You may or may not know that I have been hard at work implementing changes to the Smogon site to bring us up-to-date with the release of Pokemon Black and White. These changes will obviously include a full B&W pokedex, but it will also include some new functional changes as well. All the code is complete, but I don't have any updated artwork to represent the new generation. By "artwork", I am referring to the three pokemon contained in the red, blue, and yellow circles on the current Smogon front page.
I originally asked Aragornbird to do the artwork for the 5th gen website, since he did the 4th gen art, and I personally consider his Pokemon art to be just about the best I have ever seen. But I guess Aragornbird has gotten busy with real life and such, as I have not heard from him in quite some time. Many members of Smogon are very anxious for me to get the site launched, and I don't want to do it without some spiffy new art. So, I'm coming to Smeargle's Studio, where talented artists abound!
Here's the pitch: Submit three pictures of pokemon art that meets the criteria mentioned below. If your stuff looks great, I will feature it on the Smogon front page for the whole world to see every time they visit the best competitive Pokemon website in the universe! How's that for incentive? If I get a lot of great submissions, I may change the front page code to swap out artwork every month or so, to allow multiple artists to "win" this particular semi-contest. I'm not sure how we will choose the art that gets used, I'm more worried about getting some good art first. If I get too much good art -- then I'll consider that a good problem to have!
Anyway, here's what I am looking for:
I hope some of you awesome artists decide to pitch in here. If you don't have an artist badge already, I can promise that you'll get one if I use your art on the front page for the 5th generation. Also, you can't ask for a much more visible place to show off your pokemon art! Feel free to post WIPs in this thread, and get comments from others. For commenters, please keep the comments constructive and relevant. This is NOT a voting thread, so please don't post as if it is.
I do not have a specific closing date in mind for this thread. Let's see how submissions go, and I'll edit in a specific submission closing date later. Thanks in advance to all the Smogon artists who decide to participate in this!
EDIT: I'd like to have all art submissions finalized and posted here by the end of the day (11:59:59pm PST) on:
March 31st, 2011
I originally asked Aragornbird to do the artwork for the 5th gen website, since he did the 4th gen art, and I personally consider his Pokemon art to be just about the best I have ever seen. But I guess Aragornbird has gotten busy with real life and such, as I have not heard from him in quite some time. Many members of Smogon are very anxious for me to get the site launched, and I don't want to do it without some spiffy new art. So, I'm coming to Smeargle's Studio, where talented artists abound!
Here's the pitch: Submit three pictures of pokemon art that meets the criteria mentioned below. If your stuff looks great, I will feature it on the Smogon front page for the whole world to see every time they visit the best competitive Pokemon website in the universe! How's that for incentive? If I get a lot of great submissions, I may change the front page code to swap out artwork every month or so, to allow multiple artists to "win" this particular semi-contest. I'm not sure how we will choose the art that gets used, I'm more worried about getting some good art first. If I get too much good art -- then I'll consider that a good problem to have!
Anyway, here's what I am looking for:
We want three competitive pokemon pictures
They must all be 5th generation pokemon
The pokemon should exhibit a general color theme of red, blue, and yellow/green (Look at the current front page to see why). I'd prefer yellow over green, since that hearkens back to the colors of the first generation Pokemon games, but I won't be insistent if you think a green-based pokemon is better suited to other criteria (Reuniclus anyone?...)
Do not put the art in colored circles like the front page. I'll do that later, after we select the art. Just draw the pokemon in full pose.
The three pokemon need to be "good competitive pokemon". We are a competitive pokemon site, so we don't need crap like Beedrill on our front page. Hey, I think Beedrill looks very cool and maybe some of you slog through ingame with junk pokemon like that. But, we don't use pokemon like that in our standard metagame, so let's not advertise them. I prefer the pokemon to be in the vicinity of the OU tier, or at least be FE pokes strongly associated with the 5th gen. Zoroark fits the bill, even if it doesn't turn out to be a top OU pokemon later on, since Zoroark had a lot of pre-release hype. Use your own judgement as to which pokemon are suitable on our front page. Just don't choose the three starters as a group. Maybe one (like Nape is on the current front page), but all three is just too cliche.
As for the art itself, we want three pieces of colored lineart, each of a single pose of a single pokemon on a white background. To be clear - three pictures, three pokemon. Not one picture of three pokemon together. Not three poses of the same pokemon. Three individual pics. For those of you that have seen Create-A-Pokemon art contests, then you know what I'm talking about for each pic. For any artists unfamiliar with CAP, here's an excerpt of the CAP art submission rules.
The art will be selected as a group of three pics by the same artist. We want stylistic consistency, so we won't be combining the best three pokemon submitted by different artists. Similarly, if you don't submit three pics, then we can't use it. You can post individual pics as you work on them, but ultimately we need three pics from you, in order to be considered for use on the front page.
You do not need to give Smogon exclusive use of the art, but please do not submit something that is featured prominently on another pokemon website. It's fine if the art has been posted elsewhere before, but don't submit it if another site is using it for their logo, or similar.
They must all be 5th generation pokemon
The pokemon should exhibit a general color theme of red, blue, and yellow/green (Look at the current front page to see why). I'd prefer yellow over green, since that hearkens back to the colors of the first generation Pokemon games, but I won't be insistent if you think a green-based pokemon is better suited to other criteria (Reuniclus anyone?...)
Do not put the art in colored circles like the front page. I'll do that later, after we select the art. Just draw the pokemon in full pose.
The three pokemon need to be "good competitive pokemon". We are a competitive pokemon site, so we don't need crap like Beedrill on our front page. Hey, I think Beedrill looks very cool and maybe some of you slog through ingame with junk pokemon like that. But, we don't use pokemon like that in our standard metagame, so let's not advertise them. I prefer the pokemon to be in the vicinity of the OU tier, or at least be FE pokes strongly associated with the 5th gen. Zoroark fits the bill, even if it doesn't turn out to be a top OU pokemon later on, since Zoroark had a lot of pre-release hype. Use your own judgement as to which pokemon are suitable on our front page. Just don't choose the three starters as a group. Maybe one (like Nape is on the current front page), but all three is just too cliche.
As for the art itself, we want three pieces of colored lineart, each of a single pose of a single pokemon on a white background. To be clear - three pictures, three pokemon. Not one picture of three pokemon together. Not three poses of the same pokemon. Three individual pics. For those of you that have seen Create-A-Pokemon art contests, then you know what I'm talking about for each pic. For any artists unfamiliar with CAP, here's an excerpt of the CAP art submission rules.
- It must be a single pose of a single pokemon. No other pokemon can be included for any reason. Only one pose rendering is allowed in the picture.
- It must consist of the pokemon on a plain white background. No additional background detail or settings may be included. No additional background colors or patterns are allowed.
- The entire pokemon must be in full view, and no part of the pokemon can be cropped or obscured by any design elements other than parts of the pokemon itself.
- No props, action effects, move effects, environment effects or additional objects can be rendered on or around the pokemon. If a prop is part of the pokemon's basic design (ie Farfetch'd Stick), then it is acceptable.
- Any 2D full color digital or traditional media may be used. 3D media are not allowed.
- It must have a distinguishable outline on the entire subject in contrast to the background. No part of the design can be blurred into the background or blended into the background.
- It must be no larger than 640 pixels on either axis, no smaller than 320 pixels on either axis, and must be in a compressed digital format. Uncompressed bitmaps and/or high-resolution images are not allowed.
- It must be a digital rendering or a scan of a traditional drawing. No camera pictures are allowed.
- It must be an original artwork by the person making the submission. Lifts, swipes, copies, or alterations of other artists' work are not allowed.
The art will be selected as a group of three pics by the same artist. We want stylistic consistency, so we won't be combining the best three pokemon submitted by different artists. Similarly, if you don't submit three pics, then we can't use it. You can post individual pics as you work on them, but ultimately we need three pics from you, in order to be considered for use on the front page.
You do not need to give Smogon exclusive use of the art, but please do not submit something that is featured prominently on another pokemon website. It's fine if the art has been posted elsewhere before, but don't submit it if another site is using it for their logo, or similar.
I hope some of you awesome artists decide to pitch in here. If you don't have an artist badge already, I can promise that you'll get one if I use your art on the front page for the 5th generation. Also, you can't ask for a much more visible place to show off your pokemon art! Feel free to post WIPs in this thread, and get comments from others. For commenters, please keep the comments constructive and relevant. This is NOT a voting thread, so please don't post as if it is.
I do not have a specific closing date in mind for this thread. Let's see how submissions go, and I'll edit in a specific submission closing date later. Thanks in advance to all the Smogon artists who decide to participate in this!
EDIT: I'd like to have all art submissions finalized and posted here by the end of the day (11:59:59pm PST) on:
March 31st, 2011
