Lord Glenn

I appreciate the comment. Wasn't intended to (considering I hadn't really seen much of FE4 at that point), but I can see where you're coming from. I used to specialize mainly in battle scenes and templates mainly just for spriting. Nowadays, I mainly sprite weapon icons, and on an rare occasion, templates for hacks. Blame that on the reference image. That and the miniature dimensions for the weapon icon sprites. I could retool it to fill the entire 16x16 box, but I'd have to get the motivation to do so, especially because it was only used in that old image. -------------------------------------------- Anyway, as promised, I bring more goods, namely three sets of weapon icons spanning a large portion of my spriting career: First up, a generic compilation image. As with the above post, a large chunk of these icons are not natively GBA-friendly. If you see something interesting, let me know and I could possibly convert it. - The first six rows comprise icons that I've done mainly for my personal use in battle scenes, statsheets, etc. A decent handful of the first couple of rows were icons for a hack project that I had been working on as part of a group before it died due to the project lead disappearing from the internet for a long time. - The next row are GBA representations of the FE10 Dark Tomes (minus the last one, which should have been in the first set). - The next group of two rows are icons that I've done for Mage Knight 404's two ROM hacks, FE404 and FE: A Sacred Dawn. - The row below that contains icons that I made for Blazer a couple of years ago for his hack, PoD. - The next row down has icons that I made for flyingace24 and his hacks. - The row with two icons contains icons that I made for someone who decided to have the daunting task of running a FE map RP and creating statsheets for all of the allies and enemies that appeared on each map. Needless to say, it died off before I could ever finish the icons for it. - The last row contains icons that I've made that don't fit anywhere in the FE style of icons. Next, a compilation image of icons converted from FE9 to FE6/7/8 style icons: This one is pretty self-explanatory. I never finished the sheet, mainly because Axe and Bow weapon icons tend to make me very aggravated (mainly Axe, but some Bows can be a pain). These should all be GBA-friendly, unless I happened to glance over one of the icons when I recompiled all of the ones I had done a few years ago. Finally, one of my more recent accomplishments, a sheet of recreated FE4 Holy Weapon icons, in FE6/7/8 style: These were made for my pal, seph1212, for his FE8 hack that he is working on. They're mainly based on the artwork on Fire Emblem World for the icons, with the only exceptions being Gae Bolg, Gungnir, and, IIRC, Balmung. Aside from the notching on Ichival's arrow and the tome book structure, everything was sprited from scratch. Anyway, that's all for now, though hopefully I'll have something to post within the next week which should liven this thread up a bit.

Welcome to my sprite topic. Though, this sprite topic will be more like a museum, considering I don't sprite very often. When I do, it tends to be miniscule work or something that takes me very long to do. Basically, this won't get updated much. But, I invite you to look anyway. (Also, these are far from all of my works. These are just the ones relatively fitting to be posted.) (One note of forwarning. A large majority of these sprites were made just for the recreational purpose of *spriting*. If you're looking for stuff for hacks, you're primarily out of luck (though, I do have a FEW things that would be hack-ready).) [spoiler=Backstory stuff]I've been spriting since late 2005 (early '06 at the latest), so a lot of the work below reflects the more simplistic design standards of that time; there aren't a lot of completely custom works since basically no one did them that far back (though, a small number had started to branch out and delve into it). Having started back then and hitting the upper-end of high school and the start of college when the craft started dramatically evolving, I didn't exactly have the free time to keep up with the changes to what really made sprites stand out. (Plus, my artistic skill on a scale from 1 to 10 is about a 2, so creating things from scratch is extremely tricky and time-consuming (no notion of proportions, etc.).) Unlike most spriters, I never really got into doing face sprites/mugs/whatever you want to call them. I can count on one hand the number that I've made via splicing in the ~5 years that I've been doing this. I chose moreso to focus on creating battle scenes that could be displayed as signatures or whatever you wanted them to be used for. (Thus, as an offshoot of this, I ended up dabbling more in battle sprites, templates, and weapon icons.) So, don't be alarmed when the majority of the works that will be posted here mainly fall into those sections. Though I've jumped back into the craft after a few years of basically not touching it, college basically dampens the time that I have to do most anything, so I really only sprite when I've got a creative flow going and I have something to work on. (Which, given the amount of time I can usually spend at once on a sprite, means that smaller and easier sprites are my "forte" these days (i.e. weapon icons).) I guess that covers the backstory type of information, so I have a final "disclaimer" before actually posting stuff. Given the age of most of what I'm about to post, a very large number of the images will not meet actual game limitations (15+1 colors (and exact palettes that are used in-game such as for weapons), RGB values that are multiples of 8, etc.), so I don't really want to hear about that. (Personally, if the image isn't going to be used in a Fire Emblem game/hack, I'd rather the image look the way I want than be forced to meet requirements that it doesn't need to. Sure, keeping everything to the correct palettes and such makes things more authentic and "challenging" in some senses, but that still doesn't mean that you have to do it for static images.) Newer stuff (late '07 until now, I'd wager) doesn't have this issue however (working on ROM hacking projects tends to keep you in the engine's mindset). [spoiler=Older Works] First, we have one of the less interesting pieces to be displayed in here. Section 1 - Image 1 Nothing really special about this one, aside from the spell effect. Probably my favorite one that I've done. (Individual components for the effects were taken from across the web.) Next, we feature three scenes all using a template that I worked on a long time ago. They were made from a customized FE8 template (crossed with part of FE7's). Section 2 - Image 1 Section 2 - Image 2 Blank Template These scenes used to impress me more than they do now (in light of recent works), but I still think they're nice enough to post. The first scene features a still frame of a spell (composed of parts from Bolting, Gespenst, Apocalypse, the Promotion Lightning (FE7), and parts from an RPG Maker XP spell sheet) along with a tweaked Sage battle sprite, using Mage Knight 404's "split dress" design (which he ok'd the use of longggggggggggggg ago for this). Scene two features a crappy Eltosian battle sprite and a slightly better Master Knight sprite. The only thing I really like about this scene is the fog effect (colorized Excalibur frames (FE8)) and how it mixes with the background. (Why can't the actual games have effects like this? Yes, I know that FE9/10 kind of have them, but they could be so much more elaborate...) Scene three is the nicest of the group, though that's due in part to Miskantdhur (of FESS)'s wonderful Rexcalibur animation that we tweaked to work for the positioning that is used in the scene. Elaine's battle sprite is actually much nicer than Jonathan's, so it's a shame that you can't see it in this scene. :/ Now, we have two battle sheets that were made for a long dead hacking project (well before FEditor Adv's custom animation builder - back when you had to overwrite animations). They were based on a character that was using a mug reminiscent of Tiltyu from FE4 and were supposed to be a Cleric -> Bishop. Thus, the following sheets were made: Sheet 1 Sheet 2 I still like these, and if I wasn't always busy, I'd think of making actual custom animations for it instead. Here we have a more recent battle scene and template that I've done. Modeled after the Kirby series, a decent amout of the work on this was done from scratch, while looking at reference images. Section 4 - Image 1 The template can be found here. If you been on SF since I joined, you've likely seen the first image before, since it's been in my signature from time to time. I do like the scene, largely because I'm a snow kinda guy. Following this theme, we now have come across a statsheet template based around the Kirby series. This is done less from scratch, with only some individual components being done as such: Statsheet 1 - Personal Statsheet 2 - Lucia (Lunar 2) Template can be found here. Mage Knight 404 made the face sprite of Lucia. Similarly, Black Dragon created the face sprite being used as my personal face sprite. Also featured are some random bits and pieces done with varying templates: Random Stuff - Image 1 Made with Mage Knight 404's A Sacred Dawn battle template (slightly older version). The map in the background can be seen further down in this post in its entirety. Made with VincentASM's FEDS battle template. (Formerly) Current statsheet, made with VincentASM's FE10 statsheet template. (Note: Black Dragon made the face sprite.) You can check these out at your leisure. [spoiler=Weapon Icons] A partial compilation of GBA versions of FE9's icons. Axes are my bane when it comes to icons, so I doubt those will ever get finished. Free for use, though these really aren't up to quality standards any longer. Update to the Meteor icon. Free for use. Ragnell and Alondite updates. Free for use. 2010 Weapon Icon Compilation A generic compilation image. Most of these are icons that I've made for myself for various battle scenes. GBA versions of FE10's dark tomes are also on here (though the last icon should have been up top with the icons that I had just made out of the blue) as well as icons that I've done for hacks and icons that don't fit at all with FE's icons. FE4 Holy Weapons, V1.0 All 13 Holy Weapons from FE4/5 in GBA format. Most are based on the art on Fire Emblem World, though Balmung, Gaebolg, and Gungnir had other references as well. The fletching on Ichival and the basic tome designs are the only things that I didn't sprite from scratch. Free for use, but why would you want to use the older versions? Updated Holy Weapon icons. Felt like they could use some sprucing up. Free for use. A sheet comprising most of the weapon icons that I've made that are currently featured in FE4: Rebirth. Obviously, mine are the ones with the lighter background color. Some can be seen in the above sheets, others are tweaks of ones above, while the rest are new. A single icon that I happen to like which was made for something on FES. Icon for FEC on FES Just a random Light tome, but I thought the design was actually kind of cool when I finished it. New icons for Elibian Nights. Not going to spoil what they are (well, the first two should be obvious, but not telling for the others..!), so you'll have to play the hack to see for yourself! :D GBA Bronze Weapons Weapon icons for the Bronze Weapons. Free to use. Also, a very minute teaser set of icons for something I'm working on... Teaser Set 1 (From left to right, top row to bottom: Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, Anima, Light, Dark, Staff, Palette) New icons for FE4R. Not added to the main sheet, because I honestly don't remember what's been added where anymore. Teaser Set Part 2: Teaser Set 2 (From left to right, top row to bottom: Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow, Anima, Light, Dark, Staff, Palette) Icons for SF's Custom Icon Contest. Icons for Yuri's Sidestory. New teaser set of icons. Random icon. Free for use (but not modification). Icons for Hero of Time's hacking project: Iron Sword Slim Sword Steel Sword Silver Sword Iron Lance Slim Lance Poison Lance Steel Lance Silver Lance Iron Axe Steel Axe Silver Axe Iron Bow Poison Bow Steel Bow Silver Bow OUTDATED - SEE CUSTOM ICON TUTORIAL V2.0 BELOW SPOILERS. Also, here's a link to my Custom Weapon Icon Tutorial, if that kind of thing interests you. Seeing as a wide variety of people either don't bother making new icons for hacks or, frankly, make terrible ones, I wrote this to try to help people improve the quality and creativeness of their icons. [spoiler=Templates] Statsheet template for FE4R. The "cloud"-like background was taken from FE5 and palette tweaked. The silhouette of the dragon was cropped from Narga's frames, slightly tweaked and then flood filled. The Holy Blood circle behind it is a tweaked pixel over from the FE4 statsheet. The border around the face sprite box was inspired by parts of FE10's interface. Original WIP Battle template for FE4R Since the hack is sequel to the darkest FE game out there, I wanted the template to be dark and reminiscent of medieval times. The circles were originally supposed to be orbs/spheres, but I had no idea how to shade them at the time. This version would eventually be struck down since it didn't really fit the TSA that FE8 uses. FE4R Battle Template V1.0a Demo Scene 1 My take on a possible finished version that didn't care for the game's rules in places, complete with a mockup scene to go along with it. You can actually see Elaine's battle sprite this time! FE4R Battle Template V2.0 Since version 1 got blown out of the sky, I upped the ante and went for version 2. The towers now have flags (with crappy shading), we have shields (referenced from the Shield item in Link's Awakening, yet shaded completely by hand) for the Hit/Dmg/Crt boxes, and something that was supposed to be gems/jewels for the HP Box area. FE8's TSA really didn't like this, even though the following mockup actually looks quite nice... Demo Scene 2 (Yes, bright Light spell is bright.) Since, again, FE8 refused to like my templates, I adapted this one to something that looked a bit cleaner because I could: FE4R Battle Template V2.0a Demo Scene 3 "Same" scene as the previous mockup, yet without the light spell so that my "new" personal battle sprite could be seen (which actually wasn't in the last scene - a significantly less custom/tweaked battle sprite splice was). The shield shading became mirrored on the right, the flag shading was improved, and the design in the HP area changed. Current version of FE4R Battle Template Ver. 3.0. Knots are Celtic in origin. And a demo scene. Statsheet of Linoan (mug and map sprite by MK404). Icons were referenced from the TCG artwork. Got lazy with the weapon level icons, so I used FE5's. The base template can be found here. Note that you'll need to use the above statsheet for placement, as Ice Dragon's positioning templates for FE8 only partially work for this template. [spoiler=Maps] Lastly, maps, made in Mappy: I originally had a much older version with tons of issues and this resulted from the clean up. EDIT(5/21/11) - Updated again. Gimmick-y Sea Map. Redux of Ch. 14 in FE5. EDIT(4/5/11) - Edited due to Thicket tiles. Map made for Mapping Competition Round 1. Went for an island castle type of flavor. Round 4 Map Map for Competition Round 4. Based on an old chapter concept I had. Revised version of the above map, expanded beyond the limitations of the competition and generally improved. EDIT(5/21/11) - Fixed, final version of the map. Map for seph1212. Hero of Time did the insides of the mountain ranges. Map for A Sacred Dawn. Random castle+village map. Front gate was kind of inspired by the Rogue Encampment from Diablo II. Above map's tile changes FE5's Final Chapter map envisioned in FE7 using the Dragon's Gate tileset. Link to Custom Icon Tutorial v2.0. Thanks for visiting LG's Mausoleum! EDIT (2/2/2011) - First post has been cleaned up and added to. Sprites have been grouped and spoiler'd to reduce page stretching. EDIT (6/7/11) - New map and some new icons added. EDIT (7/1/11) - Some images converted to links, to free up room for more images later.

If you want it to at least seem a bit more real, VASM, you should probably conspire with some of the other sites in the fandom to at least make it look like a widespread announcement. >_> (Though, I'll be honest, some of the ideas proposed for the game are actually interesting. If an FE came out with those concepts, I'd pick it up.)

Thanks, VASM. Also, for the FE10 template, does it follow any of the guide templates, or are we solely on our own for placement details?

Do you happen to have the FE10 templates "ripped" anywhere? It'd be nice to have actual images for them, instead of blurry screenshots, when referencing the templates. (Also, 2-3 hours is significantly faster than it's taking me with the stuff I'm working on now... Guess I'm just slow. >_>) Ah, I see. Even if it couldn't be used for a signature or something, you might consider making an alternate version that has those, for the people that might just want to make a statsheet that has them on it.

Man, VASM, I think you've really outdone yourself with that new statsheet. I'm literally in shock and awe at the detail of it. How long (approximately) would you say that it took you to make it? Anyway, slight C/C: I was going to comment on the separator lines, before I double checked a screenshot of the template and saw that they were there. Personally, with the design of the template not having three symmetric pieces, I think the template might look a bit cleaner (albeit, less artistically accurate) with out the dividing lines between the sections. Also, not really a critique, but no area for Supports, Leadership, Weapon Levels, or Biorhythm? One critique on the the weapon icons: The bow string for the Double Bow should probably be moved "in" one (diagonal) row towards the front of the bow. Placing the bow string at the back like it is doesn't exactly connect the ends in the way that a normal bow would. (And, yeah, IS probably had it that way in their 24x24 icon in FE10. But, realistically, it makes more sense to have it in the other place. I mean, have you seen some of the stuff that IS has screwed up or been so inconsistent with? They're far from perfect.) Man, I should probably post a dump of my old stuff here at some point. You never know, maybe someone will find it cool and want to save it and use it for later inspiration.

A guy who went by the name "Tent" made them for another board. When that board "closed," the icons and such were passed on to here. Also, welcome.

Thank you kindly, VASM.

That won't work, seeing as it's the one from the Sprite Database. That's why I need a new rip of the image, since it was incorrectly ripped (great for people that just want the sprite, not so much for people who need palettes and such). I actually really only need a still frame with Fa in her Mamkute form (for the palette). I can use that to replace the palette on the two bad rips that I already have.

Could someone please correctly rip the Fa Mamkute sheet from FE6 for me? Both FEP's and the Sprite Database's rips are incorrect, as neither one has the correct palette on the image (I need the EXACT palette as it is in game, that is, all of the RGB values must be multiples of 8) and, as far as I know, there aren't any other rips out there on the internet of it. I appreciate whoever can do this for me. Thanks.

Indeed. I don't think it mentions it in the Readme file (though, in retrospect, it should be), but the the characters you get in the slots from regular FE7 do recruit the characters. For instance, Kyosuke will have to recruit Luna in Eliwood's story, since Raven recruits Lucius. Or, Marcia will have to recruit Heather, come Ch. 18. If you watch MK404's demo playthrough of the hack on YouTube, it should show who recruits who, if you're having trouble.

Matthew remained in the hack for similar reasons that Kent and Sain remained in. MK404 happened to like them, and wanted to leave some of the characters as they were instead of replacing them all. There probably is a way to switch the recruitment, but if Leaf did it, he could just charge in and talk to Altenna. With Matthew still being the one that has to do it, there's now a sense of danger in that someone has to lure Altenna out from her position since Matthew doesn't have enough movement from outside her range to talk to her without getting attacked.

The only "completed" supports in the current release are as follows: Eliwood/Raymond - C, B Eliwood/Ninian - C, B, A Eliwood/Linoan - C Chris/Jenny - C, B, A Kyosuke/Excellen - C, B, A Luna/Alex - C, B, A Raymond/Linoan - C, B, A Raymond/Sanger - C, B (sort of - appears to only be partially completed) Raymond/Sakura - C, B, A Raymond/Leaf - C, B, A Raymond/Mia - C, B, A

The Netherlands has, in my experience, always produced fine staff members on Fire Emblem boards, so I'm sure that Tino will fit in perfectly as an Administrator. May my old seat treat you well, Tino. As for the others, congratulations on your promotions.

The only Shining Pokémon that I've ever come across (having quit after G/S/C), aside from the Red Gyarados, was a Shining Ho-oh. On my copy of Gold, I had an absurdly overleveled Feraligatr (like, Lv. 60 or something), with my next strongest that could actually survive the fight being said Red Gyarados. After either having Ho-oh kill itself via Struggle or running out of balls to catch it with, I'd reset, and repeat the process. I just happened to get lucky enough that, on my 10th or so try of the process, I swapped Gyarados out front, and lo-and-behold, I was greeted by the heavenly body above. What sucks now though is that my Silver and Crystal carts (one of which had the Ho-oh) are both dead now, leaving me with a Gold cart that's probably died since when I came back to college in January. :/

That's false actually, if you look at all of the axe icons. As a counter-example, the Poison Axe does none of that, despite the Silver Axe (it's clone in terms of 90% of the rest of the icon, barring shades used) exhibiting some of the behavior that you've mentioned. Yes, most of the icons do something similar, but there is no true rule of thumb for the shading on the edges (in fact none of the icons are truly consistent between each other in terms of lengths of shading, etc.). Well, other than simply what you think looks best and still meets the general requirements that the original icons used. Though, if you're customizing almost everything, templates included, then who's to say that icons in your own style won't look perfectly fine in-game? Though, as I mentioned in my custom icon tutorial (in the sticky), keeping the original references handy is basically the best one can do, until you've mastered the art of completely making the icons from scratch and having them look normal.

Whoa, it's Shaya. It's a pleasant surprise to see you. As Musashi said, Twilk was around a while ago, though his activity has always been in spurts (must be having trouble with those bins again...). I honestly haven't seen Eaichu on since the fall, but I haven't been active much myself lately. Anyway, nice to see you back in the fandom.

Yeah, because of that, you can likely ignore the comments on that one then. Though, since it IS the Heavy Spear, it might look more appropriate in name if the shaft was wider. Though, that one's your call.

So, #1 is the Flame Edge, #2 is the Iron Blade, #3 is the Steel Blade, and so on. Once the end of the column is hit, it starts back at the top of the next one to the right.

I'm not much of an expert on face sprites, so I'll leave the C/C for those to someone else. The weapon icons, on the other hand, I can evaluate. (Going down each column, starting at the far left and going to the right.) 1) This icon looks nice. At a 1:1 scale (i.e. the native 16x16 max), it might be a bit too dark, but that'll depend on the window/template that's behind it. 2) This one looks good too. The only suggestion that I'd make would be to possibly change the inner-most pixels of both sides of the cross-guard to add a tiny bit of shading to that part. Not sure if it'll change the overall effect though or not. 3) I'd personally switch the dark grey and the reddish-grey with each other. It's almost as if the light is on the bottom half of the blade instead of the top with the way that the two shades are positioned. 4) The shading on the blade needs mirrored. Since the sword isn't single-edged, the light needs to be on the left side of the middle diagonal (going from bottom left to top right). You might think of sprucing up the cross-guard a bit too, since it appears to be a Silver Blade of some sorts (and thus might be a bit fancier than the Iron and Steel variants). 5) This one's ok. 6) This one is ok, though it looks more like a regular lance than an Iron Greatlance (or what it actually is supposed to be). I'd possibly bulk up the shaft a bit (either an extra pixel or two in width). 7) The shading on the blade of the lance could possibly use a bit of work, but that depends on the effect that you were trying to go for with the icon. 8) The shading for the blade needs work. The shades blend too much, and you don't really get that defined division line down the middle of it. Also, the shape of the shaft could use some alteration. Having one that wide, and then having it shrink doesn't make much physical sense. I'd shrink the larger part to use 2 pixels and enlarge the smaller part to match. 9, 10) These ones are ok. 11) I'd use a bit less of the black shade and push the darker green towards the shaft of the axe. After doing so, I'd add a bit of lighter shading to the "sharp" part of the axe, as the single line of white doesn't look quite right to me. Also, you might consider increasing the shaft width to 2 pixels instead of one. It makes the axe look flimsy with that thin of a shaft. (Actually, that applies to all of your axe icons, not just this one.) 12) The axe head is far too large. Consolidate some of the details, shrink it, and move it closer to the bottom left corner. It makes the weapon look odd when it's basically centered in the weapon as it appears in the icon. You also might consider using the light blue and dark blue shades instead of the light gray and dark gray shades on the axe to add a bit of contrast to the shades. 13) Again, you might considering using those other shades instead of the grays on this one. The only other complaint I might have would be the upper part of the main axe head, as it seems deformed a bit. Though, the icon still works with it the way it is. 14) The blade shading badly needs a bit of work to reduce the blurring of detail. You might consider adding in some of the darker green to accent the light green so that it's not all one block, etc. This one definitely needs the shaft width increase, IMHO. 15) You might consider moving the bow string one "row" (diagonally) closer to the front of the bow. See if it looks better, and if not, go with what you have for this one. 16, 17) No major comments. 18) This one could use a bit of a defined border around the design. Instead of using the yellow and orange around the outside, try to bring in some brown or another shade to break up the concentration of the colors a bit. 19) I think you need to add a small amount of shading to the border and maybe use something different for the black that surrounds the thing in the center. Having the dark purple and the black together produces a bit of a blending effect. The solid brown border clashes with the book binding on the right hand side, so try to town down the amount of brown on the border. 20) The pattern in the center is a bit too square for what I think you're trying to envision/represent so try padding the design with something just about as dark (maybe brown or the dark purple) and also add a little bit of shading (lighter) to the brown and dark blue blocks. 21, 22) These two are good. 23) If you're trying to go for lightning arcs in this one, you might consider adding some white to the arcs in a few places. Also, maybe add in a little black to the background area instead of keeping it solid brown (perhaps a small rectangle in the center area or a 1 pixel border inside the outer border). 24) I'd personally change up the pattern on the outside border, since having an alternating pattern with only the same two colors tends to detract from the appeal of the border. If you want to keep the pattern as it is, perhaps change up the color selections for a few of the pixels (mirrored, obviously) and see how it looks. 25) For what the tome design is (i.e. not simple), the border probably shouldn't be a solid color. I'd break up the dark blue a little bit, perhaps in the corners. 26) Too much of the solid blue. Break it up with some shading, or something. With how dark the non-effect areas are, and how light the central design is, the blue stands out and drowns out the central design in the process. 27) This one's ok. 28) Primarily the same issue that #20 has. Add in a little less shading on this one, and it should work (mainly because the colors here are more vibrant, they disguise the issues that #20 had slightly). 29) This one's fine, but as a stylistic touch, I'd personally extend the "ends" of the dark blue that surrounds the center one pixel up and one pixel down, along the gray central line. 30) Too much light areas for what I presume is a Dark tome, based on the main palette. I'd replace the light gray with the dark gray or the reddish-gray instead to cut down some of the brightness. I'd also maybe cut down the white in the corners of the inside area (inside of the border), but that's possibly a personal preference. (Granted, you don't have to follow any C/C I give, but hopefully it corrects some of the issues that I feel exist in the icons.) For the most part, not bad. You could use a bit of work here and there, but who can't? Even I'm still getting better over time myself. Compared to even some of my mid-career or mid-late career icons, my newer ones primarily put them to shame. With practice, you'll get better and will begin to avoid issues without thinking about it.

For FE7, the maximum map size is 43 tiles (width) by 36 tiles (height).

I've been meaning to post up this tutorial since the topic was first created, so it might need a slight bit of updating in the future. If it does, I'll simply edit it in to the bottom of the post. Custom Weapon Icon Tutorial Table of Contents: - Chapter 1: Getting Started - Chapter 2: Setup and Line art Phase - Chapter 3: Flat Colors and Shading DISCLAIMER: This tutorial will showcase a way to construct Fire Emblem style weapon icons from scratch. NOTE: This tutorial is largely focused on creating weapon icons in the style used in the three GBA titles. Icons in the style of FE4, FE5, or FE11 can be constructed in a similar manner, though shading conventions and the exact palette used in those respective games may be different. Icons for FE9 and FE10 are not covered in this tutorial. Please bear in mind that this guide is not 100% accurate to the exact way that Intelligent Systems stylizes their weapon icons. Many icons are inconsistent with one another within the same game, so there may be a few things that my personal style may not completely reflect upon (for whatever reason). I have tried to be as objective as possible in this, limiting the use of as much of my personal stylings as possible. Also, while I realize that weapon icons aren't the most impressive sprites conceivable, they really give your other sprite works (such as battle scenes or statsheets) some unique flair and are instrumental in avoiding reusing old, bland icons from the games for weapons that aren't suited for them (especially if you're creating new weapons in a hack). CHAPTER 1: Getting Started Before getting into creating a weapon icon from scratch, as a spriter, you'll want to have a few resources before beginning. - MS Paint or equivalent program -- I've written this from an MS Paint perspective, as it's largely the most common program that spriters are using. While I personally use Jasc/Corel Paint Shop Pro (depending on the version), a high-level image editing tool is NOT required to sprite weapon icons, though these steps can be adapted for most other programs. - Reference set of game-used icons -- I personally use Ice Dragon's NA!FE8 Symbols sheet as my reference set whenever I need to check something against how an icon appears in one of the games. While it doesn't have ALL of the icons from the three GBA titles, it has enough that it should get you by. (You can always go to each individual game's page on SF's main site and reference/download any of the other icons that you need.) - Weapon icon palette (Possibly OPTIONAL) -- Depending on what you are individually spriting weapon icons for (be it a mock battle scene, mock statsheet, or as icons to be inserted into a hack), this may or may not be required. For icons being inserted into a hack, this is a mandatory step. I've provided the FE6/7/8 weapon icon palette here, as it will need to be used to ensure that your icons are game-insertable (assuming that the palette hasn't been altered intentionally). If you're working on an icon that is for mock-up purposes, you are free to use whatever colors you choose, though sticking to the official style and palette does help if you wish to transition to doing work for a hack. CHAPTER 2: Setup and Line art Phase To start spriting a weapon icon, begin with a 16px by 16px box colored in a color of your choosing that isn't part of the palette you plan to use for the icon. Avoiding colors that are similar to the ones in the palette also helps, in order to distinguish colors in the icon from the background. If you're looking for a good starting background color, the one used in Ice Dragon's reference set is a place to start. (For the entirety of the tutorial, I have provided images in both regular magnification and 8x zoom flavors, so that you can see what the icon would actually look like, as well as actually seeing what I've done in each step.) Now, depending on what I'm spriting, I either free draw or have a reference image pulled up. Now is the time to decide, and have that ready to go. For this tutorial's sake, I'll be free drawing a Lance-type icon. Always remember to keep in mind what kind of icon you're spriting and remember that the reference set is always there if you need to see examples of existing icons. At this point, begin by selecting the black color of the palette (RGB 40, 56, 32) as the primary color. You'll likely want to zoom in on the image for better control (8x is probably the best way to go). Once the size is to your liking, select the Pencil tool and begin placing individual pixels in line art fashion. Consult the reference set of icons for basic shaping and design structures if you find that placing pixels by instinct isn't looking quite right. Weapon icons CAN use the entire 16x16 canvas, though icons in FE6/7/8 tend to avoid this unless it is absolutely necessary. For the most part, the official icons stick to the inner 14x14 pixels (1 pixel border around the outside of the area), though they will stray and touch a side here and there (for best results, consult the reference set). I finished free drawing (once I got something interesting and close to what I wanted), and came up with this as my icon's line art: Depending on what you're spriting and how your creative flow is, it may take tens of minutes to even an hour to get line art shaped how you want it. CHAPTER 3: Flat Colors and Shading With your completed line art ready to go, begin filling areas with the lightest shade that you want to go in that area. The reference set should provide you with enough general pairings of shade sets (for instance, the white shade, the light blue shade, and the darker gray-blue often tend to be paired together for blade shading) to get an idea of what the lightest shade will be for an area of the icon. If anything design-wise starts to appear off as you're filling in the flat colors, remove them (by Penciling the background shade over them) and alter the line art until you feel that you're ready to add the flat colors again. (As you can see, I slightly altered the butt of the spear between Image 2 and Image 3 once I decided that, design-wise, the lance didn't really fit what I was aiming for.) Once everything looks right with the line art and the flat colors, begin adding in the other shades in the shade sets, while trying to match the shading conventions shown in the reference set. At this stage, you may realize that some of Intelligent Systems' conventions are shaky and in need of improvement. If you choose, now would be the time to stray from their conventions and shade things more naturally. Whatever you decide to do, make sure the icon looks right at normal zoom before you finish. If anything looks odd or needs fixed, jump back to Chapter 2 and work on the line art and flat colors (unless it's merely a shading issue, whereby you can just play around with the shading pattern or colors). And now, we have our finished result: As you can see, I've shaded the middle of the lance's tip with the darker gray-blue shade and shaded the bottom of the tip with the lighter blue shade. The "wings" to the sides of the shaft are shaded in reference to the shading on the Poison Sword icon (darker gray-blue matching to the brown and red matching to the reddish-grey color). The piece in the center of the wings is shaded in reference to the color scheme pairing on the outside of the Bolting tome. The shaft is shaded instinctively using the red shades found on the Poison Sword icon. Once the inner shading is done, make sure that you edit the outline shading by incorporating the brown shade in places (generally for wood, such as lance shafts (unless they have brown in them, in which case I personally use the other outline shading color to avoid blending the inner shading with the outline shading)) or by using the dark purple shade. It would be a good idea to use the reference set here for examples, depending the kind of icon you're working with. Different types of icons have different general patterns and structures, so use examples as a guide if you're working with an icon that fits a bit outside of the spectrum given here (magic tomes and staves, item icons, new weapons that might fall under a new designation, etc.). Hopefully, someone finds this useful. Weapon icons aren't the most challenging sprites to make by far, but you'd be surprised at how much detail you can actually fit into a 16x16 sq. pixel box. And, always remember that the reference sheet is there for shading and design examples, if you need them. As with most kinds of spriting, practicing by continuing to update older icons and spriting new icons will only allow you to get better. Your icons might not perfect when you start, but as you work on them more, they'll start to get flashier and better proportioned.

It pains me for it to come to this, but I'm retiring/resigning as an Administrator of Serenes Forest. I've been mostly a passive Administrator, mainly sitting in front of the security chair, watching all of the CCTV monitors to make sure everything stayed in line (figuratively speaking, of course). However, as of late (especially from mid-summer until early December), I've done more slight perusing of the boards, merely briefly glancing at some of the topics, instead of actual Administrative work. I have no "true" excuse for this, and I (probably) should have done this sooner. Luckily, SF has, for the most part, not required an overly extensive amount of moderation, unlike times I've experienced elsewhere in the distant past. My absence, therefore, didn't negatively affect the operation of the boards, which speaks well on all of the rest of you (and makes me feel somewhat relieved). As I fully expect what little free time I still have to gradually be consumed by other ventures, it's time that I hung up the proverbial mantle and let things continue onwards for the forums. I'd quickly like to thank Jyo and Vincent for bringing me on to the staff, even if my overall contributions were minimal in the grand scheme of things. I hope that some of my ideas and such at least made some kind of an impact. For those that would be quick to respond with a standard, "Good luck/we'll miss you/etc." type of post, fret not as I'll still pop in and post from time to time (at the very least, I'll check the boards probably once a day to catch up on new topics). So, needless to say, I'll still be around in the community (in some fashion). And with that, Jyo/VASM, if you would be so kind as to perform the final deed and retire me, I'd be grateful.

I think the face on the new one is much better than the old one. My only complaint in that area is that the eyes seem a bit too bright. (Yes, her eyes in the anime have it, but I personally don't think that it transitions well onto the sprite.) I feel like she's a little bit on the thin side (and, while the anime is to blame, it's passable - the eyes, on the other hand, give me a creeped out feeling when I look after being drawn to them by the brightness), but other than that, I can't spot much else. :thumbsup: x2

I just did a search on Google for "giffy" and tried the second link. It seems to work for me. (However, that download site lists it as working only through Windows XP, though that may just be something that no one updated when Vista rolled around...) It's definitely still called GiFFY, and even if it wasn't, an older version (that had been called GiFFY) would still suffice.