How do you shade sprites?

~SamuelEarl666 Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist

Out of the things i do i seem to enjoy spriting the most but something that has always stopped me is how to shade them properly and so my sprites never look as good as they could. Does anyone have any hints/tips for people in this situation?

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*ishime Dec 10, 2012 Hobbyist

I tried to draw some sprites a while a go, and from what I gathered the tricks are:
1) placing your highlights/shadows to create volume (check the "pillow-shading" part on this page for a better explanation)
2) using different hues in your palettes, perhaps even more so than with traditional drawings (see this tutorial for an example of how to do that
3) if possible, using combined palettes - I don't know how to explain that one, basically when two different base colors share a shadow, or stuff like that.

Try checking some experienced spriters on DA, or maybe spriting communities outside DA, I remember finding some good tutorials out there.

*Pix3M Dec 8, 2012 Digital Artist

1. Pick color that's darker than the base color
2. Pick the base color as the secondary color
3. Use the color replacer tool

???

But, your question shouldn't be just limited to sprites. Shading is a technique that is shared across all mediums. You can just try out a cel-shading style of shading which is far simpler to work with. You do not need a gazillion different colors or a lot of gradients to shade.

~shininginthedarkness Dec 8, 2012

I don't think using transparent black to shade is a great idea. I usually shade using 3 colors- the base color, a lighter version, and a darker version. Then you just pick a light source and shade like it's a regular drawing. Just don't try and get too fancy.

~SamuelEarl666 Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist

So do i but i don't think i do enough shading.

~shininginthedarkness Dec 8, 2012

Well, do more

. Do what you think is TOO MUCH shading. Shade the crap out of it. You can always dial it back later.

~SamuelEarl666 Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist

i guess so. thanks for the advice.

~shininginthedarkness Dec 8, 2012

One good exercise might be making a sprite just in greyscale. That way you can focus on the value and not the colors.

~SamuelEarl666 Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist

Thats a good idea. thanks again.

*M-J-Gagne Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I don't know what you mean by sprites, but when I colour in photoshop I like to use a colour like black and then reduce the opacity. When you do this the paint becomes transparent and you can then use the colour to shade areas without completely colouring them in or losing the image underneath. You can play around with the opacity to get different depths of shade.

~SamuelEarl666 Dec 8, 2012 Hobbyist

So i should try shading them like you would shade anything else, i guess that might work. Sprites are basically pixel art if you want to know.

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