Messages

[edit]

Domino - that was funny (about the band!)

I just want to re-iterate.

This isn't:

[whine] nobody liked my art!!! [/whine]

It's:

[sick n tired] there a lot of bad attitudes over there [/sick n tired]

I appreciate the support you have offered (some of you!).  It's good to know I'm not the only one noticing!

edit - just read Nightfable's post... she nailed my sentiments quite nicely

Nice one on the massive spoiler on the first line.  :

That was my thought too as I just got the DVDs for season 3

Television rarely makes me cry.  In fact it rarely produces emotion for me.  However, as oddly as it seems ... one Episode of [new] Battlestar Galactica really got to me.

Spoiler

The Galactica has returned to New Caprica ... Adama gives that incredible speech before the action.  Then jumps Galactica into the atmo of New Caprica, launches his vipers, and then jumps out!

[close]

That was so brilliant and awe-inspiring that I actually found myself (with a tear in my eye) on my feet, hand in the air, and cheering.  That's never happened to me before and it wasn't conscious ... it just happened. 

Also...

Spoiler

That same episode when the Galactica is surrounded by the 4 Cylon base-ships and is about to be destroyed when Pegasus returns and saves the day!  That was just the dramatic part, but then Admiral Adama says, "thank you Lee..."

[close]

That totally choked me up given the [albeit not unique] relationship that they had developed between father and son over the first two seasons.

The only television that has really come close to producing emotion like that from me was Band of Brothers ... but that was a different kind of emotion.  I love it when TV can have that effect on me ... that's when I know it's good writing (at least to me).

DON'T ACCUSE ME OF BEING DEFENSIVE!!! 

Unfortunately, there will always bad attitudes on websites, and especially when the average user is quite young

Regrettably sad, but true.

It does make me sad that a few people can turn people off the site, because I really do think it's only a few and not a major portion of the user base.  If you don't visit often you probably won't recognize names, but there are some people I find quite rude--not to me personally, but to others--and, unfortunately, some of them post a lot.

I could give a lot of examples (linking to pieces there that received the PJA (pixel joint attitude)) but honestly I don't care to devote any more time to this subject!  I appreciated your crits in that thread by the way

And let's stop the personal attacks here.  You know who you are, and there's no excuse for that behavior.

Was that to me?  If so, who did I attack?  Radiowaves?  I didn't call him a crybaby...

[The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.]

"due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog"

YES!!!  This is by far and away my favorite part of the entire series.

Another one of my favorites is:

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

[I don't have a problem with the rules]

Like I said; I know it's their site, thus their rules.  I don't have a problem with the rules. (for the 10th time)

I feel like I'm having to repeat this over and over ...

This "gripe" is about childish and snotty attitudes that are displayed there.  Yes, constructive criticism can be harsh, but there is a VAST difference between constructive criticism and just plain rude, mean spirited, and snotty remarks that serve no purpose.

Every time I take a stand on the bad attitudes over there, I get PMs from people saying how they can't stand the attitudes displayed there either.  Or how they don't post there anymore specifically because of the crap attitudes.  I'm not alone in disagreeing with the general "tone" of the place.  And that's really sad.

I have used limited palettes before.  It can be fun.  But my "style" is not palette restricted.  I don't mind changing it up a bit from time to time but that particular piece (linked to earlier in this thread) was for a contest there that specifically said "no restrictions".  And the entire image WAS laid down pixel by pixel.  Yes I used a shadow layer, but I still laid down the pixels one at a time.

It's not that my piece uses a lot of colors.

It's not that some felt it necessary to comment on the color count.

It's how they expressed their comments.

And to address the following:

I don't want to sound harsh here, but I have noticed a lot of disgusting things in AGS community also. I know, everybody isn't made for art, but goddamn it, if you already are trying to make it, then do some kind of research at least, see how the styles are constructed etc. Have some critical eye and don't post shit, because, you know, some of the games in AGS database truly do make me puke.

This is the very attitude that is at the root of the problem here.  Just because a person might not be at the same level as others (Fool for example) that should mean they can't post on Pixel Joint?  That's ridiculously arrogant.  Everybody pixels differently and to try and say that somebody shouldn't post a piece of art just because it's not as "good" as Fool's work is the worst kind of elitism.

Oh, don't be a crybaby! There are a lot ruder things in a world, you know.

This is a good example of the very attitude that sparked this thread.  It's derogatory and serves no purpose.  I wasn't crying in the slightest.  I was expressing my disagreement with something and giving my reasons and justifications for it.  There was no "crybaby" involved.

Oh, and Darth, so you probably spent more time than really needed on that pic, since you had to pick more colours and therefore place more pixels...? No wonder it took you 6 hours then.

Another prime example of the Pixel Joint syndrome ... I mean no offense to you in any way here but who are you to tell me how long I should take on a piece of ART? 

Sorry, but I don't see any problem.

Which is, to my thinking, why the problem exists in the first place.

As I said ... I don't mind crits.  I have been showing my "art" to people my entire life both professional and hobbiest stuff alike.  I can take criticism.  I can even take those not liking it.  It's not that at ALL (and maybe I wasn't clear enough about that.)  I don't like the WAY they respond to images over there.  It's rude, childish, and ignorant.

Also, as I said, I understand it's their site thus their rules.  My gripe isn't about that.

I'm off to see a movie... back later!

The ONLY thing I did on that picture that was "cheating" was I created a shadows layer to get the color values for the shadowed areas and I duplicated some of the floor tiles so as to not have to do EVERY one of them.  And the shadowed areas were still pixeled out pixel by pixel ... I just don't see what they whine about.

The entire image is pixeled by hand.  There were no gradients or ANYthing that caused the image to "downgrade" when saving as a GIF.  I will post the original version as a PNG to prove my point (but I can't right now 'cause I'm on a new computer and Photoshop happens to be installing right now).

There might be a few more colors than 256 ... but not a lot more.  I don't create a palette and then stick to it.  I select colors as I go and don't worry about it as I don't see what difference it makes if there's 12 colors of 16 million.  It's ART ... art is what you make of it, not the number of colors used.

And yes, that's the thread that sparked this rant ... but my distaste has been growing for some time over the piss-poor attitudes some of them display over there.  As I said, I don't mind constructive criticism, but what they do is just childish insulting and not constructive.

Original image coming soon...

I am not sure how many of you are members (or even know) of Pixel Joint but I need to vent here...

I am sick and frickin' tired of Pixel Joint.

The attitudes there are just lousy and pathetic.  I'm all for constructive criticism but the arrogance and flagrantly insulting attitudes there are so beyond pathetic it makes me nauseous.  I know we tend to have some elitism here at AGS (a little bit is inevitable) but the elitist pricks over there at PJ just plain ruin the place.

What the hell difference does it make if I want to use 5 shades of red instead of 2?  But holy fu**ing hell "you used 5 similar shades of red this piece isn't pixel art and shouldn't be allowed in the gallery!!"  I see it time and again over there.

Now I know it's not "my" site and I don't make the rules.  I get that.  I can understand (though I don't agree) with their definitions of what is "pixel" art.  I don't even mind that restriction.  What I cannot tolerate, and will not put up with, are the smug, elitist, and arrogant attitudes that come across over there.

I know I've seen some of you AGSers over there ... have any of you noticed the ridiculous way they treat people?

Mash I've seen you posting over there.  You don't get the abuse, mostly just drooling, but I wonder if you've noticed the piss-poor attitudes towards others?

My most recent piece (which I thought was rather nice) is receiving several comments on it ... and only 1 or 2 mention anything I want to hear.  The rest are just bitchin' and moanin' about "too many colors".  Who the hell are they to tell me how many colors I can or cannot use.  It's just plain ignorant and arrogant.

[/rant]

I wonder what people think about stuff like this?  I mean, there's nothing I can do about it ... I just wonder what others think/have noticed about it.

LOVE that windmill ... seriously that's EXACTLY what I was talking about!  It just gives the image soooooo much life!!  And I love the style you have on the trees ... so simple and yet elegant, great job!

I love the new walk-cycles too!  Very smooth and fluid animation!

The only concern I have with the walk-cycle is, judging from the front view ... she's wearing a cape.

In the side view I thought it was just a flap type thing in the back.  What I would suggest is that each frame where you can see the "white" space between the legs/arms and the cape you fill it up with the dark color of the inside of the cape!

Aside from that I cannot WAIT to play this game!

Glad you like the clouds ...

I was going to suggest the 1-pixel white border around the GUI just like you did!  I was envisioning the GUI being not visible at all until you move the mouse to the top of the screen.  Though ProgZ's suggestion of the inventory icon is good too!  I just prefer nothing on the screen (but the cursor) until you need it.  This is, of course, just personal preference.

I just really think something is needed to "pop" the GUI away from the BG in some way.  Again, just personal preference.

As for second guessing (going back to update) your backgrounds ... I'd suggest not spending too much time on that!  I have that same curse where, as I progress I learn new techniques, I then want to go back and touch-up the older BGs with the new techniques.  It's the hardest part of BG design for me!

Another thing I would suggest (unless you really just want to get this done) would be totally bringing these BGs to life by small (and subtle) animations.  Something like this:



I spent VERY little time on this ... just wanted to show something.  I think it would be really cool to animate the clouds in paralax too (though this would be challenging to get it to repeat properly!).

The newer BG is nice too!  Few shading issues as ProgZ mentioned, but nothing I couldn't look easily past while playing the game.  The balcony looks a little odd ... does it go behind the wall?



I tweaked the shading a bit and the angle of the platform (I'm not even sure that's what you meant it to be but I didn't see any other space in the image that could be a walkable area!)

Anyway ... I want to play this game

I'm so in love with this style that I got inspired to try something else!

First though ... the new clouds you put in look good!  However the effect is somewhat lost as they appear to be stacked on top of each other rather than giving a feeling of horizon/distance (if you know what I mean?).  It doesn't feel like they're getting farther away.

Anyway ... here is the new thing I was inspired to try and I think it might fit more with the style of the image:



It does add a few extra colors so I'm not sure you want to use something like this but I think it looks neat.

As for the GUIs ... I like the verb coin you created and I LOVE the inventory slider GUI.  The problem I see with "overlay" GUIs is that they look good when there's a solid color behind it but if you have backgrounds where that's not the case the GUIs can easily get lost and/or muddled in the background.

I usually like to add some kind of "outline" around overlay GUIs.  Something like this ...


(I also flipped it and put it on the bottom to show it overlapping the scenery to illustrate the point!)

I'm guessing that would be a GUI that pops up when you move your mouse to the bottom/top of the screen right?

This isn't bad at all!

The lighting is a little off ... makes it look like the light source is located somewhere around her stomach area (as the breasts are illuminated from below) however, the arms on either side of the breasts are shadowed where they should be lit if the breasts are lit as they are.

Trouble areas:
- The sides of the breasts are squared off.
- The shins/calves area is a little blocky as well and the shading is weird
- The hands are in need of some help

I really like the face/hair (though the cheek hi-lights are a little off).  I know it seems like I'm nit-picking ... but I only do that if the sprite/image is promising

[Edit]

Absolutely loving these images!  So simplistic, yet so full at the same time ... really good job.

As has been said the sky portions feel devoid of anything.

I did a quick paint-over (and forgive the sloppiness - it was done very quickly!)


- updated the sun (removed the black outline and made it more round)
- added some "distance" to the floating island in the background
- added some clouds and sky coloring
- removed the outlining anti-aliasing (just for easier editing ... but you can of course put it back in!)

This was done quickly ... just to give some ideas and I'm sure when/if you spend some time doing it yourself it'd look even better!  However if you like the stark sky areas by all means keep 'em!  I'd play this game either way

Hope it helps.

Edit - and I really LOVE the GUIs ... especially your latest one!

I think we all get it now ... enough about the graphics.  It's been admitted that they are borrowed (like everybody has done from time to time).  Let's move on...

Since you have no 2nd screenshot this will be locked for now.  Send me a PM when you have a second screenshot available.

Please review the Forum Rules and post a second screen-shot ...

As has been suggested you might want to find an English-speaking French AGSer to help you as Babelfish (while making a valiant effort) failed quite miserably here

Please update the post with a bit more information about the game.

Only a French release will limit the number of AGS members that can play it ... you might consider getting a translator to help release an English version if possible (if you need help translating of course).

This is amazing news!!

Congrats Dave Gilbert and the Wadjet Eye Games team!  We can all say "I knew them when..."

But Dave ... seriously man ... don't forget the little people

Kudos.

[Long live liberty!]

Long live liberty!

I hope your country's independence goes smoother than my country's did.

Congrats and best of luck!