What is a good way to make sprites?

[ColtonPhillips]

I need to make original sprites.  I have 2 artists: One who draws the line drawings of character frames, and the other who will make the actual sprites.

Here is the method I'm proposing right now:
-Second Artist creates vectorized colored versions of the line drawings and scales it down to a 100 pixel height bitmap
-Then he fine tunes it, outlining and making it look a little better.
-This is done for every single frame and takes about 20 minutes for each one.

Possible problems:
-Not sure how this will look in action, so far it makes quite good looking sprites, but it's a scary thought to start spending hours an animation set and having it look gross.

So what tools and tips do you guys have for making new sprites from original art?
Do you think it's easier to make pixel art straight from paint? Or from line drawings.

Here are some samples we made: first a 100 pix height robot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leemaster/4085987925/

A large chest
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leemaster/4086089572/

A smaller chest.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leemaster/4085302439/

Anyway tell me your techniques and any advice/things I should look out for. I'm still learning the workings of AGS
Thanks alot!

[Khris]

Wrong forum.
If you want critique on your sprites, post them in the Critics Lounge.
For advice on drawing techniques, post in adventure-related talk and chat.
This forum is for script and editor related technical questions only.
A mod is going to move this thread soon, thus please don't open a new one.

flickr seems to prevent direct linkage, so better use an imagehost like imageshack.us, then put the direct link in img tags to show your work directly in the thread. You'll get more replys that way.

Arguably the best way to create pixel art from scratch is using a suitable App like ProMotion, GraphicsGale or similar (not Pain(t)).
You're off to a good start with the sprites, don't worry too much about them. Test them in-game and see for yourself.

[ColtonPhillips]

Problem is I can't test them until they are made, and making them is a tiresome process, though if it works the way I think it will, it should look great.

Hopefully it does, I'm just looking for general tips for my situation and things I should worry about.

Wrong forum.
If you want critique on your sprites, post them in the Critics Lounge.
For advice on drawing techniques, post in adventure-related talk and chat.
This forum is for script and editor related technical questions only.
A mod is going to move this thread soon, thus please don't open a new one.

flickr seems to prevent direct linkage, so better use an imagehost like imageshack.us, then put the direct link in img tags to show your work directly in the thread. You'll get more replys that way.

Arguably the best way to create pixel art from scratch is using a suitable App like ProMotion, GraphicsGale or similar (not Pain(t)).
You're off to a good start with the sprites, don't worry too much about them. Test them in-game and see for yourself.

[Khris]

I see what you mean, but I'm not sure what kind of advice I can give you. 50% of producing a quality game is a tiresome process.

Oh, and please don't quote the complete previous post. There's a Reply link below the last post.

[ColtonPhillips]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2494/4092810276_775a1f8740_o.png

For reference, this is what our sprite will probably look like.