Glitch's Splices and Recolors

[Thar]

I'm gonna try to give u a hard 1. :#

Pokemon: Zekrom
Recolor: Garbodor

Good luck.

[Glitch]

.....Damn. :3

[LC]

CnC Time.

Spl.12 - The cannon on Blastoise' back looks forced onto it instead of flowing with the structure.

Recolors - Take into account that they could make or break your splice/pokemon if used wrong.

Rec.12 - Colors on nose and chest blend in too well making those parts stand out and look flat.

13 - The colors don't mesh well on this one. they look fine on a Marshtomp, but they don't look too good here on Grovyle.

14 & 15 - Pay attention to the eyes on these. You recolored part of them while the rest of the eye is still the original color. Not a serious factor but it does make it look cleaner.


And a difficult request. :3

Pokemon 1: Skunfisk
Pokemon 2: Archen
Pokemon 3: Shuckle
Base: Skunfisk

[Glitch]

14+15 - I recolored the entire eyes.
13 - I agree. The color looks weird, but I feel I did do a good job on the recolor itself.

And I doubt I can use the Ditto as a base.


Pretty retarded request, LC. :3

[LC]

[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1318732219' post='5582316']
14+15 - I recolored the entire eyes.
13 - I agree. The color looks weird, but I feel I did do a good job on the recolor itself.

And I doubt I can use the Ditto as a base.


Pretty retarded request, LC. :3
[/quote]

Just testing you. Request updated. WIsh you had Ditto back? :3

[Jappio]

First off, posting your thread in my thread and asking me to CnC is more of a subject to be covered in PM. I know you weren't out to advertise, but I know some people would see it that way and that could probably get you in trouble with those people. As I said, I don't personally care though.

I'll also get this out of the way. I won't be commenting on your recolors individually. They are simple and boring to me. It's hardly a form of spriting in my eyes, and I'm surprised the ban on them was lifted (I don't see the thread that was outlawing them in the least). I will say though I'm personally surprised to see how popular they are. It's just a bit of color editing, and nothing even all that 'advanced.' Just Pokemon A with Pokemon B's colors.

I will also not speak too much on your earlier ones since your skills have probably changed since. I will say that the glances I did take hurt. Unrecolored borders is a personal petpeave of mine. Just dropping wings onto something I consider to be one of the lazier forms of splicing, especially if the thing that gets wings doesn't look like something that can fly.

[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1316647845' post='5531524']
[img]http://i55.tinypic.com/1zgb769.png[/img]
[/quote]

Ok, so you have some of the basics down I can tell. Yet it's still simple I would say. Not necessarily a bad thing since it works, but I wouldn't call it over impressive. A good sign for your potential, but lacks a wow factor. I would also say there is too little Shinx. I realize that the entire body is Shinx, but that is overshadowed by Eevee's adorable face and fluff. A little more Shinx up top might have made a better mix. Less of a half and half glued together look perhaps. Really get the whole thing to 'mix'.

[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1316647845' post='5531524']
[img]http://i53.tinypic.com/2ur56r9.png[/img]
[/quote]

Now I do realize the words "request" are on some of these. Personally I don't normally care about that. Unless the request was word to word specific, I'm assuming you had enough wiggle room to do better. If they were super specific, than I apologize, but I don't know that ahead of time. I've done many requests in the past, most of my splices in general are requests, so I know first hand that it being request is hardly an excuse sometimes.

The first and obvious issue is that the sprite is too plain. The simple addition of blade hands and green color is boring and unimaginative. More is needed to really make this stick out in anyways I think.

Next up you have some coloring issues. First off, why are the blades tan? A silver color would be far more appropriate. Also you have some border color issues. Gray on the stomach and wings. You somehow have red on the right arm over green.

Another small thing I noticed. The part of the blade that connects with the arm, the border on it is of the tan color. This would imply that the blade overlaps the arm, but that doesn't make sense. Scyther typically either uses the arm border to overlap the blade, or in some cases won't even have a border, and the two just abruptly touch.

The most amateur and disappointing fault is that you have unrecolored borders. Small errors like that just show a lack of care from the artist in my opinion. Takes only a moment to fix, so if it is rushed and skipped, it just give the splice an overall thrown together look. I understand if it was just an over site. I potentially have let a sprite or two that have done this in the past and I didn't realize right away. Yet tackling errors like this is important.

[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1316647845' post='5531524']
[img]http://i52.tinypic.com/29vmb9x.png[/img]
[/quote]

When you have two simple Pokemon, it's tough to splice them. This one has a simple result. It also suffers from being the obvious result. As far how to make this not so simple or obvious would probably take some work and thinking outside of the box. Maybe getting some of Ghastly's facial features onto him would have helped bridge a gap between the two. Maybe changing the aura to being half white like Voltorb. The two are simple, but that only means you have to try twice as hard to figure out what you can do to add that wow factor.

[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1316647845' post='5531524']
[img]http://i54.tinypic.com/nyidkk.png[/img]
[/quote]

First up, another simple one. You have nothing more than an added cannon. If I didn't even know Pokemon well enough, and had you not said it, I would have known Genesect was involved, and not because you did a good job of mixing, but because his presence is hardly there.

Another issue I have is of course that blue border around a tan object.

Next is a shading issue. Take notice how Blastoise's normal cannon has that brown lighter color. Yet the canon you have doesn't involve it at all, even though considering the angle some of the sides are on, it should. Now 5th gen sprites are light on the number of shades. Mixing them with older stuff requires one to alter shading sometimes. It's key to know when and where.


[quote name='Glitch' timestamp='1318625046' post='5579717']
Why two steel-types?

I can do it, but it seems it would be somewhat bland or unchanged.

[/quote]

Ok, I know it seems weird I would critique something you didn't do, but hear goes:

As a splicer/artist, you want to impress people I'm guessing. You can't though if you shy away from challenges and different ideas. Sure on the outside this type of request sounds like it doesn't have options, but I think there is some potential.

Steelix form, but the chunks of it's body are more geometrical like Metagross. You could also make the head a combination of the two Pokemon. Metagross's body, but it's open up like a mouth. Metagross also has legs/arms to offer that might work in an interesting way. The two may be made of steel, but they are very different types of textures when it comes down to it.

I'll admit that a lot of the best options does require certain levels of being able to scratch, something I see you probably don't really do. Copying and pasting can get good results, and I don't fault you for using a lot of that only. Yet a lot of Pokemon really need scratching ability to be spliced.

I recall being asked to mix Dialga and Xatu once. The two Pokemon I remember thinking would be impossible. A splice like that just didn't sound possible. Yet I worked with it and it turned out to be one of my personal favorites I've ever done. So it's best to not give up on an idea, at least not until you try it.



Ok so to bring up some points again for my final say:

Simplicity: You have to work outside the box. Doing the obvious seems fine and good, but in the end it doesn't leave a true mark on the world. I know you get a lot of compliments with the simple ones probably, but YCM is an easy market honestly, very easy to impress. Yet when you do get creative and do some interesting and different things, you really truly be able to impress people then.

Little Touches: A lot of the basics I feel you probably do have down. Yet you miss out on simple stuff like not recoloring your borders. Take the extra few moments before finishing a sprite to make sure everything is in order. Never post something you feel isn't done yet unless your posting a WIP and are looking for mid progress suggestion. If it's the finished product though, make sure you don't have small errors like that. I mentioned before, it makes it look rushed and like you didn't care.

Advance Yourself: You are probably trying to stick in some type of comfort zone I'm guessing. I suggest shying away from recolors, or start doing them in a more interesting way. With your splices, attempt stuff you wouldn't normally do. Improvement is something everyone wants, but it takes a few steps of practice, and sometimes attempting stuff you aren't sure if you can handle. The idea after all for most people is to 'wow' everyone with your own personal style.


So that's what I have to say. I know I sound overly negative, but that's because that's what is going to help you improve. I of course didn't mean anything personally. Trying to get you to realize the potential your splices could have. So I hope this helps you some, and hope to see some improvement in the near future because of it.

[Glitch]

Thanks you so much for posting this critique.

I didn't recolor borders in the beginning, but I didn't know too. :3
I did after Splice 3 or something like that, but sometimes when I save, it goes a couple steps back so it looks like I didn't recolor for some reason.
And it's red because I had a specific Pawniard request, but it looked bad so I recolored it. Again, it undid part of it.

And also, the Steelix/Metagross one was a recolor request. And I did do it. :3

[Jappio]

Well don't be afraid to check your uploaded image before posting it. If I didn't do so many sprites and was always moving onto the next project, I'd go back and fix older stuff. After all, what matters is the one everyone sees.

Suppose I didn't read the request on the whole Steelix/Metagross thing well enough, I apologize, but I like to think my point still has some meaning hidden in it to learn from, even if not applicable to you =P

Also no problem. I don't give critique as often as I have in the past, but the occasional one can be fun.

[Glitch]

Yeah I guess I'll edit my splices. Thanks again.

[Glitch]

Bump.

I'll make something new. Probably a splice.

[TwinSeed]

Are you gonna make the Smeargle splice? :/

[Glitch]

I was about too, but I just had to get off. D:

Eventually.

[TwinSeed]

Okay

[Glitch]

Bump.

[TheLegenderyKingVildeChaya]

i personally think recolors are kinda dumb b/c they require little talent

BTW looking only at your first 2 you missed some pixels in squirtles foot and didn't recolor the 2nd one's border