General spriting question

[Alpha Six]

GraphicsGale has its own grid function.

Of course, that's probably what you're getting at.

[Cobalt Blue]

i believe its the easiest option he can use. at least thats how i do it.

[ClashPDG]

Yeah, the more I looked at the tape thing, the less I liked it, I was thinking of creating a simple grid and putting it as a layer on gimp. I'm interested in checking out graphics gale though, I hope it would make my life a bit easier. Man I wish there was a standard out there to simplify this process a bit. It's a pain because I have to sacrifice time I would have dedicated to programming to figuring out ways to better utilize these sheets. Grrrr....

Right now, because of the way I have it lined up, my protagonist does not run smoothly... more work is needed.

[Vipershark]

doesn't gimp have a build-in grid feature?

If you're talking about what I think you are, even mspaint has the grid feature; it's ctrl+g

[TheouAegis]

I use Game Maker for two reasons.
1) It will let you save sprites after you finally finished getting them in the right order and alignment.
2) It's tedious, and only shows the sprite in 100% scale, but the sprite previewer automatically updates and shows you how every change you've made affects the sprite overall. So give yourself adequate canvas size and start shifting sprites around. You can also use the arrows to cycle through each frame, which sometimes is enough to see where you need to shift tiles around.

The other method I use, typically in Game Maker but as well as other programs like PSP and AnimationShop Pro, is to pick a reference pixel. This doesn't always work and requires some tweeking, as well as an understanding of how things move in the real world, but it can be a time saver. Megaman's an easy example. As he runs, his arms and legs move, but his head doesn't. So pick a pixel on his face and get that pixel's coordinates. Now make sure that pixel is always at the same coordinates or along the same row or column (since his jumping sprite is taller, for example). 80% of the time this works for me.

@Vipershark Please change your avatar. She's too cute. Everytime I see your posts my hormones rage.

[Vipershark]

TheouAegis, GraphicsGale does everything you just listed, and far better than Game Maker. Not to mention that its image editor isn't almost a pixel off in calibration, resulting in you clicking in one spot and having the pixel next to it be affected (which is what happens in Game Maker). Try using it for a while and I think you'll like it.

Also, no. I like it too much. :p

[ClashPDG]

Just to bring some resolution to this thread, I did use Graphics gale, and I love it. Graphics gale doesn't have tons of extra features that won't do me any good like gimp does. I know gimp has a lot of great things, but I rather have a slimmed down program for this. Not to mention, it loads a lot faster than gimp does.

I can now adjust the sprite sheet the way I need to, and it's become a trivial process especially because of its grid function. GG was an excellent suggestion, thanks again for the help! My Sprites now all sit centered in a 128 x 128 pixel box and when I load them into my game, they look gorgeous!

Graphics gale for the win!

By the way, if anyone is interested, here is the thread for the game I'm making: Revenge