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How to creatively increase the resolution of a image sprite in 5 steps!

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avatar Kickflip147
Level 59 : Grandmaster Geek
Posted 07/27/12 6:26:25 pm
07/27/12
In this tutorial, I will show you step by step how to increase the resolution of a sprite while adding details not view-able in the lower-res image by using your mind and your creativity!

STEP 1: Find your image sprite
This is probably the most important part of the entire process. Not only do you need to find a cool image sprite, but you need to be able to visualize what it could look like with more detials. In my case, I made a sword for my Mystical Ore mod a while back and I'm going to be using that for the tutorial. So Here is the full size of my starting image:
HYsword.png

STEP 2: Increase Image size
This is one of the easy parts. Open your image in a image editor (I STRONGLY recommend Greenfish Icon Editor [GFIE].) and for GFIE double click on the page on the side and double the height and width of the image.

STEP 3: Produce Color Palette
For this, you need to find the lightest and darkest colors on the image and use the dropper tool to select them and then use the pencil to paint 2 pixels of each color in a line like this (L=Light color D=Dark color.): LLDD. After you do this, use the box selection tool and select the these pixels: LD. Then at the title bar, click on "Filters" and select "Average". this will produce a color directly in between the 2 selected. Another way you can do this is select the main color of the sprite and use that. Do this step multiple times with the averaged, light and dark colors until you get a color palette of about 7 colors.

STEP 4: Smooth Image and Shade
Once you have your color palette, I recommend selecting the 2nd darkest color and filling in the entire section you will be working on. Then use the pencil and eraser tools to smooth out the lines of the sprite while using your mind to envision if the lines should be slight curves or of curves should be arcs and so on. Once you've done that, start with the lightest color and produce similar shading on the higher res image as is on the lower res one. Do this with all sections and (in my case) will come up with something like this:
HYsword32x32.png
You can see that I didn't have a full palette and I didn't add many details other than curves. The next time I added more colors however:
HYswordV1_32x32.png

STEP 5: Add Detail
This part I can't instruct you on, but just use your vision of what it could be, and draw it out. You may need to get the general shape at first and repeat STEP 4 to complete that portion.
HYswordV2_32x32.png

After your have added all details possible you wanted to the image for that resolution, Go back and repeat STEPS 2-5. Improving detail as you increase resolution. Here is what I did from start to finish:
HYsword.png-->HYswordV1_32x32.png-->HYswordV2_32x32.png-->HYswordV3_32x32.png-->HYswordV3_64x64.png-->HYswordV4_64x64.png-->HYswordV4_128x128.png

For my sword, I only went to a resolution of 128x128px and it took me about a week to get it where it is now. Also, you can see the color palettes I was using in the corners of my pictures, as I didn't want to remove them yet.

Additional Details

Tags:Res, Resolution, Blue, Orange, Amazing, Color, Palette, Detail, Increase, Sword, Pixels, Pixel, Shape, Shading, Shade, Vision, Envision, Draw, Paint, Erase, Greenfish, Green, Fish, Icon, Editor, Curves, Arcs, Lines, Pencil, Average, Smooth, Size, Mod, Image, Sprite, Creativity, Tutorial

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Comments : 10

1 - 10 of 10

DarkFusion
Level 30
Artisan Pixel Painter
September 28, 2012, 10:49 am

1. get paint.net


2. save as a high resolution :3 lol

marioben33
Level 1
New Warrior
August 17, 2012, 4:17 pm

i tried this and it works like a one shot kill witch is awesome i think it is cool because it really worked and helped

spike43884
Level 11
Journeyman Taco
August 8, 2012, 3:26 am

what would i do if i want to do the oposite (HD to 16x16)
becuase just making it smaller completely rips apart the image
i edit in paint get transparency elsewhere

Kickflip147
Level 59
Grandmaster Geek
August 8, 2012, 7:43 am

Making a image smaller is kinda similar, but slightly more difficult in strange ways. Before decreasing resolution, you have to make 2x2 pixel chunks of the same color while still trying to keep the shape. as you are going you can remove detail so it doesn't get messy. Thanks for asking questions!

spike43884
Level 11
Journeyman Taco
August 8, 2012, 8:06 am

k
oh could you possibly make just a download for the default minecraft texturepack (i cant find it anywhere :/)
and 1 thing i do say about that sword - im think the low-res 1 looks abit better the sword just looks abit curly in high res and looks like it has a sort of star in it :/ :/ :/ :? :/ :/ :/

Kickflip147
Level 59
Grandmaster Geek
August 8, 2012, 1:58 pm

you can find the minecraft textures on your computer under the .minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar
and the thing about the low-res looking better. What i did to increase resolution was completely my creativity and so if you don't like my creativity then that's fine.

spike43884
Level 11
Journeyman Taco
August 14, 2012, 2:30 am

dont take it as a insult i just dont so much like the shading and curlyness (i dont mind the blade to much its more the handle)

Frostgeneral2k
Level 45
Master Technomancer
August 8, 2012, 3:19 am

Wow this is awesome!

heartshapedBox
Chat Moderator
Level 49
Master Pirate
August 5, 2012, 10:37 am

Should have more views, good work.

Lord_Andre
Level 20
Expert Pirate
August 20, 2012, 2:30 am

Yeah, I agree! Nice work!

1 - 10 of 10