Hey y’all! It’s me, the(?) Question Guy again!
So, if you didn’t know, I have an Assets Thread where I have my splices. And…thats about it. So lets change that. I only taught myself how to splice and thats about it. I think I’m ready for a new field of expertise in FEGBA rom hack assets makin’!
TLDR: How do I go about learning to make Item Icons?
Thanks a lot in advance! 
-MegaCowsamMan
Careful, you got a lot of competition there.
TLDR: How do I go about learning to make Item Icons?
You look at the icons and choose if you like their style. If you do, follow suit.
The easiest things to note are that the majority of icons use only the inner 14x14 area, and also use the dark purple on the top but the dark green on the bottom, and of course, the palette ramp itself –
The majority of icons populate the middle with a line, though for example axes have their handle offset to make more room for their blade.
The important thing is that items tend to also use a significant amount of their color palette: They don’t stick to just using one ramp from the available colors.
The increased use of the colors adds some depth and character, particularly owing to how the palette has multiple “grey” tones, as well as multiple ways to ramp between the different colors–
Which give the various weapons more variety in their ‘self-ness’, if that makes sense. It allows them to each have their own character.
If you notice, as well, despite what I said above about “the underside uses the green”, a fair number of items - particularly the swords - have a line of the dark purple to serve as a “thick” line at the bottom of the weapon, and due to it being the “brighter” color, it creates a particular illusion of the shape.
That - and all sorts of other things - are critical to how a large number of the vanilla icons have their feel and look to them. Hence the beginning comment of “decide if you want to keep”; because you can also just as easily completely throw out the entire set of icons and stylize them your own way.
Just like with making portraits, the best place to start (i think) is by modifying existing item icons.
Start by taking any icon and swap around the colors, maybe add or remove some parts, and try to see what looks good. To get a reference of how it will look in game, zoom-out in whatever pixel editing software you use until it’s about the size it will be in someone’s inventory.
As for item icons which are good to start with, I think any can work, but I recommend the Iron Sword, as it’s a blank slate. But then again, I started with the Horselayer and Devil Axe, so you can do whatever.
For example, here some Bronze weapons made from Iron weapons:
@cheddar29
…Are those Icons F2U?
But really, thanks for the very helpful advice everyone! Helps a whole lot!
I like a good challenge!
Sure. Use’em, edit, do whatever.
I did two tutorials way back in the day that I originally posted to SF and crossposted here. They’re really old and honestly could use an update, but I don’t know what I would even cover and I don’t think my workflow would particularly be captivating to follow if I recorded a new video…
You can find them here, if you want to check them out: LG's (Sprite) Freebies - #72 by LordGlenn
You don’t even have to draw anything new if you don’t want to. There are millions of retro 16x16 icons out there. You don’t even have to manually recolor them if you don’t want to.
Other people have already dropped better advice. So I’ll just share this:
I use this image as a template when making Item Icons. It’s really useful
I use THIS template specifically for custom tomes. I edit within the grey area
Also! If you ever wanna make Skill Icons, they use the same palette as items (But are not stored in the item icons list)
I have THIS as a template for making Skill icons. Again, I edit within the grey area.
