My Poison Fakemon
- Thread starter MudkipBoy
- Start date
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- Seen Aug 3, 2011
To begin with,save as .PNG next time,
It isn't original it's just like a more human version of Muk,
YOu used anti-aliased tools to make the outline(brushes,etc.) and used MSPAint original colors which hurt people's eyes.
Now as to shading stablish a focus of light,get a slightly darker shade and overwrite the existent color on the shaded area.SAme about lighting,only use lighter tones tho
It isn't original it's just like a more human version of Muk,
YOu used anti-aliased tools to make the outline(brushes,etc.) and used MSPAint original colors which hurt people's eyes.
Now as to shading stablish a focus of light,get a slightly darker shade and overwrite the existent color on the shaded area.SAme about lighting,only use lighter tones tho
OminousMix
"Show me whatcha got."
- 163
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- "Hehehehe... So your here to pick a fight with a l
- Seen Sep 9, 2011
The idea seems nice but it would be nice to add more features to it.
Ex: Metal Spikes;Bones;Some markings
As far as shading goes i'm no expert', you're supposed to make the lower right areas darker and the top left ones lighter by 3 stages i think...I donno.
Ex: Metal Spikes;Bones;Some markings
As far as shading goes i'm no expert', you're supposed to make the lower right areas darker and the top left ones lighter by 3 stages i think...I donno.
Well, first of I all got to say that I like the way you draw. You have fine defined traces and I see potential in you.
However, I must say that this is not a sprite. Nor is it pixel art either.
I believe you might not know the concept of pixel art or sprites, so I'll explain it.
Pixel art is a piece of digital data which is made with pixels. First of all, it has a rather limited ammount of colors. Usually pokémon sprites have around 10 to 15 colors. The only thing you need to do when making pixel work is the pencil (sometimes the eraser too).
There is a difference between pixel art and digital art. When doing digital art you use tools for anti-aliasing and to shade. In pixel art, you can only count with the pencil. It is done by zooming in and carefully placing the pixels in the way to form a sprite. It is pixelly, and most often it's not soft shaded, because of the limited ammount of shades. It's easier to explain with an example:
The fakémon in this sprite has 11 colors. This includes the 4 shades of brown in the hat, the 3 shades of blue in the head, the 2 shades of yellow in the eye, the black and the white. If you take it to Paint and erase the colors, you'll see there are exactly 11 different colors. Still, it looks shaded, because of how I placed each color.
Compare the size of my fakémon to yours. Mine is 60x48 pixels big. Yours is 224x209 pixels big. That's where sprites come in. Sprites are pixel works that fit a specific style. Many video games use pixel work on their grapphics, and each game has a different style of spriting. In Pokémon, every pokémon sprite has a maximum size of 80x80 pixels. That is pretty small to make them all very detailed, isn't it? That's why you use another tool: The magnifying glass. With it you can work the details with precision.
To sum it up: Don't use any tools other than pencil, magnifying glass and eraser; follow the 80x80 pixel limit.
Something even more important than all of this is the format in which you save the sprite. I don't know which program you used to make it, but if you don't choose a format, programs usually save it as .jpg. Jpeg is a size format made to low resolution pictures, to create small files in terms of bytes, not in terms of pixel size. However, to do that, jpeg loses the quality of the colors, making the surrounding colors kind of mixed. In big pictures, with thousands of colors, you don't even realize it happened. But in sprites that need to be 80x80px, it simply destroys the colors. Just like it happened to you. Once you save in jpg and close the file, there is nothing you can do to fix it, other than starting it over.
To prevent that, when you save a sprite, you have the option to change the format to .png. Png is a great format, it keeps the colors intact, and the way you finished your sprite is the way it will be saved. Not all of the computers have png, though. If yours doesn't, save it as .bmp or .gif, whatever doesn't mess your colors. This is extremely important.
About shading, well, unfortunately there isn't a guideline or a trick to make shading easier. I'm afraid to say you only learn by doing it a lot and seeing what looks good and what doesn't. It's a good idea to study the anatomy of what you're trying to sprite, look at reference pictures in google, study how objects reflect light, and so on.
I hope this is helpfull!
However, I must say that this is not a sprite. Nor is it pixel art either.
I believe you might not know the concept of pixel art or sprites, so I'll explain it.
Pixel art is a piece of digital data which is made with pixels. First of all, it has a rather limited ammount of colors. Usually pokémon sprites have around 10 to 15 colors. The only thing you need to do when making pixel work is the pencil (sometimes the eraser too).
There is a difference between pixel art and digital art. When doing digital art you use tools for anti-aliasing and to shade. In pixel art, you can only count with the pencil. It is done by zooming in and carefully placing the pixels in the way to form a sprite. It is pixelly, and most often it's not soft shaded, because of the limited ammount of shades. It's easier to explain with an example:
The fakémon in this sprite has 11 colors. This includes the 4 shades of brown in the hat, the 3 shades of blue in the head, the 2 shades of yellow in the eye, the black and the white. If you take it to Paint and erase the colors, you'll see there are exactly 11 different colors. Still, it looks shaded, because of how I placed each color.
Compare the size of my fakémon to yours. Mine is 60x48 pixels big. Yours is 224x209 pixels big. That's where sprites come in. Sprites are pixel works that fit a specific style. Many video games use pixel work on their grapphics, and each game has a different style of spriting. In Pokémon, every pokémon sprite has a maximum size of 80x80 pixels. That is pretty small to make them all very detailed, isn't it? That's why you use another tool: The magnifying glass. With it you can work the details with precision.
To sum it up: Don't use any tools other than pencil, magnifying glass and eraser; follow the 80x80 pixel limit.
Something even more important than all of this is the format in which you save the sprite. I don't know which program you used to make it, but if you don't choose a format, programs usually save it as .jpg. Jpeg is a size format made to low resolution pictures, to create small files in terms of bytes, not in terms of pixel size. However, to do that, jpeg loses the quality of the colors, making the surrounding colors kind of mixed. In big pictures, with thousands of colors, you don't even realize it happened. But in sprites that need to be 80x80px, it simply destroys the colors. Just like it happened to you. Once you save in jpg and close the file, there is nothing you can do to fix it, other than starting it over.
To prevent that, when you save a sprite, you have the option to change the format to .png. Png is a great format, it keeps the colors intact, and the way you finished your sprite is the way it will be saved. Not all of the computers have png, though. If yours doesn't, save it as .bmp or .gif, whatever doesn't mess your colors. This is extremely important.
About shading, well, unfortunately there isn't a guideline or a trick to make shading easier. I'm afraid to say you only learn by doing it a lot and seeing what looks good and what doesn't. It's a good idea to study the anatomy of what you're trying to sprite, look at reference pictures in google, study how objects reflect light, and so on.
I hope this is helpfull!
MudkipBoy
Ruby/Sapphire Veteran
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- Seen Feb 15, 2024
Thanks for all your advice Dialga 111! I'm now starting over with a 80x80 canvas, I'll probably post the updates in his thread with shading and so on plus I'll save in .PNG format next time! Thanks everyone else as well for your (albeit short and vague) comments!
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The shading is actually great if you were going for that kind of style, but Pokémon's shading style is more simple. But I commend you on a (accidental) bold shading style.
It looks good, much better than the previous ones!
Pros:
-sprite sized
-png
-it is actually pixel work
-the shading works pretty well.
-I like the attention you gave to the colors of fire, having red, orange and yellow. Some people actually do it all on shades of red, which is wrong.
-Cons and tips:
- Don't use the circle tool, which you probably used to make the shape and the mouth. It looks too artificial, the outlines end up jagged, and the sprite doesn't flow well.
- In Pokémon sprites, the light source is in the top left. I understand that you did it like this because the fire emits light, causing it to be shaded the way you did. However, in Pokémon sprites some sort of crazy magic makes it so that even on Pokémon with fire in the bottom right, the light still comes from top left. Just like Charmander, for example.
-The mouth needs color, it's white
-Probably it was intentional, but two eyes is better than one.
-The fire is usually the opposite: Yello inside, orange in the middle and red outside
-Even though the shading is rather good for your first sprite, something must be said. You did quite a good job, but you didn't do the usual shading. You created a texture in the skin of the fakémon, which is great (really, it's really hard to create textures), but it's not the common thing to do. You'd usually go for a mor soft shading rather than creating a texture. At times the effect you used is simply perfect, and I encourage you to keep that kind of textuure in your fakémon, but couple it with a common shading too (check voltorb and electrode for reference).
For now, that's all you need to know. With more practice, you'll learn how to give your pokémon personality and create more difficult shapes and details, but you're doing great so far!
Pros:
-sprite sized
-png
-it is actually pixel work
-the shading works pretty well.
-I like the attention you gave to the colors of fire, having red, orange and yellow. Some people actually do it all on shades of red, which is wrong.
-Cons and tips:
- Don't use the circle tool, which you probably used to make the shape and the mouth. It looks too artificial, the outlines end up jagged, and the sprite doesn't flow well.
- In Pokémon sprites, the light source is in the top left. I understand that you did it like this because the fire emits light, causing it to be shaded the way you did. However, in Pokémon sprites some sort of crazy magic makes it so that even on Pokémon with fire in the bottom right, the light still comes from top left. Just like Charmander, for example.
-The mouth needs color, it's white
-Probably it was intentional, but two eyes is better than one.
-The fire is usually the opposite: Yello inside, orange in the middle and red outside
-Even though the shading is rather good for your first sprite, something must be said. You did quite a good job, but you didn't do the usual shading. You created a texture in the skin of the fakémon, which is great (really, it's really hard to create textures), but it's not the common thing to do. You'd usually go for a mor soft shading rather than creating a texture. At times the effect you used is simply perfect, and I encourage you to keep that kind of textuure in your fakémon, but couple it with a common shading too (check voltorb and electrode for reference).
For now, that's all you need to know. With more practice, you'll learn how to give your pokémon personality and create more difficult shapes and details, but you're doing great so far!
mewfan5335
pokespriter:recuests wanted!:D
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dose any one know how to post a pic on posts?
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Please keep to criticism, but you need at least 15 posts to post pictures.