Sprite animation and why it's evil

[Radium]

I try to draw a SIMPLE little sprite for a comuter game, and two hours later I have this (I draw SLOW)...
http://www.foxmage.com/LizardFight.gif
Then I'm screaming to myself "I HAVE TO DRAW ALL THAT AGAIN!?!?!". If I draw it again, it looks completely different. If I use a selection tool to move pieces around, it looks like the character is "melting". Are there any good programs for making sprites and animating them?

[Captain Spam]

I'm afraid it's the same as traditional animation. You'll have to keep drawing it over and over again if you want it to look right.

However, with sprites, you typically have the advantage of a smaller canvas and much larger tolerance from your audience as to what is acceptable, quality-wise. You can usually get away with making small mistakes or lapses of detail in the pics and it won't be noticed when the sprite is actually being used.

[MoonBlazE]

Or you could copy and paste and change what's going to be changed.

[Batty Buddy]

Que Passa!!!!

I did the copy and paste thing with two sprite animations of Ms. Leleb for a game I was trying to make on Klick & Play(It was a long time ago.) The only two animations were her ducking(She folds her leaf over her body, hiding herself under it like... a really flat person hiding under a rug.) and her death scene(Her face explodes, leaving it blackened, then she blinks twice and shakes off the ashes.) I had to draw her actual body in different positions a total of three times. The major problem with copy-paste animation is... it runs the risk of not looking very professional. If you don't mind taking that risk, by all means- do it, but if you defanately want a professional animation, just bite the bullet and draw your guy a few more times(Although you COULD use copy paste animation on that sword and shield of his...)

[Radium]

I tried Copy+Paste and it didn't work very good. And I don't think using it on just the sword and shield would look good either, since they'd change the angle they're viewed by alot.

[JJ BBoy KS]

Woah, that looks really cool! :cool:

But yeah...I guess you just have to draw it all, and copy+paste when possible (If it looks okay) and use the same frame as much as you can. :p