I'll be honest: I am not the most artistically inclined of people. I can write clever quips and hum a tune, but when it comes to making something that looks nice, I'm awkward as a fish in a cat food store. I've been reusing/slightly altering currently live icons to fit some of the mods I've been working on, but I've gotten to a point where I can't really do that anymore if I intend on making quality mods. I need some tips on getting skill icon/animation artwork going. Anyone have any bits of wisdom for me?
Without going insanely in-depth, the best advice I can give for spriting is to look at existing stuff and try to understand the reasoning behind what they did. Starting out, It's gonna depend a lot on how well you intuitively understand art and animation, and whether you have any prior experience with either. But the best way to learn anything,IMO is 1. look at people who do it how you like it and 2. try it yourself. This tutorial by Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky and Aquaria, is the best one around IMO. http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=218
