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If you're thinking more along the lines of 'defile', that's a pretty cool two-dollar word you could use. The context of defile, of course, is to make something unclean or to profane it. Something along the lines of:

Defiler

Though that almost sounds like a program for mass file deletion, or something like that. Oh well. That's the best I could come up with at present.

Additional: Was I the only one who immediately assumed this was a thread on advice to summon elder horrors, from the title?

I'm going to go ahead and agree with JeebusSez on the possibility that a waddle could improve the walkcycle - it still looks good as it is, but with the way its body is shaped, it'd probably be 'easier' for it to walk about by throwing its weight around a little bit more.

I really dig the determined look it has in the newer walkcycle - like it really wants to be where it's going, in contrast with the wide-eyed, almost mortified look of the static/old walkcycle. This character has a whole lot of personality, and will probably be a lot of fun to guide about.

This all is a really great example of how black outlines are viable in backgrounds and sprites - people generally seem to prefer the 'darker shade of the existing colors' approach, but I'd go so far as to say I almost prefer it like this. I opened it up in GraphicsGale and played around with it a bit, altering the outlines, but I really do like the black better.

As far as the background - I'm both amazed at your skill, and ashamed of my own, looking at stuff of this quality. I can find little to change in this one, if anything. For aesthetics, I'd say that if you were up to the task, it would be mind-blowingly awesome to have that background animated - the giant leaves and lights swaying in the wind, light on the mushroom's stem changing slightly with the motion of the background. Of course that's not a criticism, so much as just a suggestion, if you've got a lot of time and energy to spare.

I am duly impressed. Lovely, lovely stuff. Next time, I'll try to find something more constructive to say.

Gilbot, Dambuilder, those are awesome. I also thought I'd share with the class, since it seems somewhat timely, this link to Superdickery, Home of the "Superman is a dick" collection.

The whole thing is hilarous, but for some reason, that one had me laughing like an idiot for at least five minutes straight. c-off's entry (also awesome) almost seems to pale in comparison to some of the actual stuff Superman's done. Wow.

Looks pretty good to me - I'm especially fond of the way it seems the inner boxes are still affected by gravity and fall to the bottom of the first. Pretty damned spiffy. I sort of wonder what you intend to use it for? Or is it just some funky art (which in no way lowers it's coolness factor)?

The spinning is a tad fast, I'd venture to say, were I to really attempt to find something to criticize (and criticize, I do). Were it to move a little slower, it'd be easier to appreciate the movements of the inner boxes, which kind of get lost in the fray at the moment. It seems to be relatively physically accurate, for what they are, and that makes me want to really get a good look at the movements and check if they really are or not, y'know?

Did you use a physics engine to simulate that in the render, or is done primarily by 'hand'?

Don't you just hate it when that happens?



These are fun - I really dig everyone else's entries, so I thought I'd put one together, myself. Also a good chance to practice some of my shading techniques - as you can see, I'm not quite used to using my new kneaded eraser. Also, I didn't want to spend too much extra time on this in photoshop, so I lettered it by hand. I've gone ahead and transcribed the text, in case anybody can't read my messy handwriting.

(Hope it's not too big, I can change it to just a plain link if everyone prefers, as that seems to be the way most are doing it...)

Next: Something to drink, to go with the sammich.

Yup, no spyware or anything I've noticed. And AdAware seems to agree with it, ,so I can't really find any fault with it, aside from it having a dumb name. I guess they're making their money off of the money people spend using skype-in and skype-out (Calling to and recieving calls from normal phones). It's a pretty decent program, by my reckoning, not to mention easy to use. If anyone's had a legitimate problem with Skype alone, I've yet to hear of it.

The spyware concerns of Skype seem to be mainly with those who download the Kazaa-Skype package, apparently. Then again, Skype is made by the Kazaa people, but by most reckoning, it's safe, as it was (apparently) Sharman Networks who riddled Kazaa with the spyware it contains today. So yes, if you download it with Kazaa, their more shady program, you're asking for trouble - but downloading it directly from the Skype website should be entirely safe. I've been using it for a while, and have yet to have any trouble, or see any problems with my computer that weren't already there.

But if you don't feel safe with it, feel free to google it. I did while writing this post, and found plenty of opinions, but most of the 'Skype=Spyware' opinions were from people with no proof I can see.

For the sake of thoroughness, I'll link you to the Skype End User License Agreement and their Privacy Statement. I took the time to read through them while writing this post - if you care, the pertinent sections of the EULA are 2.4 - Third Parties, 4.2 - Protection of Your computer (resources), and 5.2 - Your Confidential Information and Your Privacy. Lots of legal mumbo-jumbo, but the Privacy statement at least seems to offer peace of mind, at least to me.

And the introductory cartoon on the skype page is damned fun.

My black cat, Nickodemus

Got bored in my phonetics class and started doodling (Hence the phonetic spelling of 'cat' in the image). If I'd had anything for reference, it would've turned out better, perhaps, but I still like the way it turned out. Also a chance to work on my pencil-shading technique. Sorry about the faint writing in the background, it was doodled on the back of a print-out.

If I may be so bold, I made a quick, messy edit to accompany my hair suggestion:



The basic idea I had was to layer his dreads a bit - at the moment, the three gigantic locks don't have all that much volume - I attempted to emulate your style, and just imply a little more action in the hair area with some shading here and there.

And no worries about the gut - I don't think it looks like a raging hard-on at all - if the crotchline were much further, maybe, but at the moment, you're still safe. If he had a creepy grin, that might give that illusion, too, but anyway. I didn't change the skin color, but that shouldn't be too tough ultimately, just keep it more light beige and less pink.

I'm not entirely sure how helpful it'll be, but AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) is available on most platforms, and seems to support video as well as audio chat. And, as an added bonus, if you refuse to use the advertisement-laced AOL chat client, I'd suggest looking into using Trillian, at least for the PC users, which also supports Yahoo! Messenger, MSN messenger and ICQ - so if some of your family have one but not the other, you can still communicate using one program (A life saver for me, since I have some friends that exclusively use one or another). Video chat has recently been implemented in Trillian, so it should work, though I've admittedly never tried.

Similarly, I'd suggest Adium X for the OS-X users in your family. It apparently doesn't yet support video/audio chat, but does support multiple chat platforms, so should be handy when it does. And support for those shouldn't be too far off. My Mac-using friend Dave seems to swear by it, and it also has a groovy 'Metal Gear Solid' communication codec skin... If you like that.

If you don't mind just audio while you try to work out a video chat that's compatible with everyone, I'd suggest using Skype - easy to use, and has the added benefit of cheap computer-to-phone-to-computer calling, should you find a need for that. It's also a pretty solid program - except for a little international lag, I've managed to talk to someone in Nova Scotia, Canada from Japan (12 hour time difference) completely free, for a few hours at a time with little problem.

Actually, I think it looks great - the level of contrast between your lights and darks works really well, and I don't think texture is all that great an idea, all things considered. If anything, I'd say she looks a bit knock-kneed - her stance isn't particularly relaxed, which makes it look a touch awkward, kinda like she has to go to the bathroom. if you brought the legs out a little bit, at least in the knee area, it'd be groovy. Her torso seems proportionate, but for some reason the legs still seem a bit short. I'd suggest either bringing up the crotch a pixel or two, or lengthening the legs a tad.

If I were to grasp about for other improvements you could make, I'd say that the way her hair falls about her face, her jaw looks like it juts out to either side, but that's not a problem at all. Aside from that... The shading on the hair makes it look sort of bulbous, or plasticky? Not entirely sure, as I'm having a hard time coming up with other issues. For complete anatomical correctness, it's important to never make the head taller than the waist is wide - in a sprite it's not law, of course, but this character is physically correct enough that it may be something to keep in mind. Also the shading on the tummy-area could be a little smoother - the stark angle of it at the moment catches the eye more than it perhaps should.

Hope this is helpful.

The Minibosses, yo. Dunno if they classify as metal or not to many of you, but they still rock. I enjoy a bit of metal now and then, but I'm not a big fan of lyrical music for the most part, which seems to classify Metal for a lot of people. I mostly just listen to whatever my older brother listened to when we still lived in the same house back in the 90's - He's the family metalhead. Lots of Megadeth, Opeth and so on. Would Ozzy be metal? Also groovy. White/Rob Zombie... Saw Slipknot and Marilyn Manson in 2001 in Osaka - that was fun, though Concerts just aren't as cool in Japan. Nine Inch Nails rocks still - Saw the NIN/David Bowie tour back in the day, too.

I'm personally much more inclined to techno and jazz, but I can certainly appreciate metal for its driving energy and what-have you. Especially good to listen to for getting my head moving again when I'm up at 4 a.m. working on a bit of sprite animation.

Helm does have a point as far as vectors-based art is concerned, but if you wanted to do it with sprites I imagine that it'd be fully possible. Seems to me the old DOS versions would've been done in that manner. Not nearly as 'clean' looking, perhaps, but with a little tweaking, it is a distinct possibility. And AGS is free, of course, which is more than can be said for any Macromedia (And now Adobe... Damned Adobe) products.

Since Dragon's Lair, for example, was primarily just timed button-pressing, it wouldn't be all that hard to create in AGS at all (For someone who knew what they were doing, unlike myself). The daunting task, of course, would be actually animating the thing. Bluth took six years, apparently, to finish the original, and it was something of a team effort. If you have the dedication to undertake such a project, it wouldn't be impossible at all. For all their glitz, they weren't exactly 'complicated' programs (Simplicity can be a good thing). I'm working on a game right now that, in essence, works quite similarly - a handful of timed puzzles where a certain action is 'preferred' - I just give the player a little more time for reaction, since it's mouse-based (And has lots of optional actions), and it's not quite the 'focus' of the gameplay.

I figure you'd probably want to create it using a keyboard interface, like the original computer releases (just the arrow keys, save, load and attack). It allows for a bit more response time than mouse interactions, though both are possible.

I'm only about halfway through with my entry, unfortunately. I started on Wednesday, though, so I guess that teaches me what happens when I slack off. I'm going to keep on going at it, and hopefully by about Monday night I'll have an entry, even if it's disqualified. 'Twas a learning experience, without a doubt.

Glad to be of help, and great job on the eye, as well - I have a tendancy, as you'll see on most of the sprites I've posted here, to not actually show the whites of eyes - partly 'coz I'm not very good at getting them right, but I must say, you seem to have worked that out quite well. One thing you might have missed, though, the fill you did seems to have also filled in the space between his right arm and gut. I'm sort of hoping that doesn't have anything to do with the sprite I provided, but as of late, GraphicsGale has been behaving oddly. I may reinstall it... Anyway, my computer issues aside, great work. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Also, to keep up with the constructive criticism, I'd say you were really on the right track with the left foot (right side) in the first image in the thread, really, facing mostly head-on, with decent angles. I didn't change much in Joker's shoes, but they still seem to be a little too angled at the moment, if you ask me. A good idea is to keep the sole of any side-on feet nearly completely flat, and the toe area similarly flat in head-on sprites.

Setsuna - the sprites are looking mighty fine - I just thought I'd throw in my two proverbial cents, and see if they're helpful at all.

You said that these sprites were characters from Akira, right? I'm a big fan of the series as well - been collecting the comics as well. Assuming that these are, I just thought I'd see if I could help make them even a bit more Katsuhiro Otomo.

Your Tetsuo looks great, It'll be neat to see him in his torn up t-shirt and cape. I would suggest, however, moving his right eye (Or the one on the left, if you prefer) a pixel to the left in the 3/4 view, at the moment, they seem a little too close, and (I tested my theory), it seems to work. - The 'Jenny' sprite is looking pretty good, too, though her colors are pretty low-contrast, creating a much softer sprite than the dark-outlined others.

And as for Joker - he was one of the more unfortunately overlooked characters in the movie (Didn't need to be there, I know, but still). I dig your muscular, slim Joker, but he is, for lack of a better word, a rather bulky man in the series. I took your sprite and padded it a bit, as well as taking the liberty of putting some make up on him. Mostly for fun, but if it helps you out, that'd be awesome.

x2
Here we have the with and without makeup versions of my paintover/around. obviously, I let the pixels out a lot, to make him a sight more rotund. By and large, the colors are the same, though I added some reds and an extra shade of gray for the makeup. I also added his gloves, but left the pants alone. if you prefer bare hands, they're easily fixed, of course.

You'll also likely notice he's a bit shorter - that's one problem with the sprite as i made it - Pulling his gut and legs down a bit, and filling up the space in the middle ought to remedy that, if you prefer all of your sprites to be roughly the same height, or you could pad it even more, if you wanted to make him gargantuan. It's been a while, so I forget how big he is in relativity to the other characters.

I used the images here for reference.

Hope this is helpful, somehow.

This is my ambiguous entry statement. I'd like to give it a whack, but I'm ridiculously slow when actually attempting to release something. But another project is a breath of fresh air I may desperately need.

[judgement]

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the deadline has come and passed, and to that effect, it is time for judgement.

It would appear that the sports represented in our contest this fortnight were Thumb wrestling on waterskiis while apparently intoxicated as done by Sumo, Leaping to one's death/Ground-diving, Geriatric Bachi-ball/Death, Chess and Staring. And as our esteemed Gilbot pointed out, we also got the benefit of witnessing miserable deaths in four out of five. Not a bad turnout - took a while for the ball to get rolling, but that seems to be something of a trend.

I shall now commence giving my vague, uncollected thoughts before declaring a victor.

Bluke 4x4:
First entry into the competition - I liked it, it was quirky, and seems to have set the bar for the 'entrants dying' trend in this Comic Contest. It was huge, though - especially on my poor old 800x600 screen. I had to scroll within single frames - if you'd resized it, it would've been a lot easier to navigate. Nonetheless, good stuff.

Eggie:
Leaping to one's death, or base jumping, sans parachute is going to be all the rage in extreme sports one day, I'm sure. It took me a while to work out that the sad dude in the last frame was carrying a helmet, for a while I thought it was a bloody stump of some limb - you can imagine my relief when I worked it out. Great comic, and I enjoy a good 'silent' comic.

InCreator:
Chess - A real man's sport. Requiring patience, focus and determination. Something tells me they should've been playing with a turn clock, or Skeleton-guy should've gone and made a sandwich while his partner made a move. Alas, it's a somewhat paranoid sport, isn't it? And it lead to the least violent death in the competition. Marvelous.

Krazy:
Bachi ball or lawn bowling? We may never know, because our poor, geriatric competitor never finished the game. Regardless, he's still a winner... at death. Nice work Krazy - quirky, and as your name suggests, 'krazy.' Kind of reminds me of this one add for milk they were playing a while ago back in California...

Vince Twelve:
And our final entrant, with 'staring competitions'. The time out was a nice touch, though I figure that it would lead to very long games, unless this was one of those 'you can't laugh' staring competitions... I wonder. I, by the way (though nobody actually cares), kick ass at staring competitions. I even managed to beat the Gatekeeper in 'Nightmare'.

But I digress.

JUDGEMENT DAY:
It is time for me to pass arbitrary judgement! The entries, as usual were all entertaining, but there can be only one highlander. As far as proper comic format and ease of readability goes, and the one that caused me to laugh out loud, likely weirding out my neighbor, was the chess entry - its simplicity was more than enough for me. The moral of it being: When you play chess, take breaks. Therefore:

Congratulation, InCreator!


...Now go forth, and start the next competition!

Holy jumping mother o' God in a sidecar with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib! It's Max, and he's got a turkey carving knife!



200x220x10

Edit: I got rid of some double pixels, straightened out his knife and lengthened the ears a bit.