Edit:
I do not object to any use or modification of the adapted sprites, since I don't consider them to be my property. However, if you use them, please do the following:
* Credit the original sources for the sprite bases that were modified. That is, Days of Memories 3 for Ash and Palmstroem, and 999 for Palmstroem's jacket base.
* Please credit my contribution if you use something I modified, even just a piece of a sprite - not because I own this stuff, but because I don't want to be accused of plagiarizing from you!
* If you're unsure how to make a piece from one of these fit with your Frankensteined sprite, just ask and show me your work in progress, and I'll suggest some tricks to make it look more natural. You may need to use semi-transparent color washes to make the skin tones blend nicely or keep the hair/clothes from being too jarring, or cut down the number of colors in the component to match your sprite's palette.
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Inspired in part by Blackrune's use of custom Hazama animations, I searched for other games with sprites that fit the AA look. Problem is, they don't exist. AA sprites are pretty much unique, as far as I can tell, in their combination of cartoony stylization, varied poses, and attention to detail. That said, searching The Spriters Resource, I found a gold mine of a game called Days of Memory 2, which features front-facing, semi-detailed-but-still-animesque views of videogame characters!
In particular, look at Ash Crimson's sprites...
* His head is too big.
* He's cut off too high; I'd need to scratch or Frankenstein his body.
* His shading isn't quite as uniform top-down as most of the court sprites.
* His style is off in certain ways from the 'AA style' (though no more so than Mike Meekins or some of the victims!)
* And finally, he has no mouth movements yet.
So I got to work. Much cursing and finicky shading and animating later, I give you two sets of talking/blinking sprites for...
Ash Crimson: Obvious Villain?
Edit: Smoothed out blinking animations.
Edit: Very subtly lightened outline around head.
Edit: Added new sprite:
Dr. Johann Palmstroem
(Bases were Geese from Days of Memories 3 and Ace from 999
If I ever finish my trial, he's definitely going to be in it, but seeing as I don't own any of Ash's features, feel free to borrow him - or to take bits and pieces of him for Frankensteining. I'm hoping that the more people adapt sprites from other sources, the more we'll be seeing new and creative sprite components in our OCs.
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Edit: I was able to make a background from a photo! It was troublesome, but the editing practice I've already gotten helped a lot.
Here's the photo: