Bead Sprites by VorpalDormouse - Updated 01/17/09!

[VorpalDormouse]

Hey there! Came over from beadsprites [dot] informe [dot] com... saw that this board has a good bit more activity and response.

Project Eeveelutions (RBY)


Project MMX Mavericks


Other Pokemon




Miscellaneous





Yet to Come

[VorpalDormouse]

And so it begins! I bought myself some Perler beads and peg boards and went to work on my first ever bead sprite project. Sorry for the poor camera quality... the only thing I have right now is a Motorola Razr camera phone.



Glorious.

Pikachu here is made with 855 Perler beads (169 Black, 137 Light Brown, 326 White, and 223 Yellow)*. I went off of a Pokemon Green (not LeafGreen, mind you) sprite sheet I happened upon through Google Images. That's the reason why he's white, kids! And I know, I know, his cheeks are red, but the Pokemon sprites use only four colors. I'm kind of a purist sometimes. I omitted the electricity coming off since it was disconnected.

But what have I learned from this first project? A few things:
- A well lit work station is a good thing to have.
- My floor is brown. I know this because I dropped two times more brown pieces than the other colors combined.
- Tapping the board lightly will settle the beads into place.
- Shuffling the board around does the exact opposite.
- Diagonal pieces do not touch. This baffled and upset me for a full five minutes before I remembered basic geometry.
- Working from the outside in makes placing beads tough... even though it's how I prefer to build sprites.
- My fingers are a bit big. The beads are small. This is not a good combination.

Ironing was surprisingly easy. Pikachu used four pegboards but really only took up about one and a half. I made sure to get the pegboards out after I was sure they'd fused but before they'd cooled too much. Only his tail gave me problems; it was hanging on loosely by one pixel until I had ironed both sides. It's not perfect, but it's something!

*Numbers may be off. I hand counted.

[VorpalDormouse]

Who's that Pokemon?



It's Eevee!

Made from the same Pokemon Green sprite sheet as Pikachu with Perler Black, Brown, Light Brown, and White. I kind of wish I had substituted an even lighter brown (Tan, for instance) for Light Brown, but I'm satisfied regardless. Rather feisty looking, though, isn't he?

[VorpalDormouse]

You used a WATER STONE.

What?

EEVEE is evolving!



Congratulations! Your EEVEE evolved into VAPOREON!

Game text aside, just let me say this: UGH. I'm an idiot. Vaporeon's big, if you can't tell. Well, big in comparison to Eevee and Pikachu. I still only have my original ironing sheet, but that wasn't enough to encompass Vaporeon. I knew that. I knew I would have difficulty unless I went out and bought parchment paper. But I ironed her anyway.

Which was stupid. She's bowed more than Pikachu. Pikachu won't hang on my wall with sticky tack, so I haven't even tried Vaporeon (Eevee turned out nice and flat, though!). I had trouble with stray pieces sticking to the paper - I wanted to iron quickly but carefully as I had done before. It didn't work so well here.

Also annoying was the fact that I had missed a ONE PIXEL COLUMN on the left side. I didn't realize this until 3.5 pegboards were finished, and I wasn't about to move 1000 beads one space to the right. Some quick pegboard switching (I only have four right now) remedied the problem.

I'll just mount her on something, I suppose. What do you guys usually use for that?

Made from the same Pokemon Green sprite sheet with Perler Black, Light Blue, Pastel Blue, and White.

[VorpalDormouse]

Been a while! Eeveelution number two, coming right up!



Same Pokemon Green sprite sheet, blah blah blah. Perler Black, Butterscotch, Yellow, and White.

Oh my... Had some trouble with this one! I waited until I had some parchment paper from home, but I overestimated my ironing time. Butterscotch likes to burn, apparently. You might not be able to tell from the picture, but it really didn't like being ironed as much as I ironed it. Lesson learned! Oh, and a few beads almost didn't make it. Also I found a yellow bead in my left shoe. Don't ask. I don't know how it got there.

Jolteon's a bit bowed, but she should be peachy when I get her mounted on cardboard. Vaporeon, also bowed, is doing just fine mounted, so I have confidence. Scotch tape holds her on the wall just fine.

Flareon may be postponed so I can make a Dragonair as a Christmas gift for a friend. Probably will, in fact.

[VorpalDormouse]

A request from a friend; it's Dragonair!

Perler Black, Blue, Light Blue, and White. I kind of wish I had the gray-ish blue that was actually used for the sprite, but I like this nonetheless.

This was my first with tweezers (so much easier!), and MAYBE my first done within 12 hours. I had no problems ironing (for a change). There was supposed to be a little diagonally connected pixel at the end of the tail baubles, but that obviously didn't iron on. I didn't think it would, but it was worth a shot.

Flareon is up next... and then I'm going to need to order more beads. After that, something other than Pokemon... something that doesn't require four pegboards, maybe.

[VorpalDormouse]

And the Eeveelutions are finished! Flareon here is my favorite. She's so flowy and read to strike. I was careful with the Butterscotch this time... it didn't burn so much. I took a look at the unmelted beads, and they seemed to have impurities around the top, so, y'know. Weirdest thing, though... this sprite REFUSED to iron. Refused. I had to iron it something like three times and then iron on a few bits that STILL weren't there.

Perler Black, Butterscotch, Red, and White.

Time to move away from Pokemon, plan more sprites, and order more beads.

[VorpalDormouse]

Here they are! The finished Eevee, Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon up on my wall.

Poor picture quality, but it's a cute little display.

[scrumsguy]

glad to see you made the switch, I really like your flarion too, are you planning on doing any eeveelutions from the Newer games?

[Anphobia]

Hey there! Came over from beadsprites [dot] informe [dot] com... saw that this board has a good bit more activity and response.

*Holds Goblet of Triumph in the air*

*Drinks from Goblet of Triumph*

*...burps*


Hey, love the PokéSprites! Glad to have you aboard!

[PaperRockScisorz]

I really like your Flareon!!! It's so squat and cute.

[VorpalDormouse]

glad to see you made the switch, I really like your flarion too, are you planning on doing any eeveelutions from the Newer games?

Well, considering that Espeon and Umbreon should be the same resolution as the original three, I COULD add them to the collection later. I'm just feeling nostalgic for RBY rather than GSC at the moment.

Leafeon and Glaceon are pretty much out of the question, though. Toooooo many pixels on the DS. They would dwarf these ones.

[scrumsguy]

you could maybe try and do a re-colouring, but I know that I wouldn't

[VorpalDormouse]

you could maybe try and do a re-colouring, but I know that I wouldn't

Oh geez, never. This sort of thing is the extent of my artistic ability. I tried to recolor Pikachu to look more like his animated self... but that didn't turn out well. If I had to reconstruct a WHOLE Pokemon and color it from basically scratch, I would fail epically.

[Doctor Octoroc]

Hello and welcome! I'm glad you found your way over as well. I hope you don't mind, but for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, I edited the link to the BSF in your first post. So it still says what it said before, it just doesn't actually act as a link to the site.

Basically, links act as a gague for search engines. The more links a site has pointing to it, the better for its results in search engines (depending on what keywords are used to link to the site). Since BSF has the keyword "beadsprites" in the url, that link would help the site, and seeing as we are a "competing site" it would be like free advertising for them, haha. No worries, just wanted to let you know.

And I've loved your pokemon ever since I saw them posted on "that other site"!

[VorpalDormouse]

Hello and welcome! I'm glad you found your way over as well. I hope you don't mind, but for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, I edited the link to the BSF in your first post. So it still says what it said before, it just doesn't actually act as a link to the site.

Basically, links act as a gague for search engines. The more links a site has pointing to it, the better for its results in search engines (depending on what keywords are used to link to the site). Since BSF has the keyword "beadsprites" in the url, that link would help the site, and seeing as we are a "competing site" it would be like free advertising for them, haha. No worries, just wanted to let you know.

And I've loved your pokemon ever since I saw them posted on "that other site"!

Uh... okay! Works for me.

And thanks! :D A compliment from the Doctor himself... herself? Damn gender ambiguity and lack of gender neutral pronouns...

[PaperRockScisorz]

He's a he.

[scrumsguy]

he he

[Doctor Octoroc]

Indeed I am...last I checked.

[suikerpanda]

Indeed I am...last I checked.

Last I checked too. Oops, inappropriate...