Just getting back into Spriting

So I used to sprite almost every day back in highschool working on a fakemon project with some friends, but it never really took off. After a few years of not touching pixle based art though I have been feeling like getting back into it.



Here is my first attempt at a Mega Miltank cause Whitney needed to be harder. And a Mega Grumpig concept because he has never looked grumpy enough to me! Each sprite probably took about 2-3 hours to "complete" and then another hour or 2 of tweaking to make them feel finished. Both are 100% original.

Let me know what you guys think I am always looking for critiques and opportunity to improve!

Hmm...these are really interesting, and they're pretty good too, but they do have some things I take issue with.

Mega Miltank: I really like this one, but I do have one HUGE gripe with it, and that's the back lighting. It goes against the normal Pokemon style of lighting, and it causes some really weird looking problems with some of the sprite, like the raised arm. It looks like it is angled backwards, which looks slightly unnatural. The lighting in general is pretty inconsistent, as in some places, it comes from one light source, but in other palces, it isn't even affected by that light source at all, even though based on its location, it should be.

Mega Grumpig: I don't like this one as much because it is a HUGE deveation design wise from Grumpig's happy appearance and general jolly-ness. This sprite also suffers from the back lighting issue, but to a much lesser extent. I also think the hands could be more defined, especially on the back hand, where it just looks like spikes sticking out of its arm. The back foot also seems less claw like than the front foot.

Overall, these are pretty good, but that back lighting and general inconsistency in light sources needs to be fixed.

Thanks for the critique and I will keep your suggestions in mind. Grumpig never made sense to me though since he is happy and cheerful with a name like Grumpig. I feel like a megaevo would bring out some of his distaste for the world haha!

LlamaMinister wrote:I do have one HUGE gripe with it, and that's the back lighting. It goes against the normal Pokemon style of lighting.

I will go back and look at it again but I took my lighting ques from 5th gen's sprites which are not back lit as they were in gens 1-4 and instead were lit from the upper left in front of the sprite.

Here is a standard Miltank for reference


Any way thanks for the critiques and I will probably take a second look at the sprites in the future.

That's an understandable reason, but the lighting on Miltank also doesn't make much sense. I would say make it make sense, not be similar to the previous sprite, at least lighting wise.

your mega miltank kinda looks similar to the mega miltank in a fanmade game called pokemon insurgence
(Link) http://wiki.p-insurgence.com/File:241_1.png
but with a few minor changes it looks good though I can't really see any problems with it.

13gamer2000 wrote:your mega miltank kinda looks similar to the mega miltank in a fanmade game called pokemon insurgence
but with a few minor changes it looks good though I can't really see any problems with it.

Thanks, I actually posted mine to the insurgence reddit yesterday as an alternative sprite option for the game! Theirs is pretty cool too though.