CAP 5 CAP 5 - Sprite Submissions

[Headpunch]

As much as you can tell us about what you think an idea DP sprite looks like, I'm pretty sure you have not read some sort of Nintendo guide that tells how to perfectly create that style of sprite.

Observation is key. I don't need a guide to tell me that R/B/Y sprites use a four color palette, just like I don't need a guide to tell me that all D/P sprites are rendered in an anime style. It's a fact, and whether or not you choose to accept it has no relevance regarding my post.

I stress the importance of style consistency for this reason: creating Pokémon and going to the lengths of making them usable on Shoddy means that they are intended to stick around. I believe that the closer a CAP sprite is to the current Pokémon generation's style, the more lasting appeal it will have as an added Pokémon as opposed to a sprite that voters thought looked "neat" at the time of voting.

Edit @ Wyverii:
I apologize for the lengthiness of the previous post, I understand it must have been hard to get all my points out of it. I specifically mentioned cases similar to Beldum's when I said that black and outline colors are used for texturing. In Beldum's case, he has some entirely separate surfaces indicated by the shadow color touching the base color, not multiple texture colors on the same surface. Venusaur has more colors than the average D/P sprite on his body partly because it is such a broad, unbroken expanse that only two colors could not have adequately expressed shadow and highlight. CAP 5 is not comparable to Venusaur in that regard.

My issue is mainly with your sprite's head, not the rest of the body (which is indeed excellent).

 

[darkie]

So are you proposing we redo Syclant's and Revenankh's sprites?

This is not a nintendo project. If people like a sprite that looks completely out of place in-game, so be it.

 

[Headpunch]

So are you proposing we redo Syclant's and Revenankh's sprites?

What part of what I said looked like I mentioned redoing old CAPs? I'm saying that continuity and lasting appeal are things voters should keep in mind in the future. If they don't want that, then we are opening ourselves up to criticism from artists that are aware of D/P stylizations.

Really, it's like putting a Yellow version sprite in D/P (like Zapdos') because I think it's the coolest sprite of that Pokémon. Cool? Yes. A good fit? No.

This is not a nintendo project.

Correct! This is a fan project intending to put a created Pokémon into a set with other Pokémon. In all other areas (moves, abilities, concept art) careful consideration is given to if such and such move/ability/art would make no sense when compared with other Pokémon (ex: CAP 5 is not going to be seeing the use of Sacred Fire anytime soon regardless of whether it would benefit from it competitively). The sprite should receive no less consideration. If we are trying to create a Pokémon, should it not resemble Gamefreak's concept of what a Pokémon is?

This is my last post on the matter in order to cut down on posts not relating to submitting or critiquing.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Headpunch, while I appreciate the attempt to reverse engineer a Nintendo style guide, you really can't state any "facts" (as you called them) about what rules Nintendo sprite artists follow for D/P sprites. You are making "guesses". Even if your guesses are right, I highly suggest that sprite artists on this project ignore your advice. Not because your observations are wrong or bad -- but your advice is not going to help any sprite artists win. In fact, if they follow your advice, they will likely lose.

Look at all the past winning sprites in the CAP project, and tell me if they follow your supposed "rules". At best, maybe Wyverii's Pyroak sprite is truest to the color and shading conventions of most ingame sprites. But even the Pyroak sprite is more detailed than most ingame sprites. But, I'm not going to argue about the Pyroak sprite. Without a doubt, the Syclant, Revenankh and Fidgit sprites are more textured than most ingame sprites.

Here's my point -- if you make your sprites follow some strict approximation of an unspecified set of "Sprite Coloring Rules", you will probably hurt your chances of winning. Why? Because, more richly colored sprites look better to the average CAP voter. Popular voting history proves my point.

So, feel free to make your sprites however you want. But, for every vote you get from some purist who appreciates your ability to work with a set of artificially imposed coloring rules -- you will lose three votes from voters who vote on the sprite that looks "coolest". Detailed sprites look cooler than simple sprites. This is a popularity contest. And there are NO LIMITS to the number of colors you can use on a CAP sprite. There is NO STYLE GUIDE that spriters must follow.

The only real "style" rules, are that it must be no larger than 80x80, and it must have a distinguishable border. That's it. The size rule is because of the area available to display the sprite on the Shoddy battle screen. The border rule is not imposed for style reasons, it's because unbordered sprites look terrible on different background colors. We learned that on CAP1. That's why the Syclant sprite does not have a strict border. There was no rule in place at that time. Unfortunately, that sprite looks bad on some Shoddy screens. But, other than those rules, the spriters can do whatever they want.

And, if the sprite artists are smart, they will use all the artistic tools available to them to make their sprites look as good as possible. This community does not reward artists for working within self-imposed limitations. I'm very glad Wyverii ignored some rules she has followed in the past. Not that her sprites didn't look great before, but this one looks fantastic now that she is using richer and more detailed textures.

A hard-line "ingame style" spriting purist may win a CAP sprite contest. But, they will not win because they followed a strict set of limitations, they will win IN SPITE of them.

 

[IceBug]

-front-

-back-

Okay, update time. Still needing work, but getting better. Fixed the curve on the back sprite's head, and did a shiny coloration. And, although I don't expect to get a response, I implore you if you recolor sprites and are interested in 50% of the sprite credit, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!! Thank you.

 

[Super Sprita]

Hows this?

 

[rippersteveM5]

-front-

-back-

Okay, update time. Still needing work, but getting better. Fixed the curve on the back sprite's head, and did a shiny coloration. And, although I don't expect to get a response, I implore you if you recolor sprites and are interested in 50% of the sprite credit, PLEASE CONTACT ME!!! Thank you.

I like the pose as such, but it just doesn't look "rocky" enough on the head and claws - use more than one colour when shading. The shiny colours I don't think are appropriate for a rock type either. The "gleam" in the eyes and jewels should all be facing the same way as well, it just looks messy. Finally, the border shouldn't be all one colour. These are all fairly minor edits, I like the overall composition of the sprite.

Hows this?

Not bad for a first draft, the claws in the back sprite need to be enlarged. Also, the body shape for the front sprite doesn't match the body shape for the back sprite.

 

[brutal satyr]

-front-

-back-

ok this looks more like G/S/C style then dp .its very well done for that style but i don't think were looking for that

 

[Dragonzrule]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one.

 

[Darkflagrance]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one.

More insect-like than many of the front runners I feel. The positioning of the two front legs resembles the poses of a preying mantis; not sure if that was the intended effect.

 

[DougJustDoug]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one.

Very nice. Clean and colorful. I hope you make a backsprite, as I think this could be a contender.

 

[sanjay120]

Dragonzrule, I love the eyes. They make it look so cute and playful. I'd like a different shiny though, maybe light gray instead of brown on the body?

 

[Crossfiyah]

Vader's looks way too plain. I'm leaning towards Wyveii or flygon right now, they look like Pokemon sprites.

 

[rippersteveM5]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one.

I like this one a lot. It looks so much like a proper DP sprite. As Doug said, make a back sprite, as this is looking damn good so far. Good use of shading on the head might I add.

 

[darkjjak]

The positioning of the two front legs resembles the poses of a preying mantis; not sure if that was the intended effect.

I agree. I like it too. I think this one has a real shot doing well in the polls.

IMO, Wyverii set the standard for this one, and everyone else is trying to catch up.

 

[Yubel]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one. October 12th, 2008 06:58 AM

I really like how this one looks more rock like than some others. My only suggestion would be to change the bottom left claw to point upwards. Right now it looks too much like the one above it and 3 claws pointing down to one pointing up seems unbalanced to me.

 

[TPM]

Fixed the head shape and shading and made a shiny version. I will make a backsprite if enough people like this one.

Posting to let everyone know I have not given up on my submission, I just haven't had the time to work on it this week. I worked on them throughout the day today and fixed up(practically redid) the front sprites with the suggestions I read, and whipped up the back sprites, too:

I tried to fix the RBG look of the old sprite. I made the head smaller and increased the torso size to lessen the exaggeration of the pose. I changed the pose a bit too, and made the scythes somewhat sharper(yes, ALL of them; the bottom-left/upper-right scythes are closer to you). Opinions, suggestions, etc. are appreciated(though I may not get time to fix them until next weekend).

EDIT: @Kharozz: Lower the dither on the head/scythes, otherwise they look pretty good. The positioning or the left claw is a bit odd on the third one, though.

Still tweaking the sprites, but atleast I was finally able to choose the shiny colours, atleast till I deside to change them again :/ I might make the backsprite slightly bigger, but other than that, I'm almost finished with this thing.

Ehhh? @_@

My 4 favourites so far, not saying I don't like other ones ( Vader and Wyverii, you guys both did amazing ones ) but these 4 just stand out to me (maybe its there amazing poses ). Everyone here is doing great and I can't wait to see the final line up!

 

[Dragonzrule]

I created a backsprite.

 

[Legacy Raider]

Dragonzrule, that is an excellent set of sprites, but I have one little criticism. Your front sprite is great, but I think your backsprite is a bit "chunky". It doesn't look like it has a base 130 Spe stat, even though it is very well drawn and rendered. I suggest perhaps losing the rock floating in front of its lower arm, and maybe thinning down or moving down the rocks behind the head.
Just my $0.02, but congrats on the great sprite.

 

[DarthVader317]

I changed the eye a bit and made them blue in the shiny version.

 

[the_artic_one]

Great job Vader, the blue looks awesome with the black.

Love the changes to the eye as well, it makes the back sprite look "cleaner" somehow.

 

[Ninja Dood]

I changed the eye a bit and made them blue in the shiny version.

OHMANOHMANOHMANOHMAN

I really hope this one wins. I didn't like the design of the pokemon until I saw this sprite.

 

[Headpunch]

OHMANOHMANOHMANOHMAN

I really hope this one wins. I didn't like the design of the pokemon until I saw this sprite.

I would certainly have to agree. Vader's has my vote, and I would imagine it's going to stay that way.

 

[Murkrow]

I created a backsprite.

The front sprite is excellent! I really like it a lot. I think the lower right leg (the sprite's right) should be made to point up like the lower left leg. It would look more symmetrical that way.

I think the back sprite is too clustered together. The arms look stuck to the head, and the shape of the skull (including the eye placement) does not resemble the front sprite.

 

[IceBug]

<-- front

<-- back

Okay, so I got it shaded by my younger brother, who has been praticing sprite recoloring. Hopefully you also like the new shiny sprites.