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My so so (I really hope) Sprites.

ThaosDM

Zapdos
My Character:
(Had to be in a clickable thumbnail because you would have to click it to be able to see it because of how small it is.) Sunrise Lucario:
f296ap.jpg


Trainers:
Thaos:
dptr172.png
Michael:
dptr078.png


Pokemon:
Shadow Arceus:
241l9hx.jpg
Shadow Dialga:
2ywa03l.jpg
Arceatina (Both normal and shiny form):
487giratina.png
Shadow Palkia:
iyl7ir.jpg
(That's it for now.)
 
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You need to shade your outlines. From what I can see, you have left black. Notice how most pokemon sprites have a lighter outline colour than black.
487giratina.png

The colours in the second one appear to be from paint. Use colours from other Pokemon sprites instead, then you won't make others eyes bleed. =p Also, the head just looks like it has been glued on, you need to blend it in a bit more.

A good start, but needs some work. ^^ Keep spriting.
 
I must say, these are not that good.

I don't mean to be mean. My first sprite was made less than four months ago and it was utterly hideous. But with the help of others, I have (hopefully) improved. So, some constructive criticism.

Sunrise Lucario. It's a neat idea in theory, or I think so anyway, but there are several problems. First and foremost is that you've shrunk the Lucario. This has made it very grainy and hard to see. Also, it is generally a bad idea to have light-colored outlines, though I guess maybe here it's acceptable due to SL's nature. The wings aren't very good either, or rather the right (our left) one: it consists of mostly straight lines, also something to avoid. The bottom feather of its right wing goes inwards, which looks bizarre. And you have six feathers in its left wing and only four in its right. Finally, you seem to have missed some of the blue when recoloring it.
Its background is rather badly done. It's just thrown together in Paint, yes? That kind of thing can offset even the best sprite. The formatting on the text looks odd too; it probably shouldn't all be in bold italic underlines. See how odd it looks among normal text? And while it's not quite a spritework comment, my perfectionism urges me to point out that some of your grammar is awkward; it should probably go more like:
Sunrise Lucario, the most graceful of all Pokémon. It emerges from the water right at the sunrise to fly up to the sun and cast its shadow on the beach. The moment its shadow is seen, it dives back under the water to avoid being seen. To this day no-one has ever seen the Sunrise Lucario.
(I'd also like to point out that shadows are not reflected but areas where no sunlight falls.)

Thaos and Michael. Sorry, but they're just trainer sprites with bad edits that lack shading. Some of the recolored shading looks bad too, since the shades are messed up in other colors. Also, the swords don't line up, by about two pixels for the first one and the second one is hard to tell because we don't know quite what it's meant to look like.

Shadow Arceus. Well, the most noticeable thing is that it lacks shading. Its colors look odd too; the bright orange, for example, looks hideous contrasting with the purple. You've also made the outlines lighter there too, and Shadow Arceus has nothing to excuse this. You've also missed several pixels in the recoloring, again. And finally, though this isn't as important, you've cropped it to Arceus' width but not its height.

Shadow Dialga. Easily your best one, though that's not to say I have no criticism. Primarily, you've got yet more lighter outlines. The shading looks kind of bizarre, but since I think that's just a remnant of Dialga's original shading, so. The silver's outlines look very purple and that's just odd. Again you've missed several pixels in your recoloring. You've missed several pixels in your transparency, namely between its toes and between its frill-things, and one patch in between its legs. And while it's a matter of opinion, I think it'd look better if you had the purple in the space of the silver and vice-versa.

Arceatena. Well, it's rather a failure as a Fusion. All you've done is erased Giratina's wings and head and pasted Arceus' head on. What's worse is that you've copy-flipped Arceus' head. You just don't copy-flip. The coloring would be okayish but for one thing; you've got inverted shading. The lightest shade goes on the top. You don't have the light outlines this time at lease, but you've yet again left several pixels of the old color.
...Now, so far, I've only been talking about the normal form. The shiny is just... ugh. You used the paint default colors. Never use them. You’ve also given no thought to shading, so that you've got blue with red shadows. And you have, yet again, missed some of the colors in recoloring. But this time it's worse, since it's the outline of the head. Ugh.

...*deep breath* well. That's one of the longest things I've ever typed. I hope you take it to heart and use it to improve.

(Also, your thread title seems to be inspired by mine! :3)

EDIT: Post-ninjaed about Arceatena's head and colors. Aww. Well, the rest still applies.
 
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I need some help. I am trying to make all of my sprites to look as realistic as they do on the My Sprites part of the actual TCoD site. But on MS paint none of the colors can make it look like it. Help please.
 
One of the best rules of spriting is "don't use the default MS Paint colors. You should use colors from other sprites or (in a pinch) make your own.
 
Your last comment sounds like you just don't know how to not use the default Paint colors. If you can't find the colors you want in a Pokemon sprite, just double clicking one of the colors in the color box in Paint opens a window with even more default colors. From there you just press the Define Custom Colors button to mess with the hue, saturation and luminosity.

You can get to this window from the top Colors > Edit Colors, too, if you want to edit a color that's not in the color box, such as a color you just grabbed with the eyedropper tool. :3

My advice to you would be to look at good sprites. If just reading about spriting doesn't seem to help you out any (or even if it does), looking at finished products can help you understand how they're made.
Find a sheet of the official sprites and zoom in close, and critically observe how the colors in the outlines change, how the pixels form shapes when you zoom out... When I'm working on a sprite (any kind, be it a scratch or revamp or splice) I always keep some official sprites off to the side for reference.
 
Ok I got a new sprite. Let me put it on here. I think this one is the best i have ever done.
Edit: Look at Shadow Dialga. That is my new version of it. Comment me how it looks.
 
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It's pretty good, but you've removed some of its outlines and you have replaced the very darkest shade with black which looks odd. And you've still missed some of the colors.

EDIT: Shadow Palkia. Well. It's lacking in outlines, yet again, and you've removed some shading yet again, and you've missed some pixels in recoloring, yet again. Seems that you're making the same errors every time. Try to fix those?

EDIT EDIT: Have you ever read this? It helps.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: you've revamped Sunrise Lucario! And while it is undoubtedly better, I do have some complaints. Primarily, now that SL is bigger, it's obviously blurred. This is a Bad Thing. And you have still got a Paint background. And you copy-flipped Swellow's wing, it seems.
(Also, whee! You used my text!)
 
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*Coughcoughyoubumpedcoughcough*

Your trainer sprites are particularly good, but the scratched parts need to be shaded.

Now, I may not seem like a spriter, but bear with me, cause if I made another (It's been a while), It'd be pretty damn good.

Your sprites are nice, but the problem is that it looked like you cut off an Arceus head, and taped it on there. You need to make it look natural.

Spriters Tip: ALWAYS, ALWAYS save your sprite as PNG, or if an animation or if it's transparent, GIF. Otherwise, PNG is the way to go.

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I like the look of your Shadow Arceus and Dialga, but the only tools you should use if you are working on Paint is the two selection tools, the eraser, the paintcan, the eyedropper, the magnifying glass, and the pencil tool. No. Matter. What.

I suggest using the free-form selection tool for taking parts off of sprites, as it's easier to get what you want, and not having to erase. It's better in many ways. Only use the other selection tool if nessesary. No. Exceptions.

Now, theres an eraser trick on paint. Get a color you want. Let's say lime green. I right click the color while using the eye dropper tool, if I remember correctly, and your eraser should become that color. Now, get back on your eyedropper, and left click the color you want replaced. Go back to your eraser. Now, hold the right side of the mouse, and move over the color you want to replace. If you go over that color, it will become the other color.

Spriters Tip: Warning, default paint colors are frowned upon. Don't use them. Use colors from other sprites instead, or create your own palette.


The pencil and paint can tools should be used for small areas that isn't even worth the effort to use the eraser trick for, or for scratching, shading, and other general things.

I'm sure you know what the other tools do. But please, don't outline your sprites with the paintbrush tool.

---------

Continued in another post due to dsi limits.
 
If you want your sprites to be transparent, fill the white on your sprite not part of it (eg. Don't color in the eyes if they're part white) with a color not located in your sprite, such as lime green.

Download PhotoShop CS3 Demo if you don't have it already, and load your sprite onto PhotoShop. Select the Magic Eraser tool, and select a patch of lime green (or whatever color). Then delete it. To get rid of it all, it might take a few clicks.


If you refuse to use CS3, go to www.lunapic.com, upload the image, and select the transparentize tool wich should be somewhere on the first three tabs. This process is easier, because it can take away all of that color in one click. Just click the color after selecting the tool, then save it to your computer. Then, upload it to Tinypic. (Not Photobucket. It'll ruin the transparency.) Then you know the rest. There you go!

Spriters Tip: Don't use a big variety of bright colors. It hurts the eyes. Also, don't invert, unless it's part of the actual sprite you're making. And don't do recolors, as those show no skill at all.


-----------

Nice little tutorial, huh?
 
I'm sorry for the long-needed(and most likely against the rules) bump, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to all of you who were trying so hard to help me. It seems like it's been over a year since I made these, and if I didn't take all of your guys' advice, I would still be horrible at spriting. I've been through ten sites trying to get help, but none of it helped as much as this. Honestly, I deleted these sprites long ago, but now I have organized folders with resources, and a gallery with over a 1000 sprites I made in it(I'm 14, and when schools out, I spend all of my time spriting). I've recently started learning how to make custom sprites, but whenever I get the time, I'll start adding my new sprites.
Again, I can not thank you for all the help you have given me.(And sorry for the bump, I just HAD to tell all of you guys)
 
Wasn't any of the people who helped you out, but it's super super great to hear that you got a lot of help here! (And you're contributing something significant to the thread, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't constitute bumping.)

I, for one, would love to see your improvement!
 
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