So You Want to be a Pixel Artist: Part II

I've finished reading this tutorial, though I will admit I started to rush through the last few pages.  In this post I'm going to attempt to capture the highlights and key nuggets of info found in this tutorial.

• NES sprites are 16x16, the nice Street Fighter spriters are 100h with no standard width.
• If you want something to look new and shiny, use a perfect gradient.  Most things you will want to look worn however so you will need to work pixel by pixel as illustrated.
• Lighting is incredibly important, even for pixel art.  When working with sprites it's quite common to flip horizontally to save time.  A trick to avoid having to "re-light" every frame is to use a light source that is directly above your character.  This way, even when bits are flipped, the lighting still makes sense.
• The Secret of Mana 3 has some fantastic environments to study.
• In a 16x16 sprite, the bottom three pixels are for the waist down, the three pixels above that are for the torso, and the remaining 10 pixels at top are all for the head.
• Ideally you want to sketch your character first and then overlay your sprite work on top of it.  This is not an absolute requirement but it is how the best artwork is made.
• Selective outlining, or "selout", is a style of outlining with shades rather than black that helps make your work look more professional.
• 6 frames is generally the magic number for running animations, though you may want more for super large sprites like The Hulk.