My friend and I were planning on creating an a 2D RPG similar to that of Final Fantasy. I am in charge of art, and I need to improve tremendously to elevate my sprites to par with the GBA Final Fantasies. My jobs include: Concept sketching, Designing the Heroes/Backdrops/Enemies/etc., Sprite them, and maybe even make some basic noises and sounds with Audacity. My major problem is I have trouble with all perspectives/poses except forward, sideways, and backward. All of those can include arms being held away from the body. I also have never made any sort of major background or backdrop for any sort of game, so I have no idea what goes into that either. I also have trouble with weapons, making them and having the sprites use them. There is no time limit on the RPG itself, so I have as long as it takes. I appreciate any assistance or advice I receive.

I am not an artist in anyway, and you've made a good post, but I'd like to just offer a tip. When you create a topic, kind of give an idea of what kind of help you need. Alot of times I skip topics with vague titles.

Hopefully an artistically talented person (not me :) ) comes along.

Try studying other peoples work/styles (such as in the games you mentioned) and practice, practice, practice. You can also find some good tutorials at Pixeljoint in their features section.

Quote: I also have never made any sort of major background or backdrop for any sort of game, so I have no idea what goes into that either.

That depends, backgrounds/backdrops can be done a number of ways, either with single large images or tiles, it really depends on what your going for. This is something you should probably discuss with your friend (who i assume is coding it).

You may also want to check out Contracting Art For Your Game and Creating Good Game Art When Your Not An Artist, they cover a number of useful topics.

To get used to drawing the human figure from all angles, either go to a life drawing class for a few months or buy a wooden mannikin. Pose the mannikin, and place it on the floor, here's your isometric referance :)

Also look for the book, "figure drawing for all it's worth" by Andrew Loomis, I believe it's available for free, just google it. You'll find a method to put characters into perspective, using a box in the first chapter(s).

As Grythok said, study other peoples work, a LOT.

Good luck :)

Quote: This is something you should probably discuss with your friend (who I assume is coding it).

You're right, he's the programmer. I will ask him what will work best for him.

Thank you guys for your help. I am going to run all this by my friend to see what he thinks. Also, I'll be sure to check out all your links and suggestions.

I'll see if I can eventually upload some screenshots when I hone my skills enough.