For those who don’t know, a “sprite edit” is when you take pre-existing animation frames (sprites) from a 2-D video game and use a graphic program to change (or edit) them into new poses or even new characters. Why use pre-existing sprite? To make the new characters look like they really belong in the game.
– For fun **raises hand**
– To be used in fan/tribute games **keeps hand raised**
– For game site graphics (still raised)
– For message board avatars **tries and fails to pretend that he gives a s#$% **
– For other people to collect and talk about how they have TEH RARE SPRITEZ **glares menacingly**
I started doing sprite edits back in the early days of my ScrollBoss game site just to class up the joint. Eventually, I started using Capcom sprites to recreate characters that I’d love to see in their fighting games. Some pop up on message boards, in sigs and on other people’s sites. If you’ve ever seen a Capcom-style Baroness animation that looks like some guy put WAY too much work into it, that was probably from me. I really got into doing these things back when I had some severe artist’s block just to keep my creativity going. The funny thing is how that’s what the few people that have heard of me know me from while I’m known as ‘that guy that draws stuff around here’ in real life. Gotta thank the M.U.G.E.N. community for that, since the spriters and editors there inspired me to get insane with it.
Anyway, here’s the latest thing that I’ve finished. I started it back in 2004 and just got around to finishing this just as I typed this. Much thanks to SHOH and ryoga&hobbes who gave good feedback that helped make a better looking Professor X.
Yes, that’s a recreation of the Jim Lee cover from X-Men #1. I kept doing sprite edits for that, but the one that held the whole thing up was Archangel. I’m pretty sure the work on this went slowly because of how I lost my ability to give a damn about the X-men a few years back. It’s a long story that I’ll save for it’s own post. The reason that I quit reading X-Men for the first time is too absurd to just mention quickly. You’ll see.