the most easy thing:
we colored a base with white, can also be light-blue.
shade the plate by using spray with 50% opacity, regard knowledge 3 while doing it.
take the spray again and draw white and black lines, they should be parallel to each other but dont mind the direction. the lines also should get paler. if the shading is done paint lines on the base edges like showed in rules 4.
thats what we aiming for

curved plate (Click to View)

curved plate is a bit different then uncurved:
red lines are lighted, blue lines are shadow. on red area we paint with a basic color (white) and on blue area: shade color. its because regular chars also have lightsource from upper right corner.
the point where the light (red arrow) hit is the most lighted area, it has to be unshaded, all other area can be sprayed with black. while spraying only do lines, note below.
now blue area, but with more contrast on the border. you can draw shade lines as much as you want, you can even draw lighted lines on dark side, but they cant be as light as lines on light side.
unlike uncurved plate we have to regard the red base edges. shadinglines must be parallel to the edges.
with light lines on upper edges and dark lines on below edges were done.

edged plate (Click to View)

edged plate consist of shadowed plate and lighted plate. any progress are the same, except one.

the shade lines from one side cant be parallel to the lines of other side. now go further like shading plate.
finish

ball (Click to View)

metal in form of a ball doesnt have shadlines, but it have shadow area and lighted area like curved or edged plate.
red area are shadowed, it consist of about 50% of the ball.
note: the shadowed area is not round but oval!
on red area we take dark grey. on lighted area we can use white, light grey or whatever, but no dark color. to recieve more antialiasing i took spray for light grey. in the middle of the lighted area should be a white point, its the hitpoint of light.
if you like you can spray a light circle around the hitpoint, the circle also comes from hitpoint.
now we shade the dark side while take use of the border of light and shadow. the border has the most contrast like noted.
actually were done at this point, but i added some scratches an the ball to make it even more realistic. if you draw scratches then always from light hitpoint.

example (Click to View)

all description was made in their specific form-tuts, thats only a short show of shading char with metal.