ANSWERED:Dragon Requests and updating old graphics

[DragonOfTea]

Greetings, everyone!

I am interested in contributing to the site by updating old dragon art, but looking around the subforum for Dragon Requests I couldn't find a post addressing the topic of redraws (excuse me if I'm blind!). Is there a specific group of artists that handles the updating of old sprites, or can anyone with the skill do it? I have prepared one sprite already and would love to show it off to get some feedback

 

Thank you in advance!

[seventeendeer]

Sprite updates on DC are a little more complicated than just volunteering. They're rarely updated without input or at least permission from the original spriters, except in extreme circumstances. Even just creating work derivative of the original sprites requires permission in many cases - see this thread.

 

DC is a collaborative effort, but spriters do retain certain rights over their work, even when it's used in-cave. Changes to sprites are also generally controversial among the userbase, because existing lineage projects are impacted when a sprite is replaced. It isn't routinely done, it's the exception rather than the rule.

[KageSora]

5 hours ago, seventeendeer said:

Changes to sprites are also generally controversial among the userbase, because existing lineage projects are impacted when a sprite is replaced. It isn't routinely done, it's the exception rather than the rule.

 

This part especially is important to keep in mind.  If the update does things like drastically change the pose, color balance, shading to the point it looks massively different, add dimorphism, etc. you do tend to get your head torn off by the users.

 

And, for once, it's entirely understandable because anything that dramatically changes the look of a dragon will impact lineages which are built almost entirely around how they look.  I've had to drop lineages because updates happened that absolutely ruined them for me.

 

Personal taste plays a huge role in how people collect and breed dragons, and it's so variable that what one person adores another might find hideous.

 

So it's no wonder they're done sparingly and carefully, barring outside factors forcing a change.

[DragonOfTea]

12 hours ago, seventeendeer said:

Sprite updates on DC are a little more complicated than just volunteering. They're rarely updated without input or at least permission from the original spriters, except in extreme circumstances. Even just creating work derivative of the original sprites requires permission in many cases - see this thread.

 

DC is a collaborative effort, but spriters do retain certain rights over their work, even when it's used in-cave. Changes to sprites are also generally controversial among the userbase, because existing lineage projects are impacted when a sprite is replaced. It isn't routinely done, it's the exception rather than the rule.

Thank you, I will contact the original artist and get their opinion on it before I reveal it to the rest of the community. This was a very helpful answer!

 

Worst case, I will edit my sprite and submit it as a new breed request.

[Fuzzbucket]

13 minutes ago, DragonOfTea said:

Worst case, I will edit my sprite and submit it as a new breed request.

 

This would be your best option. Players generally don't like updates and they are best done by the original artists. Many of us still mourn the old golds, weird though they were, and even the pretty silvers did not have universal approval - and the day several were updated to expunge the work of an artist with questionable"political" views was - lively, to put it mildly. I still have a lineage that was completely ruined by that update, pretty though the replacement is.