Zazz's LF2 Style Spriting Tutorial IN PAINT! Screw Photoshop/GIMP etc

[Zazz1]

Zazz's LF2 Style Spriting Tutorial IN PAINT!

Mmkay I'm bored, so I'm just going to make this.

Most LF2 spriters will say you need Photoshop or GIMP. Well screw that! I do all my sprites in Paint, the process is a way shorter and easier and looks good. I'll show you guys how to do it.

Since Paint comes with Windows, you will not have to download it, unless you have a Mac or Linux... not too sure about those two....

This tutorial assumes you have basic drawing skills with a mouse, I can't be bothered telling people how to draw heads/draw a body.

1. Open Paint.

2. Get an existing LF2 sprite and resize it so it's double it's original size.

3. Draw the basic body/head with its colours. Like I said, this will rely on your skill and knowledge of anatomy. Of course, use the existing LF2 sprite to get the proportions right. (I used Davis for my original sprite, but I'm on a computer without LF2 right now and Firen was the best I could find...)

4. Shade it:

-For the hair, add lighter tones to the upper-right parts of the hair.
-For the head, add a lighter tone to the forehead, the cheeks and the mouth. Leave an indent near where the eye will be.
-For the clothes, add a lighter tone to the right part of the arms and chest, plus a bit of the stomach.
Shade the pants either like mine, or like you did for the arms. For the shoes, just imagine you are drawing a smaller shoe inside it.

5. Add details, eyes, mouth, nose, buttons, extra shading etc

6. This is when the fun begins! Fill in the background so it is black. Make sure that you did NOT have anything selected, then press Ctrl+W. On the 'Stretch' box, change both the Horizontal and Vertical to 50%, then click OK.

7. Done! Fill the black background with white to see it in its full detail.
This was the final result of my sprite without the painful task of blurring which messes up the outlines.

An LF2 styled sprite made completely 100% in Paint. Of course, there is always room for improvement, so ALWAYS accept criticism.

Credits to me for the tutorial and my sprite (not to be used at all btw) and Starsky Wong for the Firen sprite!

[Daymio]

very good.... but it's little bit too short and not comlited.... (or is it)

[Silverthorn]

Heh, that's pretty nice for using paint. Should give people the option to do stuff without any big program. Well done

[chase123]

nice tutorial,and btw:the end result sprite is fantastic you explained it really good.

[Evil Sonidow]

It's good. Like you said, you don't need Photoshop or GIMP to sprite. In fact, you don't need those to do anything. Your work just won't be in the best quality that it could be.

[Zazz1]

@Daymio
What do you mean? Is my guide too short or not complicated enough? Because thats literally the whole process.

@Evil Sonidow
Of course a little Photoshopping would make it look better, but I just want to prove that you don't have to have a top-notch graphics program to sprite... I hate it when people say "Omg your sprites fail because they are made in Paint, you HAVE to use Photoshop/GIMP." Paint is a VERY underrated program :\

In my opinion, I think Starsky used a process similar to mine, simply because the outline is very similar. Although he may have not used Paint, I'm sure that he sprited his characters big first before scaling them down. This is why I love the resize tool

[prince_freeza]

nice tut i used to make my chars like that before i download the high tech programs and stuff..

[Reaper]

well, I think the only real problems with paint are that you don't have so many different colours( that makes the jacket a bit strange, the contrast is quite big) and that you don't have these darker pixels around your char. Other than that its a pretty good programm, and you proved it. I did my whole reaper in paint, too. Only the special attacks not...
I still don't like the hair of your char, but it is very similar to Davis. And being similar to an original LF2-char can't be a negative critic on your spriting skills.
So yes, very nice tutorial. Especially for the beginners who maybe don't want to use a more complicated programm.

[Alectric]

what are you talking about?
all the colours in photoshop, you can have in paint
this is a pretty useful tut, i like to do some spriting in paint, coz its harder, and fun
though, i dont think resizing the sprite in paint is that good. paint usually loses the quality in it there.
still, PHOTOSHOP FTW

[Zazz1]

@Reaper
Um... I had that contrast on purpose... Look at Dennis' pants.
What do you mean darker pixels? You mean the outline? Because I have that...

@Alectric
The resizing is to make it smoother and for the outline. It only looses quality if you resize something that has been SELECTED. If nothing is selected, everything is smoothened nicely.