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691
General Discussion / Re: Second Cluster Study - Knights of the Round
« on: January 05, 2013, 04:41:04 pm »
Quote from: ptoing on January 05, 2013, 02:55:59 pm
Dennis: Why did you scale up by 700x1200 percent? That wont give you the correct ratio. You need to scale up 700x900% at some point to get the proper 4:3 ratio in the case of CPS games.
At first I tried 1200x700 which looked completely wrong, so I simply reversed width and height and went on with that without thinking about the math behind it.

Quote from: ErekT on January 05, 2013, 03:30:13 pm
@Dennis: I noticed something that looks like a structural problem with your man's left thigh. The er, bulge in the loincloth just below the belt, the straight angle, and the highlight on the leg leading all the way up to the cloth suggest to me a pole-ish shape that ends abruptly below the belt. It's more visible in the second edition. And maybe the leg could be brought back some more with darker shades? I like how you did the scales and the shell-like shoulder pad. Good stuff.
Thanks, I'll look into that as well, when I make my next edit.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to emulate a screen effect, using only layers, so it could be used to pixel with a 7x9 brush and see the effect in real-time. A picture says more than a thousand words I guess:


Ok, some words to go along with that:
There is one layer which contains the pixels themselves (at 700x900 percent scale). On top of that is one full white layer to brighten stuff up a bit, because the next layer, which emulates a black matrix shadow mask and the phosphor stripes, darkens the overall image significantly. Then there's another layer which emulates the blank lines.

After doing this, I think I even for the first time understand why there is a need for "scanlines" or blank lines anyway. It has to have something to do with the shape of the shadow mask in the screen. Thinking about it, if one would not turn the electron beam off at times to make up for the shape of the shadow mask, it would not even be possible to draw a perfect horizontal line. Even with blank lines, some of the phosphor still glows into them, more of it on bright colors because of more electrons hitting it there... hm, don't know if this is correct though, since I'm no screen engineer.

692
General Discussion / Re: Second Cluster Study - Knights of the Round
« on: January 05, 2013, 01:43:25 pm »
Quote from: r1k on January 04, 2013, 12:10:39 am
How do you apply the scanlines?
My process is probably similar to what everyone else is doing. I first blow up the image by 700x1200 percent (unfiltered pixel resize), then I make a 1x12 image where I fill the lower 5 pixels with black and keep the rest transparent. I then use the 1x12 image as a fill pattern for a floodfill on a second layer in the big image to add the scanlines. Then I add a barrel distortion effect and afterwards reduce image size again, this time with a filtered resize to get some additional blur.

Quote from: Helm on January 05, 2013, 12:07:43 am
Dennis' edit: The shoulder pad sadly looks like it's in front of the face, though I like the decorative idea. The chain-mail works remarkably well. The primary hand holding the sword is mushy as hell, though. Unfortunately, the groin edit, though good as a drape study, makes him look as if he has no pelvis and a tiny waist. More work could be done on the boots, more contrast.

Dennis' second edit: The yellower highlight was a double-edged sword. Contrast reads better, but the finish now is kind of golden, confuses the materials. Primary arm less mushy for sure.
Quote from: Reo on January 05, 2013, 02:55:47 am
@Dennis edit is very interesting, especially the dithered mail. It looks almost like fishscales. It looks really cool when it's horizontal but the effect is lost on the diagonals. Perhaps the angular shape of it make it seem a bit lifeless. Like a statue.
Thank you both for those hints. I'll try to make another edit taking those observations into consideration.

I'm afraid I do not currently have any feedback to give because pretty much everyone here is a way better artist than myself and my mind feels a bit blank atm, so my crits would likely end up being inane expressions of deep admiration for what I see without much food for thought or constructive pointers towards what could be improved (I might still try doing that later).

All I have to offer for now is a photo of a real CRT monitor set to 768x448 pixels at 4:3 screen ratio, displaying the edits which have been posted so far:

http://www.dennisbusch.de/shared/drawings/2ndClusterStudyScreenPhoto.png

That photo might be a useful reference while trying to perfect any digital imagery filtering methods to recreate the effect. I should add, that monitor is about 8 years old and has lost quite a bit of color brilliance already.

693
General Discussion / Re: Second Cluster Study - Knights of the Round
« on: January 03, 2013, 11:39:33 pm »
Can't wait to see all the great edits in their emulated filtered appearance.

(although Helm said not to bother filtering our own entries I could not resist playing with filters in PSP8 after my 2nd edit: spoiler)

694
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: January 03, 2013, 11:27:56 pm »
Lachie, heh, has she been posing for that site?

Ashbad, read Andrew Loomis "Drawing The Head And Hands" or start with "Fun With A Pencil" for a less technical approach towards head/face construction.

Todays doodles (the time limit, it does not like me but I think I'm actually making progress though when I compare the logged times and earlier doodles, it seems that my doodles in the 5 to 11 minute range are getting better... better as in, more correct (still off but more correct) in less time).

These copies are somehow distracting me a bit from the goal of gaining a better understanding of bulk/volumes though since I'm not constructing and just trying to quickly capture what is seen within the given time limit.


695
General Discussion / Re: Second Cluster Study - Knights of the Round
« on: January 02, 2013, 06:54:52 pm »
Made an edit of my edit, reducing the total color count to 16 and tweaking some pixels, also changed some colors. Kept the chain-mail look of the first edit.

<-2nd edit <-1st edit<-original

696
General Discussion / Re: Second Cluster Study - Knights of the Round
« on: January 01, 2013, 09:38:42 pm »
(Disclaimer: Haven't been following or studying the pixel cluster theory development so my edit probably does not follow the theory at all. Also haven't pixeled anything for a while but this was fun and a welcome distraction from drawing naked people.)

Kept all the original colors as they were. My goal was to improve upon the volumes and the textures of the original:

697
2D & 3D / Re: Official Anatomy Thread
« on: January 01, 2013, 11:55:34 am »
New year, same problem, the time is never sufficient to make correct measurements and always runs out while I'm in the middle of the rendering phase.  :P


698
General Discussion / Re: Official Off-Topic Thread
« on: January 01, 2013, 08:55:06 am »
Happy New Year! May all your strokes vibrate with confidence.

my new years resolution is: to draw more and to start with oil painting (got "Oil Painting For Dummies" from Santa)

699
2D & 3D / Re: Official OT-Creativity Thread 2
« on: December 30, 2012, 10:03:17 pm »
Mind wanted to doodle trees again:

700
2D & 3D / Re: Official OT-Creativity Thread 2
« on: December 30, 2012, 12:57:51 pm »
Thanks Friend.

Listened to your music. The Distant Midwinter March and Realignment reminded me of Age Of Wonders, which is a good thing.

I'm no musician myself but I think they could need some refinement. One thing I noticed was that you're using a lot of crooked tones and inside each piece, the transitions from one part to another seem too sudden/abrupt. Maybe there's something like "melody dithering" to smooth it out a bit. Also, I think you're overusing percussion elements and there seem to be too many voices fighting over each other for the ears' attention. Anyway, like I said, I'm no musician and I don't know anything about music composition.

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