Messages

Well I was doing this game for awhile and as I work alone I have to cut corners every now and then to save time. Also this game would have been dark in tones so the realistic style would be good. I used royalty free photographs, cutted them in photoshop, and did quick paintovers and I think I got pretty good results. It did take some time, but I'm sure it took less time then making them all by hand. Plus I suck at drawing so there you go    The background doesn't mesh as well as it should but this was just a WIP. Here's an example:



EDIT: Oh yeah, to answer the original question I just took photographs that suited. Cutted them with magnetic lasso, magic wand or quick selection. After that I resized and after that I painted over. Without the paintover they would've looked even more "resized" so that's a must. At some point you have to try the sprite to your BG and change hue and lighting values so that the sprite will fit in. So if you have a car photographed at sunset it will most likely not mesh as a car at daylight. So you have to tweak that by hand whatever is the situation.

First of all nice progress!

And I don't know if my criticism is good since nobody else seems to mind it, but in all the pictures you have posted (including the earlier thread) you use this texture at the edge of the room walls that I find quite unrealistic and mood-breaking, since it doesn't change in perspective at all and it's too repetitive. I mean that grating type of texture with red bits on it. I would personally change the texture or just flat-shade it. Other than that the pics are looking pretty good! Keep up the good work! 

I have to agree with Condemned. That's one scary game if played by yourself in the dark with headphones. Seriously good headphones make a world of difference in the ambiance. In Condemned you get such a jolt everytime somebody starts to run and you can't see where they're coming from. I think pretty much any game would be non-scary if the sound would be muted.

If you live alone, it's dark outside, no lights on in the house and have a decent set of headphones pretty much any horror game will give you chills.

When I was younger we used to play Silent Hill 2 at my friends house and then I had to walk this forest path in the dark at midnight when returning home. That was pretty scary. I think the psychological twists in that game are just top notch and SH2 is pretty much my all-time horror game no. 1 because of it's story.

Nacho, I meant originality regards to the writing, not the setting. Just because the setting is familiar doesn't mean that it's an unoriginal show. I think they actually have won awards for that. Atleast I remember them getting something from the not-so-old "24 minutes"-episode.

I don't think there's nothing but old shows on your list (don't know them all). No problem watching re-runs as there are good shows there, but everything gets old when watched too many times.

Well I agree on that point that it's just a "product for consumers" but that's basically anything on TV nowadays. I don't really care about the charts or stuff behind it if it's just entertaining when I need my fix. I do have to say that South Park has been more entertaining from the two to me for the past two or so years but simpsons have always been there right behind it.

Lost is another thing... It was pretty fine from the start but obvious writing fumbles got it into a mess... STILL it is more groundbreaking then 56 episodes of "another-hospital-drama-with-relations". And basically without those fumbles they wouldn't even have had a show to air. Anything to break the monotony on TV.

I didn' t like the Simpsons since, let' s say, season 7 or 8.

I tried to watch Lost with my mate, we would gather all the flaws into a booklet but got bored after a few episodes, now it's gone 2 seasons and nothing has happened.

You people name any series that beat simpsons or lost in terms of originality and I'll give you a prize (south park is not counted). Simpsons are (on and off) better than anything on tv and Lost is just making television history because of it's plot (like it or not).

I can't believe that smart people are bashing the gems of tv.

EDIT: And for the record: "best commentary on american life is found within daily show and colbert report" If you know anything about US then these will make you chuckle hard.

EDIT2: And yes the simpsons have been on a decline but name a show that's better.

I prefer family guy here. It's more radical in its approach. Not so predictable. Naughtier. Closer to South Park.

Watching Homer Simpson being that same miserable moron through god-knows-how-many episodes disgusts me.
I hoped for a fresh breath of air from the movie they released lately, but after movie, decided to never watch Simpsons again.

Although I think that early family guys were indeed magnificent, I have to say: What in the world is wrong with you? Did you think that Homer would wise-up? After 18 years?  Well now I know why there's Aqua Teen Hunger Force in existence. Random humour obviously clicks with some people... Yeah that's humor...

U think that's bad?...

I definitely agree with that that in some cases it's fighting for survival, but at the same time in some cases it's pure greed. Also whatever the reasons is behind multiplying, it's definitely making it worse for everybody else, which means that more people will die. Also in this cycle the nature gets it's share because of overfarming (I don't know if this is the right word) and deforestation. I would propably do whatever it takes to survive too, so I'm not saying that I'm anything better.

Yeah I wasn't agreeing with the fact that Cuba didn't have trading partners. I just said things would be better for Cuba if USA wouldn't breath down his neck. Cuba's economy went down south in 1989-1993 mainly because of the fall of Soviet Union and Cuba lost a lot of trade and Soviet aides because of that.

Now, can you quote an example of one (or severall) countries of the First World forcing all the countries in the rest of the world not to buy a certain good produced in a country of the Third World? (For example, America forcing ALL THE REST OF THE WORLD not to buy a certain item or commerce with Cuba)

The 1963 U.S. embargo was reinforced in October 1992 by the Cuban Democracy Act (the "Torricelli Law") and in 1996 by the Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act (known as the Helms-Burton Act) which penalises foreign companies that do business in Cuba by preventing them from doing business in the US. The justification provided for these restrictions was that these companies were trafficking in stolen U.S. properties, and should, thus, be excluded from the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba
googled and took first:example

I think that makes atleast some difference compared to a situation were no embargo would be in place.

EDIT: Oh yeah and to response to the original question: I think that well thought out babies are always good, if you can yourself provide for them. What is not so good is the mentality in some of the third world countries, that you make seven children so that one of them makes it to old age to take care of you (in some African countries). Or when in other countries some people use their daughters like money when they hit puberty through prostitution or simply selling them (parts of Africa and Asia).

Overpopulating the earth is stupid. That's what we as humans are doing right now. There's just simply not enough resources (as I understand) to continue this way. If we were to make every third world country rise from the "swamp" through industrialization we would be in hell of a jam when all of the world would be polluting the nature around them. There's some interesting documentaries at what is the ongoing expense for China. It's not pretty what the companies are doing to their country, but who cares as long as the money keeps coming (this includes local authorities who turn the blind eye, when it comes to pollution from local companies).

It was a beautiful afternoon. Then an airplane came.

“I can’t feel my hand anymore” An cried with a breathed breath softly sniffing and mumbling as constant tiny rivers of tears ran down her face. Trai shouted something uncontrollable and then took An into his arms and quickly pressed his hand against An’s cheek, closed his eyes and whispered: “I know it hurts… we’ll make it... I love you.”

As Trai shed tears he looked in to An’s brown eyes, which were like two pieces of finest translucent marble showing light brown gems inside of them. He saw life fading away with every pulse of the salty stream.

In the distance you could hear how the village was overrun, how people were crying, how metal made impact coming from the distance, how the air was filled with unreasonable and misdirected hate.

An’s hand was melting into the ground and it was already like a pool of greyish goo. “I’m sorry I didn’t kiss you yesterday” said An. Life was already leaving her as the blood ran wildly to the ground. She continued:”I was so dirty from the day’s work”, as she closed her eyes. Trai just held her in his arms and rocked back and forth trying to make everything right somehow: “Just stay with me.”

Another airplane came. It dropped something. That something said: ”Freedom from China Beach”

I really like your style in this one, but as Ryan said it lacks a bit of depth. I photoshopped around with this for a while and this is what I got:



The main differences are pretty obvious (island, close-up bush, the waterline), but I also changed the path, trash can's shading, contrast on the left and the tree a bit and added some distance haze on top of the island and horizon. I also shaded the water up close to a more greenish hue. I just doodled the wave so it's just reference for you if you decide to go that way. Hope this helps a bit.

Oh come on! This is like waiting for Duke Nukem Forever.

...and I love fast-looking and small cars.

I just thought to post this as I was just trying some stuff. Main differences are the brightness (so that you can see something ) and color separation between the two rooms. Added some glow from the windows. Hope this sparks ideas or helps in some way. Nice work S!

Thanks for the throphy man! And congrats to Ben!

Trendy cold-blooded bitches will eat us all alive.



Oh yeah and that's a zombie in the picture. 

[EdLoen]

Very nice submissions! I'm kinda busy at the moment so I try to keep it simple:

The Worlds Assembly of Zany Undead Picturers (WAZUP) took their time analyzing the submitted pictographs and here are the results:

   EdLoen

One fine example of a zombiehead. Nice colorscheme and technique. You gotta love the peeling skin, missing tooth and the eyeball looking god knows where. It certainly was my faaa~vorite!

   Pittiz

The seafood strikes back in this one and will certainly keep you on your toes. The most complete work of all and with very nice technique. Kind of a cutesy undead which works well too with the bright colors, but just didn't feel "undead" enough to beat EdLoen's zombiehead.

   Cherubgeist

This entry makes me laugh so hard. Very funny and nice work with few colors. Very good character design. Should be in a game somewhere either as a boss monster in an action game or in an adventure game in LeChuck fashion.

Although all of these incredible findings were handed to Fox news and broadcasted, nobody seemed to believe them. That made the WAZUP to turn to some of the real news networks and the world was saved yet again. WAZUP would like to congratulate every and each one of you for making a contribution towards saving mankind.

After I submitted the outline I realized it was too busy, but you all made some sense in to it against all odds. Thanks for all for participating! 

[bartillier]

Okay now that I took some extra time to listen to these properly with time and hd650 headphones, they are all freakin' amazing. There are pretty much talent in you guys, so all should feel really proud of themselves right now.

I just have to say that two entries raise a little above the other competition, but it was truly hard to decide winner, because there were so different styles and both were produced with great care.

So here are the results:


   bartillier

I just love this shiz. The song progresses very smoothly and it's like a happy party in my ears and everyone's invited. Very different from the original tune and shows great craftmanship in the arts of tunes. Good job bartillier!


   zabnat

This tune was inches away from the first place. The atmosphere is very nice with some sad tones which are lifted with some slowed down drum&bass like drums. Ambient vibes at it's best. Very nice! Go finnish producers!


   Antonio

There was definitely some fighting over the third place and this too was a close call but Antonio came out on top with his beat-extravaganza. Although there wasn't as much melodic elements the interesting beat carried all the way home. Boojiboy was very close to third position but there were some hiccups in there with some clicking in the samples, and I had to give the points for overall quality too.

Special mention goes to djres for some weirdest mixing ever, and Obi for the best lyrics ever.

Thanks for all of you for participating. Some serious talent in these boards.

There's a lot of zany undead pictographers here, that's for sure. Nice work everybody! Just a day and a half to go until the deadline.