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X/Y sprites: the making of

Monek_OP

bernie2016
I am glad you appreciate them. These sprites are for any use, just like official sprites. Credit is is appreciated, but not necessary. Noobiess has confirmed this. |We currently have two Vivillon:
vivillon-small-medow1.png
http://i44.*******.com/8xn7rq.pngCredit to Sour Monster and me, respectively.

I'll definitely give credit, however, are those Vivillion completed, or will further editing be done? I can't decide; they're both so good ...
 

Mew The Gato

___________
I'll definitely give credit, however, are those Vivillion completed, or will further editing be done? I can't decide; they're both so good ...

From what Noobiess said, it is unlikely that they shall be edited. You shall be informed if they are, though.

Then, how about you take both? XD

Also, please remember: Criticism is always appreciated, so if you could, please help us improve the sprites further.
 

Monek_OP

bernie2016
I know piratically nothing about the spriting community , or spriting in itself , really , but I'll do my best. | Soul Monster's Vivillion is outlined with to much black / gray (or so it appears), and that takes away from Vivillion's colors and pattern. It's also kinda sloppy. | AWildMew's Vivillion is nice, but I can't see the legs or arms distinguished from the body.
 

Sour Monster

Well-Known Member
Feel free to use my Vivillon if you wish. :) Credit appreciated but not necessary.

Here is Garden Vivillon.

Garden-vivillon.png


The pattern I have in my game. :)

I know piratically nothing about the spriting community , or spriting in itself , really , but I'll do my best. | Soul Monster's Vivillion is outlined with to much black / gray (or so it appears), and that takes away from Vivillion's colors and pattern. It's also kinda sloppy. | AWildMew's Vivillion is nice, but I can't see the legs or arms distinguished from the body.

The wing outlines where the pink is are dark pink, do you mean the lines inside the wings? I'll try doing them a shade of pink tomorrow to see if it looks better. Thank you for the feedback.
 
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noobiess

6 different pokemon
Yes, everyone can use the sprites. And like SourMonster said, comments are always welcome (spriter or non-spriter).

Congrats on finding out how ezimba works, AWildMew. Unfortunately I still see the smudged colors on Fletchinder. Now I don't have a clue what it could be XD

EDIT: I also noticed the same with the shrunken version of meadow vivillon of SourMonster, but not with the garden version. So maybe it is because you shrink them after you make them or something like that? I really don't know, I'm just guessing right now ^^
 

Sour Monster

Well-Known Member
Yes, everyone can use the sprites. And like SourMonster said, comments are always welcome (spriter or non-spriter).

Congrats on finding out how ezimba works, AWildMew. Unfortunately I still see the smudged colors on Fletchinder. Now I don't have a clue what it could be XD

EDIT: I also noticed the same with the shrunken version of meadow vivillon of SourMonster, but not with the garden version. So maybe it is because you shrink them after you make them or something like that? I really don't know, I'm just guessing right now ^^

You're quite right I need to clean up the Medow one a bit! Missed a few bits after resizing. I'll fix it in the morning.

EDIT: Tried to fix the Meadow colours where it blurred on resize. Is this better noobiess? Also changed the shading on the wings a bit, and made the wing lines a shade darker of the wing colour rather than grey. So again, Meadow and Garden Vivillon.

vivillon-meadow1.png
Vivillon-Garden-new-2.png


Ooh, nice Soul Monster! My favourite formes of Vivillion are Garden and Meadow!

Mine too. ^^,
 
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noobiess

6 different pokemon
Sourmonster, I like the new shading. But the meadow version is even blurrier then before. Also AWildMew's froakie looks fine but again it looks blurry.
I'm seriously think it is something I do wrong but I just can't figure out what. Now I'm also on another computer and tried even looking with different internet providers but they all give the same result.

For AWildMew I noticed that only the MEGAforms look fine and since they only don't need resizing I think that the blurriness could be due to the resizing? Maybe you should also explain your procedure to pixel over the art?
Because I was thinking maybe you did the following:
- take the official art
- resize is to the size of the sprite
- go over the borders with black (and slightly lighter colors)

If you do this, I can explain the blurriness because you forget a step then: you should also go over the colors so they are exactly the same. This means if you fill up an area with the bucket in paint with a different color, it should go all over the area with the same color.

Also since I'm now on a different computer where is can see the colors completely how they are, I'm going to edit the colors of amaura and inkay slightly and make the backsprite.
 

Will-powered Spriter

Pokédex Complete!
Ooh, I wondered when we'd be doing something along the lines of this.

Just a question or two about the project; will we be using the sprites for any purpose or is it just for fun, and is there restrictions on overlapping with other sprite projects. For example, smogon is collecting sprites to use in their simulator, if I was to enter a sprite into one or the other, would I no longer be able to use it for both? (not that I've contributed to smogon yet...)

Otherwise I'd be happy to contribute the things I already have, and can help advise newer spriters.

Be careful with simply pixel over-ing existing sugimori art or models. The art isn't made with the constraints of pixel art in mind, so may be at a poor angle, unsuitable proportions or an overly dynamic pose.
 

Mew The Gato

___________
Sourmonster, I like the new shading. But the meadow version is even blurrier then before. Also AWildMew's froakie looks fine but again it looks blurry.
I'm seriously think it is something I do wrong but I just can't figure out what. Now I'm also on another computer and tried even looking with different internet providers but they all give the same result.

For AWildMew I noticed that only the MEGAforms look fine and since they only don't need resizing I think that the blurriness could be due to the resizing? Maybe you should also explain your procedure to pixel over the art?
Because I was thinking maybe you did the following:
- take the official art
- resize is to the size of the sprite
- go over the borders with black (and slightly lighter colors)

If you do this, I can explain the blurriness because you forget a step then: you should also go over the colors so they are exactly the same. This means if you fill up an area with the bucket in paint with a different color, it should go all over the area with the same color.

Also since I'm now on a different computer where is can see the colors completely how they are, I'm going to edit the colors of amaura and inkay slightly and make the backsprite.

I actually first make a bigger sprite for convenience, then make it smaller. Resizing could be it, yes.
 

noobiess

6 different pokemon
Ooh, I wondered when we'd be doing something along the lines of this.

Just a question or two about the project; will we be using the sprites for any purpose or is it just for fun, and is there restrictions on overlapping with other sprite projects. For example, smogon is collecting sprites to use in their simulator, if I was to enter a sprite into one or the other, would I no longer be able to use it for both? (not that I've contributed to smogon yet...)

Otherwise I'd be happy to contribute the things I already have, and can help advise newer spriters.

Be careful with simply pixel over-ing existing sugimori art or models. The art isn't made with the constraints of pixel art in mind, so may be at a poor angle, unsuitable proportions or an overly dynamic pose.

WPS :) Nice to see you around. I don't have any problem that you use it for another project but I would like it if you let it know to the other project if it is okay. We don't want to cause a fight between different projects :p

The purpose now of this project is to get 'official sprites' and put them all together as a collection which could be used for the GWSC as 'official sprites'. Other then that it doesn't have a clear purpose yet but either way I think it is a nice method to get spriters excited. After some time, when we got some good 'official sprites' I could ask the site to put the on serebii as official sprites, but I personally don't think this will work since the forum and the site of serebii always has been separated. But maybe this could be a first of course...

I would love it if you could help with the quality control because I know your great experience with spriting would help. But you have to see for yourself whether that is possible for you.
I also think your comment about the official art was spot on but some of them are useable (with some editing).
 

Mew The Gato

___________
Also, could saving the previous sprites as .gif files have something to do with it?

Now, how do these look?

http://i39.*******.com/2uqdf6b.png

http://i41.*******.com/2i9p7hc.png

I made them at the appropriate size and saved them as .png files.
 
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Will-powered Spriter

Pokédex Complete!
OK, my thoughts. Apologies if I come across overly harsh:

http://i40.*******.com/f5c7qo.png
I don't like the idea of using the old pokemon as a base for a mega, since they've usually got slightly different physiologies. Garchomp can maybe get away with it though.

The edits on this are a little sloppy though. If you're going to save yourself some effort using a base, don't be afraid in putting more effort into the edits. Garchomps fins are not the same size and shape as megachomps scythes for example, and its head is quite different.

http://i43.*******.com/e6606g.png
You've got some weird photoshop effect here, which pixel art shouldn't have. It puts it way over 16 colours. It's also too cute and natural looking; Xerneas may be a deer and the embodiment of life, but it stands there very rigidly and regally, and almost looks alien up close.

BW sprites are almost all 96*96 with 15 colours + 1 transparent colour, but Kyurem-W is allowed to be larger so I think Xerneas can get away with being 20 or so colours. Just don't use that glow effect.

http://i40.*******.com/k4cqax.png
This one's too wobbly. The outlines just look weird, but I don't think I can get more specific.

ezimba13269337554900.gif

It looks a little large but its probably fine. You have a problem with the bottom black outlines, and I think its blue is too dark for Inkay.

http://i44.*******.com/287n390.jpg
I don't think megalucario should be an edit of regular lucario; its about a foot a little bigger then it used to be. Also lucario's BW sprite is dumb.

http://i44.*******.com/w71mxw.png
The pose its excellent, probably the best in the thread. The colours need a little work though; some shades (the blue) need more contrast, some need more (the pink).

http://i42.*******.com/mlnl2c.png
The shading needs work and its eyes should maybe face its opponent, but otherwise this is finished, once you save it as a png and find a better image host.

I can still instantly recognise its a pixel over though.

spewpa3.png

Pokemon in BW are standing in place, but this sprite is clearly in motion as is evident from the pose and trailing powder. Take a look at its battle animation in XY

http://i43.*******.com/in65py.pnghttp://i39.*******.com/207kjex.pnghttp://i44.*******.com/2j3p5p5.pnghttp://i43.*******.com/zohtw.png
Were these saved as jpeg? Their colours are all nasty looking and they're way above 16 colours. Never save as jpeg. Ever. The same goes for all your older pieces; I can tell they were in a proper format to start but at some point they were blurred.

Dragalga needs more work, as its darkest shade looks too close to the outline. Also Dragalga in general has a stupidly large and weedy shape so it probably will never look good as a pixel over.

http://i43.*******.com/2nkm8aq.png
Pretty good, but the outline for its cloth is jaggedy and the finer details on the hilt need work.

Also, from a flavour point of view, why is it sheathed if its in battle?

ezimba13269368461400.gif

This is great. Maybe enlarge the sails and make them brighter?

ezimba16797853069400.png

It's a good sprite but its looking at the wrong angle for BW style. Compare it to pidgey or swellow and you'll see.

vivillon-meadow1.png

I don't think the sugimori art is a good base here. For one, its not looking at its opponent. Also, Vivillon's actual proportions are completely unsuited for a sprite this small, as we have a choice between body is decent sized but wings are bigger then volcorona, as it was previously, or wings are correctly sized and the body is too small to make out, as it is here. You should outright ignore the true proportions and enlarge the body quite a bit.

A more straight on pose would also make it easier to draw the various patterns; if you notice, Vivillons patterns themselves are pixel art, albeit a strange radial type of it.

http://i43.*******.com/280jexl.png
The highlights on the outlines could be darker, they're too distinct from the black. The eyes are really quite misshapen.

http://i39.*******.com/2uqdf6b.png
This is fairly decent. There's nothing immediately wrong with it, but a lot of little details could be improved. The head might want some shading, the whiskers could be more distinct from the outline, the (our) leftmost earfinger could pop out a bit more. The lower body needs quite a bit of work, none of the feet or arms have very well defined shapes.



I'll see if I can find some tutorials on picking colours, since that's a common issue here. Don't be afraid to use vibrant colours and more contrasting shades.
 
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Mew The Gato

___________
Flabebe:

http://i43.*******.com/345zwk2.png

Now, I am going to work on improving my current sprites according to Will-powered Spriter's advice before making new ones.

Mega Garchomp:

http://i43.*******.com/k145g4.png

Checked official artwork again, fixed the lower jaw, tail tips, back fin and scythes. Or at least I think so. It probably still needs work.
 
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noobiess

6 different pokemon
Yes!! AWildMew you fixed it. It is because you save your sprites as gif (I think I said at the beginning I had the same problem once but maybe I didn't came across so clear).
I am really glad you found the solution because the result is clearly visible.
The bunnelby looks amazing. It looks very clean (even though i would change some details).
Scatterbug looks also nice but the problem is that it is looking the other way.

WPS, most of your comments are right in my opinions. They where right, but as you said sounded a bit harsh. I just wanted to say to the makers that it still are great looking sprites but that it is just necessary to make the pixel perfect if we want them to be looked at as official sprites. And hopefully none of you are disencouraged and will take the comments as constructive (and know that we only want to bring out the best out of everyone)

ps: I might edit this post with some edits

EDIT:
Here is amaura with different colors:
ezimba13269368461400.gif
-->
ezimba11216353465200.gif

I tried to enlarge the sails but they just looked too long for me.
Also for inkay I changed the colors a bit:
ezimba13269337554900.gif
-->
ezimba11216377348400.gif


Flabebe: I think it looks kind of big. I should be one of the smallest pokemon around and it doesn't give me the feeling it is with that sprite. Also it looks like the perspective is from above, while this is not the case with official sprites.
 
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Mew The Gato

___________
Flabebe: I think it looks kind of big. I should be one of the smallest pokemon around and it doesn't give me the feeling it is with that sprite. Also it looks like the perspective is from above, while this is not the case with official sprites.

It is about the size of Joltik. Its body, is, at least. The flower is obviously not counted as its height, as it changes and is shown to be quite large in its 3D Model.

I made an ugly Xerneas sprite. It is more like the Embodiment of Headaches than the Embodiment of Life to me now. It would not give me that much of a headache, but it turned out too small, with too many colours...

http://i41.*******.com/2ij2koz.png

I now have to make it again from scratch. One sprite goes to waste...
 
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Sour Monster

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the comments Will-powered spriter, do you have any tips/guides? I'm new to this. ^^,
 
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Mew The Gato

___________
Really? It looks fine on mine, and on my phone. Odd! Does the Garden one look blurry? Antone else find them blurry?

It is probably due to re-sizing. If the sprite was "hardcore", then you would have to start over. Fortunately, it does not look that messy to me, so you can probably just edit the colour. And enlarge the body ever so slightly.

My third Xerneas sprite is coming along nicely. No glow this time. And I literally named the file "xerneasnightmare" because it is so... nightmarish to make it over and over.
 

Will-powered Spriter

Pokédex Complete!
It is about the size of Joltik. Its body, is, at least. The flower is obviously not counted as its height, as it changes and is shown to be quite large in its 3D Model.

I made an ugly Xerneas sprite. It is more like the Embodiment of Headaches than the Embodiment of Life to me now. It would not give me that much of a headache, but it turned out too small, with too many colours...

http://i41.*******.com/2ij2koz.png

I now have to make it again from scratch. One sprite goes to waste...

Exact sprite height isn't always a good measure for this. Joltik's sprite is from a diagonal angle: it's actual height is about from its toes to the top of its face, not the amount of pixels in its sprite.

As for Xerneas, try to thicken its limbs. Xerneas is usually quite tall and spindly but that just doesn't work at this scale. I know exactly how much of a headache he is to sprite.


Thanks for the comments Will-powered spriter, do you have any tips/guides? I'm new to this. ^^,

30 tutorials of varying skill level and relevance and one more with some advanced tips.

Anyway, I think I'll try my hand at Carbink and report back. I'll try document my methods.

Edit: Carbink and the making of:
carbink_zpsa3d2b6b8.png


method_zpsee95b639.png

Step 0:
I use GIMP (its free) and a somewhat elderly tablet, but you're fine using paint and a mouse. The only thing I use in GIMP for spriting that paint doesn't have is layers.
Anyway, I choose a fairly medium shade for the background, since a BW style sprite needs to work with dark AND light backgrounds. I copy paste in Carbink's sugimori art and his model from serebii's dex. Either would make a decent base for a pixel over but I'll draw it from scratch anyway.
I then opened veekun and searched for all pokemon that are the same height as carbink. They don't seem to vary too much, but Kriketot looks like the best mon to use as a size guide, they're similar in shape.
401.png
carbink_zpsa3d2b6b8.png

Step 1:
I draw a very rough sketch. Really rough.
Step 2:
I draw a more refined outline. For a more complicated mon you may want to draw a less rough sketch or a rough outline first, but carbink is simple enough that I can just draw the final outline now.
Step 3:
Colours! Carbink has 3 base colours that I steal from its sugi art. I then pick out shades myself, (check the tutorials) but if you're not good at that steal the rest too.
It looks like I can use the darker shades of fluff as the lighter shades of rock, so I join their colour ramp together. This isn't often doable, and can cause later problems when you recolour it as a shiny, so maybe don't try this.
You can use up to 15 colours but you don't need to have exactly 15. Leave a few gaps in case you suddenly find you need another shade.
Step 4:
I colour the outlines, and begin to refine them further. I thought the head was too big and the gems not lumpy enough.
Step 5:
I start the basic shading! At this point I realise the colours I chose don't quite work, so I'll have to tweak them.
Carbink is a lumpy rock pokemon with a fluffy bit, so shading is an important tool in defining its shape. I pay close attention to how its shaded in the sugimori art, so I can mimic the texture. This is especially crucial for the gems, since transparent things are always really weirdly shaded and I don't know how they work.
Step 6:
I make the shading more detailed and begin to work on highlights for the outlines. I add highlights to the ears, but only small ones since rock isn't shiny.
Step 7:
It looks kind of weird and oh I forgot the black outlines. I add those in, but not too many of them. My existing outline colours are quite dark already so you can't see from a distance where dark ends and black begins.
I also add more rock texture because texture is fun, and some shadows under the fluff.
Step 8: I completely redo the ears to try and make them more diamond shape, and then add the finishing touches.
Also the shiny for this has blue fluff so I make sure the highlight white and the fluff white are no longer the same colour.
Carbink seems a little large but it probably couldn't be much smaller without losing the readable detail on his face.

And now Carbink is ready to tank things and kill dragons.
 
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