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Thread: Xero's Design Logs

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dragonite View Post
    So, does it feel like you started doing this five years ago? (i'm pretty sure i didn't see you mention that reading through, but i'm pretty bad at reading so eh)
    5 years? Has it really been that long? I mean, to be fair, the last two years I haven't really done much in terms of "walkthrough" pictures, especially since Eyan switched over to streaming, but still. I honestly can't believe that I managed to keep it up for even one year. I thought I would have gotten bored and stopped WAY earlier. I guess knowing that there are actually people who view my pictures and comment on them pushes me forward, but even then, I haven't really done much in terms of drawing aside from random sketching (including the Generic Future-Fantasy character). In a way, yeah, the effects of the last five years is visible in not only my own confidence, but also in my growth as a content creator (from just simply posting pictures via popular Youtuber to posting comics on a web forum to producing and posting Let's Play commentary). At the same time, I still feel like that same awkwardly nerdy boy from high school that doesn't quite fit in with everyone else, looking in at everyone else. I guess the saying is true, "The more things change, the more things stay the same"...

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  2. #12
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Pokemon Rumble Blast


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    Up until this point, all the pictures have been used in a walkthrough/playthrough in one capacity or another, including the Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen picture (which was being used for the Squirtle Squadcast playthrough). However, this is one of many whose project never seen the light of day. This will be the trend for the next few pictures.

    Eyan shared with me a list of games he wanted to cover, and on that list were "Mario Kart 7", "Pokemon Rumble Blast", and two others that will be shared later. In my Mario Kart 7 picture retrospective, I found a sketch page that I sent to Eyan for approval. Of course, the right half of the sketch page can be found on the Mario Kart 7 retrospective. Here is the left half:


    The top design ended up being the template for the final drawing, and the bottom one was scrapped. The inspiration for the bottom one was the idea of putting the actual spring-winded toy models on the playing field, as seen in the trailer, with Poochyena and Skarmory (representing Kyoushiro/Collette and SuperSkarmory/Eyan, respectively) already on the field. I went with Charizard in the sketch as being wound up, but I could have exchanged it for any Pokemon if we went with that design. Of course, had I been friends with the other staff members at the time of drawing (this set was LONG before the revival of the Super Skarmory Forums), I would have probably asked Nick or someone what they wanted that third Pokemon to be, but enough about the scrapped picture.

    The actual picture had a different layout. Of course, being a Pokemon picture, I decided (once again) to let the Pokeball be the centerpiece. Since 5th Generation was fresh in our minds, I decided to use the 5th Generation starters on the bottom level and the fully evolved 1st Generation starters on the top, and of course, Zekrom and Reshiram would flank the picture, as they did in the Pokemon Black and White picture. In fact, all the 5th Generation Pokemon are in the exact same positions in this picture as they were in the Pokemon Black and White picture!

    You actually can see where I messed up with the coloring around Venusaur, as I started coloring with the wrong shade of green. Thankfully, I noticed after I finished the leg, and I decided to try and play it off as shading, mostly because I didn't want to do this all over again. There are a lot of proportion errors in this picture, too, and the fact that the game's aesthetic was a "Super-Deformed", Toy-like design didn't help. You can see a lot of errors, like Oshawott's head being off centered, the center button on the Pokeball being too small, the heads actually being too tiny to fit the aesthetic, and so on.

    Of course, I wasn't really proud of this picture when I finished it, and Eyan probably didn't like it either, but for some reason, never asked me to redraw it. Looking back, had I drawn this better, or went with a different idea (or started doing digital art), maybe you guys would have a Pokemon Rumble Blast Walkthrough?

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  3. #13
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Kid Icarus Uprising


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    When Eyan first approached me to draw a picture for Kid Icarus: Uprising, I had no idea how to approach the picture. The only thing about Kid Icarus that I knew of (at the time) was from Super Smash Bros Brawl, and that wasn't exactly enough to base a picture on. At least not a picture that didn't already resemble the box art. With that in mind, I started digging.

    The first thing I learned was that there would be a darker "clone" of Pit, so I knew that I would want to include him in the picture. Further digging revealed that the main enemy (that we knew of) would be Medusa, the enemy from the first game. As such, I decided to do this "Light vs. Dark" motif. With Pit and Dark Pit being analogs, and Palutena and Medusa being enemies, I decided to have Pit face off against Medusa, and Dark Pit face Palutena (although those who played the game know this to not be the case).

    Pit, and by extension Dark Pit, would take the center of the image, with the respective deities they represent on the sides. Pit and Palutena, the forces of Light, would face to the left, and Medusa and Dark Pit (since I thought he was literally the evil version of the main character) would face to the right. If you were to cut out the center of the image and paste the portraits of Palutena and Medusa together, it would look something like the Batman v. Superman poster. Pit, of course goes on the offensive, and is for the most part, morally and physically upright. Dark Pit, whose allegiance is shady at best, has a lot more to hide (so I thought), so his stance is more closed off and defensive. Of course, the light from the bowstring and arrows would obscure the face and body, so I was careful not to outline Pit where I knew the light would be. Of course, since my scanner was crap, it was hard to tell what was actually going on, and instead it looked a bit like I got really lazy towards the end. This wasn't my intention, but the limits of the technology I had to work was not helpful in the slightest.

    If there was any of the other walkthrough pictures I would like to redraw, it would be this one. Medusa's and Palutena's faces really bother me with how their facial features are aligned, and of course the lighting on Pit really bothers me looking back. I'll redraw it someday, but with my current skill level at coloring (marginally better than this), I don't think I have the skills or abilities to do this picture justice.

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  4. #14
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Metal Gear Solid 3

    This is probably the worst picture I've ever drawn. Actually, it IS the worst picture I've ever drawn. It's so bad, I didn't even upload it to DeviantArt. Past me had the right idea, this **** does not deserve to be immortalized on the internet. And I will honor past me's wishes and not upload this to DeviantArt or Imgur or whatever. Because you deserve better.

    When Eyan first told me he was considering a Metal Gear Solid 3 walkthrough, I came up with probably the stupidest idea for a end slate picture in the history of end slate pictures. So 17 year old me figured "Well, Metal Gear Solid is a series based around stealth and camouflage, so why not have a picture where Snake is camouflaged?" (Because 17 y.o me only ever heard of MGS through Brawl). In theory, this picture already seemed stupid and pointless, and on paper (with my 17 year old skills), it looks worse. I had no confidence in my coloring skills to make this picture work, so I thought it would be a BRILLIANT idea to simply use black paint. EVERYTHING in black, with the same size brush. Snake's outline, the camo pattern, the outlines of the trees and bark. All black, and it came out horribly. Like, you couldn't even tell what the picture was supposed to be horribly.

    Take whatever image you have in mind after that description, and then make it worse. That's how bad this picture was. And the worst part is? It's not that I thought it looked fine when I finished. It's that no one bothered to tell me it was crap. Not even Eyan. (In fact, this has really been an issue with Eyan, not telling me what he's looking for in a picture). It finally occurred to me that it was horrible when I looked at it after I sent the file to Eyan, and I really hated myself for that. If I would redraw this, I will do something completely different than my original idea, because in retrospect, my original idea was stupid.

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  5. #15
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    Won'tcha do some more?

  6. #16
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Pokemon Black 2/ White 2

    It's been a while since I did one of these, hasn't it? You can blame college and group projects for that. Now, however, that I actually have time (and actually checked the forums) I can actually do another one of these write ups! (There are only three left not including this one)


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    When Nintendo announced Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, my first reaction was "No Gray?". Then, considering some of the people who watched Eyan's videos, my next reaction was "No Grey?". While Eyan didn't confirm he was going to do B2/W2, I knew that people would pester him to do it anyways, so I got right to drawing it. At the time I drew this, I guess I thought my quality of art started to decline because I remember working on this picture far longer than I have for the last three pictures combined.

    The concept for this picture was quite simple: Do the exact opposite of the first one. If Hilbert and Zekrom were on the right of the page, and Hilda and Reshiram were on the left in the original picture, then Nate and Black Kyurem would be on the left, and Rosa and White Kyurem would be on the right. While the original picture was in black and white, then this picture would be in full color. Instead of the starter Pokemon, I would draw pokeballs with little emblems on them to denote which pokemon was in which ball. Unfortunately, I think I may have blanked out, since I drew them in a different order than in the original picture. In the original picture, the starter trio was in the order of Snivy, Oshawott, Tepig. However, in this new picture, the starter trio's pokeballs were in the order of Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott. I completely changed up the order. If I were to redraw this picture, I would definitely draw the pokeballs in the order of Tepig, Snivy, Oshawott (mirror of the original order via elemental weakness).

    The ice along the border was actually used frequently in commercials and promos for the game, so I thought it would be a good frame for this picture. The backgrounds correspond to the types of Black Kyurem (lightning/Electric Type) and White Kyurem (flames/Fire type). If you look closely, there's actually Japanese kana along the borders. On the left, it says "Black Kyurem" and on the right it says "White Kyurem". On top of the Pokeballs, it just simply says "Pokemon". On the ice patches, there's a B2 and W2, corresponding with the respective legendaries. Under each letter, in Japanese, it says "Black" and "White" respectively.

    Comparing this to the original picture, I think it does show how much I improved over time. However, looking back at it now, there are a lot of things I would have done differently. For one, the proportions on Nate and Rosa. While I commented in the retrospective of the original picture that I felt the proportions of Hilbert and Hilda's limbs were off, it really stands out here. The coloring on the iced sections was actually a nice touch and I'm still surprised at how well it came out. The rest of the coloring, unfortunately comes off as very amateurish and could do with a little more work, especially because you can see white spots in colored sections that shouldn't be there. Not that I can do better now, of course, but definitely something I've been trying to work on. Better quality colored pencils go a long way.

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  7. #17
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    I do indeed blame college for consuming all of your time.

  8. #18
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Chrono Trigger

    Remember when Eyan was excited to do a Chrono Trigger walkthrough? Remember when he did like 20 episodes and then stopped? Good times. Anyways, you guys are getting two pictures for the price of one!


    This was my first attempt at drawing a Chrono Trigger picture. It has all the playable characters standing in front of the Epoch, and in the background, there's a giant clock (with Roman Numerals, because clocks with Roman Numerals are apparently a thing for time travel?) The sky is rust-colored with giant gears, because apparently I thought Unlimited Blade Works was a good look? I don't know, I still to this day haven't seen a single piece of Fate media. You can see the Delorean Time Machine from the Back to the Future franchise and the TARDIS from Doctor Who in the background, as a bit of cameo action. I guess I should have also put in Trunks' time machine from Dragon Ball Z (and I guess Super) as an additional cameo, especially because the art director for Chrono Trigger was Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball.

    I actually tried to emulate Toriyama's art style to a tee, but considering my art skill at the time, you can see how it turned out. Needless to say, I wasn't particularly happy with it. Eyan wasn't particularly impressed, either. However, unlike Mario Kart 7, he never really gave me feedback, and I wasn't even aware that he didn't really like it until I decided to redraw it on a whim.


    DeviantArt Link

    Here, I took the same principles, as the previous picture, but changed it around a bit. I tried more for a "Super Sentai"/"Power Rangers" group shot with the main protagonists, with Magus's cape flowing in the background. Replacing the rust colored sky is a blank space (common in most media as a space between dimensions or something), and popping out of Magus's cape are the three sages, Melchior, Balthasar, and Gaspar. On Frog's shield, the old Super Skarmory Logo can be seen.

    Both Eyan and I took much better to this one. While I still tried to put a bit of Toriyama's influence in this, this picture was still largely drawn in my own style, instead of me trying (and failing) to imitate a different style. I even put in more effort to color this one. If you compare the two pictures, this second picture has more bold and vibrant colors. It helped that I used both markers and colored pencils here, but I feel the markers (aside from the black markers) actually stand out quite awkwardly. Should I decide to redraw this, I would try and remain consistent with my art supplies.

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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  9. #19
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    I remember when Eyan did Chrono Trigger and stopped after 20 episodes.

    We've been waiting for that walkthrough for SEVEN YEARS. SEVEN ******* YEARS.

  10. #20
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    Walkthrough Picture Retrospective: Pokemon X/Y

    Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! As a present, we are going to cover the second-to-last Walkthrough Picture I drew for Super Skarmory, Pokemon X and Y!


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    So this has about the same principle as the Pokemon Black/White and Black2/White2 picture: The male and female protagonists facing in opposite directions from the center of the page. This time, though, the legendaries, Xerneas and Yvetal, are facing in the same direction as the protagonists, rather than against them. When drawing this picture, I took into account Super Skarmory's end slate aesthetic, so I removed the starter Pokemon from the bottom of the image, with the intention of letting the image be split right down the middle so they can sandwich the end slate. Of course, considering that Super Skarmory never DID an X and Y walkthrough (he streamed it instead, I believe), this idea never really came into fruition. Not that he would have done it anyways, since we rarely communicated on how the end slate would look.

    I also tried for a more "anime" art style for this picture, I guess? I have no idea why the protagonists' eyes are so large in comparison to their face, but that's what I drew and that's what got sent to Eyan. I also believe I drew this picture before drawing the second Chrono Trigger picture, which makes this picture the very first Walkthrough picture I drew with a new set of markers. Of course, I literally only had four colors (Black, Blue, Red, and Green), which makes shading and fading difficult, so I also had to throw in the colored pencils for the lighter shades of blue, the skin tones, the clothes, and the hair (for the female protagonist). Xerneas and Yvetal, however, were probably the most "on-model" of the Pokemon I've drawn up to this point. Also, Blue. A lot of Blue. An overwhelming amount of Blue. There's so much blue in this picture, I wouldn't be surprised if my blue marker ran out of ink because of this.


    Spoiler!

    -Insert quote about dragons here-
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