[Art] ‐ Style Guide: Patrol Sprites
by scribble (scribblecrumb)
Patrol sprites are the images seen alongside the patrol text. They're meant to be demonstrative of the patrol text.
Important
Canvas size should always be 300x300 pixels!
- We want to aim for semi-realism, a cartoon-y style is to be avoided. Extraneous lines and details should be kept to a minimum, less is more!
Important
An exception to this would be inner ear lines, these should generally be present, though still very minimal.
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When possible, try to have the entire cat visible, but remember that when a prompt does not directly include a cat, it’s fine not to have a cat visible at all. In other words, it’s good practice to either have the entire cat visible or no cat visible, anything in between should be kept for rare exceptions.
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Try to only include one cat in the image, unless a second cat is directly mentioned or a group is implied.
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Generally avoid pupils for the cats, unless you feel it is absolutely necessary.
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Long fur is kept very “rounded” at the tips. It shouldn’t feel too “spiky”.
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You are allowed to feature some blood and gore in your art. We do allow players to censor patrol sprites, so it can be good practice to create a "clean" version of any art that features gore, however this is not required. Any gore should be limited. We aren't looking to have guts spilling out or blood flooding the screen.
An example of the level of gore we allow.
- Border lines are generally drawn as straight, white, dash lines.
- Environments should be kept minimal and ambiguous unless the patrol references a specific biome or environment. If including an environment, try to avoid having it fill the entire canvas. These should be drawn in a lineless/mostly lineless and painterly style!
some examples of patrol sprites that include environments
- Don't be afraid to make patrol sprites that are purely environmental and feature no/minimal animals
Important
Line width should be kept to 1 px as much as possible. This means removing any places where two pixels are side by side. Just setting your brush to 1 px wide isn’t sufficient here (unless you’re using a program like aesprite that has pixel perfect settings), you’ll have to clean up your lineart manually.
Tip
This graphic can serve as a helpful reference for drawing each age stage. Keep in mind that apprentices generally look like small adults!
We work off of strict color palettes for cat silhouettes and other specific entities. We do not use "normal" cat colors for cats shown in patrol sprites because we want the player to be able to "visualize" the cats from their patrol into the patrol sprite.
Cats are color-coded by status, follow the below ref sheet.
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As you can see, some ranks (app and med cat) have specific colors, while other ranks (like warrior and leader) have no specific colors. If the patrol text does not refer to a cat as being an app or med cat, then you should use the "unspecified rank" colors. There are multiple "unspecified rank" palettes to choose from in order to make it easy to distinguish multiple "unspecified rank" cats from each other.
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Dead cats are a little special in that they break our usual black lineart rules. They have an extra lineart color that should be used sparingly. The nose/mouth and eye lines should use this line color. Any parts of their lineart that appear to be floating away, wispy, or dripping, should use this line color. Always remember to gradient back into black lineart on the more "solid" parts of their body. StarClan cats also come with two extra "star" colors. Stars should be 1 or 2 pixel dots clustered throughout the pelt and should alternate between the two colors.
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Cats from other Clans receive a heavy black gradient. This should cover nearly 2/3rds of their body.
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The Dangerous Entity colors should be used for anything actively threatening the cats or if the cats are described as feeling threatened. If an eagle is diving at a cat, it should be colored as a dangerous entity. If an eagle is just flying through the sky minding it's business, then it should be colored like an eagle. These colors can also be used for nonliving things, such as suspicious paw prints.
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Non-aggressive animals that aren't cats should be drawn with realistic colors.
examples of non-aggressive animal coloring
Important
When using gradients, please ensure that the gradient is always a straight up and down gradient, from the top color on the palette to the bottom color on the palette. Make the gradient very gradual, there should not be a distinct separation of color.
Silhouette and the predator colors. Keep the red concentrated at the bottom and ensure that the shoulders up are dark. Remember that Twolegs are mysterious and should feel very unsettling to the cats.
Monsters can be done with realistic colors unless they are being “aggressive” towards the cats in the patrol. In which case, use predator colors for the monster. (i.e. a car just doing its business driving by should be normal colors. A car swerving to hit a cat or bearing down directly on a cat should scream DANGER and have predator colors)
When sketching out ideas for a patrol sprite, try to get creative with it! We want our patrol sprites to be dynamic and interesting, try to avoid static poses. Try to avoid communicating a cat's thoughts/intentions via thought/speech bubble. Instead, find a way to demonstrative that intention (show don't tell!) For example, if the prompt is a cat thinking about crossing the river, maybe even if the first instinct is to have a thought bubble of the river (since the cat is "thinking" about a river). Instead, the art could be a cat who is looking at a river/looking to the other side of the river from a bit further way, or maybe you see the cat testing the stones on the river. Or, perhaps a cat thinks there isn't enough prey? Maybe the cat is imagining a transparent image of prey in front of them that they're reaching for, or they've only found bones to munch on.
Feel free to illustrate more "abstract" concepts as well, like scent trails or storytelling. Check out these examples of abstract concepts.
We encourage you to play with perspective as well as close-ups/zoom-outs!
Dead cats receive a little extra stylization. StarClan cats should appear wispy and incorporeal, as though they are drifting apart. They are also allowed stars. Unknown Residence cats should appear misty and foggy, as though fading away. Dark Forest cats should appear dirty and dripping, as though they've just dragged themselves out of blood and muck. They can also feature scarring, which should be included in the lineart as solid black scars.
