Help, Sprite animation for Iphone game.

[(:Joel:)]

I would post some images here but I dont understand how you do that it just says?

Anyway, Hello Im new here, I have been asked to make some animation for a game that my friend wants
to develop for smartphones. I have been creating some static pixel art sprites in Photoshop but I am unsure
how to go about creating them so that they are precisely the way I want them to look on an Iphone screen
for example.

Is there a way to make sure that I can get the sprites I make in photoshop to look exactly how they would look
on a iphone screen scale. I ask this because when I think I have made a perfect looking sprite, I scale it down on
my computer screen making the canvas roughly the same scale as an Iphone screen and the sprite looks like a smudge.
 
I hope my question isnt too long winded, but I thank you  for any advice or help.

[yrizoud]

> (...) I have made a perfect looking sprite, I scale it down on my computer screen making the canvas roughly the same scale as an Iphone screen
The obvious error is to draw at the wrong size from the start :-/

With the designer/coder, you should determine which resolution(s) the game should support. For each of them, choose rough sprite dimensions depending on the intended gameplay (needs lost of room, or occupy most of the screen?), checking that you can work in the given size: for example 32pixels is enough to draw an entire human, but not enough to give him subtle expressions.

Only then, you can start the pixel work.

[robalan]

Firstly, welcome to Pixelation! Sit down, relax, learn some stuff.

Inserting images is straightforward. Just use img tags!

Code: [Select]

[img]http://www.yourimagehostingsite.com/yourimage.png[/img]The above code will insert the image found at the specified url into the post.

As for how to make sure your sprites look right on the iPhone screen, that's partly a matter of resolution and ppi (pixels per inch). The iPhone 4 has a pretty high ppi, since it packs a 960-by-640-pixel resolution into a 3.5-inch screen: about 330 ppi! Compare that to a computer monitor, which fits (for example) a 1920-by-1080-pixel resolution into a 20-inch screen: only 110 ppi. So a sprite that's 110x110 pixels will be about an inch square on a computer monitor, but only 1/3 of an inch square on the iPhone screen.

All of that is mostly irrelevant, though. When making pixel art, you don't tend to care too much (you have to care some) about the intended resolution. The most important part is that 1 pixel is 1 pixel. So pick a pixel resolution (say, 32x32 or 64x64) and stick with it. It will be smaller on the iPhone screen, but that's okay! Everything is smaller on the iPhone screen Make your sprite in the intended resolution and it will look fine on the iPhone screen. Just remember the overall resolution when putting together mockups and comparing your sprite to the whole.

That was all kind of rambly, so I hope it made sense. If you'd like some clarifications, feel free to ask. Let's see some art!

[blumunkee]

Read this:

http://blog.guifx.com/2009/07/01/design-your-touchscreen-interfaces-in-photoshop-in-true-life-size/

[Kasumi]

The obvious error is to draw at the wrong size from the start :-/

I don't think that's it. Or at least I understood his question differently. iPhone's have incredible pixel density. I think he's saying that he made 1:1 pixel art, but it looks larger on his computer monitor than on iPhone when viewed at 1x.

If that's what you mean (:Joel:): You really... can't. You can't view pixel art correctly smaller than the smallest pixels of your monitor. The best thing you can do is make a canvas that's 960x640 (iPhone's resolution) and place your sprite there. Then make the zoom 100%, and see how it looks.

Apologies to both you and yrizoud if I misunderstood your question.

[(:Joel:)]

Thank you all so much for your help and advice, I have never made a sprite before nor did I really have to for this particular game Im
making, at first I was creating vector graphic animations with illustrator and flash but decided it looked too...clean..( if clean is a bad thing)
I wanted a more retro look and sprites are definitely the way to go, Browsing this site there are some phenomenal pixel/sprite artists on this
forum..I would love to contribute and learn from you guys.

All the info you guys have given me is very helpful , some of it just confirms what I was Unsure about, I haven't started anything big yet, I never
really start a project unless i am  sure that all the planning resolved in this case its the resolution and scale.

Ill see about getting some art up here soon!

[(:Joel:)]

here is all I have done so far pixel art wise, its just a rough character design for a side scroll shooter, I wasnt confident to create anything else before I resolved the whole scale and resolution issue,
now that I know a little more ill try and post more things up.