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Thanks a lot for your effort. Ironically, I could barely make out a difference between both your versions, in the end I chose InC's for the moment. The page should be updated. Is that better? I'm just guessing here.

I can't, I already run it with maxed out brightness/gamma. This screen is damaged, since a few years it's been getting louder and louder as well.

Wow, that just shows how much my screen sucks. In the middle-part (where the text is), the background is black, really, almost complete black (so it's white text on black, which I personally like reading). I probably won't be able to fix it well without a new screen. Thanks for your comment though, InCreator.

Well, I can find links on YouTube that are illegally online since months - and going by the legal ground they shut TV-Links down, this should be more, more than enough to shut YouTube down. Their anti-copyright-infringement actions are a joke and they know it, they want and need the illegal files on their servers, because that's what lures people to visit YouTube the most.

Well, YouTube actually HOSTS those illegal shows, they just have enough money as a company to stand above American law, so they do not get shut down, or am I missing something here?

Redraw the water, maybe read up on how Miez from the FoY-team draws it in his tutorial at barnettcollege.com. Also, get rid of the noise-filter on the tree and the stone - it only works on the flat grass. Apart from that, it's better than your last piece.

If you reload the page or try to navigate around, the unit above the navigation will change randomly from 10 images. That's only a smallish doodah I've seen on a Splinter Cell fansite back in the day. Apart from that, there's no script, browsers that don't accept JavaScript, will simply not show the whole unit-graphic and display the navigation a little higher instead.

About the banner: the image I use was in the kit without transparency. On my screen, the bgd-image is so dark, that it seems to fade fine, but my screen is a little dark, so do you actually see that it fades to black and not to the bgd? In that case, I will either include a logo by myself photoshopped from screenshots etc. or I'll try to kill the black parts of the logo now in Photoshop and make it fade out properly.

Thanks for your time.

You mean a 1px-border around the news items? I had that and didn't like the look at all, then I tried to separate the individual items with the images as it is now. Could you elaborate? Thanks for the feedback though.

EDIT: Oh, read your post again, you meant a second background for the whole middle-part? That could work, but on the other hand, I don't want to use too many big images and I don't think it's that necessary. Or does anybody else feel the same? Oh, and a second question (first one in original post is still open, too): is it okay nowadays to not use these awful, annoying framesets and just have each page done individually like it is now? Like, when I click on the Overview button, it loads the changing middle, but also the navigation and header again? This way seems the easiest and I really, really hate frames, but is that common or frowned upon?

[don't try it on Internet Explorer]

So, I threw this page together based on the StarCraft 2 web-developer kit that was recently released. I'm no web-designer, but I like to work on pages every now and then. This is what came up with, how about some quick break-downs - how did you like the visual-appearance and would you agree that this very simple navigation-layout works the best in order to not complicate matters or confuse the user?

I did it with Dreamweaver using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Final note and a question: don't try it on Internet Explorer, it might not only block the JavaScript, but it will not display the images with alpha-channel correctly. I know this is a flaw, but I *need* the alpha-channel. Can somebody help here? I used .png for those images since I know of no other extension with alpha-channel that is usual on the net (.tif wouldn't work, I guess), Firefox displays it all correctly though.

http://www.freewebs.com/test-my-site

I know it's not much, but what the heck. Try to reload/refrest the page, too, the little unit-image will change randomly - just a little doodah.

Also, ignore the Features- and Links-boxes, different content will be put in there later.

Oh, and, no, I don't want to start a StarCraft 2 site, it's just a mock-up.

EDIT: Keep in mind, the graphics are mostly taken from the kit, just photoshopped/arranged into the page, I don't want to be looked upon as a ripper or whatever.

Please don't kill me if I'm wrong here, but is this maybe only a re-texture of the GTA 3 player-model? I remember the model looking a LOT like yours, especially around the pants, shoes and jacket. Also, why did you say "I already made the animations for all directions", when you clearly rendered the same animation in a 3d-program, just from a different camera-position? It's very obvious that you didn't hand-pixel here.

Great to hear it's fixed, and I'm sure it's helping your confidence with AGS build up and good in your test-game, but consider that the constant up- or down-scaling of a character in AGS using that method is not appropriate for a real game (in which you should definately draw your rooms and characters already in the proper size to each other by constantly comparing them, checking back and forth / pasting characters in your room graphics). It just looks tons better that way.

[RECORDED PIXEL ART PROJECT]

May I welcome you to the RECORDED PIXEL ART PROJECT over at pixelation.com - check it out.

Huh? Why would FL not be usable as "standalone" program? I don't quite get that part. Don't know about Reason, but FL can be used and comes with more than enough generators/filters/fx etc. to compose and program a complete song with good sounding instruments. Without plug-ins or anything.

Sure, to echo Nikolas, it depends on what kind of sound you're hoping to attain. Reason and FL are both great for simple loops, riffs and effects, etc (and obviously, Reason grows exponentially more powerful with extra ReFill patches), however, often, a program like Cubase is often necessary to enhance the composition process tenfold by enabling you to splice a file and put it back together again (a la Talk Talk's later, more ambient work), record instruments that are not keyboards or other such MIDI surfaces, and heck, even use a parametric EQ.

Allow me to rephrase, then... Reason and FruityLoops respectively are often not viable for complete score composition unless your will is to create tracks which conform to the programs' respective restrictions, or unless working with full recording suites is not to your liking.

Check newer versions then, or something (again, I can only speak for FL). It HAS instruments "that are not keyboards/MIDI" and it has EQs in all sizes and varieties.

And what do you mean with "splicing a file"? Slicing a recorded track? That's all possible.

There's a thread for this, search the forums...

If you're using the PTE, you wont be able to add drums of any kind to your music either, maybe think about using a real midi-sequencer as program to compose with instead of a guitar-tabbing-tool.

Yep, oh granted, Reason and FruityLoops generally can't be used as standalone programs.

Huh? Why would FL not be usable as "standalone" program? I don't quite get that part. Don't know about Reason, but FL can be used and comes with more than enough generators/filters/fx etc. to compose and program a complete song with good sounding instruments. Without plug-ins or anything.

I hope not to come across harsh, your art is great, but this isn't quite what I'd call a tutorial. Many of these so-called tutorials similar to yours float around in which people break their work up in x stages and say what they did. I personally find it unusable to work with, what it needs is more description, more facts if you will. What brushes did you use? Which strength, which size? Go into detail, how exactly did you draw this feature (the flag, the ship)? Somebody who wants to learn from that isn't going to get anything out of this at all, and he's just gonna be stuck at step 3 wondering how the hell to do what you did.

To an already pro, though, I suppose it does describe your technique nicely.

You won't be able to make music without knowing how to do it. Well, you could hammer in random notes, but the product would most, most likely suck teh big one. It's like using Photoshop, it's a great tool, but somebody who has NO IDEA of art (how to shade, how shadows work, how to dither, how to outline etc.) won't be able to make good art with it.

Well, when you move your characters using the Walk-function, you can always let them ignore the WAs.

Software:

Cool Edit Pro
Fruity Loops Studio 5

That and a Shure SM57 mic to record real instruments (guitars, bass mainly).

Yes, I personally prefer the first version, just take the way the lighting looks from the second image as reference and try to accomplish the same thing by hand with pixels in the first one.

Also, as cat said, the composition: lots of people do as you do and create one box as room and then go crazy adding little details and doodahs everywhere. This is the wrong way to do a normal room - try to add detail in the geometry of the room! For example, imagine this is top-down:

Code: ags

your room right now:
____
|  |
|__|

make it more interesting, example for an edge:

  ______
__|    |
|      |
|______|

Good work, though, your rendering of the objects inside (desk, walls etc.) seems fine so far. Your shading is basic, but that's fine.