This advice blog is for splicers that are just starting out that need are still figuring things out, experts that want new ideas for a splice, and everyone else in between.
I tried splicing two random pokemon, which turned out to be Glaceon and Yveltal. Could I have some advice on the scratch-spriting? I wasn’t really sure what Yveltal’s wings are based off of, so I winged it (no pun intended), but I don’t think it really turned out that well. The shading’s a bit odd, too.
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The wings are a bit off but it's not bad! I here is a sprite of yveltal that is pretty good -> http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/349/7/6/updated_b_w_sprite_sheet_by_shimmey1001-d5ye5do.png
It's a pretty good size, the wings, definitely proportionate just a little wonky on wing angle and shape! My advice is to try and create shading that is seamless with other parts you are using. Most sprites have a light that's from some direction that is pretty easy to see *I'd use the base lighting for free handed splicing.
I'd draw a little dot where the light source is coming from and use that as a reference to add shading where needed!
also knowing how light hits something really helps when free handing, and as well as referencing the actual sprites themselves to see how the shading flows c: it's really a mix of both!
Hi! Might I ask if the sprites of the 4th and 5th generation are compatible with each other? by compatible, i mean that if they have the same style or smth.. ty ^^
Most of them relatively do, I've noticed platinum sprites are very similar to black and whites versions, but diamond and pearl have different looks to them 99% of the time. Serebii is really good for seeing the sprites for each gen, however there's other resources as well to check!
Hi! I just started splicing a few days ago and this is my first splice. I’ve been having trouble on recoloring and I think that the splice looks too light. Any advice?
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It'll be a little hard to do it on this splice since everything is recolored, but this is something you can do for the future.
If you look at Natu, it's really only got 3 body colors. The main green, the shadow green, and the outline green. However, Torchic has FOUR body colors, being highlight, main, shadow, and outline orange.
So what you should do to fix this is to match up the colors. It looks like you matched Natu's Main Green with Torchic's Highlight Orange. If you just shift everything down by one step it should work. You could try adjusting the yellow on the wings too if you'd like.
(An anon requested this, so here's some help from our lovely friend over at silphcosprites!)
Since this is a long post, I'm respecting people's dashboards, but you should definitely check this out!
1) Use the right program. MSPaint probably doesn't cut it anymore. I use Adobe Photoshop, but GIMP (download) and pixlr (online) are great free options. If you can work Paint to do the rest of this tutorial, gopher it.
(N.B. I use Photoshop Elements 8.0 ["PSE8"] for personal use, but I have also used pixlr and GIMP once or twice. Both work well, but I'm not extensively familiar with them, and I deleted GIMP after testing it out, so I can't offer screenshots from that program)
2) Layers! You will die cold and alone if you can't layer things. Select your item, copy it, and paste it; in one of the programs above (not Paint :[ ), this should automatically create a new layer. This means you can move and recolor that part on top of/behind the other items, and nothing gets overwritten/deleted!
3) No Paint Bucket! Paint Bucket is like that one kid you were friends with in elementary school but now you just kinda see him around places and wave at each other sometimes. You used to be friends, but now you have to move on. Recoloring is a bit more complicated, so here are a couple options:
3a) Color Replacement Tool
If your program has this (at least pixlr does), you can use this to replace one color with another. It really only does the color, not the hue or saturation or anything, so they might not look the same if you're putting a lighter color on a darker area, but you can fix that with Brightness/Contrast, etc.
(PSE8)
(pixlr.com editor)
3b) Adjust Hue/Saturation
This option can get you a more specific color, but if your lightness needs to change by more than ±15, you should change that separately with Brightness/Contrast to avoid washout. (more after images)
(PSE8)
(pixlr.com editor)
This method is particularly nice because you can do a lot of fine-tuned work with the colors. I'm not gonna get too into it here, but if you want a more detailed color tutorial, either request it on this advice blog or to me directly. Anyways, this talk about color leads me to my last point...
4) Eyeball it! I have methods by which I can add/subtract number values for colors to get exact modifications I need to make, but even so, it doesn't always look good. Don't be strict--step out of the lines a bit to make it look the way you want it to! This is first and foremost art, not math!
Hey guys! I wanted to share this since I ended up doing it on a splice I'm working on and I'm sure a lot of you get annoyed with it too.
When you're splicing and working with a sprite that has white on it, you could end up with something like this:
It might be a bit hard to see, but the eyes became transparent and you can see the wing. While this could be fixed by going through and retouching those spots, or by changing the white to slightly off white, that's too difficult for my lazy self.
Just change your second color to something that's not on any of your sprites (and also preferably something that wont blind you when you stare at it!) and use the paintbucket to fill the background with that color.
Now you can easily move your sprite around without that pesky white bugging you! This is also useful if some colors are hard to see, just so you have more contrast. When you switch back to white, there might be some green (or whatever color) left so be sure to check.
i need major shading help again x_x particularly around the bottom area and around the eyes as well
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hmMMmm
I think the tail on the splice, the stripe that is lighter should be a darker shade, and the lightest gray on the far right foot should be the second lightest gray. The biggest spike on the underside I don’t think needs a highlight but it could be left with it, give or take. You could possibly from the mouth under like it is on banette, like the dark gray would go from the mouth down. Other than that, the rest is fine I think c:
*also the bottom left of the splice, the dark dark gray could be black lines instead of a dark gray.
I felt like trying back sprites, and I think it's okay.
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hmm.. It looks like a promising splice, but it looks really empty. I feel like you could take the ears maractus has and but them on the head OR just the flowers. I'd like to see more yellow, it just looks really unbalanced because the pink/green are very similar in saturation. Maybe adding the yellow spikes would help *maybe on the head/ around the tail or something c: go nuts with the spikes yo
Oh hey look, I'm posting stuff here again. I'm really sorry I haven't been keeping this blog updated, but it's a bit hard because I don't really have ideas for it.
Anyways, here's something that I think could be helpful. Sometimes you have to layer parts over each other.
What I do is copy the part that will be on the top layer and set it off to the side. Then put the middle layer on top of everything. Finally put the part that you set aside back on. It's easier if you have a point of reference that you can match it back up with. I used the bottom outline of Umbreon's ear. Then fix up any pixels or shading as necessary.
please help me with the shading? especially with that main body D:
also tried to duplicate the mouth but it's a bit messy x_x
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Sorry I took so long. I just couldn't really think of anything to change about this?
For the main body, I actually wouldn't change anything. As you haven't really added anything that would change the shading, you can use what's already there. If you mean that it's much darker than the face, then I would actually change the face.
Instead of using Banette's high light color on Skitty's face, use the next color down. (Basically shift all the colors down the palette). And if you wanna get fancy, you can add a shadow under the arm-ear on the right.
i need some advice on what else to add to this Altaria/Reuniclus splice. :c
i want to incorporate the fluff with the green of Reuniclus but i'm not sure how. D:
also, should i remove Reuniclus' head and replace it with Altaria's head? or try to scratch on some sort of beak?
any other advice would help. <3
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This looks great already!
I'm not sure if it will work, but I would take the cloud, turn all of it besides the outline pure white so it's transparent. Then turn all of the outline black or whatever color Reuniclus's outline is, then try to match it up to the shape of your splice. Erase the existing outline, and erase the green, or fill in green as necessary.
And I don't think you'd have to scratch the beak, you can just use the one that's there.
any tips on how to resize pokemon parts to fit smaller or larger pokemon? For example im trying to put glalie parts on frosslass, but frosslass is very tiny and glalie is huge so I was wondering if you have any tutorials or somethng?
For putting a large part on a small Pokemon, cut sections out and push the rest back together. To make sure that everything still matches up, keep a continuous outline. (Don't let the be a huge jump between black lines, and also don't have one long straight line.)
For putting smaller parts on a larger Pokemon, move sections of the part away from each other, and free hand sprite the missing parts. The less space you move the section, the less free hand spriting you'll have to do.
For both, look at lots of different Pokemon sprites and study the style. There are reoccurring patterns, and with more exposure and more practice, you'll be able to recreate them. The curve line tool on the smallest setting is very useful.
After finals, I might make a tutorial for this, but honestly this is something you learn from practice, not from watching someone else.
This is my first ever splice. I started procrastinating and decided to try splicing. How do you think I did? Any tips?
I used Vulpix for the base, Ninetails' colour palete, Torchic's headdress for the part of the tail, and Ponyta's tail for the rest of the tail.
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Sorry this got buried under other messages.
For the color palette, I would suggest using the main color of Ninetales for the main color of Vulpix. Then you could use a lighter yellow for the high light on Vulpix's face and it wouldn't seem so dark. Also, you should save your image as .png so the quality isn't messed up.
Something about it seems off, do you see anything wrong with it?
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Oh my goodness this is hella amazing and so creative.
It looks like you've got a shoulder..thing on the left side, so I think you should add one on the right side as well. And perhaps move that purple thing on the chest down a bit so it's centered.
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