The VG Resource

Wow, finally decided to do this.



This is a sprite of Pichu I just made not long ago. I decided I should start getting into spriting a while back but only just now found the motivation. I need to find a way to overcome my hate of line art as it is my biggest problem. I had trouble with the arms and feet, but I'm very happy with the rest of the body.

So please tell me any comments and constructive criticism you have for how I could make this better, thank you.

Here is every revision of the sprite so far:



2014 EDIT: Re-uploaded the changelog for this sprite.

that's not bad at all!
i dont like line art either, especially done from a reference.
some of the outlines could do with more work, they're not completely smooth yet. im not sure about the shape of the shading on the head, because it looks like the beginning to a neckbeard! if you compare its shape to the shape of the shading of the body, you will notice it's not quite the same.

Ahahah, I guess it looks that way because the contrast is too high between the two shades? Should I try dulling it a little? As for the reference thing, I did use an image as a ref. for design but I was avoiding copying the stance except for the face. I was having a fair amount of trouble getting a good pose so I was just using that basic standing. I tried to AA the ears since I knew they were a bit jaggish but it seemed to make the jags stand out more. Should I redo the line art ( ) or see if I can fix this one (which I'm not quite sure how)?

EDIT: An update on Pichu:



Removed the black outline, managed to smooth out the ears (but I had to over-exaggerate the AA in order to do that), AA'd a few other areas, slightly edited the shading on the head and a few other tiny touch-ups.

ok, so i'd suggest you lower the contrast, then lower the saturation slightly.
you seem to have forgotten the highlights!
the pose is symetrical, and with the arms outstretched, it makes me think of a plushie... i dont know if that's the feel you want for your pichu.
basically it's the shape of the body and the head that bother me, they need more work.

good luck!

Oops, before I was able to make that quick edit up above, you already replied.

I'll try and see if I can do something about the body and head, but the shaping was hard and I couldn't figure out how to shape it any other way that I was happy with (my own standards are actually just a little higher than my skill level so it's tough). Does that edit look any better though?

it looks marginally better. but as i said, it's the shape that bothers me, not the rendering of the shape.
also youve used way way way too much aa, there.

Your colors could be improved: your pink shades's hue is fixed, and there are 5 yellows, two of which are really similar and therefore no reason to have all 5. 4 is more than enough. If you're set on antialiasing with the background, stick with 1 intermediate shade before expanding, at this size 1 is enough.

If what I understand is correct, you started off with lineart? in that case, you can try playing around with line thickness, here's an edit to the body to illustrate my point (I also changed the colors so feel free to use them if you like it!):



The feet are also very large, in the official art (it's the same as your reference, mind) you can see they're slightly smaller than the arms, so keep that in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is that you use black to separate the toes, but use the darkest yellow as an outline, that feels inconsistent and looks like the separations are painted on instead of naturally being there.

That link is broken. But anyway I do agree, I already modified the colors in my new edit I'm doing now (which I started before I saw your post). I always thought it was best to start out with the line art even though it seems harder? Anyway should I just use a black outline with some sel-outing or use no black on the feet? Also I did actually use only four shades of the base color, but I'll try to differ them a bit more.

Oh, it's just the Bulbapedia page for Pichu. It has the same picture as your reference (I didn't notice that until I reread the thread.) I don't know if sel-out is a good idea, you can certainly experiment and see if it works. My edit focuses more on the fact that the lineart thins out where the arms/feet meet the body, and similarly where the ears meet the head. For the feet, it's up to you. As long as you don't make the two separators look painted on, I think you'll be fine.

Oh derp, I didn't realize about the parts that connected, thanks for pointing that out. I would have normally fixed something like that.

Okay new update.



This time I tried to do what Chris said and change the head shape a little but I really can't do much without smushing Pichu's face. It's head is actually supposed to be ovally, and I don't like this head as much. I did change the body a bit and fixed lots of things and lowered the contrast and saturation for all colors (in fact I got rid of the extra eye color because it was unnecessary and just made it the darkest base color). I reduced the AA as much as I possibly could without there being slight jagginess. I think it's improved for the most part.

EDIT: Darn it forgot the highlights. XD

Major revision!

You're going good, but don't follow the ref image too much, you're making it look a bit pale, are you making Notched-Ear or Normal Pichu?

Remember the Notched-Ear has a Pale Color, and the Normal has Pikachu's color, as I can see, it's the normal, so it's better if you give it Pikachu's color, just a suggestion

Oh and by the way, I saw you're using three purple colors, if you delete the darker one, it'll see the same way and you'll be saving colors for your pallete =D

It's a good sprite, just a little AA, but still great, so, keep it up

Cute!
I kinda really looks like the real thing in the game too. hahaha

@isael-21: I wasn't following the ref. image that much, and it's supposed to be normal Pichu yes.

And actually no Pichu does not have Pikachu's colors it is pale yellow, it's the shiny version that has Pikachu's colors.

Where does the sprite need AA'ing? I applied it to almost every corner of the sprite, and any areas I didn't AA was because I didn't like how it looked.

I'll try to get rid of the dark magenta and see how it looks, I was using it as a slight outline color but I only used it on a few pixels.

Anyway thanks.

EDIT:



Removed the dark pink outline around the cheeks, but I added that for a reason and it's slightly jaggy now and I can't fix it without using that extra color (the color count was only 10 colors not countiing black and white. Now it only has 9), and otherwise just doesn't look as good. Compare the last two sprites:



Anyway I edited a few other small things like the highlights on the head and feet, and added AA to every area that could have possibly needed it but now it just looks slightly blocky and I can't stand flat edges. Like I said I had a reason for not AA'ing some areas because it didn't look right. More C + C is welcome.