hey there how's it going in the last asset pack video i made a cute skeleton and i asked you to
leave a comment for future characters to make of course the most requested thing was not a
character but a tile map and i'm afraid i'm not quite ready to tackle that yet i started this as a
character asset pack because that's what i enjoy making the most and i'm going to keep it that
way for a little while longer although as we get more characters i will start thinking about what
to make for terrain other than that there were several other suggestions that were really close
to number of comments so to be diplomatic about it i put it to a vote in the youtube community tab
and wizard mage won by a large margin i did see a few comments of people saying not to pick that
because i've already made a mage character for my game tread carefully and they'd rather see
me do something different but with over 50 percent of the vote i can't just not do it
so instead of going for a hooded mage like i've done before let's switch it up and make a wizard
with a mighty beard instead making the skeleton as my first humanoid character worked out great
for this because now i can use it as a base for all characters in the future that have that shape
and presumably the wizard's going to have a skeleton unless the spell has gone horribly wrong
i started by adding flesh to the head and figuring out features like the eyes nose mouth and ears i
began the beard with a big mustache and used that to determine how large the beard itself should be
in relation now i plan to give the character a classic wizard hat but the balding look was just
too good not to leave in even if it's not really seen in the final sprites wizards wear robes so
i was able to block in a big blotch of color with a rough idea of where the hand's going to be and
then start adding some shading and refining there aren't that many pixels on the body to work with
since the beard is covering up so much of it so i just give the illusion of folds using the main
color and some shadow as well as throwing on a belt for good measure on the head i went for a
classic big floppy gandalf-like hat and i'm a big tolkien fan so there were definitely inspiration
taken from the grey wizard here and all in all i think the look came together pretty well with
the base design of the character figured out it's time to start animating i've mentioned this in the
past but i do all of my designing in photoshop because that's the tool that i've just worked
with the longest that i'm most comfortable using but i do really dislike the animation
tools that photoshop has to offer so let's get this guy over into a sprite and get him moving
and as we do that i would like to thank the sponsor of this video flexispot who sent me
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lean back adjust the armrest and get a little gaming done before bed it was incredibly easy
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last few weeks now and i've been super happy with it for both work and play flexispot makes
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with the character designed i separate each of the moving elements out into their own layers
for this character i broke them into a body foreground arm background arm head and hat
i find this approach incredibly valuable to help block out where the movement's going to go
having all the pieces separate so i can move them and then later go back in and make finer
pixel adjustments where i need to and we use it right away by setting up the head
bob movement for the idle animation once i like it i then go back through the frames and move
elements like the mustache in the beard when animating i take an action then follow approach
if a non-rigid item is attached to a larger item that moves then the next frame that attached items
should move when the head goes down the end of the mustache and the beard don't move until the
following frame which makes it feel loose and not rigidly attached to the face the same approach
is then taken for the hat i get the whole hat moving rigidly along with the head and then i
add some floppiness to areas furthest away from the head like the brim of the hat and the top
the body for the idle pose is pretty simple here and i don't want to make it attract the eye too
much because i don't want to pull the focus away from the beard and the hat which i think are more
interesting things for the players to look at and the easier read when the sprite is in the game
those that know my work know that i usually leave arms off my characters because for some reason
they're always just a pain for me to animate but because this is something i'm doing to learn on
top of giving something out to the community i can't let myself just not put arms on this
character i started by trying to just move the whole arm frame by frame and in the end it just
didn't really work super well but i did find that making a rough hand shape and then animating just
that circle moving around helped a lot because that allowed me to get all the placement i
needed and then just put in the arm and the sleeve to match the movement that was working
i really didn't expect walking in robes to give me such trouble but i fought with this for a
really good while i had to cut out all of my failed attempts at the walk cycle because
honestly even with the speed up it would have taken far too long to show it all but
in the end i was able to add a bit of a consistent pattern to the front of the robes and then animate
that moving along with the edges to get something that came out pretty well with pixel art sometimes
it's just trial and error until something looks right and this was one of those times for me
i always make animations in a similar order because it allows the work to speed up as i go by
starting with the idle and the run that gives me a lot of different elements in different positions
that i can pull from to create all of the other animations that i need to saving a lot of time and
redrawing the jump and fall animations for example pull in elements from different frames of the walk
and run cycle to make a new shape that works out well for what we need doing it this way i now
get a nice head start and only have to make minor tweaks to make it all fit together i added a fun
frame on the fall where the ropes pop up a little bit and you can see the wizard's shoes sticking
out from underneath it really isn't necessary but i find it kind of adorable and it helps give
a glimpse that there are actually legs underneath there like the skeleton this will be a projectile
throwing enemy so i followed the same steps of having the character lean back in anticipation
frames and then lean forward again with the arms out to throw the spell during the animation i make
the eyes change color and the spell form around the hands as they move the spell grows during
the lean back and then has a nice smear as the hands move forward to help sell that the spell
is moving quickly and to add a little more power to it i made the mustache and the hat brim flutter
as if there was so much wind and energy coming off of the spell added in a little squint to the eyes
to show that the wizard is exerting some force and that's a fun little attack animation i think
for the death i didn't want to do anything gory i really liked what i did with the skeleton where
the head falls on top of the pile of bones so i kind of tried it again this is a wizard after
all and it's kind of magical so it does make sense that when it dies it gets sucked up into
its own hat right well if you answered no too bad because that's what i did and i honestly love it
then i made the hit animation which is basically just the beginning part of the death animation
and as i did with the skeleton i made a flashing and non-flashing version i then made a separate
sprite for the projectile as well and finally like with the slimes i added a couple of color
variations and that'll do it this is the wizard in the end it can stand idle run jump and fall attack
die and get hit the pack on my itch page has been updated and it's ready to grab if you're
interested there's a link in the description and as always you're free to use the asset however
you choose and credit is not necessary but will be appreciated i just ask that you don't sell
or redistribute the assets and link people back to the page if they're looking for it i'm really
enjoying making characters for this pack and i'm learning a lot i really do think this is one of
the best animation sets i've ever done be sure to leave your suggestions for the next character
in the comments below and be sure to upvote the ones that you like bat and spider were right up
there last time with people really wanting to see either a flying enemy or just a torch for me by
making me deal with all those legs while you're at it please give the video a like if you've enjoyed
this and click the subscribe and bell button if you haven't already i'd like to give an extra
special thank you to my patreon supporters for help making this kind of content happen
especially cinnabon clone 13 portland massam david scott nightfall it's jeppy jed kevin halgow cormai
mlk matzi makes nazar celine salty pretzel scott hanson soapy gnome straight up gruntled and warren
stephen rose you're all awesome people and i truly can't thank you enough for the support
thank you again for watching if you would like to get into contact with me the best place to do that
would be on my live streams at twitch.tv we also have a discord server with loads of amazing people
one final thank you to flexispot for sponsoring this video and for sending
me the chair i absolutely love it and i hope that you all have a wonderful day or
evening whatever it is for you i'll talk with you next time have a good one later