Sneak Peek #3

 

    Howdy hey!  It's been a while. If you're wondering why I stopped posting for so long, it's because I got burnt out again. It happened a little sooner than I would've liked this time, but I'm coming out of it again.

 

    Anyway, I'm coming back with a bang! I made a handful of sprites and immediately made a post asking for suggestions on Twitter again. I do it roughly twice a year as a way to sprite Pokemon I otherwise probably wouldn't in that moment, whether it be because of the design's complexity or me simply not being interested enough at the time. I ask for a certain number of suggestions, but usually end up selecting more than that due to the sheer number of suggestions I tend to get. 

    This time I said I'd do 5, but really I'm going to do a lot more than that. From the replies I selected the following:
Maractus
Blaziken
Swampert
Bisharp
Hydreigon
Sawsbuck
Zangoose

Goodra

    That is already 8 total Pokemon, not counting Sawsbuck's other forms. Despite that, I'm also going to make sprites for some Pokemon directly related to them, including:

Treecko
Grovyle
Sceptile 

Torchic

Combusken

Mudkip

Marshtomp
Pawniard

Deerling

Seviper

    On top of all that, I'll be doing Milcery somewhere in there just for shits and giggles. It's quite a bit so it will take a fairly long while to finish it all, and I don't plan on doing them in any particular order, but I've already got their placeholders ready.

 

    

    Expect to see these (and potentially more) within the coming weeks. 

Sprite Progress #8 - Tapu Fini

 

  I've finally gone and done it, I've finished all four Tapus. As I expected, Fini was quite a bit more difficult to get right than I would've liked.

 

 This one's placeholder was truly no more than that, a placeholder. The final pose and size are pretty damn different as you can tell from the progress picture.

 

 Fini's shiny gave me some trouble, as finding a blue that looked decent enough took some time, but I think I'm satisfied with it. Seeing all of them side-by-side, I think the shiny theme is pretty solid, so these'll be the final versions (for now). I still have to animate Fini's front and make its backsprite, but once I do all four of them will be added to my Dropbox. 

 

 

 

 I'm not 100% sure what Pokemon I'll sprite next. It will probably be one of the remaining Pokemon on this sneak peek from a while ago. It could be Terapagos, Bibarel, Togekiss, Paras, Goodra, or Hisuian Goodra. It could also be some secret evil other thing. Who knows? I certainly don't just yet.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage

 

Sprite Progress #7 - Tapu Bulu

 

Another day, another Tapu done. I actually struggled with Bulu more than I thought I would. 

 At first I planned to follow the placeholder sketch pretty closely, but as I kept going I thought it might be too boring of a pose, so I eventually settled on having the arms lifted and the bell leaning towards the left.

 

 I know how much the vocal side of the community hates green shinies, but I'm actually pretty fond of most of them. Even so, I think I brought a decent balance in the green used on shiny Bulu here. Now that I'm typing this, I've realized Tapu Bulu is the only one of the four that doesn't have a color indicative of its type. I've always liked when Pokemon designs have colors that don't make their type super obvious, like with Nihilego or Genesect.

 I took far less finishing Bulu than I thought, but don't go expecting this sort of speed for every Pokemon going forward. Especially not Fini... I have a feeling it's gonna kick my ass.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage

 

Sprite Progress #6 - Tapu Lele

 Here I am with some more progress, this time on Tapu Lele.

 

 This time I didn't follow the sketch as closely, but the final product is sorta similar to it if it were vertically mirrored. I struggled a fair bit getting the shape of Lele's shell just right, but I think I did pretty good at the end of the day.

 

 I think I've got a decent idea for thematic shinies for the Tapus. Unlike their official shiny variations, I'll be giving their shells a color that's slightly off from their regular version's secondary color, and the secondary color becomes a unified dark grey. So far the idea looks great on Koko and Lele, but I'm still undecided on how I'll make this work on Bulu and Fini.

That's all for now. I'll of course be taking my time with these since it's pretty difficult to fit all the details in their shells in a way that looks natural at this scale, so it may take a few days before I post the progress on Bulu.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage

 

Sprite Progress #5 - Tapu Koko

 

  Howdy hey, it's been a few days! Things got a wee bit busy in the real world, but I come bearing gifts! What is that gift? A progress report on Tapu Koko:

 

 Although I kept the pose from the original sketch, the proportions are very different. This is pretty common when it comes to my process, since I often can't get everything right until I'm getting down and dirty with those pixels.

 

 Now here's what I've got for the shiny so far. I'm not at all convinced on it though. I like to keep the official shinies where I can, but in this case the brightness of the colors swaps, which usually makes the shiny's balance look way off. I honestly might not settle on this one's colors until I've finished all four Tapus. Maybe then I can find a nice thematic color scheme for each, like I did with the future Paradox Pokemon.

 

 With these I used the exact same grey, and for the secondary color something just a tiny bit off from its original color.

 

Anyway, that's all for today. I'm still gonna take my time with the Tapus so posts will be scattered.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage

 

Sprite Progress #4 - Substitute

 

  Another day, another sprite (mostly) made. Substitute was a simpler sprite to make, though I did deliberate a fair bit as to how much highlights it was gonna need.

 

 Substitute is an interesting one, as it isn't a Pokemon and it only appears as one of the widely used overworld sprites resembling Rhydon in Gold/Silver/Crystal. I don't know how feasible it would be to even implement this sprite into a rom hack, but I guess that can wait until I actually get off my rear and start making one (assuming I even do).

 

 The substitute has had a rather strange look throughout the franchise's history. As mentioned before, it didn't even have a proper sprite in the original Kanto and Johto games. In the Stadium games, it appeared as a rotund plushie version of Rhydon with big ol' eyes. Come Ruby and Sapphire, it finally has a sprite, and while it's still meant to resemble a chibified Rhydon (albeit green), its quality pales in comparison to the rest of the games' spritework. In Gen 4 it has a new sprite but also feels incomplete. By Gen 5, the sprite is pretty much what the modern 3D model for Substitute looks like. This final design is what I chose to go for with my own art, as it is simply the cutest.

 

Once again, the entire set of sprites for Subsitute isn't done yet, as I haven't made a backsprite, but it'll come soon.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage

 

Sneak Peek #2

 

 A bit of a longer post for today, so get ready to spend an extra minute or two reading. I didn't get much done today, though I suppose it's about time I start showing off the Pokemon's backsprites. In this case, let's take a look at Kecleon's.

 

 I'm quite proud of my work on Kecleon, and here you can see both regular and Purple Kecleon's regular and shiny variations. The Purple Kecleon is from the Mystery Dungeon games and anime for those who don't know. It is just a palette swap of the original, but that's because I don't believe putting in the effort to make an entirely new sprite for a recolored version of it is worth my time, at least not at the moment. It doesn't appear in any mainline game and doesn't have a canonical shiny, so I came up with my own. 

 

 I did give the two a small distinction beyond their color schemes, and that's with the animation. It's nothing crazy, but the regular one fades as it camouflages from the top down, and the purple one from the bottom up.

 

 Anyway, let's get looking at what I've got planned to do next. A month and a half ago, I teased what Pokemon I'd be making sprites for next. I haven't got a ton done since then, and that's mainly due to one thing. This calendar year has perhaps been my most productive so far, with 116 distinct Pokemon/forms being completed and uploaded to my Dropbox. A couple of times throughout all of that, I got severely burnt out. Whenever that happens, I tend to take weeks if not months off from anything relating to spritework. I'm only just coming back from my most recent bout of burnout, so I'm not at full throttle yet.

 

 

 If you follow me on my socials (I don't know where you'd have found this blog otherwise), you'll know I've done a few of these already, including some of their evolutionary lines. So far, Golett, Golurk, Mega Golurk, Mareanie, Toxapex, Togepi, Togetic, Goomy, both Sliggoos, and Kecleon have been completed. I fully intend on finishing the rest, but I thought it'd be fun if I added one extra set of sprites to make. Introducing the Substitute!

 

 This is one of those placeholders that I put extra care into, pose and all. Not to toot my own horn, but I really like what I've got here, and think the final sprite is gonna look fantastic. Once I finish it, I plan on tackling the Tapus next. 

 I've been putting a lot of effort into completing Gen 7, and the four guardian deities of Alola were ones I've been putting off for a long time because I didn't think I'd do them justice. That has changed as I've grown more confident in my skill, so please look forward to those when I get to them. That being said, I may take a bit longer completing them since they're fairly detailed designs that will be harder to translate into Gen 2's style.

 

Cya next time ~

Sage