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Messages - Tourist
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61
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: Female Assassin Sprite
« on: August 14, 2012, 12:45:20 am »
The title says female, but you've drawn a man.  Even a lean athletic woman will have hips.  The pose is off balance, but since one leg is longer than the other that might be ok.  She probably needs a hunch to go with the different leg lengths though.

Probably too many colors in the palette, but the set of values (light to dark) is good.

The costume is a bit... well.  Trying to cover up poor anatomy with clothing or armor doesn't work.
  • She has a shoulder protector, but an exposed belly and cleavage.  The shoulder protector doesn't really protect much. 
  • A championship wrestling belt? A blue cloth armband?
  • Several more belts which look like they will fall down and trip her up.  Nor do they seem to support anything.
Holding the knife by the blade instead of the handle is not practical.  Nor is hair that covers the eyes - I imagine an assassin wants to see, but not be seen.

Suggestion: Draw out the anatomy first, more completely than you have done on the left.  then add clothing.  Rework the clothing design for a mix of both practicality and style.  Assassin is a bit general, so develop the idea a bit more.  A poisoner and a sniper might both be assassins, but they will dress and look differently from one another.

Hope this helps,
Tourist

62
Pixel Art / Re: Roguelike Characters
« on: August 14, 2012, 12:19:57 am »
I think the wizard looks terrific.  Good use of colors, design, pose, it's all nice.

The warrior has a problem with his colors.  Place him on a gray stone background and he largely disappears.  Place him on grass or water, and the lack of saturation can confuse the visual priority of the sprites.  Consider using a green-purple mix rather than gray for the armor, or shift the tones to the warmer colors and give him brass or gold armor.

The rogue will have a similar problem.  Monochrome brown is a bit dull, even though the colors are saturated.  The design is good but add a bit of variety to the colors.

Overall very nicely done so far.

Tourist

63
General Discussion / Re: Official Off-Topic Thread
« on: August 08, 2012, 10:20:45 pm »
Yes, I have read it.  Server migration is complete, forum upgrade complete.  Good job.   Keep it around for a week in case anyone wants to report issues, but otherwise that topic is complete.  What more is there to discuss or convey?

The thread has already shifted to discussion of the reskin activity.  Which is at best redundant with the old reskin thread, and more likely pointless since you already have a plan (according to Ptoing's post).

Browsing the General Discussion forums at 1024x768, the entire first screen is sticky threads.  I think some of that can be pruned.  I could be wrong.

Tourist

64
General Discussion / Re: Official Off-Topic Thread
« on: August 08, 2012, 08:33:03 pm »
I would like to propose removing some of the sticky threads from the general discussion forum.  I think we could remove the server move thread and forum funding thread since they are largely complete.  The CC suggestion thread could be archived or removed since no one has been doing that activity for a year.  The 'a new skin appears' could be removed since there seems to be plans in place, or kept until the reskin effort (and any bugs or comments) is complete, then removed.

Tourist

65
Pixel Art / Re: Rundown Apartment
« on: July 16, 2012, 07:11:57 pm »
The steps and door are far too large for the building.

How run down are you trying to go?  Just old?  A fixer upper?  Full Detroit?

Tourist

66
Pixel Art / Re: [WIP] Portrait dilemma
« on: July 16, 2012, 06:59:28 pm »
I think you're working to large for your current skill level.  Try wokring at around a 30 pixel head (28-36 pixels tall, roughly half of this size).  That will give you enough pixels to try different things but not so much that you get lost in the fine details.

Straight ramps for skin colors don't work that well.  You can get away with it if the face is very small, or the image is dominated by strong contrasts with hair, clothing, or background, but a zig-zag in the hues/saturation seems to work better.  Caveat1: this also depends on the intent of the piece.

An edit.  I think there's still something off about the perspective, but I'd have to dig out some references to check it against.  And the jawline needs to be fixed, but that depends a lot on the hair and/or neck.



Hope this helps,
Tourist

67
General Discussion / Re: Official Off-Topic Thread
« on: July 08, 2012, 05:06:10 am »
Quote from: Friend on July 08, 2012, 03:18:23 am
Quote from: ptoing on July 08, 2012, 02:19:20 am
(quantum mechanics)

Where do you learn about this stuff  :huh: 


College, to start with.  I took a graduate level course in quantum mechanics.  I think I got a B, but it was a number of years ago, so I don't remember much of the content.  It was mostly a lot of higher math, and it was only an introductory course.

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics) has links to some free course materials at MIT and Yale on the subject, and a link to a slew of free ebooks (textbooks, mostly).  I haven't looked at any of the stuff, but you'll need at least calculus, and more likely partial differential equations, to understand the material.

There are usually a few simpler books on the subject out there, things that focus on the implications rather than the math, but you'd have to accept the author's assertions about what the math or experiments say. 

I remember a book on simplified relativity that has examples like, 'if the speed of light was 20 mph and a man was pedaling a bicycle down the street...and then pedaled faster ...' and then went on to cover what the situation looked like to the man on the bike, to a person standing on the sidewalk, and so on, in order to explain the effects of time dilation and traveling near the speed of light.  I'm sure quantum mechanics has some similar books.

Tourist

68
Pixel Art / Re: fruity shading experiments
« on: July 07, 2012, 04:53:48 am »
Maybe use the sawtooth / square wave style dither to break up the banding at the top?  Definitely looking better though.

Tourist

69
Pixel Art Feature Chest / Re: [WIP] Battle Sprite(s):Wangsta Chick
« on: July 07, 2012, 04:00:44 am »
In every image except the very first, her spine is vertical and her shoulders are level.  This pretty much drives her hips to be level too, although the torso could still twist.  Add in basic balance and you end up with a fairly static pose.  Works fine for a model sheet, not so good for in-game if she is meant to be a hip-hop dancer.

The newest 'blob' image improves on the stiff back, but the balance fails in the same way as previous images.  All the weight is coming down on one leg, on the toes, and the longer leg is just kind of hanging out there.  Yet the hips are level.  Compare the position of the feet to where they are in PixelPiledriver's image.  The leading foot in his image (shorter leg in your image) is out in front of the hips, not underneath.

If the was a tweener and she was pivoting her longer leg around behind the shorter one then you could get away with it, but even then the hips probably aren't going to stay level for more than a frame.  Or if she was in the middle of stumbling forward.  But otherwise fix the pose before adding any more detail.  Keep a curve in the spine, just improve the distribution of mass.

Tourist

Edit: didn't mean to sound quite so harsh.  I think you've got a solid character design and I like how you've done the hair.  The dynamic pose is better.  But I see a recurring problem with balance and positioning the legs.  I don't have a good solution.  Maybe try some gesture sketches on paper?

70
General Discussion / Re: Curious how much time certain work should take
« on: July 03, 2012, 10:15:09 pm »
Quality, quantity, fast, cheap.  Choose 2.

Tourist

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