Sticky X/Y Sprite Project

A 15 color versions of Xerneas is possible too. I edited the version in google docs a little and the results are the following:
716_f_15colors.png
716_b_15colors.png

Orignial:
716_f.png
716_b.png

The current front version has 31 colors and the back 24. The biggest difference is the dotting on the shadowed leg.
 
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Legitimate Username

mad tales of a bloodthirsty corviknight
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Bumping this old thing because it's relevant. Ignoring those new colour changes posted above (which are great), I still have no idea why we're using the current version over these when the edits I made
a) make it much more anatomically correct proportions-wise (the current head is WAY too big and the body is too far down, among other issues)
b) give it a much better pose that makes a lot more sense for it to be standing in
c) makes the tops of the horns no longer look like they're "flat" against the top of the 96x96 pixel border, smoothing out the curve of them to look more natural.

Seriously it just doesn't make any sense to me, the current sprite just screams "uncanny valley" to me when compared to this edit.
 
There was a previous attempt to reduce Xerneas's palette to <16 colours in the past that we rejected because it ignored the fact that Xerneas actually does have around eight different colours in its antlers. Yes, it's "possible", but also inaccurate, so we won't be taking this one either.

Legit, please see my post on page 99 regarding this disagreement about Xerneas. Even though that was a few years ago, I don't really have anything new to say, except that this whole issue is subjective and what you think of the current version is also exactly what I think about your edit. In the context of this project, I understand how frustrating it can feel to be rejected time after time for something you're absolutely confident in, and I won't blame you if you think of me as being unfair or just delusional--but my stance on this matter is unlikely to change.
 
There was a previous attempt to reduce Xerneas's palette to <16 colours in the past that we rejected because it ignored the fact that Xerneas actually does have around eight different colours in its antlers. Yes, it's "possible", but also inaccurate, so we won't be taking this one either.
The only color missing in my edit is the yellow (which is not even present in the back sprite). And I don't see why we should use three different shades for each color in the horns. Two are more then enough. The art in using pixel is to use as less colors as possible. If you think the one color missing in the horns justify double the amount of colors in the sprite, so be it. But in my opinion it is just lazy spriting.

And to be honest, I like the version of Legitimate more as well. The anatomy is more accurate. The pose is the only thing that is subjective in this issue. If we have a sprite with accurate anatomy, we should use it. And probably reduce the colors as well.
Small head, horn has four colors with different shades.
 
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Barring clinical colour blindness, the different colours of the protrusions on Xerneas's antlers should be distinct in its official art (from front to back, they're orange, yellow, red, pink, purple, lavender, cyan, and indigo). I'm aware that restricting the colour palette is usually good form in pixel art, but it's been stated in this project that we've made an exception for Xerneas. That's where we're leaving it.

From this point, any future posts on Xerneas that don't add anything new and meaningful to the argument may be deleted.
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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Activity in this thread is low more because people cannot contribute the quality we are looking for and instead try to adjust sprites that are perfectly fine. Calling us lazy doesn't help you. I understand this thread is huge but we settled this a long time ago. I made the colour choice for Xerneas, and yes I went all the way. If you can't help us in any other way I'm sorry to hear that.

As for Xerneas' pose I'll just say BW prefers a bit more neutral stances, boring but practical I know.

Fact is I'm not opening the floodgates for more drive-by edits, the sprites are at a fantastic point, projects message me weekly asking for permission to use them. That's what is important for this project.

Also Quanyails one more snarky like or comment similar to that and you'll be getting a quick infraction, not appreciated in here or in whatever cap thread you put your petty attitudes.
 

TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
Although im sorta dead on making sprites atm mostly due to the fact i have i to make 900+ Pokemon on one canvas, I've been meaning to ask if it's fine that I can make my own version of Sylveon? I realize the point was to make it more like the other eevees, but that's the thing, its more distinct than the other eevees and doesnt match as well with them and even being larger them as a whole in all media it's in.

Probably wont make it for awhile though, just wanted to get the "OK" before doing anything just to make sure.
 
Hi there! I was looking a while back at Pokestadium.com for sprites and noticed that someone made B&W styled sprites for the 6th gen pokemon. I thought I would try and do the same for fun :) then not long ago I read at the bottom that the sprites were from you guys. So I decided to see if I could participate and put my Sprites to use. I see Floette has been Approved already, so this sprite is simply to show what I can do if nothing else ~

This was made by me 100% by the way...
I have a few questions - I assume it is mostly about animating the pokemon now as most of them have been sprited, but i must ask to clarify, can I post sprites of already approved pokemon? And do I need to reserve a pokemon in order to post it?
I would like to request to animate an approved Floette and to sprite / animate Greninja.

Thank you!
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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Hi Ayanocloud

To answer your questions:
There isn't much point to posting already approved and finalized mons, as nine times out of ten they are missing some of the requirements we have (size/colour/style/front and backs). So really our sprites are final and/or nearly finalized.
You should certainly post to say what you're working on, it's not like we have a wealth of other animators, but it's nice to know : )

So by all means please animate our Floette and Greninja. Also if it's possible you animating both Floette and Floette-E would be simply fabulous. We would rather not have someone wait over 3000 years to see both of them animated right?
 

Legitimate Username

mad tales of a bloodthirsty corviknight
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<== Old

<== New
I REALLY hate to whine about this kind of thing twice in a row, but I'd appreciate seeing this change specifically addressed rather than just ignored before someone goes to animate it. Like I really appreciate the last time you gave constructive criticism on this sprite and I specifically incorporated what you said about it into this version, so I'd really like another response to this. (Seriously I'd prefer an outright rejection (whether objective or subjective) over silence anyday, same as with Xerneas.)
 
Hi Legitimate Username, uh I noticed your post about the Greninja sprite and I'm wondering is it alright to animate yet? It does not seem like it. I will wait for you to be finished, just let me know when you are.

So you want some criticism on your update? I think all changes I can see are very good and look better. If I was to go beyond critiquing your update I would say Greninja's tongue fold could be further to the right and slightly more vertical. On the front sprite - the leg that is furthest behind could be moved to the left and up to give a more 3d effect, I think the feet are a little too close together. And lastly he could be a deeper blue maybe?

Well that's what I think! your update looks great!
 

Legitimate Username

mad tales of a bloodthirsty corviknight
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Yeah this is the most recent version and I'm done with changes but I wouldn't recommend animating this version until it gets Layell's/princessofmusic's seal of approval. In any case, thank you very much for your critique, although unfortunately I doubt I'll be implementing any more changes since I was more looking for criticism of the specific changes made from the old version to this rather than for the new sprite on its own, in order to hopefully streamline the approval.
 

TrainerSplash

Alolan Form
Because I'm a picky little artist.

I made these awhile ago, jus' say'n

Greninja's "triangle" is not a different color, and doesn't have 3 stripes. if it was supposed to be some for of lighting I fixed that too. I wouldn't mind merging edits to fix the arm. But I really sick of this whole greninja think and I think we should just leave him alone for now.
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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I'll try to make this brief but I'm going to outright reject the changes LU and TS have both proposed.

For LU:
-I feel the gap in the backsprite for the lower arm and leg is too slight and a bit annoying
-The raised section of the lower tongue scarf on backsprite is too small now
-The smaller toes is a bit too tiny now

For TS:
-Refer back to the model and shiny swap, and you will see this edit was unnecessary

At some point in an artistic project that goes for a great length of time minor adjustments at everything "final" does set in, everyone wants to do that one final touch, sometimes we need that, sometimes we don't. No deadline is a blessing and a curse. We need to trust the work we've already done, and hopefully focus on that what we need to finish.
 

Legitimate Username

mad tales of a bloodthirsty corviknight
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Yeah don't worry I totally understand. I greatly prefer the lack of ambiguity in "I'm going to outright reject the changes" because elsewise it's easy to think "well they listed these flaws so if I fix them maybe it'll be accepted!" (which is what I did last time). Now that I know for sure we're sticking with the current version I can stop worrying about it.
 
Well, it's been a little while since I've posted anything. I was spriting in my free time and decided to touch up a Pokemon that I feel doesn't really fit in with the rest of the project's sprites anymore: Heliolisk.

Original:

My Version:

I feel as though the original Heliolisk is much more tall and bulky than he actually needs to be - keep in mind that he's only supposed to be around 3'3'', so Heliolisk is around the same size as Wartortle or Sandslash.
Secondly, the original Heliolisk seems to be looking away from his opponent, and this is literally the only Pokemon sprite to do this. Every other sprite from our project (and every official Pokemon sprite in B&W, to my knowledge) is directly focused on their opponent. I guess to summarize; he looks distracted.


Changes from the original version to my version include:
Front Sprite
-Changing the direction of Heliolisk's head from diagonal to frontward.
-Shrinking Heliolisk's posture down to a size more appropriate for his official height.
-Giving Heliolisk more of a kneeling over position.
-Fixing the arms to have more of an elbow.
-Shrunk and dded shading to the eyes.
Back Sprite
-Same changes to the head as those of the front sprite.
-Adjusted the frills around Heliolisk's neck to make it fit over top his shoulders more naturally.
-Making the limbs appear more "nimble".

Many of the changes were partially inspired by seeing both Noscium's and Zerudez's versions of Heliolisk, while trying to keep it relatively similar to the original version. Hope this doesn't kick around settled dust too much, since Heliolisk has already been finalized to my knowledge.
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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your face and frills are so weird

shading in the eyes isn't helpful here

you messed up big time on the shiny swap

your best argument is height, but yours just looks cramped now, size is relative

see: Mienfoo and Vullaby on looking away
 
your face and frills are so weird

shading in the eyes isn't helpful here

you messed up big time on the shiny swap

your best argument is height, but yours just looks cramped now, size is relative

see: Mienfoo and Vullaby on looking away
The frills on the front sprite are the exact same as the ones as those of the original sprite - the back sprite frills are simply angle up more. Not really sure what is meant by "weird", but I can try to touch it up some.

I can see what you mean by the eyes not necessarily needing to be shaded - that's an easy fix though.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the shiny swap, though. I didn't even include a shiny Heliolisk for my take on Heliolisk - I simply took what was in the Google Docs to give a side-by-side comparison. Other than that, the color pallet is the exact same.

Height is relative, sure, but within the context of family Pokemon, Heliolisk is huge when compared to Helioptile. I feel there should be some sort of similarity in sizing when it comes to Pokemon families, as well as taking the general size of the Pokemon into account. The current Heliolisk is nearly the size of Beartic, who is a 8'06''. Again, I know size is relative, but keeping Pokemon families consistent is my goal here.

What about the sprite is cramped, though, if you could be more specific? Is is in the torso with the frills and arms, or some place else? Because the pose is basically a shrunken down version of the original pose, with the same amount of space open in his stomach/torso relative to the original counterpart, I'm having difficulty finding where exactly the cramped spacing is.

I completely disagree that Vullaby and Mienfoo are looking away from their opponent. Mienfoo's head is tilted more diagonal, but his eyes are still facing towards his opponent. And Vullaby's facing straight ahead. Unless you meant Mienshao and Mandibuzz. I'd argue that Mandibuzz is still facing the opponent - it's hard to tell in the spritework, but seeing that the artwork is basically identical in posture with the sprite, you can see that Mandibuzz's eyes are just closer/being covered partially by its eyebrow. For Mienshao, I'll concede that he's not facing directly at the opponent, but he's still facing in the relative direction of his opponents surroundings. The current Heliolisk sprite is simply looking in the air, completely separated from the battle field.
 

Layell

Alas poor Yorick!
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I did mean Mandibuzz, also Teddiursa, and Timburr

Take a good long look at the shiny swap, try replacing outright your colours. The fact you were not paying attention to this fact alone makes me not want to use this sprite. Hint: not all yellow's are the same.

I feel it's cramped because it's taking such a small amount of detail in places like the arms, leg and head.

I may be willing to concede on a smaller size. But it honestly has to look just as good smaller. I'm not convinced.
 

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