https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jxva3N9Gdt49P-ftgU8BGi1DRSgyx9h_chZGnJIWpB0/edit?pli=1 -- this one has three blanks that are unfilled still?
Limor
Level 72
The Kind-Hearted
Joined: 7/5/2016
Threads: 293
Posts: 19,132
Posted: 4/23/2020 at 4:02 AM
Post #144
Edited version above
Duckbunny427
Level 69
Nature Walker
Joined: 3/12/2019
Threads: 66
Posts: 1,632
Posted: 4/23/2020 at 2:37 PM
Post #145
Can you give a new discord invite?
Limor
Level 72
The Kind-Hearted
Joined: 7/5/2016
Threads: 293
Posts: 19,132
Posted: 4/25/2020 at 9:51 PM
Post #146
Can I get an edit?
A few links to check out when making designs are: Themed pet reference pages by Xavion
Comprehensive Guide to Themed Pets by Lavelle
Guide to Themed Pet Contests by Scathreoite
Hello all! So this designers guide I am joined by Scathreoite, who will be taking a look at themed designs. To start of this designers guide i'm going to let Scath kick it off with their short guide (and a longer guide which is linked above, please read it!)
Scathreoite's Guide to Themeds So You Want to be a Theme Designer?
So a few years back we wrote a guide to help people with doing theme designs- these days found linked in the first post of every Theme Design Contest.
Of course, not everyone will see it, and perhaps it is a bit long-winded or convoluted, so were going to go over some main points of Theme Designing here to help people raise their chances of getting one of their designs chosen.
One mistake that can generally be seen cropping up at least once a contest is people using an image hosting site, like imgur- but doing this actually means your design cant be chosen!
In order for your design to be viable as an entry, you need to use the sylestia image url (this guide covers how to get image urls in firefox, edge, internet explorer, and safari. Post 8 of the Theme Contest Guide also covers firefox)
So, thats point 1: make sure you use the sylestia image url!
(and extra note 1: the preferable size is 250px, controlled by the &size=250 at the end of a sylesti image url- 250 fits a neat two across in a forum post, is large enough to see the image details, and isnt so large that it takes an excessive amount of time to load)
The next set of mistakes that well cover: people thinking that what they are designing both colour and traits-wise is exactly is what the result will be, and thus leaving all colour slots that cannot be seen with their selection of traits blank.
You have to remember that what you are designing is not a single pet (or a pair of pets), but a colour set that could be applied to either a wild zone theme or an exclusive theme, and thus capable of having any trait, or combination of traits.
When youre designing, you need to be constantly checking that the colours youre using work across as broad a range of genes and mutations as possible.
Thus, point 2: make sure what you are designing works with all kinds of traits (not necessarily all of them, but as many as you can)
And
Point 3: make sure not to leave any colour slots blank
(Extra note 2: What to do if you want white? If you want a colour slot to be white, its best to pick a slightly off-white colour. Pet generation by the system always has a little colour swing when it comes to themes, so its best to try to ensure a tendency towards a colour that matches the theme (nobody wants to see a snow-themed syelsti swinging yellow, do they?))
The thought that what you are designing will be exactly what you post can also lead to a person submitting a different colour set for the male and female, perhaps on the impression that they are based on the same idea and are thus the same design.
However! This is, in fact, counted as a submission of two different theme designs for a single species, which is not allowed, and will disqualify them from consideration, since, as mentioned, it is the colour set itself that is the design.
Point 4: Make sure any images you post of a theme design for a species have exactly the same colours!
(Extra note 3: An example of some of the prior points- the concept of eclectus parrot on aurleons, with a green one for the male and a blue for the female; they would be disqualified for their colour sets being different, but even if they both had the same colour set, they each were designed with only select traits in mind, and have multiple trait slots left blank, which would severely raise the chances of them being passed over as a potential selection.
So you may wonder, okay then, what traits should I use then if I cant do something specific- the answer is, you could do something specific for the design (or designs) in your post, you just have to make sure as many other traits as possible work too.
The images in your post are about presentation, about showing their aesthetic; the aim with them is to show off the colour set you made as best you can, show off how well the colours can work.
Most people go with two images of their design, one male and one female, and give one 6 visible traits and the other three; this is not a necessity- you could do two 6v, or two 3v, or a 6v and a no-vis. You could have three, two showing vis and one no-vis, (but if you plan on doing all the species you might find yourself running out of post space doing it)
Basically, any traits and any number of traits is fair game!
Point 5: You can pick any traits, and any number of traits, since theyre purely for display purposes, not part of the actual design.
--
Now back to Limor! So taking that idea for the parrot from Scath lets see what we can do to make it into an actual working designs. I will (as I have done in the past) go through the steps with you as to how I will create an electus parrot design, following our wonderfully written guide above by Scath.
Now to start off with, I personally love both but am more favorable to the female's draft. Using the idea of a dark blue base we can start to work. For me I am choosing to go with an overall bluer tones - but including some green in those first four color highlights as it is a very prominent color in the parrots.
So looking at that i'm still not happy, I think I would actually rather have a green base, more similar to the actual parrot. So let's take a look at that:
And yes I think this looks better. With this version I chose to have an orange eye colors, instead of just green and blue. Now we need to take a look at g1. For me personally in most g1's on designs I will go with a darker tone of the base colors - I do this in almost all of my designs as it allows for the g2 and g3 to build on top of it. I take my design in almost a gradient type going from darkest to lightest: g1 darkest, g2 slightly lighter, g3 usually a brighter poppy colors that is more vibrant and saturated.
Now when testing all the traits with my chosen color I have settled on #28610C as it goes well with all the g1 traits.
Now for g2 as mentioned above I am thinking about a possibly lighter green-yellow color. This will be slightly lighter then the g1 but no to saturated, as to allow for the most vibrant color to be in the runes slot. Once I found a color I liked I came out with this:
I checked that color with all traits and I think it works.
Now onto the g3. G3 for me is where I have fun. This is my vibrant pop color, for this I think I shall pull a color from the beards beak - one of those bright orange-yellows. Once again we need to check the colors with all the traits and I ended up being satisfied with this:
For the m1 I think its time to pull some more of that blue tones in. So far until now we have ignored the blues - but in this case i'm going with a slightly more sky blue.
In our m2, which is mainly traits that affect the body I plan on going with a yellow that is out of the green tones. This will compliment the body itself nicely and add another nice pop of color that reflects our bird this design is based off of.
Now for our last color slots (besides the accents, which we will get too) it is time to look at the beak/crest color slot. In this color slot I want to bring back some more of that green - though in a darker color tone then seen anywhere else in the design. This allows it to not stand out and distract too much in the design as a whole.
Now that we have that done its time to look at accents. Many species accent colors aren't implemented yet. With this species only Imperial Dragon Scales in the g2 shows a1 so I have chosen a yellow that compliments that trait.
For out a2 no traits utilize it but we still need to fill it! I ended up choosing #F0651F in the case that a2 is ever in effect for the Aurleons.
Now that we have that out of the way it is time time to test several 6v combos, after you are happy with that pick two different 6v combos and walla - we have our themed entry:
Electus Parrot Aurleon
If you want to take a shot and creating your own electus parrot aurleon ping us in the comments and we'll feature it next issue!
--
Now for another little extra treat here is a speed design by Asphodels!
Showing the making of this little lovely:
Edited By Limor on 4/27/2020 at 1:22 AM.
Finchtheidiot
Level 74
Fancy Pants
Joined: 6/11/2018
Threads: 25
Posts: 830
Posted: 4/25/2020 at 11:26 PM
Post #147
I just copied and pasted this to a google doc to edit it. So, here's the link for the doc.
24carrotgold
Level 73
Trickster
Joined: 1/15/2019
Threads: 78
Posts: 4,647
Posted: 4/26/2020 at 9:56 PM
Post #148
Here it is!
Limor
Level 72
The Kind-Hearted
Joined: 7/5/2016
Threads: 293
Posts: 19,132
Posted: 4/27/2020 at 6:18 PM
Post #149
Newbie interview
1. So how did you find our little community?
my freind Aspenanimations actually showed me the game, i was super excited to try it out.
2. So have you made your Starter? How they look? Any inspiration behind them?
yes, I have her name is snow song i tried to base her off an oc, doesnt look much like her though.
3. So you joined today (only in the last 21 hours at the time of me sending this interview), what do you think so far?
haha, i really like it so far the battles remind me of pokemon. Big smile
4. Have you found or done anything exciting yet?
i found some really cool forum games, and giveaways, havent won any but it's fun to try Tongue
5. Do you think you'll stick around? (from what little you've seen of the site so far haha)
absolutely, playing games with my freind and all the amazing new freinds ive found here, i love this game.
6. You have questions for the Times? We always love to help~
yeah actually, how do i join the pet design contests?
