Question about what I can ask.

[His_Soldier]

I am trying to learn to make battle scene using FE sprites. I can't seem to find any where to help me, so I was wondering if anyone here could help me.

Or if this question should even be asked here.

[Wist]

This website has a couple of tutorials which you may find useful; they can be found here and here. I do not know what precisely you need help with or if you need only a rough introduction, but those tutorials can hopefully serve as a solid starting point even if only as a basis for clarifying questions.

[His_Soldier]

I have read them. If you take a look at the picture, it shows my problem. When I paste a picture on top of a picture, I have the black area around it.

What am I doing wrong? I'm a total greenhorn to working with images.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d6/Megam...ng?t=1206837204

[Wist]

If you are using Microsoft Paint then you will need to set the background color of the main image to match the background color of the sprite you intend to place on the main image. You would then need to enable transparency before pasting the sprite on the main image. You are in the unfortunate position of having a sprite which makes use of the same color as is used for the sprite's background color, black. I do not know if this was your intention, I will provide examples under the assumption that this conflict of color is accidental; if it was not accidental then you might have a little more work ahead of you (which is perfectly alright), but we can hopefully help you through the process. I am also operating under the assumption that you are using Microsoft Paint; if you are using another art program then this process will be greatly simplified but require more specific instructions.

Permit us say that you have the following sprite and background, respectively:

Sprite and Background.

Both of these images should be opened in separate simultaneous sessions of Microsoft Paint.

You will first need to sample the sprite's background color. This is an unwieldy process but Microsoft Paint is severely inflexible. I choose to copy a section from the top left of the sprite (I have magnified its size to make for a more easily comprehended example):

Color sample.

You can then expand the image on which you intend to place the sprite and paste the sprite's background color sample in the newly created space. In this case this step is not entirely necessary because I know that the color is pure black, but it is beneficial to use a sample of the original color in the even that it cannot be so easily determined.

Pasted color sample.

Now, use the eyedropper tool and right-click on the pasted color; this sets Microsoft Paint's default background color to the sprite's background color. If performed correctly, your color palette should appear as such with the bottom of the two left hand colors the same as the sprite's background color (the top color is irrelevant).

You can now reduce the image to its original dimensions in order to cut out the pasted color and the extra white space. Go to the original sprite and copy the entire image, then return to the background image on which you intend to place the sprite. Paste the sprite with Ctrl+V. Your image should look something similar to this:

Pasted sprite.

Select the indicated button, the bottom choice of the panel to the left. This will make any color which matches the image's background color invisible. Because both the sprite and the image now share the same background color, you should see a much more favorable result.

You can now move the sprite to the desired position --

Desired position.

and save the final result:

All done.

I hope that this has proved helpful, but if you are using a different program than I had assumed, it may not be. If you have any concerns or further questions, do not hesitate to seek help from me or anyone else who may respond.

[His_Soldier]

Thank you so much! This helped me a lot. I am using Paint, and I didn't choose the background color. And the reason I don't want the BG color to be the same as colors on the sprite is because parts of the sprite will disappear, right?

[Wist]

In your particular case, yes. If you intend to keep the exact same sprite which you are using then you will need to create your own background color, one that is not used in the sprite (I habitually opted for pink when I used Microsoft Paint because that is one of the colors that StarCraft used as a transparent color), around the sprite. It looks like you are using a sprite with fewer colors than the original (if you compare your sprite against this example). If you do want to keep your original sprite, however, we can help you draw around the sprite with a foreign color and change the rest of its background color to match.

[His_Soldier]

Thank you so much. You have been a big help. ^_^

If you will permit me one more question...do you know where good character sprites are? I would like an Ike sprite.

[Wist]

FE Planet has a healthy sprite archive but I don't believe that they have custom sprites (I am not very familiar with the site so I may be wrong). For your particular request, this or this sprite sheet may or may not be of use. I'm sorry that I cannot be of more help in this matter, but some other members of this forum are much more knowledgeable on this subject than I am and are likely in a favorable position to help you locate, or create, an Ike sprite.