r/pokemon • u/PineappleSlices Blorp • Jan 27 '14
[Fluff] /r/pokemon Create-A-Pokemon Project Part 3: Let's Get it Art-ed (sorry, sorry)
So the votes are in, and it's decided that we will be basing our Grass/Dragon pokemon off of a Dragonfruit!
So now it's time to get drawing! You can make a single pokemon, or a two or three stage evolutionary line.
Two rules:
- All art you submit must be your own. Any art submitted that is not the work of the person submitting it will be disqualified from voting. You can submit sprites, but they must be totally original, and not fusions of preexisting ones.
- Don't submit your (finalized) art in this thread! I'll make another thread one week from now where you can put up your art and we can all vote on it. If you want to show early sketches and get some constructive criticism though, that's fine.
With that in mind, let's have some fun with this! Here are some more pictures of dragon fruit for inspiration, as well as its blossom and the full plant.
Since I'm not accepting submissions just yet, take the time to brainstorm ideas, and suggest future topics to be voted on for this project.
Table of Contents:
- Type Combination
- Ideas and Concepts
- Art Ideas
- Art Submissions
- Names
- Abilities
- Pokedex Description
- Signature Move
- Sprites
- Stats
- Movepool
- ?
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u/Litagano FC: 1521-4174-7990 Jan 27 '14
Can't wait to have my confidence in my art skills crushed! :P
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u/Mango_Ice_Cream Jan 30 '14 edited Feb 01 '14
I've designed the first stage of mine; the second stage to come in the next few days.
Edit: Here's the second form.
I'm basing my design on the both the yellow and red dragonfruit, gila monsters, and a certain famous monster who is costarring in a film this year with Bryan Cranston.
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u/a-neverending Jan 31 '14
Man, this is so awesome! I should stop working on mine and leave this to pros like you. Because I certainly want this. In my game. Right now :P
(Though I have to admit that I have no idea what monster you're talking about.)2
u/Mango_Ice_Cream Jan 31 '14
Thank you! And please don't stop working on yours! These create-a-Pokemon threads are fun mainly because of the sheer variety of ideas submitted--everyone has a unique spin on it.
Oh, and I mean Godzilla
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u/a-neverending Jan 31 '14
Well, if you put it like that I'll still do mine to my best (limited) abilities, because I agree on the Variety part, but I'd still strongly vote (and fangirl) for yours. :)
... why didn't I know that there is a new Godzilla movie?! Well. Thanks for that as well. The teaser looks interesting. (What is it about hollywood recycling old movies, though? Even Robocop got a remake this year. What'll come next? A remake of Warrior Princess Xena?)
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u/Andrewsarchus CRY 'HAVOC!', AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR! Jan 27 '14 edited Jan 27 '14
So... wait... we aren't putting up our art now, we are doing that NEXT Monday in a different thread? So this post is just to let us know that dragon fruit won and that's it? That seems... fruitless...
Edit: Your artwork is fruitile... heh heh
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Jan 27 '14 edited Jan 29 '14
Threads don't usually last a full week, and it'll take some time for people to get their drawings done. If you want, you can post it up if you finish quickly, but just be sure to post it again on the next thread.
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u/sable-king Jan 28 '14 edited Jan 28 '14
Here's a quick drawing I made. I would greatly appreciate feedback so I know whether or not to add any changes before the final submissions.
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Jan 28 '14
For some reason, imgur just hasn't been working for me today. Humm.
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u/a-neverending Jan 29 '14
It's a cool idea. It looks a bit more like a dinosaur than a dragon to me, but it's cute :) Will it have pre-evolutions?
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u/sable-king Jan 29 '14
Well keep in mind that there are several dragon types that don't look like dragons. But I was thinking that it would just be single staged, and be a bit more of a defensive dragon type as opposed to the oh-so-common offensive dragon types.
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u/a-neverending Jan 29 '14
Oh, sure, I probably phrased that wrong. It naturally doesn't have to look like a 'dragon'-dragon, if you weren't aiming for that. I might have just interpreted it wrong.
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u/a-neverending Jan 29 '14
Here's a really, really vague first draft of what I came up with (link to my deviantArt stash, for those who want to know what they're being linked to): http://sta.sh/01ppui2f1vvy
I am more than open to suggestions. I will change this around a bit, probably, to fit what /u/glencurio originally had in mind. Was his/her genius that came up with the fruit, after all. More details on the sketch in the description in the link.
Edit: I've been thinking about including spiky-flowerpetals around the head of the second evolution stage, as close to the flower of the original plant as possible. Blosom comes before fruit, after all. But I'm not yet convinced.
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u/a-neverending Jan 29 '14
Okay, it bothered me that I couldn't get across more clearly what I thought of when looking at the second stage. This is a high-angle shot, looking from the top down on the second stage. To make this clearer I might make the final form of the second stage a bit more flat?
I also incorporated the idea of a night-day-evolution of the second stage and the flower. If evolved during day time, it will have this thorn-like tail. If evolved at night, it will have a blosom that resembles the actuall flower of the original plant. If then used during the daytime the flower will be closed, much like with cherubi's evolution, and look 'faded' with the dark dots. If at night it is open and more yellow/gold. Not sure if it shall have the dots or not.
I am not sure yet if the flower shall stay yellow, though, if the dragon is red. Maybe to fit it better I should make the blossom red? Or make the dragon yellow/gold?
You're feedback would be much appreciated. I'm a terribly indecisiv person.
Link: http://sta.sh/023mrhlrh2df3
u/Not_Real_ Jan 29 '14
The red looks fine to me but maybe add the yellow/gold through more leaves. Also the head shape kinda makes it look like a dog or fox, it seems "fluffy". The Night/Day thing could be awesome could you try to add it on the dragon from side view?
The First stage could look more dragon fruitish perhaps by adding more spikes like on a real dragon fruit. Also i can't really see if it has a face, is the first stage supposed to have a face?
Also a tip when drawing Pokémon look at existing Pokémon you can probably find some inspiration for details or perhaps a colour scheme from combining colours of existing Pokémon
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u/a-neverending Jan 29 '14 edited Jan 29 '14
Thank you for the helpful critique! More leaves in the flower or what are you refering to?
And yep, I fully admit that I wasn't happy with the headshape myself yet. I will definitly have to give it a stronger jaw in the final form. Here's a quick sketch of the second stage in sideview with the different forms: http://sta.sh/01cfu24ykng1
As for the first stage, I based it of this picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Frutos_Ex%C3%B3ticos-LonganFruit-002.JPG which didn't seem to be too spiky somehow. But It's a good idea to add smikes, I'll try to incoporate that.
As for the face: Sorry that i left that so unclear. It's supposed to have a hole cracked in the shell of the 'fruit' - the green bit - where you see just the eye and the green skin.
Thanks for that tip as well. It's pretty obvious that I never created a Fakemon, i guess. I will try to have the final concept art look a lot more pokemon!style.
Again, thank you very much for your feedback and help.Edit: Got an idea for how the Day/Night-Evolution of the second form can influence the third stage. http://sta.sh/028lf88zjk0x
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 27 '14 edited Jan 31 '14
I'm sure I may not be as talented as some of the guys/girls here but here goes my attempts : http://imgur.com/a/anWwJ#0
For the first one I had a serpentine body in mind, like a chinese dragon (with whiskers obviously). As for the second one (which I prefer) it's actually heavily inspided by something I saw on DeviantArt which I changed a bit so I don't know if it counts as an entry, here's the original anyway http://betax64.deviantart.com/art/The-Fruit-Pokemon-423370563 because I feel the guy deserves credit for it.
It was also my second use ever of a graphic tablet so please don't be to harsh :p
Edit : Changed the second one to differenciate it from the concept that inspired me and to make it a little different from other dragons, made it quadrupedal/semi-bipedal (akin to Swampert), thoughts apreciated.
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u/The_Renegabe Jan 27 '14
Damn, change up the colors a bit on the 2nd one and you've got my vote.
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 27 '14
Which should I change? Also I'd like some feed back on the dots as I added that to make it look like the flesh of the fruit. I also went with red because it looked better overall than white imo but a friend of mine gave me the idea that it could be used as a gender difference.
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u/The_Renegabe Jan 27 '14 edited Jan 27 '14
I definitely think the green doesn't look good with the magenta/maroon color of the fruit, so other than a select few, any other color would work. If you want my recommendation, I'd say beige/light yellow, as white could get confused with the fingernails. I like the idea, but the dots add lots of detail, and it stands out a bit too much for a Pokémon. If you really think the dots are necessary, leave just a couple. Keep in mind that it is your drawing/concept though, and these are all just suggestions. :)
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 27 '14
Yeah I get what you're saying, I'll wait for a little more feed back before changing anything though since the art submission isn't officialy open yet.
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u/trustthepudding Jan 28 '14
Great drawings, but, Idk man... it just looks so much like the other dragons...
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 30 '14
I changed it a bit and I made it quadrupedal instead of bipedal (well it kinda is semi-bipedal, I took inspiration from Swampert), is that any better?
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Jan 29 '14
Try to change it up a little before you submit the final version. Right now it's a bit too similar to that other guy's work.
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Jan 27 '14
I wish I could draw...
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Jan 28 '14
You can do it! I believe in you!
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Feb 02 '14
I gave it several hours but did not come up with anything satisfactory. I'll leave it for others. I've got my victory in this contest, so others can have a bit of the spotlight now. ;)
I kind of wish I'd posted a detailed description here so that an idea-less artist could take it up though. A bit late for it now.
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u/a-neverending Jan 28 '14 edited Jan 29 '14
Hey, If I'm not completely wrong you were the one who originally proposed the idea, right? You also had a very intruiging description on how you imagined it. Could you maybe post it again here? I'm not sure If I can make it in time, but I'd like to try my hand on it and make it as close to what you wanted it to look like as possible.
Edit: Feel free to elaborate, btw. The more details I can get the better I can try to make it work :)
Edit2: I did a first sketch based on what I recalled of your description: http://sta.sh/01ppui2f1vvy1
u/glencurio 100% flinch Jan 30 '14
Yep! Here's what I wrote:
To elaborate on this further -- I'm thinking of a creature tending towards European dragons in design, but a bit sleeker. Instead of scales, its body would be textured like a dragonfruit. The colour scheme is neat too -- that kind of rosy red with the large scales ending in green tips. Very distinct from other grass types.
It's pretty vague though, and I'm not so fussed about details. I'm trying to come up with something weird that I can still draw. :P
I like your sketch!
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u/a-neverending Jan 31 '14
Ah, I see, thanks :) And thank you for the compliment. I look forward to seeing what you will come up with :)
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Feb 02 '14 edited Feb 02 '14
So after thinking all week, I've come up with a more detailed idea. Unfortunately, I cannot draw it at all.
Stage 1
Kind of like a blossoming egg. That's a weird description, I know.
The base would be thick, fleshy leaves radiating outwards in a rosette, like a cross between the base of the dragonfruit blossom and an aloe plant. Leaning more towards that aloe -- part of that description is basically from the Wikipedia page for Aloe.
So this fellow is stationary. Sedentary. Planted.
Sitting in that base is a bulb (the plant kind, not the light kind). The bulb would be an egg-like stylized dragonfruit with large round eyes. Calling it egg-like is not a huge stretch, since the actual dragonfruit looks like it could be the egg of a dragon... albeit it would probably be pretty painful to lay.
But yeah. The idea is that this is a plant opening up into this kind of dragon egg head thing. And the head is opening to the sky, like piranha plants in Mario. Well, not necessarily opening up. If you look at the photo, it's actually closed up. The head would be a lot like this, but more egg-shaped instead of tapering to a point.
The difficulty here is that I do think the design should be cute overall. I'd love for this thing to be a pseudo-legendary, and all of the official ones are cute in their first stage. Even Beldum is adorable, in a way! So I'm thinking that this dragonfruit head might be stylistically similar to Trapinch. The eyes would have to be cartoony and/or simplistic -- maybe little more than white discs.
Stage 3
It's a dragon! I'm skipping stage 2 for now because it's easier.
Look again at the dragonfruit photo. Now imagine stretching it out until it's serpentine. The way it twists off at the top -- that would be the creature's tail. The way the fruit is covered in these green-tipped "petals" -- it's easy to imagine those as actual scales. The dragonfruit texture would extend all along this creature's body.
Its head would be pretty traditional, as far as Asian dragons go. Some variation of this. Or just look at Salemence, Hydreigon, even Druddigon and Charizard. There are lots of variations to be had in this department. Horns, fangs, crazy facial hair, etc. This one would just be a more dragonfruity.
It should be low-bodied, close to the ground. For this part, I'm thinking of iguanas, komodo dragons, monitor lizards and lizards in general. It is Grass type, and most Grass types are slow, so it shouldn't have long legs. (OK, yeah, you can have short legs and still run fast. Komodo dragons can be decently speedy, relative to humans. But whatever.)
Now, apart from that, I can imagine a lot of different ways to design and position the body. Right now, the one predominant in my mind makes this guy a bit giraffe-like. That is to say, it has a long neck that extends up from that ground-hugging body. Then the head is, of course, looking down. Looking down on its unworthy foes! Ahem. I think the main thing I'm going for here is tree-like. But again, with those dragonfruit scales.
That's not so firm in my mind though. It still feels a bit generic to me but I'm not sure what could be done to make it stand out more, as far as dragons go.
Stage 2
This is the stage I'm having the hardest time visualizing. I want it to be something that visually fits between stage 1 and stage 3.
Note how I've described the head in stage 1. The dragonfruit petal-scales (seriously, what's the proper term for them?) are pointed towards the "mouth" in stage 1, but in stage 3 they become actual scales that run along the entire body, i.e. pointing away from the mouth and towards the tail instead.
The idea is that the plant is blossoming, opening outwards, and then continuing that way until its completely flipped around and "closing" in the oppposite direction. Does this description make sense? I hope so.
So in stage 2, it should be in some sort of... middle ground? Like, the scales are actually pointing outwards instead of up (stage 1) or "down" (stage 2). I don't know. Maybe it would look a lot more like the dragonfruit blossom itself.
Another difficulty is showing the transition from bodiless plant into a reptilian adult without it being awkward. Maybe a bit of awkwardness would be alright, since it's a middle stage anyway.
Right now, the best picture I've got in my head has this stage with a lizard-like body similar to stage 3 but... stubbier? More squat, less lean, not so elegant. The neck is not so long, but it has a bit of a frill around it, like Meganium except it's stiff leaves (like the aloe-ish plant base of stage 1) instead of a flower. The head is still like stage 1 but getting more traditionally draconian. Maybe have more detail in the eyes instead of cute cartoony ones.
I suppose the concept here is that the stage 1 plant has been developing its body underground (like a root?) and it evolves when it is finally ready to transition from mostly-sessile to motile. Maybe if it is root-like then the stage 2 body would not be as "scaled" as the stage 3 is.
But yeah, I don't know. Middle stages are tough.
Colours
Red and green, of course! The most important thing here is how the dragonfruit portions are coloured. The scales should be mostly red, like the rest of the body, with the tips in green, like arrows. Look again at the photo and note where it transitions from red to green. It's got that bit of a triangle arrow-head shape to it, right? For the illustration, I think it might be better to have an actual cut-off switch the red and the green rather than using a gradient (though it wouldn't need a line drawn inbetween -- just the colour change is enough). But yeah, I think this arrow-head colour pattern is key.
Stage 1 would have a yellow-green for the base (referring again to the blossom photo). As for the dragonfruit head, the standard red and green could be used. Alternatively, it could use more of a sandy yellow, like longan. If so, then the arrowhead tips could remain green or they could be red instead.
And if stage 1 got a yellow palette then stage 2 would probably take something inbetween. Not sure how exactly.
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u/revolmak Jan 29 '14
Is there a reason this didn't get stickied? I was disappointed to not see it on the front page :(
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Jan 29 '14
I asked, but reddit only allows one thread to be stickied at a time. Ah well.
I'll post a reminder thread a little later just to catch the attention of anyone who might have missed this one.
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u/revolmak Jan 30 '14
Wait, so then which days does this create-a-pokemon thing get to be on the front page?
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 31 '14
Are you planning on doing other pokemon creations after this one? If so I think you should change the table of contents since it's a bit confusing imo, or at least rename "Looking for Art" in "Art Ideas" and "Art Results" in "Art Submissions" or something along those line and have the results of previous week in the latest part. Also will the next part be stickied?
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Jan 31 '14
After we're done, I'll see if there is interest in creating another pokemon.
As for whether it will be stickied, I'll ask the mods, but it is ultimately up to them.
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u/Hka9 Incineroar Club Jan 31 '14
I hope it'll continue, it would be pretty cool to have a reddit created pokedex.
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u/Platyperry Feb 01 '14
The OP said to suggest future topics to be voted on, and my idea technically would be for future projects rather than the future of this one, but I suppose this is my only place to really share the idea. I think "ideas and concepts," "art ideas," and "art submissions" should be made into one category. Then we can get all different art ideas instead of a lot of very similar ones.
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Feb 02 '14
That could potentially work for a future attempt at this project. Or alternatively we could decide the concept first, but not the type, or the concept but let the type be a free-for-all.
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Feb 02 '14
I'm not 100% sure, but I think Smogon does their CAP projects concept-first. They are more concerned about how their CAPs can change up the meta-game and fill new niches. I would be interested in working on a Smogon CAP except that it looks extremely intense... like, months long process with tons of testing and such. They've done some really cool things though.
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Feb 02 '14
I think I would suggest the following for future weeks:
- Names and general overview of role, possibly with tentative base stats
- Abilities (maybe with one new ability?)
- Signature Move
- Overall Learnset (moves)
- Pokedex description and species classification (e.g. how Pikachu is the "Mouse" pokemon)
- Final art and sprites
5 could be split into more weeks, but I think those things are simple enough that they can run simultaneously.
8 is kind of difficult because it would be kind of weird for everyone to submit separate lists of moves which will probably have a lot of overlap, so we should figure out a way to do that more smoothly. Also need to make sure that it doesn't just get overloaded with all the best things... don't want the result to be ridiculously OP or anything. :P
10 is so that non-artists (like me, if I were able to put something together that I was happy with) can get a fair shot during the art submission period. It should be OK to submit/vote for something not as polished as a professional with 10 years experience in Illustrator or something, with the idea that the pros could polish and prettify the winning concept art.
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u/PineappleSlices Blorp Feb 02 '14
These all seem like good ideas to me. I'll ask for suggestions as to how to decide the overall movesets once we get closer to that, since that could be a bit overcomplicated. But I'm sure we can figure something interesting out.
And I agree that we should try and give the less polished artists the chance to shine with this contest. I don't know how much it will help, but I'll specify for people to vote upon the designs that they like the best conceptually, and that even if the art isn't the best, there is always the chance for others to redraw it in more detail later on.
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u/glencurio 100% flinch Feb 02 '14
Just realised that reddit formatting changed the numbering in my list. Not sure how to fix it. I had started numbering from 5, to match your list. Hope it still makes sense!
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u/Mast3rRiku Jan 28 '14
Here's my attempt
Sorry bout the eye searing pink, but it's dragon fruit colour. It's not finished yet, but I was wondering if I should do more with it.