CAP 13 CAP 2 - Sprite Submissions

[Rising_Dusk]

This thread is for the submission of sprites for CAP 2. As much as the art is critical to what makes our Pokemon a real Pokemon, the sprite is what makes it an entity to contend with on the battle server in the playtest. Many battlers will identify with a CAP based on its sprite, so this is in every way as important as the art design itself. Keep that in mind as you develop these sprite sheets!

As an aside that is pretty important to note, I'd like CAP 2 to be female-only! This means that you needn't make male variants of the sprites.

Rules:

Failure to follow the below guidelines will result in the submission being disqualified and the final submission post deleted.

• Sprites should be inspired by the winning design from the Art Poll. It does not need to be an exact rendition of every detail of the design; "artistic license" is granted to all spriters. However, drastic deviation from the selected art design is discouraged.
• All sprites (front and back) can have a maximum size of 96x96.
• All sprites (front and back) must have a complete, unbroken, distinguishable outline. It does not need to be a black outline, but it must be clearly distinguishable from the adjacent interior colors of the sprite.
• No action effects, move effects, environment effects or additional objects can be rendered on or around the pokemon.
• Sprites must be in PNG format.
• Use 8-bit truecolor (aka 8-bit RGB) or less. This does NOT mean 256 color mode.
• Use transparent backgrounds.
• Fusions of other sprites are not allowed. All sprites must be scratch sprites.
• Do not alter, fuse, recolor or otherwise modify another spriter's submission unless the original artist explicitly gives permission.
• All sprites (front and back) must use roughly the same size and pose when compared to each other.

Sprite submissions for the sprite poll will be selected by the Topic Leader, based on preference and feedback in this thread. There is no process for overturning the Topic Leader's decision. If you are not comfortable with this stipulation, then do not make a sprite submission. Do not post any complaints here or in later threads.

There are 8 possible sprites:

• Front Normal Male
• Front Normal Female
• Front Shiny Male
• Front Shiny Female
• Back Normal Male
• Back Normal Female
• Back Shiny Male
• Back Shiny Female

In most cases, spriters submit a Front Normal sprite first. Once feedback comes in and the poll nears, they make the other sprites. Animations are not required and will not be used as part of the final product; however, it does add to the "appeal" aspect of your submission. You do not have to make different Male and Female sprites. Since there are only minute differences between most in-game male and female sprites, it’s not very hard to tweak the sprite for a different gender. Some spriters have made noticeable changes between genders, which is also fine. Shinies are just recolors, so that shouldn't pose too much issue.

Please look at your transparent sprites against different colored backgrounds, not just white. In Pokemon Online, the sprite will be displayed on multiple background colors in the Team Builder and in battle.

Most importantly, have fun! Good luck to all spriters!

CAP 2 thus far:

Concept: Sketch Artist

Description: A Pokemon that learns Sketch, once, and everything that goes along with that.

Justification:

In terms of uniqueness, I think that few existing Pokemon can match DPP Smeargle, an otherwise laughably worthless Pokemon trolling OU with access to every trick in the book (or at least 4 of them) but also affecting the metagame greatly by becoming a top threat in the lead metagame. This Pokemon will borrow some of that uniqueness by learning the move Sketch and thus having access to ONE surprise/strategic/gutshot bonus move to supplement its pre-existing movepool. Being otherwise competently built (read: usable stats), this Poke could be a top threat or specialist for reasons we can't even predict yet.

Questions To Be Answered:

• How will a Poke that has access to any one move out of all the moves in the game affect common battling tactics, namely prediction, scouting, and switching?
• Which Sketch moves will become most common on this Poke's best sets? Does Sketchmon's success rely on hiding that secret Sketch move until just the right moment or can it succeed with predictably powerful moves like Spore, Spikes, Hurricane, Shell Smash, etc.?
• Does this unique and powerful access to moves need to be counterbalanced elsewhere in the Pokemon's design? If so, then to what degree?
• What kind of impact can Sketchmon have on teambuilding in terms of being able to patch holes with common utility moves like Rapid Spin or Toxic Spikes?

Explanation: The key here is that we have a lot of freedom to construct a unique Pokemon while staying within the confines of the concept. Typing, stats, abilities, and even most of the movepool are completely fair game so long as the Poke learns Sketch only once along the way and that we keep that in mind during previous steps. Now, this doesn't mean the CAP process will be directionless; Rising Dusk is pretty well organized and good at keeping discussions focused, and the concept itself has firm grounding in Smeargle's precedent. What's really being studied with this concept is movepool diversity and effectiveness, so it should have the most effect on the movepool process, where movepool creators will have to carefully balance their Sketchmon's actual movepool with the possibility of adding any one other move to the list. In terms of the metagame, there is no doubt in my mind that throwing a wildcard like this into the mix will strongly affect the metagame.

Focus: Bulky Offense
Typing: Grass / Ghost
Stats: 64 HP / 120 Atk / 100 Def / 85 SpA / 120 SpD / 81 Spe
Ability: No Competitive Ability
Primary Checks: Heatran, Jirachi, Skarmory, Hydreigon

tl;dr: Quack! (Sprites sure are pretty!)

 

[Wyverii]

First draft of miko. Obviously not final version but I'm happy with how the head and plant part came out. Will probably redo the lower body and see what I can do about those eyes on the face.

Edit: Added shinies to eyes and fixed dress via irc feedback. May be final front barring some small tweaks or if someone catches something.

 

[Asylum_Rhapsody]

There are 8 possible sprites:

• Front Normal Male
• Front Normal Female
• Front Shiny Male
• Front Shiny Female
• Back Normal Male
• Back Normal Female
• Back Shiny Male
• Back Shiny Female

Wait, so there are going to male versions of this Pokemon? Don't get me wrong, I personally abhor the idea that any Pokemon "should" be mono-sexed just because it "looks feminine" or "looks masculine" because such a notion most often reeks of sexism to me, so I would be very happy with the decision to allow both a male and female version of this Pokemon. It's just that I just thought that you had said that you wanted this to be a mono-sex Pokemon (for reasons that were never actually made clear as far as I know, but that's besides the point), and I know that you're the one in charge of deciding that, so I'm just looking for clarification.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

The keyword there is "possible". It is not required. In-fact, I personally think it should definitely be female only and would like to request of the spriters that it be female only. I am required as the TL to list the rules for the stage, which includes listing and describing all possible sprites.

 

[Kyuzeth]

So actually, there'd be only four sprites, since it is ♀-only.

 

[Quanyails]

Well, I'm a pixel artist through and through, so I decided to try this out. Relatively simple sprite, since B/W sprites aren't all that dynamic in pose.

Small version of my original drawing; 83x92 compared to the original of 90x94.

I'll take suggestions on if the sprite doesn't match the game's style, and what I can do to fix that; is that 8-bit truecolor criterion satisfied?

Edit: Made the back vine darker, as suggested of Mos Quixote on IRC, and lightened the main color. Might recolor it if people suggest it.
Edit 2: Added draft of shiny sprites.

 

[Kyuzeth]

Looking really nice, Quan! Nice shading, especially.

 

[canno]

I really don't like how the arms cam out, but meh. I'll have to try to fix it later.

EDIT: Fix'd minor problem with the background

 

[MektarTheOverlord]

Ka-Boom

Ok, here's some explanation as to what I did:

-As I'm not the most skilled spriter here by a long shot, I kept the pose basic to minimize sloppyness, just a simple wave hello
-I never imagined this 'mon to be more that 3 feet tall, so I kept the sprite small
-I also tried to maintain the proportions between the body parts, resulting in a possibly-too-small head
-As a result, I had to remove a few minor details, namely the red spikes on the arms and the dots of red on the head because they looked weird.
-I plucked most of the colors directly from the art so let me know if that's illegal, and I'll change them.

C&C greatly appreciated!

 

[Weebos]

I'm sorry if I'm out of line with my suggestion, but wouldn't t be pertinent to the spriting process to include the supporting art in the main post?

 

[Luigifan]

Where is the supporting art anyways?

 

[Solstice]

First draft of miko. Obviously not final version but I'm happy with how the head and plant part came out. Will probably redo the lower body and see what I can do about those eyes on the face.

Edit: Added shinies to eyes and fixed dress via irc feedback. May be final front barring some small tweaks or if someone catches something.

I love this, its a sublime sprite. The only realy critique I have is that when I look at the fangs on the dress I see them as stitches because they dont have an evident alterating point. The eyes on the dress are also a little small, its hard to determine what they are. But the top half is perfect.

 

[SilvanRaptor]

so i have my line art done. I'll most likely make the arm thats behind larger to help balence out with the one touching the face.

I figured this pose would look more malevolent or at least more of a smirking kind of gesture.

Tell me what you think.

 

[Rising_Dusk]

I'd like to remind everyone that BW sprites use neutral poses, and that action poses, or poses that intentionally obscure parts of the body, are really not in-line with what a CAP BW sprite must be. I say this for everyone, but I think it's particularly relevant for you, Doran Dragon!

 

[SilvanRaptor]

awww

but it looks so cool ;_;

ok.

 

[Quanyails]

CAP sprite, take two; made the bottom 'dress' puffier, as suggested of Rising Dusk. I also adjusted the colors to be more in-line with the game's shading. I might need to recolor the outlines, change the brightness, etc., depending on further reception.

I know the color of the bow on the sprite's back is wrongly colored, but I haven't received a note from Yilx specifying what the exact colors are. That, too, I'll be fixing.

I'll be busy tomorrow, though I'll make do when I have the time to edit the sprite further.

 

[CTNC]

CAP sprite, take two; made the bottom 'dress' puffier, as suggested of Rising Dusk. I also adjusted the colors to be more in-line with the game's shading. I might need to recolor the outlines, change the brightness, etc., depending on further reception.

I know the color of the bow on the sprite's back is wrongly colored, but I haven't received a note from Yilx specifying what the exact colors are. That, too, I'll be fixing.

I'll be busy tomorrow, though I'll make do when I have the time to edit the sprite further.

These sprites look not only great, but nearly/completely finished, but I'd like to point out 3 things that could be changed. First, the back sprite's dress is shaded darker, I don't believe that happens in Gen 5 sprites (If it does, just not as bold) Second, I don't mean to offend you when I say this but, the shading on the front sprite makes the dress look like an umbrella. If you ment to do that I can see why and It looks okay, but it might look better if you made it more round. (again, no offense) Finaly, the eyes are looking away from the opponet. If your sprite is chosen and the eyes are looking away from the opponet we will have to give it Sucker Punch (and not through Scetch :P)

 

[SilvanRaptor]

My non-obstructing sprite! Any suggestions? Construct Crit?

 

[Rising_Dusk]

@ Quanyails

Yeah I think the shading needs some work Quan. Dithering really isn't what is needed for the dress because it suggests a texture that it just doesn't have. I think to keep it in-line with in-game sprites, I'd recommend using a flat color for the entire front dress and only shade the accents along the bottom of the dress with darker colors. Then I'd shade the parts of the dress that appear to be behind, as if the light source is coming from bottom-left.

Also, I noticed you're using 34 colors for your sprite. I think you could probably achieve a much closer-to-in-game look if you shaved off a lot of those (like the very light purple tones you used on the dress).

Other than those things, the dress looks WAY better now than it did, and I think it's coming along great.

@ Doran Dragon

I think it is a good sprite, but it's very large. It takes up the entire 96 pixel vertical height, which is pretty strange for a Pokemon of this stature. In-game, only the absolute largest Pokemon use the entire vertical height. Lastly, I think the head is very large relative to the dress in your sprite. I understand that the details of the face are tricky to get in, but if you could shrink the head back to proportion, I think that'd be a huge improvement. I think what causes this is that you made the head and body so large that you had to shrink the dress in order to fit it in the canvas size. I think if you scaled the body and head down a bit and then made the dress better, you'd capture the concept more successfully. Good luck!

 

[SilvanRaptor]

Ok, I reduced the size by quite a bit. I dont think I can reduce it anymore though...

 

[Rising_Dusk]

No, I don't think you'd want to. Just by fixing the size, you also fixed the proportions of the head and the body; it looks proportionally sound now, good job. That's about as much feedback as I can provide you in its current form.

 

[Wyverii]

Took on board some critique and made a little potential shiny sprite.

Changes include: widening of the hood, thickening of the vine near the back, alterations to teeth all around the body, arm sleeve puffed out some more, larger and hopefully clearer eyes on dress, better curve on dress and changed some shades. Total colour count: 12.

The shiny itself is rather simple. Blue for it's opposite with red and with some nice contrast from the reddish dress and a muted 'dead' green for the plant. White didn't change since that shares the palette with teeth and eyes and there's precident for that in the games, like Swanna.

When front is completely finalised I will provide full and seperated out parts to the sprite for animation use. It's almost impossible to have nothing obscured in a sprite like this so it's a good thing to do. I urge other artists to do the same even if you're planning to do animation yourself.

Background colour and gen' 5 Pokémon consistency

Quick background test using mspaint defaults. Testing your sprite against a varity of different backgrounds is a good thing! It's normally only the outline that accounts for this so focus on that if there's problems. Also to other artists, don't worry too much if your sprite struggles on pure black, a lot of the official ones do too and it'll never need to be used on such a dark background.

And a check against other Pokémon sprites. It's a little big in general but seems to fit in okay against sprites of similar complexity. The pose also does fine thankfully. (note, this is the smallest I can personally get the sprite without losing detail on the head.)

 

[Cherub Agent]

Took on board some critique and made a little potential shiny sprite.

Changes include: widening of the hood, thickening of the vine near the back, alterations to teeth all around the body, arm sleeve puffed out some more, larger and hopefully clearer eyes on dress, better curve on dress and changed some shades. Total colour count: 12.

The shiny itself is rather simple. Blue for it's opposite with red and with some nice contrast from the reddish dress and a muted 'dead' green for the plant. White didn't change since that shares the palette with teeth and eyes and there's precident for that in the games, like Swanna.

When front is completely finalised I will provide full and seperated out parts to the sprite for animation use. It's almost impossible to have nothing obscured in a sprite like this so it's a good thing to do. I urge other artists to do the same.

Background colour and gen' 5 Pokémon consistency

Quick background test using mspaint defaults. Testing your sprite against a varity of different backgrounds is a good thing! It's normally only the outline that accounts for this so focus on that if there's problems. Also to other artists, don't worry too much if your sprite struggles on pure black, a lot of the official ones do too and it'll never need to be used on such a dark background.

And a check against other Pokémon sprites. It's a little big in general but seems to fit in okay against sprites of similar complexity. The pose also does fine thankfully. (note, this is the smallest I can personally get the sprite without losing detail on the head.)

they look phenomenal :D

Great job with the more pronounced fangs on the dress

 

[Quanyails]

CTNC: Shading style, perhaps; I was recommended to make the dress poofier, and that's how I interpreted it. I could tone it down more. As for the discrepancies in the backsprite's shading; I'm using less highlight and more shadow. I could use less shadow, and though that puts me a little off for shading in general, I'll change it if it's for the sake of the game's style.

Oh, yeah; the eyes are correct; those light spots are highlights, not whites, if that's what you're thinking.

Rising_Dusk: I only dithered at the bottom of the dress on the backsprite. Maybe you mean to say those shaded pixels that aren't attached smoothly to others?

34 seems a bit large; I'd guess you're counting both normal and shiny colorations. Even so, I should have less than 17 for both, unless I accidentally slipped a pixel of a different color in there somewhere.

So in general, simplify my shading more. (Ah, curse my deviation from the game's style!)

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

Heya people, it's ICC. I hope at least one or two of you remember me.
Anyway, while Wyverii's sprite gave me a fatal shock, I did manage to produce something with my final breath.

Just a rough draft though. Wanted to check with the size and pose and everything else first.
I'm aware that it's quite small but Pokemon sprites nowadays never really touch the 96x96 frame.

EDIT: or this could work too.