Custom Sprites

[SilverSpade]

I want to start this by saying I'm terrible with words and explaining things so things I say might not come across clearly.

 

What's this about?

I've been looking at my dragons and wishing I could customize them a little more, and if I'm doing it I'm pretty sure there are other people that do it too. Because of this I feel like there should be an option, maybe under actions, to submit a custom sprite for your dragons.

 

Why?

A lot of people make OCs and they usually look a little different than pre-existing characters or species. With this it'd be easier to show off what their characters actually look like, and I feel like if someone were to put time and effort into a sprite for a specific dragon they'd get pretty attached to that dragon.

 

How do I suggest it could work?
There could be a process similar to how submitting and approving custom dragon descriptions works. People can approve and disapprove the sprites like how the custom description thing is.

Editing the existing sprite would require the original artist's permission obviously, but I'm unsure about starting from scratch.

 

If anyone has any ideas or anything to add please share.

[Dragon_Arbock]

The artists I'm pretty sure do not want people editing their sprites- i don't think you'll get permission from every single artist who have ever worked on sprites and it wouldn't make sense to exclude only some breeds if permission was granted for others.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Dragon_Arbock

[HeatherMarie]

A lot of artists have restrictions on what can be done with their sprites, not just editing the sprite itself but stuff like drawings and 'fanart' and such. I can't see something like this getting implemented with only the small group of dragons that we'd have permission for. 

 

Also, how exactly would the approval process go? Art is a *lot* more subjective then a written description. Would there be guidelines for what should be approved and what shouldn't? What would be included in those guidelines? I can see people disapproving ones they just don't like, ones they think are ugly, ones drawn differently then they prefer, ones that don't stay close enough to the original sprite, etc. It's fairly simple to set out guidelines for a written description, much harder for derivative art. 

[SilverSpade]

well i was thinking as long as it wasnt inappropriate and was at least somewhat recognizable as the original species [not the original sprite or pose or whatever, but the original dragon species]

 

but yeah i can see the issues, it was just a shot in the dark

 

[VixenDra]

As cool as it sounds, there are so many huge problems...

*artists not liking ingerence in their sprites, many disapproving of mere fanart, forget touching the artwork itself... only few breeds would maybe have a slim chance at their artists allowing this for their sprites. This is the un-walkaroundable restriction that prevents such suggestion from getting into the game. If DC was the copyright holder, then TJ woudl have had a free hand ant this, but since th dC contract doesn't transfer the copyrights from spriters to the game, TJ's hands are tied compeletely.

*lineages... DC is all about collecting sprites and building lineages (nothing else to do anyway, aside to badge collecting during events) so the 2 naturally became the very core of the game) and I can't imagine the pain all the lineage builders who use offspring from other scrolls would feel (I personally would love to collect more dragon alts than released, and instead of having just one set of e.g. Pipios, having more in different colours and with different decorations - depending on what's allowed... Like I do in Tales of Ostlea with their item alts and potion alts, just customized by me instead of released in the game for everyone) - THOUGH if that could onyl be applied before the dragon grows up oir before it's bred, then why not, but knowing the Aegis case, I don't think this kind of restriction would be a thing?
*moderation... it takes quite a while to get a descritpion approved(unless that's fully caught up by now?), and with sprites it would be even more difficult, especially with the level of subjectivity visual art has. While unapproved sprites have much more harm potential than description... if someone drew erect genitals on the sprite it would do much more damage than if they wrote something porny in the description... inappropiate images hurt much more than a wall of text hardly anyone reads^^;
*also artskills... I bet some level would be required for this and this woudl beam that many users wouldn't b able to get their customisation into the game, and only the skilled artists would have unique dragons... and those who can afford getting someone to make their customisation for them.. in the allowed way or not. And we know very well by now what mayhem unique sprites do in this game...