Open Challenge: Pokemon Redesign. Go nuts.

[Snuggles]

Yep. You read right. This is an open challenge to all opponents, a free-for-all brawl...of teh pokemon.

Don't lie. A lot of us have been fans. A lot of us are still. But then a lot of us AREN'T. It doesn't matter, just look at it this way. 493(!!) creatures to thumb through and turn into god-knows-whatever you'd like. You fans know you want a stab at your favorite critter. You cynics know you want to turn cute things into pitiful, ugly genetic freaks.

The rules are as follows: You can choose any pokemon you like, and redesign it in any style, for any purpose you like. / To make things interesting, you can also choose to do either a full evolutionary set (such as Pichu -> Pikachu -> Raichu) or a themed 'set' (such as Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno.) Bonus points for playing on their relationship in your redesign. You can post or do as many as you like, but you have to choose just one for the poll at the end of the tunnel.

Deadline: Competition starts on October 28th, and all submissions are due November 11th. We'll do a good ol' fashioned poll and see what comes up. "In Soviet Russia, fun have YOU!"

Unless, you know, you're afraid of pokemon. Or just challenges.

Reference Links:
The first 386 are available here: http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/animepictures.html (Thanks to Flip McGee for posting the link in the lounge.)
The new batch that came out recently can be seen here in sprite form. http://www.serebii.net/diamondpearl/newpokes.shtml
As Steph mentioned, you can use the following link to read their pokedex. Designing from the text in these entries alone might afford you a lot more flexibility than going off of their images.
The first 386 in Pokedex form. (Search by name to read their entry, includes a small sprite and flavour text about them.) http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-rs/

[v0rbiss]

I'm putin g my head in the bag by entering any TDome possible, but they are all too interesting to pass! This is going to be a blast!

[Snuggles]

Aight, that's one! Puttin' up some links for people to see what their choices are.

[AnimeBoyXtreme1985]

im in hehe...

[JL.Alfaro]

All right, Im in and I got Picachu, I might do Psyduck for kiks

[Steph Laberis]

Dangit, I really want in on this... I have a lot on my plate with the calendar and work though....

...

Here's a thought. Rather than looking at pics of pokemon, what if you ONLY look at the Pokedex entry? I mean, I could do a new styling of Pikachu just by looking at him, but I would get way more creative if all I had to go on was "Electric Mouse - It has small electric sacs on both its cheeks. If threatened, it looses electric charges from the sacs." Think of the color possibilites, proportion possibilities...

...when is the deadline? ^__^;;

[Snuggles]

Dangit, I really want in on this... I have a lot on my plate with the calendar and work though....

...

Here's a thought. Rather than looking at pics of pokemon, what if you ONLY look at the Pokedex entry? I mean, I could do a new styling of Pikachu just by looking at him, but I would get way more creative if all I had to go on was "Electric Mouse - It has small electric sacs on both its cheeks. If threatened, it looses electric charges from the sacs." Think of the color possibilites, proportion possibilities...

...when is the deadline? ^__^;;

Hrmm. I like the pokedex idea, but I'm not sure if there's a site where we could get all the pokedex entries without pictures. I could probably find a page with links to their Serebii.net pokedex entries...

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-rs/

That's the first 386, but by name alone. Maybe it's better that way. ;D

As far as the deadline goes, probably 2 weeks, starting once we get a good chunk of participants. About 5-10 people?

I was also thinkin' about maybe making it okay to do a full evolution series or an obvious set that goes together (Those Regi things?) applicable as a single entry, if you want to, a single pokemon entry would still be fine. Think it could be kind of interesting to see how people would address the change from Pichu to Pikachu. Evolutionary change over millions of years, or do they change that much as they age?

[v0rbiss]

That last link, that's just batshit insane... I just want to make Picachu look a bit tougher, maybe even badass, and I get to see he evolves from something to himself and after that in something else...red hearts, green leafs....ah, the sickness...(wooo-ahk-ahk-ahk-aaa) This will be much funnyer than expected!

[thesmokeking]

ooh can I join? I like stuff like this.

[Snuggles]

Sweet! Hehe, v0rbiss. Don't have to make it any crazier than you wanted. You can still do just Pikachu if you like.

[Waffle_King]

I am so in!

-Andrew

[Devvv]

Omgosh, Omgosh, Omgosh, Omgosh, Omgosh
I'm so entering this! Been waiting for one of these challenges to finally happen.

[Njord-E55]

I'm interested. I have to get the due time though, to see if it fits in with everything in my "life". Finally a chanse to make those cuddely things big and mean. I get some Black and White flashbacks now....

[Andorz]

Hehe cool, I'm in.

[GunTrouver]

Ohh, I ever wanted to make such a challenge on my one Good you did it now, I`m definitely in!!

[Snuggles]

WELLY WELL WELL. Looks like this is shaping up to be a healthy competition afterall. Aight. We'll start it this Friday, making the deadline...two weeks from Friday. I'ma finalize all the date numbers and update the main post in a minute.

Edit: "Sapphire: Apparently, the heads aren't the only parts of the body that DODRIO has three of."

:-(

[Swift (BM)]

Hi there, I really love pokemon so this is cooooooooooooooooooooooooool!
I think i'll have a go.

SKETCHBOOK

ps, how do you get an avatar?

[Swift (BM)]

I've started my entry, I'm doing Umbreon and Espeon. I have completed umbreon. I think I'll colour them.

[Snuggles]

As of more than 24 hours ago the competition has begun! Feel free to post WIPs or whatever, and begin the pokiemanning.

[Devvv]

Uhh..ok. Don't ask how but I totally misunderstood the topic of this challenge. I thought we were suppose to draw the Pokemon of our choice in a realistic style.... I'm not really good with redesigning stuff and I really want to try to draw this one particular Pokemon in a realistic style..I'll post it up when I'm done.

[Snuggles]

Well, if you want to redesign it...render it realistically, then that works too. I think. Well, if you render a pokemon realistically, you'll probably have to change enough to make it a small redesign anyway.

[Swift (BM)]

I just need to do the shading on espeon, then I can scan and colour them

[JL.Alfaro]

heres a quickie sketch, my evolved form of Psy-duck, I call him Psy-Swan

[Moai]

I'm in! This is gonna be great!

Here's what I'm thinking about: the Bulbasaur series, Hitmonlee, Mewtwo, Mew, Sentret, Furret, Skarmory, the Larvatar Series, Lugia, the Treecko series, Surskit, Masquerain, the Aron series, Vibrava, Flygon, Anorith (don't you love that they made an Anomalacaris Pokemon?), and Armaldo. I'll try to do as many of these as possible and then choose one for the poll.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Photomanips @ worth1000

[Prometheus|ANJ]

I was thinking something along an 'element change stone' you can use on certain select Pokémons to change their element (water/fire/elec/earth/whatever). This would allow some interesting elaborations on existing designs.


I have other projects atm. but wanted to do a few roughs of Blastoise (elec, spore/vine, fire). Not sure about colors, maybe the original element color (blue-cyan in this case) is kept to tie in the origin of the design.

[Moai]

Here's what I doodled last night. Now, excuse me while I go all Pokegeek on you.
Mew, Mewtwo: I didn't do much to Mewtwo, but I changed Mew's look a bit so that it looked more like an immature form of Mewtwo. So perhaps instead of giving birth to Mewtwo, like is said in the first game, Mew transformed into Mewtwo.
Bulbasaur: I basically made him a lystrasaurus with an onion on his back. Lystrasaurus was a small, burrowing reptile that lived in the Permian and Triassic periods. I'm pretty sure its evolved forms will be just more advanced stages in its life cycle, rather than litteral evolutions.
Larvatar, Pupatar, Tyranitar: These guys are weird. It's some sort of evil reptile that goes through a pupal stage. I basically just did to them what I did to Bulbasaur, which is turn them into ancient reptiles. Larvatar and Tyranitar also had diamond-shaped holes on them which didn't really make sense, so I just changed them to dark markings.
Lugia: Again, I just made him more realistic without really changing the design. I'll have to greatly increase the size of his fins/wings to make him at all plausible.
Hitmonlee: I gave him accordian-like stretchy legs, but that's really the only change.
Treecko: Again, just more realistic, not really any design change. Living with geckos in Hawaii for six months helped out with the drawing.
Nidoran M, Nidorino, Nidoking: I imagined these guys as different species evolved from a common ancestor. Nidoran is a small herbivore, like a poisonous rabit. I changed Nidorino slightly to look more like a Dinohyus, which is an ancient species of warthog-like animal. It's a large, territorial, plains-roaming beast. Nidoking is like a giant ground sloth in general shape and habit. They're mammals, but have rhino-like skin armor instead of fur.
Skarmory, Sentret, Masquerain: No real redesign here. I don't really care about these ones.

Well, I've gotten the geekiness out of my system for now. I'm gonna go draw some more.

[Snuggles]

This stuff is lookin' great so far! And CRAP. It's PROM. Everybody look busy! I diiig the fire one, man. I think keeping the blue is probably a necessity though, yeah.

I'm glad Moai is having fun with this, too. It's almost been a week now, so yet another one to go!

I had some trouble deciding what to work on, so I gave myself a nice challenge and picked two pokemon I always thought looked...well, dumb. Thumbnails below.

[Andorz]

Moai: Thats the coolest shit I've seen in a long time.

Here's my redesign:

[Moai]

Snuggles- Electrabuzz and Magmar, right? I agree with you about Electrabuzz looking kinda dumb, but Magmar was always one of my faves. Oh well. I'm sure your redesigns will be awesome.
Andorz- Thanks, man! Yours is cool as well. That's a...different interpretation of Pikachu, alright. My suggestion would be to clean it up and make it more solid and less sketchy. Also, try to make the shadows a cooler shade, rather than just the same color mixed with black.

I'm finishing up my Creature of the Week right now, but I'll have plenty of time to put some real lovin' into this next week.