johnnyivan

Yep, that sounds good, Mike. I've been leaving plenty of space around each image in the slices in my 'exploded-view' Adobe Illustrator working file of the character. It makes me wonder how in Photoshop, you can export layers to PNG sprites with space around them. Perhaps that plug-in can do it. I'll check it out, thanks John

Yep, DPI is irrelevant with screen graphics—correct, Mike? But when you're told to produce designs and graphics for devices with resolutions of 72dpi, 144dpi (?), 230dpi (I'm making these up now), etc., that's just mis-direction isn't it? I think what they should say is "design for devices with resolutions of 1024 x 768, 768 x 480", etc etc. Isn't that right? I remember how surprised I was when I first saw how 2 graphics of the same pixel dimensions, but saved at different (print) resolutions (72dpi and 300dpi) were the same file size and displayed identically in a web browser. ---- DPI is really an instruction to the printer how many dots to print per linear inch, when the graphic is printed. ---- As I say, I think Photoshop, Illustratior etc., really confuse things when we're working on non-print stuff. What I fail to remember to understand properly is the 're-sample' checkbox, when image sizes are adjusted. I usually have to think for a while about that. ----- Re: working big. In Illustrator, I can export my slices at 200% or 500% size, say, and all is good. What happens if the resulting PNG assets are brought into Spriter and then resized down in there as I start to rig? Is that an option? Thanks for your attention and efforts on this, Mike. John

Hi Mike, Thanks. I'm exporting the slices/files nice and big from Illustrator. I think I've finally found a way to make it work. AI and AP are really terrible for this sort of thing. I'm now getting lovely Alpha transparency with PNG-24. See the attached image showing with assets placed over black just to test them. Some have ragged edges, some are nice and clean with semi-transparent shadows ) over the red bar). Re: Resolution I think that is one of the most misleading and confusing words that ever gets used in relation to Digital art for onscreen use. And it's used because apps like Adobe's keep using it in the most inappropriate ways. I get confused myself sometimes and have to remind myself that resolution or DPI is meaningless and can be ignored in onscreen graphics. But it's still an issue that the DPI selector is there in those apps when exporting or creating new graphics. Like, if I put my exported Illustrator slices/png images (supposedly 72dpi) into a new Photoshop document I'm not sure what resolution to make it at. As I said, the resolution should be inconsequential, but Photoshop makes it consequential—when you paste your PNGs into the new document. They'll be big, or small, or sharp or blurry. Some day, I'll get my head around it and know what can be ignored. John

Hi Mike, Thanks for the help! I suspect that the problem was simply that I deleted the assets from my computer Unfortunately, Illustrator doesn't seem to re-export assets with the same filenames as previously, so they don't either overwrite—or just take the place of what was previously there. I suspect Photoshop is the same. I'm really not impressed by the slice/file export in either of those apps. I'll check into this and report back John

Hi Everyone, I'm just starting out at this! Can you tell me if this is a reasonable way to create artwork and sprites for characters? Draw in Adobe Illustrator (and do most of the fill colour). Nice and crisp. Bring into Adobe Photoshop for: any final 'finishing/embellishment' > slicing > exporting to PNGs I *think* that once it's in Photoshop, whether as an imported or pasted raster image — OR — as a 'Smart Object', once I start working on it in raster mode there's kind of no going back. Unless, the Illustrator art is just un-filled linework, and I colour and embellish on different layers under and over the Smart Object. This is almost what I did years ago on Story Apps: but I Drew in Illustrator in black line only > and did all Colour in Photoshop on the linework and fills. It was a bit convoluted. ** 1 little snag I'm having in Photoshop though, is exporting decent quality PNG sprites from slices, with clean transparency edges. Perhaps someone has a tip on that? Thanks for reading, I hope you can offer your thoughts. John

Hi All, My first post, I'm a newbie! I re-exported my image assets from Adobe Illustrator, and I seemed to lose the pivot points that I placed/specified on them earlier in my Spriter project? I have to re-do them all now. Does that seem right? Thanks John