I'd like to made overlays for some of my other pets but I'm kinda lost there since not all of them are actually animals. Since overlays can only be quad/anthro how do you all make overlays for your pets that are human-like characters? Do you draw them as the subeta pets? Draw them as an animal their personality best represent? I just have no idea how to start here ;;

Closest thing to this I've got in use right now is for my Elder Scrolls pet, Driln. He's based on my Dark Elf character.

I used the Arid Dragarth as a starting point, and added in my character's hair (mixed with the Dragarth's tuft), elf ears, and an item of clothing he wore a lot in Oblivion. I got the colours from his hair, eyes, clothing, and skin tone.

I did the same kind of thing for my Journey fan pet, Rythulian. Although they were much easier since the Traveller character is less human looking, and the Harvester makes a good match for that character to begin with. Used the Nostalgic Harvester as a starting reference, and worked in details from both the pet and the game character.

I think it's a fun way of making overlays for human/humanoid characters. :D

And OHMIGOSH I just saw Dovahpug. That's awesome! xD

That's what I was thinking about. But since the two overlays I already have are whole new pictures I'd like to make more of these, rather than redraws of the original pet. But then what animal to choose for them ;; I always decide to make things harder for me.. xD

That is the cutest Journey traveller I've ever seen ;0;

Thank you! c: Dovahpug started as a joke and somehow turned into one of my favourite ocs xD

Ah right. Yeah, sounds like picking an animal that suits your pet character would be a good starting point then. Maybe looking for something similar to the Subeta pet will help narrow it down a bit?

Thank you! >w< It was a fun overlay to make.

I can see why. He's adorably silly! x3

That's where the problem starts 8D idk, I might do it the simple way and just draw owl with the character's stuff like hair and such for noktoa pet, wolf for kumos and so on. Just are there any limitations on how much acessories/clothing the overlay can have? Or it doesn't matter as long as you can tell it's an animal? ovo

I don't think there is any limit. As long as it's clearly an animal, you should be fine. I've seen overlays in the spotlight which show fully clothed animals.

The main thing is that any props and accessories are integrated into the image properly. The custom overlay page mentions not just pasting stuff on, which it sounds like you wouldn't do anyway.

Maybe have a look through the past spotlight winners and see what others have done? That might give you some starting ideas, and a look at what's acceptable.

I completely forgot you can look at older spotlight wins haha. I'll check them out for some ideas :> thank you c:

custom overlays, the ones that show on site as overlays need to be quad and have to fit certain size restrictions. There isn't a limit to what you put on the pet though. I.e. having clothes on the pet is fine.

If you're not using the pet as a custom overlay then no, having a human overlay is fine.

The majority of my pet characters on site are human. Also, as stated there's no distinction between whether or not a character is human or animal in the pet spotlight. It's not an issue.

I used to use ones like this back in the day:

SPOILER (click to toggle)

(Sadly, Saul's is the only one I have saved...)

This was before you could upload your own to the site though, so they'd be against official overlay guidelines now. Right now I have Festus with an unofficial human overlay. If I were to submit an official image, I'd incorporate parts of his design into a quad character and use that. (Big nose, buck teeth, hat ect.)

I like to include both quad and human/anthro overlays on my pet profiles, although it also doubles the work and I'm slow as heck to actually ever finish anything. So far I've only managed to draw one for one of my Tolkien neelas, Kinslayer. Although I'm still not 100% convinced if I want to keep any pet qualities on the human versions, since esp with the fanpets, they kind of go against the lore. But eh, I'm a sucker for cute anthro details.

I'm trying that but for some reason it's so hard for me to turn human character into quad. Maybe because I suck at drawing any kinds of animals lol

The art is beautiful ;-; Yep, so much work. I'm working on the overlays now and then I'm going to need some profile art (and finally buy some profiles then) and since I suck at writing I'm planning the pet stories draw as comics. rip

I actually kinda have the opposite problem! Quad/anthro designs come easily to me, but I have difficulties trying to humanize my characters without losing their charm. :P

Also, having your pet stories as comics sounds really cool! I can't wait to see them when everything is finished!