Messages

Looking amazing, as usual, Dan. I thought that I'd just take a bit of a look at the lighting as well, since you seem to have the rest of it largely under control.

The big lighting issue I see in this particular corner of the island is that with the large halo of light around the lantern, it makes this area look somewhat foggy, which I really hadn't seen in the other backgrounds you've posted, including the rough of the same background. Haddas' edit, though perhaps a little more contrasty than I think is particularly necessary, does help to give the background a somewhat less misty, etherial look. Now, if you're going for that look, I'd suggest having a little fog or something of the sort at ground level, perhaps coming from the Bass pond area.

And indeed, it does remind one of Melee Island, which is a good thing. It's consistent, and assuming that we'll be seeing daylight once the story progresses past this first chapter, it's a good way to start. Lovely.

The porn soundtrack one has already been done, actually, with pretty decent results I may add. And to a lesser extent, the lullabye concept has also been touched upon, though unless you count Greg as a crazy child monster, not to quite the same specifications.

It's been long enough that either could be reprised, of course, and with the added 'crazy child monster' stipulation on the lullabye, it definitely adds a new dimension to the composition. I may or may not be down for participating in the competiton, depending on how much time I have this week, regardless of the theme.

'Course, with the porn music idea, I'd get to try and simulate a wakka-chikka.

Bagpipe music. I'm not actually ashamed to admit it at all, but I tend not to play it much around other people. Still, I'm Nova Scotian, bagpipe is in my blood.

I'm a huge fan of Jethro Tull also, it was my love of their music that made me take up the Flute in high school band. They even did covers of Bouree and Pavane. I wanted to rock out on the flute as well... Alas, I sucked, and don't even know where my flute is anymore. Now I play the Guitar, Drums and Didjeridoo like everyone else.

But I digress (not at all uncommon for me). I don't listen to anything I wouldn't be willing to shout aloud that I like. At one point I liked Morning Musume, but I haven't heard anything of theirs that I was particularly interested in since "The Peace" in ages... and I think Katori Shingo did a much better version of that one, even. I also like other Japanese boy-bands like Smap, the Gospellers and Chemistry. I even sing their stuff in karaoke/in the shower. I used to be a bit embarrassed that I liked Puffy, back in 1999, but they seem to have become popular in the US now, too.

And anything 8-bit. Beep-beep, baby.

As far as GraphicsGale being a commercial program, I indeed shelled out the (about) 20 bucks that it cost after getting myself hooked on it around the beginning of the ATC this year (Granted, it was my first venture into sprite art, and that usually tends to be the one people stick with).

It's nice and inexpensive, but if 20 bucks is still too much, Human Balance also offers a free version here with .gif, .ico, .cur and .ani functionality removed. My advice as always is that if you're going to buy any program, try out the 30 day trial, and if you don't think it's worth it, try something else. I thought the price was right, and I have a credit card of my own, so I went for it.

If you're going to pay for an art program specifically for sprite art, though, it sure beats the hell out of paying four times as much for Paint Shop Pro, or 30 times as much for Photoshop (Though I suppose you already have that one).

Ah, yes. Imageready. Unfortunately, I only own Photoshop Elements, so it's all bare bones for me. Still, I do use photoshop for resizing scanned images that I translate into sprites (Also, consequentially, something I learned off of Eric's site). Not to mention that I don't really have the RAM to run two adobe products on my computer at the same time.

And speaking of that tutorial, what ever happened to the RON game that tutorial refers to? Also - sorry for all the tangents - I don't see a navigation bar on your site at the moment, or I'd have linked the sprite tutorial myself.

I agree it's probably not the ideal tool for pixel art, but it's not a bad program for that matter either. I personally use GraphicsGale as it's designed for pixel art. Still, as Evil said, as long as you're working with a single-pixel pencil tool, it's hard to go wrong - and Photoshop has a handful of nice features that most 'lesser' programs don't.

I never figured out how to animate in photoshop, mind you, so if you're making character sprites eventually, that might end up tripping you up ultimately. It's handier to have something with multiple frames and an onion-skin option. Regardless, once you've zoomed in to 300 or more percent, the principle's the same.

[loominous]

Crikey. Critic that I am, I wish I could find something substantial wrong with loominous's background, but aside from the fact that the birds should probably be added in later as sprites, nothing comes to mind. It's exactly as it should be, and even though it's not particularly indicative to having characters on it, there's still a walkway and plenty to see. There were similar backgrounds in LOOM, and for the contest's rules, it's no less valid than any other background here. Marvelous.

I vote for loominous.

I thought I'd just go ahead and re-iterate what Corey said a bit earlier in the thread, that there seems to be no parking space for the burger joint, and it's otherwise entirely unattached to the road. At the very least you would likely see a darker patch of well-driven dirt or gravel in front of the restaurant, but as it seems to be a somewhat larger chain-type restaurant, it'd likely have an asphalt parking lot. A drive-through may be nice to have as well.

As for the damaged water tower, I noticed a discrepancy or two: The tower is bending away from the road, and the support is buckling, as though it was hit on an angle from above by a heavy object, but the metal is fanning outward like something burst out from within the reservoir instead. If the ship hit it and deposited something within the water that later burst out, that isn't a problem, but if all the damage is caused by the UFO, you'll probably want the hole to crunch inward instead.

InCreator really knows what he's doing with those mountains - and if you want to make them even less obvious, you can make them more "hazy" by fading them out more, but they ought to be there. On a long, flat plane, you still tend to see whatever big's on the other side. I'm not so sure on the glowing sunspots, however - the rest of the background is very sharp and aliased, so having a few blurred spots kind of confuses the eyes.

Arr, happy birthday, Greg - and here's to 19 more.

Honestly, I thought that the caption competition had a lot of potential to be funny, but I wasn't particularly fond with the 'four completely unrelated images' thing. It made it extremely difficult to come up with anything really entertaining, as it was mostly attempting to find some sort of method of tying the images together. My favorite Caption Competition to date was an image from BASS. I think that it has much more potential for creativity when you aren't forced to make connections like you need to the other way.

As far as the relevance of the contest is concerned, I figure that it's a method of showcasing the ability to create entertaining dialogue, or make sense of visual situations.

I went to the NorCal Rennaissance Faire last weekend, and in the spirit of Talk like a Pirate day (Though, every day is talk like a pirate day for me), I thought I'd share my Buccaneer look.


Arr! That's a flintlock in me pants, but I am happy to see ye, too.

Mine is accurate down to basically the position of my computer desk. I figure if someone's obsessed enough to come all the way to Japan to find me, I owe it to them to make the last bit easier for them.  I mean, that's a pricey flight. Hell, if a fellow AGSer feels like dropping in, they can feel free to - I'll even take 'em to lunch. I could use the english-speaking company.

I've had a listen to the track, and I enjoyed it.

The largest critique I have regarding the song is that it's somewhat formless - which is to say not that it is disorganized or badly designed, but for some reason it doesn't feel very tangible - or at least that's the feeling I got from it. I think that this is largely due to the lack of percussion, or notable rhythm in the song. This could probably be worked around by adding in some drums, (Something that isn't too heavy, just something to keep people on track, working with your dulcimer-esque instrument) or something else that would asssist in carrying the rhythm a little more, perhaps around 1:10? There's not much by way of variation in the track, so by adding something new here and there, I think it'd work rather nicely.

It succeeds extremely well in being unobtrusive - it could easily float along the background in a game, but I would almost say it's more suited to background music as it is than that of an intro... depending, of course, what is happening during said intro. It feels somewhat science-fiction-esque to me, which may or may not be what you were going for. With an idea of what it will be accompanying, it'd probably be easier to pin down what exactly would help the track.

Still, I do like it. Hopefully, I've managed to convey some of my thoughts to you in an intelligible manner. I'm afraid it's late, and things don't always make as much sense outside the ol' noggin.

Nope, CP, you're not alone - I can't stand having a metric ass-ton of icons on my desktop, and I also go for the minimalist look with my images as well. This one, from the comic Makuhari was on my desktop for a month or two, until the superhero comic competition, when I found my most recent. It dethroned Nara for a while, but he may return soon.

That is awesome news. I am, as my name suggests, a big nerd when it comes to space-related stuff - I spend hours at a time reading articles on Space.com. I even check the Sun cam now and then. A nice sized ball of ice 9 billion miles from the sun - and on one hell of an orbit, too.

My biggest hope about this one is that they give it a proper Roman God name, I'd suggest Vulcan - but there'd be no end to the Star Trek references. Maybe something like Janus - god of Doors. You know, last planet in our Solar system - entrance to our world, so on. Seems to me it makes the most sense to go with Roman mythology, since with the exception of Terra, the rest all have been named as such. And 2003UB313 is a mouthful.

Very cool stuff.

Awesome. Great job, Dambuilder and all other fellow entrants - It was a fun contest, now that it's starting to pick up. With summer break coming up, I'll have more time to focus on my entry this next time through.

Again, groovy stuff, looking forward to the next one.

Arr.

[that]

Allow me, first, to say congratulations on the engagement - I didn't say so on the other thread, but I still mean it. I don't often make it a point to congratulate people about things on the 'net, but there you go.

Anyway, good luck on your way here, Kinoko. It's possible you'll forget something, or lose it in the first few days, but as long as you have your passport, you'll do okay. There's plenty here to replace anything you don't have. It's a big shock at first, as I'm sure you already understand - I'm not sure how much Japanese you speak, but English works to get around until your Japanese improves, if that's necessary. Living alone here can be an adventure, but since you've got a sponsor of sorts (Your school), they should be willing to help you out with anything that doesn't go swimmingly at first.

As far as living alone is concerned, there are some who handle it better than others, and seperation anxiety is pretty common, but something you'll get used to. The internet is your friend, and since you're already looking into video-chat programs, that should help soften the blow. Me, I'm single/not even dating, so that made it even easier, but except for the lack of physical contact thing, it should still be easy enough to communicate. Hell, you're even practically in the same time-zone. I do miss my cats, though.

Chicky's right about the three big points to having an easy time living alone, though I tend to let paper and art supplies pile up all over the place, and tend to live off of 'bento' as opposed to shopping regularly (Lawson is your friend). And the empty house nudity thing? The first thing I do when I get home after class? Off with the pants. (Too much information, I'm sure, but it's wonderful). Now, that wasn't the best idea ever when we had that 5.whatever earthquake recently, as I was almost out the door by the time I realized my pants were still near my desk, but anyway...

Hmm... Only other piece of advice I can offer is dress lightly. It's damned hot and unnecessarily humid here right now, at least in the Chiba/Tokyo area. I hope you don't mind being the center of attention, also. It may not be the same way since you'll be in a larger city, but we white folk get stared at a lot. I got stared at in the USA for having bright blue hair and tattoos, but in Japan, even when my tattoos are covered and my hair is brown again, I still get watched a lot. It's not that disconcerting, but still. There's always the 'What... is my zipper down?' factor. It's more prominent in the smaller cities where we're rarer.

Anyway, Good luck - you'll love it here. If you need any help on anything Japan related, you know who to call. Or you can call on me. I may be helpful too.

Now We need to work out a date for Japanittens. Arr.

I'm not entirely happy with how he turned out, so I may do a few tweaks before the contest is over, but here he is.

x1x2

Name: Captain Lincoln F. Sternn
From: Heavy Metal - The Movie

Graphire seems to be the cheapest set of Wacom tablets. I'm using an old, apparently no longer made version of the old Graphire, but it still works like a charm - small, perhaps, but still serviceable, and I've found a similar (possibly newer) model on e-bay for 15 dollars US (Here, as of 7.23). If you're looking to buy one new, the Graphire 3 4x5 series sells for about $100 US, which isn't too bad, especially compared to the $750 of the Intuos 12x18, or the 3K Cintiq which seems to be the top of the current line.

This page Has all the information you should need on Wacom's tablets.