New to sprite capturing, Need all the help I can get please Options

[Pal88]

I did have another topic but I decided that can be locked as I figured those questions out.

Now I'm stuck again.

So, heres the thing. I'm new to sprite capturing and would like any help/tips, etc.

At the moment I've captured 2 different sprites from the same game but put them on 2 different sheets so it's easier to work with. Now I have them both working in game I would like to put them on the same sprite sheet however I keep getting a problem. When I go to put the 2nd sprite set with the 1st one I made it loses all its colour and becomes so dark you can barely recognise the sprite.
I'm guessing this is a palette issue. How can I solve this cause I still have room for 3-4 more sprite chars and i'm going to keep losing the colours. I'm using ms paint and character maker 1999 Help me please.

EDIT: This is what i'm talking about, the main character looks perfectly fine but the 2nd one has gone so dark he is barely recognisable. How do you lot do your sprite capturing so perfectly?

[attachment=5345:Wot_went_wrong.bmp]

This post has been edited by Pal88: May 7 2012, 08:46 AM

[shinyjiggly]

I would suggest not saving it indexed at first. Once you have the sprites piled on in ms paint, you can sort them out later; but don't save it as indexed until you're done with that particular sprite sheet.
Also, to save it as an indexed png from an RGB png, you'll probably have to use another program like irfanview or GIMP (make sure that you have more than 16 colors in the colorcube analysis before converting to indexed mode in GIMP or it will give you the wrong kind of indexed file!)

But if it's a file that isn't going to need to be in indexed color mode at some point, I would suggest sticking with good old RGB mode. You can't have palette problems if you don't use one.

[Pal88]

I would suggest not saving it indexed at first. Once you have the sprites piled on in ms paint, you can sort them out later; but don't save it as indexed until you're done with that particular sprite sheet.
Also, to save it as an indexed png from an RGB png, you'll probably have to use another program like irfanview or GIMP (make sure that you have more than 16 colors in the colorcube analysis before converting to indexed mode in GIMP or it will give you the wrong kind of indexed file!)

But if it's a file that isn't going to need to be in indexed color mode at some point, I would suggest sticking with good old RGB mode. You can't have palette problems if you don't use one.

Thanks for the reply Though I have to admit i'm no artist and most drawing programs are confusing with there menus.

Here is what I have been doing.

. Loading a game up in VBA and using animget 1.1 to take pictures of the sprite I want (after disabling the background layers, etc.)
. Putting all the sprites into a ms paint sheet 288x256 (rpg maker 2003) then using coral x2 to change the colour to 256 bit mode as it doesn't take away the colouring that much.
. Lining up the chars using character pro and ms paint when needed.

Not fully sure what you mean by indexing, the sprites are from the same game so don't quite understand why the colours aren't the same, what can I do to get the exact same colours into the palette on ms paint without messing up any of the other characters.

Once again thanks for your help and all help is much appreciated.

[shinyjiggly]

The indexing that I was talking about was the 256 color mode. when you save something in indexed 256 color mode, it only saves the colors that are present in the current picture. For example, say that I ripped a grass tile, stuck it in a fresh, unsaved chipset, and then saved it in 256 color mode. Now let's say that I ripped a dirt tile and slapped it onto the same chipset as the grass tile. Because it only save the grass tile's colors in the palette, the dirt tile will appear in the grass tile's colors, even if they are from the same game. This goes for charsets as well. Dude #1 isn't going to have all of the same colors as Dude #2, even if they are from the same game.

A solution to this is to switch the picture back to RGB color mode before adding new sprites to the charset and then changing it back to indexed 256 color mode when you're done.

If your color indexing program of choice takes away too many colors, refer to my earlier post about some free options for changing the color mode to 256 with as many colors as possible retained. But if your charset has more than 256 colors, there IS going to be color loss no matter what, but usually it's the more subtle colors that get nixed.
But since you're working with rips, there shouldn't be an over 256 color problem.

[Pal88]

I see now, thank you for posting that. Has helped alot, no longer getting colour discolouring and learning a bit more of the arts side of things now.
Thanks again. Just need find out where all the rips i'm doing need to go now cause I think some will be battle animations haha.