Hi!  This time I'm trying my hand at the original C64 restrictions.  Multicolor mode: wide pixels, 4 colors (including the background yellow) in every 4x8px chunk.

It's really nothing much -- I've started with a high concept of paying a tribute to a known Japanese ink-master, but finished with. . . you all can see what.  It's still minimalistic, I want to think.



Could someone please error-check it for me?  I know it takes just a few seconds, but I don't have the proper software to do so.

Then we can talk aesthetics and technique.

Commodore Supremacy 1954-1994.  SVGA: 640*480, 16 colors: Amiga OCS 4-bit palette (v 1.1)

okay, it's nothing that big to write a book about it and also I ain't for masking shortcomings with a seemingly elaborate bullshit notes, but the piece has a message (though it doesn't look like that, no doubt) I'd like to introduce to you here.  some little description, therefore, would be simply advisable.

it was done specially for a Polish demoscene compo but since today is the last day of active voting, I won't tell you the name, where it was conducted and how it came out.  that will be said later.

FINISHED #3 (out of 9) at the scene.pl Oldschool GFX compo.  take a look.

anyway, the process of making this one was quite painful and I was thinking (several times!) of holding it or taking a different approach and starting all over.  the original plan was to make a collage mixing some characteristics of a 3D rendering with the C64 palette and some static pixel art stuff, reinforced by the 4-bit Amiga OCS palette.  I'm a complete dumbass when it comes to 3D art, though, and as the time was running short, I had to find another passage to slip through.

the path I've decided to follow was then the Duke Nukem 3D map editor (by a talented coder named Ken Silverman, but that's of little interest for us here).  Murphy's laws, however, are always somewhere around and they happened to be true again!  everything was going on pretty fine till the moment of opening a specialist texture-editing software.  why it didn't work I may only wonder.  there was no other way of completing the collage, to my knowing.  henceforth, I rearranged the idea completely . . . I was hesitating to switch to the good old PII, but XP is merciless (the stuff didn't work on it as well) and there would be some massive pain in the ass with uploading all the data from the computer #1 to the computer #2 and the other way 'round, not saying of the computer #3 I'm actually working on.  see, it's goddamn complicated, or it's me being phucking lazy.  and I just wanted to avoid another Neverending Story.

junkbot: I've started with a texture and after changing my perspective, I was wondering how to utilize the stuff done so far.  I came to the quick conclusion of using the existing texture pieces as tiles, no problem.  and here it goes the dumb restriction (that gives the work more of the oldschool feel, I guess): the number of tiles was limited to 12 + variations . . . *gzzt!*


tile chart, or junkies (v 0.8 palette)

*bzz--* . . . and so I wanted to make a running construct out of them, as to symbolize the speed of changes occurring in the scene.  think of another little idea behind it: remember the old demoscene?  remember how those guys were able to turn shit into gold?  to build up *something* from completely nothing?  something that was functional and attractive, appealing or even enchanting?  that's it!

the text in the upper left: my earliest demoscene memories are those connected with the Amga/PC wars at the 1995/6 turn.  PC was generally considered inferior (as always is with the new stuff) and people were making fun of it in many different ways.  there was some in-demo and even grafitti propaganda (some funny tags still exist, I may take some pictures).  one characteristic quality of the time was its bad grammar frequently found in demos: purposeful or not.  this fact has found its place among the caption stylistics as well.  what's more, the wittings are typical for a Polish-American fashion, with elements derived from both cultures bound together . . . in a way.  look what the 'PC' sign is made of: it's negative.  the rhyme, in turn, was impudently stolen from a DangerDoom piece, "Space Ho's", which goes: "when it's on, it's on; space ho's coast to coast".

notes: I think it would make not bad an effect in an exemplary demo, and the style appears to be quite interesting: paraphrasing ptoing, I came with junkchunk codename for it, another option being elextrunk (electronics + chunk) or elexjunk (~ + junk).  I'll try to extend/improve it a bit, maybe on C64: replacing 8*8 squares and triangles with elements of computer architecture.  hmm, we'll see. . .

. . . and all because of phucking software rendering, or rather the fact I couldn't force it to behave like I'd wanted it to.  you know, I'm working on Vista. . . there things ain't that easy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  FEEL FREE TO C&C!  THANK YOU!

http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/33768.htm

okay, so here we go again. I’d kind of neglected the thread before, but it’s up and running again. all in all, I’m done with my paid job for now.

as you remember, the original ’95 conceptual sketch was this:

Click!

yep, it’s quite badly-made, just unbelievable those guys made it into Fallout, a cornerstone of computer role playing gaming. . . right? but after all, this is how early concepts are; we can just take no notice of its little shortcomings – it’s a good starting point anyway, innit?

in Fallout, Razor is depicted as “a very beautiful woman with a sad look in her eyes” and says “Razor’s the name. I’m the closest thing we have for a leader.” when she introduces herself to the player. what we have here is an example of quite an important character with a strong personality. with some help of our game hero and the Blades gang, she defeats Regulators, the so-called “police force” of a post-nuclear Los Angeles.

whichever the story may be, however, I’ve changed my approach completely. a complete turn around. too early to take big formats. it’s also a bit useless since we rely on more complex painting methods when it comes to SVGA graphics and hi-res VGA modes. forget it. now I’m trying to focus on face anatomy, let it then be the object and the result of my studies so far from now on. the piece no longer portrays a complete pose, we have (just) a talking head instead. BTW, do you know those?

http://fallout.gram.pl/index.php?act=pokaz&id=16

and the one most interesting for us here:

Click!

so. . . my previous work (no longer continued but I may get back to it some day and then utilize the critique given before):



and the current progress (320*256px, 32 colors):


http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/33198.htm

C&C *highly* appreciated! fanx! fanx! fanx!

Hi there, folks! Here you have my lastest finished project (started in March or April and put off until now), a small one this time. CGA again (doh!) -- 3 (sic!) out of 4 colours used. This is, in fact, the second CGA variant with a small colour hack -- as far as it goes, you can't have the black plus the yellow next to each other. Read the IBM PC/compatible systems >> CGA section at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_palettes if you're interested in further explanation.



. . . alternatively:


Nectarine is an Internet radio station broadcasting oldschool demoscene tunes.

C&C welcome! Thank you! BZZzt. . .

Yeah, I've tried it; CGA#2, +45 minutes of doodling, dither brush used. I dig the palette I must say!

There's a tree on the right, some tanglement of green (or forest) and a boy behind the hole on the left. I haven't placed the character of Jabberwock here, since I guess everyone has their own interpretation.

If you don't see anything or if you think I should throw this crap away, tell me.

I don't have an idea of what to do now. Would you help me?