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My forte is music .. .but my second passion is the art of well ... art .... i do a lot of photoshop work and consider myself a pretty good graphic artist - at least as far as photo manipulation and gui type stuff goes ... but when it comes to more along the lines of digital painting and things of that nature my skills arent where i would like them ...

anyway ... i have this sketch that i would like to turn into a pretty nice painting. Im using a Bamboo-Fun art pad ... I used superman for several reasons ... 1) love him ... 2) the colors are simple so i figured it would be good to start learning with and 3) practice doing faces too



i know there a thousand digital painting tutorials out there but for some reasonI'm finding it hard to find one that really speaks to me and tells everythingI'm looking to learn ... don't know ifI'm making much sense so let me get to the point:

you digital painting artists out there who think you could give me a little personal tutorial or pointers and maybe a quick basic paint over  to show me how to get started ... or maybe even link me to some of your favorite tutorials that got you started ... just looking for some push in the right direction (a rather large push would be nice ) thanks guys!

THe font works just fine man. Looks nice and works nice.

im playing abstauber's game now ... been playing it for about the past hour ... i chose it first because it just looks/sounds pretty sweet ... and ... who am i kidding? i wrote the music for it (and did some of the sound effects) so i wanted to see my music in action ... lol.

but this game is pretty sweet ... i mean its challenging, funny and fun and leaves u wanting to know what happens next ...

abstauber you did a great job with this game. ... i found 1 or 2 glitches so far - nothing major:
on the first arcade sequence, when you die (and you probably will die ... i did like 5 times before i beat this part - lol ... okay who am i kidding? i died like 10-12 times)
anyway, when you die and you get the option to restart level or go back to main menu, if you choose restart level it crashes. which its not a huge deal cus i saved it right before i got to that part of the game so i just reloaded my saved game (2nd arcade sequence works fine as far as restarting the level)

AND - in the ship as the screen moves up and down slightly (which is a really nice effect btw) but anyway - as it moves up and down the room/screen gradually starts sliding down below the menus at the bottom ...

i didnt really encounter any other bugs that jumped out at me ... but good work man!


as far as everyone else's game goes ... i am going to play them too - but i don't think it would be fair for me to judge since i kind of helped with the AeroNuts game. But i will play and tell u how awesome they are!!!!

It looks pretty good, but it isn`t pixel art - in pixel art the placement and the color of each pixel is thought of. Blender tools, photoshop effects and color reductions are not allowed in pixel art . You clearly didn`t choose every color yourself, as the color count is 2833.

If you want to do pixel art I would suggest learning from here.
http://pixeljoint.com/pixels/links.asp?id=2192

I think that the mountains do not look as realistic because  the contrast is a bit dull if it`s morning. (Just my opinion. You can wait and see what others have to say about this)

i really dont think these rules are concrete ... maybe i did use a little too much blending but i was only trying to follow this tutorial by an outstanding pixel artist:
http://www.barnettcollege.com/tutorial1.htm

I started working on this and I'm - obviously - not finished but i cant seem to get enough realism with the mountains here ... any tips/suggestions?

thanks.

im no bg expert by any means but based on what i do know - i think i could help u a little:

not sure whats going on with the cliff in the bottom left ... i mean to me it almost looks like a silhouette of a bush or something in the foreground.

the sun does look like an orange or something floating around in the foreground.  u may want to change ur shading to make it look less round ... i know you have your own art style going on here (and i like it) but maybe take a look at some real pictures (or paintings) of a nature/ocean scene with a sun in it and see how its shaded to get a more realistic approach.

also - i recommend maybe doing something to the sun like reducing its opacity or something so it looks further away.

Actually, my friend and I did something similar to what Snake said.  And we were in middle school (or late elementary) too.

on the bus - on the way home from school - we would play bomberman on a piece of paper.  We would draw maps and define what items you could use and what wallsyou could blow up and stuff like that. and one person would play through it and one person would be the "computer" and throw in wrenches along the way ... like "now theres an enemy here and hes going to do this" ... or some things similar.

eventually we evolved from bomber man and made up new rules and new games and things. it was loads of fun ... i had totally forgotten about all that until just now. thanks for the memories.

What's DBZ by the way?  :

Dragon Ball Z ... just in case you weren't being sarcastic

[Bicilotti]

I dunno - i liked both of these.

I think Bulbapuck's game fit the theme better.  I mean it was about two toys coming to life.  But i can see how Bicilotti's game is meant to be a giant interactive toy thing too ... and to be honest I think i did enjoy playing Bicilotti's game better. It was random and entertaining.

I think if Bulbapuck would've been able to do a little more with his game then he would get this one ... but ... i'm giving my vote to Bicilotti

Good job to both ofyou.

I know i told you guys that all game updates would be made on our website (www.startrekadventures.com) from now on (and the site is being updated everyday with updates) but for those of you who have yet to make the journey over to the site and check it out i thought id let you guys know our official game progress here ... so take a look:

ATTENTION ALL!!!!

Our website is up! www.startrekadventures.com

It is not completley functional yet as we are still working on updating some of the pages.  However, this site is where the majority of our new game info will be posted.  The site gets updated almost daily so keep checking back!

ALSO, If you want to be notified when their are major site/game updates then please sign up for our E-Mail Updates list and
get updated via email whenever there is a major update! Simply e-mail us your name and a valid return e-mail address
to startrekadventures@gmail.com

Well first of all i would like to thank James for his kind words about me in his previous post.  I am working on the music/sound for the game as well as creating the space scenes and menu interfaces (as well as promotional banners and such).  This is a fun project and we are getting closer and closer to a release date but there are just a few things that are bogging us down at the moment. 

ANyway, i just wanted to echo what James said and let you guys know we appreciate your support and you are keeping us motivated with th is project.  So keep posting your questions and we will do whatever we can to keep your interest alive. thanks.

good stuff!

I just want you guys to be aware that this game will feature a magnificent original musical score! 

Yeah you can use only one instrument from only one tune. That is the bare minimum.

but we CAN use both tunes and multiple instruments (from the samples) if we choose?

This is a great idea ... i'm definitley going to try and find time to write a piece - i havent had the chance to compete in a tune contest in quite some time - but i should be able to make this one.

just so i'm clear:
we have to use some elements of BOTH of the sample tunes in our original piece? and do we have to use melodic instruments from both of the pieces or just one? cus the first tune is all synthesized instruments.

thanks guys/ i have been using layers ... every part of the painting is a seperate layer - the river - the grass - the hill in the background - the mountain - the sky - all seperate layers. i think the clouds are even there on layer. i guess im just having trouble (the most) with all the fine detail that comes next.

I'm new to the whole photoshop painting thing ... so i figured i'd fool around and pain this little landscape as a learning process.  Obviously it's not done but i figure its far enough along u guys could give me some tips ... i got the basic shapes and shadowing down for the most part and ijust need more detail i guess ... what could i do to make this better?




also (because the bright colors where annoying me) - i played with the hue/saturation a little bit and came up with a more pleasing (less contrasting) color scheme:

this is a nice piece of music that could easily be used in a video game.  You have a nice piece here where the melody is gradually supported by more and more accompaniment as the piece progresses. But you're right - towards the end of this example you really want to start going a different direction so the listener doesnt get tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. There are a million ways you could go about doing something like this (and it really all depends on what this piece of music is for) but try playing around with this:

-Transition into a new chord progression (same key - different chord pattern/progression ... a key change can come later but this is probably not the best place to put it just yet)

-As for the accompaniment in this new section: You can have them doing the same patterns over the new chords if you want. I'd suggest altering them a little bit - but not too much ... it needs to sound like the same piece of music.

-I think this next section needs to build up into something bigger - you've got a good build-up up until this point so let it bloom here. Maybe try bringing in some underlying droan chords (no more arpeggios or anything with lots of texture - you have plenty of that already). Maybe some low brass and strings supporting the chord stuctures.

Many pieces of music have a simple ABA format - So this is what u want to achieve. (in can get more in depth but for now work with this).  Right now you have the "A" section. What i've just described to you above will be the "B" section. Then you will want to revert back to the "A" section - maybe not the exact same arrangement but at least keep the melody noticable as it was in the A section.

Think of it as any song you'd hear on the radio ... just about all songs have an intro (which you kind of have. It's not much of an intro but for video game music there doestn really need to be an elaborate intro). anyway- songs have an intro - a verse - a choruse - a verse - an ending. (as i said there is usually more depth in that structure but again: work with this for now is my suggestion)

Hopefully these tips have helped you but if you have any more questions or any questions about anything i've said just let me know.

Good work - keep it up.

yes RedPress - Corel simulates real painting very well. im impressed with it myself.

here's my entry. it may be slightly inappropriate. anyway - i'm still new to the whole painting with photoshop thing. i went with a very cartoony look for this bg