How much time does it take to create mugen content? + Time saving tips.

[RobotMonkeyHead]

 

A thread to talk about how much time it takes you to create certain things in mugen, and time saving tips you've discovered over the years.


It seems to mostly go unspoken.  Granted some things take an ENORMOUS amount of time to do, and some things don't take very much at all, but this seems to lead to 2 things:

First, 'non-creators' can often be seen taking the creative process for granted.  For example someone might have no idea how much time it really takes to create a characters etc so they'll start off on some huge project that most creators know they'll never finish (like hand spriting an entire game for example).
e.g.
Bob: Check out this single sprite I did in paint brush.  I have plans to sprite and code a full game with 18 playable characters all in this style, each with a custom stage.

Fred: Good luck.

Second, missed opportunities to share time saving tips, because someone didn't want to sound like they were complaining by saying how long it took them to do something that seems relatively simple.  Of course a lot of the time creators ask questions or look at other peoples work to figure out efficient ways to do things, but sometimes people just get stuck in a rut of doing things a certain way, and don't bother asking about it.
e.g
Bob: Here we go again for the 4th time, another 16 hours of loading a sprite sheet in 1 by 1.
Fred:  Dude,  you don't have to do it that way.  Here's a link to the aligned sprites with the axis in tact, just load them in by groups like this...
 

[-Whiplash-]

on the sprite end: (for me it took like 2 years to make my one character... but I can't draw and I got lazy near the end.)

DON'T declare something a WIP after 1 or 2 animations. get IDK, enough that you don't want to quit done before it's done. (I should know, I think I have like 5 abandoned sprite WIPs)

Coding: (it takes me like a week to make a character on my template.. but I usually don't do as much work as I could... I can make a character in like 2 days if I put my mind to it. If the character has complicated stuff it deters me though and I get frustrated and things take way longer then they should)

If you plan on making more then one character in a particular style.... make a template. speeds thing up a lot.

If you run into an issue...

Search  the Docs, Go to the Electbyte's mugen wiki,  google issues, Ask for help, in THAT order.