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[phyrex]

alright, my CV
i learned how to mod stuff in starsector some days ago and, may i brag about it, i learned quite quickly (thanks to trylobot tho, his program helped immensely)
so now i can positively say i know how to mod ships, weapons, tweak stuff here and there for funny result. i dont know yet how to intimately create my own faction for use in the campaign, but that can wait until i have crafted every part of that faction.

And thats where my problem is.
i cant sprite a nail's worth. not that i need practice, i just dont know how to achieve the level of details and perspective you see in people's ship right now. I thought i'd give it a shot in gimp, did a little frigate to begin with by following warstalker's guide. it was aweful, it lacked detailed and wouldnt be credible even a second if putted in-game. it looked like a four-years old drawing.

i've scoured this forum to a good extent searching for tutorials and help. I found many, and of course they were useful, but none of them adressed directly my difficulties.
i dont want to do kitbashing tho, because i'd like to make my faction myself. only exception would be turret and harpoints emplacement sprites. but i cant find any clean one and i had to rip them myself from the game's file. they look ugly and dont mesh well with designs :/

so to put it accurately, i need help to learn how to sprite detailed and credible ship. im not asking for the moon either, i know i cant expect to sprite stuff like the vanilla ship. but i'd like to be able to do something better than what my ugly attempts have resulted in.

here's the frigate i drew for reference. mind you, it lacks the weapon slots and things like engines, but its complete enough to prove my point


p.s.: i must precise that it isint a lack of practice, i just cant fathom how to put details in sprites as little as those in the game. i'd be inclined to compare myself to erick doe's antediluvian ships, as they could be considered "simple" but even looking at those, i just cant figure it out.

[Pelly]

Do I have permission to have ago spriting your ship? (I will try and starsector it for you then show you how i did it)

[Erick Doe]

Spoiler

[close]

The above is a copy from my depth guide. You may want to try adding some depth to individual parts and edges of your ship. That way it will look less flat and details will stand out more.

[Pelly]

Well Eric got there with his tutorial, heres what i did...

[phyrex]

i guess it dosent help that to begin with, the ship of my faction are supposed to be gray and sharply-shaped

@pelhamds : how did you make it look like that ? thats already one step forward to having it look better

@erick doe : i made it with gimp, altho im kind of a noob with it and thereby i dont really understand that well what you are suggesting me to do.
also, its little things like plating, portholes and similar little details that i dont understand how im suppose to sprite on my ship. from afar, it all looks neat, but when im looking at it up close, its a grabled mess of pixels i dont understand

[Pelly]

I also use GIMP, what I do when making a new ship is to make the outline in one colour, then let the shape of it evolve, I then put the lighter colours in the 'higher' sections and shade around them. This lets me see where the top and bottom of the ship is, while its still being made.
I then slowly shade around the shapes and objects, creating the illusion of 3D. when that is finished I put small touches like, lights and plating on last.

All in all I can make a good ship from scratch from anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, as yours was just a shading/definition job it took me 20 minutes, I recommend in future to not use the straight line tool when making a gradient on a ship (it looks wrong/unnatural):

What you do is imagine, what the ship is meant to look like and then "see" it from above with the light hitting it, for example the 'nacelles' are curved, so the darker parts are on the edges and on the join to the ship, but with lighter parts on top.

Hope my babbling has helped.

[phyrex]

I also use GIMP, what I do when making a new ship is to make the outline in one colour, then let the shape of it evolve, I then put the lighter colours in the 'higher' sections and shade around them. This lets me see where the top and bottom of the ship is, while its still being made.
I then slowly shade around the shapes and objects, creating the illusion of 3D. when that is finished I put small touches like, lights and plating on last.

All in all I can make a good ship from scratch from anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, as yours was just a shading/definition job it took me 20 minutes, I recommend in future to not use the straight line tool when making a gradient on a ship (it looks wrong/unnatural):

What you do is imagine, what the ship is meant to look like and then "see" it from above with the light hitting it, for example the 'nacelles' are curved, so the darker parts are on the edges and on the join to the ship, but with lighter parts on top.

Hope my babbling has helped.

well something went wrong along the way because if i follow these instructions as i understand them, the result would be the sprite i initially made.
i started by drawing the outline of the ship and defining its general shape, i then added some definition to its shape. then i "shaded it" with the gradient.

ive created the design of these ship in 3D long ago. viewed from the front, they would have a generally hexagonal shape perfectly straight from bow to aft, hence the line gradient. the top is monochromatic as it is a plain flat platform where the spine turrets are supposed to be while the other two plain flat parts on the sides are ment to be "shelves" on which even more turrets rest. (i even thought about coloring those "shelves" a darker shade to emulate depth.

had i went to do the bigger design that have junctions between the side "pods" and the main core, i would have colored those junctions a darker shade as they would be placed lower compared to the body.

i guess overall, since the design is one of a pretty streamlined "brick", my shading isint a problem so much as adding more details ?

[PCCL]

have you seen this thread yet?

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=3342.0

if not check it out, helped me a lot with my spriting

[TheHappyFace]

detailing can be achieved in three ways as far as i know.
1. greebling, this is adding small geometrical figures like boxes ,lines and orbs to make your sprite look more complex.
this trick is used most of the times.
"ship using greebling"

2. actual detailing, this is adding details with an exact meaning (not just random shapes), it takes a lot longer and is best achieved by drawing them twice the size of the finished product.
this is not used many times due to the time taking process.
"one ship i made this way"

3. textures, this is taking a existing picture like for example a rusted steel plate or a part of a vanilla ship and using its detail by placing it over your ship and making it transparant.
this is way is for as far as i know used by Medonca's junkpirates.
"here's a ship i used a picture of planks for"

[Pelly]

Yeah, Happy I use the first and second methods, never thought of using overlays like that though....and you have given me a amazing idea. I WILL BE BACK SOON.

[phyrex]

yes gunnyfreak, ive seen that page. it helped but never adressed my problem directling

@thehappyface : i understand the greebling thingy, but how do you make it look hazy overall. i know how to do gradient shadows for the perspective and stuff, but i dont get how to do that hazy feeling pelhamds did on my ship and you on your first one so that the ship dosent look so monochromatic. i think that'd probably be one of the biggest step forward if i knew how

p.s.: ok attempt number 2
a slightly blurrerd paintjob was added at 50% oppacity just over the gradient layer, but under the outline and plating layer. said plating layer was redone this time with a bigger brush (to have a hazier outline).
i didint add doodads yet since this is just a prototype to learn proper spriting, but i guess adding those additional details with the brush will get the hazy feeling im looking for.


so ? did i improve ?

[Pelly]

It is better than your first one, but still looks a little flat, what I did was use the "paintbrush" tool to make the haziness and different areas look different.

Try taking your darkest colour and use it a small amount on the lowest parts as that is where the light would not reach, and on the stripe colour it like the ship, so it looks like its part of it instead of a stripe stuck on top.

[phyrex]

It is better than your first one, but still looks a little flat, what I did was use the "paintbrush" tool to make the haziness and different areas look different.

Try taking your darkest colour and use it a small amount on the lowest parts as that is where the light would not reach, and on the stripe colour it like the ship, so it looks like its part of it instead of a stripe stuck on top.

you answered right as i edited my post.
i wanted to know how you and thehappy face do to make it so that large zones of your ship stays a general color, but when zoomed in are made of different shades that breaks the monochromatic pattern i have.
i dont really get how im supposed to make it look less flat :/
also,  i gess the gradient isint dark enough. i havent changed it really since my first try

as for the stripe, its on the same layer as the red paint. both are supposed to be a paintjob applied on the ship. i tried putting the layer over everything but it just made things look redish and bad

[Pelly]

I will try and show you in screen shots how I do it, just wait.

[Pelly]

This is a quick and not very good ship, but it shows how I do it

The basic shape


Start using the paintbrush tool, notice the light area, where the higher parts are


More shading/greebling and adding a bit of detail


Pretty much done ship,with more detail added, flipped and requires some more work but reasonably ok.


All done in around 20 minutes.