Drawing is Easy... for Artists

Hey guys, no update today. I just thought that today I'd make a quick post about spriting.

If you're reading this blog trying to learn something, then I'm guessing you are not the best at programming. If fate has smiled upon you, you probably are not very good at programming, but are an excellent artist. If so, good for you. However, if you are like me, you probably cannot draw to save your life. Being a good artist is a talent gained through time and practice. If you don't want to take that time and effort, there are alternatives. Not nearly as good alternatives, but still there.

One way is to use a sprite template. As mentioned before, I used one by Chumbucket, and it actually contains a ton of animations that you can use. I honestly don't know of any others, but editing pre-existing sprites is a possibility as long as your game is freeware.

For me though, it wasn't enough. While I have not shown them yet, the attack animations are actually edits of the template's graphics, for better or for worse, but I like to have at least a slight personal touch in what I use. Here are some pretty good pixel art tutorials I have read and learned a few tricks from. Again, these will not make you great artists, but they teach skills worth learning.

A tutorial by Derek Yu. A personal favorite artist.
     http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=218
A tutorial by The Mechanical Maniacs.
     http://themechanicalmaniacs.com/guides/spriteguide.php#Type4
A collection of tutorials on Serebii forums. It's a pokemon site, but there are several good thorough guides.
     http://www.serebiiforums.com/showthread.php?59110-Sprite-Tutorials-56K-Warning!
I tutorial by... gas13(?). He actually has several, and they are very thorough and well thought out.
     http://gas13.ru/v3/tutorials/sywtbapa_almighty_grass_tile.php