BBSS Biweekly Battle Sprite Showdown, ~'Cause we're Artists! Don't need no Reasons~ (9/9: suggestions?) ideas and discussion thread.

[ErrantDShepherd]

...so I've been thinking. I love the competitions we have here. I feel they encourage growth in current members of the community and also invite new people to join in or try something different.

Hell, part of why I got back into Fire Emblem spriting after some years of inactivity was wanting to get involved with the contests.

...so we seem to have a lack of battle sprites in the community, or at least it doesn't seem to be a skill many have developed... So what better way to develop it than practice with some competitions?

...with that in mind, what do you guys think? Would you be interested? How would we set it up? A splice contest? ...a general theme with sections for both splices and full customs?

Would love to hear from the community on this. :D

That's the original post...

[spoiler=1st Edit]1/23

Awesome, sounding like we have a lot of interest in this... so I guess we'll get a contest up soon, in the meantime while I finalize/figure out rules lets have some thoughts on what the community would enjoy!

The poll is now up to get a sense of what we'll try with Format and Topics/Themes...

[spoiler=2nd Edit]1/24

...and the thread/contest is up! Hope you enjoy!

[spoiler=3rd Edit]1/27

added to the title, tribute to Aeo finally getting thru to my stubborn, sleep deprived ass to be more casual. :)

CURRENT EDIT: 1/28

So, took out the first poll as we have the first contest up and going well. Second poll on themes/topics will stay.

New poll added as there was some debate about how people wanted to be able to vote.

...so go vote, and discuss. (Found a quirk...If you have already entered a vote in one of the earlier polls, you will have to choose delete my vote in order to re-enter voting)

[spoiler= Copies of Old Polls]

1/28/15

Copy of the first poll: Contest Format.

Copy of the Second Poll: Topics and Themes, original votes.

...animations ended up getting some more votes after we put the first contest thread up. At the original time posted, animations did not have enough votes/interest to make it a category.

I'd like to try and have a week focused on animations though. Think that'd be great to spice things up and develop those skills. :)

...OK, votes got borked due to Question 1 Poll being deleted. Poll 2 is still reading the old multiple choice votes despite now being a single choice vote now... UGH... Ok, rejigged it, Question 2 back in right place...

Please recast your votes.

Edit: so... First comp. Entry vote is up... Go vote!

EDIT: ...2nd Comp vote is on! Go vote!

[spoiler=Helpful Tutorials]

Here's a good tutorial on use of colors in pixel art and spriting... and some others that may be a bit more advanced... but good reads anyways...

Thinking in Color

-Excellent easy to understand tutorial on how colors effect your pixel art/sprite. Definitely worth the read!

Derek-Make Games: 10 step custom sprite tutorial

-great quick, easy tutorial on custom pixel art/sprites.

So you Wanna be a Pixel Artist? 11 part series.

-A bit wordy, but very well done in-depth look at the world of pixel art in general, from map tiles to sprites to animations.

BwdYeti's tutorials are very recommended reads as well. Please share if you know of any other excellent tutorials! :D

...so here are the links to BwdYeti's custom battle sprite tutorials... Shared with his permission. I found his second tutorial, along with the Thinking in Color very fascinating on palletes... Hoping to apply those to my next couple sprites now that I understand it a bit better.

BwdYeti's Custom Battle Sprite Tutorial #1

-kinda old, from before 2009... But a great look at the process of creating custom battle sprites from the Best Battle Spriter around... Then and now.

Yeti's custom tutorial #2

-his second tutorial, even better than the first! Great tips on creating a custom pallete that fits with GBA battle sprite colors. A must read for anyone doing battle sprites!

---

Anyways, hope these help! Good luck, and good spriting! ;)

Edited September 10, 2015 by TheErrantShepherd

[Garnef]

Perhaps it could be a contest that has certain themes, with splicing being allowed for what you're doing. Some neat theme ideas would be a Battle Sprite based on your avatar (Unless your avatar is a battle sprite, in which case, something else? :x)

Nontheless, I like this idea, I really need to practice spriting anyways.

[Lt.Smirks]

Totally for this idea! Maybe two different comps: one for bases and the other for animations.

[Kramy]

I'm down for it. It'll at least get me start spriting again ><

[Dragoncat]

100 times YES! Mugs get too much love, battle sprites not enough.

[Anacybele]

What Dragoncat said! I like doing mugs, but battle sprites are just naturally easier to do since they're smaller and don't require as much work.

[Lenh]

I'm up for it! (would be great motivation to get into battlesprites again too~)

[ErrantDShepherd]

Cool, how about some more theme ideas? Some more suggestions for how to set it up?

...I think once we get some input on how people would like to see it set up I'll set up a poll for people to vote on what format we want to go with.

So for the competition itself, we could have it being like the splice competition but battle splices... I like doing full custom so we could have a separate category for that... Maybe bonus points for animations rather than a separate category?

[Klokinator]

Battle sprites of characters from vanilla in different classes? Hector as a myrm, Lyn as a shaman, etc.

[Fateborn]

Or perhaps create a character from a series or such into a battle sprite?

[Lenh]

Imo it's best to keep things fluid at the start, begin with the structure that you'd want yourself and adjust it depending on participation and feedback. There's probably a sweet spot but I think it'll take some exploring to hit.

Personally, I like variety~ Seems like most people want custom options to be open, but I think it's good to have enough direction everyone's not having to take the full-custom route every time to feel like they're a part of the game.

[NobodiePichu]

Imo it's best to keep things fluid at the start, begin with the structure that you'd want yourself and adjust it depending on participation and feedback. There's probably a sweet spot but I think it'll take some exploring to hit.

Personally, I like variety~ Seems like most people want custom options to be open, but I think it's good to have enough direction everyone's not having to take the full-custom route every time to feel like they're a part of the game.

seconded

actually battle sprite splice comps might be a good thing to encourage more people to try battle spriting, increasing both the quality and the number of people who could create custom animations.

[Chocolate Kitty]

so why don't you stop talking about it and just do it

we don't put thought into new contests, i certainly didn't

Edited January 23, 2015 by Skitty of Time

[Kuru]

I've never tried my luck with battle sprites splicing, probably never will. But it will be fun to see the contests. Maybe you guys can have a few categories, or at least every once in a while make contests that feature battle sprites for FE characters from the late games, such as Chrom, avatar, etc. It would be awesome to see those. Just thought I'd say that and encourage you all to make the battle sprite competition happen.

[Dragoncat]

I've never tried my luck with battle sprites splicing, probably never will. But it will be fun to see the contests. Maybe you guys can have a few categories, or at least every once in a while make contests that feature battle sprites for FE characters from the late games, such as Chrom, avatar, etc. It would be awesome to see those. Just thought I'd say that and encourage you all to make the battle sprite competition happen.

I made a whole crapton of Awakening battle sprites xD They're not overly fantastic, but yeah.

I like the "battle sprite your profile pic" idea.

[Kuru]

I made a whole crapton of Awakening battle sprites xD They're not overly fantastic, but yeah.

I like the "battle sprite your profile pic" idea.

Really? I imagine they are in your thread? *If so, I will see them in a bit*

Damn, imagine if I took part in the competition and had to make the Terminator? lol I don't know where the hell I'd get started.

[Toa]

I'd be interested, I like to do the occasional battle sprite. I don't have any new theme ideas, but I like all the ones that have been submitted, making a sprite for my avatar sounds especially fun

Edited January 24, 2015 by Toa

[ghast]

when i hosted battlesprite competitions over on teb the turnout was incredible. These things are so hype

[Person123]

I'd likely participate...occasionally.

[Anacybele]

I've already sprited every one of RD's third tier and laguz classes! (except for lion laguz) lol

[singularity]

sure, why not? preferably 2 kinds of competition: the regular one is splicing and the other one may include full customs.

[Willie]

I've never tried battle spriting, but it would be fun to participate!

Maybe a category could be crossovers from other fe games that are not gba, or even from different games/tv shows/movies/whatever.

[ErrantDShepherd]

EDIT: accidental double post

Edited January 24, 2015 by TheErrantShepherd

[ErrantDShepherd]

Cool, how about some more theme ideas? Some more suggestions for how to set it up?

...I think once we get some input on how people would like to see it set up I'll set up a poll for people to vote on what format we want to go with.

So for the competition itself, we could have it being like the splice competition but battle splices... I like doing full custom so we could have a separate category for that... Maybe bonus points for animations rather than a separate category?

...weird, had this open when the thread was younger... and it posted it as post 8!

XD

...reposting so people can see this right away! Also, setting up a poll with format options and some theme/topic suggestions.

EDIT: ...stop messing with me internet! >:O

Sorry, didn't mean to double post.

Poll up now!

Edited January 24, 2015 by TheErrantShepherd

[Lenh]

Awww man when's this gonna start?

I'm overthinking here so feel free to take it with a grain of salt and/or ignore it:

Guess I'm curious too if there's going to be any prize incentive or if you're gonna orchestrate the whole thing as host? Also how long are you thinking for the deadlines and voting periods?

There are a lot of topic-based themes on the poll that are worded towards full custom or character-specific (not class-specific / generic) work. I'd kind of like to see some more topics towards the mod/splice department like 'make an upgrade/downgrade base for X class' or 'reskin a vanilla sprite'. Then again I think it's too soon to be thinking up a full topic list, and think getting the thing actually off the ground should come first. ^^;