Smol notes on species creation things and stuff

    There are many things I wish to talk about, but I always end up writing about it and... leaving it behind to die on my stash. Today my intestinal-problems self decided to write down a summary of some of the thoughts I have that might be useful for our community, so here they be (I even added nice reaction pics I had to them):

♦ You should create what is appealing to you.

    When getting into the adopts community you will probs first meet the most popular species going around your artistic circle. So you think to yourself that you wanna make a species, and what you do?

    Frankstein the fuck out off everything that is trending. Because it is popular and you gotta do what people like, right?
Wrong. You should do what you like. If you like bugs then do bug adopts. If you like obese bugs then do obese bugs adopts. "But no one will want obese bug adopts!!" WRONG. There is someone somewhere who is into obese bugs. There is a whole community of obese bug fuckers just waiting for someone like you. You will be their saviour. You will be the only one making adopts targetted to the obese bug community, while the dog-like community already leeches on 932823923 artists pressing the same key.

    Not to mention that you might start a revolution and make obese bug fuckers discover that they are, in fact, closet obese bug fuckers. Then you will be the new trend. Mantibabs 2.0 confirmed for obese bugs. How did I even got into this thought train.


♦ You should not do something simply because it is profitable.

    If you are tired of your species, if you are tired of adopts, if you never wanted to be in in the first place and the only thing that holds you in this community is money then please stop. Stop what you are doing and focus on what you like. Refresh your mind with new things, and then maybe someday you will look back to the adoptables community and get new ideas, do new things.
    But really, if this is being toxic to you, then you gotta stop. There are other ways of making money with your own art, invest on them. After all, taking a break means not giving up.


♦ Your species needs not a thousand levels of paid rarities.


    If you want to do so because you find it aesthetically appealing, then go ahead. But if you do not want to then you should not feel forced to do a rarity chart. Species do not need rare things, rare things are an option and, in many cases, a way for artists to profit on more complex designs (which is not wrong, mind you). If you feel like your species lore matches with rare mutations, then go ahead, make your gourment limb menu. But I recommend asking yourself if a top tier wings, triple horns and fish tail are really necessary - I mean, are you doing it because you want to or because you see everyone else doing it?
    Also, rarities are a thing, premium features are other. If you have to pay to get it, then it is not rare but a premium/paid thing. A rare and a common thing should be equally accessible, with the thing that rare things have less odds of happening. Of course you can call your things whatever you want, but I prefer to work with what the terms originally mean...


♦ Simple designs are to be repeated.
    You have a white character with black insides. I have a white character with black insides. It is common, it is beautiful, it is repeated. You must accept and understand that simple things are easy to achieve, however their personality, stories and the way you render them is what makes them unique. Amethyst (steven universe) is a purple humanoid with long white hair. Know who else is a purple humanoid with long white hair? Kibitoshin (dragon ball z).


♦ Inspiration and research must walk together for a good outcome.

    Steal from many, not from one. Lets say you love my smoks and want a steam based create of your own - go ahead. But you gotta research ways you can make it happen instead of simple relying in your inspiration to make it, otherwise the result will be a smok copy and everyone, including yourself, will know it. People dislike bootleg stuff. Do not make your work bootleg, you are capable of much, much more than this. You are an entire being with unique life experiences, choices and tastes - do not limit yourself to be the shadow of someone else. Research and find your own path, mutate your inspiration into something unique, something yours.


♦ Do not debut a species with an adoptable batch.



    Post your sketches and characters first, see what people have to say about it. You might discover that loads of people want it or you might discover that sadly they are not as awesome to others as they are to you. I recommend doing the following: Post teasers, post info on them, when making a first adopt batch make it an OTA so you can see how much people want to give for them and then use it as a base for adopt sales.

    If you do not believe in the efficiency of this method, then I give you some stats: Tukmazatls debuted in an adoptable batch. It was not really my intention to make them something other than stylized gryffins (even if now I have been developing them to be more than that), and this is their stats: Views: 1,735 (2 today), Favourites: 84.

    In comparision, I posted tide puppy info and characters before posting an adoptable sale. When making them I wanted them to have a fair amount of lore on them, so there is a difference yes - but if you are to ask me, tide puppy designs are a way simplier than Tukmazatls. Still, those are tide puppy's first OTA status: Views: 1,666 (3 today), Favourites: 210

    Of course you can fix stuff with time. Smoks started in an adoptable batch, but their interest only grew as they were developed as a species.


♦ Avoid shared designs.


    You gonna get headaches. Your partner gonna get headaches. Sharing a design with a friend of yours is fine, but what you do once you wanna trade it? Your friend still keep their part, and it is now a design shared among complete strangers. Imagine having to deal with a stranger about which changes and decisions you wanna make on your character? Imagine the same character being developed differently in different roleplays, brainbarfs, with different relationships and friend circles? As you grow your character grows with you, so you gonna change them unconsiously... imagine someone coming in and saying 'you been drawing our character wrong"? Sounds bad does not it? So ye, better to not share stuff you plan not to keep between you and a friend.


♦ Avoid trade tickets.

    You will soon find yourself with a sta.sh full of things you do not want and can not sell. You gonna give hundreds for a character simply because it is of a popular species, reserve it to be traded only for your dream designs and then you might find out that your dream design's owner finds your design hella fugly. What you do now? Probs complain at how no one can see how much your character is worth, when you yourself never gave it any value either.

♦ If you fuck up, assume it.

    We are humans, we do mistakes. Sometimes we act on impulse. Sometimes we do egoistical stuff on purpose and hurt people, later on to find ourselves regretting it. Express your regrets, be afraid not of assuming failure. You might never be seen as the same person again, but you sure as hell will be seen as someone mature enough to aknowlodge your own errors. Apologise, try to understand the other person's side. This is not only valuable for community fuck ups (like stealing, offering for something you can not pay, scams and such) but also for life.

    I really can not see how someone percieves "faking that everything is ok and i am invincible" is stronger than "assuming i did something wrong and am able to learn with my mistakes"

    On the same subject, do not shame on people that are assuming they did something wrong. It is their first step, they probs have loads to change other than that but they are trying, there is no magic pill that makes a robber become a civilian withnin 3 seconds but their will to change surely is something, and you shaming on it will only make them return to be what they were.


♦ Be patient with children.

    This community is filled with teenagers. There are people watching me who are around 13, 14 years old, maybe younger. They will do dumb stuff because they are children and they are still learning about themselves and the world and the same happened with us adults.

    Back when I was 12 I would say "kill all lesbians" because my mother raised me to be homophobic using the sexual abuse I passed by as an excuse (even if it was not exclusively with female couples). On the internet people did not see a kid who had no idea what killing or lesbians were, much less someone raised by an ignorant vengeful parent or a sexually abused child. All they saw was "kill all lesbians". It is a wrong thing to say? Hell fucking yes if I was an adult back then I would need some punches. But I was a kid, what I needed was education, was someone to explain me how and why this was wrong - thankfully this is what happened.


    Kids will rip off your stuff. Kids will steal stuff. No one raises kids to know why and how this(stealing art on the internet) is wrong - explain them why this is wrong. Change them instead of only punishing them because they are not aware of how this world works, so you will be yelling at a kid online when in their minds they did nothing wrong.

    "Credits to whoever made it lol" "traced from image found in google" etc.

    Basically what I ask of you is checking how old the person is before shitstorming into them. Actually it is better to try to explain stuff at people of any age, but you can change kids easier than you can change adults. (We are too full of ourselves, sometimes the only way for an adult to open their eyes is a well deserved punch in the face. Speaking from experience bhahaha).

    And of course, what I am saying is not that age is an excuse for shitty behaviour. Shitty behaviour is still shitty behaviour! But pointing at it and saying "this is shitty" will not change anything and will only make them reply something on the likes of "fuck off".

♦ Be patient with your fans.

    Your fans love you and get inspired by your work. Their work will look like a copy of yours at first, but slowly they will find their own way just like what happened with me, you and every single artist you know.

    Every now and then I find someone whose style and characters look like a Xuu 2.0 (or should I say, a 5020?) and sincerely I prefer to be quiet about it. They will find their way. They will mature and realise that what they were doing. I have a particular user I been observing over fA - at first even their name was similar to mine, now their work is completely different and they deleted everything they had that was obvious copy lmao.

    I recommend only peekin in about stuff when profit happens. I sure as hell will not mind you being inspired by me, but if you are to try to sell ripoffs I will try to stop you. That aint gonna help you discover your own path in the artistic world, that will only make you live on my shadow and I want it not for any fan.

    Of course this and all the things above reflect how I act and what I am. If something makes you unconfortable then yeah talk to them about it, do not wait for profit to happen. There are even cases in which I myself did it! And for everything else, too, those are my views on issues, you can take them as advices from your fellow bodybuilder or ignore/disagree completely. Feel free to post your thoughts on stuff in the comments, there are a few topics here I am sure will engage a debate so I beg of you to be polite with others and know when to stop. >:0