Crystal and Facet are really beautiful genes however they’re pretty complex when it comes to replicating the gene to look game accurate. Here’s a little tutorial illustrating how I draw the genes myself, numbers and their corresponding picture will have little explanations below the cut:
I compiled data from allofthesesourcesandthensome to create a quick reference to use when grinding for food / holiday currency / treasure / fodder / etc
Good physical attackers: Guardians, Mirrors, Spirals, Ridgebacks, Imps, Wildclaws, Nocturnes
Good healers: Faes, Tundras, Pearlcatchers, Skydancers
Hello and welcome to my hastily thought out and poorly executed tutorial on how I make my mayhem. Be prepared; my techniques are probably not the most efficient or elegant. But they make things happen.
This tutorial was done using Photoshop CS6 on a Windows PC. Your software and computer will use its own set of hotkeys and commands, but hopefully what i demonstrate is clear enough for you to understand and replicate on your device.
So a pre-step I do with any skin is to re-arrange and organize the layers. I will pull the shadows layer off of the base mask and hide it. All my new layers i make while creating will be at the top of the stack, indicated by the ‘SKETCH’ layer there. I will turn down the opacity of the ink layer but not hide it completely.
I turn off all other layers on the base. You can delete them if you want, but occasionally I have found them useful when wanting to select only the wing area for something, etc.
Once our playground is prepped, its time to make magic. After sketching something I will line it out. Using a 3 – 4 px hard round brush I do those lines on a new layer, then hide the sketch.
Under the ink layer I make a new layer, this is what I will use to block out the non active area on the dragon. this should cover the entire outside of the object, while the inside remains blank/grey.
When you choose a location for your item on the dragon/dragon species: be mindful of the lineart and areas in deep shadow on normal dragons. Use this to your advantage.You can see how i did this with the dorsal fin on the wing arm, and the bottom part of the tail.
Next I do shading and highlights. the magic here is TRANSPARENCY. Transparency is your friend. Transparency lets you get away with things you normally cant. Making dragon objects is all about fooling the eye.
First thing I did was color in the white of the eye. I don’t want it bright white, but i could have it white if I want to since it does not have any restrictions. On here I dropped it to a 50% transparency.
Next I did our shadows in black. Shadows are always below the whiteout layer. Here you can tamper with volume with how sharp or blurred you make your shadows. I tried to use a fuzzy brush here to portray the ROUND. When done I set my shadows to 60% opacity. I should note that these numbers are not set. In fact they are different every time I do them. Adjust it based on the illusion you are going for, some require stronger layers than lighter.
It should be noted that black must ALWAYS have some transparency. This accommodates the no black rule, while achieving a similar effect.
Next is highlights, which are always above the lineart. For this critter I used two sets of highlights. The faint ones with a blurred brush to create the scale reflections and fin waves, and then a hard line around all the surfaces to help define our shape. It will help it stand out against the dragon and preserve that illusion. The soft highlights are at 60% and the hard at 80%, though since they are white the transparency is not required, but suggested.
Now that our detailing is done, we can make sure our black outline is also transparent. We first do this by ensuring there is nothing underneath it on any of our other layers we drew on. In this case, that would be the whiteout layer, the shadows, and the eye.
We do this by selecting all the pixels on the layer. Windows with CS6 does this with Ctrl+Click on the layer you want to get the selection from. I then go down the line on everything BELOW it, hitting delete to clear that selected area on those layers. If you want, you can use the eraser tool on the selection for the same effect.
Once complete, you can set your line art layer to 90%, allowing it to be safely transparent.
With our object complete, it is time to prep the ink and shadow layers. Its here that you want to return the opacity/visibility of your inks and shadows to 100%.
I always start with shadows first. How i deal with shadows is a case by case basis. Sometimes I will lighten the whole thing by locking the layer and using a lighter grey/cyan and calling it good. In this case, our fish is not badly affected by those shadows, so we will only worry about our whiteout area.
First, create a layer mask. In CS6 on windows, this is selecting the shadow layer, then click the new layer button while holding down Alt. this brings up a handy box. Check the box that says “Use previous layer to create clipping mask” then hit ok. Yay, now you can color the shadows how you want while keeping them in the right place.
Now that that’s done, go ahead and use the Ctrl + click to select all the pixels on the whiteout layer, and go back to the new layer we just made. I experiment with any of those lighter greys until I get a shadow I feel like i can get away with. It’s random what’s accepted, so just do a guesstimate. It’s easy to fix later if it gets declined.
Once that is done, go to the ink layer and do the same thing: Create your clipping mask, select all the pixels on the whiteout layer, and then color the line art a grey thats darker than the darkest shadows.
Our final bit of housekeeping with the line art is on our object’s highlights. Create a new clipping layer on the inks, under the one you just made. Then select all the pixels for all of your highlights you did for your object. this may take multiple selections, but they can still be dealt with on this one layer. After each selection (i had 2 here, my soft and hard highlights) I select a dark grey, and use a big hard round brush to just fill the full area. This gently lightens the lineart ever so slightly. Its subtle, but makes a difference.
After that, we are done with the art itself! Now to prep it for its transparency and we are good to go!
We are in the final stretch now. These last steps are complicated to explain, but are actually very fast to execute.
Here i tend to duplicate my skin folder in case i have to go back and fix a whoopsie. But i did that here, then hid that folder. I then merged my layers. I merged all the ink ones (Ctrl + E will merge all layers that are selected). I then merged the shadows. NOTE: IF YOU MERGE THE SHADOWS, MAKE SURE YOU SET THAT LAYER BACK TO MULTIPLY!
And finally, merge all the layers attached to the base, but DO NOT INCLUDE THE BASE. It should end up looking like my image above. 4 layers.
Next is the tricky part. Open up your accent folder. You can then click and drag that base layer and stick it to the bottom of your accent folder. This WILL MAKE YOUR SKIN EXPLODE. THIS IS OK. We will fix it, i promise.
In the same folder, grab the ink clip layer and drag it down so it sits above the base layer. Select the base and the ink clip, and Ctrl + E to merge those two bad boys together. This is what we will use to clean up our skin.
We are now going to use that merged layer in the accents folder we made. Ctrl + Click to select all the pixels in it. Then go into your menu (Select -> Select inverse) or use a hotkey to invert your selection. this changes the selection from being the dragon, to being everything OUTSIDE the dragon.
Once you have that, select your layer with the art on it, and clear/delete the selected area on that layer. What SHOULD happen is that everything is deleted, leaving a nice happy outline of a dragon. This is what i do for all my skins and has been approved multiple times. It is very accurate.
The final steps are here! The last thing to do is to make another clipping layer mask on your nice and pretty skin art. You will then drag your ink and shadow layers onto it, and wala! Your object is transparent while everything else has the proper line art and shadows.
From here you do your normal prep: Resize to 350px and save as a Png 24. I ALWAYS save the full size version of the file. So I will undo the size change after i saved my png.
Aaand thats it! congrats! You now have a dragon that is actually something else, and will use a dragon’s colors to do it! You can see below my “Tutorial Fish” that we made here and what it looks like. If enough people want it I’ll get it printed.
But otherwise… yeah! My deep secrets have now been revealed.
Hey guys! This is the first in what will hopefully be a series, where I go through step-by-step and show you how to draw each breed in a manner similar to the site art. it’s a great place to start if you’re a beginner artist or new to the site, and don’t fully understand each breed’s anatomy. So let’s get started!
First off, you want a shape like this. A wedge, a triangle on the end, and a long S tube coming off the end. This is the basic ‘sketch’ you’ll use. Keep in mind your sketch (hey, even your linework!) can be as messy as you want, I kept it clean here to make it easy to see.
Using the shapes given, draw the head! Start with the upper jaw/skull and the mouth, then draw the lower jaw.
And a little face! The eye is vaguely tear-drop shaped. The nostril is too, but doesn’t meet at the end where it points towards the eye. The line in between simply adds a bit of definition to the face!
Now we’re getting started on the crest. It can be as big or as small as you want. It should be widest at the top of the head, and taper down as it travels down the neck. Don’t forget the other side too! You should go back onto your sketch layer for this. You can also erase bits of the sketch you don’t need anymore, around the head.
Now for some circles. These will be used to draw the coatl’s ‘ears’ as such. The weird spirals along their crests are what they use to hear, so they’re a pretty important part to include.
And now another, smaller crest that’ll go inbetween. If it’s a male coatl, this also joins up to the base of the jaw. Simply add some cheek fluff and you’re all set!
To draw each spiral, do a little snail shell that’s been tipped back. Make sure it keeps it’s form here, as its pretty easy for them to get squashed, which can look a little strange.
Now for the rest of them! Each one sits behind the other, and you may also want to add them poking out from behind the other crest depending on the angle. I didn’t here for simplicity’s sake.
The small crest can be made of fur or feathers, that’s up to you. Here I’ve made it more fur-like, similar to the mane on skydancers. Just make sure it follows the same tapering shape as the big crest.
At this point, you may want to draw the neck. This is pretty simple, just follow your sketch. Leave the end open however, we’ll be using that space later.
Again you can erase what you’re not using of the sketch. It’s time to add the feathers! Draw a series of long ovals that overlap one another. Remember that at this angle, the opposite crest overlaps in the opposite direction: the lower the feathers, the more towards the inside they are.
Drawing a feather is pretty simple. Follow your basic shape lair out, and include some little triangle cut-outs. This makes the feathers look more realistic, as it’s very raw to find a feather that is perfectly ‘zipped up’. Make sure you also include the quick along the middle.
Continue this for each of your other feathers, making sure to remember that they overlap, and get smaller as they go down.
Now we’re getting funky! Add a weird blob shape to the bas of the neck. There’s really not much more help I can give beyond that: it’s a weird blob shape.
Now to add that magnificent feather/fur boa! Again, you can do this as either fur or feathers, though I suggest matching it up with what you did on the crest. Everything should more or less point downwards.
Add in your belly! It should more or less follow the curve of the belly, not the curve of the spine.
Fluff it up and add some details! Forked tongue, fluffy chest, eyebrows. Heck, if coatls are snake you can even add a snake’s heat pits!
And voila! Your lovely little coatl is now complete. This is just a basic guide on how to draw a coatl. Feel free to experiment and do whatever you want!
Okay, so this is basically gonna be a compilation of things I’ve learned over the years. I can’t fit everything into this post, of course, but some big things that comes to mind I’ll toss in~ I’ll also put the bulk of this under a readmore so I can add to it over time (and keep it from being a pain to scroll past, haha)!
Please keep in mind that, again, I am a self-taught writer! I am not someone who has gone to school or anything for creative writing! A lot of these are based on my opinions as well, so I am not in any way saying that I am 100% correct! If you view my points differently, that’s okay!!
• Avoid repeating yourself! It’s totally understandable to want to get a point across, but there’s a point when it turns from the readers feeling necessary emphasis into them sitting there like, “okay we get it can we move on?”
“The pain was unbearable. Everything ached. He tried to move but his limbs wouldn’t cooperate due to the pain. His head was throbbing as well thanks to the blow he received earlier. He fought through the pain and kept trying to shift his position, but the pain made it exceedingly hard.”
See? That’s what you want to avoid doing. Here’s an example of a better approach:
“It felt as if every inch of his body was on fire. His limbs were heavy and screamed with every movement he made as he struggled to change his position. Each breath he drew was ragged, and black spots swam in his vision as he fought against losing consciousness; he couldn’t think beyond an instinctual drive to get away from there.”
It still gets the point across that he’s in a lot of pain and really disoriented due to what’s going on, but it doesn’t continuously repeat itself.
Agree with all of this except the last one. If you’re writing it uh and it isn’t being published for real… use all the swears you want. I don’t mean litter your work with swears but if something fucking amazing… just say it’s fucking amazing. You don’t need to write out two sentences for it 😛
I’d say it works if you’re writing in the headspace of someone who swears a ton and would describe stuff with curses naturally, but if they wouldn’t, then yeah don’t use em
Crystal and Facet are really beautiful genes however they’re pretty complex when it comes to replicating the gene to look game accurate. Here’s a little tutorial illustrating how I draw the genes myself, numbers and their corresponding picture will have little explanations below the cut:
Slight Eyewing Tumblr Backup 