Let's beat a dead horse.

[MoneyMan]

For how smooth the rest of the animation is, the tail's animation seems a bit jumpy

[Maneko]

Hmm, good point, I'll see what can I do about it.

Also, revised Big Macintosh's legs as I was already suggested to. (Tried fixing his pallete as well, and the colors vary depending of the encode used on the cartoon episodes.)

[Garamonde]

I personally think those darker colors look better.

[Maneko]

Caramel, aka the super Beta guy who keeps losing things.

[Gors]

change that green apple on red pony, almost everyone said it was looking bad and you didn't change a pixel out of it yet

and "but that's the style" excuse doesn't help since using less colors imply in increasing readability for all, even in 2x resolution.

[Maneko]

http://neuropod.net/imagehost/uploads/3e...a86dbb.jpg

This is how his mark is supposed to be. If you have good, useful advice to give regarding how to reduce it even more without making it unrecognizable, I'm all ears.

[Gors]

you could get away by coloring the pulp in a lighter color (the yellow in the hooves is an idea). At this resolution, you need to sacrifice some of the fidelity to make sure everybody gets it's a half-cut apple.

or this, or increasing the pulp's area to the sides.

[Maneko]

I was already sacrificing colors (especially on his hooves) but I will try a few combinations to see which other color can go away.
By the way, the "pulp" area of the apple is actually the core, not the pulp. (Otherwise it would be an apple with a thick as hell skin)



Made this uppity maitre as well, and fixed his legs a bit. (Before you ask, yes. His face is supposed to look that long, as the cartoon loves to use stealth puns everywhere.)

[Maneko]

I animated this uptight guy as well. (He's secretely Batmare's butler or something)
Since it's a first version, I'm all ears about your comments. (Giving him a fitting stance based on the 10 seconds he appeared on screen was kinda tricky.)

[Maneko]

Cousin Braeburn from APPLELOOO-OOO-OOOSA joins the herd.

[Maneko]

Idle poses interrupted by a surprise. Since the straw used an extra color, I added one of them to his hooves as the original model does.

[Cobalt Blue]

http://neuropod.net/imagehost/uploads/3e...a86dbb.jpg

This is how his mark is supposed to be. If you have good, useful advice to give regarding how to reduce it even more without making it unrecognizable, I'm all ears.

easy.

anyone who knows the character(basically, anyone who would be interested in this sprite) would recognize that as part of the character's trait. that already gives you more freedom to work with simpler details that are rather abstract.

thats how early nes sprites worked: the cover gave you all the info on how your character looked like in detail, while the in game sprites were worked to be readable once you had that basic background info.

same goes for cutscenes

[Maneko]

http://neuropod.net/imagehost/uploads/af...610e25.jpg

This is how his annoying mark is supposed to look in the cartoon.
Gors's advice and yours aren't helpful, as you can see. (I guess you aren't familiar with the source so you guys assumed things on your own, you even changed it into something totally different.)
Right now, the number of colors (minus the straw) used on this sprite is 19, and that's recycling as many colors as I could (such as the green of the apple and his eyes) despite the project not having a color limitation at all. (Still, some people have tried to submit sprites colored with photoshop gradients...)

Now, if anyone is still having problems with the shape or the color readibility, I would appreciate comments and advice as well.

[Cobalt Blue]

ok since you're being extremely asstight for no reason aparently, let me re-explain this in a more sugarcoated way so you wont get a hissy fit for no aparent reason.

http://neuropod.net/imagehost/uploads/af...610e25.jpg

This is how his annoying mark is supposed to look in the cartoon.

in the cartoon.

so yes, i watched the image you gave as a reference ans its pretty clear that this apple is basically the key element of the pony(given to it so it would be easily recognizable from the rest of the ponies)

so having that in mind, and asuming i've watched the show like any one else has done to be interested in using these sprites, i can safely say that if i see this

wich is nothing but a downscaled version of this

i can identify the character because you know, its the red pony with the green aple on its butt..

thats why if i become a fan of the character, i can go to a store and buy this

and even when there is no pony on it, the green symbol over the red background would instantly be recognizable to any other big mac fan. even if from across the street all i saw was a red tshirt with a green blob on it

now what does all this long ass explanation has to do with sprites? everything.

the reason why you can just simply put a green blob on its leg and the viever would still see an aple is because you are not only seeing that, but the sprite as a whole. and since you already know the character and you can identify that sprite to it.

its the same principle behind seeing this

and instantly knowing it represents this character


tl;dr: "when working on limited spaces readbility is king"

[Gors]

tl;dr

"please give me a CC"

"here is clean, concise CC"

"but this is how he is on the show, please give me a CC"