For our bonus "fifth Monday" coverage, Planewalker Games brings you an interview with Broken Hourglass lead sprite artist Ric Halliwell.

RH: I have very little art background. But when I first got a computer I stumbled into the game Dink Smallwood, I made a module for it, and I regretted not being able to create graphics for it. So then I stumbled into 3D graphics. Then I got sidetracked again... I can get quite obsessed wondering how to make new effects and new objects. It's endless.

PWG: So you didn't have pencil-and-paper art experience before you turned to digital art?

RH: Very little. I've never drawn pictures worth hanging on the fridge.

PWG: Can you tell us about your gaming background?

RH: I didn't get a computer until 2000. Before that, well, I liked arcade games and paper-and-pencil RPGs, going back to the late 1970s. A good game is ageless.

RH: I started focusing on sprites when working on a Dink Smallwood spinoff called Windemere. That project crumbled just in time to see an Infinity mod based on Dragonlance get started. I'm a big fan of Dragonlance and I was eager to get involved. I didn't end up contributing much that was useful, but I ended up learning a lot.

PWG: How does creating a good sprite differ from just creating a good 3D object?

RH: When making a sprite for 2D graphics, I can have a very high poly count for my models. For a 3D game, I would have serious restrictions on the poly count.

Animating an object to use as a sprite is actually very easy. It doesn't get hard until the sprite is a human—then it gets hard, because the human brain has an area specifically for analyzing other humans. So a level of realism that would make a tyrannosaurus look okay would still leave a human looking like a cartoon. The slightest error in a human walk cycle looks like a serious limp, yet for a lesser animal it would look quite normal to us.

PWG: Few up-and-coming artists learn much about creating sprites as an end product these days. What advice would you offer to other artists who want to learn more about sprite creation?

RH: There's a lot of trial and error involved, but I found that tutorials on animation always helped. A tutorial in Blender Art magazine's second issue on creating a spider is particularly useful.

 Artists have to remember that they like doing it. Your passion for an artform always shows in the final result, so you've got to remember that. And remember that when  you are part of a project, you get some much-needed feedback. This is important, because after getting close to tiny details, you usually need somebody else to see the big picture.

Thanks for your time, Ric.