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Messages - cels
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11
General Discussion / Re: Do People Still Use this Website/Forum?
« on: October 31, 2021, 11:58:13 pm »
Well, like I said, I can send you some invites on Discord. You have to add me though.  ;D

12
General Discussion / Re: Do People Still Use this Website/Forum?
« on: October 31, 2021, 06:27:47 pm »
In my opinion, the evolution of the internet has not been that positive for the pixel art community in terms of collective learning. Maybe I'm biased by nostalgia, but I feel like the move to social media and Discord have changed the way people communicate. When we used forums with threads, people would invest more time in tips and edits because their feedback would stay visible forever. Feedback didn't disappear in the feed and become invisible after a few hours, so people who were active with feedback would get more attention and praise for their work. There was as much praise for edits as for the originals, sometimes.

I also feel like whenever I try to critique someone in 2021 as opposed to 2015, they're often... just looking for compliments. It was always the case that some people were more willing to change their work than others, but now I feel like artists are more sensitive. If they don't like the CC, they will ignore you or react negatively instead of being grateful that someone tried to help. As pixel artists get better, there's also a bit of elitism going on, but I won't get into that. More importantly, I think the whole nature of Discord and Twitter is kind of angst-inducing. Everyone can see what is being said in real time. They can see if someone is typing. And when no one answers, the silence is deafening. If someone critiques your work on a server with a lot of people, it feels more significant than getting a reply in a thread. I have definitely sinned in different ways as well, so I'm not simply criticizing everyone else.

But yeah, maybe I'm just an old fart. There are some positive aspects too. I notice some Discord servers have a real fellowship going on. For some people, Discord is definitely better. I'm CELS # 2625 (without spaces) on Discord, I can send you invites to some Discord channels if you want to check them out. PJ is probably the best place to start though.

13
Pixel Art / Re: Some people standing around
« on: October 23, 2021, 10:08:47 pm »
Thanks!

I promise to give it a shot. This Brullov guy seems to know what he's on about. I'll try to keep an open mind. :P


14
Pixel Art / Re: Some people standing around
« on: October 23, 2021, 01:35:39 pm »
Hello there! It's good to be back amongst strangers!

Thanks a lot for the feedback and edit! Let me do this point by point.
- Nice change to the windows. My version didn't account for indirect lighting or anything other than direct sunlight / moonlight.
- Good point about restricting the warm light in the background. I tried to remedy this although maybe I should take it further. On the other hand, I don't want the colors to be too realistic, I want to make it unrealistically colorful. Still, a more neutral castle color seems better. (I don't want to make the castle too cold because then it looks like some sort of cliché water temple)
- I definitely want to have a lot of strong outlines, but you are right that I should be restrictive. I want to take some inspiration from Alphonse Mucha, stained glass windows and comic books. So things will be exaggerated rather than muted. But I still need to consider where to use weaker vs stronger outlines. Which things need to pop, as you say.
- Nice idea of having large, irregular stones in the wall. I will play around with different sizes. It really helps to break up the sterile look of perfect angles.
- The polearm is supposed to have a hammer, not an axehead. I will work on this shape.
- Some of the lines on the walls will either disappear or change function as I do more work but it's interesting to see your interpretation.
- The water animation is super early, it's just to get my creativity going. Eventually, I hope to have a fairly nice and detailed animation for the water and fire.
- I will also be animating the torch, so I can't have such a finely detailed flame as your edit. I do like the idea of using a lot of red in the flame, but then I'm worried it won't look like a significant light source. Choices, choices.
- I have not decided about the clothes yet, but you did a great job with the robes.

Thanks again!  :) :y:






EDIT:

I also planned to do some light rays but I'm not sure how to do that without going full FX fireworks, which may be a bit overwhelming, if every window is casting light rays.



One thing at a time, of course. Just playing around with ideas.


15
Pixel Art / Some people standing around
« on: October 22, 2021, 12:39:41 am »
I haven't posted here in a long time but I figure it might be a good time to post another WIP.

Any feedback welcome, although I must admit that I'm probably not making any significant changes to the composition at this point, unless they're easy to fix. Maybe.



Cheers!  :)

16
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Need Help Improving this Landscape
« on: July 02, 2021, 06:34:44 am »
I don't have time to offer CC right now, but let me just say this looks great. Also, everyone hangs out on Discord. Go to PJ, click the Community button and then Discord. There's a bunch of different Discord servers, for PJ, for LoSpec and many others. LoSpec also has a forum if you're not about that modern life.

Sorry that I can't be of more help right now but this should make it easier to get help from others.

17
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]
« on: June 19, 2021, 05:36:02 pm »
Cool! I consider all the changes to be improvements. The princess went from Khaleesi to Ripley 8 (kidding) and I like what you did with the shield and the shadows.This is nitpicking but I would probably try to make sure that the distance from the ground to the crotch is similar for the shield guy as for other characters. Otherwise, it seems like his hips are too low and the proportions are off, at least to my eye. Take with pinch of salt.

18
Pixel Art / Re: Barbarian sprite with NES specs [WIP][C+C]
« on: June 13, 2021, 06:44:49 am »
The enemies all look great, very characterful. I can't be of much help here, unfortunately:

- Do you plan to have different light sources for different characters? It's reversed on the enemies, who will usually be facing the opposite way, right? I guess you can't afford to have different light sources depending on which way they're facing.

- The anatomy of the guys with swords and maces on the bottom is a bit strange to me. I guess they're not human? One of them has that Cyberdemon goat leg thing going on. But even if they're non-human, I wonder about the anatomy of that goat leg.

- I guess you don't want any characters to be totally side-facing, but more like a three quarter portrait. But for the wolf, I wonder if that will be difficult to pull off. I do feel like your version has a bit of a problem with readability but maybe it's not an issue. Maybe it's better for the viewer to get a sense of a snarling wolf and then interpret the pixels on their own. I'm undecided.

- Liking the ghostly types with robes and helmets. Quite jacksonesque!

- The shields are super challenging. On the one hand, I feel like yours look like they're facing the viewer too much, rather than their attacker. It feels like we're almost seeing them full on. On the other hand, I really struggled to show their shape if they're angled more away from the viewer. And on top of that, there's the issue of shadow, since they'd probably be casting strong shadows on the body behind them. Tricky stuff.

- The love interest is well pixelled but I would try to de-khaleesify her a bit unless you're adding dragons to her shoulders.  :)


19
Pixel Art / Re: Some characters
« on: May 25, 2021, 06:52:13 pm »
Oh yeah! I kept trying to make the pectoral armor more 3D and it just ended up as a spherical manboob. Of course it needs to slant a little. Just another reminder that I need to spend more time on anatomy studies. Great edit! Now he looks more like a proper historical dragon-riding Spartan viking from Siberia.



I think I'm pretty happy with these 11, unless there are some glaring mistakes.



Now I just need to add detail and correct mistakes on my babooshka, the dancing cowherd girl, the spear dude and the two-eyed Odin Claus.

20
Pixel Art / Re: Some characters
« on: May 25, 2021, 11:46:14 am »
Thanks for the edits!

- Since you asked about historical context, this is a fantasy universe and the current set of characters are the equivalent of Kievan Rus + Normans who were formerly invaded by the equivalent of Greek / Ottomans. So there's some eastern European and some Norse inspiration, obviously, and also onion-shaped hats and towers. However, no Mongols, no Cumans and no Lamellar armour.
- Since it is a fantasy universe, I'm not necessarily trying to recreate 1:1 the evolution of plate armor or anything like that. But since the barbute was supposedly inspired by ancient Romans and Greeks, I thought it would be cool to have a knightly order who took that a step further and really tried to imitate their ancient Greek / Ottoman invaders. Hence the Barbute / Corinthian helmet and the muscular chest plate. I've tried to find more references of renaissance armor imitating Greek and Roman armor, but I didn't find very much (only this). It's ok, it's fantasy.  :)
- Blue steel plate armor with a barbute and Greek / Roman chestplate. Maybe a bit anachronistic. But then again, this is a universe with dragons and I think dragons disappeared sometime around the 12th century.
- Good idea to extend the sword arm. I also made it bigger (Thundercats hooo)
- Good idea to have a cape. I wasn't sure if I wanted one but now that is settled. Goes well with the viking culture without going full horned helmet.
- Fair point about the spear, I guess it would be pretty unwieldy to hold it so close to the spearhead anyway, except right before throwing it. However, I'm still a bit undecided. Although my version was less realistic and more defensive, it did reinforce the dynamic of him leaning back as he's under attack. On the other hand, I wanted these guys to look like attacking conquerors. Bah, I'm taking this too seriously. Let's be honest: I'm not sure Netflix is even going to call me.


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