Here goes something: My First Recolor - Critique Please

[Arcosi]

Well, I've just started spriting, and I'm starting small. I decided to start by recoloring Adult Rydia from FF4, one of my favorite character's, sprite, and I decided to go with a 'light' rendition of her, editing it using GraphicsGale.



Heres the original sprite I used.



Go ahead and be blunt, I can take honest criticism. Heck, being an absolute newbie, I probably screwed up royally somewhere. But if you don't like my sprite, could you please tell me where I screwed up so I can avoid making the same mistake next time?

[triptych]

The biggest mistake here is that it's not custom. Recolors and edits are frowned upon very heavily(here anyways), the best advice anyone can really give you right now would be to make a completely custom sprite. No matter how awful it turns out, you'll benefit more from it.

[Arcosi]

Thanks for the advice. I'm just trying to just get basic skill in spriting at this point, and I figured a recolor would be a good place to start.

[Iceman404]

How would a recolor give even the least amount of skill though? Maybe re-shading, but recoloring?

[Rakia]

I'm not defending recolouring, but it could give you the ability to put down colours that go together well.
Although, making custom sprites would do the same thing.

[TomGuycott]

Recoloring isn't REALLY a skill, but in all honesty, it is something you should know how to do. For example, if you were gonna make an RPG style game that had palette swapped enemies, you'd need to know HOW to properly recolor them, but that gets more into a programming aspect. I didn't know how to recolor when I first joined the site, but I learned how, so I GUESS it could be considered a skill. However, it's incredibly simplistic, and you can even do it in paint if you know how (even on an incredibly large scale, it's just more tedious than more advanced programs).

Bottom line, try something original, or even an ambitious edit if you feel like that's too much, but making an edit that looks GOOD is probably even harder than doing something from scratch.

[2+D]

When will people learn that recoloring is for the devil?

[triptych]

2-D shut the fuck up

recoloring, or more specifically, the ability to choose a decent palette is an extremely valid skill

[Gors]

recoloring isn't for the devil

people that recolor and then post the sprites like they're completely new sprites are.


so, in this case, I strongly suggest making something custom. You'll learn more by doing that.

EDIT: damn, 1up won by a nose :C

[Cobalt Blue]

look on the bright side, op admits it to be a recolor, and he's aware its not something to be exactly proud on.

in any case and judging by the colors you use, you should be aware that colors with really low contrast like the skin color and eyes willblend, reducing greatly the readbility of the sprite. specially in small sprites when readbility is one of the most important factors.

[2+D]

2-D shut the fuck up

recoloring, or more specifically, the ability to choose a decent palette is an extremely valid skill

Valid skill? so your saying if I take any sprite, and recolor it, I can say that I have done great? just because it's a valid skill? That is complete bullshit.
Recoloring is just an excuse to not make custom sprites, and remake them with your own colors.

[triptych]

That's not what I'm saying at all

I'm saying that recoloring is a valid skill in that it teaches you how to get better at choosing palettes, because (example time!!!)

H: 250, S: 25, L: 50 is not going to look as good with an H value of 50. But what if you want to switch it from blue to yellow, are you just shit out of luck because a hue of 50 and saturation of 25 looks bad? No, you change the values until it looks good. Recoloring is a stepping stone, and despite whatever kind of biased opinion you have on the subject, it's still a valid skill to have.

[Cobalt Blue]

post closing: a skill you can still learn and learn even better doing customs, just sayayin.