ZEJ Pixel Challenge

~ ZEJ Pixel Challenge ~

Something that has been thrown around for a little while around ZEJ is the idea for a pixel-art or spriting challenge, but it has never actually come to fruition... well, that is, until now. I'd like to create a little bi-weekly/monthly/whatever challenge that should inspire a little bit of activity on ZEJ for those who are willing to partake!

Basically, my idea on how this will be run is that, every couple of weeks, a new challenge will be unveiled by the winner of the previous contest. This way, there is constantly a cycle of ideas from a variety of different users. The new challenge will be open for a couple of weeks (2-4), and then closed for voting. The cycle continues with the newly-crowned victor posting a new challenge in this thread!

The challenges can be a wide range of things - from palette creation, to lineart-making, to frankenspriting, to full out custom spriting. The possibilities are pretty much endless, and it is up to you guys (or, whoever wins among you guys) to choose!

Anyway, in order to get the first challenge right underway...

Challenge 1: Fix the Fusion!

Aaah, Pokemon. Such beloved creatures.

So by now, it's pretty safe to assume that almost everyone on the internet has heard of the Pokemon Fusion tool. In case you've been living under a rock, the basic premise is that it combines the appearances of two of the First Gen Pokemon, and creates a very rough approximation of a combination of the two of them, resizing the sprites accordingly to 'fit.' As it grew to enrapture the internet with its charm, a diverse array of artists were so enthralled that they created a bunch of art out of the results they received from the generator. It's a pretty neat tool.

For our first challenge, we're going to take one of those randomly-combined results, and fix it up to make it look as though this were the intentional design of the Pokemon, through respriting the result churned out and making the design look very pretty in pixel form. There are no size restrictions, nor palette restrictions, but please stick as closely to the result you were given as you possibly can!

Post the design you will be tackling below in this thread. This round of the Pixel Challenge will end on Sunday, March 16, 2014, at which time the voting process will occur. Good luck! And if you have any questions, please post them in this thread!

 

For the first challenge, I have supplied a vague lineart for you guys to work on. The purpose of this challenge is to take this base lineart and colour, shade, and prettify it however you see fit. That can range from taking what we've got and adding onto it to make a full sprite, or just colouring it as-is. The world is your oyster! Make any modifications that you see fit, just make sure that your finished product is fully coloured, and shaded in some form to the best of your abilities. The community will judge you based on how good the finished product looks.

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I will be setting the deadline for 2 weeks from today, on Saturday, March 1, 2014. If people would like to participate, but need more time to do so, I might consider extending the deadline by a couple of weeks, but two should be ample time to work on a sprite anyway. This competition is as much about creativity as it is time management!

Anyway, without further ado, let's commence! If you're participating, the please post below, and don't hesitate to keep us updated on the progress of your sprite!

I myself will more likely than not be partaking in this challenge, so I'll do my best to update the thread here with my progress. Looking forward to practising pixels with you guys!~

 

After deeming the old pixel challenge to be a tad on the difficult side for us as budding spriters, I have posted a new challenge that is very friendly for our good friends, the Pokemon. Check it out!

To clarify slightly, the goal is to fix (or re-sprite in a new pose) the sprite that the generator churns out. Not to re-fuse the two sprites. You are also not necessarily restricted to the sprite given to you (or even restricted to Pokemon style). Feel free to make a custom sprite if you feel up to that challenge!

If you're in need of some inspiration, check below in the spoiler.

Spoiler

 

If you zoom in, you can see that the pixels have been distorted and are all of different sizes due to the way that the resizing was done. In this challenge, you need to either:
1. Resprite it entirely and make a custom sprite based on the original (hard modo) that conveys the fusion, or
2. Modify/edit the sprite to fix any sizing inconsistencies or 'glitches' in the sprite. Essentially to prettify it.

Does that make more sense?

 

Just a reminder that the deadline is in one week! And feel free to post your progress in this thread. In fact, it's highly encouraged to do so. Show off what you've done, and inspire one another!

 

I apologize for the delay, but as you can see, the poll for the first pixel challenge has been posted. Voting will be open until next week, at which time the winner will be decided and will get to post the next challenge.

Admittedly, I was hoping for a slightly better turnout than this, but I guess we have to start somewhere. Onto better things, right?

 

Last call for voting! Voting period ends this Saturday, and the winner will announce the next Pixel Challenge.

 

Congratulations to @"The Kakuzato" on winning ZEJ's first pixel challenge with a final tally of five votes! As winner, he gets to determine all of the details of the next one, so be on the lookout for that. Stay tuned, folks!

 

So Nate decided that he couldn't think of any ideas, and would much rather participate in the actual challenges than come up with one himself, so I have come up with our second iteration...

Challenge 2: Isometric Connection!

The 'statistical roleplay' format is something we hold near and dear to our hearts here at ZEJ, and it is something most frequently explained to newcomers to the system as "essentially what you would get if games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Luminous Arc were done on a forum." As such, I figured that for our next challenge, we would return to our roots as a forum and dive into the graphical workings of isometric tactical RPGs.

For this challenge, you are to take the appearance of a character (ideally found on ZEJ, if you feel like paying homage to your co-forumites) and sprite it in the style of one of the following games:

• Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX)
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)
• Luminous Arc (NDS)
• Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (NDS)

This competition requires only one frame of the character to be done, but you are free to go above and beyond to make a mug shot, or a full animation, or whatever you'd like if you find yourself interested enough to do so. Edits to existing sprites are admissible, but custom sprites are encouraged.

Here are some stylistic examples:



For the purposes of enhancing the community aspect of the forums, I'd like to encourage participants to pixel a character that ISN'T their own. Think of it as a sort of gift to your amigos around the forum. Everyone loves to receive!

This competition will last two weeks, with the final deadline being on Monday, April 28th, 2014. Best of luck, spriters! Let's see what we can do.