Video Game Art - Bead Sprites

The first step to making a Bead Sprite is finding or making your reference material. The best plan of action I've found is to make a palette in your favorite paint program (I use Adobe Photoshop), which represents every color of bead you will have available. There are two main companies that sell these beads, which are compatible with the other brand: Hama and Perler. Simply, Perler are easier to obtain in the United States, and Hama are found more in various European countries. However, the advantage of our modern day and age is online shopping. Believe it or not, you can buy these beads from eBay sellers for less than the official merchants. Among these sellers, there is one who has the best selection and prices: Callahan13, who sells bags of 1,000 for every color. Also, be sure to pick up a few peg boards. Get the 29x29 square boards, because they interlock to make larger bases for your beads. In addition to the boards, you will need ironing paper, so the beads don't melt to your iron when you iron it.

Now, as many tend to do for their first few projects, a mix bucket is another option. The downside here is the sorting, and while it may seem like a better value to gett the bucket and sort it yourself, you will end up with a bunch of neon, transparent and glittery colors that you won't use, which is a real waste, isn't it?

So, get on Google Image Search and find a small sprite to work with, like Mario, Mega Man or Link. You can usually find whole sprite sheets and pick the pose you like, plus if you follow the image to it's original location, you will probably find more. Also, feel free to save a bunch of these sheets to your computer so you'll have them for later. In your paint program, copy the pose you want to bead, paste it into a new file and then it's time to re-color it, using the palette you made. If you've already bought a bunch of single bags, you can color it based on them. It's easiest if you arrange the palette by color, from dark to light of each color and all the shades available in that color. If you haven't yet purchased your beads, you can see which colors you'll need for the sprite you chose. If this is the case, you should probably find a bunch of different sprites you want to make first, then order your colors. The tricky part here is matching up the colors, since they will not always be a perfect match, and sometimes it's hard to see exactly what each bead color is in the pictures on your computer. It is for this reason that I recommend buying one of every bag of available colors from both Hama and Perler (maybe 2 or three bags of black and white, or a 6,000 count bag of each), then you can make your palette based on the colors you're looking at in person. This way, you also will know which colors are which for the next time you order. Trust me, there will be a next time, this hobby is addicting!

Okay, so now you have your reference material, your beads, your pegboard(s), ironing paper and some free time...to bead!

First, get your sprite into a paint program where you can zoom in...alot! MS Paint works alright because you can zoom in up to 800% or 1200% depending on your version, but there's nothing like the 1600% zoom in Photoshop. When you zoom in, you'll see all the pixels, each of which represents a bead you will be placing onto the board.

The best strategy here is to start with one color and work your way down the line of all colors in the sprite. I start with black, or the darkest color, since many sprites have an outline of sorts. After you have your outline it's easier to see where the other colors will go. As you layout the beads on the pegboard, you will find patterns (I find that patterns shaped like Tetris pieces are easy to recognize), methods, etc. There are may ways to lay the beads out, but you have to find your own, whatever you are comfortable with.

An hour or two later, you are looking at your sprite right on your pegboard - neat! But it's not over yet. If you haven't yet, don't bump it! These beads aren't fused yet, so they can fly in all directions if you're not carefull. Now you have to iron the piece.

Make sure you have a solid table or counter top to iron on. Get yourself a roll of masking tape and roll up two small pieces. Stick these to the bottom of your pegboard and press it to the surface, because some irons get more friction on the surface than others, and you're going to want your peg board to stay still while you're fusing it with the iron.

Get your piece of ironing paper, and try to "reverse fold" any creases in it. These may iron into your plastic if you don't do this, but if you beaded a sprite that only used one pegbboard, the ironing paper you are using will likely have a space large enough between the creases, so you wont have to worry about it. Before you lay your ironing paper down, take a real good look at the beads to make sure they are all resting flat on the board, and none are missing. Once you're certain everything is in place, heat up your iron to around medium heat, lay the ironing paper on top, and carefully set the iron on top, flat as you can. Iron in a circular mostion, trying to cover all of the surface as evenly as possible. After 40 seconds to a minute of this, they should be fused nicely, but this all depends on your iron. You'll start to see the beads showing through the paper when they are being heated. I generally use this "tell" as the guide to fusing them the right amount (especially when working with larger bead sprites). If you're not sure, do some trial and error. If you think you may need to iron more but are not sure, set the iron aside and wait until the ironing paper peels away from the piece on its own. You'll see that the colors that were once showing through are now "fading" away. Never peel up the paper before it's done, because if there is a loose bead in there somewhere, it will pull up with the paper.

So, check it out once the paper is peeled and if it looks good, you're ready to lift it off the peg board. If it still doesn't look fused well, remember which areas need more heat, put the paper back on and get back to ironing. Then when it's done, let the paper peel off and let the plastic cool for about a minute.

Now that you have ironed one side, the Bead Sprite is much more stable, so you can breathe a sigh of relief. All that's left now is to iron the other side. Flip it over, place the ironing paper on top and get to it. Once you get an idea for how long it takes to iron one side, you will better know how to handle the other. This time, however, once you finish ironing, wait until the paper begins to peel, then carefully pull it off the rest of the way, kind of how you would peel tape, or a price tag, off an item you didn't want to tear the surface of.

Now, you may notice that your creation is beginning to curl a bit. See, when you heat it up, the beads melt and expand into eachother; but then, as it cools back down, they contract, pulling the surface of the Bead Sprite inward, therefore, creating less surface area on the contracting side. This accounts for the curl.

However, you can fix this. Once you peel the paper from the second side, remove the bead sprite from the peg board and watch it for a few seconds to see which direction it curls. Once you figure this out, place it on whichever side will make the center stand up from the table, like a bridge, and place a heavy text book on top. This way, the book will push down the center of the Bead Sprite while it is still warm, and somewhat flexible. As it cools, the book holds it flat, and after about 20 minutes, it's perfectly safe to take it out and show it off to your friends!

After making a lot of these, you will find shortcuts, tricks and tips to make things go easier and faster. When it once took you three hours to make a small Bead Sprite, you'll eventually have it down in under a half hour. Plus, if you make more than one at a time, you can bead them all, then iron them all consecutively and cut down on production time.

you may be asking yourself what to do with them now? How about making a magnet or coaster out of them? Or perhaps a necklace, earring, or other piece of jewelery. You can also make a bunch and create a scene with them. I find that regular white craft glue works best.

If you are interested in this craft, take a look at my Blog section on Bead Sprites. There you will find a couple of my favorite pieces and a link to the Pixelgasm Forum, where you can learn this hobby inside and out like many of the members there. Not only that, but there you will also meet some of the nicest, most encouraging people in any forum on the internet.