Suggestions Butterfree's Pixel Art

[hopeandjoy]

Its wings are on the smallish side. Unless it tends to walk. But other than that it's better than the old Advanced sprite.

 

[Butterfree]

Yes, that's the idea. Thunderyu has huge wings, Volcaryu has very small wings that definitely wouldn't be able to carry it if it weren't a Pokémon (hey, they generally seem to have amazing powers of flying with tiny wings - just look at Dragonite). :P

 

[Butterfree]

Here's a beta version of Polaryu. Unlike the other two, I was giving Polaryu a bit of a makeover in design as well as in sprite quality.

I hate the wings and absolutely cannot figure out what to do with the shading on them. And the crystals on the limbs look pasted on. And it's a bit monochromatic. But I like the head, the pose and the new design. I'll do something with those wings and possibly reconsider the placements and/or number of crystals later, but for now I'd like some input on it so far. This is what the old one looked like:

 

[Pikachu]

Well, Polaryu looks great. The only thing that bothers me is that the wings are too low. I think it'll look better if the wings were parallel to the arms. Other than that, I liked it.

 

[ultraviolet]

Hmm, have you considered feathered wings, for Polaryu? I don't know. I think it would suit okay because Polaryu is much softer in design than his brothers, but it's up to you.
The only thing I could think of to fix the ice shards on the body would be to make them closer to his skin tone so they'd resemble scales more than ice shards.

:/ I'm sorry, that advice was terrible. Volcaryu looks much better.

 

[therocketman11]

im thinking feathers would work better than scales/skin, considering how cold it would be where it lives

 

[Espeon]

Perhaps, Butterfree, on Polaryu's tail, you could have some kind of crystal growth. Sort of like a natural mace or flail of some kind, so that it can physically whack its enemies to death from behind.

 

[Phoenixsong]

It's really good, but the wings are both leaning toward the same direction. I don't think the one that's closest to us should be angling back that far and in that direction unless Polaryu has crazy-flexible wing joints; it shouldn't extend past vertical, I think, or at least not that far. Placing them higher up on the back would probably make more sense, too. I think the snout would look a little better if it were slightly longer, but that's just me.

It is a vast improvement over the old one, anyway.

 

[Butterfree]

Wow, a lot of people have pointed out the wing placement. Yeah, I need to do something about that.

Feathered wings are not really possible. Polaryu is in a trio with Thunderyu and Volcaryu, and when you have a trio, you can't really have some very noticeable feature that's drastically different on one but the same on the other two, such as Thunderyu and Volcaryu having batlike wings but Polaryu having feathered ones. It throws off the balance, one could say. Either it's different in all three, such as the colors or the head shape, or it's the same in all three, such as being essentially bipedal or having something amounting to horns.

Like the idea of putting some crystal growth on the end of Polaryu's tail.

Not sure what you mean by "it shouldn't extend past vertical", Kratos - I do know what you're talking about in general, and it's one of the problems I have with the wings, but I don't know precisely what you're suggesting.

Polaryu's snout is meant to be thicker and shorter than that of the other two and I believe I tried a slightly longer one when I was making the head that just looked strange.

Thanks for all the advice. :3

 

[Phoenixsong]

Um, okay, poorly worded. What I mean is that it's gone beyond being at a 90-degree angle to the back and is now at an obtuse angle, leaning in towards the other wing. It should stay at 90 degrees or less so that it doesn't look hyper-extended. Was that any clearer?

 

[Butterfree]

Okay, so I finished Polaryu in a way that I'm decently happy with.

Basically, I redid the wing shading completely with a whole bunch of dithering, moved the base of the wing and slightly shortened the "forearm" of it, added a visible mouth and shortened the far arm by one pixel, aside from redoing the crystals. I tried a number of things that didn't really look right until I was finally reasonably happy with how this looked.

 

[Rayquaza]

Feathered wings are not really possible. Polaryu is in a trio with Thunderyu and Volcaryu, and when you have a trio, you can't really have some very noticeable feature that's drastically different on one but the same on the other two, such as Thunderyu and Volcaryu having batlike wings but Polaryu having feathered ones. It throws off the balance, one could say.

That may very well be true, but think about the Kanto trio for a moment here.
Articuno has feathery wings.
Zapdos has spiky wings.
Moltres has flaming wings.
I also think Polaryu would look better with feathered wings. Perhaps you could change one of the other twos' wings? Like make Volcaryu have lava for wings?
Just a thought.

By the way, your sprites are awesome, Butterfree! Someday I hope to be as good as you. Obviously it will take a while, because I'm almost eleven and you are eighteen, but I'll keep trying!

 

[Zulo]

To fix the leg crystals, add a tuft of fur in the front base of it. Like on Sneasel's ear-

And a shadow.

 

[Butterfree]

...uh, Polaryu doesn't have fur. o_O And there are shadows already.

 

[Icalasari]

Actually, I think Zulo has a good idea, imo

Except instead of fur, maybe make it one or two small scales overlapping the base of the crystals

 

[ultraviolet]

Ah, that looks much better. I like the ring of crystals around his neck, that was a nice touch. (:

Egad, your shading kills me. I wish I could shade things that good.

 

[OrangeAipom]

The top of the front wing looks bent away from me, which I think looks odd. Not sure what you can do about that, though. D:

 

[Evolutionary]

Those sprites really are great. There is a BIG difference between the old Polaryu and the new. I really like the way that you did the shading on the wings, it looks more smooth and...cool. Really great. Are you going to make DP sprites of your other fake Pokemon?

From EeveeSkitty

 

[Terry. T.]

They're good. I'd LOVE to request one, but it's just Suggestions.

 

[Zulo]

I meant, like this-

Mine edited is the first one.