How NOT to make a sprite comic:

[Pinkie Pie]

I would post an example, but I find it terribly hard to stoop myself to IQ -10 to make a really shitty comic.

Right: Things to avoid:

1) Megaman Recolours as original characters.
It's been done to death. Quit it.
That said.. recolouring no-name character to make them "original" is ok, providing they aren't major characters.
And if you are going to recolour a megaman character, do it once, at most, and only if its part of a joke, and a one off joke at that:
Example:
Sod's Law Number 8 (http://www.cosmic-hero.com/sodit/0008.png), and Sod's Law Number 11 (http://www.cosmic-hero.com/sodit/0011.png).

2) Terrible grammer and punctuation.
The odd spelling mistake here and there is human, but making your comic read worse than a TXT message is demonic.

3) Bob and George/Crash and Bass/*insert popular comic here* Clones
No.. please.. just.. no. Come up with your own damn ideas.

4) Sprite Style mixing
Unless you're some uber spriter than can change a sprite's style entirely, genreally stick to one game style. Don't use NES and SNES sprites in the same page. Don't use MM7 and MMX sprites on the same comic. It looks horrible.

Ok.. so you want an example of how you can do this? Here:
http://www.sprites-inc.co.uk/comicexample.gif
Ok, say you want to use both of these characters in your comic? Taking them and putting them in like this just doesn't look right does it?
The second example - shading added to the Nes sprite,.. looks far better, but still not perfect...
3rd example... the added outline looks better, but now the lizard guy looks out of place!
The fouth example shows the final edits I made to make both sprites match each other. And whats this? They almost look like they came from the same game! Good enough!
Equaly, you can do the opposite and downgrade sprites to match others, as in the 5th example.

Ok that should show what i've been talking about. And hopefully shut up people that think my only talent is Sprite Ripping.

5) Use BACKGROUNDS
Honestly, single colour or two tone backgrounds look HORRIBLE.

6) Don't copy jokes from other webcomics.
You know that Sigma example above? Don't use that joke in your comic. It's funny, ONCE. Not fifty times.

Reading this article (http://www.fragile-minds.com/crashnbass/donts.html) is a must for any Sprite Comic author.

Keep this all in mind before you go off creating your comic.

More Tips, this time from RikkusRukkus.:
Some more points:
- Don't use JPG, GIF or PNG are far better for sprite(comics/sheets).
- Don't make use of size-changing ('transform') tools that will alias your image. Aliased edges are 'fuzzy' edges. (Example: See panel 4, the blasts, clouds) If you must scale, do it with 100%, 200%, etc.
- Make use of text balloons or a different way of making your text stand out. Be sure not to make the text blend in with the background - story is important, show your dialoge!
- Make your text fit your text balloons.
Basically, if it's done in this comic, don't try it at home. (Apart from usage of GIF, that is good)

[gagaman]

How about just drawing a comic?



LEG IT.

[Rainbow Dash]

Not everyone can draw. My drawings turn out terribly, and I have more fun spriting anyway.
Also, not everyone has a scanner.

[Daemonseele]

Not everyone can draw. My drawings turn out terribly, and I have more fun spriting anyway.
Also, not everyone has a scanner.
You could try drawing on the computer. That's what I've been doing since I don't have a scanner (and I'm too lazy to go to the university scanner).

[BlueSonnet]

You also wanna make it a priority not to abuse your sprite comics with lots of photoshop effects.

Is there many serious sprite comics out there btw?

[Daemonseele]

Is there many serious sprite comics out there btw?

Still running? I'd say MS Paint Masterpiece (http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Subcomics/Paint/), but that's my opinion.

[Perks]

What about all those Fireball20XL ones? Note I haven't bothered with them for about three years, but still!

One other thing: most sprite comics I see are depressingly unfunny. As someone who hasn't the foggiest about anything to do with MegaMan or even many videogames, I'll just plead with you to be funny and never use the phrase LOL or LMAO or anything like that.

[Rainbow Dash]

Is there many serious sprite comics out there btw?

What about Universal Voyage (http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Subcomics/UVoyage/)? That's a pretty good one. Though it gets really wierd sometimes...

[Daemonseele]

What about Universal Voyage (http://www.bobandgeorge.com/Subcomics/UVoyage/)? That's a pretty good one. Though it gets really wierd sometimes...
Good? Yeah. Serious? Well, not really.

[Rainbow Dash]

It has a serious plotline, and while it does get silly occasionally (ok, alot), it also gets serious alot.

[gagaman]

Perks pretty muc summed up what I don't like about them. There're often just not that funny at all.


By the way, I made a new issue of "sprite Comic", but it's only at Moogle Cavern at the moment.

[Perks]

Obscure MegaMan\Sonic references != good humour.

[gagaman]

Oh, and constantly breaking the forth wall by mencioning what kind of sprites they are gets very old and annoying quick.

[GrooveMan.exe]

It depends. I mean, I have no intention of breaking the 4th wall too often. But currently, it happened to be a useful plot device.

Also, I don't really call my main character 'The Author' anymore. It's kinda lame...

[Perks]

Can I call Dinosaur Comics a sprite comic in that they're just clipart? It's... so, so good...

[gagaman]

YES. Dino Comics is the bes comic to use sprites ever.

[GrooveMan.exe]

Haven't heard of it. Link prz.

[Rainbow Dash]

No, I believe 8-bit Theatre (nuklearpower.com) is one of the best and most well done sprite comics out there. Universal Voyage and MS Paint Masterpieces are pretty much the only others I can really stomache. A great deal of others suck, and give good ones a bad name.

[Pinkie Pie]

Can I call Dinosaur Comics a sprite comic in that they're just clipart? It's... so, so good...
Dinosaur Comics counts as a Sprite Comic. As does any other comic that uses Pixel Art. Sprite Comics don't just need to contain VG characters (hint hint)

99.999999999% deal of others suck, and give good ones a bad name.
Fixed.

[rickysio]

Actually, Misadventures by Plague are pretty good.
If you want to see professional comics, go to www.delum.net.
Those there ARE pretty good.

[GG Hendrix]

I'm going to go on a limb and agree with everything gaga and perks have said thus far.

Sprite comics are, indeed, depressingly unfunny.

[dualR]

Some of you seem to be confused in the terminology,
A Megaman Sprite, now thats a sprite and a piece of pixel art
A portrait of Megaman(Think Arcade game endings) Thats pixel art, but not a sprite.
Starcraft uses pre-rendered 3D, the characters are sprites(not 3D models) but they are not pixel art.
The Dinosaur things are pixel art.
The Dinosaur things aren't clip-art, clip-art are resizeable vectors.

It really all depends what you call Pixel Art;
Extreme-Purist pixel artists don't believe in using the line tool in paint, only pencil and eraser.
Purist Pixel Artists don't think that using Circles and Rectangles make pure PA.
Regular Pixel Artists don't use tools that cause Anti-Alias(Burn/dodge tools in Photoshop), so pretty much everything in MSPaint is acceptable.
Then there are quasi-Pixel Artists which use things like Burn and Dodge tools to make shading in Pixel Art.

Hope that helped/made sense/is accurate

[Rainbow Dash]

I have a question: Did you just make those purist levels up on the spot?

[dualR]

Im not sure what they're technically called, but yes, there are artists that only draw with the pencil and eraser, lines aren't pure enough...

[Daemonseele]

Aha, so I'm a regular pixel artist.

Technically, pixel art is supposed to be made completely with the pencil and eraser tool, hence "pixel" art.

[rickysio]

Ah, so im a Extremist. Sometimes only. I am mostly a purist.
But isnt this getting Off Topic?

And yea, God Modders in comic = Shitty Comic

[Judge Dredd]

umm...how do you put .bmp files onto the chat page of this website? i wrote a comic and need to know so i can see what other people think of it.

[AndromedaMan]

You need to save as PNG.

[Daemonseele]

umm...how do you put .bmp files onto the chat page of this website? i wrote a comic and need to know so i can see what other people think of it.
Use the attachment feature:
1742

Or use Image tags (but you'll need to host the image on a site first, like Imageshack, Photobucket, or Pic2Link.):
1743

[Judge Dredd]

thanks. i'm going to the comics section to post it. i appriciate it!

[Judge Dredd]

hmm...it seems my comic is too big, considering it's a .bmp. which programs can convert it to a smaller file...let's say a .png or .jpeg?

[tuckur21]

If it is in paint save it as PNG and and make sure you make the file as small as you can with out damaging your comic.

[Slash Kamei]

man i am so taking those comic turorials to heart, no 2 color backgrounds for me! Good thing i desided against the roll head character though >.>....yeah, anyhow i'll make sure to use these to make my comic even better...hopfuly

[Pinkie Pie]

This is a note to everyone outthere - Cameo Comics also don't work.

They just don't. One or two Cameo issues yes.. even one or two cameo characters, yes, but when you can't come up with characters to start the comic off, it's a bad sign.

The other reason is - no-one uses the same spriting style. Unless you're prepared to make sure all cameo's match YOUR style and edit them accordingly.. they look very out of place.

[slpowerhouse]

[QUOTE=Toxic Seahorse]No, I believe 8-bit Theatre (nuklearpower.com) is one of the best and most well done sprite comics out there. [QUOTE]

Agreed, though another good one is planet zebeth. These are the only ones I am trying to emulate, meaning out of the main characters one is a massmurdering psycopath, one is greedy, one is stupid, and one is incompatent. (BM, Thief, Fighter, and RM)

Also I would like to know if a recolored version of different characters that one character can turn into as a power is an ok idea or not?

[Hotenshu Shogun]

This is probably going to sound stupidly obvious, but are non-megaman related sprite-comics allowed?
Specifically this:
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9116/scared1nt2.png

[Boilman]

Yes, those are allowed. Want proof? Look at the pokemon and hand drawn comics on here.

[Slash Kamei]

Not everyone can draw. My drawings turn out terribly, and I have more fun spriting anyway.
Also, not everyone has a scanner.


i second that, i can't draw worth a hoot

[guardianoffire]

I dissagree with the "no mixing" rule... I mix 8bit sprites with 16bit sprites for comedic effect. Like drawn comics, there is no right or wrong, do what you feel will work for you and your comic.

[Terry von Feledae]

Comics that mix styles usually are simply visually not quite as appealing. So where possible, it should be avoided.

[Kairos]

Take the comic Mixed Bag for example, while it does style mix it does it with.... style.

[guardianoffire]

Unless the comic has a reason for mixing genres and graphics styles of course.

[Terry von Feledae]

Take the comic Mixed Bag for example, while it does style mix it does it with.... style.
It's still that comic's big weakness. The charcters simply don't look like they belong into a single comic. And Mixed Bag doesn't even have extreme style mixing, like 8Bit with 32 Bit or 16 Bit with Pre-Renders.
It's because not only the shading and such are different, but so are proportions and perspective.
Just look at how some (human) characters are half as big as other (human) characters in that comic.

Guardian: Reason or not, it still looks ugly and can make you look lazy in some occasitions.
Of cours, there are exceptions when simply mixing of styles looks appropriate, but... I know only one such exception, and I can't say I didn't read many sprite comics.
Most style mixing comics look, simply said, bad. Pulling something like that off well is hard; And doing things that are hard to pull off well is something I recommend against particulary if you are still kinda new to sprite comics.

[rickysio]

Style mixing is really a big boo boo.

1) It screws up the perspective of the comic, as different style, different STYLE.

2) Size.

3) Colours.

4) The type of the sprite. Some types have like black colour for an outline, while others might have a darker than the base colour for the outline. Pitting them together creates a clash.

Avoid like the plague. Unless shitty looking comics is the style now.

[Gravitee]

Ok. I have a question-

One of my characters is currently a Megaman recolor. This is-

A- An important part of the character (you'd understand if you knew what the comic was about.)

and
B- He has loads of custom poses because megaman's poses suck.

Also his Megaman recolor form is only in 8bit land. (again, you'd understand if you knew about the comic)

Is he ok?

[Terry von Feledae]

Is he ok?
No. :P
Even if he's Mega Man's long lost twin brother's alternate universe version's bizarro clone's shadow or whatever, recolouring him will nonetheless make you look lazy. While making him an edit / look similar to Mega Man is okay in such cases, you should at least add some defining traits to add uniqueness to the character.

[Windclaw_Z]

Note on recollor and editing.
For all intensive purposes, try using a boss from Megaman Zero series. They're not hard to edit at all. And since most of them where one-shot characters anyway, there is a levle of uniqeness to all of them. Fair warning, I am NOT refering to the Four Guardians. They're too much like Zero. My personal sprite is an example of the former. Its not the best, but it IS unique. Go for something like that.

[Xterra]

You realize though that this is style mixing, right? As easy as it may seem to edit MmZ sprites, it is not suggested for a Zx comic spriter to do so.

It's best that a Zx comic use Zx sprites that are in Zx style. If they're making a MmZ comic, then by all means; edit MmZ sprites. But mixing two different styles together, whether just for a character, or between a character and the background it's put on, this is highly unadvised.

I do agree with you with more uniqueness of character, and not something so generic as is commonly seen, but my point is to not combine styles. (which I know was mentioned before, but I had to re-mention it based on your advise to sprites) Your advice was good - the sprite style mixing.

(EDIT)-Oh, and I only used Z/Zx as an example. A more clearly defined example would be something as ridiculous as mixing the sprites between Z/x/A and X styled sprites. The frankensteining of such sprites is much more obvious, and more of an eyesore. Which is why it doesn't necessarily require easy sprites to edit/scratch/make, but keeping to the right style with any sprite you input to the project. It just looks terrible if you break that.

And if you want any better descriptions of style mixing than what I was able to provide, simply read what Ricky' said above on the subject. I completely agree, and I think it's an important fact to note. Heck, it seems every four or five posts here is about style mixing, if you just read through the thread. So I see now it was pointless of me to repeat it like everyone else now.

Just please understand that it's good to edit sprites you can handle (since the quality of sprites is better if you can handle them, instead of trying something completely new and messing it all up) but my point was no matter how easy it is to do a certain sprite, you shouldn't necessarily then put those sprites in the wrong styled comic. So ease is definitely a factor, but it has it's place.Unique, and customized characters = GoodSprites you can manage well = GoodMixing up sprite styles = Bad

[Blackbeltdude]

You realize though that this is style mixing, right? As easy as it may seem to edit MmZ sprites, it is not suggested for a Zx comic spriter to do so.

Not really. MMZ and MMZX are basically the same style. The only difference between them would be the contrast of their colors. He's not really style mixing.


And on a final note, straight up style mixing is ill-advised. If I stick MMX4 X's legs on Vent's body with NES Megaman's head, that will look terrible. However, if I took those same pieces, but adjusted their sizes slightly and made their palettes and shading match, then it would not be style mixing. That would be frankensteining and editing (also known as a heavy edit).

It's also important to note, that effects play slightly different rules... There's some SNES MMX effects that would work fine in MMZ or MMZX style.

Either way, you could say it's style mixing when perspectives, scales, proportions, shading, contrast, and colors are all different. If you make any of those things that are different match to the style you want, you're not really style mixing anymore.

[Darkness-Overload]

You wanna know how NOT to make a sprite comic? I'll show you if you dare!

[i_like_mudkipz]

You realize though that this is style mixing, right? As easy as it may seem to edit MmZ sprites, it is not suggested for a Zx comic spriter to do so.

It's best that a Zx comic use Zx sprites that are in Zx style. If they're making a MmZ comic, then by all means; edit MmZ sprites. But mixing two different styles together, whether just for a character, or between a character and the background it's put on, this is highly unadvised.

I do agree with you with more uniqueness of character, and not something so generic as is commonly seen, but my point is to not combine styles. (which I know was mentioned before, but I had to re-mention it based on your advise to sprites) Your advice was good - the sprite style mixing.

(EDIT)-Oh, and I only used Z/Zx as an example. A more clearly defined example would be something as ridiculous as mixing the sprites between Z/x/A and X styled sprites. The frankensteining of such sprites is much more obvious, and more of an eyesore. Which is why it doesn't necessarily require easy sprites to edit/scratch/make, but keeping to the right style with any sprite you input to the project. It just looks terrible if you break that.

And if you want any better descriptions of style mixing than what I was able to provide, simply read what Ricky' said above on the subject. I completely agree, and I think it's an important fact to note. Heck, it seems every four or five posts here is about style mixing, if you just read through the thread. So I see now it was pointless of me to repeat it like everyone else now.

Just please understand that it's good to edit sprites you can handle (since the quality of sprites is better if you can handle them, instead of trying something completely new and messing it all up) but my point was no matter how easy it is to do a certain sprite, you shouldn't necessarily then put those sprites in the wrong styled comic. So ease is definitely a factor, but it has it's place.Unique, and customized characters = GoodSprites you can manage well = GoodMixing up sprite styles = Bad
It's pretty hard to come up with sprites that have to match styles...
Especially if you're not an l337 spriter (Example: Me) so you're forced on 2 paths/options
-1. Do it yourself, try your best to edit the WHOLE sheet into one style.
Example: A MMZ styled Vent (Yes ZX and ZXA sprites are MMZ Styled) edited to a MMX styled Vent. OR A MMX styled Dynamo transformed into a MMZ styled Dynamo.
-2. Request on the Sprite request thread. Sure it may seem easy but you need to wait for a while, thats the fatal weakness if you are about to make a daily updated comics, you must HURRY and make them. And the request probably wasn't done yet.

OK that's all I can think of... If a mod or someone wants to add something feel free to do it.
So the I have a question, putting a MMX background on a comic panel then putting a MMZ sprite on it means style mixing too?

[Djanjo]

That's why you be innovative. You don't style mix without good reason and if you do you make it so it's not as noticeable as some of the other sprite comics out there.

Basically what people are saying is don't just throw a whole bunch of sprites into one comic.

If doing heavy editing is too hard...too bad. The general community that even still consider sprites a form of Digital Art have already seen enough bad comics to know that doing something a bad comic does, even when your comic is good or decent is a reason for you to do it.

Someone who makes sprites comics has a hard task ahead of them, they must take what others have already done and make it thier own, but no one will swallow a story that was just conceived by you, but was given life by someone else's hard work. Honestly learn to draw, you'll save yourself the breath trying to do what I've been trying to do for 3 years.

[Gravitee]

I noticed there were very few mentions of plot-

If you don't have a plot, your comic will almost certainly fail. The only exception is when your comic is like Cyanide and Happiness or VGcats, where the events in each comic are seperated from eachother.

If you start a comic like bobandgeorge or.. Um.. Universal Voyage, where it's an ongoing story, but you don't know what to do next or are making things up as you go along, you should just stop the comic for a while, figure out a storyline, even a basic outline of a story will do, and then get back to it once you know what to do.

One last thing-

If your comic is bad. Your comic is bad. There are no reasons, excuses or loopholes, using MSpaint is not a downside, you should at the very least manage a small edit spritewise, and your age or current situation doesn't matter to us. If we say it is bad and to change something, it's best to change it or get rid of it.

[Blackhook]

I have noticed that most people on the internet think that sprites comics have to be funny. And thus there are mostly Comedy sprite comics out there...Most of the time they are unfunny or poorly made, or both
Can a *insert non-comedy genres here* sprite comic be accepted in this cruel world???

[NDraxian0]

Yes, My own comic is doing alright and it is not a comedy comic. And I've seen quite a few others doing okay.
Having humor helps, but serious comics with a good plot will survive as well.
Frankly any genre will work, after all sprite comic is just a medium.

[Highwind017]

Ive had look at the links given and read what there is to read.

Im used to using Ragnarok Online sprites, They are much more different from Megaman sprites so there are some rules that dont apply to each other i think. Thank god i havent started the comic im currently planning yet. Most of the sprites are recolour's and just look the same as characters from Zero and ZX/XZ... Looks like i got a LOT of editing to do before i start it.

[Mr_Unsmiley]

I dissagree with the "no mixing" rule... I mix 8bit sprites with 16bit sprites for comedic effect. Like drawn comics, there is no right or wrong, do what you feel will work for you and your comic.
I think that when it comes to humor, there are pretty much no rules.

...except if the joke is bad/overused/non original

[Boilman]

I think that when it comes to humor, there are pretty much no rules.

...except if the joke is bad/overused/non original
You mean like the ones in your avatar and signature?

[Mr_Unsmiley]

You mean like the ones in your avatar and signature?
SILENCE. I KEEL YOU.:mad:

[Broone]

Yeah. The lazar ans smileys are everywhere nowadays. It's not bad, but I see them [nearly] Everywhere. Especially on YouTube!

[turpinator]

Is it just me, or are a lot of newbies trying to give pointers on this topic when they themselves know nothing about quality in the first place?

Now, I'm not trying to single any one person out with this sentence, but a little humility goes a long way. Stop, and take in your own words with a grain of salt before lavishing it to the public, and please, keep in mind the long time users here may be rigid at times with their words, but they end up being right most of the time.

Good advice is so hard to come by these days... like trying to find a needle in a haystack...

[SuperNesFreak]

Warning: This is coming from a complete newbie, so please avoid these opinions at all costs if you feel you are above it.

I think you're being a little harsh on recolours. True, plain out Mega Man recolours are a sin, but a bit of uniqueness can go a long way. My example:

In a comic I am making, 7-Bit World - in MS Paint (ugh) I appear as a character - yes, somewhat an author, but with no... ahem.. author powers, if you will.

Anyway, this is the sprite sheet. I did this by taking a Rock sprite sheet found in the PD section (http://www.pd.sprites-inc.co.uk/Expansion/Light_Demon/) - thanks, Light_Demon; recoloured it to a red colour scheme, and finally took the eraser to the hair to make him gin'er - and yes, I am. I also tweaked the transformation sprites, I think, even though I doubt I'll use them.

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/9642/johnk.png

That bit under the regular stuff is the custom sprites - I always make them in the sheet, so as I need more sprites, I don't have to keep remaking the same ones. And I quite like that pointing sprite...

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2204/005sh.png

Secondly (and this is the comic that points out I have no author powers), monochrome isn't as much of a sin as some. Nevertheless, if someone could point out a nice 8-bit grass and sky background, I would really appreciate it.