CAP 21 CAP 21 - Art Submissions

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I think the trick to making a mega is to make a design that doesn't look like a comfortable form to be in for prolonged periods of time. It's good for battle, but actually surviving? Foraging, hunting, etc? Not really a Mega's cup of tea. I like to look at Mega Rayquaza as an exhibit A, who looks like he'd have a lot of trouble collecting and filtering water particles for sustenance versus his normal form, who's mouth is a bit more accessible.

A Pokemon should have a normal form that satisfies its biological needs, then a decorative Mega form that emphasizes its combative capabilities. Any design that doesn't meet that probably needs a re-evaluation.

Part of the problem is that we aren't used to seeing these designs before we meet their Megas, so trying to find that threshold is probably going to be a continuing issue for this CAP.
 
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WIP
Okay, let's try this again! Here is my entry as it stands right now.



And this is the Mega.



The only thing left really is the color palette. I'm not entirely sure if I'm happy with it, or not. I'll be sure to more thoroughly color the two for my final post.
 
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Sunfished

fisch
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While I do agree with some of your points, Yveltal, I think the description of having them biologically awkward isn't a very good standard to have for a mega.

In some points, it does seem that many mega pokemon would have a hard time doing things outside of battling, such as mega sableye having to lug around the giant crystal, or mega aggron/metagross having to deal with their newfound weight. However, many of them also seem like they would be completely comfortable inside and outside of battle as well. For example, many of the pokemon with very minor adjustments in their mega, such as audino and pidgeot, look like they would be completely fine in the wild.

Also, given how extreme some pokemon designs have been in the past, I don't think there is a very straightforward way to judge what a mega pokemon is supposed to have. There are a wide range of how complicated the designs have become, such as the super simple mega audino and pidgeot, to some that completely change their body designs, such as diancie and swampert.

All in all, I think having to judge "what" a mega pokemon should look like would set up some controversy, kind of like the rule in the op saying how we can't judge what exactly a pokemon is supposed to look like either.
 
Man, all this talk of what mega evos should be has me really rethinking mine...



I think Bummer's idea is really clever and didn't go too over the top, so now I feel like mine just looks like a regular evolution of my previous guy. Maybe I should just change the color scheme a bit, or do you guys think I should get a new mega concept entirely?
 
I think Bummer's idea is really clever and didn't go too over the top, so now I feel like mine just looks like a regular evolution of my previous guy. Maybe I should just change the color scheme a bit, or do you guys think I should get a new mega concept entirely?
I actually wouldn't mind seeing his current mega form as his base form, and working a new mega with that art in mind. I think part of the problem you're experiencing is that your initial design had a very clean, compact design to it. It looks like a rather nice single-evolution Pokemon you might find in Victory Road or the post-game. Its design tells its story for it, but it's hard to identify elements that would inform what a mega would look like.

Think about the Abra family. The most distinct aspect about that family is that they all have spoons to bend with their telepathy, so the mega evolution of Alakazam gets a ton of spoons. It's a bit silly, but you can see how we go from Alakazam to Mega-Alakazam. The problem with the tentacle geode is that it really doesn't have an element comparable to Alakazam's spoons. The design you currently have designated as the mega design, however, has two such elements.

Firstly, it has a cannon jetting out of its backside that squirts acid. A cannon is a very easy concept to play around with and make visually interesting. You can make the cannon bigger, you can give him more cannons, you can change the properties of the cannon, and you can even give it periphery cannons to complement it's forward-facing back cannon. Basically, cannons have a lot of room for variance.

Secondly, it has tentacle arms with rock fists. This is a very unique appendage situation, and can have almost as much variety as the cannons. You could build him Asura-style, with multiple sets of these arms, you could work with rock feet, you could add more detail to the fists, you could play with proportions, etc.

Long story short, while I do like the original geode design a bit better, the current mega-evolution art just seems to have more potential for cool Mega-evolutions. I would recommend dropping the original non-Mega design, and working with the Mega form as a base form.
 

Dogfish44

You can call me Jiggly
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Foremost: Not an artist. Sending hugs and hot chocolate to anyone who can pull this one off, or who is at least struggling. I can at very least also say what I see.

In general, I agree that I think almost every design will have people say "Doesn't look Mega Enough". To which I disagree substantially - sure some megas get highly complex, but there are also simpler megas (Notably Charizard Y, who gets very little imo). I know CAP is hyper-prone to gorgeous, intricate artwork, but at the same time... =\

Bummer specifically, I think I've finally narrowed down why I'm not feeling it (Even though it's still a really good design) - it's the subtle colour change. Like, very few megas change their colour scheme - the only ones I can think of are the Lati twins (who I find weird) and Zard-X, who's colour change is hard to miss. Because the physical change you've made is more in line with simpler MEvos like Zard-X and Pidgeot, the subtle colour change almost makes me think more of a Shiny version, or just a standard evolution? I mean, the brighter horns look really nice, but the changed-colour body is throwing me off somewhat.

My 2 cents anyway.

---

Other comments (might add more later):

Otter Power: I'm loving the idea! I'm surprised we haven't seen a lot of Scorpions and other desert dwelling nippers, but there we are.
Sunfished: Afro coffin :o. Looks really quite fun! I'm reminded to a degree of Mr. Pink about halfway through that vid - which is a good sign :P
 
another wip.

base


mega

designs subject to change, but this is what i've got to work with. i might add more definition to the rocks to make it more jagged, but i like the idea of its rock components being smooth if it turns out to have a decent speed stat.
 
Okay so I currently have no time to figure out a design, but I must say everyone is doing an amazing job IMO.

However one thing I've noticed is that designs tend to go for color palettes that are either too muted or too bright overall and that makes them lean heavily towards one of the two typings.

I feel like this typing lends itself to color palettes with a decent amount of contrast. In particular if the design has stingers or parts that are supposed to be the poison injection point or something then like I'd love for a stronger and brighter color to be used. It would draw attention to that part of the design, emphasize the poison typing and fix the possible monotype-feel some designs have.

Overall great work everyone. I just wanted to comment a bit as one of the eventual voters and I must say a lot of talent and great ideas have been showcased. Keep it up people ^.^
Yilx I really like your design overall. It's cute but still looks threatening enough and it really shows off our CAP's basic ability in Regenerator which at least for me is a huge plus. I also think it looks right with all the Mega ability possibilities being discussed right now bar Compoundeyes and possibly Sheer Force (Go get that mega design out please. You rock. And I really want to see it). The color scheme does make it look like a pure Poison type to me though. Maybe some color differences in the pot parts to make it a bit more rocklike without changing the design around too much?

Bummer Yours is my favorite entrance provided CAP gets Rock Head. I actually like how the changes from normal to mega aren't that over-the-top, however I'd like to more or less agree with Dogfish44 in that the slight change in color is making me not feel it as much.

For me, the base form felt just radioactive enough in a way. The change from a slightly orange-ish gray to a more blue-ish one in the mega makes it feel a bit too rocklike to me. I don't know why, but it looses a part of its "don't touch me I'm poisonous" appeal to me. Maybe it's the cold tones the blue tint causes. Overall still great design.

a deer Yours is the other Rock Head-oriented design IMO and boy is it good at doing exactly that. The horn looks like something I would most definitely not want to get hit with.

I find myself having the opposite problem I've got with Yilx's design though. It seems too earthy IMO, almost like a peculiarly-colored Rock/Ground in base form.

Otter Power I like your design but I'd like to see the poison parts show ip a bit more using a slightly brighter shade of purple in the stingers or something like that. I understand you're going for a cave-dweller feel, but I think you don't need to have all the colors be so muted to get it. Think of Gigalith. It's another Rock-type that screams cave, and it's red accents actually make it feel more like something you wouldn't particulary find outside a cave or above ground.

Neatski I don't think your design is bad by any means, nor do I think it's too little for a mega. It just doesn't feel like note creature to me, though. When I see it I feel like an octopus grabbed some rocks and debris and dressed up as a geode for Hallowen. I think the poison geode idea might work, but I'd definitely recommend revising the design a bit before polishing. Test it from a few other angles and try to toss out a secondary design to see which one you like more.

Falchion The raptor Dilophosaurus (I really need to read better -.-) looks really cool, and I like how the extinct flavor justifies its Rock-typing when it looks almost entirely Poison. I want to see the mega before commenting on anything further, but punkasaur is definitely the way to go.

Stitch98 The giant virus creature of nightmare. Really cool design up to now but I feel correct use of color will be make or break with it. I'd recommend some unnatural green tone and black/dark grey accents with a radioactive crystal feel for the gem and not a lot of browns/medium greys to make it look as unnatural as possible while still keeping the rock feel, but I'm sure you have your own ideas. Good luck!

Magistrum You do good work as usual, but then again the color scheme will either make it or break it for me (why am I so color-fixated ugh). Love the cockatrice flavor, though the Manticore from CAP 20 would definitely work here as well. All in all solid idea.

D4rk3r It's Bisharp's evil twin! :P loving the Chalcanthite idea. I do sort of get a Steel-type feel from it, but that is easily fixed in polishing. Gigalith shiny coloration might help in that.
 
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Zephias: Technically, Dilophosaurus is a primitive theropod, a distant cousin of deinonychosaurs i.e. raptors and such. But yeah, this is the design I feel like I should be going for, because I too feel that it's got a neat extinct vibe that makes the Rock-type pretty clear. The plates and spikes were supposed to be stony, though; maybe the colors didn't hint at that enough.

Anyway, I came up with a neat idea for a mega form a while ago, which I've already started coloring...
http://i.imgur.com/OPhF8CB.png

Not much to say here, just spikier and more snakey to go with the basilisk theme. There's a bit of Vertigo from Primal Rage in there, too. I noticed that the "hood" ended close enough to the collar that I could integrate them pretty easily, so I decided to combine them a little.

Comments for the other entries to come later, time for sleepy.
 
WIP

I had finally some energy to work on the Mega of my Molemon.



Same old sick mole. And when it Mega Evolves...



It gets even more sick! It also got some sweet gems! I'm pretty much sticking with this idea, but this piece of art shouldn't be the final submission. I need to work on the gems and hands in general as I'm not really that happy about how they look now.
 

Deck Knight

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Falchion My only comment is that the Base Design, maybe alter and / or remove the frill spikes and tail spikes (but keep them on the Mega). Reason being the design looks very busy as it is, and I think it distracts from the smoothness otherwise present. I'd also suggest changing specifically the color of the head above the jaw to something a little more sandy, maybe like female Hippopotas, to give it slightly more of a physical rock vibe (I get the Punk Rock joke, but I think that minor change would solidify it a lot.)

Bummer Both of those designs are awesome as is.

Sgt.Moose I like how the design has a sort of cutesy mole with huge, vicious claws. Very cool mix.
 
Final Submission.

I have colored these two in a bit better.

Base:


Mega:


This mon is based off statues of the Naga, serpentine creatures with humanoid torsos and limbs. They are renowned in legend for their powerful bodies and potent venom, and some are even credited with knowing magic. Today, there's still a number of statues designed after and dedicated to the Naga scattered throughout India. The Mega is based loosely off of another legendary serpent, Wadjet, a cobra Goddess that guarded the Pharaoh of lower Egypt with her power, and wore the crown of Lower Egypt. The crown and frills on the Mega are fashioned after royal Egyptian attire.
 
WIP

Note:
Excuse the work-in-progress. I just like to sketch on grey paper using white pencils. Final Submission shall be colored in white background.

DESIGN BASIS: LION FISH / REEF hybrid

I was enthused by the idea of a graceful Rock Type Poke'mon, just to think outside the box. Being a poison type is quite challenging too, until I stumble upon the idea of a Lion Fish base mixed with Reef Elements. Reefs are basically the Rock type and the Poison type comes from the Lion Fish, Graceful but Deadly

https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=703a415da1e6a5795dbc425a538ad085&oe=56D2FA66

Mod Edit: Changed image to clickable link as it breaks size rules
 
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Final Submission


(Base)


(Mega)

Took Deck Knight's advice for these final versions. Removed the frill spikes on the base form and shrank the spikes on the tail. Also changed the colors of the faces and hands to a rocky brown for a more "literal punk rock"-ish vibe.

EDIT: Reuploaded with reduced file sizes!
EDIT 11/7: Fixed the transparency issue (i.e. white background).

High-res (transparent) pics here and here!
 
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WIP, 2 different ones
The first one I've got here is a syringe+geode thing, with the syringe injecting what seems to be poison into the rock.

This next one's a bit more "out there" regarding the Rock typing. I based it off the "plague doctor" concept from the middle ages. I placed a few gems along to indicate that it is, indeed, a rock type. WIP for both of these, though.
 

Quanyails

On sabbatical!
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What's the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm?

... A virus?




(Very much WIPs, of course. I am busy. x_x)

One of the many ideas I was musing over for this CAP was that of a virus, given that it may have a geometric (perhaps stony) shape and infects other organisms. I chose my virus over my other two(!) ideas from the choice of abilities. Regenerator and Magic Guard hearken to the Solosis line, which are cellular. Why not design something on the ceullar level as well?

So, taking inspiration from an old, old fakemon of mine and perhaps Hollymon's design for CAP 19, I ended up with gemstone alien viruses. :D I made them three-legged like the tripods in The War of the Worlds. It gains a protein shell for its Mega design, hearkening to space helmets and the like while fitting Magic Guard.

I'll make them shinier and more detailed later--when I actually have time!
 

Slapperfish

Banned deucer.
WIP




With the advent of Regenerator being voted CAP21's primary ability, I decided to take a somewhat different approach to base design. I added two more heads to make the base form more hydra-like, and clad all three of them in stone to emphasize the Rock typing a bit more. (If we ever decide on secondary/hidden abilities, Rock Head's always on the table!) The "crystal eyes" of the side heads are more like refractive lenses; I also changed the forehead gem of the main head to a refractive lens as well, the third eye underneath becoming visible on the mega when the gem pops off and enlarges. (The angle of the central head in the mega picture above doesn't exactly do it justice.)

I also updated the mega a bit more to fit with the new base design by adding the black hexagon pattern to the body, and made the heads carrying the "gorgon eyes" a little less vestigial-looking. I also switched the old rattle over to the mega, while the new rattle on the base's tail is more fan-like, though the gems are still loose enough to make a rattling sound when the tail is shaken.

Obviously, I still need to add lighting and shading to the designs, but hey, that's what WIPs are for, right?

(Lemme know if the images are too big this time!)
 
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New here, not new to CAP. My idea so far: (WIP)

^The best rough draft I've been able to draw up yet. It may look a little hectic, nonsensical, or more rock based than poison, (all of which I'm attempting to fix) but there is actually a fair bit of research behind this design (expandable below).
Also have an imo worse design that illustrates a few other ideas, and should have a mega to go along with this soon enough.
Any feedback greatly appreciated!
After looking back at this and cringing, I figured I'd tweak this explanation for anyone who still wants to read it. Long story short, this is a design based around the mineral Orpiment, with a few other touches here and there. Orpiment being the poisonous sort of rock* with a crystalline, dark orange-ish tint, which serves as the bulk/exoskeleton of this design. There's a lot of history behind what it's been used for, but at multiple points in time it was used as a form of chemical warfare, by being rubbed on arrows/spears and thrust into somebody's skin, which is what the arrows lodged into the Orpiment represent. The other part to this design is the face inside of the shell, which happens to be that of a hedgehog-like creature's (which is technically the actual 'mon). In short, apparently hedgehogs can withstand doses of arsenic strong enough to kill up to 25 persons, meaning hypothetically they could pilot a suit of Orpiment like tiny little hedgehog Iron Mans.
tl;dr - Tiny Hedgehog Iron Mans.


EDIT: Cleaned up the original base form design, made the legs less bad looking.
 
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So decided to change my design to a combination of a a thorny devil and a gila monster. Both are desert reptiles and the gila monster has a toxic bite, and so will this CAP so it learns things like Poison Fang. Some lizards also regenerate tails so the reptile theme fits.

The CAP actually hides stinging glands within the rock thorns. They can regenerate when broken off and in general, the CAP uses camouflage to hunt prey or defend itself. The bright orange patch around the eye is a in reference to a gila monster's head which is bright orange as a warning that it is venomous.



When it Mega evolves, it gains a tankier appearance (similar to an Ankylosaurus) and also gains some spikes at the end of its tail like a Stegosaurus, which it can use to jab enemies and coat it with poison. To be honest I had trouble connecting the Mega with Magic Guard but I guess the tankier appearance sort of fits with a defensive ability like Magic Guard. Otherwise maybe I could change the rocks to radioactive rocks?



I tried not making the CAPs too overdesigned with the spikes, which was harder to do in the Mega. Colour scheme still a WIP but I'm also finding it tricky to emphasize the poison half of the typing besides spikes. Tried doing the face mask purple but not sure it worked- maybe just darker/grey/black and bright yellow contrasts in general (like those colorful toxic frogs?) Then again, bright colours defeat the camouflage aspect....

Bummer Neat concept and I like how you want to be restrained with the Mega. Might I suggest maybe a more hazardous colour change when Mega Evolving? Maybe Green turns to bright red or orange to show more hazardous/dangerous Mega? It makes it look more angry as well.

Cheeno: Nice start to the idea and actually reminded me of the Stonefish which is a very venomous fish that well, looks like a stone. Maybe you could sort of put elements of that in somehow?

Sgt.Moose: Cute and quirky, maybe in the mega form the gem on its hands look a bit forced. Maybe instead, the claws become larger and made of gems? (so thin long gem claws instead of a blocky gem wrist)
 
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New person. I lurk around the CAP fourms a lot, and I wanted to contribute to CAP for quite awhile.
This is more of a WIP if anything, as I'm still working on the mega (hopefully the image isn't too big...)


It's based off of the Sessho-seki, or "Killing Stone" in Japanese mythology. It was once an evil fox called Tamano no Mae that tried to kill an Emperor and take his throne using poisonous smog to make him ill, but was slain and its corpse turned to stone where it continued to poison people before moving on.
I wanted it to look fairly simple (as a stone statue), so I didn't give it 9 tails. Its tails are shide and the rope around it is shimenawa to go with it.

EDIT: Fixed the face a little so you can see it better. And yeah, it has no teeth since it's a statue ^^; Nearly done with the mega, I'll have it by later on today or tomorrow possibly. Will also try to get some supporting art as well that show that back side and stuff.
 
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Edit: Yeah, after thinking about it and taking into account what has been said, this does need a little more work.

BASE:


Its supposed to be a Rocky-Dinosaur thing that has some poisonous aspect to it (Don't know how to describe that), further made a Mega for it, didn't want to make it too different to where it seemed like a regular evolution.

MEGA:


Gains a nice pair of heels.
 
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Deck Knight

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Drayen My advice for both designs is that the face blends in the with the front-left leg, and the horn kind of tapers off so we don't know whether it's on the head or the shoulder. If you can patch that up you should have a solid design.
 

Blue Frog

It's lucidity. So clear!
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wip

base:

mega:

These are loosely based off of the stonefish, which I thought would be a good basis for the typing, although they ended up looking more like puffer fish so I guess they're puffer fish too. Feedback is greatly appreciated as always.
 
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