How to Sprite Basic Recolors

Ever wanted to learn how to do basic recolors? (Recoloring a Pokémon as a different Pokémon.) Look no further! I will post screenshots as we go along the tutorial. I am using a Scizor for this tutorial. Also, this is only a tutorial for Paint and then using GIMP to make things transparent.​

*** Please note that someone on a different forum taught me how to sprite these kind of recolors. Scrafty (Yes, the one who left. ) taught me the Eraser Trick, and one of my friends on another forum taught me how to use imgur. I am just turning it in to a tutorial. (I created this tutorial on my OWN as you can see with the screenshots.) Constructive Criticism will be appreciated in here. ***​

Let's start with the steps.​

1. Pick out the Pokémon you want to be recolored. Let's start with... a Scizor recolored as a Feraligatr! The best place to get sprites is a sprite generator or look the sprites up on Google Search/whatever search engine you use. I can't link to the place where I get my sprites because it has a link to their forums. Sorry about that. =/​

2. Open Paint, or any other program like it.​

3. Paste the sprites. You can do this on Paint by well... just clicking the arrow on the "Paste" button. ._. You could zoom in if you want, too.​

4. This is the first part to recoloring! I would do the outline first, just because it's easier in my opinion. It will be much faster if you use the Eraser Trick, which I will make it look much easier to read in a spoiler after this step.​

Spoiler

To do the Eraser Trick, it only works for Paint. However, to actually do the Eraser Trick, you must click the Color Picker. After you click the Color Picker, click the color you want to be recolored. Next, click the Color Picker again. Once you click the Color Picker again, right click the color that you want the other color to be recolored as. It should bring you to the eraser. Finally, right click and drag the eraser over the sprite and you are done with the Eraser Trick!

Now that the "Eraser Trick" should make more sense, I will finish up step 4. To recolor the outline, use the eraser trick. Click the Color Picker and then click the darkest color after the black. (I don't think the black outline part needs to be recolored.) Now you should have something that looks like this.​

5. Now do the colors on the Pokémon! I usually do it from darkest to lightest, but either way is fine. To recolor the colors, use the Eraser Trick and then use the same parts of shading on the other Pokémon. Make sure you recolor everything! Once you finish this step, you should have something that looks like this. (If you run out of colors like I did, then improvise!)​

6. There is more! As soon as you finish recoloring the sprite, click the square around the "Select" button and make the square around the Pokémon that got recolored. Once you are done with that, right click the square and click "Crop." Next, go to File >> Save As >> PNG Picture.​

7. A few more steps and then you are done! You still have to make the sprite transparent! I use GIMP, but I heard there was a way to make sprites transparent using Paint.NET. I will not be giving links to download GIMP. (just in case LV doesn't allow it.) turns out there is a tutorial for GIMP so nvm. Once you get GIMP, open it.​

8. Go to File >> Open. Choose your sprite.​

9. Click the "Fuzzy Select Tool," or the 4th button from the left. Left click the white background.​

10. Go to Layer >> Transparency >> Add Alpha Channel. Right Click the white background, then go to Edit >> Clear. Make sure you get all the white spots! By now you should have something looking like this. If you want to make the sprites as an avatar, left click the background and then go to Image >> Canvas Size. Resize it to 100 x 100 and then hit "center." THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE YOU SHOULD RESIZE SPRITES! After you do that, go to File >> Export.​

11. Go to a free photo sharing site. I just switched to imgur recently because they have shorter image links and you don't need an account. Plus, I don't think they even have any forums. Once you go to a photo sharing site, upload the sprite. Most photo sharing sites let you upload photos/sprites easy, so I don't see why I need to explain that. Once you upload the sprite, post it or save it and you are done! Just make sure that if you post it the .PNG is right before the coding at the end, though.​

Happy Spriting! ​

Shhmew's guide on how to do basic recolors through GIMP: (Thanks, Shhmew!)​

[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]So GIMP can be really complicated with all its vague features, but recoloring is actually very easy once you know how.[/background]

[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Alright, so:[/background]

[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 1: Open the sprite you want to recolor. [/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 2: Go to Image --> Mode and make sure it is set to "RGB" and not "Indexed." Indexed means you can only use the colors already on the sprite; RGB allows you to add new colors.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 3: Go to File --> Open as Layers and open the second sprite you want to recolor that sprite as. Now they should be on two separate layers.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 4: While on the layer for the sprite you want recolored (you can hide the other one temporarily by clicking on the eye on its layer so it's not in the way), click on the [/background]Select By Color[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)] tool. It looks like a finger pointing toward a red, green, and blue box.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 5: Go into tool options and lower the tolerance to like 1. (If you don't see tool options, go to Windows -> Dockable Dialogs -> Tool Options) The tolerance means that the lower it is, the more selective it will be when choosing colors. We want it to ONLY select that shade, not also select shades close to it. So it should be lowered as low as possible.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 6: With the color picker selected, click on the shade you want to change first. For example, I go from darkest to lightest, so I click on the darkest shade first. All parts of the sprite that are that color will be selected.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 7: Now go to the layer with the sprite you want to recolor the last sprite as (click the eye again to unhide it), and use the Color Picker tool to choose the color (for example, the darkest shade if you selected the darkest shade before)[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 8: Go back to the original sprite with the color selection and right click on the selected part. Go to Edit --> Fill with FG Color. Now the shade should be changed to the shade you want.[/background]
[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Step 9: Repeat, using the Select by Color tool to select the next shade, using the color picker tool to grab the desired shade, and going to Edit -> Fill with FG color for each one until you get to the last shade. Then it should all be filled in and look quite nice![/background]

[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]Notes for Basic Recoloring: [/background]​

• Always go in order, whether you're going from darkest to lightest or lightest to darkest. If you run out of shades to use, you can make new shades that look like they fit and it'll be fine.
• The black outline shouldn't really ever be recolored with basic recolors.
• When you're done, remember to go to File --> Export and save it in .png. DO NOT go to file --> Save As (or Save) as this will save it in a GIMP only file that you won't be able to upload.

[background=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4)]If this guide is unclear to you, please PM me (Shhmew) for more help. It's hard explaining it in words haha.[/background]​

 

There is a way on GIMP? I never knew that. I've been using Paint for the time I have been spriting. ._.

@Fooze - lol yup. xP But yeah, I haven't come across the black bg problem yet and don't use XP. Like I said before, I only use Paint and GIMP.

 

Alright, just put Shhmew's guide for GIMP in the original post as well. Thanks.