Midday-Mew's Sprite Thread

[DragonDePlatino]

To be frank, I really couldn't recognize that as Mewtwo, no. :/

I'd suggest working at a larger resolution like 32x32. Start with a bit 2x2 white brush to "sculpt" out out the shape of the head then go back and add details with black and light gray.

[Midday-Mew]

To be frank, I really couldn't recognize that as Mewtwo, no. :/

I'd suggest working at a larger resolution like 32x32. Start with a bit 2x2 white brush to "sculpt" out out the shape of the head then go back and add details with black and light gray.

Unfortunately, I did not get your reply until this afternoon (in EST) so I wasn't able to get your suggestion in time before refining the graphic several times.

Anyways, here's the updated version. Special thanks to Shade and Ton for their suggestions. Special thanks to Shade for providing a revision to the base, which was edited several times by me according to suggestions by those on the VGR Discord chat.

Without further ado, here's the updated version:


Which version is best?

Note that the only difference between the left and right halves of the image is the background color. Where I'll be using this graphic, it will not be at 1x and it will have a black background. I'm going to be using it in Super Mario Maker as a level icon, building it out of level tiles. Hence the four-color restriction. I need to be able to cram three of these portraits (the other two are of Lucario and Charizard).

Feel free to make suggestions and critique!

[Midday-Mew]

Before shading:


After shading:


I fail at shading a two-tone surface in a limited 4-color grayscale palette... What do I do to make it not look like garbage?

[DragonDePlatino]

Sometimes, sprite limitations can make a sprite less readable. If I made the same sprite with the same style and restrictions, I don't think I could do any better. You're not failing, you're just holding yourself back too much. ^^;

When it comes to picking size, I tend to start with the smallest detail I want to draw (usually eyes) and then I work from there. With color, I reccomend going nuts and then cutting yourself down to 8-16 colors once you're done. Try starting over with a larger scale and see how it goes.

[Midday-Mew]

This is what happens when I mess around for laughs 'n giggles.

I edited two sprites of Machamp--one from Emerald and one from FireRed/LeafGreen, spliced them together (removed the left top hand of both Machamp sprites and switched the hand out, then reshaded that hand to match the sprite better. I forget which Machamp sprite was the base and which one "donated" the hand, but it was done in the interest of making the sprite have a more dynamic pose) and removed the head.

I took the head of Cue Ball (a trainer class from FireRed/LeafGreen) and stuck it on there, drastically altered the eyes to be bigger and less mean-looking, and changed the shading on the lower half of the face to remove the "five-o'-clock shadow".

I recolored the body of the Machamp sprite to match the head, and filled in the blank spot where the left shoulders were with what I thought the shoulders and neck would look like. When I recolored the body of the Machamp, I discovered that the Machamp body had one less shade than the head, so I turned the two lightest shades into the lightest shades of the head, and the rest of the shades into the darkest shades of the head. I then added the missing shade by using antialiasing on the body's skin. Admittedly, figuring out where the antialiasing was supposed to go was much easier than adding the missing spot on the left shoulders and neck.

Lastly, I took Machop's head ridges (I believe either FireRed/LeafGreen sprites or perhaps Emerald? I forget...) since Machamp's head ridges were too big for the Cue Ball head. I recolored the head ridges to match Machamp's head ridges and the Cue Ball's skin and added some pixels to finish the shape of the ridges, as well as adding some antialiasing to the head ridges (the Machamp's head ridges actually had more colors than the Machop's head ridges, even though both were from the same game).

The premise of the sprite was to show what Shade would look like underneath his clothes.

This was a test to see if I could simulate a rainbow with just four colors and dithering. I feel I succeeded, for the most part, except I feel that some hueshifting could probably improve it. Not sure what colors to hueshift with, however. I do know that this could probably never be done on the NES if only because the colors aren't from the NES Palette. I'd have to redo this if I wanted to see if that could be pulled off, but this is at least proof that you can make a rainbow with just four colors.

This also means that if you used those four colors in Nintendo Swapnote, you could make a rainbow in it, too (those colors are available in Swapnote, but three of those must be purchased from the Lesson Store, I think? Not sure if the red is still a free download...if the red isn't still free, it'd be four colors that'd need to be purchased).