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1
the reason the attitudes are like this is because there's a super egotistical group that formed out of the members here and they have driven away a lot of people

look no further than the slack chat to find this group, they frequently talk negatively about everyone there, it's no surprise that their negative attitudes are now leaking into the forum

I do not recognize this group, but if you are bothered by something I said, hopefully I am not too proud to accept critique on my own behavior in a PM. Hopefully I am not the only one who feels this way.

2
Pixel Art / Re: Idle animation
« on: April 15, 2016, 08:16:20 pm »
If you want to make him look intimidating in a less cartoony way, here are some thoughts.
I am not a wolf expert, but I think they snarl and growl to intimidate, and bark while attacking and chasing.  Here's an snarling head edit:

His main method of attack seems to be the fork he is holding, so the most intimidating thing he can do is pose himself ready to use it.  His right hand seems to be unused; in battle, this is a hand wasted!  If he doesn't have a shield to hold, why not hold his weapon with both hands for better control and more power?

If you imagine this man holding a fork instead of a sword, and with his hands spaced further apart, then this stance is similar to what I am imagining.  If you combine a threatening stance like this with a head thrust forward in a snarl, I think it could look very intimidating.
Here is a video describing spear stances and striking methods, which might be applied to any polearm, like a fork.  You might find the "pool cue" striking method interesting if you are going to animate an attack.

3
Here is information on the Joe Huckaby with whom Mark Ferrari worked and endorses in this video.  Mark says that Joe is developing a pixel-art graphics program which will include features not seen since DPaint, and a workflow better than that of Cosmigo's Pro Motion.  It should be appearing 2017.

If Mark is excited about it, others here might like to keep watch.

https://about.me/jhuckaby
https://twitter.com/jhuckaby
https://pixlcore.com
https://github.com/jhuckaby
Color cycling sites displayed in the video:
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/worlds/

Mark mentions that he still uses DPaint in DOSBox for color-cycling projects, because he is unaware of an editor with its capabilities.  However, GrafX2 provides a color cycling feature in its gradation menu [Alt+G] and support for DPaint .IFF files.  I am not sure if he is unaware of GrafX2, or if there are other features still missing.  I think I will email him about it.

4
Pixel Art / Re: [C+C] [WIP] Flying dragon
« on: April 10, 2016, 01:15:30 pm »

Here is a bat flying cycle in four frames.  I think the important part you are missing is the "tuck".  When a bat or a bird raises their wings, they would want to decrease their surface area, so they are not pushing themselves downward.  This would probably apply to a dragon, too.

6
1-pixel limbs [...] fell largely out of fashion as the graphical arms races began to build speed.
Nice pun.

7
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Copperplate font
« on: April 05, 2016, 02:42:18 pm »
I'm aware some of the individual letters might be difficult to read because of the way it's stylised, but I'm not overly concerned about that since it's supposed to look handwritten.
I think your font is very readable.

What I am looking for feedback on is the smoothness of the letters. I've started on an AA'd version, but I'm worried that I'm overdoing it and loosing the pixel art feeling.

I don't think adding AA would lose the pixel art feeling, but I think your anti-aliasing is a bit too dark to be useful.  Here's an edit with lighter anti-aliasing using only one AA color:


Should I continue on the AA'd version, scrap it and stick with the non-AA'd version, or try to make a version that uses anti-aliasing more sparingly?
I think it depends on the style of the rest of your graphics.  It's hard to tell when we don't know the context.

8
Devlogs & Projects / Music Crash Course
« on: April 05, 2016, 02:58:22 am »
(I doubt I will finish this).
By Viewer Request:
Music Crash Course

Contents:
Why?
Required Materials
Entry Exam: Hearing Pitch
Lesson 1: Distances

Why?
Music is relevant to some people here because of the overlap of pixel art with game development, and the overlap of game development with music.  I understand that this topic is stretching the boundary of this forum's focus, but since they are members of this forum who have asked me to make a guide, I am posting it here.

Required Materials
Beware of getting lost in a search for your holy grail of music tools!  A piano, paper, and pencil is all that was required by most of the composers in history, and many people today.  However, since this guide is intended for game music, you will need a way of making an audio recording your composition.

Be aware of these two types of musical recordings on a computer:
  • Audio recording, the computer equivalent of a cassette tape, which stores the actual sound waves you hear. (*.wav, *.aiff, *.ogg, *.mp3, *.flac, …)
  • MIDI recording, the computer equivalent of sheet music, which stores instructions of which notes to play, at which volumes, at which times, on which instruments, etc. (*.mid)

[TODO] Talk about recording live music, MIDI keyboards, and computer-generated instruments.

I suggest any tool with a piano-roll editor, e.g.
My personal reccomendation is PxTone (delete its japanese.ico file for English), which can be run under GNU/Linux and Mac OS X with Wine.  See this list for other options.
Look for this list of software for. 

Entry Exam: Hearing Pitch
Listen to this recording of eight notes in sequence.  Do these notes sound like they are going up, or down; getting higher, or lower?
A: The notes are getting higher.

If you answered incorrectly, I am sorry, this guide will probably not be useful to you.  I will not be teaching how to recognize pitch in this guide, because I don't know how to teach it.  If you are determined to learn, please don't let me discourage you.  I suggest you search for a teacher who can teach you how to recognize pitch.  If you have no luck there, but are still interested in music, you might be interested in becoming a drummer, or making rhythmically-focused music.

If you answered correctly, congratulations; you have the makings of a musician, and this guide may be useful to you!

This lowness or highness is called pitch.
For the intents and purposes of this guide, pitch is practically synonymous with audio frequency, which is the speed of the vibration of the air (sound waves). A low pitch corresponds to a slowly vibrating frequency, while a high pitch corresponds to a quickly vibrating frequency. If you want to learn the true distinction between pitch and frequency, I suggest reading Wikipedia (1, 2).

The lower range of pitch is called the bass range, and the higher range of pitch is called the treble range.  The instrument known as the bass is so named because it plays low notes in the bass range.

If you look at a piece of piano sheet music, you will probably see something like this:

Notice that there are two sets of five horizontal lines.  These sets are called staves. The top staff is marked with a treble clef ( ), and on it will be written the symbols for higher treble notes, which a pianist would play with their right hand.  The bottom staff is marked with a bass clef ( ), and on it will be written the symbols for lower bass notes, which a pianist would play with their left hand.  On a piano keyboard, the notes are arranged low to high from left to right.  This is only because a piano would be hard to play when turned on its side.  In sheet music, the notes are arranged more logically: low to high from bottom to top, with time extending to the right.  Your music software's piano-roll editor is also arranged this way.

Lesson 1: Distances
To a composer the most important part of music is the distance, or spacing, between the notes.  Notes spaced in time create rhythm. Notes spaced in pitch create harmony.

[TODO] Finish Lesson 1.

9
Pixel Art / Re: HUD Design
« on: April 02, 2016, 10:27:43 pm »

Here's an edit I made trying to reduce banding around the clock.  I AA'd to black, assuming it would be on a dark background like in your example.  I simplified the ornament on the end, because it seems like it got corrupted somehow since your earlier post, and I thought it looked noisy, but YMMV.

The only way I could think of to make this look better on a bright background was to add a black outline.

10
Pixel Art / Re: RMXP Stone Autotile Critique
« on: April 02, 2016, 07:31:31 pm »
You still don't have good observation skills. Look at a brick wall. There are basically two sizes you see. The first is a brick long ways, and the second is a brick end ways. Only two. Why are you spending time changing hues and dithering when it isn't representing the true form of what it is? So you should start with the reference photo that was suggested to you.
Maybe he is not trying to draw a brick wall, but a stone wall, like this:

I think Rawesome is trying to follow the advice.  He did remove the dithering as suggested. Then aeveis suggested this:
I would also look back to kilenc's post and think about varying colors (at least hue shifting the colors a bit so it's not just all greyscale).
But Rawesome is not familiar with what we usually mean by "hue shifting."
Rawesome, here (http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11299&PID=139392#139392) is a good guide which explains hue shifting.  You might also find the rest of the guide useful.

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