Digital drawing...where to start?

[Ethevion]

Good, I found it in some local shops online, so I may be able to test it before buying.

That's perfect. Testing it out is the best way to know if you're going to like it. Remember when using it to turn on pressure sensitivity in the graphics program.

 

[ilman]

That's perfect. Testing it out is the best way to know if you're going to like it. Remember when using it to turn on pressure sensitivity in the graphics program.

Be sure to. Also, anyone know some tutorial in sprite animation? Since I don't want to only have still images onscreen and I have never animated a thing.

 

[Walker D]

Oh, so the Monoprice has some problems? Does the Bamboo have any similar issues?

Monoprice has the inconvenience that the pen uses a battery. But please take a look on this good review of the Monoprice tablet (this guys reviewed the Cintiq stile one also)
the Bamboo has not much relevant issues

Sorry for double posting, but I noticed something bad about the Wacom Bamboo Pen - the screen size.
Will 5.8"x3.6" be big enough for drawing terrain and other big stuff?

This size is enough for a beginner...no need to get a Medium size as your first tablet, if you are a beginner (but if you decide to go with a Monoprice, then a Medium size is a good option for you, mostly cause of the lower price) ..(and the large size is not relevant even if you're a experience artist, in my opinion...)


also, take a look on some vector tutorials

Be sure to. Also, anyone know some tutorial in sprite animation? Since I don't want to only have still images onscreen and I have never animated a thing.

Take a look on some basic tutorials on animation theory, like the Dysney's 12 basic principles of animation. Just google for this principles tutorials individualy..
Example: Squash and stretch, Anticipation, Straight ahead action and pose to pose (for sprites, you'll basically use Straight ahead), Slow in and slow out (or Ease-In & Ease-Out) ... and so on...

After that, practice your animation lessons on some softwares..
I recommend this free ones:
Pencil Animation and GraphicsGale (for making sprites animations and stuff)

 

[ilman]

Monoprice has the inconvenience that the pen uses a battery. But please take a look on this good review of the Monoprice tablet (this guys reviewed the Cintiq stile one also)
the Bamboo has not much relevant issues.

Damn, it the Monoprice sounds awesome in his review.

This size is enough for a beginner...no need to get a Medium size as your first tablet, if you are a beginner (but if you decide to go with a Monoprice, then a Medium size is a good option for you, mostly cause of the lower price) ..(and the large size is not relevant even if you're a experience artist, in my opinion...)


also, take a look on some vector tutorials

But, even though the review was very positive, I'm gonna stick to the Wacom. Just in case, as it seems like I won't be needing a larger screen.

And I've already looked at some vector reviews. It doesn't look too hard.

 

[YayMii]

"Bamboo Splash" is what they market the pen-only version of the Bamboo in North America. And the "small" size is big enough for drawing, it's just that a larger tablet will be somewhat more comfortable to draw on in detail.
And generally you don't want a brand other than Wacom for osu!, as other branded tablets (with battery-powered pens) have had reported issues with tracking fast movement, and pens going into auto-sleep mode during play. Wacom's pens don't use batteries so they don't have/need a sleep mode, and it should be obvious how the tracking is, given the amount of players that use them.

If you are thinking about it on something like a regular tablet I find it is more the 30 ms or more latency that is the killer as you are then trying to anticipate your movements and adjust accordingly which is a killer wherever it happens.

The polling rate on a Bamboo tablet is the same as a basic mouse (125Hz, or 8ms) so latency shouldn't be that big of an issue.

 

[ilman]

"Bamboo Splash" is what they market the pen-only version of the Bamboo in North America. And the "small" size is big enough for drawing, it's just that a larger tablet will be somewhat more comfortable to draw on in detail.
And generally you don't want a brand other than Wacom for osu!, as other branded tablets (with battery-powered pens) have had reported issues with tracking fast movement, and pens going into auto-sleep mode during play. Wacom's pens don't use batteries so they don't have/need a sleep mode, and it should be obvious how the tracking is, given the amount of players that use them.

The polling rate on a Bamboo tablet is the same as a basic mouse (125Hz, or 8ms) so latency shouldn't be that big of an issue.

OK, so I've officially decided to go and buy a Bamboo Pen. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[ouch123]

I usually buy my tech from Amazon UK and both the Wacom Bamboo and the Monoprice are similarly priced(40 pounds, 100 BGN). Which one of them is better? The Wacom seems to be a lot more popular, so I guess it's better, right?

Response to *: While I do intend on adding some lighting, i can accomplish all other lighting using shaders. And, yeah, I know that very small details will be rendered obsolete when I shrink the sprite.

Response to **: Why would I need to change the palette? After all, each frame is like the previous, but with small changes. I don't see why I'd need to change it. And could you point out what's wrong with Finn's sprites? They look pretty good to me.

Response to ***: I can't draw nearly as good as the guys who made Blazbue and Street Fighter 2 HD. But Blazblue's art style will be a rough estimate of what I want. Just not as good.

Err, sorry for the late reply (and it seems you've already decided on the tablet you want) but I'll reply to this anyway (again, I apologize for my lateness).

With regard to what I said about the palette, chances are that when you rough the colors, you won't know the final palette you intend on using. As you tweak your first sprite (or one of your earlier sprites for a certain character) you'll probably end up changing your colors around a lot to get it just the way you want it (or, alternatively, if you're working with a system that only supports a few colors per sprite, you may need to apply some tricks to get the look you want while working with a limited palette size). You'd have to use the same palette for every sprite of the character/object you're spriting as well, so as you continue to make sprites you'd more likely than not change your palette a few times to accommodate new poses or special effects (like sparks, "blur," after-images, etc).

With regard to Finn's sprites, there are several color artifacts in a number of his sprites. At best, these are difficult to notice and add to the hand-drawn look of his sprites. At worst, they look horribly out-of-place and demonstrate that very little clean-up/tweaking was done for the final rasterization of his sprites (see attachment).

The three circles represent some of the more egregious results of fast-spriting without clean-up / paying enough attention to the palette during the drawing phase.

Circle on Jake: The entire front of his face is grey.
Circle on backpack: Again, a large grey artifact. In addition, some of Jake's yellow has "bled" onto the backpack, likely caused by the shrinking step in conjunction with applying the palette to the original drawing.
Circle on Finn (ducking): Large grey artifact and more color bleeding (see his shorts and left leg).

 

[ilman]

Err, sorry for the late reply (and it seems you've already decided on the tablet you want) but I'll reply to this anyway (again, I apologize for my lateness).

With regard to what I said about the palette, chances are that when you rough the colors, you won't know the final palette you intend on using. As you tweak your first sprite (or one of your earlier sprites for a certain character) you'll probably end up changing your colors around a lot to get it just the way you want it (or, alternatively, if you're working with a system that only supports a few colors per sprite, you may need to apply some tricks to get the look you want while working with a limited palette size). You'd have to use the same palette for every sprite of the character/object you're spriting as well, so as you continue to make sprites you'd more likely than not change your palette a few times to accommodate new poses or special effects (like sparks, "blur," after-images, etc).

With regard to Finn's sprites, there are several color artifacts in a number of his sprites. At best, these are difficult to notice and add to the hand-drawn look of his sprites. At worst, they look horribly out-of-place and demonstrate that very little clean-up/tweaking was done for the final rasterization of his sprites (see attachment).

The three circles represent some of the more egregious results of fast-spriting without clean-up / paying enough attention to the palette during the drawing phase.

Circle on Jake: The entire front of his face is grey.
Circle on backpack: Again, a large grey artifact. In addition, some of Jake's yellow has "bled" onto the backpack, likely caused by the shrinking step in conjunction with applying the palette to the original drawing.
Circle on Finn (ducking): Large grey artifact and more color bleeding (see his shorts and left leg).

I get what you mean now. Thanks for pointing it out. I will try not to do such lazy drawings, since such things are pretty noticeable on HD sprites. I hadn't even noticed the errors in Finn's sprites during my entire play through of the game. I gotta be more observant.

 

[ouch123]

I get what you mean now. Thanks for pointing it out. I will try not to do such lazy drawings, since such things are pretty noticeable on HD sprites. I hadn't even noticed the errors in Finn's sprites during my entire play through of the game. I gotta be more observant.

I get the feeling most people didn't notice (and the creators of the game realized this would be the case). I only noticed because I tend to pay attention to the weirdest things.

 

[ilman]

I get the feeling most people didn't notice (and the creators of the game realized this would be the case). I only noticed because I tend to pay attention to the weirdest things.

Yeah, it's the same case with me and physics in games. As my grandma says, everyone has a thing he's crazy over.