Beginner at custom spriting.

[Dazz]

I guess it's talking extremes. We should encourage people to sprite, but we shouldn't tell them they're the best for doing something which ultimately is unoriginal.

Edits have their place, as do recolours - they are often used in final games. However, that's because they drew the originals as well.

When I sprited a lot, I used to edit sprites in order to analyse the style of the sprites, how techniques worked - I reworked my edits many times to try and make it look natural to the style - which in the end made me learn how a lot of techniques play out.
Because of doing this, I learnt how to make good custom work - it just turned out that over time I couldn't really be bothered with it, and I preferred just analysing sprites instead. Which I think is fine.

But as for this guy who has posted recolours - they're just recolours. There's nothing special about them. I can recolour an entire sheet of Sonic sprites in 5 seconds, no problem. But why would I want to? Everybody knows that it's just a recolour. Posting an edit is fine, in my opinion - because it still allows us to see their additions to something that gives the user a basic structure.
Recolours are great for introducing people into spriting though, so I don't discourage people starting off with them if they feel comfortable beginning because of it.

[Mashuga]

because edits do not carry any study at all, nor any development nor understanding on how or why the shading was done in such way.

That's the thing, I'm saying it does.

I reworked my edits many times to try and make it look natural to the style - which in the end made me learn how a lot of techniques play out.
Because of doing this, I learnt how to make good custom work

Umm... thanks. Thats actually the exact point I was trying to make. >_>

[Dazz]

I didn't actually read Meta's post, but I'd like to point out: Just because you didn't learn in a certain way, doesn't mean you did it right and they're doing it wrong.
There's lots of ways of learning, you just have to find what works best for you. Meta's trying to help by suggesting the way that he learnt to sprite, but that might not be the way that works best for everyone.

[~Axis~]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate your comments!

I've tried taking your advise on making a 100% custom sprite and actually tried it out. It took me 2 minutes to make it. At least it was from scratch.

[Cobalt Blue]

i'm not sure if i am unsing the wrong english but

by "we all started doing sprite edits" i included myself with the word "we".

as in, i did sprite edits too in my early days. terrible sprite edits and recolors wich served no purpose other than just being cheap fixes on my "original characters". a thoughful analysis and the feedback provided by some people who actually were into pixel art and spriting(rather than the weak stuff i got at forums and deviantart) made me realise that what i was doing was completely fruitless and was nothign but a dead end.

i believe we have all reached a common agreement in the past every and each time this topic has apeared(as in, by "all" i refer to everyone who has been involved into these situations before in this very forum, among others) in that we need to discourage edits as a learning process by the way of showing OP how it is literally a waste of time "IF" op is really interested in spriting and his eventual development as a spriter. because as i said, earlier, the whole point of sprite edits comes not from its sentimental value but rather from its practical(or rather functional) value as a cheap, easy way to portrait a character in a preset aesthetic. if you're doing that edit or recolor to show your friends your sonic fan character instead of doing so because you dont know where to begin, then you're basically do not care about spriting/you cant wait to learn on your own, and in that case there is nothing we can do/there is nothing we'd bother to do either.

there is no gray area as i also explained earlier. you basically do edits until you realise you dont need them/you're way better on your own. as drastic and arbitrary as that might sound.

Spoiler

and the whole reason why i am presenting all of this is not because i magically pulled it out of my ass tonight when i was bored. its fucking years of watching people do it, myself included. call it experience, if you wish.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

Blueblur, that's quite good!
The next step is trying to see how you can make the outlines smoother:

This can be done by changing the shape of the outline, or by applying anti-aliasing (AA). Remember that AA will only blur an outline, not actually fix the shape of the outline.
Keep it up!

[~Axis~]

Thanks! By the way, I'll admit that the recolor on my first post was actually my sonic fan character. I recolored him a long time ago. I kept on doing recolors until (as Meta said) they became cheap works of art. Which is why I opened this thread in the first place. I opened it because I wanted help from all of you, and that's exactly what I'm getting!
I really like the concept of spriting, and I want to know how improve myself from recolors to 100% full custom sprites. So, please, without the help of you guys, I won't get anywhere. Keep on giving me advice on every thing you know on custom spriting! I really do appreciate every one of your comments, good or bad (I'm actually lucky to be getting advice from one of the best spriters on the internet ). Give me as much help as possible.

[~Axis~]

Ok.
After spending hours reading spriting tutorials and experimenting, I fianally made a 100% custom sprite. I made the Egg fighter from Sonic Unleashed from scratch. Tell me what you think.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

No, you should carry on working on that Kirby first. It can improved.

[~Axis~]

You're right. I kinda got carried away. I'll try remaking the kirby sprite tomorrow.

---

You're right. I kinda got carried away. I'll try remaking the kirby sprite tomorrow.

[~Axis~]

Alright. I made another Kirby sprite, but this time, I tried adding another light source.

Give me advice on what needs improvement.

[Bombshell93]

brighter colours (especially for kirby), selout (especially for kirby), anti-alias (especially for rounder looking objects... kirby).

EDIT: noticed problem studying your pixels, your not using contrast at all, your shading colours are essentially 3 of the same colour without studying the pixels themselves.
I'll have a mock up on how it should look fixxed in a few minutes

EDIT EDIT:
fixed pallet, and did a quick try at fixing some form features and anti-aliasing.