User blog:Loupi/Tutorial: How to create Custom Sprites using Photoshop

Greetings and welcome to Loupi's second tutorial. This time i'll show you how  i  create sprites using Photoshop.

Note: You need to have some basic Photoshop knowledge (besides the program itself) which you can obtain by reading guides and tutorials (that's how i learned).

Anyway let's start by deciding the character we want to do. Not all characters are possible to create with in-game sprites and some are easier than others. For this tutorial i will be creating an alternate uniform for Quake based on her look on ABC's Agents of SHIELD  for Truelegden.

So get some images for references and paste them on Photoshop on a new document.

http://i.imgur.com/dISPzwa.png

I go here and do some research (by the way all these are ripped and uploaded by user Cyrus Annihilator so we should be thankful to him). What parts can i use? Which head do i use? Whose hair? What legs? I download the spritesheets of the characters i want, in this instance Modern Quake .

Open the spritesheet in Photoshop and select only the standby sprite and the separate pieces that create it.

http://i.imgur.com/lprGKet.png

Paste them in the main document. It's good to save your work every now then so you won't lose your progress. Now we have to cut each piece and paste it in a different layer. Name each layer to make it more organized. Set them on the standby sprite to get the positions right. Like this:

http://i.imgur.com/sD5vngf.png

http://i.imgur.com/SHbcQtv.png

Now we can start editing our sprite to our preference. Sometimes even when creating an alt of an existing character you might not want to use all parts of their default sprite so it's ok to experiment using various sprites together. Since Daisy has shorter hair in the show i'll try Mystique's or Sin's hair to see if any matches better. As before i download their spritesheets and copy the parts i want (this time just the heads).

When you want only part of a layer you can either select it using any method you feel comfortable (i like the lasso tool) and either delete it OR using the very useful mask feature. Select the part you want or don't want and click on the button i've highlighted below in the image.

http://i.imgur.com/TUNkLJk.png

I selected the face so clicking on the Add Layer Mask button  hid  the rest. If i had selected the hair around it would keep visible just that. Layer Masks are very useful because if you want to hide some part of a layer while having clicked on the layer mask icon (next to the layer icon) if you paint black with the brush tool it hides part of the layer, if you paint white it makes visible again.

http://i.imgur.com/1Og3osD.png

http://i.imgur.com/S1uxIl0.png

Now you'll ask why is this better than deleting. The answer is simple. Deleting can't be undone. Well it can but Photoshop can Undo only so many times. Using masks lets you edit layers whenever you want even if you forgot the tiniest of things.

When moving a layer you'll probably want the mask to move along with the layer so the little chain icon between the layer and the mask needs to be visible. Clicking on it will make the mask or the layer move independently. Right clicking on the mask lets you delete it without deleting the layer too. Shift + Left clicking disables the mask but doesn't delete it. Try to familiarise yourself with this feature cause it's very useful in creating custom sprites.

Anyway using masks i've hidden most of Quake's hair so i can try on Sin' hair.

http://i.imgur.com/7yUzXCk.png

http://i.imgur.com/TJYkXs2.png

As you can see it doesn't quite fit so we need to trasnform it a bit. Hit Ctrl + T or go to Edit > Free Transform. If you hover over the edges of the Transform Box that appears you'll see that your mouse cursor changes. Left Clicking and sliding in any direction lets you resize the layer. If you Shift + Left click on one of the corners you can resize the layer proportionally so it won't be distorted. Clicking outside the box lets you rotate the layer while clicking inside lets you move it.

Transform it as you see fit and hit enter.

http://i.imgur.com/kdYsKqk.png

Now the hair fits somewhat better but the color isn't correct. There's many ways to color something on Photshop but i'll show you the one i use. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. In the window that pops up check Use Previous Layer to create Clipping Mask. That will make the adjustment layer to affect only the layer that you had selected (you can change it later so don't worry).

You'll see 3 sliders. Hue which changes the color. Saturation which i believe is self-explanatory. Taking the slider left will make the color less vibrant up to the point it becomes desaturated (or grayscale/black &white). Taking the slider right will make it more vibrant (which isn't always good). The last slider is Lightness which again is self-explanatory.

Try playing around with the sliders and see what you come up with. Another feature of the Hue/Saturation adj. layer is  Colorize . If you click it you'll see that by default it sets the Hue to 0 the Saturation to 25 and the Lightness to 0. If you had a color besides black/white as your foreground the adj. layer would automatically set the sliders to create that color but it wouldn't be perfect. So let's try creating brown by ourselves. Brown is technically a dark orange so bring the Hue slider between Red and Yellow. Decrease the Saturation cause hair doesn't look very realistic with too bright colors. Last but not least bring the Lightness down. This is what i've come up with so far:

http://i.imgur.com/ZmsEKAD.png

But sometimes Hue/Saturation isn't enough so it's good to use other adj, layers. Another way to make an adj. layer is by clicking on the button next to the Add Layer Mask (it's the one that's a half grey/half dark grey circle). Click on that and select  Brightness/Contrast . Again Brightness is self-explanatory but it works differently than Lightness in Hue/Saturation. Contrast changes the pixels that compromise the image to be more contrasting with each other. By decreasing Contrast you make the pixels more flat, more of the "same color".

http://i.imgur.com/BWkGmvD.png

Much better right?

Note: If your adj. layer isn't just affecting the layer you want but all layers below it hover between the adj. layer and the layer you want and click Alt + Left Click. That will make the adj. layer affect only the layer the arrow is pointing (above adj. layers will affect the regular layer below not the adj. layer directly below them).

http://i.imgur.com/89YlpEs.png

Now let's say i want to make the silver parts of Quake's torso into dark blue like the rest of her outfit. I can select dark blue using the eyedropper tool (or if you have the brushtool click Alt + Left Click) and then when i create the Hue/Saturation adj. layer and click on Colorize they sliders will be set so that the layer will create the dark blue. As i said before it won't be perfect so we gotta edit these values. Bring the Lightness almost all the way down. You'll notice that that made all of the torso dark which we didn't want. Adj. Layers can also have Masks to let you select which part of the layer you want the adj layer to affect. So go to the mask click Ctrl + I to inverse (this makes the color into negative so white becomes black) the color so it's all black = hidden. Now paint with white over the silver parts to make the adj layer visible there. You should end up with something like this:

http://i.imgur.com/rhv125M.png

If you're not satisfied with the shade of dark blue you can go back to the adj. layer panel by clicked on the half-grey/half-dark grey icon in the layer panel to edit the values again.

http://i.imgur.com/YxSJxUG.png

I'll do the same for the Left Arm Shoulder.

''Tip: Instead of creating another adj. layer since we want the same values/color we can just duplicate the adj. layer we created now and drag it above the L Arm layer. Don't forget to set the adj. layer to affect only the L Arm layer.''

Checking the reference again i realized that Quake's outfit in the show isn't dark blue at all so we need to make it black. Simply go to the adj. layer we did for the silver parts of the torso and decrease the Saturation to 0. Make a new one for the rest of the torso and just bring the Saturation to 0 there too. Duplicate that 0 Saturation adj. layer to make all dark blue parts in her outfit into black.

Tip: You can click Alt + drag the layer mask from a layer (either regular or adjustment) to duplicate it on to another layer.

http://i.imgur.com/HTANvhL.png

It looks good but it needs some details to make it closer to the tv show's design. I don't like the skin tone Quake's sprite has so i'll try to change it. Skin can be hard and tricky to make/color. I usually select the color directly from the reference image to be more precise and go from there. So:

http://i.imgur.com/66lDPRd.png

Not very good.

http://i.imgur.com/O0fMxA4.png

http://i.imgur.com/7mvI7DW.png

Better. Now i'd like to add some gun holsters and possibly a belt. I think i'll borrow these from the STech armor for the Female Agent. I'd like to show you another method of selecting:  Quick Mask Mode .

http://i.imgur.com/VMKc6tJ.png

Click the button highlighted above or as the hover box says click Q. Now try painting black over an area. You'll notice that it paints with a transparent red. This red area when we will turn off the Quick Mask Mode will not be selected but instead the area around it will be selected. So i'm gonna paint the holster (even though i want it selected i can invert the selection later) like this:

http://i.imgur.com/mQ3uNVg.png

Now by clicking on the Quick Mask Mode/Q again it will make the selection. In this instance since i painted red over the holster everything else was selected. So i just invert the selection by going to Select > Inverse or Shift + Ctrl + I. And ta-da! Now simply click the Layer Mask button in the Layers panel to make a mask. Duplicate the layer to our main document by Right Clicking on the layer > Duplicate Layer and on the Doucment drop down menu select your document.

''Note: You can apply  the Layer Mask if you'd like but then you won't be able to make any changes to it. To do that click Right Click on the Layer Mask and Apply Mask. Now you can go Select > All or Ctrl + A and then copy and paste the holster back to the main document.''

Move the holster to the proper position. Now do what we did for the belt.

http://i.imgur.com/1guXxG2.png

I'm not quite satisfied with the hair so i'll try some other options using the methods i showed you before.

http://i.imgur.com/4Ppa6Kt.png

I think Black Widow's (AoU/Avengers) hair looks closer to Chloe Bennet's so i'll be keeping that (i'll keep Sin's too though in case Truelegden likes it more :p).

So this pretty much sums up the tutorial. These are the methods i use to create custom sprites which aren't nothing if you're familiar with the program. Hope this was helpful.

'''Happy spriting! :3'''