Hi PRO!
I am the creator of the Electrode Mount. As I was cleaning up my art folders, I noticed I had lots of images from different stages of the Electrode Mount creation. I am very new to pixel art, so there was a lot of trial and error but it was extremely fun. The Electrode Mount was eventually the art that sprung me from Art Apprentice to full Art Staff on PRO. I figured I would share for anyone interested in the creation and thought process of the mount.
THE DECISION
Staff challenged me to create a land or surf mount. I originally started on an ambitious project that I can't share yet, but it was taking me too long. @Girassol suggested I take on something more simple, so why not an of Electrode? "A rolling ball is easy" was the thought. I agreed, but I did not want to make something cheap. Plus, PRO does not have anything like it. Every land mount either flies or has legs.
CONCEPT
The "still" images were very simple to create. Creating a circle and dividing it into two colors, shading it a little to fit with PRO, then adding a face is something most people with a small amount of art skills could do. Which was awesome for me, since I am new to pixel art.
However, the rolling animation was where the real challenge presented itself. Most rolling images have four frames, but PRO only has three that cycle as so: 123212321. This made the mount seem like it was missing a frame. Also, the face would often sit under the character, which was strange and potentially non-pg thoughts for the UP and DOWN animations, haha.
https://gyazo.com/31b753ce366bde2e41fece8b9128cd38
So I took a few days to really brainstorm for a solution for both of these. This is when @YuiFelwood, the art lead, suggested a motion blur effect with a bit of swirl! This would solve the issue with a player sitting on a face, haha. It would also really make the mount feel like you are moving fast. But I still have issues with only have three frames. How do I make it look like its actually rolling? The concept of splitting Electrode into three sections just wasn't working. Until finally @YuiFelwood suggested I just flip the two sides and to this day I can't explain why it works, but it does.
And finally, I added a little dirt kick animation as you can see. Because have you ever rode your bike in the dirt? It kicks up a mess. So Electrode should too.
CONCLUSION
I hope you really like the final result! I will try to improve my "blogs" for future released content that I make for all of you. Please ask me any questions you have about it. What could I have done better?
Final: https://gyazo.com/789bc9836b1207c7e75263e2be404f7c
Shiny: https://gyazo.com/482bd77f5fc0c1d2223f59aa81b98957
The Electrode Mount is available in the PvE shop for 250 PvE coins, 500 PvE coins for shiny.
