The VG Resource

So as I said in my topic in the place for new user I've been making my own sprite style WITHOUT A COLOR LIMIT! (dun dun duuun?)
at this moment I have 5 Made They're: Sonic, Mario, Olimar, Geno, Charizard and Mew. Currently planning on doing: Agumon red paratroopa with sunglasses and Kirby but anywayhere's what you came for:
100% Custom sprites!!!!!:

C+C?
PS: I don't think these are considered pillow shades seeing as the have light comin from in fromt of them.

Way too many colours. Even if it's your "sprite style" it's way too much. Reduce the colour count and give them a bit more contrast. But it's great that it's custom.

In most of the areas, your shading does not produce a sense of depth, they look really flat. I also think you should stay away from the dithering, as your use of it isn't really effective (I don't really like dithering in most cases tbh so that may just be me).

any better yet? I deleted most of dithering (except for the light giving thingy coming out of head and the shadow under Mew I would like some advice on those parts) reduced colours from Mario and Sonic (the others actually didn't have so much) and do you guys think mario "looks" like Mario? (hope so cause before I showed it here I had it change like 12 times cause I wasn't happy with results)
and should I curve the front of sonic's head a little more? and geno does he give you the feeling that he is a toy from wood? like Geno in , and Olimar should I make his closed eyes thicker?.
Please reply.

the sprites are still bad.

the main reason for this would be the shading, which gives us the impression everything is made of plastic balloons.

there are still too much colors, and this means there's not enough contrast. Increasing difference on the shades can cut out many unnecessary colors while maintaining (or even making it better) the sprite's quality. I mean, are 50 different colors really necessary to shade that Mario?

Another issue with your shading is the way you shade everything on the sprite equally, disregarding depth altogether. Objects farther from us are usually depicted with a darker shade so it gives the 'depth' feeling to the viewer.

another offender is your lineart: it is jaggy and the characters are posed awkwardly. Take time to place the pixels carefully and think on the pose before drawing it. You may get better results.

To add on what gorsal said about line arts, I suggest using references for the characters you're spriting, mostly on the pokemon.

For example look at the tail on charizard, do you really think it's that thick on the end? I don't think so:


whether it's an official sprite or a piece of artwork, you can still look at it to get some sort of idea about what you're spriting (or drawing for that matter).

Okay I used what Gors said as reference when redoing mario and kinda changed pose cause I saw that the pose actually wasn't the pose he had in brawl (I'm trying to make those who where in brawl look like how they where in brawl) and I made charizard end of tail (except for mario and Sonic I used refernces but for charizard I used front sprite as reference)

Mario's head seems too far back.

and charizard's tail is still too thick, and his flame isn't big enough. You need to use the back sprites for a reference if you want it to look any better than it is now.

So I made charizards tail thinner and put Mario's head forwards
AND I started Agumon (I think I did him pretty good seeing as I have references on the wall in my room)


C+C?

The old mario was good.
I have to say these sprites have some potential in them, but you'd have to rework your shape and drawing

one million gradients in your sprites are not going to make them look more smooth -or anywhere near decent.

@ Frario: could you be a bit more detailed what exactly is do I have to rework from the shape and drawing

@CO2: I don't really understand what you're saying could you explain it a bit more?

I believe Frar is saying that in most of your sprites, the shapes you create to make up all their bodies is wanky and you need to fix these shapes.
And the second point, is most of the shading you do is because of this gradient effect (Light shade, medium shade, dark shade, all equal distances apart, mostly) you've created, and that's not really how shading works.

as rakia said, you're using a gradient patern to shade your objects, wich not only does not convey depth and volume into them to make them look 3D(not the 3D you need to wear glasses, but rather as objects with mass and volume rather than flat pictures), but also since said gradients have barely any contrast between them they are barely noticeable, making the objects even more flat and unnapealing.

as for the lineart and general shaping, for the most part they look extremely wonky and strange (in some cases) due to a flawled anatomy (in all of them). this is even more noticeable on mario, where his legs literally make no sense and his neck is completely out of place.

i'd suggets that you should follow the same process gorsal did a few posts ago: strip your sprites off all their colors and leave them with only a base shade, then process to add a darker tone for a shadow and a lighter one for a highlight, and from there evaluate if you REALLY need so many shades(keeping in mind how lightsource would determine wich parts should be affected by it)

so here are some updates
PS: the anatomy is not wrong cause I always try them out (in irl) before