Sorry attempts at spriting

[Gale]

My very first attempt at making a custom sprite. Please give me tips, because I did this from scratch without knowing what I was doing as far as emulating the art style was concerned.

[BonzaiRob]

It's pretty good for a first attempt The eyes especially are very good.
The main thing I think you need to work on is shading; it looks kind of flat right now. Chading has to accentuate curves, show what shape the pokémon is. Also, don't use all black for outlines - go round it in a darker version of the main colour, then add black sparingly for the very darkest parts, or to add detail. Then you can use your darker shading colour for lighter bits of outline too.

[Tropiuslover]

Well, that's not a perfect sprite, but that's really good for first attempt.

[FMY]

That's a first attempt!? Really good!

[mls]

That's a great first attempt! It is a lot better than my first. All you need to do is work on the shading. It comes from the top-left corner and the pokemon should be facing towards the foe (bottom-right).

[Gale]

So more definitive shading and flip the image horizontally? Easy. Oh, I'm not a novice spriter. I'm only new to making full customs from scratch like this. That sprite is just me trying to get used to the different art style. I actually edit Fire Emblem sprites for fun, so I have a little experience. Here, I'll post a bit of my old stuff.





EDIT:

So, I'm not sure if you guys allow double-posting in these threads, so I'll just edit. Is this any better?

[Rayquaza the Legend]

nice first tries!

[Tropiuslover]

Wow, you are really talented. I like what you do.

And no. We aren't allowed to double-post.

[BonzaiRob]

That's a bit better, yeah. Try what I said about the outline next.

[Super Cuddles]

Awesomeness!! We should use the fat bird!!

And actually normal ppl are allowed to double post when they really want attention! But only I can do triple, quartrable and so on and so forth post!

[Gale]

Sorry about the outlines. I'm not used to anti-aliasing because of the style of spriting I'm used to. I'll try that on the next version. I'm also going to try to create an evolved stage now that I have a real mouse. It took forever to do that one with a laptop touchpad.

Oh, and if you guys want to use that sprite once I perfect it, be my guest. A little credit would be nice if you do.

Also, if you don't mind a suggestion about double-posting, a lot of forums I'm on allow double-, triple-, etc. posting on artistic threads by any members. In serious discussion areas and the like it's not allowed.

EDIT:

Here's the anti-aliased, re-shaded version:

[Tropiuslover]

Sorry if I'm offending you, but I see no difference.

[Gale]

No worries. It's not a major change. Little cosmetic touch-ups. I'll explain:

The difference is anti-aliasing, which is the use of a dark shade of the base colors of a sprite to make it look more "real," since objects in real life don't tend to have black outlines. I've also made changes to the shading to make a better representation of the light source.

[Gale]

[Tropiuslover]

I like the concept, but not the sprite so much. Look at serebiiforums.com, there are a lot of useful tutorials.

Also, why do you make the background black? I can't see the outline

[Gale]

Your computer doesn't allow for transparent images, does it? The background has no color. It's transparent.

I might make a different position later. I'm also fairly certain I won't learn much from that site. Not to mention its server is much too slow.

[mls]

It is transparent to me. :/

Anyway, the sprite is okay. However, I think you need to work on the shading. Right now I think you are using pillow shading(right?), where you only shade around the edges of the sprite. It makes it look flat. Take a look at some official pokemon and look at how they are shaded, it could help. Usually the light comes from the top-left corner and it helps give shape to the sprites. But, don't worry, you will improve.

[Gale]

Hmm, I think it's just the colors I'm using. The second might vary too much from the primary one. Light source is definitely being taken into account there, but maybe it could be done more. I see what you're saying. I'll see if I can't fix it.

[BonzaiRob]

Quick demo of what MLS means:

Yours is on the left, then my lightning reshade in the middle. See how I went in curves? That's what defines shape, more than outline.This isn't a great example, but I hope it makes some sense.
On the right, I recoloured it using Prinplup and Butterfree. I do a lot of my work like this; if you want a sprite to look official, use an official palette It's also a good demo of shapey shading. See how Butterfree's body is mostly in shadow, apart from the top of the head? The dark shade is a lighter colour there. You can also almost see how the shading goes in circles, because Butterfree's head is more or less a sphere. If you shade a sphere you use circles
Also Prinplup's body is that standard, pokemon sort of baggy trouser shape (seriously, it's on like anything. Pikachu, Exploud, Buizel...) The shading follows that contour.
Ever seen a contour ap? Shading in this style is like that. You have to imagine like a cross section perpendicular to the light source, and follow it. As it were.
Imagine the light source is a ball of light, then imagine a larger, transparent ball extending out so that it cuts through the pokemon; where it touches the edges of the part you're colouring, that's where your line of shading is.

Oh, ancd you can also see on a darker bg how little nintendo uses black.

[Tropiuslover]

Very good. However, you may use 3 shading colore to make the sprite more real. Try looking at FRLG sprites, they are a m uch better example. The outline has shading too - don't forget it!

I'd like to see more sprites from you.

Oops, seems like I taught Bonzai is gale. XD

[Gale]

tropiuslover said:

Very good. However, you may use 3 shading colore to make the sprite more real. Try looking at FRLG sprites, they are a m uch better example. The outline has shading too - don't forget it!

I'd like to see more sprites from you.

Actually, he's using three shading colors. I didn't use any references to determine the light source. "Top left" is a very general term. Thanks for the example.

[Gale]

Oh, so I've stopped trying to scratch, because I'm a bit too lazy and too short of time at the moment. However, I have been doing bits and pieces of spriting as requests. One I can't share, a few I can. Like most of my spriting, it has nothing to do with Pokemon.