Does anyone know how to make quality DOOM sprites or graphics pixel by pixel?

[Spleen]

Does anyone know how to make quality DOOM sprites or graphics pixel by pixel in MS Paint or a similar program? That is, not stick-figures that look like they were slapped together with the brush tool in about five minutes.

I've been meaning to teach myself how to do this. The problem is most people in the community these days simply use a program like Photoshop or GIMP then scale down the images (or actually draw it on paper first, for example Eriance said he did that over at the ZDoom forums). I mean, I tried using modern filters and tools, but I feel a lot more in control when I am editing each pixel on its own. As for the pixel-by-pixel tutorials on the internet, they just teach how to make cartoony sprites that don't really fit in the DOOM theme and are of a lower resolution even than the graphics found in DOOM.

Perhaps making stuff pixel-by-pixel for DOOM is a Sisyphean endeavor and I am better off just trying to learn how to use GIMP or Photoshop? If not, advice would be greatly appreciated.

I want to make clear that I do not in any way intend to disrespect any artistic styles or their users. I am simply having trouble learning a particular style, and seeking help with it.

[wildweasel]

Doom's sprites are actually photographs of clay models that Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud took into a paint program to retouch. Most successful Doom artists tend to start in a medium other than the paint program to begin with. Eriance's sprites, I believe, start as pencil sketches.

[Spleen]

WildWeasel said:

Doom's sprites are actually photographs of clay models that Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud took into a paint program to retouch.

I know, but I assumed some people only used paint before Photoshop became popular and GIMP existed. :p Maybe they never did in the first place? :(

Thanks for answering though :D

[myk]

There were better options than Paint early on, such as Paint Shop and Deluxe Paint.

[Spleen]

myk said:

There were better options than Paint early on, such as Paint Shop and Deluxe Paint.

You're right. I guess no real good artist uses limited tools on purpose. Sorry for the dumb question.

[perkristian]

For the smoother weapon animations mod, all editing was done in Paint Shop Pro - it's quick, easy and simple. Haven't gotten around to try Photoshop.
I did a lot of pixel-by-pixel painting back in the days with Neopaint and short animations in PCAnimation.

It also helps to have a little artistic feel I suppose, as I draw portraits/caricature drawings of people by hand.

[Gez]

You get as much control over the pixels with GIMP as with MS Paint when you work in indexed color mode with a brush size of 1x1. But you're able to use the other tools, or to go in RGB mode to recolor things quickly.

You can find the Doom, Heretic and Hexen palettes for GIMP on the ZDoom wiki. http://zdoom.org/wiki/GIMP

[fraggle]

Didn't Scuba Steve write a guide to drawing sprites a while back?

[david_a]

The Cacolich (can be found in the ZDoom bestiary) was created in MS Paint by Vader. What you are referring to is called "pixel art" and there are a lot of tutorials for it online. I believe Scuba uses Paint for all his sprites as well (although maybe it was Paintbrush instead).

There are some editors specifically designed for this type of work to, although I don't remember what any of them are called.

[infurnus1]

I personally recommend the free version of GraphicsGale.
It's very useful for(and probably made exactly for) pixel art.

A nice pixel art tutorial was made by Derek Yu(link here), but having experience with art in general(color theory, line, shape, form, etc) helps as well.

[Spleen]

perkristian said:

It also helps to have a little artistic feel I suppose, as I draw portraits/caricature drawings of people by hand.

Yeah I don't have much of that, lol. :( I'm hoping it will come with practice though. :)

Gez said:

You can find the Doom, Heretic and Hexen palettes for GIMP on the ZDoom wiki. http://zdoom.org/wiki/GIMP

Thanks that's really helpful, I've been looking for something like that!

fraggle said:

Didn't Scuba Steve write a guide to drawing sprites a while back?

Thanks, I'll look for that!

david_a said:

The Cacolich (can be found in the ZDoom bestiary) was created in MS Paint by Vader. What you are referring to is called "pixel art" and there are a lot of tutorials for it online. I believe Scuba uses Paint for all his sprites as well (although maybe it was Paintbrush instead).

Alright, that gives me hope, as well as a good example. 8)

Infurnus said:

I personally recommend the free version of GraphicsGale.
It's very useful for(and probably made exactly for) pixel art.

Cool! Hopefully I can get that GIMP palette to work with it :D

Infurnus said:

A nice pixel art tutorial was made by Derek Yu(link here), but having experience with art in general(color theory, line, shape, form, etc) helps as well.

Thanks!

[TKOJ]

All I can say is practice. I make my pixels using MSPaint.

[40oz]

I don't really make a lot of sprites, but I know how to do it.

I made a tutorial on it a while back. Here it is.

[SonicIce]

perkristian said:

For the smoother weapon animations mod, all editing was done in Paint Shop Pro

PSP7? I love 7.

[perkristian]

SonicIce said:

PSP7? I love 7.

Me too, used that version for a long time! Although I had to move on to version 9 for some reason, but it's basically the same.

[Enjay]

I think I started using PSP with version 1 or 2 point something. At that time, it was little more than a graphics conversion and viewing program with little or no editing tools. For me PSP 7(.04) was the best. It got as good as PSP was going to get and bugs with previous versions are all but eliminated. After that, things went downhill (presumably to do with the Corel takeover). I also have Paint Shop Pro X2 and, frankly, although most of the elements that made PSP7 good are there, it's slower and just not as approachable as v7. Sure, it has a few additional features but very few of them are of any value for game art. So, I have both versions installed. I rarely use X2 but 7.04 is my most commonly used program behind my browser and e-mail programs (closely followed by ZDoom).

I'm also a big fan of DPaint and still have a copy installed. Even though it is a desperately out-dated program, it still has some features that are not well represented in newer software.

[GreyGhost]

fraggle said:

Didn't Scuba Steve write a guide to drawing sprites a while back?

Do you mean the tutorials on the Bitch-Ass Weapons Emporium?

[Spleen]

JohnnyRancid said:

I don't really make a lot of sprites, but I know how to do it.

I made a tutorial on it a while back. Here it is.

GreyGhost said:

Do you mean the tutorials on the Bitch-Ass Weapons Emporium?

Alright, thanks for the tutorials guys.

[Vader]

IMO it is more or less trivial what graphic editor you're going for, as I think you can achieve the same results in each of those. It just depends on what you're more comfortable with...
Personally I'm always using simple MSpaint for making sprites (textures is a different story), I have been using it 10 years ago and I'll propably use it until I die :P

As for tutorials;
I found that they can definitely be a help to point you into the right direction, but there is nothing better than exercise and keep trying and trying ;)