Hey! Ready for round two in my
bead-sprite special?
Ok, today I will take a look at the
materials you will need to get started. First of all you have to make
a decision:
Take the blue pill, and stay in
wonderland. Take the.... Ahh! This one never gets old! :) So, back to business:
Either, you go with HAMA, or you take
Perler/Photopearls. This is quite important, cause you want to stick
with one branch and don't start mixing. But this point I will address
later..
HAMA is more “available” in Europe
(and more importantly for me: Germany). Every good toy-store should
have a dark, dusty corner with creative-crafting materials. When you
are lucky, you will find some HAMA 1000er SINGLE color beads under
all these cog-webs. Now this is important: DON'T buy multi-color
buckets!!!!! You will regret it. Hell, you will! First it sounds like
a great deal. A lot of different colors, all in one bundle for a
reasonable price. Believe me, you will go nuts finding the right
color over and over again... until you realize you are out of black,
but still have TONS of...lets say green... no one likes green... In
the end you will pay double, so just stick with single color packs
and stay sane while peg'ing.
HAMA beads come in three different
sizes: mini, medium and big. Forget about the big ones, they really
can be considered as child's play. The most common sizes for
bead-sprites is medium. They have roughly the same size as the beads
from the other manufacturers, so mixing is a possibility. Mini's are
useful for crafting jewelry-sized sprites, for example earrings,
necklaces and rings. If you want to make a rather complex sprite in a
reasonable sizes, minis is the way to go! All sizes require special
pegboards and except for mediums have quite a limited color range
(well, recently HAMA has nearly all medium colors available for minis
too!)
Perler/Photopearls are a bit more
“illusive”. The best way to find some is Ebay.com. “Callahan13”
is a very reliable supplier with lots of rare colors in stock and
fair prices. But brace yourself for some serious shipping costs....
Unfortunately Perler isn't shipping to Europe, so you have to rely on
re-sellers and auctions. There are some online stores out there who
ship to Europe as well... “blue'n dash” crosses my mind...
Earlier I said mixing isn't such a bright
idea, and I meant it! Hama beads are tiny bit thinner and smaller
then Perler beads. This results in a noticeable gap between the beads
on your board. I don't say it is impossible to fuse them (I do it
myself from time to time...) but you have to apply a bit more
pressure and heat while ironing. This can easily lead to disaster for
your sprite. The worst case is, your sprite looks like s**t if you
fuse them too long. The other scenario isn't any better. The
mentioned gap will hinder the fusion and the result is a partly fused
sprite with holes in it (some un-fused beads will remain on the
board). So I say, for a thing that took 3-4h making... Safety
first!!! Don't mix. Unless you are a pro...or really
confident....like me ;)
Colors.
Remember when you were a kid and the
first time you walked into a candy-shop? At first, your head will
feel it will explode, confronted with all the choices. But, stick to
the plan! Only take what you need, close your eyes, and walk straight
out of it! Otherwise you will spend your entire college fond on
little plastic thing'ys.... believe me,
I know what I'm talking of...
Undoubtly, Perler has the biggest
variety. They have tons of different colors and their subsequent
shades. Any color used in 8 or 16-Bit Sprites can be found within the
Perler-range. Beware! Some colors are more common then others... (I'm
looking at you prickly pearl....)
HAMA is more “konservativ” in their
spectrum, but still have a descent amount of colors to realize any
kind of sprite from the old arcade-machines. Sometimes you will have
to make compromises and do some minor color variations, but It won't
effect the overall look of the sprite.
Pegboards.
They come in different sizes and
shapes. But you want the basic rectangular ones. They can be attached
to each other to form a more reasonable space to work with. It all
depends on the size of your project. SNES sprites for example, are in
16 bit. That means you will need a least 4 of them connected to make
a ...lets say... SNES sprite.
Bigger sprites need bigger boards. Just
take a look at the picture:
Planning ahead for your sprite is of
the essence! You don't wanna start and realize in the middle that you
are running out of boards to finish it...
Again, sticking with one brand is
necessary. Hama and Perler boards can't be connected with each other.
You can use f.e. Hama boards with Perler beads and vice versa... but
you will run in the same problems I explained earlier. For my part, I
like the clear Perler boards.... they are durable as hell and won't
deform even under great temperatures.
Ironing.
Now comes the tricky part! You spend
ours translating your sprite to the board and It all comes down to
this! Cover your sprite with ironing paper or oven-paper and start
ironing it. Put it on medium heat and NEVER EVER use steam....just
don't! Try not to apply a lot of pressure or you will start shifting
beads out of their places. Stay in motion and start with the
outlines. Make sure you cover the whole sprite and didn't miss any
corners. After around 3-5 min (~ 1 min when working with minis) you
are done. Let it cool down and remove the foil. Turn your sprite
around and iron it again from the other side, but this time only 2
min. Double-ironing has two advantages: first, your sprite is more
durable and less likely to break. Second, your sprite will always
curve to the opposite side. Double-sided ironing is a good way to
even-out the curving. Especially with very large sprites, the curving can become really annoying.. So, if you want some great pieces of pixel-art on your wall, double-sided ironing is a must!
Huu, that's it for now. Oh! Before I
forget:
Of course there is a great community
behind all this. For inspiration and other useful tips&tricks you
should give www.pixelgasm.com a try. In my opinion the best place for
pixel-art on the net.
So long, happy peg'in!
