The VG Resource

Hello. Im new to the forums Im not gonna get into a long introduction and post my first examples. Hopefully will earn critique aswell as it'll help me sprite better

My first sprites ill be posting on my thread is DigDug and Togepi: Two Smash Brother Projects i wanted to do to contribute for future smash brother game makers



Any C+C? All is welcome and appreciated

You are using too many colors (30 in the first one alone, tons of similar blues) and you band, making everything look blurry.
(Banding: following a line of a color with a line of another color right next to it).

Also, your lines are rather wonky. DigDug's head is really out of shape and deformed.

Let me illustrate a few things.

Far less colors and adjusted shapes.

I can see an actual huge change and i see what you mean by banding.
Thanks Previous. I'll be sure to use your tips in the future

Well since Persona 4 arena came out, i loved the shading style on it and decided to use it to improve my spriting skills. Although i use Previous's advice and made more sprites with less banding, the sprite style on Persona 4 arena's sprites have a little-some banding on them so my apologies if you don't see his advice quite here

This is a WIP of the head for my OC's sprite. His name is Elysium


Any C+C other than the banding? I'll try to reduce the banding on it when im done with the finished product

Always complete your line-art before shading. I'm not really sure what I'm looking at in all honesty...

(08-21-2012, 12:34 PM)Goemar Wrote: [ -> ]Always complete your line-art before shading. I'm not really sure what I'm looking at in all honesty...

Yea. I guess it took a wrong turn. I ditched the sprite to go back to my old styles of spriting


Anyways, i've decided to work more on my old styles of spriting


Comment or Critique on it please?

Not sure where you're going with the hat at the moment since its just a solid black shape. Avoid using pure black or white when spriting, if you must use it, make sure its colour value isn't dead set black or white (i.e #000000 and #ffffff respectively)

You're using way too many shades of yellow on the face when 2 of them can be removed, same with the reds. Also when you're shading his face try to maintain his facial structure or at least what he is emoting. You did a basic shaded shape to indicate his spherical head, but at the same time he's smiling, you need to adjust this to accommodate. Even if you're character is cartoony in style, you still need a sense of anatomy to make it believable.

(09-06-2012, 11:13 AM)Kopaka Wrote: [ -> ]Not sure where you're going with the hat at the moment since its just a solid black shape. Avoid using pure black or white when spriting, if you must use it, make sure its colour value isn't dead set black or white (i.e #000000 and #ffffff respectively)

You're using way too many shades of yellow on the face when 2 of them can be removed, same with the reds. Also when you're shading his face try to maintain his facial structure or at least what he is emoting. You did a basic shaded shape to indicate his spherical head, but at the same time he's smiling, you need to adjust this to accommodate. Even if you're character is cartoony in style, you still need a sense of anatomy to make it believable.

I took your criticism into constructive detail sir and i appreciate it very much. I tried to get it anatomically right as possible:



I did the following:
-Switched the outline color to #040404 (R,G,B all 4)
-Punched out the additionals colors to ease (2 shades of each color)
-Shifted the eyes to give more of an actual fighting side view
-Anatomically tweaked the back and front portions of the head outline aswell as little to the bottom

Comparison (Old to New):


Is it better or worse? Comment and Critique is still appreciated

#040404 isn't really noticeable enough. What you need to think about it what tone you want in your piece. Judging by your current palette, I recommend using something like #380909 for the dark shade, and tinting your yellows to a warmer orange colour.

The current result (Thanks to Hoeloe):


Followed your suggestions and the sprite feels retro-ish. I also fixed up the hat a bit.

Comparison (Old to New):


Better or worse? As always, comment and critique is appreciated

the "face" is shaded like a sphere, but the hat thing got no shading at all, wich makes it look flat, killing any sense of volume.

i dont fully get where you're going with this. if its a shading excersise, you might as well do what anyoen else does to do so(not only in terms of spriting). pick an object close to you, and see how light affects it. making a simple study of highlights and shadows can be extremely good to the development of your skills, let alone the development of you as an artist.