Messages

Totally agree with Nacho, this post had got me slightly wound up and I had to reply to you.
I really don't understand what you are trying to achieve here...

You have to scrap this picture or use it as a reference for something alot smaller, if you are intending to use it in your own game then I suggest you research other peoples charactors which have been critiqued, some superb material on this forum, there should be everything you need at your disposal here.

Go back to pencil and paper before pulling out the airbrush in MSpaint, good charactor design comes with many hours of practising, find free art tutorial ebooks, study anatomy, research aliens to use for references, study clothing textures etc...
I look forward to seeing some progress from you my friend, you seem to have the desire, you just need the patience and perseverence! GOODLUCK

I'm hoping I can put together my idea before the 14th.
Forgive me for reserving this space as my entry. (Or just delete my post )

Ok, just a quick reply as I pop in to look.

I have not tried to or successfully finished a walkcycle myself, however,

The animation of your walkcycle shows the charactor moving within the confined space you have allocated, what I'm trying to say is, there should be a single point where the charactor is glued and seemingly walking in mid air.

Think about it...

Fyntax, that is awesome mate! Great idea

Besides this being a forum where mainly adventure gamers reside, I can only make out a mish-mash of cut & paste.
I'm struggling to realise any purpose behind most (all) of the images you have chosen.
I find the use of 9/11 totally unnecessary, although it's not insulting or offending one bit, just why use such an image on an album cover?
The penis on the shirt... the upside down head... the thing with the apple... the leg... the list basically spans all the objects in the image.
For me it just looks terrible even though I can see you have put time into it getting all the photoshoppery done.

Your album cover doesn't affect me in any single way, maybe you want to captivate your audience and get them to have a closer look at an image which actually means something.

Just my opinion...

Can you make the deadline for 24:00gmt?
If so, you'll have my word there'll be another entry!
Am very new to animation but thought I'd better get my butt in gear and work at it.

Will post entry whether late or not 


EDIT
On second thoughts theres no way I can make it on time, i'll just finish and post once its done rather than keep the results waiting...

Ok, i have said I have given up commenting in these backgrounds but i will go back on my word.
Whats a minute here or their of my opinion to try and help someone.

Paint program
It shouldn't matter which program you have if you have learnt the uses of all the tools, whatever paint program you use, study the documentation that comes with it to learn most of what there is to know.  A shortcut by diving in makes learning how to use things properly a very difficult thing. Equally, search for 'jasc paint shop pro tutorials' or similar on google to find tips and tricks...


With your new edit
The fact of the matter is, you have simply applied a gradient effect to a wall.  The end product is predictable.
To improve this background you must first go back to basics and fix problems with the perspective.  Right now you have far more important things to worry about than a gradient on the wall.

The corners of the floor is a problem for you, take another look at ProgZmax's edit and study what changes in the animation he put up. He fixed the perspective.  

EDIT
Posted to find I've pleasantly happened to reiterate 'Perspective'

Yes ProgZMax has made a great edit in terms of showing you what you need to do to achieve a nicer looking background.

Get to work and let's see what you got!

[he]

My first suggestion would be to make the outlines thinner, at the moment I'm failing to be pleased by the thick lines.
The scars look more like tattoos, partly due to their patternation but I do believe you have gone for ritual scarring.
Try change the colour using a hue slider until you feel happy with the colour of them.
And maybe change the background colour from the extremeties of white, maybe a light brown colour, it will help you with choosing more suitable colours also.

The pose
Well the pose has left me somewhat confused, what is he/she doing exactly, and you have it's tongue out for no apparent reason.
Can I assume that the hooves are unfinished, a simple 'google' for them would give you plenty of reference.


Will look forward to seeing you improve this piece.

I have to say, i really like how you have created this animation. The limbs look great and a good use of shading creating a simple but effective representation of someone walking.
I would maybe suggest that you experiment with the torso, at the moment it seems too static, maybe make it shift a pixel to the left and right according to which arm is raised.
As 'his' right arm comes forward shift the torso to the right.

You could animate his dressing gown tie around his waist, maybe a little waver.

And a nice touch to many a walk cycle would be for his head to bob up and down.

Great work so far!


EDIT just noticed the opening of the gown on 'his' left leg, it seems to snap open when he puts his left leg forward, mayb a bit too nitpicky, but maybe smooth it out with an extra movement in the frame(s) previous to the one when it's fully open 

Rubacant, I am finding it hard to put any effort into helping you if all you do is simply disregard the most important things that are fundamentally wrong with your backgrounds.
Why don't you actually try to improve the backgrounds rather than mash them up with cut and paste items, which in the end results in something that lacks any real substance. It is clear to see that you don't intend on taking peoples advice.
1. Search for old threads where people have taken C+C that actually improves their backgrounds.
2. Recognise that if you continue to disregard good crit and insist on ripping all the objects and things to create your room, you will not only lose respect of fellow forum members but you will actually lose out on valuable tips to aid your progression.

My last suggestion- scrap all backgrounds that you have ripped and use them more as a reference, there are so many errors in all the backgrounds you have posted that I wouldnt waste my time pointing them out to you (And many already have been), only for them to be disregarded.

I will have no further part in commenting on these backgrounds.

although my criticism was a bit full on, i only intend on motivating or pushing you to try harder and end up with better results.

In the long run, you will learn far more by doing everything from scratch, it is the only way to improve, learn the basics and build on the solid foundation.

Anyway...
I put a bit of work in to help you, feel free to do how you wish with this image.




I have basically started the Background with a center reference point, i am learning from this myself as I have never tried to make rooms like this, all i go on is theory (and even in theory I'm not well read...yet)
There is the minimum amount of colours to start with and if you wanted a smoother transition between the shades, simply add more colours or dither.

What i will say though is that I feel the point should have been higher.
It's a basic example for you that's all.

If this has helped you at all, im happy.

Goodluck!

hi, well i look at your background and i can see so many things that can do with improvement.


Im no backgroubnd expert by any means but...
1. There are so many clashes in technique, some pictures on the wall are pixelled and then the other is anti-alaised, eg; the pic of the castle to our left compared to the skeleton or mummy to our right. The cracks look unconvincing.

2. there are so many colours in this background that are usless, why dont you try and begin with, say, 15 colours, it would be easily achievable!
This would also discipline you to control the amount of colours you use and it won't give you the chance to clash in terms of anti-alais.

3. The colours you have chosen are far from the most effective, i can see that your palette is all over the place in terms of saturations and hues, try and choose your colours wih more thought for the overall background. for example; the cabinet the tv is resting on is distinctly a different colour to what seems like a wardrobe(?in a living room) if the colours of the cabinets have more relation it would be more pleasing to the eye.

4. The sense of depth in this scene is scattered too precariously, you have perspective all messed up, for example; look at the wardrobe to our right and the book cabinet on the floor to our left, one has depth the other lacks any whatsoever.

5. Lighting is none existant, you should really ditch the poor gradients on the walls if you want to achieve convincing lighting. The gradients clash on both left and right of the walls.

6.  I would suggest starting from scratch. Begin with lineart first of all and then progress from there, instead of cutting corners with cutting and pasting, really spend time on correcting all perspecting and layout before you colour it in.

There are alot of things in this bg that i could nitpick about but i will refrain fom doing so as i feel i have given most of the advice you would need to improve this background.

Good Luck!

hi there, i like the sprite and yes i do remember it posted wuite a while back, my 2c proportion wise started with a search on google for 'human proportions' I found reference images and tried to edit your sprite to fit the 'proportions'.

here it is:


I based the edit on the current size of the head, I found that I  would have to do quite a lot of editing to get it just right so I stopped without completing it. ( I only stretched his body and widened it a touch)

What I thought from doing this however is that if you decreased the size of the head, you would be able to get the proportions in without too much hardship.

I can understand that maybe you are happy with the proportions, afterall, it is a cartoonish sprite and in reality (or to me at least) it doesn't seem too unusual.

Actually, I'm thinking that if you were to use the correct proportions with this charactor he'd lose some of his charm. I'll be looking forawrd to other peoples replies, and maybe learn what can be done proportion wise with this sprite.

I love your walk cycle, it has plenty of charactor.
You may not want the most realistic 'pregnant woman' walk but if you do, try and find material on it or observe when you see a pregnant woman in public.
Maybe a less prominant wobble may help, and I know that there would probably be more leaning  towards the back perhaps.
If it would be fitting with the charactor, try placing her hand above the lump on her belly as if whe was touching her stomach much as a pregnant woman would (if you can picture the type of thing I mean).

The side view only looks off-putting (to me) because the feet are so large.

I will definately update my reply to try and help you further, once I've had a look into it myself.

@ Stupot

looks a bit like it's wearing a white afro wig

yeah I can see that now lol, the dithering originally consumed alot of my time, I am a bit wiser about the situation involved in using dither now though (i think)

An animation is definately in the pipeline...

No, I don't think I know a Murray.

@ProgZmax
Yes thanks for the edit, I would say I pretty much gave up improving the first skull when i realised it wasn't anatomically correct, it started as a doodle in MSpaint, i spent alot of time in a dark room  8) trying to improve 'my' dithering. I was happy with it until a point of re-making it into the newer version, then gave up on it.
Your edit has definately got me motivated to improve it, thanks.

@ Scraseface
Yes thankyou for your suggestions regarding the second skull, I will work on maybe introducing the sattures (I think thats what they're called off the top of my head) and I will improve the outline.


Thankyou

I've posted this skull here for any C+C so that I can improve it further, I've looked at it so much I am probably missing out on some things that need doing...

Original version:

2x


Updated version:

2x


Thankyou

Monkey Entertainment â€" A great little piece of iso, the shadows are well executed but it perhaps lacked a bit of creativity.

Space Boy â€" Great work and it was nice to see how versatile this piece was.

KhrisMUC â€" I loved this piece when I saw it, so creative and well pixeled, the anti-aliasing was done by hand and it really is a well thought out piece.

Evil â€" I really like this piece and the colors are a nice choice, very nice work.

Voh â€" Ahh Lego, I used to love playing with that as a kid! Maybe could have been a less saturated palette but nice work none the less. ‘Keep the iso up'

HolyJack â€" I love the idea behind this sprite, very nice entry.



So the winner is……. KhrisMUC for his creative and very well made ‘Escher's Relativity'
You get this rather 'optimistically gold' looking trophy


I'll leave it for you to start the next ‘Colouring Ball'

Well done everyone, a great turnout!

Great work everyone! Keep 'em coming guys!

I'm sure no-one would complain about that, I know I would love to see another posted.
(In terms of voting you would have to state a single entry however)