Edited than custom MMX sprites

[Zerite]

Wanted to make sprites in the hope of redoing X1-6 for fun with a more zeroish look. Was hoping to get some good criticism and suggestions on what I could do to make them better. Here's my work so far.

[Cloud6625]

I think recreating the X games in Zero's style is a cool idea. I've always personally preferred Zero's style (and gameplay).

I'd say try making his pose a little different. It looks a bit too much like Zero atm. I feel like X would stand a little more straight. The top of his helmet is a bit blocky aswell.

He also doesn't have as much contrast as the Zero sprite. The highlights need to be brighter.

[Zerite]

Being new at this I don't really know what contrast and highlights are. Could you give an example?

[Cloud6625]

Sure thing! Contrast is the difference in darkness between the darkest colors and light in the lightest colors. Highlights in particular are very light colors added to an image liberally. These are usually used to show light, shine, or some kind of reflection. Here is an example of your sprite compared to a quick edit I did to increase the highlights. I also made a very high contrast sprite to visualize an example of extreme contrast. The dark colors are very dark and the light colors are very light.



You may have also noticed that I changed the background to a dark green color. Try to avoid white and black backgrounds as they can cause issues with characters using these colors (which are very common to use). Try using some sort of color that isn't on the character sprite you're making. A lot of my characters end up having green backgrounds because I don't use green a whole lot.

If you need to know some terms this topic here has lots of great information:https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-25474.html

[blackwind677]

Yea. I'd say change the color of X's unarmored parts.

[Cloud6625]

Making a quick post here because I completely forgot to mention one aspect of adding contrast to an image. Contrast isn't quite just making a color lighter or darker. You can also add contrast by simply altering colors. If you ever took some kind of Art Class in school chances are you would've heard about Complimentary Colors.

Complimentary Colors are exact opposites on a Color Wheel so they have the most Contrast with one another. This is a simple example of how altering colors creates contrast. It doesn't always need to be complimentary colors either. Here is an edit I made to the sprite with alterations almost only to the colors compared with yours

Again, this is a bit of a more extreme example. You may not always want this much change in hue. It depends on the style you're going for.

Sorry I forgot to mention this in the original post. I wasn't really thinking about it at the time 

[Zerite]

After thinking and reading some I think before I continue with editing his sprite or making any other edited sprite's or new ones I want to come up with a palette for him and the whole game.
The first two row palette is from X6 with the second being what I'm working on using a combination of X6, Model X from ZX and some of the main colors from Maverick hunter X.
   
Not really knowing how development works if you think I should focus on something else first any suggestions would be appreciated.