IPA Apprentice: Reality TV on the Internet! (Season 2?)

[Silver]

Ok! Second to last round is finally coming to a close! And the two remaining contestants already have a head start on the next round, so hopefully we can get this over with soon...

In case that didn't tip you off, sorry, Cheesey, but you lost. Badly.

A-anyway! I'll give you a proper judging, just so no one feels cheated:
Josiah's Recolor - Flawless. A bit predictable, but flawless.
Saber's Recolor - Also Flawless. Though, just as a side note, in the case of black sprites you can get away with making the outline and the shading the same color. Sometimes they end up looking a little more gray if you try to make the outline visibly darker.
Cheesey's Recolor - So... there is... no shading whatsoever in the orange spots. They look like some horrible fungus overtaking the poor Bulbasaur. There's still green around its eyes, so they look like they're popping out.. and the color of the outline isn't nearly dark enough, So Bulbasaur's legs just kind of blend into his body. For God's sake, Cheesey, memorize Butterfree's guide.

Josiah's Splice - Impressive, impressive. It seems a few pixels of outline were removed from Charmander's head when the ears were added on... or maybe it was like that in the orignial sprite, but it just looks weird now that there's an ear there. Also, the tail looks a little off... by which I mean Pichu's tail looks like it's about to fall off of Charmander's, being attached by a single pixel like that. Still, those are incredily minor details, and I only notice that kind of thing because I suck at life.
Saber's Splice - You attached the feather thing well - perfectly, even - but I think it is just the ear... I'll have to play around with that to see what looks better. Can't dock you any points for it, anyway... the only thing is the scratch editting done to remove Vulpix's poofy swirly hair thing. In terms of getting it out of there and smoothing out Vulpix's head, great job; in terms of correcting the shading, well... it's a little dark, first of all. Considering the location of the light source, there wouldn't be so much shadow. And the highlighted part could stand to be smoothed out...
Cheesey's Splice - Just no. Just. No.

Overall, though, the winner is... Saber Knight! Yes, I was most impressed by Saber Knight and her R/S style Vulpixsel! Silver <3 R/S sprites. D/P's over-rated. Unfortunately, you don't get to choose who's eliminated... because that's Cheesey. Josiah did much too well to even be up for elimination.

Which leads us into the next round! This is it, guys - the last IPA Apprentice Challenge! One of you's going to be my Mind-Apprentice-Slave... unless you both step down, in which case it will be Cheesey. ...Please, please don't step down. I-I mean... I already gave you the basic rundown of the last challenge. You are each... to make an IPA. The winner's IPA will appear in the game (which you just lost! Hah!), so I want to see a sprite and everything... But the quality isn't terribly important, because I can always fix it up. The more important factors are effort, creativity, and logic.

Effort as in, creating a three stage IPA takes longer than a one stage IPA. If you do make a three stage IPA, I expect to see all three stages, complete with sprites and IPAdex entries. On top of that, complete TM lists are important. That's probably what you're going to be doing most anyway...

Creativity as in, some unique combination of types, or a Pokemon that hasn't appeared yet in IPA as a component, or maybe just an interesting way of bringing two Pokemon together. Obviously, the standard rule of having the same number of stages still applies, and you can't just make an invert of an existing IPA - we all ready have a Sentret that thinks it's a Rattata, so we don't need a Rattata that thinks it's a Sentret.

And Logic as in... if you combine Torchic with Azurill and remove Torchic's claws in the process... don't have it know Scratch as a starting move. It obviously wouldn't be able to use Scratch since it has nothing to Scratch with. ...Huh? I already released Torchrill and it knows Scratch? That's utter nonsense! I would never do such a thing!

...So. If you need the format for the IPAdex entries, just send me a PM and tell me how many stages your IPA's going to be. It's pretty much the same as it was back when I cared about the IPAdex, just now I've got "Breeding Groups" in there under "Abilities"...

tl;dr: Saber wins, Cheesey loses, make an IPA.

[Saber Knight]

Yayz! I'ma moving on.

Though, just as a side note, in the case of black sprites you can get away with making the outline and the shading the same color. Sometimes they end up looking a little more gray if you try to make the outline visibly darker.

Yeah, I'm not very good with shading black sprites. Was kinda worried when I was asked to use black for my recolor.

Woah. Can't believe I made it this far.

I think I'll go and make a brand new IPA for this. NO I'M NOT TRYING TO AVOID USING DP SPRITES, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Anyways, I wanna make a 3 stage evolution dude, probably. 2 stages at the least, but in all probablility 3 stages. Won't be able to get started on the sprite, however, since my computer is down and I really don't feel like spriting with the annoying laptop mouse pad.

Well...first I need to think up an idea. Hrm......

[Josiah]

Josiah's Splice - Impressive, impressive. It seems a few pixels of outline were removed from Charmander's head when the ears were added on... or maybe it was like that in the orignial sprite, but it just looks weird now that there's an ear there. Also, the tail looks a little off... by which I mean Pichu's tail looks like it's about to fall off of Charmander's, being attached by a single pixel like that. Still, those are incredily minor details, and I only notice that kind of thing because I suck at life.

I did remove a little outling from Charmander's head when attaching the ears, the goal being that the ears would look like part of the instead of looking like they were just stuck on. The tail... I wasn't entirely pleased with it either but that was the best result I got. Pichu's tail is just really tiny to begin with...

And, cause someone has to ask, what's the time limit?

[Silver]

Three-stage IPA are great, because they definitely take more time and effort... but also consider that I've pretty much made all the good mixes already for the sake of creating starters. If you make a two-stage IPA and get creative - like, if you can mix anything at all with a Pineco - that would be just as good.

And yeah, I can see why you would do that, but... it ended up being where the ear wasn't, too. Which isn'ta good thing.

As for a time limit... I don't want to give you one, really; again, it would be nice to see them finished before Thanksgiving, but... I'm not gonna be strict about it.

Of course, every time a new member joins, I've got two days to come up with an IPA. It really doesn't take that long... so I can't picture you guys taking even until Thanksgiving unless you're really, really busy. In which case get off the forums and go do something productive.

[Cheezdude]

I'm a first time spriter. I tried my best, and I lost. Oh well.

Good Luck, Saber!

[Josiah]

I only removed outline from the head where the ears were attached. Any other lack of outline was due to the original sprite. But anyway...

I currently fall into the really, really busy catagory. But, if I'm lucky, things will calm down a bit once this week is over, so I might have time before Thanksgiving.

[Blastotoise]

Can I still be a guest Judge?

[Saber Knight]

I currently fall into the really, really busy catagory. But, if I'm lucky, things will calm down a bit once this week is over, so I might have time before Thanksgiving.

Don't worry about it. I don't think I'll have enough time beforehand either.
DURING Thanksgiving break, I'll have plenty of time. Wait, strike that, I have a hockey tournamnet. I should still be able to get a lot of work done, though.
Wlhatever. We'll just see when I finish. It won't be too long, don't worry.

[Silver]

Well, take your time, there's no rush...

and The N00b, No. Go away. You lost already.

The game, too.

[Saber Knight]

Alright, I've decided what two pokemon I'm going to use.

Unfortunatly, I've been forced into using DP sprites. Can I only use it for the 3rd evolution (cuz that's the only one that's only DP)?

If you hadn't guessed, my IPA will have 3 stages. I'll get working over the weekend. Been swamped with homework this week.

[Silver]

Hey, however you think you can get the best results. You're free to sprite however you want... as long as I'm free to fix it up however I want prior to its potentil release into IPA cannon.

[Josiah]

I know which pokémon I'm going to use too. Gonna be a pretty odd splice, but it should be pretty impressive if I can pull it off...

[Saber Knight]

Yes....mine should be....interesting.

[Josiah]

Just to let you know, my entry WILL be done sometime over the weekend. Sorry it's taking so long (blame final projects).

[Saber Knight]

I am also nearly done. Just need to finish up the last sprite.
Blame.....my essay (alright, blame lazyness).