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How To Sprite- the complete walkthrough (for MS Paint)
#1
Hey there. So you wanna be a spriter, huh? Well first you're gonna need an idea.
...
Got that? Good. Now you're gonna need some materials. If you're working with pokemon sprites, veekun.com is the way to go. Just type in the pokemon name, search for it, then click on "Flavor text and images" about halfway down the page. It should show you all of the sprites for that pokemon. Right-click and save all of the ones you plan to use.
If you're using item or trainer sprites, go to pe2k.com and click on "Spriting recources." Then find the generation you want them from. Click on either the items or trainers, then right-click and save the ones you want.

Okay, so now you have all your materials. Open an MS paint document, and open one of your sprites. If you're using more than one sprite for your creation, press Ctrl A on the first one, then Ctrl C. Open your next sprite, then click and drag the box on the corner of the white space to make room for your first sprite. Press Ctrl V, then before you do anything else, look to the far left of the screen. Below your toolbox, you should see two almost identical pictures. The top one will probably be highlighted, but make sure that the bottom one is instead. You should now be able to see your second sprite behind your first one. This is essential for spriting, it's called transparent selecting. You'll need it a lot later on, so just go ahead and put it on now.
Go ahead and drag your first sprite next to your second one. Do the Ctrl A, Ctrl C, and Ctrl V step for any additional sprites you're going to use.

So now you have all your material together on one screen. Spriting is more complicated than it sounds, huh? You'll probably want to save your work, maybe just as a workspace.

Now, for any mixture of sprites to look cohesive and pleasing, you'll need to do some recoloring. Recoloring means creating a new color-scheme that applies to all parts of the sprite that are going together. It's usually common to use the color of one or the other of the sprites you're mixing, but you can also use the color scheme of another entirely different sprite, or even make up a color scheme of your own if you can't find anything that's the color you want. By color scheme, I simply mean the different shades that make a single color on a sprite look 3-dimensional. For instance, on the Ruby/Sapphire Mewtwo sprite, its main body (grey) color scheme has five shades, and its tail (purple) color scheme has four shades. Most Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald sprites will have more shades in their color schemes than Diamond/Pearl ones, so watch out for that if you plan to mix one of each.
In order to recolor a sprite with a pre-existing color scheme, you'll need to use the eye-dropper tool, third one down on the left, and the paint bucket tool, second one down on the right. The eye-dropper copies any color you click on, but you have to make sure that you're clicking on the right color. In order to do so, you'll probably have to zoom in to the biggest magnification. Use the magnifying tool, third one down on the right, then click on the 8x in the box that appears below your toolbox. Find the lightest shade of the color scheme that you're using, and eye-dropper it. Then find all of the places on the sprite you're recoloring that have the lightest shade of the color scheme that you're replacing. For example, if I was turning the grey on Mewtwo into green, I'd copy the lightest green, then find all of the lightest grey parts on Mewtwo. They might almost be white, but don't be fooled. Sprites almost never have true white in them. Make sure you have the paint bucket tool, then click on all of those almost-white places.
Repeat this step for each shade after this. Make sure to get the next-darkest step for each color scheme. It is possible to go from darkest to lightest when coloring, but I find it's more difficult. Just do whatever works for you.
If you find that your color schemes don't have the same number of shades, then things can get a little tricky. I constantly have fewer than five shades when I've recoloring Mewtwo, so this happens a lot. Then it's up to you what to do. You can decide that one of the shades on your sprite that has more shades is not important, and combine it with another one, so they will both be the same color once they are done. Or you can create a shade of your own, and put it into the color scheme so that they both have the same number of shades. In order to create your own shade, copy the shade in your color scheme that you want to make darker or lighter. Then at the top, go to Colors, and Edit Colors. In the box that pops up, click Define Custom Colors. Ignore the numbers, and ignore the rainbow box. Clicking on the rainbow box will only give you a different color scheme, which is not what you want. Go to the narrow vertical strip to the far right, and slide the triangle up or down to create another shade. Make sure that you don't move it so much that it looks like the next already-existing shade in your color scheme. Once you have it, click Add to Custom Colors, then OK. The color in your paint bucket should now be the color you just made, so go ahead and fill in all the places that need the next shade. Then continue with the rest of the shades.
Now, a lot of sprites will have more than one color scheme, like Mewtwo's grey and purple. In order to make your sprite look really cool, it's always best to try and recolor every color scheme that there is.

So now that your sprite is all recolored, you should try mixing it with the other sprite that is now the same color as it. Pick some parts on one sprite that you want to try putting on to the other one. With the select tool, first one on the right, make a box around the entire part. Press Ctrl C. Then press Ctrl V and drag the part from the upper-left-hand corner into some empty space. Erase all of the extra pixels around the part, leaving only the part itself that you want to transplant. Then select it again, and drag it onto the place on the sprite where you want to put it. If it fits, that's good, and you can click anywhere to unselect it and cement it there, making it part of the sprite.
If it doesn't fit, drag it back to the blank space. It probably didn't fit because there was something already there, like an ear or an arm, and the part you were putting on didn't cover it all up, right? Well erase the original part, and try again.

Now, this is very important. Try to get your erasing done in as few clicks as possible. That way, if your new part still doesn't look right, you can press Ctrl Z and get the original part back. Ctrl Z can only remember the last three clicks you did, so make sure you always have a backup plan in case things go wrong. Either make your change in less than three clicks, or make a copy of the original so that you have something to go back to.

P.S.- Like any work on the computer, don't forget to save, save, save! Especially if something goes right! You never know when the power is going to randomly go out!

When your sprite is all done, go to imageshack.us and host your sprite. It will give you several links. Highlight the last one, and press Ctrl C. That's your direct link. Paste it into a post or your signature, surrounded by [img] and [/img] to make it show up. Paste it into your avatar blank to make it your avatar.

So let's review. When you have a spriting idea,
1. Get materials
2. Put materials all on a workspace
3. Recolor what needs to all be the same
4. Mix it up
5. Save
6. Host and show it off!

Spriting is really just experimentation, artistic discretion, and lots and lots of practice. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask, and I hope this walkthrough was helpful.

-Your friendly neighborhood floppybelly
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#2
I'm sorry I didn't see this. I've sprited so much, my eyes are bleeding.

Do you mind if I add this to the site?
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#3
Isn't that what this is? What do you mean, "the site"?
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#4
The main site.

www.freewebs.com/the-bayleef-hut

I'm working on it still... so can I put it on the main site?
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#5
Ummm.... sure? Not sure what the point of that is, but make sure I get credit and such.
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#6
It says floppybelly on the bottom so I guess that is credit. Thank you. Smile
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#7
yeah yeah, whatever. Just doin' my civil duty.
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#8
350 Golden Coins. Thank you.
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#9
Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you put a bank account with interest in, so we can all accumulate obscene ammounts of coins, and they'll become obsolete because we have nothing to spend them on.
Haunter, I think you're the only one who knows what I'm talking about.
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