Sticky X/Y Sprite Project

Typhlito

One Active Dawg
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Heliolisk was easier to animate than I thought! This guy was also funner to animate than I thought. Couldnt ask for a better combo. n_n

heliolisk-front2.gif

I know you said that the mouth was a no go but I made him open his mouth anyway. His head being tilted upwards helps me pull this off since it gives me the excuse to say that the angle hides his tongue. I didnt make his frills rise up as high as when I first imagined but I do feel that its high enough. If I made the frills any higher, it might look weird. Finally, you probably noticed that it loops its regular animation much more often compared to other animations. (helio loops 6 times while the standard is 3) Well this is because after looking at zebstrika and blitzle again, I noticed that both loop 6 times as well before looping into their rare animation.

Anyway, I'll start on the back now.

Edit: Helio is fixed up even more thanks to pom's comments. Thanks fren :]
 
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I am not sure how many of you realize the insane dedication that princessofmusic has to what is really this little project. Not many of you realize that she and I talk every day if not every other day on one sprite or another, or how the progress of this and that is doing. There are multiple things going on in that update that because she is the incredible perfectionist that she left her to post these all three days before leaving for her vacation. With all that she also finds time to pass critique to multiple spriters here so that they end up posting essentially perfect 'finished sprites' (you can see her advise in all of them), along with doing things like fixing some of these pesky animations. I had totally forgotten about Spritzee and the missing hair tuft on the back animation and she went in and edited it all to ensure it was included.

I say this with no doubt this project would be nowhere without princessofmusic, and we all need to show some love and like that amazing update post because I know for a fact that last month she was still at it while her index finger was swollen to the size of a plum. There is nothing stopping her, even when I say she shouldn't bother with something that might be way too much work she goes ahead and does it because she is the dang co-director and she will not rest until this entire thing is perfect. Soon it shall be too.

So enjoy that vacation now ok

EDIT: Also the skype log that the two of us share is 278+ pages when used with Times New Roman 12 point font.
I know I've only contributed very little, but during the time I've spent receiving criticism after criticism from princessofmusic, and looking over her contributions to this project, I can safely say that I have never doubted her faith in the project. Reading that hit a vibe in me that made me feel a little guilty for not living up to her expectations (and Layell's)... but alas, I am but a mere rookie in this, knowing little and unworthy to be in the presence of such caliber.

I digress. No update this time; been out taking care of college crap and whatnot, so really the only time I've accessed the Internet was through an IRC client on my phone or to research as I was moving around, so I apologize. I'll try to fit Mega Pinsir into my schedule, but I won't be expecting a high frequency of updates as I have before. Again, I apologize.

princessofmusic I know this might sound tacky coming from my mouth, but I can't help but say Thanks - for your committment, for your help, and for your time. Enjoy your vacation. I don't think you need to hear from me how great your sprites look.
 

-----NEW --------OLD-----

Man, have I been working my ass off on this QC. Took me a good 130 minutes or so. I closely referenced the official artwork for the new rendition, here's a changelog:
- Leaf crest now more resembles that of Sugimori art
- Seed position and red ridge (including red tail segment) have been fixed
- Its arms have been made thinner to correspond more with the Sugiart (it really has thin arms, +40 Special Attack confirmed)
- Applied the 'cuts' in the arm leaves for as far as possible
- Neck is one pixel longer (it's got a long neck than one'd expect, but it IS taller than regular Sceptile (5'07"), standing at 6'03")
- Much thinner frame (the old one was too bulky), since Sceptile is, has been and will forever be a frail bastard
- More Special Defense, less Speed. Because fuck yes.

I hope I've at least made a useful contribution. I know it's still quite a ways away from perfect, but I'd love to work more on it. Thanks for taking the time to look and please provide some feedback - it's what keeps us artists going, after all!

Music played during most of this QC: Dusk Forest (Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky)
I'm really loving how the Mega Sceptile sprite is evolving. The bushier "X" across its chest really makes quite a difference.

Speaking of Mega Sceptile, I've done some tinkering around with its back sprite. Still a very heavy W.I.P. of course.

*DISCLAIMER* The sprite is only rotated this way because it's easier for me to keep track of where everything is supposed to go.

I think his tail is a tad too large for what it should be compared to its front sprite, so that will have to be fixed. The height I have Sceptile at is just a placeholder at the moment as well. I don't know if his head is rotated enough, though I think from this perspective that it would line up. Though anatomy isn't my expertise. I included the parts I've made thus far so that people are free to experiment with it. I've found that this is a pretty good reference photo to go off of in terms of design:
 
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TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
Good job on the updates, Kyuzeth, they are really outstanding. As much as you said to avoid doing the backsprite now until we get more info on that area. But I desided to apply your changes onto the backsprite. If anyone wants to see me make those for feedback I'll be showing it here.

Edit: well crap, I had this typed out but forgot to post it. So it was posted right after Cynical posted his.

Your version is good. but needs a lot of work. I'll try to mess around with it along with making my own.
 
Have some shading and feather fixing for Hawlucha. Also changed the colors around a tad since you guys said you wanted to make the shinies as simple as a palette swap. I've included the shiny I guess to demonstrate its palette swappable-ness.


If there's still some things that need to be fixed or improved upon, I'd appreciate it if anyone would let me know. Even if it is as pedantic as something as one pixel out of place. I don't care, if something irks you then tell me. x]

This will be all I'm doing tonight...I need to get to bed. Goodnight!
 
Update on Mega Sceptile!

*NOTICE* The palette on the Mega Sceptile's front sprite was one color over the limit. This sprite has fixed that error.

Anyways, I've completed my first WIP on Mega Sceptile's back sprite. I've shortened the tail slightly from my original posting, flipped the sprite to match the direction he'd face, added his other leg and arm, placed the bulbs on his back, and made sure to make both the front and back sprites the same height and width, being 87x96. I also fixed up some of the shading on the "X" bush. Being that this is a back sprite, the shading is going to have to be altered so it can match other back sprites. As for now, I figured this was a good place to leave off.
 
Update on Mega Sceptile!

*NOTICE* The pallet on the Mega Sceptile's front sprite was one color over the limit. This sprite has fixed that error.

Anyways, I've completed my first WIP on Mega Sceptile's back sprite. I've shortened the tail slightly from my original posting, flipped the sprite to match the direction he'd face, added his other leg and arm, placed the bulbs on his back, and made sure to make both the front and back sprites the same height and width, being 87x96. I also fixed up some of the shading on the "X" bush. Being that this is a back sprite, the shading is going to have to be altered so it can match other back sprites. As for now, I figured this was a good place to leave off.
Mainly just a nitpick, but Sceptile's expression differs on its back sprite from that on its front sprite...ever-so slightly. I would turn up the corners of the mouth on the back sprite of Sceptile so that the expression will remain, since the back sprite is meant to be as parallel to the front sprite as it can reasonably be. :> Also on the back sprite, there's an awkward indentation on its belly stripe. Its eyes are also a bit bigger on the back sprite than the front one. I like the bigger eyes, but make sure to try to make it consistent...though I'm not sure if you should go for the smaller or slightly bigger version of its visible eye. I'd reference off of the official Sceptile sprites and/or try both and see which one looks best.

Oh, and don't forget the back sprite's shading! Light is hitting the left-front-ish of both sprites, therefore most of Sceptile on its back sprite should be overshadowed. Think that the light source is right above and between the two Pokemon facing each other, battling. Its backside (which is what this Sceptile is showing to the opponent) faces the light more, while its frontside (what it's concealing from the opponent) faces the light much less and therefore receives more shadow.

I really enjoy the foreshortening on the back sprite's tail, though. You pulled that off very well. :]
 
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TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
Oh wow, that back sprite is so much neater than the complete mess I made xD
I'll take it on the shading though, that seems to be my favorite part lol. I will say that the red pointed part looks odd and smaller than it should be.
 
Oh wow, that back sprite is so much neater than the complete mess I made xD
I'll take it on the shading though, that seems to be my favorite part lol. I will say that the red pointed part looks odd and smaller than it should be.
It's mainly smaller because of foreshortening, but I agree that it could be a pixel or so taller.
 

TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
OKAY FINALLY DONE. I have been working my butt all day on these sceptile sprites and none of them seem to work, also I lost the work on them. I decided to edit Cynical's sprites though cause of how lovely they look, I would also like the thank Cynical for watching the stream helping me out with feedback when I was creating my version of the backsprite.
well here are the edited versions of Cynical's edits. on the back sprite i made a longer red point by one pixel, added obvious shading. I forgot what I did to the front sprite with no possible at all cause I am exhausted from working on both my own and these edits. I think we are almost done on these and I can assume we are ready to shiny them for the pallets or animation. If I do happen to make more edits of this sprite I will add more. I think I need to fix the neck. Please tell me if you are editing them so I know top update this picture.
I will also like to thank everyone that is working on these awesome sprites. This project and sprite in particular has been helping me at my own art and spiriting.
 
Really good work on the backsprite, TrainerSplash and The Cynical Poet. Aside from a few possible fixes we may have to make, I believe our collaborative efforts on Mega Sceptile's backsprites have definitely paid off. I'm really glad to know my edits were helpful in the long run and am intent on contributing more to this project. It's really a great experience cooperating with all of you.

MAJOR EDIT:


I've done some major QC on the backsprite. Once again, I'll list the changelog:
  • Made the arms thinner
  • Altered the tail's point to fit in the 96x96 canvas, but retain its length
  • Massive overhaul on the leaf crest:
    • The crest is now thicker
    • It's been placed several pixels down
    • Neck is now longer (this thing has a really long neck)
  • Fixed the arm leaves in terms of length and sharpness
  • Thinner abdomen, red stripe moved up one pixel overall
  • Removed one unnecessary shade to make the palette 16 colors including transparency
I hope the edits are noticeable. Took me another good hour and a lot of scratching work, but I'm pretty satisfied with the results myself.

EDIT II:

Here's another version of the backsprite, now with a mostly fixed chest bush. I've had trouble doing the upper-left (viewer's point) leaves, so if anyone knows how to fix that, that'd be awesome.

EDIT III:

Fixed the top-left leaves once again.

Tschüss!
 
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TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
great job on the edits Kyuzeth, you did a wonderful job. on the new chest, something is bothering me, but it might be how the middle of it looks like a spike sorta, also the edits done to that need to be placed on the backsprite. the curved tip also looks awkward on my side but that's just me.
As for the faces we have to do something about that eye on the front sprite. I think we can all agree that the face on the back and front sprites needs some rearranging and that the eye on back is really good and should be applied to the front sprite.
As said before, it looks like that we are almost done. I think we are almost ready to animate. Once the animation is done, I'll start working on the shiny if it's shown by then.
 
Well, here to give everyone a visual break from Mega Sceptile for a bit and to show the world what I'm working on.
Smash Man
New_________Old_________


PoM was bugging me to fix up this guy before she left, since I might very well be the only person here who likes Barbaracle as a Pokemon, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Mainly decided to post only the front today since I feel the back will probably not be finished by tonight, so I figured it'd be better to post this now to get it out of the way.

Also, I find it somewhat ironic that the one Pokemon that looks the most like a Megaman boss wasn't designed by the Megaman Manga artist who designed Tyrantrum, Aurorus, Malamar, Aegislash and Pangoro from the same generation. Maybe it was an injoke between him and Sugimori? Meh, w/e.
-All Outlines have been cleaned up, sharpened, completed, etc, especially where the rock is concerned.
-Added more detailed shading to the chest rock.
-Claws are fuller in general. This includes creating more subtle split lines in each hand's middle claw, and occasionally omitting the split due to it being nearly unnoticeable from this angle.
-Left hand turned since it was weirdly bent before and both hands are now in the neutral position. (Based off of the in-game model's neutral position.)
-Face generally cleaned up; much of the outline that was mucking it up earlier has been removed.
-Hand faces have generally been remade, since they looked less angry and more vacant before.
-Legs no longer have outlines visibly separating the stripes, since it created a divide where the existing colors did it well enough before.
-Feet are no longer flat. You're welcome PoM. +)
Anyway, expect edits to the backsprite to come up within the next day or so, targeting much of the same issues listed above. +)

TrainerSplash I wouldn't worry about animation for the time being. I imagine that Layell and PoM would probably prefer we finish up with the XY 'mons before moving onto ORAS, especially since once we get ahold of the full models, we might find that there are still some edits we need to make before finalizing them. But between you, Kyuzeth and The Cynical Poet , you guys have made great progress on Mega Sceptile. I'll give it a more thorough look-over and comment on it later when I have more time, but color me impressed. +)

Speed-X You bring up a good point with the outline. I was using the old colors for Barbara here, but I'll fix the outline colors before posting up the back sprite.
 
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great job on the edits Kyuzeth, you did a wonderful job. on the new chest, something is bothering me, but it might be how the middle of it looks like a spike sorta, also the edits done to that need to be placed on the backsprite. the curved tip also looks awkward on my side but that's just me.
As for the faces we have to do something about that eye on the front sprite. I think we can all agree that the face on the back and front sprites needs some rearranging and that the eye on back is really good and should be applied to the front sprite.
As said before, it looks like that we are almost done. I think we are almost ready to animate. Once the animation is done, I'll start working on the shiny if it's shown by then.
Thanks, man! I've done one more fix on the backsprite that I've just posted, so feel free to check it out. BTW, the chest leaves simply have a different perspective on the back compared to the front, so I'd say those leaves are pretty okay. As for the frontsprite's eye, I tried to make it look like it's eyeing its opponent, but perhaps the pixel should be in the front corner of the eye just like the backsprite. What I was personally thinking of, was to make the head crest somewhat larger, since it's always appeared a bit small on the sprites.
Well, here to give everyone a visual break from Mega Sceptile for a bit and to show the world what I'm working on.
Smash Man
New_________Old_________


TrainerSplash I wouldn't worry about animation for the time being. I imagine that Layell and PoM would probably prefer we finish up with the XY 'mons before moving onto ORAS, especially since once we get ahold of the full models, we might find that there are still some edits we need to make before finalizing them. But between you, Kyuzeth and The Cynical Poet , you guys have made great progress on Mega Sceptile. I'll give it a more thorough look-over and comment on it later when I have more time, but color me impressed. +)
Barbaracle looks great, man. Solid spriting as always. Thanks for the kind words, by the way! I wonder what The Cynical Poet and TrainerSplash think of it, but I personally think we've done a great job. Of course, there's still more to do and the more we remark, the better the sprite will become!
 
That Barbaracle looks awesometastic. However I think the darkest gray color could try to be darkened some more...a little. With whites, you want to make sure that the darkest gray for white outlines has plenty of contrast from the white itself. This is to help it translate on darker backgrounds better as well as the lighter ones.

Just a general tip for anyone whom it may concern: BW sprites are mostly optimized for both light and dark backgrounds. Make sure that when you're done with a sprite to check out how well it shows up on a darker background, since I'm sure a lot of you do your work against a light background color. I do as well, but just make sure to do a little check after youre finished making or editing the sprite to make it show up on darker backgrounds that much better.

While I dont think showdown uses exceptionally dark backgrounds, this is pretty much always a good habit to have when you're making sprites for almost any type of game.

Mega Sceptile is also looking awesome, but again the lines / area of the belly right against the red stripe is jagged / looks awkward. The dark green line is hugging the dark red line (banding).
 
I think Goomy's outlines and mouth should be adjusted to look more like the other two's sprites. Compare their mouths, Goomy's black and the others a lighter purple. They look very different. I know it may have something to do with it being animated, but I think it should be fixed.
 
Well, after a couple of hours of staring at the amazing work that both TrainerSplash and Kyuzeth have done, I decided to tinker with Mega Sceptile more.

The top is the update

The bottom is the original.

I decided I wanted to give Mega Sceptile's tail a bit of a makeover. They say don't mess with something that isn't broken, but I was displeased with the spike-like tail on the original that I had made, especially the top of the tail on the front sprite. So I decided to make Sceptile's tail more bush-like. Also, Speed-X, I'm not sure if I fixed what irked you on the sprite, but I think I might have made it a bit better.

Anyways, what do you guys think? Go with the bushier look and improve upon it? Or stick with the spikes?
 

Typhlito

One Active Dawg
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The head on the front sprite still bothers me. When you take a closer look, it's head doesnt match up with its back sprite. I think its turning its head too far compared to the back sprite. The longer neck helped but it should still be fixed.

As for the tail, I think I'll have to go with the original since the tail is spikey. Not bushy. However, both have the wrong number of bush spikes. I counted 8 spikes on the model. The original sprite has 6 while that updated one has 9. (was adding it up from their front sprite) Also, I do think the red tip on the back sprite should probably be a little bigger so that it could be a bit more refined. Its well refined in the front sprite but not in the back. Hope this helps!
 
If we consider Mega Sceptile an owl, then all of the head issues are solved. I've experimented a bit with Sceptile's head position, but to no avail. I'll continue to try, though.

As for the tail's amount of spikes, you're right. I completely disregarded that M. Sceptile has a distinct amount of spikes. I'll actually go to work on that right now. :D
 

TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
great job aXl on your Barbaracle. many great improvements were obviously made. I can't find anything that i find wrong but I will say when I do.
As for MSecpt update, you also did a good job. I like the new tail, make sure you do a similar fashion when you make the correct number. I still think we need to do something about the front sprite head, it looks like it was snapped.
If anyone makes a base head to use, than I'll add the little details for it such as the holes on top and the face expression. But I think the part that makes it look so drastically different is the eye. I tried making it similar to the back sprite but the head it too small. we need a bigger face canvas.

As something not related to Mega sceptile. I'm starting on another awesome sprite for this. That sprite is Mega Metagross, I'll give an update on it when I go to bed in an hour or so.
 
Let's see if Blaziken is a-okay, now. Added the shiny out of habit.


I'm not the best with flames, but I tried to mimic Sugi's Mega Blaziken artwork. Lemme know if anyone has any nitpicks or pointers.
 
I think I got Mega Sceptile's tail right this time!



I had been looking at the leaves on M. Sceptile's model in the wrong way. They're neither blades nor random bushes, but sets of two rounded leaves. So, I took inspiration from the original Sceptile sprite and mimicked its shape. There's also the correct amount of leaves now, any extra you see are the outlines to the opposite row of leaves. Finally, I extended the red tip on the back sprite so it's more detailed now. I haven't gotten to the head yet, though. Anyone can feel free to attempt shifting Sceptile's head position.
 

TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
Great job Cynical, but I can't tell if you're talking about just the tail or the tail and leaf hands. We should probably work on the leaf hands though as the red ones should be longer than the green ones. The tail looks perfect but a little too tall towards the red part on the top front sprite.

As for my Megagross here is my starting so far. Pieces and history of how I made them are on the right. current product on the left.
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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Hmm ok a few things.

Typhlito I'm not sure the tail on Helio is the best it could be, I find that most BW animations tend to just wave the tail as a person might wave a protest sign.



I am fine with mostly everything else but idk the tail is a bit weird for me. Just because the tail doesn't move that way in the games doesn't mean it cannot be moved that way. We don't see the same level of movement on Pokemon like those in their xy models either.

Sceptile is looking fine, I will of course not go into animating it or anything until I see the shiny in ORAS and have seen the model up close.

I also asked axl to fix my mega swampert lineart a bit regarding fins and spikes but then he went and finished most of it oh well



There is a clear orange difference in reference photos so I am fine with that part, we don't have good enough back references. I learned from XY pre-release I'm not going to touch backs if I'm not confident I have enough references. Also just to be clear I am certainly interested in getting the ORAS fronts all completed well before release. PS will need that, and ideally we complete fronts for all pre-release ones before the giant leaks occur.
 
I think I got Mega Sceptile's tail right this time!



I had been looking at the leaves on M. Sceptile's model in the wrong way. They're neither blades nor random bushes, but sets of two rounded leaves. So, I took inspiration from the original Sceptile sprite and mimicked its shape. There's also the correct amount of leaves now, any extra you see are the outlines to the opposite row of leaves. Finally, I extended the red tip on the back sprite so it's more detailed now. I haven't gotten to the head yet, though. Anyone can feel free to attempt shifting Sceptile's head position.
Great job on the tail! You're definitely right on the amount of leaves, but the more they advance to the tip, the more and more narrow they become. The original tails did have this, but this version doesn't, sadly.
A final note about the tail: After comparing the sprite to the Sugiart, I feel like the red tip at the end of Mega Sceptile's tail is too short on the backsprite, so either the tail needs to be bent a bit more or we need to make the leaves smaller and the point larger. Not sure how we could work that out, but hey, I'm sure we can get it fixed, at least somewhat.

Here's Mega Sceptile's Sugimori artwork, for reference.

By the way, about the head, Typhlito: if the head on the frontsprite needs to be altered, then I suggest making a completely new one from scratch, since the official sprites' heads indeed look like they curve a bit too far.
 
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