Call for Pokemon smilies!

[Lady Vulpix]

First of all, I'm happy to announce that we're reaching the end of 2011 with a full set of Pokemon smilies up to Gen 4 inclusive. This took a lot of work, considering we started the year with only the first 251. Now, all we need is the Gen 5 smilies to have the full set (for now). I have already made a few, but I must admit I'm rather tired of making smilies, so I will appreciate some help.

So here's the deal:

What we need:

Smilies for all the Pokemon that are not yet on the list. The smilies must be:

-Exactly 32×32 pixels in size.
-In GIF format with transparent background.
-With the bottom line containing at least one non-transparent pixel.
-Similar in quality to the smilies we already have.

What you can do:

1. Make a new smilie from scratch (this is the hardest option, but in some cases it's the best you can do).
2. Grab a small image from the web and edit it to fit the size and/or look good enough.
3. Pick an existing smilie of a similar Pokemon and edit it to look like a new one.
4. Merge different smilies in order to get one which looks better than either one of them.
5. Find a smilie that already fits the criteria for the list (this may only be possible in rare cases). If you do this, please cite the source.

I have done all the things above in order to complete generations 3 and 4. If you have other ideas, you can put them into action as well.

If you don't know how to make smilies, you can still suggest a smilie for someone else to edit. Suppose you come across a smilie that looks mostly good but perhaps it's a pixel too big, or the border is incomplete, or the colors are a bit off... then you can post it here so that someone retouches it and gets it ready for the list.

What you must not do:

-Do not post the tiny smilies from the game as they come: while they're 32×32, the visible image is usually too small, it lacks detail and the colors are off. You can use those smilies as a base to make your own (like I did with Skuntank and Darkrai), but the end result must be good enough for the list.

-Do not grab a larger image, shrink it to 32×32 and post the result without editing it first. The result of that process is usually a blur of partially blended colors. You can shrink an image as the first step in the process of making the smilie, but then you'll have to draw the borders and fill in the missing details. (That's how the Glaceon smilie was made, though I'm not too proud of that one. Fixing resized smilies is HARD!)

-Do not post images you've found that look nothing like the original Pokemon (anything horribly disproportionate, or anything you have to stare at for a while before you can tell what Pokemon it is). Of course, you can edit them and then post the result.

That's it for now. Once the first smilies are posted, I will edit this post to include a list of
contributors with their respective contributions.

These are the Gen 5 smilies we have so far:

[Cynder]

I'll be brave and take on Reshiram and Zekrom. Just so nobody else makes them and I don't get made redundant :3

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks! Your help is very welcome.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

This may be obvious, but mind if I post the link where we can see every existing smiley so that we know the general style?

[Lady Vulpix]

Sure! But it may take a while to load, that's an awful lot of images!

Edit: I've just done the Solosis line, but I think Reuniclus has turned out too tiny. Perhaps a bigger one with crossed arms or something?

[Jeff]

A useful source will be all the sprites, which can be found at what's left of the TPM pokedex here.

As a side note, maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to fixing it back up.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks, Jeff.

I've just won a Haxorus plushie at Pokemon Hangman, so here's the smilie: .

[Mystic_clown]

I'll take a crack at doing the kami trio, Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks. That will be great.

Edit: we have Audino now.

[Lady Vulpix]

Sorry for the double-post, but it's been 30 days since I last posted here and no one else has turned up any smilies. What's up with that?

Anyway, here's the new Yamask smilie.

I had to make it nearly from scratch because I couldn't find any half-decent Yamask smilies anywhere. I took the color scheme from the 96×96 icon, and copied a part of the hands, but everything else was done from scratch.

Edit: Darumaka family done, mostly from resizes of game sprites but with heavy work to make them look somewhat decent, especially the regular Darmanitan for which I used 2 different resize algorithms and combined bits of each result, then improved the smilie by hand.



And now Litwick... relatively easy to make.

[Cferra]

I have a couple friends who may want to know about this project. I'll see what they think. This is pretty awesome and I thank you, Gabi for doing this! =D

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

One question, seeing there is rather quiet here. Will people be able to put these things on their signatures? I see a lot of people want an ASB banner and these could be a way to make them fairly quickly. This info could even encourage people to make them. I remember in the old TPM, smilies didn't show up in the signatures or am I completely off?

[Lady Vulpix]

BB code works in signatures, and these smilies will be incorporated into the forum, so yes, you'll be able to put them in your signatures.

Edit: new smilies.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I'm just a beginner when it comes to smilies, but here is my suggestion for Gothorita. I might do more if I get positive feedback, I'm trying to have my ASB Team completed.

[Lady Vulpix]

Cool! I think the only problem with that one is that it blends into the forum's background, but I think a slight recolor would fix that. Thanks a lot for your help!

Edit: I think she's a bit more visible now. Thanks again!

[Blademaster]

Mikachu did you make that?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

With Paint and Gimp, looking at the Ken Sugimori art closely, yes, I made it.

I like the result, Lady Vulpix. Feel free to edit this too:

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

And here are Whirlipede, Frillish (both genders), Axew, Deino and Larvesta. Hope they are good enough:

[Blademaster]

...I'm impressed. I didn't know you had spriting talent, Mik. For the most part, those actually look pretty good.

[Lady Vulpix]

Amazing work, Mikachu! Thanks a lot!

I've been working on my own rednition of female Frillish, but it didn't really convince me. Now I've combined it with yours and here's the result!

I'll see if I can do something similar for the male version. All your other smilies are official now!

Edit: male version:

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

All your other smilies are official now!

Hooray! Thanks so much! One question. Is there a limit to use smilies in a signature? For my ASB Team contains over 50 Pokemon!

[Lady Vulpix]

You should try pasting them all together into one image, it'll load much faster since each image is sent as a separate HTTP request.

[Lady Vulpix]

We have a new smilie! Now the Klink line is finally complete!

We also have: .

Would anyone else like to make some new smilies?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

My contract with my local library ends next week, and I'll face new challenges during the summer. Meanwhile, I could see myself doing Pokemon smilies. I spent some hours on this one, and am still not satisfied with it. It feels like I had forgotten how to draw Pokemon. Could you help me out with my impression of Simipour?

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks, Mikachu. I don't know why that one had white borders. I tried to build something from it but the edges were rather fuzzy and I couldn't identify them clearly, so I took the colors from your smilie and tried my own version. This is the best I was able to do: .

Oh, by the way, we also have Eelektross now. .

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Thanks! Perhaps I'll have to look at my earlier smilies which worked better a bit more closely. I did that when it was Saturday or Sunday and way too much free time. Today I have had an intense playing session on Playstation and my head feels heavy, so you'll have to wait for more and I don't know for how long.

[Lady Vulpix]

That's OK, thanks.

And we have Watchog now!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I wanted to complete the Venipede evolution. Feel free to edit.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks a lot, Mikachu! Sorry for the late reply.I really like your Venipede! And Scolipede must have been really hard to draw!

Just a little color shift to make hem more visible over this dark background, and a few details on Scolipede, also for visibility.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I need some special feedback, for I changed my technique! I'm not sure if I did a mistake of trying to fix what wasn't broken. Results:

[Puma]

Excuse me, I might help a bit, does it have to be a .gif, or is a transparent .png fine as well?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I think it must be gif. All the TPM smilies are gifs, as far as I know.

[Puma]

Yeah, probably because gifs can be animated, while png cannot. I'm just thinking that gifs are a lot more easy to use overall. Whatever, I don't have a problem with gifs as well, I might do some Pokémon if I have some spare time ^-^

[Lady Vulpix]

Sorry for the delay, I've started a new job without leaving the previous one and I've had a really hectic couple of weeks. Scraggy's done, thanks Mikachu!

I'll take a look at the others as soon as I can, it may take a while because none of them have borders so I'll have to add them all (our smilies have black borders, it would look weird if just a few of them didn't).

And thanks for your offer, Puma!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Sorry about the border thing, I'll try to keep that in mind in the future. Like I said, I changed my technique.

[Lady Vulpix]

No problem. They do look good, it'll just take some work to fit in the black borders. Speaking of which... I hope I did a good enough job with this one:

So many borders in so little space! @_@

[Puma]

Hm, I was wondering if it's allowed to use only the face of a Pokémon, as long as you are able to recognize the Pokémon.

It would look something like the one in the attachment.

Also, if you need black borders, I could add them too, I just like an outline with color variation more :'D

[Underscore]

So I actually attempted this Serperior smiley last year and I only bothered to present it now. Problem is that he is facing the opposite way. I use to sprite a lot back then. I'd love to help but it may take a while for me to get the hang of it again. So what do you think about the Serperior? The hardest part was definitely the tail since it's hard to put detailed parts in a small space.
I notice that, in the smileys already made, there seems to be different styles of spriting done. Some have black outlines and some don't. Some of them are actually pillowshaded. Someone should edit these to make the style uniform for all.

I'll edit this one with black borders later.

[Lady Vulpix]

Puma: I think it would be best if it were the whole Pokemon, but you can play with the pose so that the bottom part barely shows if that's easier for you.

Underscore: that Serperior is amazing! I guess dark colored outlines are OK, as long as they're clearly visible. Thanks for the new smilie!

Edit: ¡New smilies!

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I'll try to get this rolling again with there proposals.