Forum > Pet Share > [OFFICIAL] Making Breedable PSDs
SeaCrest of Adastreia
Water Elemental

Omen


Making Breedable PSDs
Faenaria's pet system is rather unique in that all or most markings are unique and are not stored somewhere in a database. This makes our pets beautifully customizable, but when it comes to breeding, it can be a bit of a problem, because offspring are a combination of the parents' markings and colors. If you want to breed your CYO pets, you'll want to make sure that their PSDs are breedable!

What does breedable mean?
Breedable is a term we use to describe a PSD that has everything on its own individual layer, like this:

https://i.imgur.com/XFRwt2r.png

Every marking, every color—they're all on their own layer, which means that it's easy to mix and match markings from the parents when you try to breed them!

On the other hand, this isn't breedable, because there's multiple colors on one layer, and they're different markings:

https://i.imgur.com/PiA7RXj.png

In order to pass the markings to the offspring, the artist will have to do a lot of work to separate the markings from each other!

How do I make my PSDs breedable?
The fundamental rule is make sure each marking has its own layer. Adding a gradient to a mane? It gets its own layer. Adding leopard spots to your sorako? The spots get their own layer, and the fill gets its own layer. Think of it this way; if the only tool you could use was the Bucket tool, could you change the colors, and only the colors, of this pet? It's always better to separate everything if you aren't sure!

Do I have to make a new layer for every color?
Things like coloring four hooves different colors or doing different colored ear tips, where the different colors are in distinct areas and do not bleed or overlap, can be done on one layer if you want. Take a look at this alicorn:

https://i.imgur.com/CbwqTj1.png

These are my layers:

https://i.imgur.com/Z3TNbtx.png

Because the mane is easily separated from the tail, I can color them both on one layer, and it's easy for the breeding artist to color them separately. The hooves are the same; they don't touch, so it's easy to color them individually.

On the other hand, take a look at this lovely gradient:

https://i.imgur.com/uAfrmAe.png

The breeding artist goes to open the PSD and recolor the gradient to mix in some of the other parent's colors, but…

https://i.imgur.com/xxYrWdG.png

It's all on one layer. It's possible for the artist to produce something similar, but the exact gradient coverage won't be the same, and it's an extra step that they shouldn't need to take. This is a fairly simple example, but when the markings get complex and overlap each other, sometimes with different opacities, it becomes nearly impossible to mix markings, which leads to boring babies!
https://i.imgur.com/YFu3KtX.png
https://i.imgur.com/A29fGso.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/0tQt5q6.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/Y8XbYds.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/J1Valnf.png
https://i.imgur.com/4tcXmLQ.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/qTrN4Nu.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/3v2p256.png
https://i.imgur.com/4uuXIta.png