Editing does NOT MAKE IT EASIER TO MAKE CUSTOM SPRITES. It does not give editors a proper understanding of anatomy, shading techniques, palette selection, working methods, and a myriad of other miscellanea. Due to the neglect of these areas, editors are WORSE OFF when trying to move to custom sprites. That and as far as practice goes, it's pretty lacking due to having basically all the work done for you from the get-go.

Here's a weight lifting analogy for you. There are two types of weight lifting, lifting for muscle mass, and lifting for muscle tone. The former involves lifting very heavy weights in order to increase your muscle's capacity, and the latter involves lifting lighter weights in order to make it all look pretty and work a bit better. You're not going to develop very much muscle mass at all if you just lift for tone all the time. You need to lift heavier weights or you're not going to get anywhere.



IN SHORT: Yeah, it's damned hard to learn how to do something with prior experience, but learning it the wrong way does not make it any easier.

Thanks for the help Mr. Evilagram sir.

and in your analogy, you metnion that you need more heavy weight lifting to get there, but you also need some good toning as well, it helps to edit. Just because you are ignorant to learning a new style from editing doesnt mean nobody else can. it just means they can understand a concept better than you, apparently.

Yeah, editing helps. When it's your own damn sprites. Refine and edit your own sprites and fix your own damn mistakes.

Also, shut the f*ck up about style. Seriously. I hear that damn word all too damn often on this forum. Style is like your handwriting. Stop worrying about other people's handwriting unless you're in the forgery business. Oh and read my signature.


On that note, when I want to learn a certain technique or style, I REFERENCE. I look at how they did it and attempt to produce it independently in my own work. That's how you learn. By building your own damn boat, not patching a hole and painting a boat someone else gave you.

ugh long flame war. Im not going to bother continuing so arel's topic doesnt get locked.
also evilagram, there is more than one way to learn something.

Yeah, I know. I know this because I'm a kickass teacher. Here's a primer in the learning process.

When something is learned, it is stored in a neuron in the brain. Depending on the intensity of the memory and the number of associated memories a number of connections are made to that neuron. The more often this neuron is used the longer connections are retained and more are made. The best way to learn something is by establishing a large number of connections. Do you ever wonder why teachers make you take notes in class? Because the act of writing it on paper establishes connections more thoroughly. Do you wonder why they make you do homework, or problems in class instead of just handing you the answers? It's to force your brain to actively recall and interact with the information, establishing a stronger connection in your brain.

Forgetting is the brain's process of filtering out less useful information so that it can access more important information more efficiently. Photographic memories are not all they're cracked up to be. A photographic memory cannot forget anything and thus has all information primed constantly in far more detail than necessary, which is not beneficial to efficient operation in all cases.

By referencing another's work, and recreating the technique yourself, you establish a firmer link in your mind to the idea and learn more thoroughly. Tracing does not produce the same results because it vastly decreases the amount of mental faculty required to perform the task. The mind is not actively engaged in the technique so much as the physical activity of moving one's hand over the lines already laid out. The same applies to editing. You're not focusing on the technique so much as copying what's there.

In finale, editing sucks. Quot erat demonstrandum.



P.S. This is not a flame war. It's a discussion/debate. I'm not flaming, you're not flaming. The most we can be accused of is going off topic, and if a mod warns for that, they should be kicked out on the spot.

you remind me of some one i know, but last time i checked his sprite work, you are better. hmm...
anyway, it was a fun debate.
you can have your way, ill stick with mine, and we will end this like most debates. nobody learns anything, and they end up arguing about the same thing somewhere else later. =D

In other words, you didn't read my post at all and you're going to stubbornly stick to editing because you're afraid of the difficulty curve on custom sprites, attempting to find an easy way out through editing, in the distant hope that it'll eventually pay off. In addition, you refuse to accept contradictory evidence because it means that you'd either have to confess that you're not really trying at all, or actually step up to custom spriting.


Try actually reading my post. It's useful information for everything in life, not just sprites.

No, i read your posts, but currently, i am not a great custom spriter, and i myself enjoy editing. I think its fun. Im not great with line art and that, but if you want to help me out with it, or "debate" on what i posted some more, please either pm it to me, or go find my sprite topic and do that.

ok this is my sprite workshop. so take this to pms i dont care if you debate just not in my topic. k'

pretty much what i said, but ok.
so, anything new, or anything you plan on spriting?

i would like to try glitch if that's alright with you.

sure. fine with me. =D
EDIT: need a refrence pic?

yes please.

most recent one.