2D Zelda Higher Resolution Community Project

[Koh]

Overview

Just a little something I thought would be interesting to get the community involved in for some fun, and for Zelda's 30th Anniversary.  Pick any 2D Zelda graphic that you want, and upgrade it to a higher resolution.  The repository of completed things would be kept in this first post, with the contributing artist identified.

Process

Fairly simple process, as shown above.  First, locate the original graphic somewhere.  Next, scale it up x2 in both dimensions.  Finally, to do a smooth version, clean up the pixels so that the look is less boxy, while also shaped out a bit more where applicable.  For the high resolution version, do some cleanup to make it look nice at the new resolution, bringing it back to a x1 pixel scale in the process.

Rules

Just a few basic rules to keep everything steady, and straight forward.

-You may update a previous entry if desired.

-Critiques and edits are welcome; we want the community effort to look nice, and so the community should be able to contribute with the process of getting an entry to look nice as well.

-Everything in here is free to use, with credit.  Since we don't directly own the graphics anyway, since it's all stemming from official Nintendo works, everything in here must be free to use.  However, if you do decide to use someone's work, give them credit for the effort they put into it!

Template

If you want to keep things organized as I did in the process example, feel free to download and use the template (and make it larger as needed, if your graphic is bigger) above.

Repository

CDI Zelda

Overlap

Faces of Evil Specifc

Wand of Gamelon Specific

Zelda's Adventure Specific

GBA Zelda

Four Swords

Minish Cap

Armos, by DragonDePlatino

Cat, by DarkGrievous7145

GBC Zelda

Overlap

Blue and Red Rupees, by Koh

Quote

Bombs, by Koh

Quote

Bush, by Koh

Quote

Green Rupee, by Koh

Quote

Heart Pickup, by Koh

Quote

HUD Elements, by Koh

Leaf, by Koh

Quote

Link Walking (South), by Koh

Sheet:
Animation Comparison:

Link Walking (South), by Terminal Devastation

Link Walking (South), by Valo

Link Walking (North), by Koh

Sheet:
Animation Comparison:

Oracles Exclamation, by Koh

Quote

Oracles Small Key, by Koh

Quote

Oracles Wooden Shield, by Koh

Quote

Oracles Wooden Sword, by Koh

Quote

Shovels, by Koh

Quote

Sword Slash, by Koh

Quote

Link's Awakening Specific

Oracle of Seasons Specific

Oracle of Ages Specific

GC Zelda

Four Swords Adventures

NES Zelda

Zelda 1

Tektite, by DragonDePlatino

Zelda 2

Link, by DragonDePlatino

SNES Zelda

Overlap

Zelda, by Azure Spectre
Sheet:
Animation:

BS Zelda

BS Zelda:  Ancient Stone Tablets Specific

A Link to the Past Specific

Link With Mirror Shield and Golden Sword, by JazzGW

[DragonDePlatino]

Man. You really like resizing Zelda sprites, eh? Guess I'll be the first to bite with my Minish Cap Armos!



In retrospect, I probably should've upscaled a smaller sprite so the difference is more pronounced. Oh well. I happy with this anyways!

[Koh]

Zelda needs some HQ 2D love like the 2D Final Fantasies got on PSP~

Wait, this is a custom sprite upscaled? I guess I could make a Custom section x3.

[Shade]

I love how that Armos turned out, great job!

[Koh]

Updated this with some minor fixes.


Then did this...


Am focusing on just the hi-res versions now, since that's the area I want to practice most. This one was even harder, and I'm still not sure what I could do to shape out the hat near the brim any better. But for funsies, have these also.

[Valo]

Updated this with some minor fixes.


Then did this...


Am focusing on just the hi-res versions now, since that's the area I want to practice most.  This one was even harder, and I'm still not sure what I could do to shape out the hat near the brim any better.  But for funsies, have these also.

I think that if you're going to upscale and refine, it might be better to actually try to make the character have facial features, or better drawn features, rather than the same simple structure but just twice as big.

[Koh]

You're welcome to make versions that do that; there's no rule that says something can be done only once. I personally don't think adding details like that ontop of such a basic sprite as this looks too good, and would instead need a complete overhaul like the Final Fantasy PSP remake sprites, but there's nothing stopping someone from making a version that gains those features either C=.

[Rederik_Wood]

This might sound like cheating, buuut...

They actually did this for a select few scenes of Link's Awakening

Could be a worthwhile venture to revamp them with that sort of shape rather than just upscaling and smoothing.

PS: I'll be perfectly honest with you, the rear GBC Link sprite looks good, but the front-facing looks like he's a Boomerang Flower from Mario with a hat.

[Koh]

Cleaned up his ears and tried fixing his chin a bit.


I should mention that another one of the reasons I'm staying close to the original, besides the addition of extra detail making it look awkward on such a simple sprite, is to give off the enhanced PC version vibe from the days of old. You know, how games that also got DOS or Windows ports when they were also available on the older systems; the graphics were at a x2 resolution compared to their console/arcade counter parts, but were mostly the same, just finer looking. For example, compare the title screens of the Arcade/Megadrive version of Puyo Puyo Tsu, to the Windows Version.



They didn't add any extra details, they just cleaned up the existing ones and made the title look finer overall.

Same for the ingame graphics.


That's the sort of approach I want to take with my own high res graphics, so it can still feel like the original, but not feel so boxy and stout, lol.

[DragonDePlatino]

Here's two more from me, this time some NES sprites!





After realizing I had drawn yet another symmetrical cycloptic creature, I decided to balance things out and add a Link.

[Koh]

Looks pretty good I say~ Tektite looks a bit awkward though. I see you're going for the added detail route, but, if you do that, don't forget to use the artwork for a reference.



While it does have tiny horns, there are no extra lines within its body.

Also, I think Link's Chin could use that bottom right pixel on his chin, instead of it being a brown pixel; it sort of makes it look like it ends abruptly, and thereby making it seem like he's making a pouty face.

[miyabi95_]

My spriting skills are rusty, but here's something I tried to work with. It looks okay from afar, but zoom in any closer to notice the many quirks .

My main gripe with trying to smoothen these older sprites is that they're so primitive from the graphic limitations that just smoothing them (as opposed to redrawing them as DragonDePlatino did) makes it really difficult to not make the character look like an expressionless robot. Pretty much why I added the white glow in Link's eyes.

With that said, I'd probably prefer smoothening + adding detail technique like Dragon's over what Koh was talking about with the "2x resolution" thing. But to each their own c:.

[Koh]

Added, and that's perfectly fine. It all boils down to subjective tastes in what a higher res thing could do, and that's perfectly fine, which is why there can be multiple versions of the same thing c=.

Also, you got me wanting to try the eye shine thing on Link.



But with this 8-bit sprite, I can't tell if that really looks like a shine, or like his eye is cut off XD.

[iyenal]

I think it could work in original game when running it with emulator.

[Valo]

alright i'll take you up on doing my own. if the smaller minish cap can do the detail, i think so could this.