Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that

Hey guys, I wouldn't say I'm a new user since I have downloaded off this website for 5 years now. I just never made an account until now. I have watched people come and go and I see more going and not coming. I want to get into character creation and start creating my own custom sprites. I realize this is not super easy, but if I could have some tips from some experienced creators that could help kindle my aspirations in this that would be cool. I already have fighter factory, but I'm kinda confused on how it works. Maybe someone could help me figure out the basics of where to start and help me break it down. Thanks guys

Get a photo editing software I use gimp

I downloaded a sprite separator, but I couldn't figure out how it worked.

Posts : 593 Join date : 2012-05-18

What you can actually do is, learn to sprite and stop taking other peoples stuff and bastardize it. Simple as that.

Posts : 450 Join date : 2013-07-11

Although he could have said it without attacking YOU, Dev is right. A big reason the COMIC mugen community is dying is because most ppl are taking the easy way out and just doing sprite swaps. We all can agree taking elements is one thing but these guys are just repainting characters and calling them new. Which is forcing REAL creators out.

There are plenty of tutorials on frankenspriting or doing it from scratch, but that is really how the comic mugen will stay afloat. So i suggest going to youtube and doing a search they have visuals that can help if just text tutorials dont do the trick.

Well I would only start with sprite swaps until I learn how to do it myself. Like one or two sprite swaps. You think I can just create my own thing right off the bat when I don't even know how to edit them? Especially when I was only asking advice from people I respect as artists. You think I'd even have fun doing sprite swaps? Nah man only for learning. There are lots of characters I have ideas for. and I tried youtube, but everyone just rambles. I wanted to find some cut and dry quick text tutorials. This is why the community is dying, because no one is helpful to noobs.

Also I'm not into comic book characters so I wouldn't be doing much of those

Posts : 5691 Join date : 2014-08-11

There are some neat sprites-related tools here

: http://spritedatabase.net/download

And here is a nice "How To Rip Sprites (from sprite sheets) with GIMP." YouTube video by Alexei Roschak cyclops

:

Here a simple step-by-step pixel arts tutorial

: https://www.raywenderlich.com/14865/introduction-to-pixel-art-for-games
Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Tutori10

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Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Tutori11

The good-old classic Frankenspriting information web page here

: http://scrollboss.illmosis.net/tutorial_frankenspriting.php
Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Franke10

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Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Franke11

Many Japanese creators use GraphicsGale to draw 2D sprites yes

:

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Galeca10

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Sample10

here

: https://graphicsgale.com/us/

If you have MUGEN coding questions, then please post at the MUGEN Help forum, Mistah Jorge/LESSARD/Werewood is able to help you out in most cases. geek

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>> Also I'm not into comic book characters so I wouldn't be doing much of those
I am interested in what kind of non-comic-book MUGEN stuff you want to make... study

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* if you are going to use other MUGEN creators'/authors' works for your own MUGEN making, then you are highly encouraged to ASK FOR PERMISSION first, when the materials you want to use are not open-sourced.

* if you are not asking for permissions then you must not publish your MUGEN work that makes use of unauthorized materials, to the public sides, be it in a form of images/videos/file downloads.

Once more, here I quote from Angelus_Silverhead's words in the last post of the "A small talk about the big "sprite permissions" issue goes here...." topic (now recycled) Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 3876111886

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 3876111886

:

Angelus_Silverhead wrote:: The topic is locked! All people who have thoughts on this question, are told about their mind. We are all agree that permission is important part. Untill the character is not going public, it have no sense to start a big conflict. MMV team respect all users, including creators. Your rights are protected.

P.S. volzzilla(!) & Angelus_Silverhead & Arkady & chuchoryu & Doom (previously) are bigger & older & longer MMV admins/mods than I am, their decision is my decision. yes

If you are going to post something then be sure not to use any insulting words

:
http://mugenmultiverse.fanbb.net/t11026-global-announcement-no-insulting-words-or-the-like-are-allowed-in-mmv

Posts : 160 Join date : 2016-09-11

Nightadder1 wrote:: Well I would only start with sprite swaps until I learn how to do it myself. Like one or two sprite swaps. You think I can just create my own thing right off the bat when I don't even know how to edit them? Especially when I was only asking advice from people I respect as artists. You think I'd even have fun doing sprite swaps? Nah man only for learning. There are lots of characters I have ideas for. and I tried youtube, but everyone just rambles. I wanted to find some cut and dry quick text tutorials. This is why the community is dying, because no one is helpful to noobs.

Well, there aren't many specific advices other people can give you to start making good stuff instantly, some artists I've followed at ART focused communities use different techniques to create, each one develops/modifies the method that works for them, saying this because a method that probably works for them, may not work as good for you, some also involve paid softwares, so go figure.

If you look for a tutorial to make stuff quick and easy, it may not be your thing then, the learning curve isn't usually steep, the more you know the easier becomes to think in different ways to combine your available tools to create new things.....and there aren't many tutorials for that.

Tutorials are only good to learn the basic tools of a program used to make art, but even if you know how to use them, doesn't mean your stuff will automatically be good (if you care about standards), everything else is learned pretty much by observation & random practice.

Usually you use fighter factory to code characters, not to make sprites, for sprites you can use a variety of softwares ranging from photoshop, graphicgale, aseprite to even MS paint, don't belittle paint just because of the bad fame the so called "ms paint sprites" give it, you can start just fine with it to edit and practice the basics like line-art, shading and anatomy.

If there's a general advice to give you regarding full character spriting, would be to learn to animate first.
Start animating doodles or even stick figures, try to make smooth animations off the top of your head, so you learn about how motions work, this is a common problem all around, people don't know how to animate and are limited to just the bases or frankensprites they can get, and the result is just a mediocre frankensprite with a bunch of copied animations from other characters, you can easily tell the difference in animation quality when these people try to animate from scratch (stances usually), they're just....terrible, doesn't matter if they're somewhat decent at line-art, shading & anatomy, it's just bad.

This is important, a simple design with good animation can outshine a sprite with more complex details and mediocre animation. A lot of great animations start just as stick figures and blobs, it's a nice way to grow skill, and that way you don't become dependant of bases/frankenspriting.

About coding, a good way to start is to download kung fu man and mess around with him, edit him to see what piece of code does what, doesn't matter if you glitch him, just get him again and continue doing so, he has notes all over his cns files to help novices to understand, read the mugen docs too, it helps to learn about the state controllers (they are inside mugen's folder).

Since Alice nailed the the spriting topic on the back of it's head, i think we should talk about how you get people interested on mugen in general, what i think people should do is to focus creating new characters, but not necessarly new, you can also pick characters that exist but are not in mugen, like let's say Ramlethal from Guilty Gear Series, there isn't currently a Ramlethal made in 2D sprites.
Or maybe a Chang and Choi from Cvs2 in what most of you call P.O.T.S style, as far as i know, there isn't one either.

This is something chuchoryu has perfectly nailed, although the creations are rushed and could have a better quality. (sorry dude, if anything, i recongnize that i'm far from perfect)

My point is, while i'm not prohibiting people to create another existing character again in the same style, i encourage people to create something new though, since this is a comic-centered forum, and while i'm not into marvel vs capcom styled characters i still encourge you into making something new, obscure or not, let's say Bane from the Batman series.

Another suggestion is to update current characters (as long as they're open source), like most of Ax characters that are in the download section, improve the quality of the creations, not only in coding but in gameplay too, that will not only give people better impressions of the creators themselves, but it will also give a better impression of the forum in general, quality and clean, you know what i mean?

Even bug fixing character templates would probably sparkle some interest on creators. To me, quality is the most important thing!

Also, if you want to use some certain sprites or sounds or maybe a little bit of coding, don't be a dick and ask people for permission, maybe even go as far as do some research or something on those lines.

Great opinions of Aℓίcℯ and Mistah Jorge, In my case, my mugen skill have been evolved a lot, you can search in google for my first works (Yaga from saint seiya) so in my comeback to the MUGEN hobby I learn a lot from Ryon´s tutorials, Cybaster´s tutorials, also via PM with real members of the forum like vollzilla, Borewood, Fabry Taz, etc. I learn a little from each one and I can see a lot of "new blood" in the forum.

Im always ready to help or answer questions if i know the answer. Was the spirit of this community what pushed me to make new mugen contents, I start the section "APRENDIENDO CON LESSARD" in spanish and "LEARNING WITH LESSARD" in english to share all i know in semi interactive tutorials for anyone sho wants to learn.

Disgracefully both post not have the answer i hope, only a couple of dear friends of mine go with it. Thats the reason the next tutorials have been delayed.

Anyways I will not let mugen hobby dies, My name is LESSARD and im always ready to bring a helping hand: I will be glad of give you a fish, but im rather to teach you how to fish.

Take care and may god bless to all.

LESSARD

Posts : 5691 Join date : 2014-08-11

The MUGEN opinions of Aℓίcℯ and Mistah Jorge and LESSARD are so professional! geek

It shows that MMV is full of passionate helpers who care for the others! Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that Desism47

And yes just like what Aℓίcℯ said, please feel free to mess with KFM (Kung Fu Man - by Elecbyte) for your MUGEN car making learning and experiment purpose study

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that MOqCsPG

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that M6aj2AR

And yes just like what Mistah Jorge said, MUGEN car making is not limited to just something totally new -- it can be a revamp, or an expansion, or a re-style of an existing MUGEN car, like, you can even open your own "MUGEN Car Repair Center" -- I remember my first 1st published MUGEN car was a KI2 Fulgore by kofelsalvador10th. kofelsalvador10th's KI2 Fulgore has been open-sourced and I tried to use my little KI:Gold experience to re-style kofelsalvador10th's KI2 Fulgore, here was the old MUGEN readme of my kofelsalvador10th's KI2 Fulgore edit Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 3876111886

:

as of 2010-08:

And yes LESSARD's MUGEN stuff is very worthy for you to check about! Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 670481599

I am sure you can benefit very much by studying LESSARD's MUGEN stuff! yes

Also LESSARD is willing to provide very detailed instructions of anything about MUGEN -- look at his wonderful MUGEN tutorials here

:
http://mugenmultiverse.fanbb.net/t10371-learning-with-lessard
* @LESSARD: before I didn't know how to make a topic sticky, nowadays I figured that out, and I just made both of your "LEARNING WITH LESSARD" and "APRENDIENDO CON LESSARD" topics sticky! Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 978788824

Mugen community dying and what we can do to change that 978788824

Last but not least, which is that, don't take MUGEN things too seriously, it is meant for your own fun first, it can usually happen when you decide to make your MUGEN works public. I say this because in the past I took MUGEN things too seriously and it had caused me and some others a lot of e-troubles. Do your best and listen to all MUGEN feedback and very importantly learn how to get the useful parts while filtering out the useless parts (now I am still trying to improve this MUGEN feedback taking lesson learning). Smile

Posts : 160 Join date : 2016-09-11

Mistah Jorge wrote:: give a better impression of the forum in general, quality and clean, you know what i mean?

Even bug fixing character templates would probably sparkle some interest on creators. To me, quality is the most important thing!

^
This.

Another thing I almost forget, visiting other communities helps too, gather feedback/opinions, doesn't matter what perception people have about their skills, they are probably lower than they think.

So it's fine to have people that is not acquiescent towards you because they tell you things like they are, that's one reason I post my stuff nearly everywhere Mugen Guild, IMT, MFFA, MMV, MTM, MIL, etc.. (the other being potential commission work, but I digress). I don't mind my stuff being called garbage, if it's garbage then it's garbage as long as someone else is able to pin-point mistakes I missed.

I'm taking the freedom to read through several topics here just now,
I'm aware of the bad fame this place has, and from what I've read in all my time, it's not only IMT really, most mugen sites see it like a place nothing good can ever come out from.

Reading Ilusionista's topic & a few other, if people really want to improve the overall perception, all I can say is that driving away novices & the safe place mentality doesn't help (if this place is really driving away other creators because it favourites newcomers, I don't know how much of it is true, I don't really pay attention to that)

If you drive away novices with elitism the community may not grow, but if you drive away senior creators the place can get stuck with low bar creations for the most part.

If anything, a community can keep stable by being welcoming to potential new creators not being elitist but at the same time having enough amounts of members with decent quality standards, I don't think any creator would mind if someone else take their creation and TRULY improves it after all, and not the opposite.

Posts : 7507 Join date : 2013-06-17 Age : 47

Aℓίcℯ wrote:

Mistah Jorge wrote:: give a better impression of the forum in general, quality and clean, you know what i mean?

Even bug fixing character templates would probably sparkle some interest on creators. To me, quality is the most important thing!

^
This.

Another thing I almost forget, visiting other communities helps too, gather feedback/opinions, doesn't matter what perception people have about their skills, they are probably lower than they think.

So it's fine to have people that is not acquiescent towards you because they tell you things like they are, that's one reason I post my stuff nearly everywhere Mugen Guild, IMT, MFFA, MMV, MTM, MIL, etc.. (the other being potential commission work, but I digress). I don't mind my stuff being called garbage, if it's garbage then it's garbage as long as someone else is able to pin-point mistakes I missed.

I'm taking the freedom to read through several topics here just now,
I'm aware of the bad fame this place has, and from what I've read in all my time, it's not only IMT really, most mugen sites see it like a place nothing good can ever come out from.

Reading Ilusionista's topic & a few other, if people really want to improve the overall perception, all I can say is that driving away novices & the safe place mentality doesn't help (if this place is really driving away other creators because it favourites newcomers, I don't know how much of it is true, I don't really pay attention to that)

If you drive away novices with elitism the community may not grow, but if you drive away senior creators the place can get stuck with low bar creations for the most part.

If anything, a community can keep stable by being welcoming to potential new creators not being elitist but at the same time having enough amounts of members with decent quality standards, I don't think any creator would mind if someone else take their creation and TRULY improves it after all, and not the opposite.

yep but some guys so close of mind, I work for all( you need palettes tell me, you need a idea for chat talk to me etc) some creators no put chars and only use "private" but before you see that char in a youtube video...WTF??? anyway you need palettes no problem write me ok? help you!

Posts : 7507 Join date : 2013-06-17 Age : 47

Mistah Jorge wrote:: Since Alice nailed the the spriting topic on the back of it's head, i think we should talk about how you get people interested on mugen in general, what i think people should do is to focus creating new characters, but not necessarly new, you can also pick characters that exist but are not in mugen, like let's say Ramlethal from Guilty Gear Series, there isn't currently a Ramlethal made in 2D sprites.
Or maybe a Chang and Choi from Cvs2 in what most of you call P.O.T.S style, as far as i know, there isn't one either.

This is something chuchoryu has perfectly nailed, although the creations are rushed and could have a better quality. (sorry dude, if anything, i recongnize that i'm far from perfect)

My point is, while i'm not prohibiting people to create another existing character again in the same style, i encourage people to create something new though, since this is a comic-centered forum, and while i'm not into marvel vs capcom styled characters i still encourge you into making something new, obscure or not, let's say Bane from the Batman series.

Another suggestion is to update current characters (as long as they're open source), like most of Ax characters that are in the download section, improve the quality of the creations, not only in coding but in gameplay too, that will not only give people better impressions of the creators themselves, but it will also give a better impression of the forum in general, quality and clean, you know what i mean?

Even bug fixing character templates would probably sparkle some interest on creators. To me, quality is the most important thing!

Also, if you want to use some certain sprites or sounds or maybe a little bit of coding, don't be a dick and ask people for permission, maybe even go as far as do some research or something on those lines.

this all true Mistah Jorge but tell me you position:
Loganir write me: Wonder Woman is (c) Loganir.

me: Wonder Woman no is a creation by William Moulton Marston‎ or (c) Dc Comics, no no and no is (c) Loganir scratch

this weird world...Mugen.