★ Icon Sprite Feedback

[uppa]

Hello all,

You may have noticed that many new icon sprites were implemented into showdown, encompassing every gen 9 mon up to Walking Wake and Iron Leaves! This was done to keep parity with the previous generations of icons, as well as looking (in my opinion) a lot more stylish than the BDSP/SV style icons.

The full sheet of icons for gen 9 can be found here.

We've seen a lot of love shown to these icons, but with that came a fair amount of criticism as well. This is the internet, so clearly not all criticism we've received is necessarily thought-out or constructive. The purpose of this thread is to allow a space for players to express any dissatisfaction with an particular sprite. We would like the community to help us gauge which icons may need revisiting and more quality control. We will update changes made to icons in this thread when replying to critique that we have considered.

PLEASE NOTE: We won't be tolerating criticism that is overtly hateful and unhelpful. Be considerate when voicing your concerns with a given sprite, and try your best to articulate what exactly you feel is wrong with the icon. You don't need to offer any solutions to problems you propose, but please make an effort to make sure you are communicating what you need to.

Thank you all, we'll do our best to listen to community feedback.
- uppababy

 

[Lectrys]

Neither Pokemon's ears are that dark (grey) when they are not in shadow in official art, unlike the grey ears of these sprites. I'd rather have all the ears be the same white colour (barring outlines).


The combination of its stark eyes and that curved, open mouth with such big teeth...what happened to Fuecoco's face?!? Fuecoco shouldn't look that ugly, IMO!


Cyclizar's head looks too straight and flat compared to its official art (at least IMO). The front of Cyclizar's head is more distinctly curved in official art.

 

[rien]

i think the actual pixelwork looks great for most if not all mons, the main problem for me is that they're so contrasted and saturated in comparison to the older icons that it makes them stick out like a sore thumb. since their introduction in gen 3 icons have been more subdued in saturation and outline darkness than the main sprites (which were not highly saturated in gen 3 to begin with).

as you can see on this screenshot of a team on ps which has an equal distribution of new gen and old gen mons, the gen 9 icons really stand out from the official gf ones with their almost pure black outline and very saturated color palettes.

after a quick (and crude) recoloring work which for most colors meant simply taking the saturation value down, these look more in line with the official icons.

needless to say but i really appreciate all spriters involved for taking away from your free time to work on this, ps looks much better thanks to you!

 

[Marty]

Here's the full set of sprites that are new as of last week. The sheet on PS is split into sections so the portion in the OP is just the base forms.

While I was sorting through them the only real criticisms I had were the darkness of the outlines (which I fixed already and is reflected in the above sheet and the one in the OP), and Fuecoco's non-gray outline above its head.

I skimmed through every sprite and as far as I can tell the only others without a completely solid gray outline are Mega Charizard X and the 6 Rotom forms.
Every other instance of fire or some other thing rising beyond the edges is surrounded by a gray outline, so I'm not sure this case is a good exception.

And actually I think Rotom's plasma should be the only exception and Mega Charizard X would look fine if Game Freak had outlined it like everything else, but I guess Charizard gets a free pass just because.

 

[uppa]

Here's the full set of sprites that are new as of last week. The sheet on PS is split into sections so the portion in the OP is just the base forms.
View attachment 504052

While I was sorting through them the only real criticisms I had were the darkness of the outlines (which I fixed already and is reflected in the above sheet and the one in the OP), and Fuecoco's non-gray outline above its head.

I skimmed through every sprite and as far as I can tell the only others without a completely solid gray outline are Mega Charizard X and the 6 Rotom forms.
Every other instance of fire or some other thing rising beyond the edges is surrounded by a gray outline, so I'm not sure this case is a good exception.

And actually I think Rotom's plasma should be the only exception and Mega Charizard X would look fine if Game Freak had outlined it like everything else, but I guess Charizard gets a free pass just because.
View attachment 504055

Hi!

In USUM, they actually changed the outlines to a much darker gray. You’ll see that on USUM exclusives like ndm and blacephalon, but they changed the outline of every mon up to gen 7 as well.

The zip file containing all of icons actually has the outline corrected as of USUM for every mon, but I understand if it’s unnecessary to update every other icon. That’s where some confusion occurred, since the icon artists consider the darker outline to be more standard, while showdown seemingly uses outdated sprites (or rather consider pre-USUM style to be more standard).

Whichever style works is fine, it’s an easy change to be made, and if the community prefers the less saturated icons with lighter outlines we can definitely go forward with that.

 

[uppa]

Neither Pokemon's ears are that dark (grey) when they are not in shadow in official art, unlike the grey ears of these sprites. I'd rather have all the ears be the same white colour (barring outlines).


The combination of its stark eyes and that curved, open mouth with such big teeth...what happened to Fuecoco's face?!? Fuecoco shouldn't look that ugly, IMO!


Cyclizar's head looks too straight and flat compared to its official art (at least IMO). The front of Cyclizar's head is more distinctly curved in official art.

All three will be reworked. Thank you for the feedback. (you have hurt Fuecoco’s feelings, though)

 

[Tea Guzzler]

These are the ones I have major greivances with, rest look great

Enam's head seems a little off, almost like it's a mask of some sort. I think it has something to do with the lips being proportionally larger than they are on the actual model / other artwork, and with the white parts of the love heart starting on the side of the head, making it look more like her whole head is love-heart shaped.

The top part of this sprite seems like it's the exact same as regular Palkia (minus the fin on the head being slightly longer), which results in the sprite looking really front-heavy and the back legs (or the one that's visible) looking tiny in comparison).

The white-ish spaces that I presume were meant to separate the beads makes its eyes look like a TM in my eyes, or otherwise them just masking the rest of the body and making it look more shark-like than fish-like.

 

[Marty]

Hi!

In USUM, they actually changed the outlines to a much darker gray. You’ll see that on USUM exclusives like ndm and blacephalon, but they changed the outline of every mon up to gen 7 as well.

The zip file containing all of icons actually has the outline corrected as of USUM for every mon, but I understand if it’s unnecessary to update every other icon. That’s where some confusion occurred, since the icon artists consider the darker outline to be more standard, while showdown seemingly uses outdated sprites (or rather consider pre-USUM style to be more standard).

Whichever style works is fine, it’s an easy change to be made, and if the community prefers the less saturated icons with lighter outlines we can definitely go forward with that.

Prior to USUM they used RGB (49,49,49), while USUM uses RGB (32,32,32) (and probably LGPE and Sword and Shield's 68x56 sprites but I didn't check) but most of the Sword and Shield custom sprites are using (48,48,48) or (32,32,32) or something similar.

The zip you sent didn't have any (32,32,32) outlines at all (among these 146 sprites). I had Imagemagick generate a histogram of every colour and its pixel count from every sprite (see attached); it's a mix of (0,0,0), (7,7,7), (8,8,8), and (20,20,20) and I changed them all to (49,49,49) to match the majority.

 

[MBCMechachu]

Prior to USUM they used RGB (49,49,49), while USUM uses RGB (32,32,32) (and probably LGPE and Sword and Shield's 68x56 sprites but I didn't check) but most of the Sword & Shield custom sprites are using (48,48,48) or (32,32,32) or something similar.

The zip you sent didn't have any (32,32,32) outlines at all (among these 146 sprites). I had Imagemagick generate a histogram of every colour and its pixel count from every sprite (see attached); it's a mix of (0,0,0), (7,7,7), (8,8,8), and (20,20,20) and I changed them all to (49,49,49) to match the majority.

Last I checked since I work with the Switch style, LGPE used 0,0,0 for the outline RGB values.

 

[SkyOfSouls]

Here are too many some critiques that I have related to some of the icons. 1 star indicates that I think the icon only requires small adjustments or could just stay the same, 2 stars that there's a couple of minor problems, and 3 stars indicate that the sprite really needs some work in order to fix it.

me when I spend literal hours finding things to nitpick

***
Origin Forme Dialga seems to look twisted in a bunch of ways, namely it's tail frill being too small, its "wheel" seeming misplaced and having the wrong perspective, its head being too big and placed too far forward, its hind legs not being thin enough, its shoulders being too flimsy, its body being a tad too thick (seriously Dialga-Origin's in-game has the physique of a fucking twig)... It just looks disfigured, and I feel nowhere near qualified enough to know how to fix this.

View attachment 504181 ***
The majority of Hisuian Zoroark's hair is facing backwards on the sprite rather than forwards, the red tips on its hair are too small, and its skin is white instead of grey, which is surprising considering Hisuian Zorua's colors were gotten right.

*
The only major problem is that its icebreakers are blue instead of grey.

View attachment 504045**
It's face seems to be facing upwards instead of forwards, and its hind legs seem to go too far back, and, combined with the reduced hieght of Usaluna's pelt, makes Ursaluna's proportions look off compared to other minisprites with a similar pose :
View attachment 504056

*
Overqwil's lower spikes seem a little weird, and its eyes seem to be doing the side eyes thing that Stupid Mario does, instead of facing forward (don't know if it was intentional or not).

View attachment 504054 ***
I really don't like looking at either of these.
Incarnate : some of this sprite's issues were already mentioned, but there are others, such as the midsection not being as thin as it should be, and the cloud being too front heavy (it could also be adjusted to better resemble the ones on the other genies). The end of the tail could also face forward, which would help mask the not-so-good looking left arm.
Therian : its snout and head doesn't protude far enough (it normally has a ridiculous neck length), it's face is far too similar to the Incarnate forme, and the end of the "snake" tail is not bulbous enough and makes it lack detail.

***
Floragato's icon is too small, and a lot of its details seem really smudged.

*
The green on Spidops is very saturated; its official artwork and model have it colored dark lime green.

**
Lokix is a thin mon, which make its icon's stout proportions and large head-to-body ratio look jarring.

*
I think the reflection in the larger ones' eyes make it look sometimes like they're angry, especially for the Family of Four Maushold (whose eyes have to the illusion of them being lower than they actually are on the icon for the Family of Four, due the eyes and the outline around the little one's ears having the same color).

*
Very nice icon overall, but its head to body proportions seem off due to its "boots" not being visible.

***
Garganacl seems to be a case of the left and right side of its body having completely different perspective angles, which makes its proportions bizarre. The arms and hands are way too small (especially the right one).

*
Grafaiai could very well stay the same, but the line across its face and the small teeth poking out are normally too thin/small to be able to added on an icon of this low of a resolution : these two details hilariously make it look like an old geezer.

***
It's too small, which in turn makes the details on it look incredibly incomprehensible.

*
Espathra's could be slightly adjusted so that it's legs are a bit longer, it's head a bit higher, and its colors a bit paler.

View attachment 504047**
Palafin's left elbow is too low, and the bottom of the beak not being colored differently make its features indistinguishable at normal size : it looks way better zoomed in that zoomed out. This is also one of the few sprites which looks visibly less vibrant compared to its original artwork and model, à la gen 3-5.

View attachment 504058 ***
Revavroom looks god awful : it looks like it's facing the viewer instead of 3/4 forwards, the rocky bits are purple??? (how), and the back of the sprite doesn't go far enough. Smaller complaints I have include the hole below its eye being too small, the mouth not looking like it has teeth, the black part above being too big, the acid leaks on the exhaust and the metal parts being too bright.

**
Glimmora's just too small (sprite fine otherwise).

**
Cetitan's flippers are too far back, and it's legs even more tiny and flimsy than normal.

*
The hood around its head is just a tad too big.

*
Great Tusk's trunk is much paler than it is normally : the model and official artwork show to be a dark purple instead of a pale blue.

*
Only problem is that that the top eye should have more noticeable purple mascara around it.

***
Chien-Pao's head is way too long (its head is normally way smaller than the rest of its very long body) and the snow bits from where the sword parts are jutting out seem to be too exaggerated and make it look very ugly.

Everything else looks amazing otherwise, seeing any ORAS-USUM style icon brings me tons of joy and dopamine, stuff like Skeledirge, Kingambit, Tinkaton, and Koraidon look dope as hell, I would love to see the sprites that I highlighted to look just as good as them.
P.S. : I know that only Gen 9 was mentioned in the opening post, but could we also provide feedback on the icons done for Gen 8 ? (looking at you, Galarian Articuno ).

 

[Aurella]

Feedback

- Both these sprites are a bit tiny; the glimmora artwork is fine but clodsire zoomed in still looks a mon you'd expect from LC. Something more closely resembling its gen 9 party sprite would look more appropriate to its evo status and weight. E.g

- The posturing of its arms/legs make it seem a bit cartoony/stick figure-ish.

- The way it's hunched over makes it hard to make out the details of the mon, the pose itself also seems a bit too masculine. A more elegant pose like in the Arboliva sprite might fit it better.

- Hard to see the body when so much of the sprite is its head.

- No complaints on this one, whoever made it did an amazing job.

 

[SkyOfSouls]

So have there been any sort of update on this ? There hasn't been any official response from the sprite team for a couple of months already, or any sort of change to these sprites for that matter. Just wanted to know, seeing otherwise this thread wouldn't serve much purpose as a feedback thread, and I really want these sprites to match the quality standard of the official ones. (not trying to come off as rude, just this thread has been surprisingly dormant)

 

[uppa]

So have there been any sort of update on this ? There hasn't been any official response from the sprite team for a couple of months already, or any sort of change to these sprites for that matter. Just wanted to know, seeing otherwise this thread wouldn't serve much purpose as a feedback thread, and I really want these sprites to match the quality standard of the official ones. (not trying to come off as rude, just this thread has been surprisingly dormant)

It’s still being worked on. New icons would roll out when new sprites do. Tagging MBCMechachu since he handles most of the icon stuff.

 

[InfraredGod_YT]

Here's the full set of sprites that are new as of last week. The sheet on PS is split into sections so the portion in the OP is just the base forms.
View attachment 504052

While I was sorting through them the only real criticisms I had were the darkness of the outlines (which I fixed already and is reflected in the above sheet and the one in the OP), and Fuecoco's non-gray outline above its head.

I skimmed through every sprite and as far as I can tell the only others without a completely solid gray outline are Mega Charizard X and the 6 Rotom forms.
Every other instance of fire or some other thing rising beyond the edges is surrounded by a gray outline, so I'm not sure this case is a good exception.

And actually I think Rotom's plasma should be the only exception and Mega Charizard X would look fine if Game Freak had outlined it like everything else, but I guess Charizard gets a free pass just because.
View attachment 504055

Are there any shiny versions of that sheet?

 

[Bice]

The highlights on Chi-Yu ()'s beads look a bit bright, making its eyes look a bit bigger and whiter than they should be. I did a quick edit, replacing the highlight green (hex 779F94) with a slightly darker one (hex 618278) and I thought it looked better.

 

[SkyOfSouls]

It’s still being worked on. New icons would roll out when new sprites do. Tagging MBCMechachu since he handles most of the icon stuff.

Update

I'm sure this is still being worked on, but it doesn't seem that any new icons have been implemented yet, so is this referring to a later update ?
MBCMechachu

 

[uppa]

I'm sure this is still being worked on, but it doesn't seem that any new icons have been implemented yet, so is this referring to a later update ?
MBCMechachu

It was all on hiatus for a while, but now things are happening again. Expect an update soon

 

[therifan]

Hello all,

You may have noticed that many new icon sprites were implemented into showdown, encompassing every gen 9 mon up to Walking Wake and Iron Leaves! This was done to keep parity with the previous generations of icons, as well as looking (in my opinion) a lot more stylish than the BDSP/SV style icons.

The full sheet of icons for gen 9 can be found here.
View attachment 503984
We've seen a lot of love shown to these icons, but with that came a fair amount of criticism as well. This is the internet, so clearly not all criticism we've received is necessarily thought-out or constructive. The purpose of this thread is to allow a space for players to express any dissatisfaction with an particular sprite. We would like the community to help us gauge which icons may need revisiting and more quality control. We will update changes made to icons in this thread when replying to critique that we have considered.

PLEASE NOTE: We won't be tolerating criticism that is overtly hateful and unhelpful. Be considerate when voicing your concerns with a given sprite, and try your best to articulate what exactly you feel is wrong with the icon. You don't need to offer any solutions to problems you propose, but please make an effort to make sure you are communicating what you need to.

Thank you all, we'll do our best to listen to community feedback.
- uppababy
View attachment 503985

Hi, This may be an odd request but is there a higher resolution pdf of theses sprites. I've just gotten into some cross stitching and this these would be so much fun to stitch. This would just be for myself, not selling for any money or anything like that, thanks for reading.

 

[Kalalokki]

Hi, This may be an odd request but is there a higher resolution pdf of theses sprites. I've just gotten into some cross stitching and this these would be so much fun to stitch. This would just be for myself, not selling for any money or anything like that, thanks for reading.

Just use a free site like this (https://www.photoenlarger.com/) and enlarge them by some 4-500% and pick the one that looks the most clear to you.

 

[Samirsin]

The highlights on Chi-Yu ()'s beads look a bit bright, making its eyes look a bit bigger and whiter than they should be. I did a quick edit, replacing the highlight green (hex 779F94) with a slightly darker one (hex 618278) and I thought it looked better.

This is true, it looks like it has bigger white eyes when it doesn't, the colors are not the same.

️

 

[therifan]

Just use a free site like this (https://www.photoenlarger.com/) and enlarge them by some 4-500% and pick the one that looks the most clear to you.

tysm, that has worked amazingly

 

[Aurella]

IMO the Melmetal sprite should be reverted from what it's changed to. The old one was perfect, whereas the new one is a bit anorexic looking.

 

[SkyOfSouls]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK OH MY GODDESS GALARIAN ARTICUNO AND HISUIAN ZORARK AND URSALUNA AND ENAMORUS LOOK SO GOOD
But I realize that a lost seems to not have had their colors desaturated (also applies to the new Pokémon). The Garganacl sprite looks better, but the proportions are way too top heavy and unbalanced. Also, have there been updates on Revavroom, Chien-Pao, Brambleghast, and Florogato ?

 

[uppa]

The old one was perfect, whereas the new one is a bit anorexic looking.

Awful way to describe just about anything. Thanks for letting me know, though.

 

[uppa]

The Garganacl sprite looks better, but the proportions are way too top heavy and unbalanced. Also, have there been updates on Revavroom, Chien-Pao, Brambleghast, and Florogato are still there.

We can keep looking at Garganacl and others to see if they can be improved, but do expect a little bit of abstraction to be necessary for these kinds of sprites. Garganacl is very geometric and has specific proportions, so it’s nearly impossible to translate it into a tiny icon while keeping everything intact. Glad you’re enjoying some of the others, though.