I started playing around with RPG Maker XP last week and it sparked a
flare of interest in 2D sprite/charset/chipset making. One of the
annoying things though that I found was that the program came with a
rather limited set of character sprites (around 100 or so) and I got
to thinking...hey, what if I wanted the blue haired girly to be the
one wearing the maid outfit instead of the short brown haired girl?
Or what if I wanted to use the cool looking suit of armor that they
stuck on that weird lookin green haired guy on the cool brown hair
guy?

So at first I was like, "Well I can just do individual edits as
needed." A good idea in theory, but not all that practical in the
long run as I'd have to stop and devote a whole bunch of extra time
and effort every time I'd want to make a new charset. So then it hit
me...a character sprite generator!

http://www.backwater-productions.net...er_Preview.gif

Teh awesomeness of such a beast would allow you to create a near
infinite number of unique characters with very little effort and would
also allow game makers with little to no graphic design skill the
ability to generate great looking custom characters for their
endeavors, thus increasing the overall quality of game play.

Why the peeps who made RPG Maker didn't think of it in the first place
I dunno...I mean it's not exactly like it requires some huge level of
skill. Basically I'm taking all of the existing outfits and hair
pieces in their sprite collections and then adapting them to my base
models and faces. The end result is massive customization...near
infinite too as the release version of the character maker will allow
you to shift the hue, saturation and lightness on almost every single
object (it's a lil tricky though because you don't want ALL of the
colored areas shifting in a piece).

Some of the outfits and hair pieces I did from scratch though, like
teh bra and panties. It's especially neat because there's all sorts
of extras, like if you want the character to have elf ears, or kitty
ears and tail, or fox ears and tail, angel wings, demon wings, mermaid
tail and currently I'm trying to come up with a decent looking satyr,
bunny ears and tail and harpy extra.

The other part I really love about the art of sprite making is all the
objects 'n such:
http://www.backwater-productions.net...ite_Sample.png

At the risk of sounding a bit effeminate, I guess you could liken it
to a boys (or unisex) version of a doll house. But it also combines
the customization and manipulation that you get from say building a
town/city/castle/space station/etc/etc/etc out of Legos.

There's also quite a bit of nostalgia in the art as well, at least for
fellow children of the 80s like myself who grew up playing such games.

--

Onideus Mad Hatter
mhm ¹ x ¹
http://www.backwater-productions.net
http://www.backwater-productions.net/hatter-blog


Hatter Quotes
-------------
"I'm not a professional, I'm an artist."

"Your Usenet blinders are my best friend."

"Usenet Filters - Learn to shut yourself the fuck up!"

"Drugs killed Jesus you know...oh wait, no, that was the Jews, my
bad."

"There are clingy things in the grass...burrs 'n such...mmmm..."

"The more I learn the more I'm killing my idols."

"Is it wrong to incur and then use the hate ridden, vengeful stupidity
of complete strangers in random Usenet froups to further my art?"

"Freedom is only a concept, like race it's merely a social construct
that doesn't really exist outside of your ability to convince others
of its relevancy."

"Next time slow up a lil, then maybe you won't jump the gun and start
creamin yer panties before it's time to pop the champagne proper."

"Reality is directly proportionate to how creative you are."

"People are pretty fucking high on themselves if they think that
they're just born with a soul. *snicker*...yeah, like they're just
givin em out for free."

"Quible, quible said the Hare. Quite a lot of quibling...everywhere.
So the Hare took a long stare and decided at best, to leave the rest,
to their merry little mess."

"There's a difference between 'bad' and 'so earth shatteringly
horrible it makes the angels scream in terror as they violently rip
their heads off, their blood spraying into the faces of a thousand
sweet innocent horrified children, who will forever have the terrible
images burned into their tiny little minds'."

"How sad that you're such a poor judge of style that you can't even
properly gauge the artistic worth of your own efforts."

"Those who record history are those who control history."

"Is my .sig delimiter broken? Really? You're sure? Awww,
gee...that's too bad...for YOU!" `, )