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[Jive Turkey]

My entry into Shaowebb's contest:


Tanooki Mario looking rather serene in statue form. I imagine he's in the women's bath.

 

[Camwi]

I just have to say that you guys are amazing.

 

[Jintor]

I concur, doods

After my assignments get finished I'mma be making sprites through the holidays

It's gonna be awesome

 

[Whimsical Phil]

I got one of these to start. 4,000 beads, 16 colors, plus they're already sorted.

Just be careful with these types of sets. 4000 beads and 16 colors might sound like a lot, but you'll soon discover that sprites contain a lot more pixels than you might imagine.

Consider this example: 8-bit Mega Man's basic standing sprite contains 129 black pixels. That's over half of the 250 black beads that your set contains.

The best method of bead gathering is to first decide what sprites you want to make and then buy individual bags of the proper colors.

 

[shaowebb]

Nice one! I always loved Tanooki mario. Apparently you can use his statue form to kill those energy spheres in bowsers castle.
The more you know ( *shooting star w/rainbow flies by* doo duh doo do do do doo duh doo)

 

[caromelo]

I got inspired by this thread earlier and decided to take this spriting business as my hobby. I got excited and started checking out other videogame spriter forums and looking up designs. Not knowing much about spriting and what was needed, I decided to order from ebay only 1000 perls assorted colours and a peg square. Needless to say, this was a poor decision on my part as many of the simple sprites that I want to do, are difficult as I either have a) not enough of a colour, and/or b) the incorrect shade of colour. Even improvising with different colours or shapes, it just doesn't look right. (I tried to make a sunflower from Plants VS Zombies)

Right now, I'm just using the little amount that I have to practice my ironing technique to get it down in the meantime whilst I wait for more perls.

Anyways, thanks for the thread and hopefully you'll see something that I've made soon!

 

[Negator]

Just ordered 11000 beads and two pegboards, I can't wait for them to come in.

First on the list are Celes and Terra.

 

[Nightz]

Just be careful with these types of sets. 4000 beads and 16 colors might sound like a lot, but you'll soon discover that sprites contain a lot more pixels than you might imagine.

Consider this example: 8-bit Mega Man's basic standing sprite contains 129 black pixels. That's over half of the 250 black beads that your set contains.

The best method of bead gathering is to first decide what sprites you want to make and then buy individual bags of the proper colors.

Yeah I'm not trying to make anything super big yet, just some small stuff to get a feel for it. Once I do a couple of simple ones I'll know if I want to continue with the hobby or not. I don't want to buy a boatload of beads and let them go to waste. :\

 

[Brashnir]

SMB 3 contest inspired me to add to my coaster collection:

 

[Snytbaggen]

I have one final question. How are the colors of the IKEA beads compared to other brands, like Hama? It wouldn't be fun if I decide to go for IKEA beads and later on buys Hama refills and the colors don't match up :lol

 

[Moor-Angol]

I have one final question. How are the colors of the IKEA beads compared to other brands, like Hama? It wouldn't be fun if I decide to go for IKEA beads and later on buys Hama refills and the colors don't match up :lol

Besides white and black, most of them don't match :



red, green, yellow and brown are different
also Ikea beads (on the left) are a little different in size and height

 

[Snytbaggen]

Besides white and black, most of them don't match :



red, green, yellow and brown are different
also Ikea beads (on the left) are a little different in size and height

That settles it; I'll go for Hama. Is there any good place online that ships internationally?

 

[Foxix Von]

Darn, I really want to try my hand at one of these. My computer is a POS though... doesn't even recognize it has a CD drive, DVD drive, a scanner or a printer attached. So I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about making one without a printed reference =/

 

[Jive Turkey]

Darn, I really want to try my hand at one of these. My computer is a POS though... doesn't even recognize it has a CD drive, DVD drive, a scanner or a printer attached. So I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about making one without a printed reference =/

Well you have a couple options really. As long as you can zoom in enough to see the pixels in a sprite you can either put them together in front of your computer or you can just use some graph paper. Sure it takes a little more time but not that much and you can use that for color notes.

 

[ShinNL]

Darn, I really want to try my hand at one of these. My computer is a POS though... doesn't even recognize it has a CD drive, DVD drive, a scanner or a printer attached. So I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about making one without a printed reference =/

I'm making it in front of the computer as shown here:

I'm using a simple free sprite program and it shows a grid, so it's pretty easy. In fact, I don't see how printing would help any, since this program shows a super zoomed in version if you hover with your mouse over a certain part.
Free sprite program:
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html

 

[Jive Turkey]

Free sprite program:
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html

Thanks for that!!!

I was wondering what you were using. I always wanted to make the playable cast of Fire Emblem 7 in various states of attack like you had been but I couldn't get a detailed enough view.

 

[Whimsical Phil]

Yeah I'm not trying to make anything super big yet, just some small stuff to get a feel for it. Once I do a couple of simple ones I'll know if I want to continue with the hobby or not. I don't want to buy a boatload of beads and let them go to waste. :\

Not a bad idea.

I might also recommend that before you do any "serious" project that you take some colors that you don't plan on using and make a simple shape (like a square or something) as a sort of test run. Just to give you a feel for how you need to iron the beads. You don't want to mess up a sprite that you intend to keep due to over or under ironing.

 

[oracrest]

My entry into Shaowebb's contest:


Tanooki Mario looking rather serene in statue form. I imagine he's in the women's bath.

nice, thats the sprite I was going to do, I will find another though. good job!

 

[Foxix Von]

I'm making it in front of the computer as shown here:

I'm using a simple free sprite program and it shows a grid, so it's pretty easy. In fact, I don't see how printing would help any, since this program shows a super zoomed in version if you hover with your mouse over a certain part.
Free sprite program:
http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/index.html

Hmmm that looks like a nifty program... I wonder if I could even install it :lol

Thanks for the tip, but the way our living room is setup I don't really have anything to work on other than some wobbly, folding tables that my dog absolutely loves to knock over. I might try that though, or uploading the image to tinypic and going down to the public library and printing one out there... which is totally doable

 

[Anonymous Tipster]

I absolutely loved the idea of doing this, and have made two attempts thus far.

However, I've been having trouble with the ironing-- they've been turning out with the uneven melted look some of the earlier images in this thread had.

Does anyone have any tips for ironing? I've tried at a low heat, but it takes a long time for the beads to actually melt.

When I turned it up to half way heat, it seems like they're melting too quickly in some areas (and melt further than desired). Seems like I can't find a happy medium.

 

[Jive Turkey]

I absolutely loved the idea of doing this, and have made two attempts thus far.

However, I've been having trouble with the ironing-- they've been turning out with the uneven melted look some of the earlier images in this thread had.

Does anyone have any tips for ironing? I've tried at a low heat, but it takes a long time for the beads to actually melt.

When I turned it up to half way heat, it seems like they're melting too quickly in some areas (and melt further than desired). Seems like I can't find a happy medium.

I set the iron to medium-high heat. Just make sure you iron evenly and make sure to use the pointed tip to get any touch-ups. I personally only iron one side because I like the nice clean look of the unmelted side. If you do it right you'll have a very solid piece while only ironing one side.

 

[shaowebb]

Darn, I really want to try my hand at one of these. My computer is a POS though... doesn't even recognize it has a CD drive, DVD drive, a scanner or a printer attached. So I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about making one without a printed reference =/

There is a web page you can upload any image to and it will lay that image out in a grid for you to use to perler with. Here is the link for you.

http://www.edsalisbury.net/projects/perlerpal/

 

[Brashnir]

I absolutely loved the idea of doing this, and have made two attempts thus far.

However, I've been having trouble with the ironing-- they've been turning out with the uneven melted look some of the earlier images in this thread had.

Does anyone have any tips for ironing? I've tried at a low heat, but it takes a long time for the beads to actually melt.

When I turned it up to half way heat, it seems like they're melting too quickly in some areas (and melt further than desired). Seems like I can't find a happy medium.

I generally do a quick pass over the whole piece, and then do a second pass around all the edges. I get better results if I let it cool and THEN go back and touch up bad spots with the tip of the iron, but I'm impatient, so I usually end up doing touch-ups while its still warm, and end up over-melting a few spots.

It also works best if you let it cool before ironing the back side, but again... I'm impatient.

 

[Brashnir]

There is a web page you can upload any image to and it will lay that image out in a grid for you to use to perler with. Here is the link for you.

http://www.edsalisbury.net/projects/perlerpal/

wow, that's pretty cool. I've just been using GIMP.

Open image in GIMP, then set zoom to 800%.

Under View - select "Show Grid" (hotkey is alt +V then press H)

Under Image - Configure Grid, then in the popup window set width 1 pixel. It should automatically set height to 1 as well.

Edit - also added some sprites to the side of my cabinet. Need to think of some more good ones (preferably from vertically-oriented arcade games) to put on the 2 end stations.

 

[Negator]

There is a web page you can upload any image to and it will lay that image out in a grid for you to use to perler with. Here is the link for you.

http://www.edsalisbury.net/projects/perlerpal/

I don't know if I completely trust that site. I uploaded the terra sprite somebody in this thread already did, and it looks like the site couldn't convert terra's hair correctly.

If anything just trust your own eyes and use your best judgment. To the left is the GraphicsGale image and the right is Perlerpal. I know Perlerpal is there to help you with the color selection with the limited pallete of the perler beads, but the hair, that's just not right.

 

[Cynar]

Just in case anyone is in the market for some Perler Beads, there is a sale running at the official site until the end of the month.

The 1000-count bags of individual colors are now $1.99 (down from $2.79), and the 6000-count bags of black and white beads are now $4.99 (down from $6.99).

they still show up to me at the original price

 

[izakq]

Subscribing to this thread. I want to try this stuff out, mainly to put up in my son's room.

Quick question, how long does it take yout guys to complete a sprite? Like say a Mario 3 sprite?

 

[Brashnir]

Subscribing to this thread. I want to try this stuff out, mainly to put up in my son's room.

Quick question, how long does it take yout guys to complete a sprite? Like say a Mario 3 sprite?

That all depends.

If the beads are sorted and I have my tweezers, like 15-20 mins for a 16x16 sprite. (think small version of Mario, or the Mario "?" blocks I posted earlier.) NES sprites tend to be pretty quick since they use very simple color schemes. The bigger a sprite is and the more colors it has, the longer it takes.

 

[Einbroch]

Favorited this thread. Fantastic work, guys! Maybe I'll start up on this after school dies down a little.

 

[Foxix Von]

Yikes... I just saved a bunch of sprites I'd like to make but looking at the order total on the perler website is starting make me change my mind. I'm at like 50 something bucks just for the colors I need to make a few sprites :lol

 

[Whimsical Phil]

they still show up to me at the original price

Are you in Canada? I'm wondering if that's why you're not seeing the sale price.

I want to get in on this Super Mario Bros. 3 action. Maybe I'll find time to whip up something today. Lately, I've just been fleshing out my Mega Man collection.

 

[shaowebb]

Just wanted to say good work guys and that I am glad so many folks are planning on trying these out soon.

Competition Update
So far it looks like a competition between Brashnir and Jive Turkey for the right to select next month's theme for sprites but with 5 days left before I choose who gets the right to choose anyone could still throw their hat into the fray with a Mario 3 perler of their own to capture this prize.

Just who will win and what theme will see sprites for next month? Will we see Final Fantasy sprites chosen as a theme? Perhaps Kirby? Maybe something from the Atari?

Who knows! The only certain thing is regardless of the winner or whether or not you try to enter everyone will get to see lots more perlers soon from all sorts of games so sit back and enjoy.Remember to feel free to try your hand at any perlers of your own and keep us all posted on anything you do.

 

[Cynar]

Are you in Canada? I'm wondering if that's why you're not seeing the sale price.

I want to get in on this Super Mario Bros. 3 action. Maybe I'll find time to whip up something today. Lately, I've just been fleshing out my Mega Man collection.

Yup! I am. That definitely could be it. My girlfriend and I are recreating our pokemon teams with the sprites of the pokemon that follow you in hg/ss and we're in desperate need of browns and yellows. It's still better buying them on that site then going to the local walmart or michaels which only have mixed buckets.

 

[Jocchan]

Some time ago I bought a jar of those beads at IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50128572
... too bad the only pegboards they had were too small and had weird shapes.
Does anyone know which pegboards do fit them? Are the Hama midi ones "compatible"? What's the distance between each peg in those?
Where I live I can't find beads in toy stores, so before ordering a pegboard online I'd rather make sure it fits.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Foxix Von]

Are you in Canada? I'm wondering if that's why you're not seeing the sale price.

I want to get in on this Super Mario Bros. 3 action. Maybe I'll find time to whip up something today. Lately, I've just been fleshing out my Mega Man collection.

*Snip*

I'm in the US and I'm not seeing the sale either so I doubt it's just that =/

However I live in the NW so they might be getting confused and be thinking I'm Canadian or... something?

Those came out awesome btw.

 

[oracrest]

I order all my beads off of ebay. They are cheaper in price, and seem to have more variety of colors than on the perler website.

 

[ShinNL]

Just wanted to say good work guys and that I am glad so many folks are planning on trying these out soon.

Competition Update
So far it looks like a competition between Brashnir and Jive Turkey for the right to select next month's theme for sprites but with 5 days left before I choose who gets the right to choose anyone could still throw their hat into the fray with a Mario 3 perler of their own to capture this prize.

Just who will win and what theme will see sprites for next month? Will we see Final Fantasy sprites chosen as a theme? Perhaps Kirby? Maybe something from the Atari?

Who knows! The only certain thing is regardless of the winner or whether or not you try to enter everyone will get to see lots more perlers soon from all sorts of games so sit back and enjoy.Remember to feel free to try your hand at any perlers of your own and keep us all posted on anything you do.

I'll be honest shaowebb, I don't think the contest is a good idea. I feel like participating, but when I think about it I'll ruin my Fire Emblem theme if I make one of those and I'll be stuck with 1 unwanted sprite. Not only that, I would want to make the best one to win, so I would probably end up using a lot of my beads. I'm better off using all those beads & time (& money, kinda... though they're not very expensive) for more FE sprites which I can hang permanently to my wall.

The contest is great for those who want a lot of different sprites, but the idea itself is severally limiting the amount of people who will join.

I think a better idea would be just making game sprites weekly and vote who has the coolest one. To show everyone that you've been making it during the contest time you should make a webcam shot / photo of the beginning, middle and end of the beading progress with the message of the week to show that we're all NeoGAF sprite bead makers. People are happy enough to both show and watch other people's work, it doesn't have to have a theme. Well, that's my opinion.

That said, I'm one of many who are grateful for your thread

 

[Whimsical Phil]

I'll be honest shaowebb, I don't think the contest is a good idea. I feel like participating, but when I think about it I'll ruin my Fire Emblem theme if I make one of those and I'll be stuck with 1 unwanted sprite. Not only that, I would want to make the best one to win, so I would probably end up using a lot of my beads. I'm better off using all those beads & time (& money, kinda... though they're not very expensive) for more FE sprites which I can hang permanently to my wall.

The contest is great for those who want a lot of different sprites, but the idea itself is severally limiting the amount of people who will join.

I think a better idea would be just making game sprites weekly and vote who has the coolest one. To show everyone that you've been making it during the contest time you should make a webcam shot / photo of the beginning, middle and end of the beading progress with the message of the week to show that we're all NeoGAF sprite bead makers. People are happy enough to both show and watch other people's work, it doesn't have to have a theme. Well, that's my opinion.

That said, I'm one of many who are grateful for your thread

Eeh, I like the idea of the contest. To me, having a little variety in your creations isn't a bad thing. I've been spending most of my time making Mega Man sprites, but on the few occasions when I've been inspired to make something from a different series (Blaster Master, my Mario timeline, etc.), it's been very rewarding. It's nice to create something "new."

But hey, it's not like you're obligated to enter the contest. If there's nothing that you want to create from Super Mario Bros. 3, then just wait until a theme pops up that you're interested in. If you're really dedicated to Fire Emblem, then stick with that and ignore the contest. Like shaowebb said, you're still encouraged to post your stuff in the thread even if it's not contest-related. Everyone will still be interested in seeing what you've got.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Are you in Canada? I'm wondering if that's why you're not seeing the sale price.

I'm in California and I'm not seeing sale prices either.

 

[Moor-Angol]

Some time ago I bought a jar of those beads at IKEA: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50128572
... too bad the only pegboards they had were too small and had weird shapes.
Does anyone know which pegboards do fit them? Are the Hama midi ones "compatible"? What's the distance between each peg in those?
Where I live I can't find beads in toy stores, so before ordering a pegboard online I'd rather make sure it fits.
Thanks in advance.

Hama midi pegboard is perfect for Ikea beads
I already tried to use, if you check my Minnie sprite, i used a couple of white beads for skirt decoration and there were no problems.

I finished my SMB3 contest, i'll melt tomorrow and post the picture, hope it will be appreciated
(and also i mixed Hama and Ikea beads, but as i already said before, tonality is different, but there was a Hama color i didn't have enough beads so i used Ikea; first i mixed them, but when i was looking with webcamera at the sprite i made, i noticed there was a little difference between the colors...)

See tomorrow !

 

[Whimsical Phil]

I'm in California and I'm not seeing sale prices either.

Weird...I wonder why only I'm seeing the sale prices. It's not like I'm logged in with my account or anything. Sorry, folks!

 

[Whimsical Phil]

Here's my entry for the Super Mario Bros. 3 contest. I've been meaning to make this guy for a while, so this was a good excuse. I used the Super Mario All-Stars version of the sprite because with all my Mega Man sprites, I have too many 8-bit designs. I want some more 16-bit stuff around here.

Mario in Kuribo's Shoe

 

[RelentlessRolento]

Use to do these beads as a kid and I do my own pixel art so I'll be making some personal stuff soon ^_^ thx op

 

[hylje]

Thread bookmarked. I had IRC chat with some of my friends who are into any sort of crafting and I had idea getting myself a hobby of doing stuff from hama beads and glue magnets into them, perhaps create a scenery of supermario world into fridge door (my kids in kindergarden were the inspiration).
Then just randomly searched the forums and found this thread. Brilliant stuff and hoping to get my collaboration in the near future.

My problem though now is the colors on the beads I found are not enough to copy any sprite art there is and the pegboards I found are way to small to build anything.

 

[Moor-Angol]

NeoGAF Perler Sprites Contest : March 2010



As i said yesterday, i mixed Hama and Ikea beads. But i found a problem while melting, cause due to different material, Ikea beads take a longer time for melting each other, anyway it took around half an hour to have this result, while i just worked for 10-15 minutes when i use Hama beads.

 

[Upsidedown Fuji]

I picked up nearly everything I needed, boards, individual colors, and paper but I'm missing a few colors I will pick up tomorrow. Tonight I'll just make a Hello Kitty pattern with her to test my hand at this craft for the first time.

:edited to make more sense:

 

[Upsidedown Fuji]

I'm pretty pleased with my first two creations. My girlfriend really liked the Hello Kitty one.

Now on to make bigger better ones! I really want to make a Sonic the Hedgehog and maybe even a Sinbios sprite from Shining Force III.

I'm going to pick up one more pack of boards so I have 4 in total to make a huge one.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Excellent pieces in here folks, great stuff

My new beads just turned up this morning:


Some 'Glow in the Dark' ones for added effect and a basic case i bought the other day to hold them all in.


No i just need inspiration

 

[tehjaybo]

I just want you guys to know that I don't post on GAF anymore really, but I had to post here. I've gotten back into Perler beads recently, and stumbled upon this thread while Googling some patterns. I've made a couple of things out of here (Bioshock Kirby/Big Daddy, White/Black Mage, Marios, etc) and I wanted to thank you all for the patterns and say KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK! There's some seriously cool stuff here, and you're doing great.

I was going to post a picture of everything I've done so far (it isn't much) but I can't find my camera cable. So, I'll have to settle for one of the pics from my phone that I've been putting on Facebook. Enjoy my favorite villain!

 

[Jocchan]

Hama midi pegboard is perfect for Ikea beads
I already tried to use, if you check my Minnie sprite, i used a couple of white beads for skirt decoration and there were no problems.

Thanks, man.
I'll order one, then