Sethera's Shiny Sprites

[Sethera]

So I know splices are apparently the in thing here but for me, I've always liked recolors and stuff. I used to have a big spriting thing going on in one of the forums I went to before YCM, but I kind of went away from that to RPing. However, I've been getting more into it, mainly after watching a random youtube video talking about what they'd prefer for the Alolan shiny Pokemon (and getting bugged by a couple of people that I need to art more here). So I decided to post my own variants of what I'd prefer for shiny Pokemon sprites.

 

This is a bit difficult for me since I'm not used to working with the XY/ORAS/SM sprites, as the last time I Pokemon sprited was during the RSE/FRLG era. However, I'm chugging along with it. If I get lazy, I might go back to the older-style sprites, but I don't know yet. And no, I'm not recoloring any gifs unless you pay me points--then I might be tempted.

 

I suppose I'll ask if people have any requests, since I can only think of so many Pokemon that I'd rather be a different color for their shiny.

 

[spoiler=Table of Contents]

#095 Onix

#208 Steelix

#303 Mawile

#443 Gible

#444 Gabite

#445 Garchomp

#470 Leafeon

#548 Petilil

#549 Lilligant

#633 Deino

#634 Zweilous

#635 Hydreigon

 

 

[Sethera]

After getting distracted by the RP section, I am back!

 

So I was originally gonna start from #001 onwards, but then realized that, hmm, I don't mind Bulbasaur's shiny sprite so much, so that would be a bad one to start with. So I asked Cow if he had any requests for alternate shiny palettes, and he gave me Mawile and Leafeon. So without any further ado...

 

[spoiler=#303 Mawile]

 

Taking a leaf out of that one youtuber's book (or video in this case), I decided to focus on the actual origins of these Pokemon. Mawile's origins come all the way from Japan (surprise surprise) as a futakuchi-onna. A futakuchi-onna is a woman with a face at the back of her hair, which means that the yellow is supposed to be skin/clothing, and the black is supposed to be hair.

 

So I decided to recolor the yellow to a more "white" skin tone, like a Japanese woman would have if she never went out into the sun or powdered her face. The hair I decided to leave a dark color, because of the fact most Japanese have dark hair, though I did try blond but since I couldn't stop chuckling when I saw that I decided against that. However, I didn't want it to remain the same black, so I made it more of a brown. The eyes I changed from red to blue, and the dress in the mega from plum to a kind of rusty orange which contrasted with the eyes.

 

 

 

[spoiler=#470 Leafeon]

 

Okay, one thing I did not understand about the shiny version of Leafeon, is why is it not fall colors? Game Freak missed such a good opportunity there. Instead, they made Leafeon a bit brighter, and you can barely tell it apart from regular Leafeon. So as somebody who has in fact recolored Leafeon pics for avatars or signatures on this site to be autumn-themed, it wasn't much to take that a step further and recolor an official sprite for that.

 

I made the fur a shade more orange too as I noticed official shiny Leafeon's fur is a bit brighter than the original and not the same hue. Eyes are more orange as well.

 

 

[King K. Azo]

Okay, I really, really enjoy fall Leafeon. It's cute, and I want it.

[Sethera]

Thanks Saiku! ^^

 

Decided to make another one, another Cow request since I couldn't think of which to do. I do like this line's shiny sprites so it was interesting trying to make something I would like just as much, or at least almost as much.

 

[spoiler=#548 Petill and #549 Lilligant]

 

Funnily enough, I wasn't going to go pink for the main body, and in fact that was a placeholder color to identify the various color sections. However, I found that I liked it, and decided to go with it. Not to mention that after looking up water lilies, pink is one of the main colors that show up. Blue is the other one, so I decided to use that for the flower color. It also looked good with the pink, so that was a bonus too.

 

Originally, only Lilligant was requested, but I decided to do Petilil as well since they're in the same evolutionary line and everything. Plus, as I already had the colors for Lilligant, the hard part was over, so I just carried them over to Petilil as well. I understand that sometimes pre-evolutions have different shiny colors than their evolutions, but I liked this color scheme too much to change it. Debated on whether I should recolor the darker green arms/leaves but decided to leave them be. They look a bit bright on this shiny Lilligant, but it still works.

 

 

[Yui]

Holy sheet these are good. The fact that you're recoloring the 3D models from Gen 6+ instead of just using the pixel sprites from Gen 5- just makes it even better. You have my attention and interest alike. I'm also suddenly curious what you'd be able to do with Hydreigon, since shiny Hydreigon looks like actual vomit.

[Sethera]

Aww thanks Yui! I guess they're technically models but I chose sprites for the title for alliteration's sake.

 

One thing I've noticed with recoloring these models is, since there are a lot more "pixels" I have to fiddle around with photoshop settings a lot more than basic sprite recoloring, where I come up with a color, and then come up with lighter/darker colors of a slightly different hue, etc. I still do some of that though because if I just did a flat recoloring, stuff like the shaded parts or the outline would be much too bright.

 

[spoiler=#633 Deino, #634 Zweilous, #635 Hydreigon]

 

Before I actually looked more into Hydreigon, I didn't like its shiny because green and purple really do not look good together, especially when they're both saturated. You'll know what I mean if you've ever looked upon the eyesore that is Barney the dinosaur. However, after looking it up, it's apparently based not only after the Lernaean Hydra, but also after the Yamata no Orochi and the Zmey Gorynych. The last one is the most important, as apparently it's green, the color of shiny Hydreigon. If only the crest and treads weren't a bright purple, it could actually work.

 

However, it'd be the height of laziness to just go with the shiny color and change the crests and treads. I mean, I guess I could do that, but I wanted to be a bit more original than that. I did decide to keep the dark gray fur as is like the original shiny did. It being a dark/dragon type, I was reluctant to change that. Not to mention that I think it's one of the coolest aspects of Hydreigon, its dark coloring. I also decided I'd just keep the same coloring for its pre-evolutions, as it'd be easier and give them a bit of something to connect them together.

 

Anyway, I started thinking more about the other creatures aside from the Slavic dragon. Hydras are often shown as a purple or blue color, which original Hydreigon is like. So the hydra wouldn't work, and the Slavic dragon wouldn't either because of its green hue. However, thinking of the video game Ōkami, in which Orochi is shown as gray and red, I decided to go with that. Not to mention that Ken Sumigori originally intended Hydreigon to be a cyborg dragon with tank aspects. So gray treads would be an allusion to the original design.

 

I experimented with the various reds. One version made it look like a rebellious teenager, another made it look like a tomato. I decided to go with the tomato and darken the colors a bit, just as I lightened them for the treads. This made it more of a rusty red, yet another hint to its mechanical origins.

 

 

[Sethera]

I had assumed that 120x120 was the standard size for models, but Mega Steelix has shown me differently, fitting in 145x145 instead. Which makes me wonder if 150x150 might actually be the standard model size, or at least the standard for megas, though I assume even regular Rayquaza might defy the 120x120 dimensions.

 

[spoiler=#095 Onix and #208 Steelix]

 

When thinking about the Pokemon I wanted to do next, I hit upon one of my least favorite shinies. Shiny Onix. When I first saw the episode "The Crystal Onix" I thought that that Onix had been the shiny version of Onix. It was only later, when I looked it up, that I found shiny Onix to actually be an ugly puke green. At least shiny Steelix was better, being a polished gold. Nevertheless, I decided if I had been the person to design shiny Onix, I would've used that beautiful crystal blue.

 

So that's what I did. It starts off as blue crystal, and then turns into the more diamond blue of Steelix. Though I did forget about Mega Steelix, and I have to say that that was probably the hardest one to recolor, mainly because of all the floaty bits and the rainbow spikes, not to mention the weird symbols carved on its side which I eventually decided to recolor as the original blue was far too close to the shiny color and blended in rather than stood out.

 

 

[Sethera]

Still trying to figure out dimensions. Turns out Giratina is more than 150 pixels wide and Mega Rayquaza more than 150 pixels high so that ruins my 150 pixel theory. So now I'm wondering if it's 175 or even 200 pixels for the limit. Hmm well I guess I'll just adapt each model set to fit with whichever is the biggest rather than make 4000 square pixel pictures for a 120x120 model. Also I think I'm starting to hit my stride with model recoloring, and figuring out some shortcuts to make the process easier on myself.

 

I've also noticed in my recoloring, especially when I make them lighter, that sometimes various markings, such as ridges or etc. where lines form, are usually broken apart into dots, and become almost ugly when shown in stark contrast to a pale background, so I end up making minor changes here or there. Also the source for my mega sprites almost always has weird teal outlines that I have to recolor, usually to the default dark blue to make it easier on me.

 

[spoiler=#443 Gible, #444 Gabite, #445 Garchomp]

 

You probably saw this one coming. Garchomp's shiny is notorious for being hard to spot. Apparently Alolan Vulpix and its evolution are also difficult. I do like Gible's shiny, but the others are kind of lame. So I decided to go the sand shark route. I actually looked up some pictures of fantasy sand sharks and colordropped from them. Also, I noticed that unlike other shinies I've done, the Gible line's shinies change coloring as they evolve, so I decided to do the same thing. However, I made the change more subtle, keeping the sand theme. Also decided to keep the orange as is, since I thought it went well with the yellows, greens, ad browns.

 

I probably had the biggest trouble with Gabite, mainly its belly and hammer stripes. I wanted it to be some form of yellow, but it was either too bright or too faded. This was the best compromise I could come up with, though I'm still not entirely satisfied. Then again, I also wanted the progression from green to yellow, so that shade of yellow is probably the best I can do and still be within that pattern.

 

With the crystal Onix series, I decided to lighten the outline colors, but since the Gible line isn't made of literal crystal, it wouldn't make sense to lighten the outline colors. However, I found they looked a bit too dark for my liking. Apparently though, after looking at various pictures of light-colored Pokemon like Meowth, the outlines are supposed to be dark even if the Pokemon is light itself. While it bothers me a bit, especially on Gible, I decided to keep to that template.