Pokémon Portrait

This page contains information about Pokémon portraits. Portraits are one of two sprite categories for Pokémon entries.

Overview

Portraits are images that can be displayed during dialogue, on the top screen, or in the footprint minigame. Up to 40 portraits can be assigned to one Pokémon (20 left-facing and 20 right-facing, although right-facing is not necessary if the Pokémon is symmetrical). Each portrait is 40 pixels by 40 pixels.

Creating Portraits

If you are creating portraits to import, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

• The size of each portrait must be 40 pixels by 40 pixels.
• Each portrait can have a maximum of 15 unique colors.
• Highly complex portraits may be invalid (this is a very rare case, but it has been reported).
• Image must be a PNG.

Importing Portraits

An image of the options given when selecting the "Import" option on a Pokémon's Portraits tab.

To import a portrait, go to the "Portraits" tab in a Pokémon's entry. Here, you can see a list of all the portraits as well as the portraits themselves. Select "Import," then either "...from separate images" or "...from one sheet (SpriteBot format).

To import portraits using the "...from separate images" option, you must select a directory containing all the portraits you wish to add. These images must be labeled "Y_XX.png" where Y is the Pokémon's number (in Bulbasaur's, case 1 for male and 601 for female because those are its SkyTemple entry numbers) and XX is a number between 0 and 40. The "XX" numbers correspond to the expressions listed on the Portraits page (0 for Normal, 1 for the flipped version of Normal, etc.).

An example of a SpriteBot format portrait sheet. Each expression is labeled.

To import portraits using the "...from one sheet (SpriteBot format)" option, you must submit a file that can be up to 320 pixels high (160 without asymmetry) by 200 pixels wide. The image's dimensions must be in multiples of 40 pixels. Each portrait placement corresponds to each of the expressions used by starter Pokémon plus 4 "Special" portraits (8 with asymmetry). You can obtain a portrait sheet in this format from the PMD Sprite Repository.

Common Issues and Questions

My portrait is within the color limit, but I'm still getting oddities upon importing!

Double check through either your art app (if it shows the entire palette) or a pixel color counter. Chances are, you have visually identical colors: colors that appear identical, but actually have different hex codes. Alternatively, you could have some compression from a JPEG format if you converted a JPEG to a PNG.

I'm having trouble getting my portrait to fit the color limit!

Look for any shades you can combine without losing detail, but if none exist, try seeing if you can use a similar color on your Pokémon to replace a background color (or vice versa). You can also simplify the background's gradient to a color or so less if need be.

What are the little pixels on the outside of the Pokémon?

That is called anti-aliasing! It is a technique in pixel art that helps the lineart appear smoother. This can be seen in both Chunsoft and fanmade portraits. When editing or making a portrait, try to have an external anti-aliasing color that is darker than the background color it is on, and make sure the colors are relatively similar (blue and green, yellow and orange, etc.).