What are we going to do about Heart Gold/Soul Silver?

[firepokemon]

Well only Jeff really knows the status of the site. We don't have much content. I'll be perfectly honest and say I haven't done anything about the content I was providing for months now. Mr. Pikachu seems in particular to be busy and not be on TPM much. What is the status with the site?

Now on to the actual topic. Heart Gold and Soul Silver in my opinion give us an opportunity. While we won't have the speed of say Pokebeach or Serebii nor we really have the people to post the most quality stuff. Regardless, people won't be coming here to get their pokemon news and info. We know that, we shouldn't pretend otherwise. Its ironic, since TPM's big days was in RBY and GSC and one could say we became number one with the release of Gold and Silver in Japan. If we are to cover Heart Gold and Soul Silver we need to decide very soon whether we're doing that or not. I think we should but we should only do it if we begin the process very soon.

Hence I'm asking, what do we do about it?

[Jeff]

I was thinking the same thing. I'm trying to get things going as fast as possible, but I don't have much to work with. Sometime in the coming week (after I finish with finals) I plan on getting much of the info from the old site onto the new one, but other than that, I can't really do anything else on my own. I created a HG/SS-themed design, but we desperately need someone with artistic skills to draw a banner for it. Also, I've been planning a news system where we can post news from the forums. I've been setting the site side up, but we'll need some admin assistance on the forum-side. Plus there's the question of who will be allowed to post in the news forum. Obviously letting just anyone post there would be a disaster.

This is the time to bring back TPM. We have a window of opportunity here and I really don't want us to just wait around until it closes on us.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Oh yes we should get some results and the site up, otherwise you guys have worked in vain.

I wish I could do something. Perhaps we should have shared the tasks more precisely in the first place. And for instance, I haven't done TVTOKYO Yokokus too much. I don't even know if they are needed for the new site.

Serebii, Bulbapedia and others are surely also getting the material regarding the new games ready. If we want to be the first ones to launch accurate info on those, the website should be up in a few weeks, and that's impossible because we are lacking a lot of other content.

[Heald]

I agree. We either need to get it up running now, or we miss our shot and have to wait until the next big thing. I know I haven't signed on to anything on the site but I do have some areas of expertise and would be more than happy to proxy until we get something more permanent up.

[Telume]

As I already told Jeff, I can do a banner, but I need good drawings. That's the only thing that's hampering, the temp banner you see on the site right now is one I created from scratch using nothing but flash.

Obviously though, we can't use that on a production site. I've gotten the applet set up to the extent it needs, if you looked in the IRC topic you can confirm that for yourselves.

As for the news forum I think I have a suggestion.

In many sites thus far I've seen that the only person who really posts is usually the head honcho. So, I think, that the people working on the project, should select maybe.. 5-6 people and call them the Blogging Team or The News Team, whatever you want to call them, it's up to you.

What they will do is scour the internet and basically find the news. And of course they WILL update the News forum with any updates for TPM itself (we can't neglect that now can we?)

And of course aside from the admins and (possibly) mods, they will be the ones who will constantly be keeping up with the updates for the site as well as any pokemon news or whatnot that may come up and as we expand and (re)grow, we will expand them... maybe in 2-3 months time we might need maybe 10 people? (you never know).

EDIT: Also, as an alternative to that idea, you don't HAVE to give the team the power to post in the forum, you could just assign them the duty of finding news and reporting it to the appropriate person who can post the news up.

What do you guys think?

(Remember: I'm not saying DO IT, it's just an idea.)


And in regards to opening the site:

Jeff is absolutely right, I think we'd probably need to beat at LEAST the JP release of the versions (Which I think at the pace we're going is very much possible) I've seen the progress of the site and it's going pretty well I'd say.

[Jeff]

There's going to be problems associated with having just the head honcho posting, especially considering our head honcho isn't around much. Plus the original TPM was very community-centric, something I'd like to preserve in the new iteration. So with that said we're definitively going with the news-posting team. Anyone who's interested, please say so in the sign-up thread!

[Lady Vulpix]

What kind of drawings do you need for the banner?

[Telume]

What kind of drawings do you need for the banner?

It doesn't matter, as long as it's characters and they're staring at the audience, maybe doing a random action. Obviously they need to be pokemon-related.

[Lady Vulpix]

That's too vague a request. Are we talking about pokemon? Characters from the games/anime? Legendaries? A mixture of all? Or what?

[Jeff]

Anything related to HeartGold and SoulSilver. Lugia and Ho-oh would be good, as would the trainers from those games. Maybe even add the Johto starters and badges.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, give me 10 days and I'll draw the 5 pokemon you've mentioned. Someone else can take care of the trainers and badges, otherwise it will take me a very long time (I'm not very fast at drawing and I have a very busy schedule, the only reason I'm offering my help right now is because I don't want us to miss this chance).

[Telume]

And as soon as I get the images I'll get to work on a test banner, I'll try to do it in as many styles as I can.

[Lady Vulpix]

Here are my sketches of the Johto starters (to be inked, cleaned, colored, resized, assembled, etc.) I'm posting them here so that you people can post comments and suggestions before I complete the process (for example, if you think I got some of the proportions wrong, or if you don't like one of the poses, etc.) Of course, if I have to redraw a pokemon completely, it may take me a bit longer.



I will draw the legendary birds as soon as I can.

[Number1ChanseyFan]

Here are my sketches of the Johto starters (to be inked, cleaned, colored, resized, assembled, etc.) I'm posting them here so that you people can post comments and suggestions before I complete the process (for example, if you think I got some of the proportions wrong, or if you don't like one of the poses, etc.) Of course, if I have to redraw a pokemon completely, it may take me a bit longer.



I will draw the legendary birds as soon as I can.

The picture is coming up pretty small on my computer but from what I can tell it looks really good to me!!

[Blademaster]

Totodile looks great.

Cyndaquil looks a bit odd considering the unusual pose, but OK. Maybe define the thighs/hips a bit more - it looks like it has a shell.

Chikorita looks hideous. No disrespect, but I thought that its right forepaw was a saggy breast at first glance. Its forearms should be as big as its hind legs, if not bigger:





Also, the eyes make it look like Dr. Insano, and the leaf is bent. Chikorita's leaf has a slight curve. Bayleef is the one with the bent leaf.

Take it slow, Gabi. Pokemon proportions are damn-near impossible to get right, especially after only a day's work.

[Telume]

Great work for a first day, also try to make them individual drawings like the one of Chikorita above, I'd like to be able to play with the positioning of each character to see what fits best.

[Lady Vulpix]

Christen, you were supposed to click on the thumbnail.

Of course I will, Telume. That's why I drew them apart from each other.

I was trying to make Chikorita's leaf look like it was spinning. I guess it didn't work.

OK, apparently trying to draw unusual poses doesn't work, people want to see the pokemon in the same 2 or 3 poses as they always show up. That's good to know, then I can just copy one of those images and not bother trying something original.

But then why draw them at all? Why not just pick some of the many non-copyrighted images on the web and assemble them?

[Jeff]

Chikorita does look a bit odd. Keep the pose, but the proportions need fixing.

Cyndaquil and Totodile are both good, especially Totodile, I wouldn't change a thing there.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, thanks. I'll work on that.

Edit: OK, Chikorita take 2, redone from scratch, and Cyndaquil with more rounded thighs. Tips and advice are welcome, but please refrain from using words like 'hideous' or the likes.

[Heald]

Totodile by far looks the best, followed by Cyndaquil. Chikorita does look really weird though.

[Lady Vulpix]

Duly noted. What about my latest submission? (I edited my previous post because I didn't see any replies and I didn't want to double-post.)

[Heald]

Chikorita looks a lot better, I think the front legs are a tad too long though, plus the eyes might be a bit too close together. I know you're trying to go for that enthusiastic look that Chikorita has, but there is a fine line between that and a DERP expression that seems to be prevailing here.

Cyndaquil generally looks good but it's hard to gauge how he will look when finished as the pencil flames obviously don't reflect how it will look when coloured. The body is fine.

[Lady Vulpix]

OK, I've done a few minor changes. I think it looks a bit better now. I don't know what DERP means (and the urban dictionary didn't help), but it sounds like something bad, so I hope it doesn't look like that anymore.

[Heald]

DERP:



Basically, try and make it look less like this.

[Phoenixsong]

Not bad at all, Gabi. I don't see much wrong with Chikorita's pose, other than I think you should try making its hind legs slightly more perpendicular--it looks a touch off-balance to me.

[Lady Vulpix]

Hmm... something like this?



Who would have thought drawing a Chikorita would be so hard?

[mr_pikachu]

Hey, Chikorita's one of those odd Pokemon that's pretty much shapeless for the most part... try making a Ditto look how it's "supposed" to look and it's obvious how difficult the task is.

But your rendition of it looks pretty good to me, Gabi. Granted, I'm no art critic, but I don't see much to improve at this point.

Oh, and I'm back, all. Hi.

[Lady Vulpix]

Hi, Brian!

Oh, Ditto's easy. After all, it's a shapeshifter. Any shape will do.

I've done a minor modification to the left hind leg, but I don't think it's worth rescanning, I think it's fine as it is now.

OK, I'll be away on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and I doubt I'll be able to do much tomorrow, but I'm taking these drawings for inking during my trip to Salta, and I'll try to draw Ho-oh and Lugia when I return.

Thanks for your help, everyone.

[Heald]

The latest rendition looks good. Once there's some colour and detail and such, it'll look great.

[Telume]

Christen, you were supposed to click on the thumbnail.

Of course I will, Telume. That's why I drew them apart from each other.

I was trying to make Chikorita's leaf look like it was spinning. I guess it didn't work.

OK, apparently trying to draw unusual poses doesn't work, people want to see the pokemon in the same 2 or 3 poses as they always show up. That's good to know, then I can just copy one of those images and not bother trying something original.

But then why draw them at all? Why not just pick some of the many non-copyrighted images on the web and assemble them?

Because even if I take non-copyrighted images, someone is gonna bitch. So to avoid that I'd rather use work from people on the site , make sense?

[PancaKe]

Can't we just access drawings that have been done by members in FanArt and from the old website again? That would at least give us a starting point and then we can fix pictures and even offer people the chance to get their drawing in our banner. :-) Kids love those kind of colouring in competitions. lololol.

[Jeff]

Well, I tried starting a banner competition, but due to lack of interest we had to do this instead. I didn't think of digging up old fanart though. As long as those who posted them are fine with it, that would be a great idea!

[mr_pikachu]

For that matter, we could ask the people who still frequent Oekaki....

[Telume]

For that matter, we could ask the people who still frequent Oekaki....

We could do that but we'd still need to ask the people who MADE the image if they're okay with it.

Edit: And Gabi's already working on some stuff, I'd feel better seeing what she's done as well.

[Lady Vulpix]

Want to see? Here's something to look at.



Real life is eating me alive and, against all expectations, I had no Internet access in Salta. I'm sorry, this is turning out to be harder than I'd expected. Cyndaquil and Totodile are inked and scanned, and should be colored on or around Sunday. I'm afraid the birds will have to wait, unless someone else wants to take them. If anyone wants to fix Chikorita in any way, feel free to do so.

[Heald]

That's looking a lot better Gabi. Can't wait to see the other two.

[Blademaster]

I can handle the birds for you.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks, Blademaster.

Cyndaquil is here!

[Telume]

That's looking great!

I'll work on the positioning of the characters on the banner and stuff.

[Roy Karrde]

I don't know if anyone has offered this, but I wouldn't mind watching Pokemon Sunday each week, and posting updates and screen caps of Heart Gold/Soul Silver news as it happens. If anything we could possibly beat Serebii by a couple of hours!

Oh and...



Old PokeGear, I'll be sure to do the new one when I get a better look at it open.