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Thank you Black Rose. Lately , I've been trying to learn my Own Style. I've been learning Anatomy and Studying Real Animals.



The Plot Has Changed Alot too. I'm Still making it a Cat and Dog Who fall in love , But They Can't have kids , Because I Learned that could not be possible. Instead , They just Adopted Or They Came from the Sky. No Idea Which one I'm using. Suggestions of Ideas would be Helpful.

I know this is your story, and that unrealistic animals do exist in kid-based stories, but I personally think having a pink spotted cat doesn't fit the storyline. If you have been making the efforts to study real animals, then I would suggest that you reconsider Bouncy's design. Especially if you wanted to ever take this as far as animation... The design would be too complicated to animate. Even just drawing the character would be a bit of a task. The design needs to be constant.

As for adopting a child, that is more reasonable verses something that fell out of the sky. Take the Jungle Book for example. Mowgli was raised by a pack of wolves. Just as so long as how they adopted the character makes sense.

Thank you Your Critque. While I agree to What you are saying , there are some things I Disagree With. My Story IS Fantasy. Some Elements are Inrealistic. Bouncey's Color is Magenta Spotted , But I Desaturated her Colors Alot. As For You saying I Should Change her Design to Realistic color Coat , not Gonna happen because my Story has Elements of Fantasy. Like I said In the Above Post , I'm Making tons of Changes to this Story. The Charecters Designs However , Are Staying The same and or Going to have minamal Changes. I hope You Understand. Adults love MLP as well as Kids , so That's Why I Few Of the Charecters Unaturaly colored. Also , Only 5 of The 20 Charecters in the Story are Unaturaly Colored.


EDIT : The story Line is Becoming more and more Realistic. The only Things Unrealistic are 5 of the Charecters being Unaturaly colored , And a Cat and Dog .falling in Love.
I'm Using the Element of They Adpoted their Kids Because That's How Everyone of them Has Different colors.

Just a small concern with five of the characters being unrealistic: it's really inconsistent to have a few 'sparkle' characters mixed in with a majority of realistic colors. This has nothing to do with whether you should or shouldn't use sparkly colors, but more to do with keeping elements of your story the same.

For example, in MLP, all of the characters are designed with highly saturated, bright colors that would never be found on an actual horse. On the other hand, in a more realistic film like 101 Dalmatians, it would have been very odd if the black lab who helped them had been designed with bright blue stripes. Do you see what I mean? Even though the lab is just one of hundreds of characters in the movie, that only makes the sparkle-ness stand out more and distances the viewer from the movie since it is unexpected and without reason. The would happen if a grey dabble horse suddenly appeared on MLP; it just doesn't work.

My main point? Either use realistic designs for every character or use more sparkly designs for every characters.

As for Bouncey's spotted design, I'd say stick with it. After all, if Disney can animated a hundred spotted dalmatians, one spotted character should be no problem.

Also, one more thing, Missy looks amazing; great job! It's such a joy to see your improvements growing everyday.

Thank you. So I should Have them Be one type or They would Stick out Like A Sore Thumb ? That's Something I was Just thinking about.... Thank you Guys For Suggestions. It's Really Helping me Achieve my Dream .

I agree with Blackrose on this. I's important that all the characters would fit together so make them either all realistic or not.
Take this for example - http://www.catsuka.com/interf/icons4/gumball01.jpg - It's full of bright, unrealistic characters where pink rabbit and blue cat had kids together, but this show is meant to be more of an absurdal comedy, so I wouldn't go for this idea if you're planning to do something more serious.
http://www.animationmagazine.net/wordpr ... -Photo.jpg - Here's a show with more realistic designs and world. Each character has their unique traits and designs and you can surealy tell something about each character by looking only at it's design here. I'd suggest you experimenting with different breeds and animal types for your characters and you'll see how they can be modified to fit your character's personalities.
And by the way I love this drawing of Missy

Thank you For your Critque Troll. I Feel Mixing Realistic and Sparkle Charecters Would Stick out like A Sore Thumb. I'm Making the Charecter's Have Unrealistic colors , but not Have them be so bright and have Realistic , and having Them not being Mary sues / Gary Stu's. I'm also Making them based off real life Animals. In one Concept , Bouncey was a Leopard. I Realised Just having a Cat and Dog together and Having unrealistic colors Would be Unrealistic Enough. One of The Villains Was a White Tiger , I've Changed Bouncey to Just a Cat breed of Some kind , and There are only Cats , Dogs , And Humans in the Story. They Also would'nt be able to Have kids , so I made Them Adopt the kids. I'll be Actively Updating this Topic With More Updates as much as I can.

'Sticking out like a sort thumb' is exactly the phrasing a would use.

If you wanted to make Bouncey more realistic but still keep a bit of the pink, remember you still have accessories to play with. Collars, bows, bandanas, and other things can be almost any color and design you want. They can also help your main characters stick out from the crowd. You could make her colors a more realistic greyish pink but keep the bright pink color.

Honestly, the best advice I can give is to just play around. Sometimes the design you make official comes from just a fleeting, seemingly dumb idea. Look at Disney; most characters go through hundreds of changes before the final design. It's all about learning what you want in the design by trying new things.

Thank you . I'll see what happens. I guess one question I have to ask , Should I have Sarafina and Wolfine meet in High school , or should I have them Fall for Each other as Adults ? What's Cliche? I'm so confused right now.

I replied a bit more in depth but in general to your other topic about cliches, but I'll reply with a little lighter and more specific 'two cents' here.

Basically, the 'when' won't be too big of a deciding factor in whether it is cliche or not, but rather the 'how' they meet. In a love story, the most common cliches are the love triangle, best friends or mortal enemies falling in love, or two completely opposite personalities turn their hate to love. Then again, 'high school sweethearts' who have been together since they were kids and have a perfect relationship is rather boring.

I know that basically means almost all possibilities have been eliminated, but it's not really true. Like I mentioned in the other topic, it's not really whether the initial thought is cliche, but how that idea is played out in a unique way. Also, cliches aren't always bad. Cliches are cliche because they are used again and again. Why? Because they work. For example, everyone rolls their eyes at love triangles, but most of us eat it up anyways and love every second of it.

'What is cliche?' is an extremely difficult and complicated question that would be great to discussion in depth on your other topic, so it's best to give specific examples here about your story. If Sarafina and Wolfine meet in high school, when do they become friends, if at all? Does the relationship start immediately after they meet or does it grow from a friendship? How do they meet; sharing classes or through mutual friends? Do they have the same friends? Did they like each other at the same time or was it more of one having a crush and the other took a bit of time to convince? Do they actually start dating in high school or do they wait until after?

These are all just some questions to get you thinking; I don't want you to waste your time typing out answers to every one of them. Also, you might want to think about how much detail you need to know about their relationship. If the story is mostly about their children, you might want to concentrate less on how the parents met and more on creating stories for the main characters. Besides, sometimes cliches work great in the background. If you want their story to simply be 'high school sweethearts,' it's fine since that's back story and not main story.

Hope this helps!

After finding this topic and being surprised by how recent some of the replies were, I've finally decided to do something I've been considering doing for a while to try and help you out a bit. Basically, I want to show you a little bit about character design.

I've taken three of your ideas--Bouncey, Mac, and Sarafina--and made designs based on them. Now, before I post them, I'll start out with a bit of a disclaimer: am I trying to take and mess with your characters? No--these are designs based off of your ideas for them, but they are not supposed to be direct redesigns. Can you use these designs? Sure! Can you take them and make a mix between them and yours for entirely new versions? Sure! But I am not in any way trying to to force you to use these versions rather than your own. That will be your call.

Bouncey:


What I did was start with some realistic-ish sketches based on photographs (really easy to find, just Google whatever species you're looking for). Granted, none of my "realistic" sketches on any of these are really that good as I only spent 30 seconds or so on each...they were just for the sake of example, and anyways, I'm already rather familiar with drawing felines. The less familiar you are with a subject, the more you need to study its anatomy by working in realism. (Also, friendly reminder that leopards and tigers do have slightly different proportions than lions. Very similar, yes, but not exactly the same. Nearly all of your big cats seem to be drawn in a very heavily Lion King based style.)

After sketching the species, I begin to stylize. Sometimes a stylized design can take several sketches to get to where you want it to be, as you can see here, and even then, it may be subject to change over longer periods of time after being created. Just look at the concept art for real animated films--the first concepts of a character are not always very similar to the final product that appears on-screen (example). That's the point of concept art--not just to draw the characters a couple of times, but to experiment with them. To see what works and what doesn't work. To see what one design might look like as compared to another, to see which of them may fit the character better. To take some parts you like of one design, others you like of another, and trying mashing them together to make something better. Creating facial expressions and poses. Observing the designs form all angle. Etc.!


"Mac" and "Sarafina" followed the same process (though Sarafina is actually one of your better ones as far as general design goes).

Mac:


Sarafina:



And lastly, color concepts for the designs:



Yes--Bouncey is still pink. But take a look at the hue. Much softer, not as much as an in-your-face neon shade. This could still probably be considered sparkle, but I'd also say it sits on the border of being simply over-saturated, as that pink (and pink is just light red) is close to the orangish-yellow family of colors found on real leopards. Is it still unrealistic? Yes. If I were to create my own completely original leopard, I would have made the hue more orange or yellow than reddish/pinkish. But I think a design like this could get away with being a part of a children's cartoon.

I even gave Mac a bit of an unrealistic hue--he has a bluish tint to his fur (very common in white or gray characters). But again, it's not over the top.

Sarafina is more of a grayish hue, meant to be silvery.

And take a look at them together--they all look like they could exist in the same universe because they all have similar levels of realistic vs. unrealistic. In addition, they are all based in realism. Yes, colors have been saturated or slightly changed, but said colors are still based of what we'd find in life, such as Mac's blueish-gray being derived from grayish-white and Bouncey's soft pink being derived from orangish-yellow. But they're still believable.

Does that make sense? ^^"

Again, I'm not trying to force you to use my versions or necessarily to change yours. These are just examples based on your ideas.

Thank you Natti for helping me out a bit. This is the only one of my creations that have unrealistically colored characters. To be Honest, Bouncey's color scheme Looks Pink because I over saturated her colors, She really has more of a Purple colored spots, which I have desaturated a lot. I'm taking your suggestions on Mac and Sarafina's color Schemes. I was thinking of using The Boucney color Scheme you gave me, for Bouncey's daughter or something. :p

The follow up with your Suggestions :

The X's indicate the designs that I'm no longer using.
The ?'s indicate the designs that I may use. ( Right now they are concept art/Designs. )

This is the REAL Bouncey. She was Given to me as a Gift, and Is very special to me, I'm thinking that she is one of my reasons why I wanted to Make her a Character for a movie. I know she Looks Ratty, But I played Catfamily games with her Everyday when I was younger. ( 8 years ago. ) And I brought her everywhere with me. In fact, every character in the Catfamily is Based off of Stuffed animals I had when I was little. Now you know why the Characters have such Strange colors. :p ( Note: Her collar color is the same color scheme as her spots. It's just Blue, Because the only color Rubberband I had was Blue. XD )

I based it off a real Cocker Spaniel, But Stylized him. I decided to make Wolfine a smaller breed of dog.
I'm Having Trouble Drawing Realistic Animals first for studies. XD Maybe Because I like it to look more Animated? But I know if I'm going to be an Animator I need to give it a shot. It seems Fairly Easy. The reason why I drew in Lion king style a lot was Because I was Obsessed with this movie for Like almost 5 years. I'm trying to wean Myself off of that style and On to my Own. I think what you posted will help me a lot. I will be keeping these topics Updated. Thank you about Sarafina, Though. I love Her Design too.
Edit:
I Followed your Advice and Drew Bouncey Using The colors Schemes that I liked, and Drew her From a Pose of a Real leopard.

Sorry, for double post, But the Last one was Long Enough. XD To Answer your Questions,
'' If Sarafina and Wolfine meet in high school, when do they become friends, if at all? ''

They Meet In High school , They Become Friends After Sarafina found out that Mac does not really like her, So She Begins to form a friendship with him.

''Does the relationship start immediately after they meet or does it grow from a friendship?''

No. It starts after Sarafina found out that Mac didn't really love her. They Spend Quite a Bit of Time together as Friends before they form a Forbidden relationship.

''How do they meet; sharing classes or through mutual friends?''

They meet when Sarafina dropped her books. They share a Couple of Classes together, and Even Have Siblings That Talk about them.

''Do they have the same friends? Did they like each other at the same time or was it more of one having a crush and the other took a bit of time to convince?''

Not Really. But Jackson is the Boyfriend of Sarafina's Adopted sister Missy. Sarafina Just thought of Wolfine as A friend, But Eventually, She falls for Him. Wolfine Had a Little Crush on Her a Couple of weeks after he Met her.

''Do they actually start dating in high school or do they wait until after? ''
They Start too in High school, But then Their Parents Interfere, and They move away from Each other , Meeting Each other Years Later, and they Started to Date Each other.

The Main story Isn't Really there Relationship, But more of the Problems they face.

Wrong category, this goes to General Fan Arts.
.Moved


Also, I suggest you to be careful because you have 3 topics talking about this same thing (4 counting this one). Seeing how this one seems to be the most active I will lock the other three as duplicate topics aren't allowed. You're also making a lot of double posts here and this can cost you a warning.
So, please, read the rules a little better before making dozens of topics about the same subjects.

Sorry,Saske. The Duplicate Topics were posted back when I was a Newbie. I know not to Make any more Topics about the same thing. Also, My phone sometimes Makes me Double post.I was not thinking Clearly when I made this Double post. It shall not Happen again.