Using History Brush to customize a 32x64 sprite in Photoshop

[Grant Ellis]

After about two days researching RPG Maker XP charasets and reading old threads on the CharaSet Generator site as to why there was little interest in developing a Chara-Generator for the 32x64 sets, I have decided to go about my own way to customizing my Characters.

Tools:
Photoshop 7
Sprites.bmp from Total Eclipse.

Step one:

Decide what you want! I decided I wanted to make a character look more like myself and give him blonde hair.

Open your Sprites.bmp file and find the character you want to edit.
We're going to use this gentleman right here:

I am going to copy and paste him into a new file and work on him.

next, zoom in to maybe about 300%

Click on the
Go to Image > Adjust > Color balance

Since my hair is blonde I am going to want to adjust the color balance more towards yellow.

I am going to change the Shadows, Luminosity, and midtones all more towards yellow ( and a little towards cyan)

Then I take a second snap shot. This is important as it is the whole key to the History brush we are going to use to restore him.

Next, go ahead and click on the box next to Snapshot 2 so the History brush Icon appears and then select Snapshot 1\. Your sprite should look like he did originally before you ever adjusted his colors.

Then select the history brush tool and adjust your brush size to what you want it. Since we are working with something smallish, I suggest something like a size 10 or smaller.

Simply color in his hair. If you make any mistakes you can just change the brush back to snapshot one and go over them with the original.

Voila, Instant IQ drop in just two minutes! ;)

As you can see, the history brush is a powerful tool that could be used on Sprites, Tiles Sets, GUIs, etc.. it is a great way to add some oomf and originality to your sprites in a timely manner.

I hope this tutorial is helpful to the novice graphic artist and can help them out in getting started in working in a Photoshop environment.

Cheers.