Draw One Frame Well
Lesson 2 of 6 · Intermediate · 9 min
What you will make
A finished 16 by 16 character in cell one, with cells two to four still empty.
Lesson checklist
Compare your own work with these checkpoints. Check each one when your result is ready.
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This lesson's project
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Draw and fully finish the character in cell one, keeping a one-pixel margin and noting its baseline row.
Open a 64 × 16 practice canvas with lesson examples and onion skin enabled. Your work saves automatically to My projects.
Starter files and backup import
Follow the steps
Make the first cell a complete, finished sprite on its own.
Start with: The 64 by 16 sheet from lesson one.
- 1
Leave a one-pixel margin
Keep the character at least one pixel inside its cell. A sprite that touches a cell edge bleeds into its neighbor when the sheet is sliced.
A character with breathing room on all four sides.
- 2
Finish it completely
Outline, flat fill, highlight, shadow: all of it, in cell one. An unfinished first frame is the reason most sheets feel inconsistent later.
One sprite complete in every respect.
- 3
Check it alone
Crop your view to cell one only. If the character still reads at native size, the design is sound enough to animate.
A frame that stands on its own.
- 4
Note its resting position
Record which row the character's feet sit on. Every later frame has to return to this exact row, or the character will appear to float.
A baseline row to align all four frames against.
See the technique
One finished cell
All four cells, flat-filled
Learning notes and references
- Finish a character completely before thinking about motion.
- Keep the character inside its own cell with a margin.
- Treat the empty cells as a promise about where frame two has to go.