Shipwrightarms Sections

History
Commonly referred to as SW Sections or TSA Sections, this style of spriting was inspired by a solarized screenshot of a ship called the Punisher, posted by TheShipwrightArms in fall of '09. It is characterized by clean black outlines and simple edge shading. Virtually all current shipbuilders make use of TSA-style sections, and the stock faux-vector style is a rare sight indeed.

One of the most important pioneers in bringing the style into the limelight was Kaelis. Sections done in colors other than the faux-vector (255, 255, 255) and (46, 46, 46) were rarely taken seriously before Kaelis engineered a revolution by producing these sections exclusively. He even coded a small utility, the Shipwrightizator, designed solely to assist spriters in creating SW sections. While at first they took on a set of color restrictions analogous to those of the original sections, sprite artists like HorseMonster have begun to break down the standards of the style by fusing it with the full gamut of idiosyncracies present in traditional pixelart.

Characteristics
Several features are present in most SW sections, be it as a result of conscious standardization or of widespread usage of the Shipwrightizator. Sections are outlined with 1px black lines and often detailed with lighter lines. Parts of the section are filled in with different shades of gray, and slightly brighter and darker shades are used to shade the edges of the section. The light usually highlights the top-left of each surface with shadows occurring on the bottom-right.

Gradients of color are used to show curved surfaces. Normally, areas located physically higher are given lighter shades, while areas located physically lower are given darker shades.

Creating detail lines by adding a non-pallette color to the section and running it through the Shipwrightizator creates a "dirty" look and is discouraged. Simply adding lighter lines to the section after using the Shipwrightizator produces a much cleaner-looking effect.

Compatible Styles
Since the characteristics of the SW style lean much closer to normal pixelart than those of the original vector-inspired style, sprites from other works can often be integrated into ships without seeming out of place. An example is the sprites from the DSTech mod for Cortex Command, which have been a part of normal shipbuilding for a while now. Sections from Fraxy, however, mesh poorly with SW sections.