2D Sprites

Graphicsgale for pixel art and animation. tutorials maybe.

edit: IANAPA good luck

 

There is nothing "easy" about the graphics of double dragon and certainly not final fight either

 

There's not easy way to do many forms of art. The only way to get better at any form of art is to practice practice practice. You can use almost any graphics software to do the job. You may not be good today, but with some sweat you can be good soon.

Otherwise, my advice is to hire an artist to do the job for you.

 

Professional animation and sprite making is a career path by itself, it's not easier than learning to code. So usually you will find good programmers who can draw a little and good artists who can code a little but rarely someone who is of pro level for both.

http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?show=index has good tips but without (loads of) practice you won't achieve anything that resembles Double Dragon.

 

ProgrammingFreak,

If programming is your strenght; you may want to invite an artist to work with you in a project. It's easier that way. Creating sprites is not easy.

 

I've done this in my past(mobile) jobs... Expect people wanting money for it I mean, is not easy, and is quite time consuming. I experimented more time to do it in the fight ones like those you mention.And martial arts ones, more that just the usual sprite.(tho if done arcade low res, is the same almost..)

 

im a fine arts bachelor and even I am worried about when its time to make the sprites for my own game, yikes!

 

Good artist aren't different from you. Actually what makes a good artist is that he keeps working on the piece as long as he is not satisfied.
The fact that you aren't satisfied in the first place is a good indication that you have the required talent to be an artist: criticism.
Just keep reading tutorials, experimenting, and working on those parts you don't like until you are satisfied.


But be warned that to make graphics like those in final fight it would take months or years to a one man team.

 

well I have no idea what your background is - are you good at drawing by freehand? are you good at coloring by freehand? sprites may look cheasier but they still require the same skills!

why not draw out your images by freehand first, and use that as a guide before making the sprites?

 

Or create a game where you dont need art.

 

Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be text based. If you make a game that has a lot of still shots like Myst, or talking heads like Pheonix Wright, you can draw free hand and scan them in an use them in your game.

Sometimes, its not about having graphics that look great, but are applied in a great manner.

For example, if you look at the PS2 game SkyGunner, they have really interesting cinematics despite mediocre art. It's all in the approach. The models don't look that great, but you view most of them from afar or from behind anyway. And they have 3D graphics with 2D comic book style panels overlaying them for their cinematics.

Or, look at most of the Pokemon games. Most of the pokemon are still images when seen in battle. They have two frames: view from behind or view from in front. Yet the games sell very well. I'm in college and I know classmates my age who are foaming over Diamond and Pearl.

So consider how to apply the graphics and that might help you with creating them.

 

Mannnnn,

If you cant hammer out some good art then dont bother, no point trying to make some half assed sh!t, my suggestion would be grab a odd style n run in another direction, maybe use stick figures and scan in sketchy sort of drawings from a book, maybe collage together some realy dodgy 3d and rehashed graphics warioware style, clay scanned sprites maybe? The options are endless, have a bit of a play around :>

You never know, you could carve out a nice little graphical niche, even if it looks ass in a artists eyes.

But if your making a match 3, hire a artist...

 

You can't just try a few times and then give up. Is that how you learned to walk? Becoming good (at anything) requires thousands of tries, not two or three tries. If you don't have the time to learn and decide to go with an artist, that's one thing. But it makes no sense to complain that you tried a couple of times and failed. Did you really expect to make something good on your first few tries? Were your first few programs anywhere near what you are capable of doing now?