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~Kian's New Sprite Thread~

~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~

Buffalo State College
12,049
Posts
18
Years
  • 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
     

    ~Kian~

    Spriter In The Making
    698
    Posts
    14
    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..;


    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    It worked out pretty well I guess..

    ~Thank-you

    ~Kian
     
    44
    Posts
    12
    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
    698
    Posts
    14
    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.

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~
    This or This?
    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


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

    (EDIT)

    Possible colour;

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


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

    ~Kian
     
    Last edited:

    ~Kian~

    Spriter In The Making
    698
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • Update;

    A few revamps;

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~
    ...
    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~
    ...
    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    Not too bad..

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

    And now for some more half done Fakemon:

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~
    This lil' guy.
    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~
    And some weird thing, head needs changing.


    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


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

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


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

    ~Kian
     
    Last edited:
    44
    Posts
    12
    Years
  • The Blastoise revamp still got pixels from the old color. A lot, by the way. Also, you've kept the dark gray from the old gen sprite instead of changing it for black. The same happens in Growlithe. One more thing: revamping is not simply about coloring with a different palette. You didn't do a revamp, you did a recolor using the colors of a sprite of a newer gen. revamping means reshading. The shading looks bad at points if you use the revamped colors, which, sometimes, isn't noticeable in the old gen sprite. The outline shading looks just terrible, and you kept it that way.

    All of your outlines need to be more dynamic. Never ever use straight lines in Pokémon sprites. Never. This is something you do quite a lot. They only look good on few effects, and Pokémon based on animals, specially, should not have straight lines unless their anatomy strictly requests it to be like this (and even then you could always change it). However, it is not possible to fully evaluate the quality of your sprites because few to no of them are finished. Sometimes straight lines actually work well when you shade the fakemon the right way, but we can't know that because you have at least 16 sprites with no coloring, 5 of which you haven't even cleared the outlines yet. Work in Progress is something. A million of unfinished sprites is another completely different.

    About your newest shaded fakémon, as I said earlied, study anatomy. It has a head and a neck. The head overshadows the neck part, therefore this part of the body should have been shaded. Hands and Feet don't end up squared the way they are in your sprite. It seems like you cut out its arms and legs. The tail has a shadow on top and the highlight on bottom, when the light source should be coming from top left, therefore making the bottom right shaded, when it is not. The hidden ear is the same color as the other one, when the one to the front should project a shadow on the one in the back. You have used a lighter outline shade in parts that should be dark, like in the tip of the tail. The light outline should not coincide with the dark shade. You have only shaded the outline in the beige parts of the body, simply ignoring the brown areas. Do not make an outline to divide colors inside the sprite (the transition between the brown to beige in the tail). The effect looks good on the belly. The mouth cannot be white. The beige horn and one of the arms are also invertly shaded. The shading on the body should follow its shape, the way you made it it is almost s diagonal line, when it should be a curve. Be careful to make pointy ears, it's tricky and if not done properly it looks bad.

    Please check the differences below:

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    These were just some quick changes. There is still more that can be fixed, but, unfortunately, I don't have much time. Notice how you don't need outlines to create shapes: the shading does it by itself. With two colors, I showed where is its head, neck , body, legs, arms and everything else. You'll notice that I also changed its outline quite a bit. This is not a perfect sprite. I edited yours in a hurry, but I did the best I could. I'd like you to check them closer in Paint zooming in, so you can spot the differences and study the way I did it to see how you can improve your shading. It's not easy to put into words, and pratically impossible to teach someone how to shade. The best way is studying, observing and practicing a lot.

    PS: I just noticed I forgot to color the mouth. Use some shade of red for that, but NOT from Paint's custom colors. If needed, get one from a real pokémon's palette.
     

    ~Kian~

    Spriter In The Making
    698
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • The Blastoise revamp still got pixels from the old color. A lot, by the way. Also, you've kept the dark gray from the old gen sprite instead of changing it for black. The same happens in Growlithe. One more thing: revamping is not simply about coloring with a different palette. You didn't do a revamp, you did a recolor using the colors of a sprite of a newer gen. revamping means reshading. The shading looks bad at points if you use the revamped colors, which, sometimes, isn't noticeable in the old gen sprite. The outline shading looks just terrible, and you kept it that way.

    All of your outlines need to be more dynamic. Never ever use straight lines in Pokémon sprites. Never. This is something you do quite a lot. They only look good on few effects, and Pokémon based on animals, specially, should not have straight lines unless their anatomy strictly requests it to be like this (and even then you could always change it). However, it is not possible to fully evaluate the quality of your sprites because few to no of them are finished. Sometimes straight lines actually work well when you shade the fakemon the right way, but we can't know that because you have at least 16 sprites with no coloring, 5 of which you haven't even cleared the outlines yet. Work in Progress is something. A million of unfinished sprites is another completely different.

    About your newest shaded fakémon, as I said earlied, study anatomy. It has a head and a neck. The head overshadows the neck part, therefore this part of the body should have been shaded. Hands and Feet don't end up squared the way they are in your sprite. It seems like you cut out its arms and legs. The tail has a shadow on top and the highlight on bottom, when the light source should be coming from top left, therefore making the bottom right shaded, when it is not. The hidden ear is the same color as the other one, when the one to the front should project a shadow on the one in the back. You have used a lighter outline shade in parts that should be dark, like in the tip of the tail. The light outline should not coincide with the dark shade. You have only shaded the outline in the beige parts of the body, simply ignoring the brown areas. Do not make an outline to divide colors inside the sprite (the transition between the brown to beige in the tail). The effect looks good on the belly. The mouth cannot be white. The beige horn and one of the arms are also invertly shaded. The shading on the body should follow its shape, the way you made it it is almost s diagonal line, when it should be a curve. Be careful to make pointy ears, it's tricky and if not done properly it looks bad.

    Please check the differences below:

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    These were just some quick changes. There is still more that can be fixed, but, unfortunately, I don't have much time. Notice how you don't need outlines to create shapes: the shading does it by itself. With two colors, I showed where is its head, neck , body, legs, arms and everything else. You'll notice that I also changed its outline quite a bit. This is not a perfect sprite. I edited yours in a hurry, but I did the best I could. I'd like you to check them closer in Paint zooming in, so you can spot the differences and study the way I did it to see how you can improve your shading. It's not easy to put into words, and pratically impossible to teach someone how to shade. The best way is studying, observing and practicing a lot.

    PS: I just noticed I forgot to color the mouth. Use some shade of red for that, but NOT from Paint's custom colors. If needed, get one from a real pokémon's palette.

    Uhhuh OK yes, you're right about the Revamping I haven't even finished the outline or anything, i am a bit of a lazy Spriter if I'm honest..
    As far as studying the anatomy is concerned I don't really see the point, and sometimes my sprites are not based on animals for example the water line..
    I also don't see the problem with having lots of unfinished sprites, in my eyes that is W.I.P, and i think its a good thing because i haven't sorted out how to shade yet.
    I like what you have with the rabbit sprite, and have attempted the same sort of shading on this bat sprite;

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    I really think it looks pretty good, Although it needs more colour on it, I don't know which one to use, probably the first one with maybe some more features.

    ~Thank-you for trying to help me improve :)

    ~Kian
     
    44
    Posts
    12
    Years
  • First of all, sorry if I sound a bit impolite in this post. I'm not really in a good mood today. I'll try to be the nicest I can, though. Just keep in mind that this is Constructive Criticism, and my only purpose is to help you improve.

    Uhhuh OK yes, you're right about the Revamping I haven't even finished the outline or anything, i am a bit of a lazy Spriter if I'm honest..

    You know what they say: No pain no gain. Being lazy won't take you anywhere. Finish what you start and only then you can have its results.

    As far as studying the anatomy is concerned I don't really see the point, and sometimes my sprites are not based on animals for example the water line..

    Is geodude based off an animal? Is Bronzor based off an animal? Klink? No, they aren't. But look how the shading on Geodude gives it a texture of rock. Watch how Bronzor looks flat and steel-like. Observe the way Klink looks like a perfect gear, with even a slightly isometric tridimentional effect. This was all done by obsercing real-life objects, and copying the way things are shaded. When I say anatomy, you're not supposed to get restricted to animal beings, but observe the real world and pass the textures and effects to your sprites. If you don't see the point of studying how light and shade are projected in real life objects and beings, you might as well not see the point of coloring your sprites at all, which would kind of explain the fact that almost none of your sprites are shaded.

    I also don't see the problem with having lots of unfinished sprites, in my eyes that is W.I.P, and i think its a good thing because i haven't sorted out how to shade yet.

    As long as you finish it some day, it is a Work in Progress. Just don't abandon unfinished sprites. Of course if you have dozens of unfinished sprites, the chances of finishing them all is much smaller.


    The sprite: It looks better. You've improved a lot. However, the shapes look disformed, I can't really tell exactly what's going on there.That's what usually happens when you just sprite without planning something first. Some pro spriters can do it fine, but it requires a lot of experience to be able to tell what looks good and what doesn't just by doing it this way. It's a bit ugly im my opinion, sorry =/. It needs more colored outlines, as they look overall too dark. And yes, it does need more features. A good way to improve it would possibly be by adding some patterns to its body and head in another color.

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    This sprite pretty much sums up everything I said you have to do. It is part steel, so watch how the metallic parts have highlights that copy the metal. It also has patterns on its head, just so it doesn't look too empty.

    Once more, keep in mind that everything I told you here is to help you improve. Sometimes we have to be a bit harsh in order to help, and, unfortunately, this was the case. But remember that I'm by your side whenever you need help. If you ever need any tips, suggestion or help, just ask me and I'll be more than happy to help you :)
     

    ~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~

    Buffalo State College
    12,049
    Posts
    18
    Years
  • I like the coloring and the shading of the newest one you did. Is the second one with the green eerrrmmmmm eyes a shiny one or is it gender difference? How about the specific location difference?


    :t354:TG
     

    ~Kian~

    Spriter In The Making
    698
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • First of all, sorry if I sound a bit impolite in this post. I'm not really in a good mood today. I'll try to be the nicest I can, though. Just keep in mind that this is Constructive Criticism, and my only purpose is to help you improve.



    You know what they say: No pain no gain. Being lazy won't take you anywhere. Finish what you start and only then you can have its results.



    Is geodude based off an animal? Is Bronzor based off an animal? Klink? No, they aren't. But look how the shading on Geodude gives it a texture of rock. Watch how Bronzor looks flat and steel-like. Observe the way Klink looks like a perfect gear, with even a slightly isometric tridimentional effect. This was all done by obsercing real-life objects, and copying the way things are shaded. When I say anatomy, you're not supposed to get restricted to animal beings, but observe the real world and pass the textures and effects to your sprites. If you don't see the point of studying how light and shade are projected in real life objects and beings, you might as well not see the point of coloring your sprites at all, which would kind of explain the fact that almost none of your sprites are shaded.



    As long as you finish it some day, it is a Work in Progress. Just don't abandon unfinished sprites. Of course if you have dozens of unfinished sprites, the chances of finishing them all is much smaller.


    The sprite: It looks better. You've improved a lot. However, the shapes look disformed, I can't really tell exactly what's going on there.That's what usually happens when you just sprite without planning something first. Some pro spriters can do it fine, but it requires a lot of experience to be able to tell what looks good and what doesn't just by doing it this way. It's a bit ugly im my opinion, sorry =/. It needs more colored outlines, as they look overall too dark. And yes, it does need more features. A good way to improve it would possibly be by adding some patterns to its body and head in another color.

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    This sprite pretty much sums up everything I said you have to do. It is part steel, so watch how the metallic parts have highlights that copy the metal. It also has patterns on its head, just so it doesn't look too empty.

    Once more, keep in mind that everything I told you here is to help you improve. Sometimes we have to be a bit harsh in order to help, and, unfortunately, this was the case. But remember that I'm by your side whenever you need help. If you ever need any tips, suggestion or help, just ask me and I'll be more than happy to help you :)

    Thank-you again, I will take into what you have suggested, what about the sprite do you think Is ugly, I have always liked the concept and the pointy eyes. I have been experimenting with features and patterns on the bat sprite and have failed, any suggestions..?


    I like the coloring and the shading of the newest one you did. Is the second one with the green eerrrmmmmm eyes a shiny one or is it gender difference? How about the specific location difference?


    :t354:TG

    Thank-you I like the colouring and shading also, the eyes are just me attempting to add more features, but it failed. There will be a difference with the genders; as soon as I can make features on sprites.

    ANYWAY, Very minor update;
    -Few updates to these sprites:


    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    Don't know if I have made them better or worse, I don't like the last one, it is just ugly and is too hard.

    ~Thank-you

    ~Kian
     

    ~Kian~

    Spriter In The Making
    698
    Posts
    14
    Years
  • Another update considering the last one was rubbish I hope this one is better:

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    Tried adding a bit of a pattern.. (yeah the belly is bad)

    ~Kian's New Sprite Thread~


    Weird bug thing, the only part I like are the legs.
    Anyway yeah this is the update. Not many sprites being done, Schoolwork is taking over.. D:

    ~Kian
     
    28
    Posts
    12
    Years
  • I've tried on Chrome, IE and Firefox, but I can't see them. :(
    I want to know the problem cause it's not just on your images, but it's still rare.
    What site do you upload them to (imageshack, photobucket, imgur...)?
     
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