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Karijn-s-Basement — Original Species Tutorial
Published: 2012-06-30 19:07:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 32929; Favourites: 918; Downloads: 150
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Description
Inspiration can be found EVERYWHERE. You just need to learn to see everyday occurences as inspiration sources.Creating an Original Species is based a lot on the backstory too. Sometimes you can find two 'original species' that look a lot like the other one, so what is it that will give your species a boost? The info you give about them.
The nice thing about original species is that you can say what you want about them and no one is going to correct you on it.
Some info you may want to consider adding is:
Size/DietIt's very important. An OS can be the size of a mouse or the size of a whale. Think about what you want to use this species for, as pets, as riding animals, as fighting creatures... The diet is important too because an aggressive herbivore species wouldn't probably try to 'taste' its victim.
Intra-species BehaviourAre they loners or do they live in packs? What is their social structure? Pairs stay mated for life? This is very important in case you want to do a lot of adoptables of this species and are interested in future breeding. Buyers should be informed if they're trying to create a pack out of solitary animals.
(We all know that it's very rare for an adopter to pay attention to Every Single Thing you write on your species, but for those few that want to treat your character exactly the way it was created, you should consider writing it anyway)
Inter-species BehaviourAre they friendly? Are they used as pets/mounts/guardians/etc? How do they interact with humans? This is important to help a buyer (or yourself) decide how the species is going to interact with other characters. This must consider the Intra-Species Behaviour too, because a loner wants to be alone no matter the species of the other characters you put around them, but knowing if they have a particular dislike for something can help in developing the dynamic between the OS and another character.
Example: OS is friendly with others, lives in a pack and cannot swim. Friendship with water-species will probably be very difficult despite the OS being very sociable.
Adoptables Journals Series:
Adoptables, Basics for Adopters
Adoptables, Basics for Adoptables Artists
Adoptables Tutorial
Adoptables, Writing an Artist's Description
Adoptables, Customs
Adoptables, Design Tutorial
Adoptables, Buying Adoptables
Adoptables, Pricing
Original Species Walkthrough
The Purchase Button and P2U Deviations
Adoptables, Auctions
Adoptables, Original Species Confusion
Adoptables, I sold one, now what?
Adoptables, Doing It Traditional
Adoptables, Why are you so EXPENSIVE?
Related content
Comments: 132
Haha, not that complicated when the process clicks in your mind.
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Hey! I have a little dilemma. I want to start making adoptables and am following your guide, but I don't know if I want my creatures to be open or closed species. The reason for it is because they are a very complex society and I don't want too mutch 'royal' ones just running around left and right without me knowing that.
And should I make a group for them?
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Hey back and I think there might be a solution to your dilemma.
Let's answer the second question first. My answer is yes, if you are already planning a society for your designs, then having a group would definitely help. Some designs are very successful also because they have a group that can entertain people with different quests and activities other than simply *owning* them. However, you should consider this very carefully because a group need a lot of work, even just setting it up. Then there will be submission and members' management, event organization and so on. It takes a lot of effort and, in the beginning, it will seem like you have just *work* to do and nothing else.
This is not to dissuade you from making a group, but to tell you that it's not easy and you have to be dedicated to it. I speak from experience, I founded a group a long time ago and simply couldn't manage it along with my account, simply because the free time I had was not enough to do both things with results that satisfied me. So I simply picked the one I was more invested in and pulled the plug on the other one. If you can, my suggestion would be to involve other artists to help you out with the organization of the group. You can organize all the main parts of it and be the 'beta' of anything that is posted, but having people helping you is definitely a big, BIG help in keeping everything afloat.
To answer your first question, that is something only you can decide, closing or opening a species. However, there is a middle ground in there, which is to make a rarity sheet with enough common traits so that people can customize their design as much as they like, and make it 'open', but keep the rare and mythical traits as 'closed'. You can hand them out in auctions, contests, as prizes for completing a quest, etc. This way you can control the number of rares that are around but still allow people to design their own character.
Also, I have no idea how it works, but I would also look into breeding, as a lot of bigger ARPG groups do have that feature and it might be a nice thing to let people breed their characters if the species is closed, as a way to reward the owners and allow them to have an input in the new characters' creation.
I hope I managed to give you some tips, if you need anything else, just ask.
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Thank you for the tips!
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You're very welcome.
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What if someone claims your original species is too much like theirs?
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Unless it's a full-out copy, it's a bit hard to design that close to somebody else's OS (I'm talking about a combo of visual design and background story/lore).
Sometimes people create designs which are not OS, but just chimeras (I've written a journal about this: Adoptables, Original Species Confusion ), in which case I think that it's not worth the fight.
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I want to make little blobs with cat ears and tails that will be either sushi cats or mochi cats... but I don't know what people will think
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You don't know unless you post them.
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I want to make my own original's, but none of these things help me much; I'll just try to follow the instructions/tips as best as I can.
Oh, and why do people get hyped wen it comes to butts in drawing?
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Butts are the foundation of everything. <3
And with OS there is little inspiration and a ton of 'I'd really love if something like that were real'. Original Species are really just wishful thinking.
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Yas...da royal ASS. <_>
Jk. XD
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Can I make an Original species and claim that species as my own. And only sell the adoptables?
Still owning the species, and continue making more adoptable of that species?
: D thank you
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Yes, you can. You can find the distinction of what you're selling and what you're keeping as your own in my first Adoptable Journal (the first of the series of links you can find in this deviation's description).
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Thank you.
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I actually remembered this tutorial at school and drew a design for a cat creature for a webcomic
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Happy to have helped.
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Jinlore: The Loki reference really made me smile 
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Haha, yes, I am.
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Thanks, I'm happy you like.
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Haha, you're welcome.
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Haha, good help while still being funny. :3
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Happy you liked it.
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God idea with fidning inspiration anywhere. 
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Haha, best break that habit soon, or you'll become a chew toy.
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you're welcome!! > <
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the only art of drawing program i have is paint, but i was thinking of drawing them (on paper) that sort of thing.
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That would work too.
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Much cuter than 'hind'.
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mmmm... I have an idea for a species, but I've never made one before nor know where to start. It's somewhat humanoid, but I'm just not sure. mmmmm
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Sketching something down is usually a good place to start, then you decide if you want to turn it into an adoptables matrix or not.
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Does this guide work only for animal like creatures? Or also humanoid creatures?
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Well, the two starting lines are obviously animal oriented, you'd have to start with a straight line and a more humanoid body shape, but the thought process is basically the same.
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This is very helpful.. Its actually given me inspiration to start working on my own species.. Just have to find my sketchbook..
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Haha, I usually sketch on random pieces of paper when inspiration strikes, my sketchbooks are usually too far away to be useful in those moments.
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~giggles~ I actually was at a food pantry earlier and was drawing on a random piece of paper, but I left it there.. >__< I think I'm gonna start keeping a little notebook or something with me in case inspiration strikes.. Or look into buying a small sketchbook that will fit in my purse..
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This seriously helped me. I've had art block for the past 3 hours trying to come up with something and all I did was draw that first line and I now have an idea. 
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I'm happy to hear that, you're very welcome.
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