---
description: This page will serve as a walk through making the art for your creatures
---

# Making Creature Sprites 101

When it comes to the art for a creature, you need only TWO images. \
\
1\. The sprite image for all the frames of your creature out in the wild\
2\. The item image (which can be bundled with other creature's item images to save space)\
\
One important thing to consider is whether you want to use a classic sprite for your creature, or a complex sprite. Classic sprites are 3 animations "tall" as shown below. Moving creatures will have two animations for moving; one for going left and one for going right, then a third animation to use while they run away.

<div align="center" data-full-width="false"><figure><img src="https://2603711151-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8zDaRKSOdbNDCttuJbTQ%2Fuploads%2F7XUevuMO9rdUyzTyNkOG%2FAtlasMoth.png?alt=media&#x26;token=5e5c4171-255a-4b2a-913e-a9ada6f619af" alt=""><figcaption><p>Examples of classic sprites.</p></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://2603711151-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8zDaRKSOdbNDCttuJbTQ%2Fuploads%2FD239m75yexx5urkMrhXy%2FBullFrog.png?alt=media&#x26;token=242dd44c-e54f-412e-bd81-cd5b2915c455" alt=""><figcaption><p>Examples of classic sprites.</p></figcaption></figure></div>

You can instead use a complex sprite, which is 6 animations tall, and uses one animation for walking down, another for walking right, another for walking up, another for walking left. They also have a separate row for "idle" frames shown while they aren't moving (One for each direction), and then a final animation to show when they are running away.

<figure><img src="https://2603711151-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8zDaRKSOdbNDCttuJbTQ%2Fuploads%2F5qnZlcwoqCM4Bjie0M7T%2FBossSlime.png?alt=media&#x26;token=13a670b1-14f5-4213-8d7d-b590cb25407c" alt=""><figcaption><p>Example of complex sprite.</p></figcaption></figure>

Which kind of sprite you want to use is ultimately up to you! \
\
For the item sprites, they are 16 by 16. Below is an example of a fly sprite, along with its item sprite.

<div><figure><img src="https://2603711151-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8zDaRKSOdbNDCttuJbTQ%2Fuploads%2F2PeGVR8GyShZYR9gtpwg%2FFly.png?alt=media&#x26;token=3300a53a-9150-47d3-9b1c-656f4705261c" alt=""><figcaption><p>Fly simple sprite</p></figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://2603711151-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F8zDaRKSOdbNDCttuJbTQ%2Fuploads%2FK50yOEX6wBFjtLvrp9ZV%2FFlyItem.png?alt=media&#x26;token=057c30eb-f203-477a-bbdb-a2087972b223" alt=""><figcaption><p>Fly Item Sprite</p></figcaption></figure></div>

These assets should be placed somewhere in your mod folder and then loaded, here is an example doing that in the content.json file of a CP mod.

```
        {
            "Action": "Load",
            "Target": "Mods/NITVExample/Fly, Mods/NITVExample/FlyItem",
            "FromFile": "PNGs/{{TargetWithoutPath}}.png"
        },
```

The "Target" locations that you use will be referenced later when you actually make your creature.

## [Go To Adding A Creature](../adding-a-creature)
