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Skeptic-Mousey — Saturation and Brightness in regards to pony OCs
Published: 2012-07-19 14:11:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 5092; Favourites: 92; Downloads: 209
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Description
I've been in quite the creative slump recently. So to help force myself through it, I thought I might provide something helpful (I hope) to the fandom. As explained in the top paragraph, I've seen quite a few people ask about OC design. And after having seen a few... well less the spectacular designs, I felt like I could provide some assistance.If people like this, I might make some more about OC design, and what you should avoid. (If you even think that having an image of videogame controller as a cutie mark I will sob quietly to myself. I swear every second badly done OC has that as their cutie mark. /rant)
Anyway cheers.
(Something I've done that doesn't use other people's vectors? WTF is this
)*I've always found the whole OC thing as a bit, well... If you understand restraint and modesty, you can come up with some cool designs. However, you can overstep the mark very easily. eg. "this is my OC, he's an Alicorn and is responsible for for everything that has ever happened in all of history. He is also married to Twilight but is in an open relationship with Rainbow Dash... etc etc etc. ORIGINAL CHARACTER DONUT STEEL."
Let me just kill myself before you continue.
Anyway, Cheers (again)
Edit - Added my devaintart address in the bottom right, and changed the wording of the explanations slightly.
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Comments: 31
thats why i try to keep my OCs nicely pastelly :3
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Days ago I spent days studying the same topic, and settled on the same principles. Then I designed my ponysona as thus: [link]
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This is so helpful! It's good to know people notice the most important errors in a piece of art.
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Thank you so much for this. OC's with 100 percent saturation in contrast with <50% brightness really annoy me, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.
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Having done four years of a design course and then spending the past two years studying typography and to an extent, design as a hobby, bad design does get to me.
It's a pleasure to help
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Faving for the rant alone. I completely agree. Pony OCs are just as bad as Sonic ones.
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I am all for artistic freedom, but there is only so much re-coloured ponies / Sonic characters / whatever I can take. (A crap *original* drawing is better then a lazily done re-colour.)
And I did have fun with the rant,
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I don't like recolors either. That's why I made this: [link]
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That brightness bit for colouring the shadow fill and outline is really useful actually, I've always just guessed on them
But yes, there is an awful lot of "meh" OCs about, and a good helping of Mary Sues too. I'm redesigning my own one because I don't think it's any good any more.
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As I said, take this a guide only. Those were just rounded numbers I chose because they looked good with the colour I chose. Always play around with colour values to get the right look. Coming from someone who has studied a lot of typography: If the computer says it is correct, but your eyes say it looks wrong, trust your eyes. And then get someone else to look at it. Glad to of helped
And there is an awful lot of "meh' OCs and/or Mary Sues. My argument is this. "If you were to put your OC in the background of the actual show, and they stand out, then you've done something wrong." (There are obvious exceptions to this rule, but it's a nice starting point.)
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Nice explanation of this; I myself have been wondering what exactly 'saturation' represented.
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When I first thought of explaining saturation, I thought is was going to be quite easy. However it is kinda tricky to explain it without describing a lot of other technical things (the science behind how we perceive colours, colour theory and many other things.) I'm glad this helped.
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Oh dear god, appearently there are people out there who got it! Might I spread this one on occasion without asking you first everytime? I think it could reeeeeally help some people on the internet.
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Now that I've stuck my deviantart address down in the corner, please spread this as much you like.
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yeah i was gonna have a snes controller, then i was like but how would that make any sense?
people seem to judge any alicons as OP even though theres no evidence to suggest that
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Probably down to the fact that they're royalty, and 2 of them rule over Equestria and all the pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. And they -are- more powerful, Celestia controls the sun, and Luna the moon, by themselves. Cadence is a bit odd, though she appears to be at least potentially very powerful.
Plus they're kind of a cheap way out of the problem of choosing a race for your OC (can't decide? Be ALL of them at the same time lol)
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Probably down to the fact that they're royalty, and 2 of them rule over Equestria and all the pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies. And they -are- more powerful, Celestia controls the sun, and Luna the moon, by themselves. Cadence is a bit odd, though she appears to be potentially very powerful.
Plus they're kind of a cheap way out of the problem of choosing a race for your OC (can't decide? Be ALL of them at the same time lol)
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yes because controlling the sun / moon is their special talent which has been done by others already
if they were godlike they wouldnt need someone like shining armour for the shield spell or other ponies for their specific talents either
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My mistake, it -is- in hearth's warming. However, I would say context suggests that all the unicorns, rather than just one, controlled the sun and moon.
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that still doesn't mean there cant be others and certainly doesn't justify the hatred they receive Alicorn =/= bad design
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The problem comes from the fact that, canonically, so far, there are only three alicorns. Basically it's a much bigger ask for someone to believe in someone's Alicorn OC then it is for their earth / pegasus / unicron OC. (As there are many of each species in the show, thus more believable.)
I'm not saying that people shouldn't create an Alicorn OC, but they need to be prepared to face much harsher criticisms then if it was a "regular" pony. As said, it makes the creator look like they are on a power trip.
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A power trip? why? if you're going by canon you will know they are not nearly as powerful as people are making them out to be
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People commonly link Alicorns to being Mary Sue, personally if it fits the show's art style I don't care, but if I see some neon light alicorn with a back story of being Celestia and Luna's long lost sister I just facepalm.
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Perhaps power trip is too harsh a term.
But as I said, there are only three Alicorns that are actually cannon. I think the problem is that people perceive having an Alicorn OC as ignoring the established cannon of the show. Like I said, having an earth / pegasus / unicorn OC is more believable because they are "normal" characters.
I think it really comes down to peoples expectations. If someone creates an Alicorn OC, (with the exception of Lauren Faust for obvious reasons) people already begin to judge it on the basis that it's not a regular pony species. There seems to be an air of "I want to be better then everyone else," a sort of arrogance if you will. Even if the creator of said Alicorn OC has the best intentions, they still have to overcome the stigma that has evolved around Alicorn OCs. Is this wrong? Perhaps.
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Controlling the sun and moon is their special talent, yes, but they still need to be powerful enough to do that. Besides, Celestia did -both- for 1000 years. As for "done by others already", can you actually point me to where it says this? It sounds vaguely familiar, but I cant find evidence for it anywhere.
Also, "godlike", neither of us have actually said they are. I would say "very powerful" instead, but semantics aside, being godlike or just very powerful still means your powers are limited. While they may not be gods, there's still plenty of evidence to show they are more powerful than any other race.
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That is because two out of 3 alicorns are gods. the third, cadence is less powerfull but still has a rather powerful talent of being able to create love.
Hence that one should be careful with alicorn OC's, they often deemed to be a powertrip for its creator.
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Yes there are people who take a look at an alicorn and immediately assume godlike ability despite the fact that even celestia and luna havent shown any real power apart from being very old
what type of pony they are should be the last thing one looks at
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They literally control the sun and the moon respectively. During Luna's banishment, Celestia was controlling both of these space-born objects. That would be the real power they've shown.
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and we were told regular unicorns could control the sun and moon because Equestria was made
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what might be contributing is the ponysona of Lauren faust is also a Alicorn and since we more or less give her a rank of godhood in our community...
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