Reth Sprites Things . . . Kinda

[Rethel34]

So, I've been debating actually revealing some of the sprites I've done, and finally decided to just go with it. First up: a battle scene with a Raichu I made!

So now to get to the serious stuff. The rest of this is mugs for now. Be warned that many of these may break the 16-Color limit, but this because they were not intended to be involved in a hack, but rather FEXP and FEXNA projects, which are a little more lenient on color limitations (well, IDK for sure about XNA, but I'd imagine it would be akin to FEXP in that aspect).

Also, these mugs prolly aren't that good in the eyes of some people. I have gotten to where I try to avoid directly splicing a sprite, and have begun only splicing portions of the outline (literally just the outer lines), then filling in the inside based on what I want it to be. However, as I tend to have issues making eyes look decent, I tend to use other eyes from the series as guides, and as a result the eyes of some characters may look strikingly similar to others from the series.

First Set - Some mugs for my Chalice of Dreams video game, postponed until the public release of FEXNA:

Quinn, the main protagonist of CoD. A treasure hunter in search of the Chalice.

Quinn with his hood raised.

Nila, an assassin with knowledge on the Chalice. She still needs a bit of work before I call this mug "done".

You all know Marth, the Hero King. I was considering using Einherjar in the game, and of course he would be among them, but this mug is a WIP currently (thus why he's shorter than the others).

Second Set - Some mugs for a project that was planned to be a sequel for FE8, only a handful of years later. Was planning to do this in FEXP until FEXNA came out so I could do CoD, but it seems every time I turn around there's some other glitch flaring up with the system. IDK if it'll actually go anywhere anymore, but I made some mugs already, so I'll go ahead and post them:

Altan, some noble from Grado who is the main protag of the story. Supposed to be an axe-wielding Lord, but I made his build far to thin to serve his purpose. And dang do those arms suck.

Hoping this one's recognizable. It's Franz, about five years older. Hoping he actually looks to have aged properly. And yes, it's just an edit of his old mug. I didn't feel like drawing a new one at the time, though I prolly could.

Again, hope you can recognize him. Cormag, again supposed to be five years older. He's now wearing his brother's armor, possibly wielding a special lance from Duessel, and is the Jeigan for this game (yeah, a Jeigan on a Wyvern. He was the best candidate I could find, and it fit the plot I came up with). Again, just an edit of his old mug (and kind of a splice b/c Glen's armor). Could draw a new mug, but didn't feel like it at the time.

I'll prolly end up making some more CoD stuff in the near future, maybe updating Nila and Marth. Might add a few maps to the mix. Anything's possible, really. I might be slow at doing so, but I'll do what I can.

And if I seem half-dead and not really excited about any of this, it's because at-present, that's exactly what I am, so please forgive me. Got a nasty head cold and haven't been sleeping well to boot, because I can't breathe well when I lie down. I'll update this post to be more upbeat when I feel better. And I'll try to post new stuff on this post as well when it comes.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Rethel34

[Eliwan]

So, I've been debating actually revealing some of the sprites I've done, and finally decided to just go with it. First up: a battle scene with a Raichu I made!

Yesss, Raichu.

Quinn, the main protagonist of CoD. A treasure hunter in search of the Chalice.

Something looks off about the robe folds but I can't think of any real reasons why.

Quinn with his hood raised.

I think you need more shadow dropping on his face from the hood.

On his left shoulder (towards the right side of the mugshot) I think you should change the second fold (the one that matches with where the cowl was when it was down)-- instead of moving down, it should probably move towards his center-- but that's my opinion.

Nila, an assassin with knowledge on the Chalice. By the Living Saint, she's hideous! Look away! She needs a bit of work before I call this mug "done". Naked arms are the bane of my existence, moreso than drawing eyes.

While that is a ball joint, the ball of that joint barely juts out. There shouldn't be anywhere near that much shading between the top of the shoulder and the arm, I would actually go for something that doesn't even connect.

Also her posture reads kind of funny to me though no idea how so (something about her breasts probably).

The back of the necklace should probably be a little lower. The trapesius matters surprisingly little in my experience.

You all know Marth, the Hero King. I was considering using Einherjar in the game, and of course he would be among them, but this mug is a WIP currently (thus why he's shorter than the others).

His cape looks a little too solid on his left shoudler and the plate at the top looks too thin to me-- it looks like part of the gold trim at the top of it should be covered by the cape, but the edge reads as rounding out to the end of the metal.

Shading on left shoulder pauldron looks kind of odd to me.

Altan, some noble from Grado who is the main protag of the story. Supposed to be an axe-wielding Lord, but I made his build far to thin to serve his purpose. And dang do those arms suck.

The armor highlights don't make sense to me, neither does the visibility of the cape on his left side (our right).

Hoping this one's recognizable. It's Franz, about five years older. Hoping he actually looks to have aged properly. And yes, it's just an edit of his old mug. I didn't feel like drawing a new one at the time, though I prolly could.

His hair looks too same-y to me (though I don't know how old Franz was, so it may actually be appropriate). His jaw doesn't read well in my opinion (I think it should be one pixel more to his right / our left), his right arm I always interpreted as being more forward but it looks fine.

Again, hope you can recognize him. Cormag, again supposed to be five years older. He's now wearing his brother's armor, possibly wielding a special lance from Duessel, and is the Jeigan for this game (yeah, a Jeigan on a Wyvern. He was the best candidate I could find, and it fit the plot I came up with). Again, just an edit of his old mug (and kind of a splice b/c Glen's armor). Could draw a new mug, but didn't feel like it at the time.

Personally I like this one more than the other one.

The pauldrons don't match in size, though. At all. make theeemmmmm.

And if I seem half-dead and not really excited about any of this, it's because at-present, that's exactly what I am, so please forgive me.

you actually

have words

with your post

I see plenty of artists who just go

"img

name-of-character-or-nickname whee"

Got a nasty head cold and haven't been sleeping well to boot, because I can't breathe well when I lie down. I'll update this post to be more upbeat when I feel better. And I'll try to post new stuff on this post as well when it comes.

;; hope you feel better

Edited March 23, 2016 by Eliwan

[Rethel34]

Thanks for the criticism. I'll look into fixing those details, particularly the CoD ones, though I may or may not touch the FETSS sequel ones; depends on if I actually decide to do that project in the end. Right now FEXP is too annoying and I don't feel like messing with it. Glad you like Cormag, though. He's perhaps one of my favorite ones I've done, despite being an extremely simple edit. If I edit any of the TSS sequel ones, he'd be first because I like his. Altan would prolly get entirely redone from scratch because he's ugly XD And yeah, I really was iffy on Franz and how much I should change his hair. In the end I decided on getting rid of the childish knots in his hair that stuck up all over the place and prayed it would be enough.

you actually

have words

with your post

I see plenty of artists who just go

"img

name-of-character-or-nickname whee"

Isn't having words kind of the point in a forum, though? Never made sense to me why people would do that XD

And yeah, sorry the stuff's not that amazing. Though some of what you pointed out seems to be minor details and easy fixes which makes me happy. I half expected these to be torn apart.

Something looks off about the robe folds but I can't think of any real reasons why.

I maaaaayyy have pillow shaded a bit too much around them. That and my pallet for these sprites is a lot different from normal GBA FE. My outline is jet black, for example, rather than really dark violet or grey or whatever you see in the GBA mugs, which I know is weird, but I like the contrast, so I went with it

I think you need more shadow dropping on his face from the hood.
On his left shoulder (towards the right side of the mugshot) I think you should change the second fold (the one that matches with where the cowl was when it was down)-- instead of moving down, it should probably move towards his center-- but that's my opinion.

Will do, and I'll experiment with the fold to see what looks best.

While that is a ball joint, the ball of that joint barely juts out. There shouldn't be anywhere near that much shading between the top of the shoulder and the arm, I would actually go for something that doesn't even connect.

Also her posture reads kind of funny to me though no idea how so (something about her breasts probably).

The back of the necklace should probably be a little lower. The trapesius matters surprisingly little in my experience.

Yeah, she was painful putting together. In fact, probably the most pain-staking out of all mugs I've done in my life. I'll see what I can do to fix her. Prolly will look at whatever mugs I can find that make good examples for what I was trying to accomplish with her.

His cape looks a little too solid on his left shoudler and the plate at the top looks too thin to me-- it looks like part of the gold trim at the top of it should be covered by the cape, but the edge reads as rounding out to the end of the metal.

Shading on left shoulder pauldron looks kind of odd to me.

lol Was trying to imitate his DS portraits as much as possible. Guess that turned out to be a bad idea. Will fix soon.

Again, thanks so much! This was all super-helpful.

[Rethel34]

The new version (left) compared to the old version (right). Shaded his face like you said, and I think I edited the correct fold you were speaking of. Might still have some minor tweaks later, but hopefully this will suffice for the time being.

EDIT: And now I have a relative fix on Nila.

Again, new on the left, old on the right. Still got some stuff I'll fix later (like that hair is ugly to me), but hey, at least she's better than she was.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Rethel34