#umbreonlibris

[mousathe14]

So I'm making a video essay about Ugliness and Pokemon using data from RatePkmn.

What's RatePkmn? Well, the project was started by UmbreonLibris as a way to analyze and compare Pokémon designs through consensus than the views of a single person. They aggregate the ratings you provide to calculate the average opinions of Pokémon fans on each Pokémon. The data is public and open.

How does it work? You're basically served a pokemon at random based on how many ratings it has relative to others and what you've already rated. You simply use the 5-point slider to convey how you feel the pokemon vibes in each aesthetic category.

Also how much you like or dislike it.

And I like playing with this data to learn stuff and my video will be about my insights. Why am I bringing this up?

Because we are at, like, nearly 150 ratings per design, and it would be really neat to actually achieve that number. A nice good round number to work from. And because the more opinions, the more clear the consensus becomes.

The site even has graphs and lists you can mess with yourself and see how your favorites stack, what categories do pokemon excel in, are there relationships between coolness and type? That type of thing.

Anyhow, I'm going to get back to making some graphs.

'Dios!

[starkwing-co]

Damn, why I haven't posted this earlier...

Anyhoo, last summer I designed a Fakémon based on ma boi 9-Volt inspired by 'Turning Video Game Characters into Pokémon' series by Truegreen7 on yt and recently it got featured in a video by UmbreonLibris '58 artists make Pokémon from the same prompt'

The name took a while to figure out but I love how multi-layered it ended up being (the 'original' Japanese name is Funyaboruto, combination of fun, fuwafuwa (onomatopoeia for a soft light fluffy thing), nya (Japanese 'meow' equivalent), bolt and the romanization of the Japanese pronunciation of 9-Volt's name (Nainboruto))

The shiny is based on 9-Volt's pal, 18-Volt, of course!

I'm also planning on making some additional artwork of Flurizzkit attacking with its 'yo-yo' stones and skating around on its hover board tail... And I've already done concept sketches for a counterpart mon based on Fronk with a fun additional symbiosis & fusing gimmick

If you haven't noticed, I took some inspiration from some of my fav Electric types (Shinx and Alolan Raichu) for this design (and Ampharos' glowing orb tail, I guess) I have a soft spot for Fakémon referencing official Pokes, I don't think it's entirely lazy, more like people mirroring real life species and convergent evolution

Flurizzkit's signature ability Bolt Beats works somewhat similar to Toxtricity's Punk Rock (boost to sound-based moves and immunity to any sound moves from opponents) except the boost multiplier is 2x (like Adaptability)

[reimagining-johto]

Welcome to the Johto Region!

During this project, I, @eddie-roo (@eddies-silly-art-gallery) will attempt to redesign most every Johto Pokémon, as well as some extras, be them Kanto mon that got an evo on Gen 2, evolutions of Johto mon that came in later generations and beta Pokemon. I might do regional variants and character redesigns as little bonuses too.

I don’t intend to “improve” or “fix” the og designs, Johto is one of my favorite regions of all time and I really enjoy the designs it brought with it. Also, I don’t intend to capture the original mons’ essence and lore, I will play around with their concepts, appearance, identities, etc. After all, isn’t that what a reimagining is?

This project was deeply inspired by @umbreonlibris’ @new151 project, so go show them some love! Libris is a great artist and video essayist, I deeply recommend you go check his stuff out if you haven’t already.

With nothing more to say, I hope you stick around to see this project develop! I’ve been working on this for almost three years now, and I’m so excited y’all finally get to see the final product.

Remember to check #johto pokedex to see all the mons redesigned so far, #johto characters for characters, #design breakdown for explaining my design choices and inspo and #extras for bonus content! (Most of these tags are unused, but they’ll be filled out through the life of this project.

[enthusispastic]

Y'all need to watch this!

[new151]

#088 Grimer / #089 Muk

Grimer and Muk were designed to more clearly fit into the role of water pollution in the pollution trio composed of Muk (water), Weezing (air) and Garbodor (land). Both take cues from oil spills; Grimer has a six-pack ring on its back while Muk has enormous fatbergs.

Both also include nods to obscure Pokédex entries: Muk has lost its nose because it smells too foul, so Grimer now has a nose. Muk is also said to have toxic footprints, so we gave it more defined feet.

Did you know? We are now streaming! The designs for Grimer and Muk were developed live on a stream, with voice chat from all The New 151 collaborators and input from viewers! Join us again on May 9 for the redesign of Shellder and Cloyster at youtube.com/UmbreonLibris

[umbreonlibris]

NEW VIDEO! Castform has a really interesting origin, but its execution is pretty bad. So join me as I come up with an alternate look for this Pokémon and all its forms!

https://youtu.be/qGEATMvpk50

Vote for the next redesign on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UmbreonLibris/status/1124388216306429952

[ethan718]

A Day at the Café in My Mind: Or a Surreal Expressionist Journey in A Minor Subscribe to UmbreonLibris

I talked to a man at a popular café chain this morning and he said, "Ethan, promise me that UmbreonLibris will get 5 subscribers today." This was the first I had ever seen of this man, but he was wearing a hat that said "Subscribe to UmbreonLibris", and a matching t-shirt, so I knew I could trust him. "Okay," I said, "I know I can trust you because of the hat and t-shirt you are wearing." "I chose this outfit for you," he said. "I also chose it for UmbreonLibris, to whom you should subscribe." "Kind sir, you know I can't--" "--Ethan. Promise me that you will get five subscribers today." "How do you know my name?" "I already used your name and you didn't ask how I knew it." All of a sudden, the café customer fell to the floor. Coffee spilled everywhere even though he hadn't ordered yet. I recoiled. It was too bad that he fell down, but even worse was that I probably couldn't do what he asked me to do. As other people came to help him, I bravely removed myself from the scene and contemplated. "Promise... promise him 5 subscribers. That's quite a lot." But something inside of me... maybe faith... told me that today is the day. That finally, after a year of great #pokemon related content that is available on YouTube, that you can get instant access to for FREE (subscribe today!), we would see 1000 subscribers on the channel. The man stood up. He told the café employee that he was fine and also that he should subscribe to UmbreonLibris. The strange man--whose relation to me will be revealed further in this essay--beckoned me closer. He sensed my distress. You can feel it, too, dear reader. Tension rising. Closer, now, closer. He opened his mouth, and from his lips came the following words: "Subscribe to UmbreonLibris on Youtube. Also, there's a new video coming out today at 2 PM Chicago time, you'll really enjoy it, it's the Dusclops re-design stream. It was fun and really the artistry involved is... really artistic. Yes, Ethan, I said artistically artistic." "Are you UmbreonLibris?" I asked him. "No, Ethan," he/I said to me/himself/myself. "I'm you." And that's the end of the story. Or is it...?

[dungeonsanddragonairs]

Dungeons & Dragonairs is a tabletop RPG adaptation of Pokémon. We are currently working on a ruleset, as well as an original plotline and a Pokémon generator.

We also share art and puns because we love them.

How are the mechanics different?

Imagine playing a core Pokémon RPG as a tabletop game. Or, imagine playing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in the Pokémon world. That's what we're going for.

Mostly, we are maintaining the mechanics of core Pokémon RPGs but replacing digital RNG and complex calculations with dice rolls and simple math you can do in your head (or at most with pencil and paper). This does involve simplifying certain things and changing others entirely; but for the most part moves work the way you expect them to, and even mechanics that are different should still follow the spirit of the originals.

We are also introducing trainer mechanics so that your character origin stories and play styles can actually influence the game. This helps set Dungeons & Dragonairs apart from the Pokémon video games in many ways.

What is the story?

You'll have to wait and see! But we can tell you that it takes place in Johto, about five years after the events of HeartGold and SoulSilver. The player characters meet in Goldenrod City, only to discover that the local gym leader, Whitney, has gone missing...

What is PokéStudies?

The Pokémon games don't address a lot of aspects of the Pokémon world, like infrastructure and government. In writing the Dungeons & Dragonairs story, we had to figure out how some of these things might work.

PokéStudies grew from these discussions, first as a post series on here and now as a video series on @umbreonlibris's YouTube channel. The series is largely based on evidence from the Pokémon games (and occasionally other canons), but also includes a fair chunk of speculation and some free-range worldbuilding where evidence is particularly lacking.

When will Dungeons & Dragonairs launch?

We hope to have version 1.0 of the ruleset ready by the end of 2018, but we will provide more details as we work on it.

[umbreonlibris]

NEW POKÉMON REDESIGN! My viewers helped me come up with some new Unown shapes—you might recognize some of them! Find out what they mean, and how we came up with them: https://youtu.be/07NRSF5D-p4

Vote for the next redesign: https://twitter.com/UmbreonLibris/status/1114241673079300096

[new151]

#050 Diglett / #051 Dugtrio

Diglett and Dugtrio suffered from the primary issue of Gen 1 designs: simplicity. Diglett was just a little mound with eyes and a ball nose. Dugtrio, worse, was just a team of angry Diglett triplets. To their credit, though, Game Freak did make—and maintain—a mystery of what the diggers look like below the surface. (Look up fan art of the possibilities at your own risk.) 

They were partly based on Whack-a-Moles, but instead we decided to focus Diglett's redesign on just plain old moles. We chose the star-nosed mole specifically for its recognizable nose, something to give the design a little interest. Then we added hairs reminiscent of the Alolan form, and made its claws visible—the only body part we know it has, since it uses many scratching moves.

With Dugtrio we went out on a limb. We wanted to make these Diglett triplets more unique, and really show the power of their teamwork. The Pokédex didn't have much to offer, so instead we took cues from Palossand, Wishiwashi, and the badger moles from Avatar: The Last Airbender. This Dugtrio can create a giant earth Diglett around itself and use it both as armour and as weapon.

@umbreonlibris is very happy with these two. What do you think?

[new151]

#046 Paras / #047 Parasect

Paras and Parasect! I'll let @infinipede tell you about them, but I wanted to let you know that we are working on the next few lines already and that hopefully we can keep going with some semblance of regularity. - @umbreonlibris

I’m a huge fan of both Paras and Parasect, like Vileplume, they rank pretty high up on my list of gen 1 favorites. I had a pretty well-formed idea from the beginning I wanted to make both Pokemon look more in line with the cordyceps mushrooms that they’re based on. I researched real life cordyceps for the shapes of both mushrooms, as well as looked into some “puffball” shaped fungi to replace Parasect’s “cap” now that the shape of the initial ‘shrooms had changed. Calostoma cinnabarinum, in particular, was one I referenced.

I also decided to make the cicada larva part more obvious without infringing on Nincada’s territory. I found it interesting that Paras seemed to have little bumps on its head resembling a cicada’s multiple eyes, so why not make them actual multiple eyes? 

Anyways, I hope you enjoy our take on everyone’s favorite unintentionally horrific fungus friend! - @infinipede

[new151]

Which art style do you prefer?

HI everyone! @umbreonlibris here with a question for you. With Venonat and Venomoth up, I have drawn roughly as many Pokémon in the current art style as I did in the watercolour style we began this series with. So this is as good a time as any to ask: which style do you like better?

I'm a big fan of the watercolours. It's my natural style (you can see more work I've done in that style in my personal Tumblr), and it feels much more rewarding to finish one. But there's a huge drawback: it takes many hours to paint each piece, and it goes best when painted all in one go. Since I do this project in my spare time, it can be hard to find the time to paint them regularly.

That's why we switched to the current style. It is inspired by the official art by Ken Sugimori for the first two generations of games. I can whip them up in about an hour each and, because I do them digitally, it's no big deal to stop and start again later if I need to.

I know we haven't done a good job of posting regularly, but we are working on it and plan to share something new every two weeks or so. So what do you think? Should I keep the current style so that we can continue to post every two weeks? Or should I go back to the watercolours, even if it means we don't post as often?

I'll even consider some other style, if you are unhappy with the Gen 1 art style but don't want us to sacrifice speed. (We want to stay away from the modern Sugimori style, though, because it is quite overdone.)

[umbreonlibris]

Luxray in ink and watercolour for #Twitterdex in 2014. Signed with my old Twitter handle—I'm @UmbreonLibris now.

[umbreonlibris]

NEW VIDEO! After adorable Chikorita and badass Bayleef, Meganium is a disappointment. So how can we make this Pokémon design better, without making it too unlike the original?

Follow me on Twitch for more art streams! https://twitch.tv/UmbreonLibris

[dungeonsanddragonairs]

PokéStudies: Introduction

@umbreonlibris​ and I interrogate the Pokémon world! Before we really get into it, we thought it would be a good idea to talk about why, how we’re approaching this, and what it will involve!

Why we’re doing this

Two years ago, @melodydanteandthemobverse​ and I started working on a Pokémon tabletop RPG (@dungeonsanddragonairs​) to play with our friends. Basically, she’s developing the mechanics and doing all of the math, and I’m writing the story. And doing a lot of worldbuilding.

The point of @dungeonsanddragonairs​ was to have a Pokémon RPG that takes the rules of the Pokémon world seriously—and also to have less rules, if that makes sense. For example, in our first session, one player punched a Rattata in the face—and then took a lot of damage and was in the hospital for a day when it attacked her back. Basically, you can do whatever you want, but you might get killed, arrested, or anything else that would happen in real life—or at least in a game that has the mechanics to allow for it.

In the process of discussing how parts of this would work with @umbreonlibris​, we figured out there are a LOT of things in the Pokémon world that don’t make sense, or are really inconsistent. Are there animals in this world? How accurate is the Pokédex? How does Pokémon food work?  

With the vague goal of getting to/deciding some concrete answers for using in this tabletop RPG, but also mostly because this is the sort of thing we both really enjoy, we’re going to talk about some of these things and and post them here! If you have any thoughts, please hit us up and continue the discussion!

How we’re approaching this, or, what counts as canon

One of the biggest issues in figuring out how the Pokémon world works is that there are a lot of different sources—and for the most part, they say really different things. A couple of examples: in the main anime series, Pokémon say their names, and in Pokémon Origins, they make noises. There are also extreme size differences between Pokémon in the main anime series versus the main video game series.

(Source.)

There are a lot of “canons” to consider. Not only the main series games, the main anime, and Pokémon Origins, but also Pokémon Generations, the various mangas, the side games (Pokémon Stadium, Snap, Mystery Dungeon, and many more), and the TCG. A lot of these sources actively contradict each other—sometimes in small ways, but often in large ways that are really difficult or even impossible to reconcile, like how in the main anime series Pokéballs shrink down and in Origins they don’t.

So, if these worlds don’t always fit together, what counts as Pokémon canon? What is the most reliable source of information?

(Source.)

@umbreonlibris​ and I are going to be dealing with the main video game series, and using the other worlds as possible (but not canonical) sources of insight—probably in relation to how closely they adhere to the world of the video game series. Video games were Pokémon’s original medium. The main series has been the most consistent and long-lasting Pokémon canon available, and it has the most information to go off of except for maybe the anime—but it also has a lot less obvious logical flaws than the anime does. This is important in trying to deal with the Pokémon world as realistically as possible. And part of deciding to just deal with the main video game series, of course, is that we’re making a value judgment.

Why one canon?

Everything I’ve mentioned above is sanctioned by the Pokémon Company, so it’s all canonical in one definition of the term, but the reason we want to deal with one canon is that we want to actually get somewhere with PokéStudies, and not spend all our time trying to reconcile the odd differences between different media. There are discrepancies across the main video game series too, but we will attempt to reconcile these by finding out or coming up with a reason for them. (There are a couple of notable exceptions to this, but we’ll get to that later!) Basically: if we accept everything in the main video game series as canon, what happens?

(And after all of that, tune in next time for a post about what in the main video game series we are not accepting as canon and why!)

More PokéStudies