My "Poki" Style

[Echo Magnum]

I've been eye-balling Pokemon sprites a lot :shock: : I noticed my small sprites lacked the cuteness Pokemon sprites have.

So I've worked on a small female template ripped over then edited from Pokemon fire red ( I think, one of the modern Pokemon games ) Here's the sprite so far ( see spoiler ). I just started about an hour ago so I'll add some hair and clothing later plus a male and female template I'm willing to share P.S Its 2k3 compatible and small enough to fit comfortably in any 2k3 template
:thumb:

Spoiler

Line Art

Colored ( Same Pallet )

 

[Echo Magnum]

Update: I tweaked it a little and came up with two different styles ( slim and chibi ), I'm not sure which looks better.... I sort of like the chibi one a little more though.
Check the spoiler, I attempted a test sprite over the template to compare with. The pallet is from game-boy advance.

Spoiler

 

[Echo Magnum]

This is the completion of my initial style. I noticed I needed more prominent feet so they don't look stubby or skinny.

Don't be afraid to check out the spoilers :thumb: .

Spoiler

I can say I'm very satisfied with this look.



Here are the old templates without color to see what I mean. Notice how the lack of feet makes them look a little wierd.



Their still kinda cute though.

and here's the final test sprite and a comparison between the last two sub-styles:





Opinions?

The difference between male and female is subtle though :huh: . I don't think this is a problem since most sprites look relatively unisex at their basic design ( without all the clothing and hair, their is not that big of a difference ).

 

[Echo Magnum]

I need help with the side view pose, I read on some forum its best to "cheat" the perspective and use a slightly more 3/4 body
I think its better to go full on side view for this kind of sprite than semi-3/4. Observing the Pokemon sprites they are also full on side view.

 

[Echo Magnum]

For some reason I couldn't edit my post :huh: , it said I dont have enough characters...wierd

anyway here's an example of a Pokemon sprite from side view.

Spoiler

I prefer this side view perspective, it matches the sprites well.

Wow, I think I'm going to be using this style a lot for my game-projects. So far its looking cute plus theirs something about small sprites that makes them so easy to work with, you don't have to worry too much about shading, anatomy, texture, dithering and a lot of other more complex sprite-stuff and they still look great.

What do you guys think about my new style? I'll be sure to fill this thread with sprites I make using these templates.

P.S hope I didn't bug you with my frequent posts and updates, I've just been really itching with excitement to finally create a style that I can be proud of :biggrin: .

 

[glorious caesar]

yeah man you totally deserve an awesome and huge feedback post. i've been a little too busy to bust open paint and give you some hardcore feedback but i plan on doing it at some point so dont feel ignored buddy :barf:

i love pokemon and i have a lot of experience spriting with that kind of characterset and i think you're headed in the right direction so far.

 

[Echo Magnum]

:biggrin: thanks a lot lucht, it always feels 10 times better when someone appreciates your efforts.

I colored in the template with the basic skin tone ( I'll do other skin tones shortly ) and made them something I call "rotation-safe" to check weather everything is in place by rotating them. I'm not to sure about the shine on the head but I think its o.k for now. I'm trying to use a limited pallet I ripped from Pokemon Fire-red sprites ( I think its the same as the GBA pallet, I'll check out Wikipedia again )

Spoiler

I'm afraid my posts will have to slow down a bit now since I'm going back to school very soon ( like in 3-4 days ) its my last year before university so I wont have enough time to sprite and post as much as I did this summer :blank: , but I will still keep this going at a steady pace :thumb: .

Also, I'm having a little trouble spriting clothes, know any techniques when it comes to small sprites lucht pecht? or anyone. The thing is its difficult to add in detail sometimes making the clothes look flat without shape. ( see my test sprites to see what I mean ). Hair also but I think I'm progressing well with shading hair from how I used to.

Thanks again... p.s I love pokemon too :biggrin:

 

[Echo Magnum]

I've attempted clothing once agiain, this is sort of a sprite replica of me in my striped blue jumper, glasses, jeans and pale orange house socks. The style is slightly different from the pokemon one ( mainly just the shape of the head and height ).

---Nude ( don't look too close )---

---Clothes---

I think I chose the color contrast fine but I could be wrong, does it have enough pop?

I sort of like both styles so I'm not sure what I should use for my project : . Any ideas?

Oh from the above post the rotation might be confusing to look at, here

Spoiler

 

[Echo Magnum]

I made the same sprite in the more chibi-pokemon-like style




Here you can clearly see the difference of both similar styles, one is more cute/chibi and cartoon the other is slightly more realistic in the sence that you can see the head-shape more and the body has a little more form. Both are good imo but its like comparing rpg maker vx rtp and xp rtp its just a matter of opinion which ones better...but I might go with this one ( the first other more proportionate one looks like it has boobs :shock: lol ).

 

[R.J.]

Looks pretty good but in my opinion you shouldn't be trying to mimick the Pokemon style of sprites

 

[Echo Magnum]

I guess your right, its better to come up with your own style but I really like the Pokemon sprite-style. Maybe I should tweak it without having any specific style in mind and just continuing from their ( without judging it with Pokemon-sprites ) I should just have a small and cute sprite style in mind regardless.

p.s Here is something close the the finished product, I thought the feet in the other one where too big. It might look better with a "hoody"...

 

[Echo Magnum]

Made a bunch of random outfits, The bottom ones are some kind of cyborg-armor.
The rest are ( in order from the top left )
> Guru-Threads/ Hippy Outfit
> Hooded Striped-Blue Jumper
> Lab-Gear / Scientist Outfit
> Stripped-Blue Jumper ( No Hood )
> Raincoat
> Pimp Outfit
> Cyborg Blue
> Demon-Cyborg ( Red )





I love the blue sphere pallet, it has a lot of soft colors. I used it for all the outfits and might stick with it.

What do you guys think about the outfits?

 

[Echo Magnum]

Just throwing in a tie-dye hippy shirt, some green John Lennon shades and a simple Afro. Feeling kind of 60's ish, I just put a bunch of colors together to make the shirt, it might look kind of weird zoomed in.

 

[Echo Magnum]

She's similar to the character I drew in the "Big Head Manga Sprites" thread, just to get an idea of how it would look with small sprites.


Here I made some ghosts one has an evil face the other a more typical face for this sort of character.




I'm confident to say I can now make almost any sprite character I want with this style. It actually doesn't look too pokemon like but has the whole "chibi" look going on sort of like for VX rtp e.t.c ( I prefer these to VX rtp imo though )

 

[Echo Magnum]

I've grown to like more realistic proportions in my sprite style, still a little "cartoonized" though ( not exactly anatomically realistic ) but here you can compare the previous posts sprite ( the green haired girl ) with this one and tell me what you think. I think this one is better

Spoiler

 

[Echo Magnum]

any comments?