Sprites that got better

Yung Dramps

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
Too much "3D bad" on that other thread. Gotta counter-balance it

toxicroak.gif

Toxicroak is the bomb in 3D. Looks like it's ready to pounce and stab you at any moment

zweilous.gif

Could just be personal preference but I really dig the slight stumbling and the two heads taking turns to bite. Really conveys the clumsy yet aggressive vibe of Zweilous much better than in Gen 5

mrmime.gif

Fucking hilarious and extremely fitting, Mr. Mime is Mr. Based in 3D
 
Motion isn't always used well...

blaziken.gif

His right leg says he wants to go forward, his stance says he is guarding or wants to step back, he's looking + "aggresively?" posing sideways, and his feet look attached to the ground when they move. So many mixed signals. Also his hair weirdly detaches from his head at sharp angles, with the two plumes looking like they want to spank him.

blaziken.gif

All forward, but still poised, and his feet and hair drift in ways neither wooden or ridiculous. Also nice that those big legs aren't awkwardly compacted into the sprite's smaller area.

crustle.gif

Looks more like he's trying to shake a martini than struggling to shoulder a huge mass of solid rock.

crustle.gif

Chilling out a bit makes this Pokemon's deal much more believable.

escavalier.gif

Escavalier can benefit a ton from movement... but not like this. Why does it have the limb motion range of a cheap transformer. Why is it moving and retracting its lances without changing the angling of the lances at all. Why is it menacingly shaking its posterior. Why.

escavalier.gif

I'd prefer more motion than this, but I'll take "gradually bracing to charge" over the sprite's situation any day.
 
:bw/mantine: -> :xy/mantine:​
I feel like the 3D model of Mantine really looks a lot more graceful than its BW sprite. The BW sprite also makes Mantine feel smaller than it is while the XY model makes it feel just right to look at in terms of its size. Honestly, the angle of the BW sprite also feels awkward to look at as it is tilted while it feels like the 3D model didn't add more to the BW sprite, but it improved Mantine's positioning as we have a better perspective of the front facing model now.
 

Magnezone's sprite bothered me as a kid. Why are the tips of its magnets red and blue in some sprites, but not others? Thankfully, the transition to 3D made this inconsistency make a bit more sense.

(skip to 2:01)
The tips of its magnets actually light up when its attacking
 
Pokémon is a case study in “animation is hard, man,” which is why I don’t rlly like focusing too much on the whole argument about whether it looks good in 3D. What’s more important is how effective it is from a scope perspective, and frankly Pokémon is a triumph in that regard. It’s also worth noting that there have been lots of tweaks made to the models+animations with each iteration to make them a little less “dead,” especially wrt the ones from XY.

That’s not to say the XY models are particularly bad though, especially given the circumstances they were made under. Creatures Inc. were on an extremely intense time crunch when that game was being developed, and they had to produce 700+ unique models with a neutral stance, a unique “shuffle” animation to break up the neutral stance a bit, and 3–5 unique attack animations while also communicating personality/weight effectively, which is a really absurd amount of work and had admittedly mixed success, at least wrt the personality bit—I suspect the animators likely put more time/care into the Pokémon they liked. Not gonna list out faves bc it’s been a v long time since I played XY, but I never thought it was ugly.

My biggest complaint with XY neutral poses was always just a lack of motion. The issue wasn’t *that* bad, especially considering the rare animations that you don’t see on the online rips, but it was noticeable nonetheless. They’re much better about this now—Pokémon move more in the places where they should move more. It was always going to have growing pains, and they’ve done a pretty good job of updating the animations and models as time’s gone on. New Pokémon seem to be largely brimming with life and personality in their animations too, for example:

:sm/crabrawler::sm/rattata-alola::sm/raticate-alola::sm/tapu-koko::ss/arctozolt::ss/falinks:

That said, some Pokémon like Typhlosion, Torkoal, Moltres, etc. were always doomed to look a bit naff just bc smoke/flames don’t work that well on cartoony 3D models. Typhlosion not being permanently alight, for example, was probably a compromise to make his neutral stance look a bit better while creating a way to add a little more interest/movement on the attack animations. Making flames look good is definitely possible but probably wasn’t that feasible on the time/money/staff budgets that Pokémon gets produced on.

/end tangent. tl;dr this game’s not ugly
 
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:bw/flygon:
Ye, just give me a second to randomly float midair. Yeah, I know I'm not gliding, just randomly there, but can I please bend the laws of gravity just this once?
:xy/flygon:
Newton Approves
:bw/charizard:
:xy/charizard:
both fine, like the xy one a bit more because its neck doesn't look snapped.
:xy/charizard-mega-y:
Great use of the wing flap in 3D, awesome.
:ss/corviknight:
Intimidating in how fast it goes into the air and the wings look like they're made of steel, but also like they can support the birb
Generally, winged things that actually flap their wings in both sprites tend to look better in 3D (also see: ruby's Mantine post)

I'd also like to use this post to send love to Carnivine, who has the same "better in fluid motion" thing
:bw/carnivine:
:xy/carnivine:
The sprite also makes Carnivine look fat and generally very odd.
 
Spr_3e_354.png

"Scuse' me I'm just gonna Eat you soul and hop around, hope I don't bother you" This spikes on his head are really unnoticeable and his eyes make him look constipated.
Spr_5b_354.png

A bit more of a puppet vibe, but his head still seems to big for his body like it should be falling over. His little thing on the back of his head, seems like paper and doesn't seem to have much mass.
banette.gif.m.1532458525

Perfection. His whole body kinda wobbles around. His head flops around a bit. head thing has mass and looks better. It has that puppet vibe like he's on strings and is dangling in the air. *mwah*


*Extra*
banette-mega.gif.m.1532458525

No words needed
 
Gleeboop said:
:bw/flygon:
Ye, just give me a second to randomly float midair. Yeah, I know I'm not gliding, just randomly there, but can I please bend the laws of gravity just this once?
:xy/flygon:
Newton Approves
Click to expand...

I always kinda liked how the wings weren't actually making it fly. Mainly because its ability is Levitate, as if it actually doesn't need the wings to fly, and they're just there. Perhaps to help keep it cool, like Scizor, since it lives in a desert. Wings that are not for flying is pretty creative.
 
Hulavuta said:
I always kinda liked how the wings weren't actually making it fly. Mainly because its ability is Levitate, as if it actually doesn't need the wings to fly, and they're just there. Perhaps to help keep it cool, like Scizor, since it lives in a desert. Wings that are not for flying is pretty creative.
Click to expand...
I've always felt like Flygon was the worst example of that ability as it has wings to fly and even does sometimes fly with its wings in its bw sprite, which is really inconsistant. Seems like it was given its ability because it can fly without regard to how.

:bw/latios:
:xy/latios:
:bw/azelf:
:xy/azelf:
:bw/bronzong:
:xy/bronzong:
Will say that 3D transition did levitate mons okay, particularly the Latis
 
Gleeboop said:
:bw/latios:
:xy/latios:
:bw/azelf:
:xy/azelf:
:bw/bronzong:
:xy/bronzong:
Will say that 3D transition did levitate mons okay, particularly the Latis
Click to expand...
I actually dislike all of these transitions, Latios in the sprite looks much faster and more active because it’s supposed to be based on a fighter jet, the move to 3D loses all of its activity and has it float there. Azelf as well, the sprite does a much better job of displaying its speed than the model does. Bronzong I dislike the most because it’s a fucking bell and in the sprite it swings side to side like a real bell does, which is really cool. In 3D it just floats there and loses all of its character.
 
crawdaunt.gif

why is it wearing a skirt. why is it trying to politely bow to trainer-senpai but failing.


crawdaunt.gif

A better angle means hind limbs + tail don't look like a skirt anymore! Color palette is washed out, but I like that better here. Crawdaunt is a rough scrapper fiercely clinging to its probably polluted territory, and the sprite's colors look spray-painted. Shoutouts to the cheerily-menacing rocking, his claws are ready to party after/while they're tearing through your Pokemon's flesh.


lairon.gif

body construction and pose/animation say "im an overweight dog with metal spikes"

lairon.gif

angle makes a big difference again. here we have a snout with the penetrating force of a steam drill + a metaphorical (and literal?) mountain of raw power in the trunk ready to power it. please sign me up.


metagross.gif

why do the legs pulsate in and out like the mon is doing horizontal squats. the sequence of feet stepping is admittedly cool but also a bit cheesy. the main body looks awkwardly squat.

metagross.gif

Its leg construction echoes the horrifying cross between an enormous spider and support beams for a rocket launch site. Like Blaziken, the larger space to work with helps a lot, but probably even more here, giving a novel and terrifying sense of identity to the mon that lets its "computeriness" shine. Don't think this mon "ought" to move, it's already calculated your guaranteed and painful death, its just waiting for you (yes, you) to step forward like the bumbling idiot you are, you bumbling idiot.


rampardos.gif

Yo, I couldn't decide whether it should rear up for a headbutt or not, so I went with the worst middle option. Also I gave it a smile and a little arm dance because it's happy :)

rampardos.gif

Wish they did some more here, but the smile is fixed, the silliness of the arms looks like purposeful uselessness now, and the tail mercifully goes side-to-side like tails do. The left knee spike bothers me, but I look back at the sprite and its stomach between the knee spikes looks just awkwardly distended, so I'll give the model a pass here.
 
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