~Kian's New Sprite Thread~

Started by ~Kian~ May 31st, 2011 5:07 AM
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  • 32 replies

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Well I have Asked for help from a Spriter, to give me advice on my spriting and he suggested That i should make a pixel art thread, to get more advice from other Spriters.
I had one before but it died :D..
Rules
  • All PC Rules apply.
  • Please ask for use for my sprites, not that many of you would.
  • Constructive criticism please.

Well here they are;

Almost Finished Sprites;

Spoiler:

(or) (And it's Evo)

These are basic and hugely easy to make, Shellos fakemon.



I like the backsprite, The shading could be improved, but i need help. (Ralts Fakemon)

(Evo) (Evo)

I like the shading on the First and second one, But the the 3rd one was hard to shade. It is really rough.




some sort of weird, Water/Steel type pokemon.



Dino Fakemon Not too good, but was an alright attempt.



Dino/Steel Fakemon, Boruku.



(Its Evo)
Dino/Steel, Bakango.



Steel/Grass type.. rather Bad :D



Weird bug thing.



Little twin fin pokemon.



Most of these are from my Previous thread, Really rather old.

Now for me W.I.P Fakemon, (No Colour);


Spoiler:





Another Dino Fakemon..



Hugely Basic, not even sorted out the outline yet.




Weird Bug rock type Fakemon.




My attempt at an octopus.



My attempt at a Fakemon Lapras.




Don't really know what this is, a frog..?



Two headed Dino/Dragon Fake.



Bug Poison Type, Those circles are supposed to be clouds of toxic gas.




Ghost/Poison Type..?
The weird circles are supposed to be Bubbles of toxic.




Long neck Fakemon.. (not even finished outline)




Rhino Ground/Steel Fakemon.




Two Headed dragon thing..?




What is this..?




Really small three headed dragon..?




Fakemon Bat sort of thing.



Hind Leg fakemon, Rough idea.



Armored animal..?



Tiny bug pokemon.



Possible evolution for twin fin Pre-evolution



Well these are hugely basic, wanted to put these on the thread, to show more of what i do, even if there is no real colour, or shading on them, just idea's/ concepts for me to work on.

Revamps;
Spoiler:




Sandslash Revamp.



Rhydon Revamp.



Growlethe Revamp.



Ninetales Revamp.



Blastiose Revamp.



Magneton Revamp.



Constructive criticism please..? :D

~Thank-You

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
on the ralts fakemon, you should move the eyes to the head instead of the ears. it might look better. anyways, they are good. better than mine.
Ah well, i wanted to add the eyes on the side, they are supposed to be little creatures (sort of thing).. they have mouths and everything, but i will agree the sprite does need editing.

I can't see your sprites here, but I can see them in your album.
I can't really say "weird" cause I have the same problem in my thread. xD
I don't really know how to fix it, so if I crit, I might not be critting the right sprite. xD
Well, Thanks for taking a look and trying anyway.. I hope others don't have the same problem although that would explain that lack of replies..
They're the same in my album.. :)
If anyone else has the problem please tell me so i can fix that.. :D


Right well Here is a new update, well sort of update, just to the W.I.P fakemon..



It started off as a Trapinch alternative evo, and well I wanted to change it, i added a sort of fin sort of thing, like on Mudkip and it's evo's, or like a fish :D..
I hope people can actually see it.
Please need some more criticism from you spriter's out there..

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
I can see them.

One thing you should do for almost all of your sprites is use some black (or near black) outlines on the shaded side. Aside from that being the 'standard' for pokemon sprites, it means that when you use black for the eyes they won't stand out as being darker than everything else on the sprite.

The shapes and linework are pretty nice, though you tend toward more rounded, smoother designs. I don't mean necessarily blobby shapes, but a lot of the arms and legs on your sprites are wider in the middle. To me, that gives them a cuter look, but I think some of them could use more defined shapes. You know, like ones that show knees/elbows and other joints, or maybe some texture like fur or scales or something like that. A little more variety in how you apply color and patterns would give your sprites something more... special. Lemme explain. Ones like your steel dinosaur have better overall color because the head isn't a single color. The two colors together help define the shape of the head by showing you were the top is and where the bottom is quite easily. Not all sprites need that, of course, but it's something to keep in mind.

You should also try experimenting making other kinds of eyes. Nothing wrong with the black-eye-with-white-center, but, well, you have a lot of that already.

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
I can see them.

One thing you should do for almost all of your sprites is use some black (or near black) outlines on the shaded side. Aside from that being the 'standard' for pokemon sprites, it means that when you use black for the eyes they won't stand out as being darker than everything else on the sprite.

The shapes and linework are pretty nice, though you tend toward more rounded, smoother designs. I don't mean necessarily blobby shapes, but a lot of the arms and legs on your sprites are wider in the middle. To me, that gives them a cuter look, but I think some of them could use more defined shapes. You know, like ones that show knees/elbows and other joints, or maybe some texture like fur or scales or something like that. A little more variety in how you apply color and patterns would give your sprites something more... special. Lemme explain. Ones like your steel dinosaur have better overall color because the head isn't a single color. The two colors together help define the shape of the head by showing you were the top is and where the bottom is quite easily. Not all sprites need that, of course, but it's something to keep in mind.

You should also try experimenting making other kinds of eyes. Nothing wrong with the black-eye-with-white-center, but, well, you have a lot of that already.
Oh phew glad most people can see them.. :)

Well thank-you for the criticism I agree with everything you have said, i have always had trouble making my sprites different by adding more features like Fur etc. and I always seem to create sprites with the same legs, and arms, for example the W.I.P sprite i just posted, i don't know how to make legs, elbows Etc. Need some help in that department.
I will try to add fur and other Animalistic designs in my future sprites or add some to my sprites i have already made..
(Animalistic is not in the dictionary so thought i word make up that word, hope you know what I mean)
Thanks again for the criticism. I have seen your thread, i know you know what you are talking about. :)

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

tnguye3

Very, very, very lazy spriter.

Male
In my dreams
Seen November 16th, 2014
Posted May 7th, 2013
311 posts
13.1 Years
Your sprites aim largely for the "round" edges, making most of your work largely ovular - not that it's bad, but you should clean up some lineart for instance the Dino Fakemon Boruku's top of the head has an unclean line, as well as its lower part of the body, the lines should be 1 pixel thin.
You need to also work on the poses as they all seem to stand at a profile angle.
The shading also looks like it needs some work, as it largely seems rough, (referring to Saluchomp, not sure if it's on this thread but i geuss u know what im talking about) and the shades are in the wrong places.
keep in mind that the light source is from the top left (altho most of the other sprites have their shades correctly placed their shapes of the shades are too wobbly).

The designs are also very simplistic, of course everyone have their own tastes when it comes to design but adding distinctive features to your fakemon may make them more unique.

As Scarf mentioned, you could alter the eyes and also make more use of the "black" outline which all Pokemon sprites have.

I tried to recreate one of your sprites here:

Notice the light source and how the shades are layed out - as well as the lineart.
Lighter shades are closer to the light source, while the black outline is located usually at the rear of the sprite or where the light doesn't reach aka under the fin/hand(?)
btw Blue: Light
Red: Dark

Also by adding simple patterns like rings or circles and adding more colors to the palette, you can make your sprites more lively and "Pokemonish". :3

Hope that helped! ^_^

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Your sprites aim largely for the "round" edges, making most of your work largely ovular - not that it's bad, but you should clean up some lineart for instance the Dino Fakemon Boruku's top of the head has an unclean line, as well as its lower part of the body, the lines should be 1 pixel thin.
You need to also work on the poses as they all seem to stand at a profile angle.
The shading also looks like it needs some work, as it largely seems rough, (referring to Saluchomp, not sure if it's on this thread but i geuss u know what im talking about) and the shades are in the wrong places.
keep in mind that the light source is from the top left (altho most of the other sprites have their shades correctly placed their shapes of the shades are too wobbly).

The designs are also very simplistic, of course everyone have their own tastes when it comes to design but adding distinctive features to your fakemon may make them more unique.

As Scarf mentioned, you could alter the eyes and also make more use of the "black" outline which all Pokemon sprites have.

I tried to recreate one of your sprites here:

Notice the light source and how the shades are layed out - as well as the lineart.
Lighter shades are closer to the light source, while the black outline is located usually at the rear of the sprite or where the light doesn't reach aka under the fin/hand(?)
btw Blue: Light
Red: Dark

Also by adding simple patterns like rings or circles and adding more colors to the palette, you can make your sprites more lively and "Pokemonish". :3

Hope that helped! ^_^
Thank-you very much, i will try to add more colours and features to my sprites.
Your sprite that you made looks outstanding and made my sprite look like it was made by a toddler.. :D, you are very good.
I will try to make my sprites less simple as you said.
Again thank-you for the criticism.
Why don't you add your sprite to your thread, it looks amazing..

Right now i have the advice i will have to try to put this into practice.. /':, It's gonna be rather hard.

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.
Age 30
Male
California
Seen July 14th, 2013
Posted October 8th, 2011
142 posts
13.2 Years
I think one of your main problems, from what I can see, is that you don't find the light source. Tnguye touched on this and did a really good job so I wont repeat, but then I also feel like your outlines are very rough and sharp. Ie: Your WIP have doubled pixeled outlines instead of single pixel, which I assume you already know how to fix. but then I also see that a lot of your sprites don't seem to have an internal bone structur to them. I don't see many joints in their anatomy, and you definitely want to keep that in mind for the fakemon that are actually physical bodies; ghosts is a bit more difficult.

As far as bubbles go, my trick to use a color about 4-5 shades lighter than the base color for a very small highlight, and then surround that highlight with a slighter darker shade, closer to the base, to make it meld into the sprite more. I hope that helps some in the future.
My DeviantArt
My Sprite Thread
Pokemon: The Cure
Blow the candles out,

Looks like a solo tonight,

I'm beginning to see the light.


Blow the candles out,


Looks like a solo tonight,


Everything's gonna be alright.

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Minor Update/Bump:



My terrible attempt at a revamp of Sandslash; I loved this sprite ever since I first played Pokemon Yellow.
Sorry this thread is inactive, exam season and all that, I will add more when I have more to show.




Also added colour to the first W.I.P version of this, and some extra designing.
I have also added a Pre-evo; (With terrible shading :P)
I know it's outline hasn't been finished but ill leave it as that for now.

~Thank-you
~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

Mew~

THE HOST IS BROKEN

Seen April 13th, 2016
Posted April 12th, 2016
4,163 posts
14.2 Years
There are some great ideas you've got, my only problems I have with your scratch sprites is that you need to work one the structures of your sprites, they seem a little blobby (bad description), maybe you need to take a look more into the game sprites. Also, you should take into account what Scarf said, you need to use black outline. Like you did with this sprite:

The black outline on parts around the shading make them look much more like Pokémon sprites.
There was nothing. Followed by everything. Swirling, burning specks of creation that circled life-giving suns. And then we reached to the light.

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Male
Rio!
Seen July 15th, 2011
Posted July 14th, 2011
170 posts
11.9 Years


Also added colour to the first W.I.P version of this, and some extra designing.
I have also added a Pre-evo; (With terrible shading :P)
I know it's outline hasn't been finished but ill leave it as that for now.

~Thank-you
~Kian
Sandlash looked awesome,you deser a yeah! for that.

But you should make the evolutions a little more different.The pre evo looks like a small clumsier version of the evo,and onlky that.Take Munna and musharna for example.They have the same colors and structures but they don't look the same
►Paired with LightningStrike & Fuutachimaru

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
There are some great ideas you've got, my only problems I have with your scratch sprites is that you need to work one the structures of your sprites, they seem a little blobby (bad description), maybe you need to take a look more into the game sprites. Also, you should take into account what Scarf said, you need to use black outline. Like you did with this sprite:

The black outline on parts around the shading make them look much more like Pokémon sprites.
Uhhuh OK yes. I can never Sprite the muscles and make limbs more life like.
I will edit the sprites soon; as far as the outline goes.

Sandlash looked awesome,you deser a yeah! for that.

But you should make the evolutions a little more different.The pre evo looks like a small clumsier version of the evo,and onlky that.Take Munna and musharna for example.They have the same colors and structures but they don't look the same
Right OK, I agree they are too similar.



Tried to re-create the Pre-Evo to try to make it different. looks a little like a dolphin though.
Thanks for the compliment on the Sandslash first re-vamp; gonna do some more soon.

Another Re-vamp for the collection:



Thanks for the replies.
~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

MonsterMMORPG

Monster Game Developer

Age 36
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Turkey
Seen February 22nd, 2018
Posted May 27th, 2016
256 posts
11.8 Years
not bad but they need quality improvements
F2P Pokemon Style Monster MMORPG Developer
Looking for volunteer artists. The contributes will be fully credited at this respected game which may greatly help them in the future. Our credits page : MonsterMMORPG Credits

Basically if you are able to draw and want to get your place, just send me a PM. I have skype, live msn, yahoo msn.
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OminousMix

"Show me whatcha got."

Age 26
Male
"Hehehehe... So your here to pick a fight with a legend..."
Seen September 8th, 2011
Posted September 6th, 2011
163 posts
11.8 Years
Really nice sprites, i could probably learn a thing in sprite making from these. Mine are just bad...
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Spoiler:


Revamp from what game?

The coloring and the shading is done very well with these piece.This is not in your control but Rhydon looks weird in this position.


:t354:TG

Friend Code: 3136-6961-3807 Friend Safari:Steel: Metang, Magneton and Klefi

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Really nice sprites, i could probably learn a thing in sprite making from these. Mine are just bad...
Thanks, glad i could help slightly.. :)

is a good start .
Uh, thanks.

Spoiler:


Revamp from what game?

The coloring and the shading is done very well with these piece.This is not in your control but Rhydon looks weird in this position.

:t354:TG
It is from pokemon yellow, and thank-you for the compliments :D


Thanks everyone else for commenting too.. :)


Now for another RE-VAMP from pokemon yellow also..;




It worked out pretty well I guess..

~Thank-you

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.
Male
Brazil
Seen January 24th, 2012
Posted November 6th, 2011
44 posts
11.8 Years
Just a general tip: Do one thing at a time. I know some people like to multitask and do many things at once, which is great, but I honestly think you should concentrate in one fakémon at a time. No matter how hard it seems and how long it is taking. Finish one sprite before starting a new one. This way you can focus completely in the sprite you're working on. With more focus, you can pay more attention to details, and it will look better overall.

Don't stop them in the middle and start a new one. Don't leave anything to later. Do everything the way it should be done.

Here are the steps I take to make each fakémon of mine:

-Imagine a concept

-Research the anatomy of the animal I'll sprite, or the shape of the object, just so I have a more real notion of the proportion and whatnots.

-Draw in paper. It never ends up the same way as the paper, but it's a good thing to do to have a basis.

-In MS Paint, I make a square of 82x82 pixels, so that the inside is 80x80 pixels, the size limit of DPPtBW sprites.

-With this square, you can have notion if the sprite is too big or too small, and change it accordingly. If neeccessary, look up the sprite of a Pokémon that has a similar size to yours and compare. For example, if you're making a fire starter, you don't want it to be the same size as Rhyperior, who is too big for a starter, but won't want something like Happiny, which, as a baby pokémon, is too small for a starter. You'll want to compare the starter to the size of charmander, for example.

-After that, with my tablet (it can be the mouse or touchpad too), I sketch the outline inside the square. At this moment, I don't care about imperfections and details, I only check the size and proportions (Its head can't be too big for its body, unless its design needs it). I do that in red or gray.

-With black, now with the mouse, I make the outline. I use the previous sketch as a base and work my way from there. Always take care to make the pixels look clean and the lines thin. You don't want jagged corners or subtle changes in direction, they don't look good at all.

-When the outline is done, I erase all the red and prepare to color and shade

-Before making the colors, I like to do the shading. I use paint's custom gray shades to do it, being white the highlight, light gray being the base color and dark gray the shade. I do that because those colors actually have great contrast, and let you have a good feeling of the sprite before it's colored.

-When the shading is done, I make the palette. I think this is the most important, but the most difficult part on spriting. You need to take care to choose colors that fit your pokémon's personality and attributes (green-colored pure fire type? no, thanks). The saturation and contrast between colors is hugely important. You need to be able to see the shades and be able to tell where one color ends and another starts, but they can't jump off the sprite with contrast (you'll hardly use pure white or pure black, for example).

-After that, I do the final polishing. I look for fails and things that could be improved and change it the way I think it will look better. More than once, I had to change the whole outline because I disliked the pose; or the colors, because they didn't fit what I wanted the sprite to look like.

Zoom ou a lot all the time, to see if you like the outcome so far. Also, always work on copies. When you finish something, copy and paste it and start working on the next step. This way, if you dislike a change and run out of ctrl+Z, you still have a safe copy to start again.

These are just some general tips that should help you on making even greater fakemon =)

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Just a general tip: Do one thing at a time. I know some people like to multitask and do many things at once, which is great, but I honestly think you should concentrate in one fakémon at a time. No matter how hard it seems and how long it is taking. Finish one sprite before starting a new one. This way you can focus completely in the sprite you're working on. With more focus, you can pay more attention to details, and it will look better overall.

Don't stop them in the middle and start a new one. Don't leave anything to later. Do everything the way it should be done.

Here are the steps I take to make each fakémon of mine:

-Imagine a concept

-Research the anatomy of the animal I'll sprite, or the shape of the object, just so I have a more real notion of the proportion and whatnots.

-Draw in paper. It never ends up the same way as the paper, but it's a good thing to do to have a basis.

-In MS Paint, I make a square of 82x82 pixels, so that the inside is 80x80 pixels, the size limit of DPPtBW sprites.

-With this square, you can have notion if the sprite is too big or too small, and change it accordingly. If neeccessary, look up the sprite of a Pokémon that has a similar size to yours and compare. For example, if you're making a fire starter, you don't want it to be the same size as Rhyperior, who is too big for a starter, but won't want something like Happiny, which, as a baby pokémon, is too small for a starter. You'll want to compare the starter to the size of charmander, for example.

-After that, with my tablet (it can be the mouse or touchpad too), I sketch the outline inside the square. At this moment, I don't care about imperfections and details, I only check the size and proportions (Its head can't be too big for its body, unless its design needs it). I do that in red or gray.

-With black, now with the mouse, I make the outline. I use the previous sketch as a base and work my way from there. Always take care to make the pixels look clean and the lines thin. You don't want jagged corners or subtle changes in direction, they don't look good at all.

-When the outline is done, I erase all the red and prepare to color and shade

-Before making the colors, I like to do the shading. I use paint's custom gray shades to do it, being white the highlight, light gray being the base color and dark gray the shade. I do that because those colors actually have great contrast, and let you have a good feeling of the sprite before it's colored.

-When the shading is done, I make the palette. I think this is the most important, but the most difficult part on spriting. You need to take care to choose colors that fit your pokémon's personality and attributes (green-colored pure fire type? no, thanks). The saturation and contrast between colors is hugely important. You need to be able to see the shades and be able to tell where one color ends and another starts, but they can't jump off the sprite with contrast (you'll hardly use pure white or pure black, for example).

-After that, I do the final polishing. I look for fails and things that could be improved and change it the way I think it will look better. More than once, I had to change the whole outline because I disliked the pose; or the colors, because they didn't fit what I wanted the sprite to look like.

Zoom ou a lot all the time, to see if you like the outcome so far. Also, always work on copies. When you finish something, copy and paste it and start working on the next step. This way, if you dislike a change and run out of ctrl+Z, you still have a safe copy to start again.

These are just some general tips that should help you on making even greater fakemon =)
Well Thank-you very much for taking the time to write such a lot of tips.
I have had a look at you thread, you know what you're talking about:).
Sadly i cannot do some of the things that you do;
I am a terrible artist, cannot draw for my life.
When i make a sprite, i draw random shapes until something looks like a feature that could be used, however; when i get a good idea for what i want to draw i will use the square border idea, lots of spriters use that idea.
I also make lots of sprites, they are kinda my ideas, after I have lots of fakemon i will colour and improve.

Well here is a sprite i just made,
Maybe a steel/water type.

This or This?

its evolution will maybe be a sword fish or something..?

(EDIT)

Possible colour;



I kinda copied Steelix's cheek, i didn't copy and paste, i just did the same sort of shading. :D

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.

~Kian~

Spriter In The Making

Male
ENGLAND ^.^
Seen November 7th, 2016
Posted August 20th, 2011
698 posts
13.9 Years
Update;

A few revamps;

... ...

Not too bad..

The Blastoise was rather challenging.. :D But is my favorite.

And now for some more half done Fakemon:

This lil' guy. And some weird thing, head needs changing.




Possible sort of evolution for the new fish thing. (YEAH ITS BAD :S)



Yeah terrible colour, terrible shading, any idea for colours..?

~Kian

'tyranilacegon'
Made By The Mystery Egg,
Please visit his Fusion thread.