CAP 11 CAP 11 - Sprite Submissions

[Rolf]

I've never really done CAP spriting before, so even though I'm probably not going to win by copying the original design, I still want to try and get into this for next round! And anyways, I think the main art design looks awesome. Heres my current draft:

Definitely need to shade some more and mess with the mouth. I'll also have to transparent the background, but I can do that later :) stiches will be bit**es though. I'll probably try different poses once I get a hang of the design.

 

[Elevator Music]

I've made some slight adjustments to my sprite, and experimented with a possible gender difference.

I tried changing the lengths of the pins and the needle on the sprites, but I don't think it's noticeable enough? Thoughts on this and the sprites themselves?

EDIT- shiny forms were added, but honestly I don't want to fool around with that stuff too much until I get the shading/etc right. Still, just thoughts.

 

[jujuomi]

I like AB's best. I love the pose. But the needle is missing a hole(where the thread would go), and is a bit long. Other than that and the shading to-be, its the best so far.

 

[Wikey]

@Gun6: good work so far. Not feeling the wig front sprites but the wig back sprites are top notch. Definitely more feminine than the non wig female back sprite.

 

[tennisace]

Just a reminder that like in the art thread, if you quote sprites you will be infracted.

 

[Scoopapa]

I made a previous post saying that I liked the "needle as sword" idea, since it emphasizes the fighting type, which is less reflected in the design than the dark type is. However, I also felt that the needle should be in the heart for the sprite, so that the sprite represents the "basic state", so to speak. Here is a rough draft of a sprite in a "hand on the hilt" pose, where he is ready to draw the needle from his heart should things get out of control.

I'm a complete amateur so I'd love any advice anyone is willing to give. I'd also like to point out (for rule 9) that anyone who likes the pose and thinks they can execute it better is more than welcome to use it!

Edit: fixing that white background

@below: : P

 

[Sonic The Hedgedawg]

sprite

the pose is actually one of the best I've seen, if that makes you feel any better.

the sprite work itself is just a little shoddy. the lines are a bit wobbly and there is no shading. I'm only trying to be helpful, btw, because I'd love to see this pose win, but the sprite isn't up to snuff.

 

[Sezja]

First of all, I would like to extend a round of applause to DougJustDoug for his well-deserved victory in the art polls. Well done, man, well done!

Now that what I needed to say was said, onto the first round of my comments and criticism for CAP 11…

Aragornbird:

I have to be frank and say that I couldn’t agree with Xatu fan (and a few others) more: I think your pose is excellent. It portrays the fact that this Pokémon is intended to attack using the sewing needle to attack (either as a wand or a sword). If you want to try other poses, though, that’s fine.

Obviously, shading this piece is in order, though I presume you are already doing that. I should point out, though, that the sewing needle is missing its eye. Adding that would do your piece plenty of favors.

Elevator Music:

I see that you have (apparently) decided to base your pose off of one of DougJustDoug’s supporting pieces. There’s nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned: in fact, I think your sprite is a wonderful rendition of that pose. The colors are also spot-on. I also like the shiny colors you are proposing here: I think they work very well.

I kinda had to study your female sprite for a few minutes before I realized what the difference between that and the male was: the varying lengths of the pins, as you stated in your post. If you were going for being subtle, great, but if not… well, it certainly is not obvious. What is also not obvious is whether or not the right eye button is broken. Making that a little more clear to the viewer would help your piece (and the viewer) a lot.

Tombadil:

Wow. For your first-ever sprite, I have to say that this is a pretty good piece. I applaud you for your willingness to come on here and show us your work. It has plenty of potential, that’s for sure. The pose you are going for is certainly an interesting concept.

I’ll just start with the more important issues first and go from there: we have plenty of time to work with here. First of all, when you enlarged your sprite, the image became blurry. The original, smaller sprite looks better in terms of image quality: if you want your sprite to be larger (and I think you should go with the larger sprite, frankly), I would recommend doing a pixel-over with it. Second of all, your sprite has a bad case of what is sometimes called “the dots.” In other words, there are places where the sprites outline looks broken and appears to be a dotted line. This is a touch less prevalent in your enlarged version, but it is still there.

Overall, this is a great start and an excellent first sprite. It certainly would be worth your time to work on it because I think you will come out with a strong piece in the end.

Big Poopa:

I really like the pose this sprite has. It works very well with this Pokémon, methinks: it’s kinda floppy, like a doll, but still lively. The color choice for the lighter fabric and the heart are well-chosen.

The coloration of the darker fabric, however, appears to be too brown. Looking at DougJustDoug’s artwork, the darker fabric is actually a grayish-brown color. In order to remain faithful to the original design, I would suggest that you go with a bright shade of a grayish-brown. Obviously, you’ll also need to add the eyes.

---

All in all, I am really liking what I am seeing so far. I am really excited to see how these sprites turn out in the end. As always, I only comment because I care and want to make these sprites the best pieces they can be: whether or not you follow any suggestions I give you is completely up to you.

 

[Scoopapa]

Thanks for the criticism, StH. I've added shading and outline color, and I cleaned up the needle a bit. I caught some "blocks" of outline and fixed them, but I'm not convinced that's what you were talking about with the lines, so if the same thing is wrong please tell me again more specifically! I really appreciate criticism from everyone, as harsh as you care to give.

Updated sprite:

Edit: fixed the vagina. rofl

I see what you mean about the colors, my brown is yellower than doug's and the gray is very pale. I'll work on that tomorrow I think. Thanks for the help.

Also, thanks Wyverii, who doesn't know yet that I studied his sprite to learn about shading and color outlines!

 

[Sonic The Hedgedawg]

Updated sprite:

the shading really brought some depth to the pokemon and cleaned it up a ton! It solves almost all of the problems it had.

Now I have only one problem with it:
I know pokemon sprites are traditionally bright and colourful, but, even with that consideration, the colour scheme looks a bit too off from the official artwork. It looks a bit too.... yellow?
The yellow tan should be closer to beige and the ivory should be grey. Darkish grey even.


other than that you might want to get rid of, or fade the line in CAP11's crotch seam. Right now, to be quite blunt, it looks like it has a vagina. with no vertical crease, it might look too awkward, but with the crease as bold as it is, it looks a little.... suspect.

 

[Deck Knight]

OK, so this is a little bit less amatuerish than the Art submission (It's still my first scratched sprite in paint. I like the pose, I'm just worried about screwing up proportions and uh, my shading is... fail. I'll ask someone for help with black vs. lighter outlines, I could only gather so much from looking at the pixel arrangements of other works.

In any event the pose is meant to show off the versatility of the design, which I think got short shrift for being too bland. The needle is lifted above the head with threading attached that's the same color as the heart. Leather is a pretty good insulator against electricity so it could be used as a kind of electrical buffer.

In one of the hands there are 3 pins, arranged so that CAP11 can use them like a claw, much like Lucario in the anime could grow long energy claws out of its hands. This is a different approach to that but the general idea is CAP11 fights dirty. Spiked knuckles, swordplay, tying with electrical tape, etc.

So mechanical problems aside, I'll see if I can clean it up a little more, then just recolor for shinies. Help on the mechanics front would be appreciated.

EDIT: Alchemator did a wonderful touch-up for me, for which I am very grateful. I've made a few minor modifications after his to draw more attention to the better constructed areas. These will be the Male and Female Front sprites. In addition to the more obvious color difference, there are two more subtle distinctions. Males are slightly taller while females have slightly longer needles.

 

[peng]

2 different poses I've been working on. I know the shading and line-art still needs working on, but I just want some comments on which pose to carry forward.

 

[Tombadil]

Thanks Sezja!

Just made some small improvements to try and improve the quality. In no way am I finished and plan to play with the arm positions and features more, just looking for a little more fedback and to see if this is an improvement on the original.

 

[Sleet]

EDIT: I gave them thumbs!

I played around with it a bit with making the brown colours a bit darker.
I changed the female to not only have reversed patches (like before) but it has a heart shape on the end of the needle.
I think I have a problem with the straightness of the needle but it's the only position *I* could make look even somewhat okay. I guess I'll fiddle with it if it's a problem. EDIT: So now they have a thumb to keep it standing upright, it makes it seem a little more believable, I hope..

I've also tried other shiny colours but I still prefer purple (incidentally, the purple is now darker) and blue, unfortunately this is the same as Gun6's so I'm still trying to find a different combo that I like

Also, the box in the top right is 81x81, so that's how he fits into an 80x80 space.

 

[smallvizier]

PenguinX, there are a lot of sprites which look a bit like your standing pose... and I think some of them are better.

On the other hand, your original is unique. It looks menacing and malevolent and I'd love it if that was where you focused your efforts.

My favourite part is the face. On the downside, there's no hole in its heart, and I'm not convinced by its grey hand.

As far as your prospects go, if Voojitsu wins the name poll then you're sunk, because there's not too much of a fighting or martial arts perspective to my eyes.

 

[Alchemator]

Alchemator, I cannot see your sprite.

It was a joke submission anyway.

EDIT:

@Aragornbird - The one on the right definitely. However, consider moving its right leg down to a standing position. It looks slightly awkward at the moment. Otherwise I think it's great! Maybe use more pins though.

 

[Arkeis]

Made a second pose. Some people were saying the design didn't look like it was fast. Giving the sprite a running pose would certainly help. So here's the two poses side by side. Which do you like best?

 

[kingdra22]

aragornbird: 1st one

 

[Azule]

Sleet, I love your pose and shading. I'd try making the brown a tad darker, though.

 

[Bynine]

It's in sort of a shoulder tackle position, to emphasize the fact that it's a fighting type.

 

[iPood]

@BynineB

It's a nice pose and sprite, however the right arm (the one tackling) looks like it has a bulge/bump. Is it meant to be there?

 

[smallvizier]

BynineB, I love that you're thinking differently with that shoulder tackle sprite - and, to be absoloutely clear, it looks great. The problem is that there's no way I'd vote for it, because it omits two of the artwork's key elements: the needle, and the pierced heart.

When I do a shoulder charge, I dip my head a little more, and my trailing arm is a little lower than the one in your sprite. If you did something similar, then the heart would still be visible. As for the needle... perhaps he's stabbed it right down his leading forearm to make his charge even more punishing?

I'm not sure that my suggestions are good ones. They'd probably be hard to implement. I think you've got to come up with something, though, because if you're missing both of these key elements then your unusual and fighting-orientated pose is not going to make it out of the bold voting.

 

[peng]

Made a couple of changes, including a complete redo of the shading, reposition of pins, and stitching the bottom of his feet to make them less bare.

Still having problems in how to go about spriting the needle, it just never looks right. I'll probably have to edit the hand positions to make the needle less upright.

 

[Bynine]

BynineB, I love that you're thinking differently with that shoulder tackle sprite - and, to be absoloutely clear, it looks great. The problem is that there's no way I'd vote for it, because it omits two of the artwork's key elements: the needle, and the pierced heart.

When I do a shoulder charge, I dip my head a little more, and my trailing arm is a little lower than the one in your sprite. If you did something similar, then the heart would still be visible. As for the needle... perhaps he's stabbed it right down his leading forearm to make his charge even more punishing?

I'm not sure that my suggestions are good ones. They'd probably be hard to implement. I think you've got to come up with something, though, because if you're missing both of these key elements then your unusual and fighting-orientated pose is not going to make it out of the bold voting.

Edited. I think your criticism is quite correct.

The bump is in the artwork.

 

[~Golden Emp]

Sleet's is the best one so far