I'm a little surprised that the CAP project has been around for almost 4 years, and we've never had a problem like this before.
Actually, we did have a problem like this on the first CAP 1, when some well-intentioned participants thought our "sprite competition" was an appropriate place to make fusions of existing ingame sprites and recolored the whole thing to look like Syclant's design colors. That was not something that we wanted to encourage, because this is a scratch spriting competition. In fact, read Rule 8 in the OP. Although the context of that rule mentions fusions, it clearly says, "All sprites must be scratch sprites."
This is, and always has been, a competition for scratch spriting. Pixeling over another artist's drawing is NOT scratch -- and every spriter knows that. Yes, pixel-overs are regularly done in spriting threads and projects in Smeargle's Studio. In fact, just look at my current avatar to the left. That is a straight lift of the Sugimori art for Glalie. I think I did a nice job on the sprite, if I do say so myself, but it's not a scratch sprite. Ken Sugimori is the artist of that, and I just traced over it. Did it take a lot of work to make that Glalie sprite? Absofuckinglutely it did. I spent far more time on that thing than most people would probably imagine. I also think you'd be hard-pressed to find many spriters capable of rendering that as well as I did. But is it an original scratch sprite? No, it's not. It's a good pixel-over. I did it for the Amethyst project, and I'm very proud of my contribution there. Amethyst participants regularly take pokemon art by other artists, and pixel over it. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of Amethyst sprites are done that way. But this isn't the Amethyst project. This is a spriting competition, where we determine who makes the best scratch sprite for our chosen design.
We've never really had to emphasize the whole "SCRATCH" aspect of this contest over the past ten CAP projects. Yes, I'm pretty sure many people have done pixel-overs in the past, and we didn't disqualify them or even post criticisms of the practice. Usually because the pixel-overs didn't get much support. But, in this case, many people have be mentioning the pixel-overs as being amongst the best in this thread. Some participants are openly admitting to tracing Cartoon's drawings, and even use their faithful tracing as a defense to criticism of the sprite. Basically saying, "No my sprite isn't bad -- I traced over Cartoon's drawing perfectly!"
Also, there have been several participants in this thread who have complimented Sleet on his creativity in rendering a back sprite that shows Tomohawk as a hulking figure whose wings and feathers look like a cloak of sorts. Obviously these people have not bothered to look at Cartoons supporting art links in the OP, because Sleet's backsprite is a direct pixel-over of Cartoons support pic. As an artist, yeah it's a little grating to see someone getting praise for an innovation (ie. hulking cloak-like pose) that is a direct tracing of another artist's work. I realize it's not Sleet's fault that some commenters aren't looking at the supporting artwork. It's not like Sleet is obligated to say "Sorry, please don't compliment my backsprite. I copied this from Cartoons' support art, which you obviously have not seen and are mistakently attributing to my creativity." That's ridiculous to lay it on Sleet. He did nothing wrong.
We have not had to enforce the "scratch spriting rule" in three years, and I don't think we need to start doing so on this CAP. But, I will concur that if someone is tracing another artists' work -- then the result cannot be considered to be an original creation of the submitter. It may be good, it may be amazing looking -- but it's not an original creative work. And to allow copied or traced works to be submitted and entered side-by-side with other genuinely original creations, that's not something we should encourage. The sprite competition is as much about the process of evaluating contestant spriters, as it is about getting a sprite that the community likes. If we are going to have a competition of spriters, then you cannot equate tracing with scratching. It's not the same thing AT ALL.
One last note on using the original artist's design -- there is a difference between opting to use the original artist's POSE and tracing the original artist's artwork. Many past CAP spriters (even winners) have used the original artist's design pose (or support art poses), but they make a scratch sprite. Maybe some of the non-artists reading and commenting in this thread can't tell the difference between a scratch sprite of the original pose, and a pixel-over of the original art -- but any good spriter can tell the difference. If any of you are thinking, "Whatever Doug, you can't enforce the distinction between the two." Yes, you can. Quite easily, in fact.
I have been irked that we are having this issue on this CAP. I haven't been mad at Sleet, or any of the other pixel-over submissions. They are making the best sprites they can, using the tools they have available to do so. And I can assure you that they are putting a lot of time and effort into their work. But I don't want CAP spriting to become a pixel-over competition. If that's what we want to do, then let's open the door to all the fusion aficionados in the Super-spriting thread too. Because they work hard on their stuff, and a lot of their stuff looks very cool. But, it's not scratch spriting. It not even in the same league as scratch spriting. For those of you unaware of how to sprite, scratch spriting takes considerably more talent, expertise, and effort than fusions or tracings. It's not even close to the same thing.
Actually, we did have a problem like this on the first CAP 1, when some well-intentioned participants thought our "sprite competition" was an appropriate place to make fusions of existing ingame sprites and recolored the whole thing to look like Syclant's design colors. That was not something that we wanted to encourage, because this is a scratch spriting competition. In fact, read Rule 8 in the OP. Although the context of that rule mentions fusions, it clearly says, "All sprites must be scratch sprites."
This is, and always has been, a competition for scratch spriting. Pixeling over another artist's drawing is NOT scratch -- and every spriter knows that. Yes, pixel-overs are regularly done in spriting threads and projects in Smeargle's Studio. In fact, just look at my current avatar to the left. That is a straight lift of the Sugimori art for Glalie. I think I did a nice job on the sprite, if I do say so myself, but it's not a scratch sprite. Ken Sugimori is the artist of that, and I just traced over it. Did it take a lot of work to make that Glalie sprite? Absofuckinglutely it did. I spent far more time on that thing than most people would probably imagine. I also think you'd be hard-pressed to find many spriters capable of rendering that as well as I did. But is it an original scratch sprite? No, it's not. It's a good pixel-over. I did it for the Amethyst project, and I'm very proud of my contribution there. Amethyst participants regularly take pokemon art by other artists, and pixel over it. In fact, I'd say the vast majority of Amethyst sprites are done that way. But this isn't the Amethyst project. This is a spriting competition, where we determine who makes the best scratch sprite for our chosen design.
We've never really had to emphasize the whole "SCRATCH" aspect of this contest over the past ten CAP projects. Yes, I'm pretty sure many people have done pixel-overs in the past, and we didn't disqualify them or even post criticisms of the practice. Usually because the pixel-overs didn't get much support. But, in this case, many people have be mentioning the pixel-overs as being amongst the best in this thread. Some participants are openly admitting to tracing Cartoon's drawings, and even use their faithful tracing as a defense to criticism of the sprite. Basically saying, "No my sprite isn't bad -- I traced over Cartoon's drawing perfectly!"
Also, there have been several participants in this thread who have complimented Sleet on his creativity in rendering a back sprite that shows Tomohawk as a hulking figure whose wings and feathers look like a cloak of sorts. Obviously these people have not bothered to look at Cartoons supporting art links in the OP, because Sleet's backsprite is a direct pixel-over of Cartoons support pic. As an artist, yeah it's a little grating to see someone getting praise for an innovation (ie. hulking cloak-like pose) that is a direct tracing of another artist's work. I realize it's not Sleet's fault that some commenters aren't looking at the supporting artwork. It's not like Sleet is obligated to say "Sorry, please don't compliment my backsprite. I copied this from Cartoons' support art, which you obviously have not seen and are mistakently attributing to my creativity." That's ridiculous to lay it on Sleet. He did nothing wrong.
We have not had to enforce the "scratch spriting rule" in three years, and I don't think we need to start doing so on this CAP. But, I will concur that if someone is tracing another artists' work -- then the result cannot be considered to be an original creation of the submitter. It may be good, it may be amazing looking -- but it's not an original creative work. And to allow copied or traced works to be submitted and entered side-by-side with other genuinely original creations, that's not something we should encourage. The sprite competition is as much about the process of evaluating contestant spriters, as it is about getting a sprite that the community likes. If we are going to have a competition of spriters, then you cannot equate tracing with scratching. It's not the same thing AT ALL.
One last note on using the original artist's design -- there is a difference between opting to use the original artist's POSE and tracing the original artist's artwork. Many past CAP spriters (even winners) have used the original artist's design pose (or support art poses), but they make a scratch sprite. Maybe some of the non-artists reading and commenting in this thread can't tell the difference between a scratch sprite of the original pose, and a pixel-over of the original art -- but any good spriter can tell the difference. If any of you are thinking, "Whatever Doug, you can't enforce the distinction between the two." Yes, you can. Quite easily, in fact.
I have been irked that we are having this issue on this CAP. I haven't been mad at Sleet, or any of the other pixel-over submissions. They are making the best sprites they can, using the tools they have available to do so. And I can assure you that they are putting a lot of time and effort into their work. But I don't want CAP spriting to become a pixel-over competition. If that's what we want to do, then let's open the door to all the fusion aficionados in the Super-spriting thread too. Because they work hard on their stuff, and a lot of their stuff looks very cool. But, it's not scratch spriting. It not even in the same league as scratch spriting. For those of you unaware of how to sprite, scratch spriting takes considerably more talent, expertise, and effort than fusions or tracings. It's not even close to the same thing.
