AuthorTopic: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014  (Read 185013 times)

Offline ptoing

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Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

on: January 01, 2013, 10:00:27 am
Happy new year everyone!

Also, happy new 2014~ This thread's still fresh, use it!
« Last Edit: January 06, 2014, 03:50:36 pm by Crow »
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Offline API-Beast

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #1 on: January 01, 2013, 11:13:11 am
Happy new earth orbit!

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #2 on: January 01, 2013, 05:07:20 pm
Let's make this a good year.

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #3 on: January 01, 2013, 06:37:46 pm
Let's see if we can make a Secret Santa happen where all participants submit their gift on time :P
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #4 on: January 01, 2013, 07:27:28 pm
happy new year I suppose.   2012 was decent with moments of awesomeness but the end was disappointing.  Doesn't seem to matter what I achieve or people I meet, I still end up totally on my own during the festive season.  Three years in a row I've not had a christmas.  Used to be my favourite time of the year too.  Just wishing all my usual activities would start up again already so I could get on with them and take my mind off things.
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Offline yaomon17

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #5 on: January 02, 2013, 06:55:15 am
Oh yea! NYR is to dress better!

Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #6 on: January 02, 2013, 12:49:07 pm
Time to make good changes during the beginning of this new arbitrary date!

Personally, I made the resolution to draw a lot more, and as of yesterday I got at least two hours of drawing in, and surprisingly learned a ton during this short period of time.  Also "played" around with my new colored/B-8B/charcoal pencils and drawing paper a lot.

Offline Lachie Dazdarian

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #7 on: January 02, 2013, 09:36:30 pm
I started poorly. Damn, it will be a STAIN for quite some time hampering my creativity and confidence. Well, at least the creativity and confidence I was counting on.

Oh, well...

Beside that, not sure how much of a good year is awaiting me. Things will be very hectic and demanding at work, while I rapidly started to lose my interest and motivation toward the end of 2012. It will be rocky.


Hobby-wise?...dunno...hope to design some smaller, interesting games, satisfactory looking. Humble ambitions. But...it's very much experience. :)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #8 on: January 06, 2013, 04:31:45 pm
To All : please willingness to participate in the questionnaire, here we try to create an alternative way to make pixel art. some pictures we have defined as the pixel art. please respond to vote the best picture that you like .. thanks (www.wisnu-art.6te.net)

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #9 on: January 06, 2013, 04:50:51 pm
I think the pixel art images are really hard to read for pixel art. At least in my browser there is a strange kind of grid above them which makes it impossible to give a good estimation of the quality.
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Offline Facet

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #10 on: January 06, 2013, 05:05:13 pm
Please don't spam the same post to different areas of the board!

Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #11 on: January 06, 2013, 06:16:24 pm
To All : please willingness to participate in the questionnaire, here we try to create an alternative way to make pixel art. some pictures we have defined as the pixel art. please respond to vote the best picture that you like .. thanks (www.wisnu-art.6te.net)

I noticed that you also spammed it around in PJ, to the point where you posted it more than once in the comments section of the SAME news articles.  I think that one single post on both sites would be best if you want people to think of your survey as serious rather than spam.

Agreed with Cyangmou's points, the grid makes it impossible to tell.

Offline r1k

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #12 on: January 06, 2013, 10:11:53 pm
To All : please willingness to participate in the questionnaire, here we try to create an alternative way to make pixel art. some pictures we have defined as the pixel art. please respond to vote the best picture that you like .. thanks (www.wisnu-art.6te.net)

IN addition to the grid it seems you just used color reduced photos.  I dont think alot of people here would even call that pixel art, and if they did they would call it bad pixel art.  Not really a good way to judge pixel art.
The wording on the questions is also confusing.  I suggest getting someone better with english to reword the questions for you.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #13 on: January 08, 2013, 06:50:10 pm

Thanks crow.  It's still on the PS blog so I thought nothing of it but yeah no point it being here.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 02:02:07 pm by Carnivac »
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Offline Seiseki

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #14 on: January 09, 2013, 07:29:42 pm
What happened to the forum theme being worked on?
The current skin is really plain and basic :/

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #15 on: January 10, 2013, 07:18:23 am
What happened to the forum theme being worked on?
The current skin is really plain and basic :/

Hmm, good point :huh:
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Offline ptoing

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #16 on: January 10, 2013, 07:32:01 am
I shall wurk on it when I got some more free time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which should be within this month. I just need to finish of some urgent art.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Chris2balls

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #17 on: January 13, 2013, 11:50:00 pm
Finish the new skin, did you say? ;D

I was thinking of writing a mini commercial critique on Boktai, and in particular its backgrounds. I've got some more important things to get out of the way this week and next week, so it won't be any time soon hypothetically. Interesting?
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Offline Facet

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #18 on: January 14, 2013, 12:29:44 am
Would like, most definitely. Apparently there was one on a previous, unarchived iteration of the forums but I wasn't around then and am now :) It's a really elegant aesthetic but I haven't played through to see a lot of areas in-game :-[.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2013, 05:51:04 pm by Facet »

Offline Conzeit

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #19 on: January 14, 2013, 05:32:53 am
That game has really top notch art, I for one would really like to see anything you've got to say on it Chris :y:

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #20 on: January 14, 2013, 08:06:09 am
Absolutely, go for it.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #21 on: January 14, 2013, 05:50:01 pm
Hm, creating animated top down 2D sprites somewhat more advanced than the old Alien Breed type stuff is a lot more tricky than I thought.   Having trouble with perspective and making the animation clear as to what it's doing (like the punching attack or the running).  I've got an action figure I'm posing to try get a hang of it but I think I might get one of the Uncharted games loaded up, do some actions in it then play back the 'cinema' file and move the camera up above and pointed straight down to see how it works with the quality modelling and animating of Naughty Dog and use the snapshot function to take some reference shots and use those to figure what I'm doing wrong with my sprites. 
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #22 on: January 16, 2013, 03:41:28 pm
Is there even a remote chance to make a retro-style game for a device with actual buttons these days?  All this touchscreen crap is pissing me off.  At what point did people supposedly become content with having their thumbs obscure a large portion of the game screen?   The loss of the tactile feel is really making it difficult to produce the kinds of games I wanted to do.  I've tried other games on phones that have attempted it with the virtual joypad stuff but it's absolutely terrible.   Perhaps I should finally just call it quits and say "oh that's 'progress' or something" and delete everything.
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Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #23 on: January 16, 2013, 03:53:21 pm
Is there even a remote chance to make a retro-style game for a device with actual buttons these days?  All this touchscreen crap is pissing me off.  At what point did people supposedly become content with having their thumbs obscure a large portion of the game screen?   The loss of the tactile feel is really making it difficult to produce the kinds of games I wanted to do.  I've tried other games on phones that have attempted it with the virtual joypad stuff but it's absolutely terrible.   Perhaps I should finally just call it quits and say "oh that's 'progress' or something" and delete everything.

I wanted to link to the website of "the nD", but apparently.. it's gone. Have an article: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/06/nd-the-game-changing-handheld-console/

Their site now redirects to the site of "Bob's Game", which was supposed to be out on the device as well. We'll see if anything happens with that piece of hardware anytime soon. I sure as hell wouldn't mind.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #24 on: January 16, 2013, 04:03:51 pm
Thanks but not really what I'm after.   Those things never sell well and are usually quickly forgotten   And I can't say I'd want one either looking at it (awful choice of making the buttons different sizes)
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Offline Dusty

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #25 on: January 18, 2013, 05:48:25 am
3DS still has buttons, you're not required to use the touchscreen. DS is applicable as well, since it's still being marketed. Pretty sure the last Shantae game was released on the iDS store, no?

Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #26 on: January 18, 2013, 09:15:42 am
There's always PC with xbox controller, Ouya maybe http://www.ouya.tv/, still a pretty healthy Dreamcast community too.

Rik 

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #27 on: January 20, 2013, 01:53:42 am
Is it significant when you can recognize the references in a piece of art?  I always thought the rule of thumb was that using reference is good, but copying reference is generally poor.  An artist should make effort to, I don't know, go beyond what the reference provides?  Learn from the reference and incorporate that into the artist's own vision?  Or ... something?

I ask because when browsing other art sites I routinely recognize the sources in the artwork that is posted.  I'm not sure that other visitors do, and the references are never explicitly acknowledged.  What's proper for this sort of thing?

Tourist

Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #28 on: January 20, 2013, 02:41:32 am
Is it significant when you can recognize the references in a piece of art?  I always thought the rule of thumb was that using reference is good, but copying reference is generally poor.  An artist should make effort to, I don't know, go beyond what the reference provides?  Learn from the reference and incorporate that into the artist's own vision?  Or ... something?

I ask because when browsing other art sites I routinely recognize the sources in the artwork that is posted.  I'm not sure that other visitors do, and the references are never explicitly acknowledged.  What's proper for this sort of thing?

Tourist

From what I've seen, it depends.  There are a lot of artists out there that seek to learn only to copy what they see; nothing more.  And I'd suspect it's at least a good practice exercise in many respects to at least try this every now and then -- I'd think that it probably improves one's ability to recognize minute detail and draw them accordingly.  Here's a good example of multiple people undergoing a similar exercise, in which they all draw whom many people somehow believe to be the most beautiful woman in the world: http://dueysdrawings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7008  You'll notice how many of them use extensive gridding in order to get extreme likeness.

As for not posting references, that's a bit of a different issue and probably has more to do with stealing/plagiarism rather than good/bad art practice.

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #29 on: January 20, 2013, 06:33:19 pm
How do I learn to draw explosions and smoke effects?
Does anyone have any good resources on the subject?

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #30 on: January 20, 2013, 08:14:02 pm
@Ashbad
I guess you're right.  I'll mark that an irrational pet peeve rather than a serious concern.


How do I learn to draw explosions and smoke effects?
Does anyone have any good resources on the subject?

I think it is largely a solved problem.  This page has a small app that lets you generate explosions and save the animations.  I have not used it myself, but it looks like it could serve as a starting point if nothing else.

http://www.saschawillems.de/?tag=explosion

Relevant search terms would be 'procedural generation explosion animation'

Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #31 on: January 22, 2013, 12:58:28 am
@Ashbad
I guess you're right.  I'll mark that an irrational pet peeve rather than a serious concern.


How do I learn to draw explosions and smoke effects?
Does anyone have any good resources on the subject?

I think it is largely a solved problem.  This page has a small app that lets you generate explosions and save the animations.  I have not used it myself, but it looks like it could serve as a starting point if nothing else.

http://www.saschawillems.de/?tag=explosion

Relevant search terms would be 'procedural generation explosion animation'

Tourist

Actually I'm more interested in seeing how an artist would draw an explosion, which parts to focus on, styles, etc.
But thanks nonetheless :)

I find effects and animations being things that are kinda hard to find good tutorials and references and such for.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #33 on: January 22, 2013, 01:54:55 am
If you want references from other people's art (though I recommend studying actual explosions), then this seems like it would also be relevant.

Recently made & he has a timelapse video in the description.

Also, Jad's explosion is great.

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #34 on: January 24, 2013, 12:04:39 pm
Those are great, I've also done some digging and found this: http://zack-sr.deviantart.com/art/Explosion-basics-tutorial-65735280
And this site: http://flashfx.blogspot.se/
« Last Edit: January 24, 2013, 07:30:22 pm by Seiseki »

Offline Dusty

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #35 on: January 25, 2013, 01:14:44 am
I wonder how many people here would be interested in the possibility of setting up a Minecraft server for pixelation members. We're all pretty cool here, which is the most important thing in a server since griefing and stuff can absolutely ruin a server, and more importantly the builds would probably end up looking amazing.

Offline Seiseki

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #36 on: January 25, 2013, 01:21:44 am
I don't play minecraft anymore, it takes too long to gather blocks and build things :D

Offline Reo

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #37 on: January 25, 2013, 01:26:27 am
I don't play minecraft anymore, it takes too long to gather blocks and build things :D
They have added a creative mode now, where you can fly around and just build stuff without worrying about collecting.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #38 on: January 25, 2013, 02:29:29 pm
I don't play minecraft anymore, it takes too long to gather blocks and build things :D
They have added a creative mode now, where you can fly around and just build stuff without worrying about collecting.

I know, but you don't get the whole rpg-survival experience in creative mode, which I find makes building more enjoyable, but also more time consuming..

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #39 on: January 25, 2013, 03:48:29 pm
Who'd be interested in Minecraft? I could possibly get us a small spot on a server of a friend. Both survival and creative, if required. What do you say?
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Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #40 on: January 25, 2013, 04:00:28 pm
I found the Technic -> Tekkit pack to be a lot of fun.
Makes the game a bit more interesting.
Converting dirt into arrows and meat is extremely useful.
But classic is cool too.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #41 on: January 25, 2013, 04:38:41 pm
No fancy stuff, only survival and creative, with possibly a few extra plugins. I need to know who'd be interested, though, and what plugins you guys/gals would require.
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Offline Dusty

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #42 on: January 25, 2013, 06:17:18 pm
Ya, while I enjoy Tekkit and would love to play a server with Tekkit right now it's a limited appeal. Right now vanilla Survival sounds like the best route to go if we want to get something going. Only plugin I'd probably be interested in are some security ones, like chest locks and such.

Offline 32

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #43 on: January 26, 2013, 08:54:14 am
I'd be in. Vanilla on easy mode is the most enjoyable I think. Just a whitelist would be enough for security probably.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #44 on: January 26, 2013, 10:11:48 am
Just a whitelist would be enough for security probably.

Permission plugins are already in place, since those are almost always required ;) Also, survival will be on normal, if anything. Personally, I'd prefer hard.
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Offline Zettman

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #45 on: February 08, 2013, 08:27:11 pm
https://www.facebook.com/Stefarin I'm trying to get started on my career as an Illustrator... maybe getting my name out there in more than one way, cuz you know its hard out there for an artist xP if you could like and maybe share the page I would extremely be grateful, thanks for the support :)

Umbasa!

Offline Atnas

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #46 on: March 09, 2013, 06:44:43 pm
Facebook isn't really seen as professional, as far as I know. You should make your own separate portfolio website, its what most every established illustrator does. Facebook won't hurt, but it's not going to do you any huge favors professionally compared to having your own site of some sort.

Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #47 on: March 16, 2013, 06:45:26 pm
Well, regional science fair is almost done, so I might have time again to draw on a regular basis :D  The fair was pretty draining, I was explaining my project to corporate representatives for nearly 3 hours straight, over and over again.  On the up side, I think I caught MIT's attention, since they visited me three times and provided multiple business cards.  Though the second time around they were making sure I actually knew what I was talking about ::) I suppose it is uncommon for a high school student to do a project involving C compiler optimization at the assembly level.  I wasn't a finalist for advancement to the international level, but I am in good contention for states (and a 1st prize in computer science.)

Hoping to enter something next year indirectly related to pixel art, I have a few ideas.  :y:
« Last Edit: March 16, 2013, 06:47:22 pm by Ashbad »

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #48 on: March 16, 2013, 08:57:59 pm
Hey, congratulations! Sounds cool. Did you already explain what the project was?
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #49 on: March 19, 2013, 11:59:53 am
So I recently decided I'd take the first step towards learning how to draw..
Every art form I've worked in so far has always been one that downplays the importance of drawing, like vector art, pixel art, photo-manipulation, graphics design.
Always working around my lack of drawing skills.

So I got some art supplies for sketching and one ink pen.
I started attempting to draw real life stuff but everytime I look at something, I can't see the real angles. I heard someone say that people view objects in their heads from the front perspective even if they see if at a different perspective and it's messing with my head and eyes xD

Then I started just drawing cartoon figures and game related stuff in ink and just kept filling pages with crazy designs of monsters and robots. For some reason it works much better for me than sketching. I guess I really need to train my perception. But damn, inking is really addictive :D

I also haven't drawn much.. well.. ever. So I guess I need to really practice drawing shapes and lines before I attempt to portray real-life objects.

@Ashbad
Wow, impressive!
With your programming talents and pixel art skills you should really get into game making! :)

Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #50 on: March 19, 2013, 01:33:28 pm
@Charlieton: Thanks!  :)  I guess I forgot to explain the premise of it.  In short, it was testing the output assembly language from the SDCC C compiler, targeting the zilog z80 (as a representative of other 70s 8 bit processors still widely used today), and testing certain handwritten optimizations (that can be implemented with a strict rule set) to see which ones were most effective, and which ones were most able to be implemented into compilers targeting the z80 (and similar processors.)

Overall I got 1st place in computer science, along with another student, so it looks like I'll be going to states!  I also got a 1st place corporate award (and money) from MIT, George Mason, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Air Force, in addition to a few honorable mentions and a grand prize from IEEE.  Ten times better than I expected, I was just hoping to place! :D

@Seiseki: Thanks!  Not sure game design will eventually turn into my profession (I'm aiming more towards a CS and an EE/CE double major), and my pixeling/art skills are still rather lacking, but it's definitely a forming hobby of mine :)  Just gotta get back to drawing and/or find some good artists to work with.

Offline Dragonfly

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #51 on: March 19, 2013, 03:03:58 pm
So I ran into a problem with graphicsgale and I would appreciate some help. I right-clicked on the 'Tool' section from the Toolbar and pressed on dockable. The tick went away and now the tool section just moved to the side where I can't access it.
I can neither right click on it or move it in any way.
Please someone help me if they can.
(Sorry if this is on the wrong board)

EDIT: I fixed the problem now by Deinstalling and re-downloading the programm. You can lock this topic or remove it or whatever you guys do.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 07:11:36 pm by Dragonfly »

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #52 on: March 20, 2013, 11:36:00 am
Poser and Poser Pro are available for extra cheap (70% off) until Thursday, if anyone's interested.
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline skw

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #53 on: March 26, 2013, 12:42:57 am
Not really off-topic but I don't want to start a new thread in the Pixel Art board...just wanted to show you my new pixel-art piece, CC if you like: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/76933.htm :) Cheers!

« Last Edit: March 26, 2013, 01:48:41 pm by skw »
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Offline Ashbad

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #54 on: March 26, 2013, 01:14:49 pm
Not really off-topic but I don't want to start a new thread in the Pixel Art board...just wanted to show you my new pixel-art piece, CC if you like: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/76933.htm :) Cheers!

I have no C+C besides what's already been said on PJ.  And, congrats, this is excellent!   :y: ;D

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #55 on: March 26, 2013, 01:49:05 pm
Thank you !
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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #56 on: March 29, 2013, 01:39:10 am
@ skw:
The general look made me wonder if you'd started the artwork in a vector program. Might be worth considering if you do anything else in similar style.
Hah, "witch house" is a genre of music? Neat.

Recently started using these warmup methods:

1
2

Basically 1: make two points then connect them freehand with as straight a line as you can, and 2: make three points then connect them with a curve (must hit all three points).

I've found this good for improving my speed and accuracy, particularly with 'left handed' strokes ( where you draw from right to left rather than left to right) since I'm right handed (right handed strokes are easier for me).
I refined the idea a little with :
* reuse endpoints (target intersections or line ends/midpoints rather than only separate points), and
* S-shaped curves are not acceptable (as they aren't possible with a conic curve aka 3-point curve)
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #57 on: March 29, 2013, 01:24:02 pm
Quote from: Ai
The general look made me wonder if you'd started the artwork in a vector program. Might be worth considering if you do anything else in similar style.
No, I made everything in ProMotion. Here's some step I saved in the middle:
.
Yeah, I think this would look nice if done in vectors :)

Quote from: Ai
Hah, "witch house" is a genre of music? Neat.
Well, it probably isn't but you have so many sub-genres in this type of music (i.e. "waves:" "chillwave," "darkwave" etc.) that it surely deserves an exclusive term.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7XJHiLSKKk
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Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #58 on: March 30, 2013, 02:56:01 am
I've always been fascinated by detailed woodcut artwork. For years, I've wanted to try some digital techniques to get the effect.
Finally got my hands on Andromeda Cutline, an ancient Photoshop filter.
Made a little workflow tutorial for my first try:

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #59 on: March 31, 2013, 06:07:47 pm
I'm interested in this filter. Does it work on windows 7 x64 photoshop cs6?

Offline Cure

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #60 on: March 31, 2013, 06:58:13 pm
Looks less like a woodcut and more like an engraving. Pretty cool though. You can then burn that on a silkscreen and trick all your friends into thinking you went through the laborious process of engraving a print.

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #61 on: March 31, 2013, 08:01:42 pm
Ι'm interested in using this filter as a rough line guide to go in and actually digital-ink every little bit in manga studio afterwards.

Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #62 on: April 01, 2013, 08:52:45 am
I think you're right actually, Cure.

Helm, I've only gotten it to work with Photoshop CS2 and lower. Tried CS3; no luck. But yes to Windows 7 x64.

Ι'm interested in using this filter as a rough line guide to go in and actually digital-ink every little bit in manga studio afterwards.
Yikes. Why?



FULL RES CLOSE-UP
Gotta work at 2x or 4x, then scale down end-result with smoothing interpo.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2013, 09:09:01 am by Mathias »

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #63 on: April 01, 2013, 01:13:51 pm
Because it looks like a filter!

Offline skw

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #64 on: April 05, 2013, 08:12:43 am
Hello! Sorry, I know this was discussed a thousand times before but is there a way to get back to the original layout ? All I see now is a plain default theme that doesn't really look cool :)
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Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #65 on: April 05, 2013, 11:31:11 am
Hello! Sorry, I know this was discussed a thousand times before but is there a way to get back to the original layout ? All I see now is a plain default theme that doesn't really look cool :)

Coming soon(-ish).
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #66 on: April 14, 2013, 07:15:16 am

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #67 on: April 24, 2013, 08:45:45 pm

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #68 on: April 24, 2013, 11:11:56 pm
I finally got around to coding that colorpicker script for GrafX2 under Linux, based on 'grabc' program. (If you're using MacOSX, there is already one). FYI: GrafX2's interface has to work on a lot of platforms, so they have minimal access to platform-specific stuff (eg. being able to look at the contents of other windows); the built in colorpicker is only effective inside GrafX2.

I made both cycling (moves to next color index after picking) and non-cycling versions. Usually use 'cycling', because I mainly want to pick ramps rather than single colors. I use this for example to pick colors from GPick's "blend colors' panel:


Both versions of the script are available here.
Note: you'll need to have the grabc package installed first.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #69 on: April 29, 2013, 10:51:40 pm
Here's a thing:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/29/err_act_landgrab/

The UK just passed a law that allows for commercial use of images under copyright where information about the owner is unavailable.  This affects users here at Pixelation since we often upload images and edits to image sharing hosts.  The article is rather strongly against the new law.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #70 on: April 30, 2013, 12:06:50 am
So does that mean the UK folks can freely steal your stuff while a non-UK citizen can still be persecuted for doing the same thing?
And what the hell can one even do about this?
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #71 on: April 30, 2013, 05:35:21 am
Ok, I just dug through a bunch of UK law.  The most relevant bits are here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2012-2013/0089/2013089.65-69.html#r005  or search that page for 116A which is the relevant section.  Or just search for the phrase orphan works.

It sounds nice on the surface.  If you can't find the copyright owner "after a diligent search" then the UK government can license the work on a non-exclusive basis, essentially treating it as public domain.  Do what you want with it (if you are in the UK).  One problem is that the Berne Convention says copyright is automatic upon creation.  If it's not yours, tough, it won't be out of copyright for 5 generations or so.  This gets around that.

So yeah, it authorizes UK folks to copy and profit from your stuff if the copyright owner can't be found "after a diligent search."  The specific regulations aren't detailed yet, that will take a few months. 

This would pretty much apply by default for pictures uploaded to image hosts, or fiction that you post anonymously, or even an old web page at the internet archive that points to an abandoned email address.  Possibly abandonware too.

It's open for abuse, since stripping ownership info from a digital work is trivial.  You can't tell when things were added to the web, so it becomes retroactive by default.  It adds a layer of legal protection to UK companies that rip people off.  Maybe the detailed regulations will sort all of this out, but right now this is a mess.

What can you do?  Tell people about it.  Don't panic, and don't cause panic.  Just mention it and link to the relevant articles.  If you want to avoid your stuff getting ripped off, don't post it to the web, same as always. 

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #72 on: April 30, 2013, 10:56:09 am
Hrm, I guess posting small resolution images so they are useless to rip off is what's the best solution. Hrm.

I told my animation teacher of it, at least. <lC
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #73 on: May 03, 2013, 02:38:12 pm
The Register posted a follow-up article with some more explanation on the UK law, for those that are interested:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/03/instagram_act_explained/

I don't have much more to say on this.
« Last Edit: May 03, 2013, 02:39:54 pm by Tourist »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #74 on: May 03, 2013, 03:20:32 pm
A simple thing everyone of us can do right away is to not upload anonymously to image hosts anymore but to use a dedicated account. That way, a "diligent search" for the copyright owner can be as simple as checking who uploaded the image.

Another thing you could do is to put your e-mail address and/or website in the bottom of each image you upload, along with a date next to it.

Of course that doesn't help with older works which were already uploaded anonymously.

In the case of older works though, maybe a reverse image search could help determining the source of an anonymously uploaded piece by pointing to a forum, website or blog post where it was originally shared.

In all honesty though, before I'd worry about anyone stealing my stuff, I'd worry about creating something worth stealing first.  :crazy:

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #75 on: May 05, 2013, 12:58:53 am
There doesn't seem to be any good analysis (eg. Groklaw-style) of this bill online

One common factor that wasn't mentioned here is the idea that this will make money for the UK government
("...payment would be taken and the money set aside for copyright owners that reveal themselves down the track.") and/or unrelated third parties setting themselves up as 'orphaned-works licensers'.
link commenting on recent updates/proposed updates in orphaned-works policies in UK, US, EU and AUS.[url]

Also, apparently 'diligent search' has a specific established legal meaning.

Quote
In all honesty though, before I'd worry about anyone stealing my stuff, I'd worry about creating something worth stealing first.  :crazy:
As artists, we are obligated to doubt our own doubts about the quality of our work ;)
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #76 on: May 06, 2013, 01:34:22 am
Got a question . . .

For those that do, when digital drawing/painting in grayscale, but planning to end with a full color image - what is your strategy for transitioning from grays to colors? When, during the drawing process, and how do you cross over into color?

Offline Ymedron

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #77 on: May 06, 2013, 08:40:18 am
Regarding the coloring methods:
1. Turn grayscale into multiply
2. Turn color layer into color-mode
3. Recolor grayscale into a purple/blue hue, and multiply
4. Overlay instead of multiply

If I'm working in this way, I either complete the grayscale first or do the purple-layer after putting the color layer in. The first method puts main focus onto getting lighting information correct, but leaves out considerations of contrast, hue and how that changes what the shading looks like. The second method is more annoying to work with, since you need to turn off the color layer to be able to pick the true shading color to work with.

And regarding the copyright law:
The concern comes from someone simply editing the owner's name out, acting in bad faith. But I suppose then you'll have to contact the copyright protection agency of your country... :l
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #78 on: May 10, 2013, 04:28:08 pm
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/color-attack-left-vs-right/id619462073?mt=8

Hm, after reading a bit in 'Drawing with the right side of the brain' isn't this app a bit of the opposite? By focusing on text and not color.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #79 on: May 10, 2013, 05:33:35 pm
Wonder if it has language settings - it's really easy for a non-native speaker while really hard for a native one. :o Maybe because the concepts aren't as married to one another?
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #80 on: May 10, 2013, 06:34:45 pm
Yeah I was just thinking that learning to read the text instead of looking at the color, is the wrong part of the brain for an artist.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #81 on: May 10, 2013, 07:02:18 pm
Well, it doesn't matter whether you separate the text from the color or the color from the text, the point of the exercise is basically to tease your brains to ignore one input.
It's not especially art-related, but it's good to exercise your brains.
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #82 on: May 12, 2013, 01:25:20 pm
I've recently dug up an old game project of mine and heavily revamped the graphics (while keeping within the same 8-bit computer specs of the 16 colours and wide pixels).  Also, with the help of Daniel Remar (who created many great indie games such as Iji and Hero Core)  I have revamped most of the code such as scrolling, movement and such for a more authentic 8-bit feel.   I still have much to do but least it's giving me something to do while I find a job, new home, new play to rehearse for and everything else...
Here be a screenie for those what likes retro stuffs...
« Last Edit: May 12, 2013, 04:05:54 pm by Carnivac »
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
I know nothing about pixel art
http://carnivac.tumblr.com/

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #83 on: May 12, 2013, 05:56:31 pm
I don't just like it, I love it! Can we see video of it in action?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #84 on: May 12, 2013, 06:46:40 pm
Glad you like.  :)

I'll try sort out a video in the next few weeks (I'm not very familiar with video software though so any suggestions for such a program would be welcome).  Still got some work to do on it before I feel like showing this version of it in action such as the little robot buddy (that can go into 16 pixel high tunnels), the zombie troopers and other bits and pieces.  Also some code is knowingly broken at moment (such as the multiple fire weapon) as I go through it all revising, ripping out, replacing and improving various bits.  I cut some stuff from the original demo I did (such as an 8 frame idle animation for the player) for memory reasons when I hope to get this converted to a real Amstrad CPC someday (and fulfil a childhood goal) though I find the 'limitations' are keeping me focused but also are themselves creating new features (having the zombie troopers and the main villain's initial form using the same leg sprites as the player made me realise I could switch the characters round for fun, as I just change the top half sprite and the name and have alternate story dialogue too.  And it makes sense in story as they all start as prisoners on the same spaceship so would be wearing the same trousers anyway). 

 ;D
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
I know nothing about pixel art
http://carnivac.tumblr.com/

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #85 on: May 12, 2013, 06:54:48 pm
Ι would recommend any number of software for a real-time demo. Camtasia or Fraps are often employed.

Yes, limitations sometimes breed innovation. I too would like to make a pure 8-bit game someday (probably c64).

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #86 on: May 14, 2013, 07:26:43 am
Yeah.  It's the little boring bits dragging it down at moment.  At moment am redoing the clouds to be more tilable in various sizes (so different tiles connect to each other).  It's tedious and a lot of trial and error (as were the rock tiles) but should result in a wider variety of combinations and again save on memory on a real 64k computer.  Being able to get more out of less is probably good practice for most things anyways.
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Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #87 on: May 14, 2013, 08:03:24 am
Looks wonderful, but the scanlines are killing it for me.   :blind:

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #88 on: May 14, 2013, 08:35:53 am
Well, I don't like it without them (I use scanlines all the time when available, even on PS3 releases of retro-games as I find modern displays too 'clean' for low res 2D) but they are optional in the game's video settings.
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Offline Conzeit

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #89 on: May 15, 2013, 09:21:46 pm
CARNIVAC: glad to hear that you're working on a project of your own, looking forward to it
on the scanlines thing IMO they are best when they arent full black, the light from between each pixel bleeds so they arent that harsh in reality

On another note...I've been thinking about the whole lo-spect aspect of things and David O reilly I think is an example of someone who's made a lot of progress on that. Recently he directed an adventure time episode, but his works stands out on it's own.

I was reading one of his posts where he was talking about theory of timing, and used a special filter to bring out the contrast in motion videos
http://davidoreilly.com/post/44795290855/timing2

Does anybody know what this filter is? I'd love to analayse the hell out of some motions with that
« Last Edit: May 15, 2013, 09:37:14 pm by Conceit »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #90 on: May 15, 2013, 09:47:06 pm
To me it looks more like he just took the lineart for the animation and showed pretty much the parts that change. Traditionally animators draw a lot of static pictures, like the upper body might be mostly static while the legs move, and comparing how much each part is redrawn makes for those kind of effects. :o

Especially the second comparison with the trumpets etc, the drawing on the left has some info that doesn't exist in the final work, like brush-drawn lines.
Edit: Hm, looking closer, the brush drawn thing probably comes from the effect that you were talking about. I'm still thinking it's just him overlaying like ten previous frames in the picture to give the animation a "tail". :o!

Edit2: HM, further analyzing... Yeah looks like he did use something, derp herp. Maybe he made it himself. Could ask him on tumblr. <lV Sorry for confusing the matter.
edit3: derp, last edit I think. He doesn't seem to want to be asked software/technical questions... Hrm! can't find any info on it on google either... Maybe if you want to bite the bullet, ask anyway. D:
« Last Edit: May 15, 2013, 09:59:32 pm by Ymedron »
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Offline jams0988

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #91 on: May 15, 2013, 10:56:33 pm
Quote from: Ymedron
Off topic: Why does it always have to be a girlfriend? Why not... I don't know, his dad or son or gay partner, or why does it have to be a male main character? Wouldn't it be possible to have a heroic female rescue their boyfriend? It's kinda annoying how every single game with a plot like this involves saving the female, making them the reward or object of the game. Aka removing agency. Harumph.

Because 95% of people playing this kind of game will be male. Because 95% of said males would rather rescue a girlfriend than a gay lover or a janitor.
It sucks if that fantasy isn't one that appeals to you, but you have to remember art is usually made to appeal to the artist themselves, or to what the artist considers their audience. The overwhelming audience for this would probably prefer it just the way he has it.

I'd imagine it's because "I want to create something that I'd enjoy!" is what most artists think, not "how can I appeal to the LGBT/minority/handicapped/otherwise fringe consumer?", and there's absolutely *nothing* wrong with that, in my opinion. Things get made a certain way because they're popular. There's nothing malevolent about it. People just make what they want to play, hear, or see. =)

Of course, there might be some monetary incentive for tapping into the smaller, less catered to markets, but a small 2D maze game is probably best with the simple, old-fashioned story...

My two cents, anyway. My game's going to have a female protagonist, just because I think girls are adorable and dudes are gross. But again, I'm doing it for myself, not for the females out there. If I'm going to spend a million hours making something, I think I deserve to make it the way I'd like to see it made...and I'd argue the same for everyone else!:3
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 12:16:23 am by Facet »

Offline Ymedron

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #92 on: May 15, 2013, 11:19:56 pm
95%? But half of gamers are female. 8l And how do you know how many male gamers are gay?
Furthermore, how do you know whether they'd want to rescue their girlfriend, father or mother? I never said "make it some random person", I asked why can't it be something else than just girlfriend. Why can't the reward be something else than sex for the main character? I'd imagine a lot of people can relate to rescuing their beloved family member than a love interest, as everyone has had a parent figure but not everyone has a significant other.

Of course they think "I want to make something fun!" You don't normally think about social issues until someone tells you, because it's always been like this. Humans are naturally really good at sticking to rules and tradition, but rules and tradition can become corrupted or old-fashioned, they can turn out to be damaging and need revisement. Culture provides these revisions to law and traditions, because it permeates everything. Thus, raising awareness is the best thing that can be done in a forum like this, when we aren't making laws but culture.

I don't believe male gamers are so inhuman that they can't relate to a female main character. Females can find it in themselves to relate to a male character, homosexuals can relate to heteros. Why can't the opposite be true?

Claiming people won't be interested in female heroes is a self-fulfilling prophecy, as that makes people less inclined to make heroic female characters and thus there are less good female characters to choose from. Do you see the cycle?

Notice that I'm not perfect myself. All these years I've hated my own gender in games, because they have always been portrayed in a way that I can't relate to. I still don't think to make female characters.
However, having become aware of these issues, it's actually making me -want- to do a female-main char game just to try and see if it can be done well.

I can't even imagine how gaming would look like outside of this situation, but I damn well want to find out.

edit: Also, I think this discussion needs to be branched into its own topic. It's too big and will derail the topic at hand.
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Offline dreamisle

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #93 on: May 16, 2013, 12:25:20 am
Quote
Off topic: Why does it always have to be a girlfriend? Why not... I don't know, his dad or son or gay partner, or why does it have to be a male main character? Wouldn't it be possible to have a heroic female rescue their boyfriend? It's kinda annoying how every single game with a plot like this involves saving the female, making them the reward or object of the game. Aka removing agency. Harumph.
Because 95% of people playing this kind of game will be male. Because 95% of said males would rather rescue a girlfriend than a gay lover or a janitor.
It sucks if that fantasy isn't one that appeals to you, but you have to remember art is usually made to appeal to the artist themselves, or to what the artist considers their audience. The overwhelming audience for this would probably prefer it just the way he has it.

I'd imagine it's because "I want to create something that I'd enjoy!" is what most artists think, not "how can I appeal to the LGBT/minority/handicapped/otherwise fringe consumer?", and there's absolutely *nothing* wrong with that, in my opinion. Things get made a certain way because they're popular. There's nothing malevolent about it. People just make what they want to play, hear, or see. =)

Of course, there might be some monetary incentive for tapping into the smaller, less catered to markets, but a small 2D maze game is probably best with the simple, old-fashioned story...

My two cents, anyway. My game's going to have a female protagonist, just because I think girls are adorable and dudes are gross. But again, I'm doing it for myself, not for the females out there. If I'm going to spend a million hours making something, I think I deserve to make it the way I'd like to see it made...and I'd argue the same for everyone else!:3

95%? But half of gamers are female. 8l And how do you know how many male gamers are gay?
Furthermore, how do you know whether they'd want to rescue their girlfriend, father or mother? I never said "make it some random person", I asked why can't it be something else than just girlfriend. Why can't the reward be something else than sex for the main character? I'd imagine a lot of people can relate to rescuing their beloved family member than a love interest, as everyone has had a parent figure but not everyone has a significant other.

Of course they think "I want to make something fun!" You don't normally think about social issues until someone tells you, because it's always been like this. Humans are naturally really good at sticking to rules and tradition, but rules and tradition can become corrupted or old-fashioned, they can turn out to be damaging and need revisement. Culture provides these revisions to law and traditions, because it permeates everything. Thus, raising awareness is the best thing that can be done in a forum like this, when we aren't making laws but culture.

I don't believe male gamers are so inhuman that they can't relate to a female main character. Females can find it in themselves to relate to a male character, homosexuals can relate to heteros. Why can't the opposite be true?

Claiming people won't be interested in female heroes is a self-fulfilling prophecy, as that makes people less inclined to make heroic female characters and thus there are less good female characters to choose from. Do you see the cycle?

Notice that I'm not perfect myself. All these years I've hated my own gender in games, because they have always been portrayed in a way that I can't relate to. I still don't think to make female characters.
However, having become aware of these issues, it's actually making me -want- to do a female-main char game just to try and see if it can be done well.

I can't even imagine how gaming would look like outside of this situation, but I damn well want to find out.

edit: Also, I think this discussion needs to be branched into its own topic. It's too big and will derail the topic at hand.

Some points to consider about the game whose topic this conversation was spun from:
  • I'm making the game for the company I work for as a tie-in with our website's mascot, so the main character is non-negotiable.
  • None of my opinion on hetero- vs homosexual relationships matters since I'm making it for a work project. My boss is conservative. I consider myself lucky just to be able to get paid to draw pixel art and sling code, and the LGBT battle just isn't worth it in this scenario.
  • I'm gay, and I've always complained about Harvest Moon-type games only portraying hetero relationships.
  • Rescuing a female companion just seemed like a better objective than "collect all the coins in the maze because I said so."

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #94 on: May 16, 2013, 02:34:31 am
The animation thing looks like basic edge detection per frame followed by a difference between frames.  Some of the thicker outlines in places may be due to noise, color,  or compression artifacts in the inputs to the process.

Offline big brother

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #95 on: May 16, 2013, 04:01:41 am
Half of gamers might be female, but I don't think that number holds if you factor out casual gamers. A pixel game with retro mechanics might appeal more to male players, since the classic systems and arcades were predominantly played by males. A big part of marketing is segmenting and targeting, not always trying to appeal to the general audience. /2¢

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #96 on: May 16, 2013, 05:47:38 am
Big brother:
I'm half tempted to just ignore you.
All of my friends - who are female, mind you - play games like Aion, left for dead, skyrim... We aren't some special "progressive gaming" group, we are pretty normal female players. One of the players' mother (that would tell you that she's quite a bit older since we are all in the 20s range) plays Aion as well. I doubt we somehow magically happened to find the most "hardcore" gamers in our little grouping.
I don't see why retro gaming wouldn't appeal to women. We don't have statistics on whether females actually did play a lot of the old consoles, because they might well have been socially pressured to keep quiet about it.

Segmenting your audience with marketing serves no real purpose, other than making your audience predictable and thus easy to market to. You can easily bolster the confidence of the male players at the expense of the female ones, causing them to viciously defend your company as you further treat people not of your targeting group like crap.

This might be helpful to read, as well: http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/?p=5954 part 6. is especially relevant, I feel.

Dreamisle:
It's fine, if you can't help it. However, you -can- spin the tale in multiple ways, and you don't have to use a girlfriend as the reward.
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #97 on: May 16, 2013, 06:20:22 am
CARNIVAC: glad to hear that you're working on a project of your own, looking forward to it
on the scanlines thing IMO they are best when they arent full black, the light from between each pixel bleeds so they arent that harsh in reality

I've had several projects on the go for years.  Things just get in the way.  Illness, stress, an annoying sense of perfectionism that means I waste time redoing things I already did over and over and over...

I prefer all black scanlines for a couple reasons.  One being that they don't add extra colours that are not already in the palette (transparent scanlines do and to me then they make the image void as pixel art).  Another being my favorite Amstrad CPC emulator doesn't even call the option scanlines (it just has a tickbox for 'Render both pixel lines' when the image is doubled up) so they're full black on that and is what I'm used to playing on.   And to me they just look better.

Besides as I said there are various options in the menus.  The way it is in the screenshot is my choice and how I like to view it.  Seeing as how it's my project and I'm making it for my own enjoyment I didn't really need to add options at all but I did.   Cos I'm nice like that.

I asked why can't it be something else than just girlfriend. Why can't the reward be something else than sex for the main character?

That comment bugs me a bit.  Why would a girlfriend just be about sex?  Certainly not how I view relationships anyway.   If you'd said 'save the random skank' then maybe I'd see the point.

Quote
I'd imagine a lot of people can relate to rescuing their beloved family member than a love interest, as everyone has had a parent figure but not everyone has a significant other.

Heck, I don't have a 'significant other' at present, but I can't say I'd be wanting to save my folks.  Ain't much love there y'see.... 

« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 06:30:10 am by Carnivac »
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Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #98 on: May 16, 2013, 07:21:45 am
Quote
Half of gamers might be female, but I don't think that number holds if you factor out casual gamers. A pixel game with retro mechanics might appeal more to male players, since the classic systems and arcades were predominantly played by males. A big part of marketing is segmenting and targeting, not always trying to appeal to the general audience. /2¢

First of all, why would you factor our casual gaming people of any stripe? Second, I do not see why a pixelly retro game would not appeal to women, it's just an aesthetic mean. Women remember pac-man/mario/pong as well as men do (actually pac-man enjoyed a large contingency of female players) and that's all it takes for something retro pixelly to take advantage of the nostalgia connection.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #99 on: May 16, 2013, 07:40:27 am
-snip-

That comment bugs me a bit.  Why would a girlfriend just be about sex?  Certainly not how I view relationships anyway.   If you'd said 'save the random skank' then maybe I'd see the point.

(commenting in red because simpler) Because to be frank, I'm pretty jaded about this whole business. To me girlfriend/boyfriend is an extension of the desire to obtain a mate, and thus the romance involved is far more sexual in nature than the love between you, your siblings or your parents. Hence.
Quote
I'd imagine a lot of people can relate to rescuing their beloved family member than a love interest, as everyone has had a parent figure but not everyone has a significant other.

Heck, I don't have a 'significant other' at present, but I can't say I'd be wanting to save my folks.  Ain't much love there y'see.... 
I can't say much about that. If we were making a game where your relatives are assholes, sure, you wouldn't want to save them. But if the game was just about the main character's relatives who are good and loveable people (like most people are, I like to believe) I'm sure they'd be very relatable. However, in extremely simplistic games I suppose you don't have the luxury of characterization. Saving your girlfriend has just become such a disgustingly overused trope that it becomes invisible -> reduces the amount of relatability the subject has.


Edit: Also I'd like to note that my brain is a sieve and I have a hard time expressing exactly what I wanted to say. I still can't quite figure out how to write my thoughts in a way that I don't need to revise/re-explain. :l
 Please don't take my comments for anything but my own. Not representing anyone else here.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 07:48:10 am by Ymedron »
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #100 on: May 16, 2013, 07:53:22 am
(commenting in red because simpler) Because to be frank, I'm pretty jaded about this whole business. To me girlfriend/boyfriend is an extension of the desire to obtain a mate, and thus the romance involved is far more sexual in nature than the love between you, your siblings or your parents. Hence.

Dunno about that.  Way I see it, in most cases the 'hero' must sure care a hell of a lot about that girl if he's willing to risk his life many, many times over to rescue her.  He could just forget her, move on and get some other girl who hasn't been kidnapped if it was just about sex.  That's the way I see it when I play those games.

Quote
I can't say much about that. If we were making a game where your relatives are assholes, sure, you wouldn't want to save them. But if the game was just about the main character's relatives who are good and loveable people (like most people are, I like to believe) I'm sure they'd be very relatable.

Not to me.  Really.
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Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #101 on: May 16, 2013, 08:27:26 am
Does anybody know what this filter is? I'd love to analayse the hell out of some motions with that

I'm not sure exactly, but if you use a 'find outlines' or similar filter on two frames, and then use a difference blend mode to isolate what's changed, it looks pretty similar.  I'm not familiar with After Effects et al - I presume you can do this with video layers as you can with single frames in photoshop (one offset by a frame).  Not sure tho! 

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #102 on: May 16, 2013, 08:09:49 pm
Hm, I'm having trouble formulating a thought regarding Carnivac's post. I feel that while the argument has merit, it's not the whole case or even half of it.

However, here: http://geekfeminism.org/2011/11/03/quick-hit-sexism-in-games-bingo/
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #103 on: May 17, 2013, 10:53:31 pm

Little pic of some of the sprites from my CPC-homage game.  Jack and his little robot buddy on the left.  Assortment of a few of the enemy types on the right.  There's many others not pictured including the main villain and also the GIRL YOU HAVE TO SAVE!!! :hehe:

Friend just said to me it looks like Jack and lil robo-buddy are protecting that flower on the left from the nasty meanie folk... Ehhh.. could be.

edit: ick, they look so crappy in this resolution and without scanlines...  :'(
« Last Edit: May 17, 2013, 11:04:37 pm by Carnivac »
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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #104 on: May 21, 2013, 02:24:06 am
I like half-doublewidth res better -- that is, like 320x480/400 ModeX rather than 160x200. Sadly it's super annoying to draw for me (in spite of the only obvious difference being doubled DPI.)

Honestly I think a lot of the doublewidth-pixel appeal comes from the same cute/exaggerated look found in 'chibis', which you definitely have there. I find if I start looking for (or trying to make) really discrete 'detail' in doublewidth works, I just get pissed off.

Also that flower really reminds me of Rodland, heh.

On a totally different subject, highly customizable 'drawing'-style 3d render engine for Blender. Looks like this could be pretty amazing, I'm looking forward to messing around with that once I get the time.
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #105 on: May 21, 2013, 06:26:31 am
I like half-doublewidth res better -- that is, like 320x480/400 ModeX rather than 160x200. Sadly it's super annoying to draw for me (in spite of the only obvious difference being doubled DPI.)

And exactly how many games used such a 'resolution'?

Quote
Honestly I think a lot of the doublewidth-pixel appeal comes from the same cute/exaggerated look found in 'chibis', which you definitely have there. I find if I start looking for (or trying to make) really discrete 'detail' in doublewidth works, I just get pissed off.

I don't like 'chibis'....
« Last Edit: May 21, 2013, 06:37:38 am by Carnivac »
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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #106 on: May 21, 2013, 07:26:24 am
Mostly a few PC games, since it's a ModeX resolution. Some Amiga games too probably.

I don't like chibi's either. Nonetheless, the elements which -are- appealing in chibis, are the same ones that make the widepixel look appealing to me; or you could put it the reverse way. It's still 'cute deformity'  :lol:
« Last Edit: May 21, 2013, 07:30:40 am by Ai »
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #107 on: May 21, 2013, 07:36:57 am
Screenshot I took last night when testing that the little robot player-character works as intended.  Note it's only really meant to be used for accessing small tunnels, not a slightly larger cave like this but hey this is all just shots from the WIP project anyways.  Changed the 'ramped' rock tiles to look sorta like stairs but with some rocks that look slightly further away to make them look somewhat ramp-like so that the ground doesn't look too much like stairs.  This being due to the characters moving up them in 8 pixel increments like stairs.   And finally did a gem sprite I actually like after doing a sub-standard one before (and in the original demo they were orbs... that didn't really suggest anything valuable about them at all)



@Ai
Right.  Thanks for confirming what I thought about the flower.  I like how it looks but it's just wrong for this game, much more suitable in something real cutesy like Rodland as you mentioned.  I'll remove it from this project and chuck it into my CPC-unused assets folder in case I find a use for it in the future.




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Offline Seiseki

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #108 on: May 21, 2013, 07:42:12 am
The scan lines darkens the image too much..
It gets really muddied and weird..

I can't figure out why you love them so unconditionally ;D

(incredible work though, that looks amazing)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #109 on: May 21, 2013, 07:46:57 am
The scan lines darkens the image too much..
It gets really muddied and weird..

I can't relate to that statement at all.  Looks absolutely fine to me.  Certainly a hell of a lot better than without (it looks absolute crap without them)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #110 on: May 21, 2013, 08:07:08 am
Bird just flew into my window.  I mean actually hitting the glass.  Old lady who lives downstairs spotted it and went out to tend to the bird.  Not sure where she's taken it.  Possibly to the vets on the other side of the village.  Made me jump a bit with it being quiet here and then hearing that unpleasant and loud thud.   Don't know what it was thinking.  Ain't like these windows are that big to not notice the squaring framing bits.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #111 on: May 21, 2013, 01:21:09 pm
Birds didn't evolve to spot transparent solid surfaces.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #112 on: May 21, 2013, 02:31:27 pm
Birds didn't evolve to spot transparent solid surfaces.

Neither did humans :D
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #113 on: May 21, 2013, 03:12:47 pm
Birds didn't evolve to spot transparent solid surfaces.

Bats 1, birds 0

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #114 on: May 21, 2013, 08:08:14 pm
The scan lines darkens the image too much..
It gets really muddied and weird..

I can't relate to that statement at all.  Looks absolutely fine to me.  Certainly a hell of a lot better than without (it looks absolute crap without them)

Well, when you make 50% of the image black, it's bound to get darker right?  ???

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #115 on: May 21, 2013, 10:00:40 pm
The problem is that scanlines do not really look like that. Tho if you would play it like this on a CRT it would look like real scanlines, because glow/blur/phosphor decay and all that. And I am sure the CPC had a border as well, like the C64 and other micros. So if you add a black border around that image or have it fullscreen it will not look quite as dark.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #116 on: May 22, 2013, 12:26:09 am
Birds didn't evolve to spot transparent solid surfaces.

Neither did humans :D

Which is why I'm not surprised when human beings slam their faces into glass screen doors, much less poor birds.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #117 on: May 22, 2013, 10:24:08 am
The problem is that scanlines do not really look like that. Tho if you would play it like this on a CRT it would look like real scanlines, because glow/blur/phosphor decay and all that. And I am sure the CPC had a border as well, like the C64 and other micros. So if you add a black border around that image or have it fullscreen it will not look quite as dark.

It's a simple cheap effect which I happen to like which doesn't add any unnecessary colours (unless you set it to transparent) so the palette of screenshots is kept identical to the actual pixel art in the game and doesn't have any impact on the game speed at all.   

Also the game does have big borders (still gotta get round to the fake-loading bar effect for my 'loading screen').  I just crop it down to a 4 pixel width border for screenshots, particularly for my Tumblr where my blog width is too small to show the full image with borders and would scale it badly messing up the pixels.

Anyways here's another screenshot but as a link this time cos I don't want to clog up this topic with my crap too much.  This be of me revamping the old castle tileset but with a colour scheme I came across accidentally (when I was colour swapping tiles and messed it up but it came out nice and interesting) and hasn't really been done much on a CPC before.  Same 16 colour palette as the previous screenshots but totally different scheme.  Bricks look a bit too.. new though so I might go study some castle pics and their brick work though the way it is now does make it very easy to tile without using too many tiles.
http://media.tumblr.com/5700953abed7513b811468e8720fe6cc/tumblr_inline_mn5ha892X51qz4rgp.png

Which is why I'm not surprised when human beings slam their faces into glass screen doors, much less poor birds.

That's what I remembered a lil while after posting about the bird.  Cos I did a very similar thing when I was a kid staying at my nan's house in kent and accidentally kicked my ball over the fence into the neighbours garden and went next door to go get it.  The old man there invited me in but I seem to remember not noticing which way he went and I seemed to find myself in the back room with the french windows overlooking the back garden and thinking that's where he went I walked right into them banging my face so hard into the glass I had a nose bleed.  Those windows must have been extremely clean or I was just stupid.  Maybe a bit of both.  When I went back into my nan's house with the ball and my nose still bleeding she freaked a bit and probably thought the neighbour had hit me or something  :P   Anyways a bit later on I'm gonna go downstairs and ask the old lady what happened to the bird.  Hope it's ok.  I like animals and birds a lot and would hate it if my window killed the bird.

Come to think of it I watched a Frasier episode on Netflix about the same sorta thing a while ago. Bird hit window because Niles wiped off what Martin referred to as the 'safety smudge'.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 10:29:12 am by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #118 on: May 22, 2013, 10:27:51 am
I just cleaned my window, should I be worried?  ???
I guess, in worst case I don't have to worry about cat food for the day..   :lol:

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #119 on: May 22, 2013, 10:40:01 am
I guess, in worst case I don't have to worry about cat food for the day..   :lol:

 :o
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #120 on: May 22, 2013, 11:06:22 am
http://media.tumblr.com/5700953abed7513b811468e8720fe6cc/tumblr_inline_mn5ha892X51qz4rgp.png

haha nice.. sort of like a mix between Total Recall and Switchblade. Getting that 'switchblade' ish look for the big floor tiles in Mode 0 is an accomplishment :) I like the darker schemes, screens that are overall excessively bright is a typical CPC graphics failing.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 03:02:24 pm by Ai »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #121 on: May 22, 2013, 02:45:48 pm
Carnivac, have you tried spacing the scanlines out a little more so the image isnt as dark?  I like the scanlines actually, but wonder if it might be better a little more spaced out.  They look better in the new screenshot though, probably because the added darkness works with that scene instead of against it.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #122 on: May 22, 2013, 02:53:56 pm
Carnivac, have you tried spacing the scanlines out a little more so the image isnt as dark?  I like the scanlines actually, but wonder if it might be better a little more spaced out.  They look better in the new screenshot though, probably because the added darkness works with that scene instead of against it.

Please, enough about the scanlines... seriously.  I've just had a bit debate about it all on a CPC forum and even modified the game engine so now it has seperate options for both the horizontal and vertical scanline overlays (so they can even both appear at same time as shown at http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=6865.0;attach=9250;imageand both have independent transparancy values of 0-10 with 0 turning that scanline overlay off and 10 being full black)... I'm sick to death of the subject.  I just want to work on the actual gaaaaaaaaaame...  :'( :'( :'( :'(  :o :'( :'(

sorry if that came out a bit rude or angry.  I didn't sleep last night and I just wanted to get a lot of work done on this project today and it seemed I had to spend about 3 or 4 hours having discussions about scanlines which aren't even part of the game so just got very frustrated.  Didn't mean anything by it all.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 03:51:02 pm by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #123 on: May 23, 2013, 05:39:36 am
Has anyone had their wacom starting to respond poorly?
I find I have to press really hard or several times.. Not constantly, but now and then..
I've been googling without any results and I'm starting to fear that I'll have to get a new one :(

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #124 on: May 23, 2013, 05:50:55 am
Good news is that at worst it's almost certainly the pen which aren't TOO expensive to replace. I would check to make sure the nib is in place correctly, and not too worn down. I know it sounds counter productive but try hitting the pen nib into the desk fairly firmly. I'm not entirely sure if this applies for all models so look it up but if you pop the side button off there are 2 little screw like things, one of which adjusts the sensitivity. Could also be typical driver issues so try updating those or using it with another computer if you haven't already.

Good luck

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #125 on: May 23, 2013, 07:31:14 am
Has anyone had their wacom starting to respond poorly?
I find I have to press really hard or several times.. Not constantly, but now and then..
I've been googling without any results and I'm starting to fear that I'll have to get a new one :(
I've had responsiveness issues with my Wacom Intuos 3 in Windows 7 once.
After the following three steps, it worked fine again.

I suspected that Windows' own tablet services were interfering with the Wacom drivers.

1.) I disabled "Flicks" in Start->Control Panel->Pen And Touch.
2.) I installed the most recent drivers and reset the settings in Start->Control Panel->Wacom Tablet Properties to their defaults.
3.) I set the start type for the "Tablet PC Input Service" to "Disabled" in Start->Administrative Tools->Services and made sure that only "TabletServiceWacom" is started automatically.

Sometimes (rarely) the tablet starts acting weird while being in use, then it usually helps here to restart the "TabletServiceWacom".

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #126 on: May 23, 2013, 08:19:09 am
Is anyone deving on the ouya?
Just curious to hear some stuff about it.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #127 on: May 23, 2013, 02:14:57 pm
I thought it was the pen too, but I've recently replaced the nib.
But thanks for the help! I did shutdown the service as Dennis mentioned and it seemed to do the trick! Awesome  :y:

----------

Not deving on the OUYA yet, but will be soon.
As soon as the two people on the team have gotten theirs, so I guess indirectly.

I like the OUYA but I'm still skeptical if it's a platform you can make a living on, especially after seeing some horror figures for early sales.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #128 on: May 23, 2013, 04:45:22 pm
In "Control Panel" -> "Programs and Features" -> "Turn Windows features on or off", you can also disable "Tablet PC Components". Should include everything Windows has to offer for tablets, which isn't anything useful in my opinion.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #129 on: May 23, 2013, 09:21:37 pm
Crow: That actually does not turn off the circle shit. Turning off the service as Dennis pointed out works.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #130 on: May 24, 2013, 12:29:42 pm
Hm, I didn't know that. Thought that'd turn off the service as well. Good to know!
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #131 on: May 25, 2013, 04:03:05 am
Oh I'd forgotten about those windows services, does anyone really use flicks? they just get in the way and seem completely unresponsive and useless.

I wonder also if anyone has issues with photoshop and pen and touch? cs6 works great on my desktop with win7 and an intuos4, but is riddled with issues on my samsung tablet with win8 and what I gather to be wacom technology without the wacom drivers as well as touch. Everything seems to work fine in other programs but photoshop is just a mess, if anyone is using a pen and touch wacom tablet I'd love to know whether they have any issues, specifically touching the canvas with your finger sending it flying and pressure sensitivity getting locked on full during some brushstrokes.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #132 on: May 29, 2013, 01:01:54 pm
Still working hard on this project... cos... really what else is there for me to do at moment while still looking for a job and such...


Made some changes since the last shots were taken.  Have changed from scrolling levels to 'flick-screen' for a number reasons.  One being speed concerns on a real CPC (while many games did feature scrolling, the results would vary and screen sizes were generally kept small to compensate) and this way I can have a slightly bigger on-screen play area.  Also I find level design a hell of a lot easier with flick-screen games as I can do each bit of the level in screen-sized chunks and it's easier to make various level segments the focus and completely in shot.  Mapping is a lot easier too as I can now refer to an array of low-digit co-ordinates for each screen of the levels.  Have framed the screen using some of the small tiles that make up the status bar too (yay for memory-saving recycling).   Done a lot of re-coding stuff to optimise, tidy things up and also make it easy for later coding.  The game seems to be taking on a slightly more 'adventure game' type of tone with some story bits and puzzles (mostly solved by jumping on things or shooting things but hey...).  Also still coding it with anything that I don't consider necessary classed as '128k machines only' and trying to get as much of the crucial stuff in so hopefully it can be coded to run sufficiently on a 64k system hence why I have to do a lot of graphic recycling (may as well make the most of what's already loaded into the memory).

I usually cut the big black borders in the screenshots but they're here in this one to show that's generally how games looked on the CPC (and other 8 bit home computers).  It was possible to make the screen bigger and cut into those using overscan modes but it usually wasn't worth the hassle.

This shot shows the improved scanline optional configurations.  I just noticed if I zoom out of the image there with Firefox's imagezoom extension it goes to normal size aaand the pixels shown are the game's true palette due to the way it scales out cleanly. 

EDIT:  updated screenshot with the more recent versions of the mountain tiles that do not have selout and stuff...
« Last Edit: May 29, 2013, 02:29:47 pm by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #133 on: May 29, 2013, 01:05:00 pm
Small art crit on an otherwise nice looking screenshot: The edges of the mountains look pretty selouttastic and fringy.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #134 on: May 29, 2013, 01:14:31 pm
Ekk... I hadn't noticed it was still using an old version of the mountain tiles.  I had removed the dark blue on the edges and trimmed a lil bit here and there but I've been rearranging the tiles within the tilesheet (so that everything of a similar collision-type is arranged neatly for the game to read it and automatically place the correct collision block there so I don't have to) and I think the older version got mixed up with the newer tileset.  Thanks for pointing that out. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #135 on: May 29, 2013, 01:35:39 pm
I really love it and I support the switch to flipscreen. A lot can be done with good flipscreen gameplay that we lost when we hastily moved to full scroll. Only one concern is flipping screens to avoid combat. Will the enemies follow a la Flashback or will the screens reset? Have you considered locking the player on a playfield until the combat encounter is done so they REALLY have to learn to move around every screen and use terrain to their advantage? Falcom would do this, Western developers would not.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #136 on: May 29, 2013, 01:53:08 pm
Actually an unintentional side effect of the enemy's activation/deactivation code kept from when it was full scrolling (which was used when out of range to 'turn them off' to help keep speed focused on what's in view) was that while they turn back when they touch the sides of the screen it seems if they were close enough following behind me when you change screens they actually followed me onto the new screen and then did the turning back when touching sides of screen on the new screen.   Kinda made me jump the first time cos I was not expecting them to come onto the new screen like that right after I walked onto it but it's kinda cool.   Obviously if I keep it like that I don't want it to be abused with the player luring a lot of enemies onto one screen (which would create slow down issues on the real hardware). 

I don't know about locking the player into the area until enemies are all destroyed.  Maybe in some areas where, for example, a door's locking mechanism is connected to the on-screen enemies.  But generally I think I'd get quite annoyed if every screen required every enemy to be destroyed before progressing. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #137 on: May 29, 2013, 03:18:02 pm
Ys games do it like that, yes. You can cruise through most areas where enemies respawn, but specific 'challenge rooms' require all enemies to be killed before the door will open.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #138 on: May 30, 2013, 01:22:56 am
I'm back, I missed this place. Haven't been doing a huge amount of pixel art, mostly drawing and painting these days, but I need to resharpen my eyes and brain.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #139 on: May 30, 2013, 05:15:47 am
Great work, Carnifax. Will I ever be able to play it?


What up, Cow!

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #140 on: May 30, 2013, 02:39:15 pm
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Offline Vakinox

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #141 on: May 30, 2013, 02:45:33 pm
Great work, Carnifax.

 :-\

Maybe he thinks your name is a reference to the metal band: Carnifex?

Or the Latin word for "executioner"?

Or I could just be overexamining a simple error :p

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #142 on: May 30, 2013, 07:12:59 pm
Great work, Carnifax.

 :-\

"oh no he didn't..." :o

(I love these smiles :D)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #143 on: June 01, 2013, 12:49:00 am
"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #144 on: June 01, 2013, 10:19:59 am
A project to implement the Kopf-Lischinski pixel art vectorization algorithm in Inkscape was recently accepted for this year's Google Summer of Code.

The Kopf-Lischinski research was posted here before, but if you don't remember, this link gives a big list of examples of how the algorithm performs on familiar sprites. 
And this sprite might also remind you:



To me, the results of this algorithm seem clearly the best (including against Inkscape's currently built-in vectorizer "PoTrace" which performs excellently on everything but pixel art); my only concern is the addition of blur when colors are detected to be sufficiently similar. Hopefully that is a threshold that could be exposed in Inkscape for tweaking.

While I find upscaled pixel art to have a 'coarse' feel (lack of fine details feels odd at increased scale), this is certainly my best bet for doing auto-AAing as a postprocessing step (ie. vectorize with this new algorithm, then render at the original resolution)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #145 on: June 01, 2013, 10:54:00 am
Still not a fan of how any of this looks at all, even though this one is better than PoTrace for example.
To me all of this looks like more or less successful attempts to convert stuff into window-colours. And everything gets round and blobby, no matter what. I'd rather have huge fucking pixels with some scanline filter than this, any day.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #146 on: June 01, 2013, 11:00:17 am
All upscaling that is anything but nearest neighbour looks wrong to me. But who cares about upscaling, I just want effective auto-AA as a post-processing filter. That's what this is *really* good for.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2013, 11:02:25 am by Ai »
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Offline YellowLime

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #147 on: June 01, 2013, 03:39:06 pm
Quote
All upscaling that is anything but nearest neighbour looks wrong to me.

Quote
But who cares about upscaling, I just want effective auto-AA

Touché, Seiseki :hehe: (jk)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #148 on: June 01, 2013, 05:51:47 pm
I'd rather have huge fucking pixels with some scanline filter than this, any day.

As a pixel artist seeing games rendered in their full nearest-neighbor pixels doesn't bother me. In fact that's how I prefer seeing pixelled games... but a lot of people, even old gamers, apparently can't stand the sight of pixels. I was surprised how many of my friends use scaling filters on their emulators.

I would like to see that scaling algorithm applied to a screenshot of a game as a whole, rather than individual sprites. Chances are since it was developed by Microsoft it was mainly intended to be used to upscale the old arcade games they port to their Xbox Arcade.

You can see on this sprite that has way more pixels happening:



The algorithm kind of craps itself.



I can only imagine what an entire game would look like, if it rendered out like that.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2013, 05:55:19 pm by Dusty »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #149 on: June 02, 2013, 01:59:55 am
Dusty:
No need to imagine! Just look at the Super Mario World clip on their website -- In the 'Video Comparisons' section, click on 'Our Result'. The clip is limited in area, but certainly has enough to get a decent idea.

Overall this would confirm Ptoings statements, except the ones where he's merely being grumpy ;). It does look overly rounded to me (and there's an amusing 'slime blobbing together' effect as Mario + Yoshi's outlines animate as he rides Yoshi.) but it doesn't seem to suffer from the intentional-blurring found on the static sprites -- maybe they turned it off because it was too CPU intensive to render. Some people might like the result, but anyway it's moot for the immediate future since it's beyond the capabilities of current hardware to render in realtime.

Also: it actually performs very well (meaning better than all other algorithms -- the website allows you to easily compare.).  No algorithm is ever going to be able to 'guess' the intent of an isolated pixel that well (barring use of neural nets and other seriously heavyweight stuff), so it's much more accurate to judge on the basis of the ratio of pixel clusters that it succeeds/fails to detect.

I'll reserve my judgement on the blurred areas, as I can't tell how well/badly they have been vectorized.

Overall I'd like a hybrid version that also does the kind of layered tracing that Inkscape implements (treat the image as a stack of colored paper cutouts ranging from darkest-color to lightest-color. Note that this is NOT the approach shown in the comparison with PoTrace). This approach can result in some discoloration of edges but is somewhat better at conveying volume (since it essentially traces masses of light). Edge discoloration would be insignificant if rendered using no AA at a high resolution then downsampled to the original resolution.

Well, to get a really satisfying result would probably require two passes, with manual adjustment inbetween (vectorize -> patch, render as hires bitmap -> vectorize). If Inkscape was faster on complex images, it would be no big deal to draw a handful of shapes to clarify the vectorization, over the top of the pass1 result. Even after that there's the 'missing small scale elements' factor that's unavoidable. Even if I can get a perfectly accurate upscaling (definitely possible with simpler shapes) things just feel coarse and it's disappointing.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2013, 04:31:39 am by Ai »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #150 on: June 02, 2013, 05:44:49 am
Dusty:
No need to imagine! Just look at the Super Mario World clip on their website -- In the 'Video Comparisons' section, click on 'Our Result'. The clip is limited in area, but certainly has enough to get a decent idea.
Problem is Mario is one of those cases that doesn't have a lot of pixel busyness going on, and thus benefits pretty well. I'd like to see another game like Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 3 or some such that has dithering and noisy textures and such.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #151 on: June 02, 2013, 06:53:25 am
Dunno.  The Mario example still looked bloody terrible to me.  None of these things ever look even a fraction as good as the original graphics.  Makes me wonder why bother playing old games if you're just gonna turn their well crafted sprites into such crud...
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #152 on: June 02, 2013, 10:45:02 am
Fancy upscaling is more about necromancy than preserving the aesthetic, though. Considering graphics bad if there are 'visible pixels' is definitely a thing. Not a thing we entertain at Pixelation, but a consumer thing. Eliminate the pixelization ~= eliminate the badness, without drawing new assets!  :lol:

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #153 on: June 02, 2013, 11:32:46 am
Great work, Carnifax.

 :-\

Maybe he thinks your name is a reference to the metal band: Carnifex?

Or the Latin word for "executioner"?

Or I could just be overexamining a simple error :p

Haha . . .

Or maybe I was critically sleep-deprived, as usual. Good work, Carvinack!

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #154 on: June 02, 2013, 01:06:49 pm
Carvinack!

It's really not that difficult.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #155 on: June 02, 2013, 03:08:11 pm
Carving snark?
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #156 on: June 02, 2013, 03:52:00 pm
Dunno.  The Mario example still looked bloody terrible to me.  None of these things ever look even a fraction as good as the original graphics.  Makes me wonder why bother playing old games if you're just gonna turn their well crafted sprites into such crud...

Sadly everyone doesn't appreciate pixels as much as we do :(

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #157 on: June 02, 2013, 09:10:50 pm
Carvinack!

It's really not that difficult.
Carving snark?

(come on people you know the second time was on purpose)


This pixel-vectorizing business is pretty interesting to me. Not because I dream of a dystopian future free of pixels, but because I want to know the thought process in trying to make it look as good as possible (or the least awful ::)) Since, you know, code is art-blind.

It also makes me wonder how close can these methods get to creating nice graphics, and what would be the thinking/planning behind it.

Why don't any of the algorithms work with user input? I guess that since filters are supposed to be used at runtime, they don't bother to ask a user's opinion (I mean, it's like they're used on the "consumer" side)

But if someone were to partake in the unholy activity of purposefully "porting" pixel graphics into vector counterparts, any algorithm would benefit from the user's aesthetic criteria. (so, a filter with "options" for the "developer" side.)
(Though not so much "options" but instead "mapping qualities to specific groups of pixels")

In fact, I find it weird that there wouldn't be any filters like that! Maybe you guys know of any? :blind:
« Last Edit: June 02, 2013, 09:18:51 pm by YellowLime »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #158 on: June 03, 2013, 01:53:50 am
I think the problem will always be that algorithms aren't smart enough to interpret pixels. A huge part of pixel art is that one pixel can change what we see as a whole, and algorithms will never be able to interpret and properly scale up what that pixel is supposed to be. I think the first step would be to start taking into consideration the layouts we use as pixel artists to make shapes.

I think out of all those examples(here) hq4X is the best. It has its flaws, but it does a pretty damn good job most of the time in interpreting what shapes are being created with the pixels, and to top it off has some nice AA. If only that could be refined, as it seems to "skip" many pixels and just square them off.



But at the end of the day, it can't look at the overall set of pixels and interpret what the artist intended, and fails as well. Again, the more complicated the pixels, the more it seems to fail. And I don't think we'll really ever overcome that.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #159 on: June 03, 2013, 05:43:32 am
xBR seems to achieve better results than HQ4x.
Its author, Hylian, has posted here about it (but has improved the algorithm since then.) . In the link I gave, he outlines the challenges of recognizing finer increments in angles -- in particular, that the 'output area' may go outside the area that you are reading to detect the angle (so the algorithm will want to overwrite its own results in places). Despite this he's working on a 'level 3' filter (level 1 == 45 degree increments, 2 == 22.5 inc, 3 = 11.25 inc). If you poke him he might have something more to say on this current topic here.

BTW: your link is strange --
Code: [Select]
http://"https//research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kopf/pixelart/supplementary/multi_comparison.html%22 ?
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #160 on: June 03, 2013, 07:05:36 am
Heh. Just being an idiot. But seriously - good stuff, Carnivac.
While the scanlines seem to add a "dirty" noise to the overall impression, they do also lend a neat old school-ish feel. I wonder if playing an entire game like that, with such visible scanlines, would become an annoyance after a while. Not sure.
Also, how would it even be achieved, technically?

Crop of last pic


Scanlines going both ways. It is just a transparent pattern overlaid on top of everything - just a bunch of transparent black pixels?


___


As for all the scaling algo's - how would a simpleton, non-codin', graphic designer like myself put them to use in his own work?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #161 on: June 03, 2013, 07:17:12 am
Looks reasonably CPC-true to me, maybe a little more arcade-monitor-ish.

If you want to try these filters on your images, check out
https://code.google.com/p/2dimagefilter/

I despise .NET, so I didn't bother; but, it does implement virtually every scaling filter available in emulators, and provides a simple tool to apply them to whatever image you want.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #162 on: June 04, 2013, 12:07:23 am
a while ago we had a topic with PixelPileDriver examining the possibility of shading pixelart trough normal maps. Well there's a game called "Swapper" that does that but with stopmotion graphics, and it looks pretty darn good.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/how-the-swapper-created-horror-out-of-clay-and-found-objects

Thought some of you guys would like to know....I'll leave you guys to geek over the sweet scanlined Carnivac art now =)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #163 on: June 04, 2013, 02:02:47 am
Quote
there's a game called "Swapper"
Cool!
Very clever way to build normal maps from photos.
Looks to be a decent game as well.

Quote
a while ago we had a topic with PixelPileDriver examining the possibility of shading pixelart trough normal maps
Haven't  touched that shader since then.
It was a good side project.
Maybe I'll put some time into that.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #164 on: June 04, 2013, 08:33:18 am
While the scanlines seem to add a "dirty" noise to the overall impression, they do also lend a neat old school-ish feel. I wonder if playing an entire game like that, with such visible scanlines, would become an annoyance after a while. Not sure.

I don't really 'notice' them all.  In fact the lack of scanlines bugs me a lot more.  I don't like to play low res games without them.

Quote
Scanlines going both ways. It is just a transparent pattern overlaid on top of everything - just a bunch of transparent black pixels?

I think I mentioned in a previous post it's just two images of black lines.  One with them going horizontal and one with them vertical and they can each have their transparency adjusted from 0 (being off) to 10 (being full black) with various degrees of transparent in between.  I personally prefer the horizontal ones being on full black and the vertical ones being off. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #165 on: June 04, 2013, 02:43:54 pm
a while ago we had a topic with PixelPileDriver examining the possibility of shading pixelart trough normal maps. Well there's a game called "Swapper" that does that but with stopmotion graphics, and it looks pretty darn good.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/how-the-swapper-created-horror-out-of-clay-and-found-objects

Thought some of you guys would like to know....I'll leave you guys to geek over the sweet scanlined Carnivac art now =)

Very interesting, thank you.
Seems like I won't be the first to have full dynamic lighting in 2D using normal maps.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #166 on: June 04, 2013, 03:56:51 pm
sweet scanlined Carnivac art now =)
I never know if being sarcastic but thanks in case you ain't.  I just thinking the CPC type stuff only really appeals to myself and other fans of the nearly three decades old computer but hey it keeps me busy and not going crazy and I'm enjoying what I'm doing despite or perhaps because of the limitations.

Have switched from 8x16 tiles to 4x8 to save memory as I realised at that size there were a lot of duplicates in the smaller size (like when you round off a platform tiles corner variation) and the tilesheet has now cut down to a third and found some of the smaller pieces even work in other places I hadn't thought of before giving much more flexibility and possibilities with the tilesheet.  And now I've redone the wooden doors in a way that their tiles are able to be used for any size of door, the fences, wooden crates and the flooring of the building interiors too.  Windows have been enlarged (using tiles already in on the sheet) so I can fit sky tiles in them for the interiors to make it look like there's an outdoors scene through the windows.  One bad thing about the smaller tile size is they're even more fiddly to place down in Game Maker's room editor and the rock tiles are somewhat confusing on the tilesheet.  That thing really needs some copy/paste groups of tiles.  But at least they added a zoom function in recent versions so I don't have to squint so hard.

Interiors look something like this quick mock up http://carnivac.co.uk/temp/interiortest2.png but obviously the screen ain't big enough to show all of that.  Some interiors will be multi screen and even function that way to be the correct route through a stage (like if there's a wall you can't get by in outdoors and the building goes by that wall so you go in one door, through the building and out the other door to be on the other side of the wall.   That elevator looks a bit out of place as it's from the more sci-fi set later on but I haven't designed a wooden elevator yet.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #167 on: June 04, 2013, 07:46:26 pm
lol, I was not sarcastic at all, love your stuff. I'm a scanlines geek too (dont play zsnes without them) I just didnt have anything to add to the discussion :p

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #168 on: June 04, 2013, 07:51:28 pm
My brother mentioned an idea he's been toying with, which I'd like to share with you: would a website made solely for job offers revolving around pixel art/digital art be of any use or an improvement over the current system used in the Pixelation forums?
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #169 on: June 04, 2013, 09:18:30 pm
My brother mentioned an idea he's been toying with, which I'd like to share with you: would a website made solely for job offers revolving around pixel art/digital art be of any use or an improvement over the current system used in the Pixelation forums?

Planned as a separate feature already, actually, since threads for offers and portfolios are sort of.. meh-ish.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #170 on: June 04, 2013, 10:38:36 pm
lol, I was not sarcastic at all, love your stuff. I'm a scanlines geek too (dont play zsnes without them) I just didnt have anything to add to the discussion :p

Ah thanks then.  Sorry, I have a distrust of the internet and internet folks real meanings and intentions, plus a low confidence in my own graphics and my taste in retro (the amount of people who keep telling me to 'stop living in the past'...).  All that combined makes it hard for me to recognise a genuine compliment.  Thanks again.  :)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #171 on: June 04, 2013, 11:36:38 pm
Carnivac your stuff is awesome and distinctive!

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #172 on: June 05, 2013, 01:08:41 am
If I could pixel like Carnivac I wouldn't do anything besides pixel art everyday..  :crazy:

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #173 on: June 05, 2013, 07:18:17 am
Thanks.

Member of the family passed away last night.   In some ways it's good for him because he's not suffering anymore.  We all thought his time was up about six years ago (I remember a very emotional christmas from that time) but he seemed to hold on a lot longer than anyone expected but in the end he was mostly bed-ridden and unable to have much of a life. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #174 on: June 05, 2013, 05:38:14 pm
Edit: Dude, Carnivac, I didn't see your post before I posted here, I guess I have terrible timing. My condolences to you and the rest of your family.


(Post moved to OT-creativity thread.)
« Last Edit: June 05, 2013, 06:54:57 pm by Pawige »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #175 on: June 05, 2013, 06:57:04 pm
Nah, it's ok Pawige.  Just strange to me cos I'm not that close to my family.  Always been a bit of an outsider but I do care about what happens to them and even though I knew this was coming some day it still feels bad now that it has happened.


Good luck with your game.   :)  I just noticed you moved the info of it to the OT Creativity thread which I had forgotten about.  Perhaps that's where I should have posted stuff about my game rather than clogging up this thread. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #176 on: June 05, 2013, 07:57:13 pm
I think I know how you feel. Two of my grandparents passed away last fall (one was expected -- he had had a few strokes, the other was a major shock), and even though I didn't really know them very well, it was tough.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #177 on: June 05, 2013, 09:10:15 pm
I think I know how you feel. Two of my grandparents passed away last fall (one was expected -- he had had a few strokes, the other was a major shock), and even though I didn't really know them very well, it was tough.

Yeah., that's it. Sorry to hear about your grandparents. 
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #178 on: June 06, 2013, 05:29:04 am
 RIP :angel:
My grandparents all died recently as well.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #179 on: June 06, 2013, 08:02:33 am
I'm sorry for all you guys, hope you feel better soon. Three of my grandparents have passed away, but it's been long enough for me.
If it's not too harsh to ask, I'd like the thread to get on a lighter note, since I've been wary of not changing the topic so as not to offend anyone :-[
Then again, if anyone needs to get something off their chest, please do so.

My brother mentioned an idea he's been toying with, which I'd like to share with you: would a website made solely for job offers revolving around pixel art/digital art be of any use or an improvement over the current system used in the Pixelation forums?
Planned as a separate feature already, actually, since threads for offers and portfolios are sort of.. meh-ish.
Crow, how long will implementing it take? :P I'm very interested in this, since I'll be looking for jobs now that college is over. I tried doing so in January semi-actively (about 10-20 applications over 2 weeks), but I didn't get any, and decided to stick to school 8)
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 08:05:49 am by YellowLime »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #180 on: June 06, 2013, 08:22:01 am
Crow, how long will implementing it take? :P I'm very interested in this, since I'll be looking for jobs now that college is over. I tried doing so in January semi-actively (about 10-20 applications over 2 weeks), but I didn't get any, and decided to stick to school 8)

Will be included in the new forum, so at least as long as I'm done with that. Did I talk about that before? I did just now if I haven't before.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #181 on: June 08, 2013, 11:48:32 am
Just been throwing myself into my project a bit to distract myself from some things.

The main characters of ‘Cosmic Prison Commando’.  Both were prisoners who survived the crash of the prison ship.  Both are playable but on different stages.  Jack is the ‘hero’ of sorts.  David is less so.   Their names actually do have some connection.  I won’t say what yet.  They both are trying to get to the same destination though David is also more actively trying to sabotage Jack’s attempts to get there.

So yeah...
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Offline Cure

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #182 on: June 08, 2013, 12:09:09 pm
Jack is the ‘hero’ of sorts.  David is less so.   Their names actually do have some connection.  I won’t say what yet.

Both are legendary giant-slayers?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #183 on: June 08, 2013, 12:14:54 pm
 :)

That's one of the connections.  There's another possibly more obscure one.  But both relate to the story.
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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #184 on: June 08, 2013, 03:15:13 pm
Seeing as it's your scenario, and even some of the visual details point at it, the obvious(obscure?) reference is to Doctor Who (just with reversed roles), yes?

Nice dance ;)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #185 on: June 08, 2013, 03:23:47 pm
Doctor Who?  Nope.   There is some reference to Doctor Who in the game (the TARDIS is shown in this now somewhat out of date shot http://media.tumblr.com/d4887e23438f74218f64820d327c7733/tumblr_inline_mn2d3ljU6R1qz4rgp.png as a sort of easter egg which may or may not make it into the final game) but nope, the names have nothing to do with that show.   But another tv show perhaps...

Which 'visual details' do you mean by the way? Am curious.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2013, 03:25:30 pm by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #186 on: June 09, 2013, 05:13:31 am
Well, your character Jack looks -- not a lot like David Tennant, but much more like him than John Barrowman (Jack Harkness). And conversely David has a military feel with suitable accoutrements (like Captain Jack) and a face that's more like JH. Hence why I said 'reversed'.

------

EDIT:
On a completely different subject, I've got my eye on this 'shapepacking' filter:

The author of G'MIC posted it in the GMIC Google+ group, with the description:
Quote
Working hard to propose a generic 'Shapefitting' filter, to generate images randomly packed with any shape at various scales.
Available soon in the G'MIC plug-in for +GIMP :)
"generate images randomly packed with any shape at various scales"

I expect it to be delicious for more abstract artworks and awesome 'custom halftoning' transition effects.  Seems to use an image as guide (for coloring -- the left two look like they use the classic 'lena' image as a guide). Would be excellent if you can control the approximate 'density' of packing in different areas via another input image.
I'm expecting this to be available in the next week, as he's crazy fast at making filters. Can you tell I'm excited? :D
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 06:18:09 am by Ai »
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Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #187 on: June 09, 2013, 07:08:46 am
Well, your character Jack looks -- not a lot like David Tennant, but much more like him than John Barrowman (Jack Harkness). And conversely David has a military feel with suitable accoutrements (like Captain Jack) and a face that's more like JH. Hence why I said 'reversed'.

Uh, I kinda hope my characters don't resemble either of them in any way.  I'm not a fan of them.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #188 on: June 09, 2013, 08:24:59 am
That's great! The irony is doubled.

(Personally, I find Captain Jack difficult to like, too. My libido disagrees, though  :lol:)
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 08:42:23 am by Ai »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #189 on: June 09, 2013, 08:54:07 am
(Personally, I find Captain Jack difficult to like, too. My libido disagrees, though  :lol:)

Heh, I don't mind him tooooo much (though I don't really wanna see him back.  He had his time, he even had his own show).
What annoys me most is the scarily obsessed Tennant fangirl/boys who seem to be fans of his rather than the show as a whole (as they only like it when he's in it and even petition for him to be the next Doctor.  Don't they get how it works?) and I've even had hate emails because I happen to have only one sprite of him (plus a variant) on my site but many of Smith (my fave).  For example one email said they'd close down my site, find my address come around and beat me with a baseball bat if I didn't sprite the Tenth in his tux.  I'd like to think they were joking but it just didn't seem it.  Very aggressive it was.   So bizarre...  Anyways it's my site.  I sprite whoever the hell I want.  (starts to pixel another Smith just to rile up those idiots... mwhaha)

By the way I don't think anyone's ever going to figure out the other connection between my character names.  Not unless you're familiar with late 70's US TV shows I suppose.   It's not important anyways.   There are some references in-game to other things too but I'll leave that to whoever plays it to figure out.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 08:58:05 am by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #190 on: June 09, 2013, 09:09:38 am
Sounds like generic crazy fans to me (Matt Smith and Christopher Eccleston have them too, naturally). They were probably serious, but it's easy to play the tough guy on the internet, so I wouldn't be too concerned.

I think Matt Smith is the most 'Doctorish' of the new Doctors. Rather than saying I like him best, I'd be more accurate to say that I object to him least :)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #191 on: June 09, 2013, 09:37:19 am
Sounds like generic crazy fans to me (Matt Smith and Christopher Eccleston have them too, naturally). They were probably serious, but it's easy to play the tough guy on the internet, so I wouldn't be too concerned.

Am sure they do but I've never encountered ones as nasty as some of Tennant's more 'loyal' fanbase.  I had a strange conversation with one who refused to believe his Doctor was the same man as the previous ones saying something like "no he's not, he could never have been that ugly" and then started verbally abusing me for suggesting otherwise and also rather aggressively referred to Georgia Moffet as a slag and a bitch for having married Tennant and bearing his kid(s?)...  Um, ok.   And this one wasn't on the internet.  It was at the Forbidden Planet shop in Cambridge last summer.  She made quite a scene... I tried to ignore her by making it look like I was now browsing through the nearby comic books but that made her a bit more angry so I quickly just got the hell out of there and towards my bus stop.  Thankfully she wasn't crazy enough to come after me.  It's those fans that worry me.  The ones who are just a little too... yeah...

Quote
I think Matt Smith is the most 'Doctorish' of the new Doctors.

Yeah he certainly does seem like a mixture of several of the 'classic' Doctor in numerous ways.  Smith was inspired by Troughton when trying to decide how to play the part but has shown elements of several of the others too.  I'm very sad he's leaving.  I wanted to fulfil my childhood ambition of playing a Doctor Who monster while he was still in it.  Oh well.   I'd still like to do that though.  Getting paid to put on monster make up and go "graaaah" at people.  Sounds like an ideal job to me.  ;D


ugh my game is doing my head in now.  Design changes that not sure if a good idea or bad idea...
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 09:44:05 am by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #192 on: June 14, 2013, 06:35:15 am
Hey guys, there's this film critic who made a really good article about the way we consume art, and I personally found it very revelatory, made me see how I estrange myself from the world at large...and I just wanted to share it

http://badassdigest.com/2013/06/05/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-spoilers-and-the-4-levels-of-how-we-consume-a/

it might seem a bit elitistic at the start, but what he establishes at the beggining he reveals not to be types of people but states of mind later on, meaning one person could have them all.

Just read it guys...I wonder if anyone will feel about it like I do, specially with this being a community so focused on creating and commenting on art.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #193 on: June 15, 2013, 09:13:34 am
yay for more efficient tiling!

Needed to redo the cloud tiles in my game.  The old ones in the newer smaller tile size ended up being about 70 tiles just for a couple of clouds with hardly much variation at all and ended up seeing the same clouds over and over.   Redid them last night.  They're now about 30 tiles that are designed to be mixed and matched so can make all sorts of shapes and sizes of clouds (even gigantic cloud cover) with far less repetition and generally look nicer than the old ones.   Think I'm learning a lot working within these 'limitations'. 

Old cloud tiles at top, new ones at bottom.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #194 on: June 15, 2013, 01:37:40 pm
Hey guys, there's this film critic who made a really good article about the way we consume art, and I personally found it very revelatory, made me see how I estrange myself from the world at large...and I just wanted to share it

http://badassdigest.com/2013/06/05/film-crit-hulk-smash-hulk-vs.-spoilers-and-the-4-levels-of-how-we-consume-a/

it might seem a bit elitistic at the start, but what he establishes at the beggining he reveals not to be types of people but states of mind later on, meaning one person could have them all.

Just read it guys...I wonder if anyone will feel about it like I do, specially with this being a community so focused on creating and commenting on art.

Very interesting stuff..
I'm definitely a bit of every level, but I try to be lvl 1 where I don't criticize and just immerse myself without any distance..
For games I tend to fall into group 4 if the game focuses on gameplay.

I recently played Bioshock Infinite and thought, wow, this world looks so fantastic and alive, why can't I immerse myself in it like when I played Oblivion for the first time..
There was just this constant distance, which might be because I wasn't too fond of the gameplay and everything felt rather linear.. 

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #195 on: June 15, 2013, 10:55:21 pm
Carnivac, I'd really like to see the new clouds tilemap if you don't care to post it.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #196 on: June 16, 2013, 02:50:11 am
Carnivac: I second Mathias there, that's really interesting...specially because I suck at tiling so it all still looks like magic to me, totally mystified. de-mistify away! damn...I feel nostalgic using that word =)

Seiseki: really interesting! yeah I think we all have some of everything...I'm a bit surprised you didnt comment on Hulk's format :p forgot to mention that he writes IN ALL CAPS. and uses HULK instead of I.

I try to keep myself vulnerable too, I find that I often cry in movies. The weird thing is that I can cry and then realize I was manipulated, I E I can tell the thematic intention in the work was dishonest yet I still am affected emotionally. Which makes me that much more angry about dishonest pieces of art because they still get to me.

But when I am critical of something I stay away from people who dont have that critical eye of things. The article made me think about how isolated I am by that sometimes, trying to hear only from people who have almost the same point of view as I.

Funny that you mention Infinite, havent played it but extra credits ( game critics that have a similar perspective to Hulk ) have a good recent episode on that very topic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_AG5MXohs
I wonder if it applies to you :p

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #197 on: June 16, 2013, 03:54:27 am
Conceit: That video is spot on, I thought about two of those things. First the looting, I always try to act in character, so I ignored most of the stuff that was lying around everywhere.
And then there's the violence, it broke the entire atmosphere of the game and became too much..

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #198 on: June 16, 2013, 07:06:06 am
Carnivac, I'd really like to see the new clouds tilemap if you don't care to post it.

Carnivac: I second Mathias there, that's really interesting...specially because I suck at tiling so it all still looks like magic to me, totally mystified. de-mistify away! damn...I feel nostalgic using that word =)

okeedokee


These be the initial batch of level tiles (haven't added the castle or other sets to the sheet yet as they aren't developed enough).    The cloud tiles take up most of the second row from the bottom.  If you can set an overlay grid in your graphics program the size be 4x8. 
Here be a new screenshot of the 4x8 tiles finally put in the game (and some other changes like the status bar revamped and integrated with the frame better, and the new bigger screen size).  Linking rather than posting direct in message cos I feel I been cluttering this thread up a bit with my stuff.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/167/7/c/c_p_c__15th_june_by_carnivius-d695lu9.png
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 03:46:12 pm by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #199 on: June 16, 2013, 12:02:31 pm
That looks really nice overall. One crit I have is that mountains do not generally look like that. The shape of your mountains are very naive (for lack of a better word) and look like pyramids more than anything.

You got such nice and organic clouds, perhaps you can put some more work into making your mountain tiles more modular as well. Also I would make some tiles which would allow for overlapping clouds and mountains, both clouds going infront and behind them. This would add a lot of depth to your backdrops.

Also, I think at this point it would not hurt to make an own thread for this, instead of posting pixelart related stuff in the OOTT.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 12:04:23 pm by ptoing »
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #200 on: June 16, 2013, 12:31:24 pm
That looks really nice overall. One crit I have is that mountains do not generally look like that. The shape of your mountains are very naive (for lack of a better word) and look like pyramids more than anything.

I know.  I've tried so many ways though to do decent mountains in limited tiles (had a whole folder of mountain reference pics but I found it so difficult to develop a small but usable tileset of them that wasn't complex).   I have made those ones in the screenshot fairly pointy though but there is a flatter top tile that I use in various ways.  I kinda went with pointy diagonal ones in that shot because it's the coast and so it's like the mountain range's starting point.  Maybe I'll play around with them some more.  I've just had another idea about how to redesign the mountain tiles and may have a go later but at this point I'm kinda getting sick of redoing all the early bits for the nth time and I just want to move on to new things.

Quote
You got such nice and organic clouds, perhaps you can put some more work into making your mountain tiles more modular as well. Also I would make some tiles which would allow for overlapping clouds and mountains, both clouds going infront and behind them. This would add a lot of depth to your backdrops.

I like the idea of clouds in front of mountains but I can't see how that would work without creating a load of new tiles or deleting the sky colour from the cloud tiles so they can be placed over things (though I don't want too many tiles with a transparent colour as I'm not sure if there's a limit on things like that on a real CPC or not although I have realised I don't actually use that sky colour in any of the other tiles on that sheet so that might lead to something).

Quote
Also, I think at this point it would not hurt to make an own thread for this, instead of posting pixelart related stuff in the OOTT.

I'd rather not to be honest.  If it's a problem I just won't post them here in the future.

edit: replaced the screenshot with one I just took from the game now.  Got rid of the points on the mountains and the diagonal overlapping and tried to 'scuff' up the details a bit more using tiles already in the sheet particularly on the mountain on the left.  Think it looks a bit better and there's something else I'll try later. 
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 12:51:06 pm by Carnivac »
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #201 on: June 16, 2013, 03:39:00 pm
Hey guys I'm back, haven't had internet access due to some hectic events around accommodation. But now I'm settled in with a couple housemates and back on the interweb, been keeping crazy busy, getting ingrained in the local indie dev scene (my 2 housemates are aspiring game dev programmers).

I've strayed away from pixel art for awhile and concentrated on 3D, but now a project I'm doing has a retro style target so I've been doing pixel style textures etc, I'll be sure to post it all soon time permitting, good to be back I'll try dropping in as frequently as my schedule allows  :)

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #202 on: June 16, 2013, 04:08:51 pm
Quote
Also, I think at this point it would not hurt to make an own thread for this, instead of posting pixelart related stuff in the OOTT.

I'd rather not to be honest.  If it's a problem I just won't post them here in the future.

Why not the pixel doodles thread?

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #203 on: June 16, 2013, 04:56:34 pm
Welcome back, Grimsane! ;D

Quote
Also, I think at this point it would not hurt to make an own thread for this, instead of posting pixelart related stuff in the OOTT.

I'd rather not to be honest.  If it's a problem I just won't post them here in the future.

Why not the pixel doodles thread?

I think this thread was created for precisely this purpose.

Surprised it didn't last longer. Did I kill it? :'(
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 05:03:21 pm by Charlieton »
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #204 on: June 19, 2013, 07:11:36 am
Cool. Thanks, Carni.
Hey, Grimm.


Offline Grimsane

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #205 on: June 19, 2013, 03:39:53 pm
cheers charlieton, heya Mathias, is he holding someone's hand and guiding them or something else? the gestures remind me of kids playing soccer.


here's some of the activities I'm upto, it's for the AVCON (Anime and Video-game Convention) an annual event here in Adelaide, I've found myself as an exhibitor with my own table, So I'm putting together an exploration game set on an anonymous moon. leveraging the Blender Game engine to make production rapid, and also to showcase it's capabilities, I've been wrapping my head around screen space shaders, and thanks to the blender community have some impressive features implemented already, including SSAO, Light Scattering, HDR with simulated eye adaption, Tonemapping, vignetting and noise. also through the bullet physics Library there is Occlusion culling so my detail can be quite dense without issue (if i implement the right level design approach)


from my prototype

and just a screen shader and occlusion culling test

and here is another project I am active on

cityscape for skybox scene.

and a few props.

cyberpunk retro title, the programmer whom's project it is has just upgraded his working level editor from BSP (Binary Space Partitioning, what doom and Quake used) to CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry, what Unreal Ed uses) I've done 3 iterations of the environment style so far and it looks like pixel level with specularity etc is what we'll be doing, kinda retro meets modern.

oh hope these images aren't too big, if it's an issue i can reduce them or link to them.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2013, 03:54:32 pm by Grimsane »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #206 on: June 19, 2013, 05:24:56 pm
Naw man! He's saving the universe, it's in trouble! Look at that blaster pistol. Hehe just a generic run an' gun action pose. Part of a random, sloppy, daily sketch mashup I'm doing, slowly filling up an 8000x8000 image with sketches trying to nail down some art direction for a potential game.
I really need to get back into 3D! Such cool stuff. For me, when doing 3D, I found it very immersive. Could get lost in it all day.
Worked 4 years doing "architectural visualization" for an architect firm, whose primary client was walmart. I might have modelled (per an architect's directions) and printed massive 30x42 prints of the resultant renderings of that walmart (or Sam's Club) you go to all the time, who knows.

3D Max and Vray:
   

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #207 on: June 19, 2013, 07:31:09 pm
nice, and yeah tis quite easy to lose yourself once you're in the mind set, I've got hundreds of different 3D files all over my PC most unfinished I wish i had mucchhhhh more time, to do EVERYTHING haha

 actually they don't have Walmarts here in Australia, maybe a few in the major capitals on the east coast,
because they tend to have american store chains there and Burger King here is called "Hungry Jack's" but in Sydney it's Burger King,
if for no one other than american tourists..

nice, I basically find it as easy as drawing now, I like 3Ds max, my close friend and fellow artist uses 3Ds max, and I've used it a few times, Maya on the otherhand I'm not very fond of at all (and I'm forced to use it in my current curriculum)

Ed: More of the same, Had way too much fun messing with this, he's implementing model loading today so that should be exciting. last two images aren't image manipulated.
[Larger]
[Larger]
[Larger]
[Larger]
« Last Edit: June 20, 2013, 10:26:17 pm by Grimsane »

Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #208 on: June 24, 2013, 06:26:08 am
Those are interesting! Can you fly around those cityscapes or something?
What if the buildings had a linear gradient blended to their lateral faces - starting bright and colorful at the base, and gradually fading out as it went up?
Those screens with a dark grey sky seem to cry out for a colored gradient sky, or some kind of color.
I don't know how psychedelic, crazy you're wanting to go with these city shots, but how's 'bout some transparent refractive texture maps? Like 'iss - http://imgur.com/gallery/H6yM7Rf
As a graphic designer, your negative kerned signage kinda bugs me. Have you tried marrying the merging letterforms together with actual ligature lookin' edits? It would mean manual work per sign, but could better justify the wounded readability with extra style.



QUESTION - Does this character remind you of any existing char you're aware of? (don't make fun of his shoes. they're traditional)



I don't get around to watching a lot of stuff, or even playing many games, and I often worry my "original" concepts are actually old news.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2013, 01:46:45 am by Mathias »

Offline 32

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #209 on: June 24, 2013, 07:25:59 am
Definitely reminds me of Earthworm Jim with the head and the big shoulders.


Interesting character though, is he gonna have more of an outfit or just the fabulous shoes?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #210 on: June 24, 2013, 08:12:48 am
Haha, don't know yet. Torso and below and very WIP. Might even swap his walkers for a serpent tale or octopus bottom.
His race is to be the leading plot antagonist, so it's gotta be good. I'll update here is I get it figured out.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #211 on: June 24, 2013, 11:51:37 am
Reminds me of Day of the Tentacle mixed with Earthworm Jim. Which is awesome.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #212 on: June 24, 2013, 10:34:03 pm
The eye and mouth mainly remind me of the eggplant-wizard in that old show I never even saw. :o

I think the body might benefit from a stronger basic form - for example a triangle standing on its tip or the other way around, they'd work well with the head already being kinda upward sloping with the tentacle and all.
Also my art tumblr: ymedronart.tumblr.com

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #213 on: June 25, 2013, 05:39:25 pm
It reminds me of the aliens from the Simpsons.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #214 on: June 25, 2013, 06:54:27 pm
Simpsons alien crossbred with Earthworm Jim actually.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline EvilEye

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #215 on: June 25, 2013, 10:43:01 pm
I just finished a comic book in case anyone is interested.

Here is the official promo ( links are under the video ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STO3nPt61Lk&feature=youtu.be

Here's an earlier promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQjHo2x1Vuo

Here's another early promo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU5QPZq1Fbg

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #216 on: June 26, 2013, 01:34:47 pm
I found really old stuff of mine I thought was amusing.

From about 1994, the beginnings of a platformer (I suppose a bit like Castlevania, I presume inspired by SNES mags I had laying about) made in AMOS Professional on Amiga

Heh.  Terrible.  I was still very much a beginner though I find it interesting that I was attempting things like lighting and shadow.  Although hey, that's almost 20 of the 32 max on screen colours used up on brown and grey.  That's most of the colours waaaasted on shades of brown and grey.  Looking at the majority of first person shooters these days I guess I was ahead of my time.  I think I've come pretty far these days with cutting down on the wasteful colours and having much more in the way of efficient low-colour palettes.

The dude runs too!  Sort of...

One of the very first animated sprites I ever did.  A 12 frame run cycle.  He seems a bit blobby in form but overall I'm surprised that it's not actually that bad for an early attempt.  Smooth motion and he certainly looks like he's moving the feet well, and not 'ice-skating' like a lot of people's early attempts at walk/run animations I suppose. 

NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
I know nothing about pixel art
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Offline rikfuzz

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #217 on: June 26, 2013, 01:50:42 pm
Certainly beats my attempts in STOS  :lol:!  Pixeling in those days was much harder with relatively primitive tools and without instant references and tutorials via the internet. Still there is something to be said for no distractions from the internet or other programs running.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #218 on: June 26, 2013, 05:55:04 pm
Those are comparisons I can live with! Love Earthworm Jim. Wish I had a poster of some of those promo paintings from back in the day.

@EvilEye . . . to your credit, I was expecting something truly amazing. But . . . I got Stickers the Cat . . .    whut

@Carnivac, what other types of art/drawing do you do? That's pretty good, though. Still better than all my animation attempts.


Hey Grimsane, here's a new font you might consider for your futuristic signage - Electro. Why not.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #219 on: June 26, 2013, 07:24:22 pm
@Carnivac, what other types of art/drawing do you do? That's pretty good, though. Still better than all my animation attempts.

Um. Nothing really.  Doodle a bit now and then.  Never got the hang of painting and attempts at digital painting or anything else really just didn't appeal to me enough to have the patience to put into it all.
NES, Amiga & Amstrad CPC inspired
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #220 on: June 27, 2013, 02:49:50 am
Ahh, so all your creative efforts manifest in the form of PA then?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #221 on: June 27, 2013, 10:23:48 am
Guess so.  Maybe cos it's a very controlled and tidy form of art and I don't have to clean up my desk afterwards (unless I been eating at the laptop again)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #222 on: June 29, 2013, 11:26:59 pm
@mathias yeah that was mostly laziness on my part, and if I find time I might consider it, but for the most part they may just be placeholders, do you have any reference to any really well done font design done in that way? i might need some inspiration to push me to improve it :P

and nope no flying, I did actually have a gradient in earlier but he's doing the game in his own engine so setting up a realtime skybox in blender GE seemed pointless, it was a kinda orange pinkish gloomy dusk gradient sky, take me to long to find it or edit one up.

also here's an image of model loading within his engine, i did all the assets and textures minus the bayonetta test image :lol:
there are some scale issues with the exported models in that particular image, but it's all he's uploaded.







the barrels are physics, pretty fun to just knock them and roll them oh the chaos, friend who tested it noticed that one of the corridors
was open to the outside of the level, so they rolled a barrel out and rode it down into infinity and it looked like a twisted form of synchronized skydiving :lol:

I'm using a custom build of blender to get realtime area lights which breaks quiet a few features so have a few limitations  :blind:
also heres a raw lit scene if anyones interested in the lighting:


just attempted to create an album on imgur but couldn't via selections and don't really have the time, but managed to get a dump of image links, some are doubled from this thread:


edit: gah guess the forums resize script disables/strips hyperlinks from images, if anyone cares enough copy paste the image URL and remove the L at the end for a full image
« Last Edit: June 29, 2013, 11:30:15 pm by Grimsane »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #223 on: July 11, 2013, 02:31:59 am
Dang you been busy.

Offline Conzeit

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #224 on: July 12, 2013, 03:22:10 am
http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/456719-best-crt-retro-games/
Looks like we're not the only fans of scanlined pixelart out there, this article chronicles someone's quest for the perfect CRT for retro gaming

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #225 on: July 14, 2013, 09:30:29 pm
« Last Edit: August 07, 2013, 03:21:30 am by Mathias »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #226 on: August 11, 2013, 11:17:49 pm
interesting work Mathias , looking forward to seeing the big picture :D
Dang you been busy.

understatement  :blind:
full time study, spare time dedicated to art, and I don't have too much of that left, one of 2 artists working  with a local upstart game dev studio, currently in the dev cycle of their/our first game(fedora clad character is 1st pass of the current game's main char) and still actively contributing to a few other projects.








AVCON went really well, I ended up implementing crazy projectile physics in my demo it was like insane ping pong storm, and uriniting triangles and firing barrels at high speed, but funnily enough I spent more time developing, and convention goers were just as if not more interested in seeing a game being developed than the games themselves, I was working on Fibre Optic Pizza with the the programmer and creator

this is what we got done by the end:



he implemented the gun, the muzzle flash and firing projectiles(placeholder: soda cans) and object rotation/animation and shoved a lot of models in, and I created a hologram and he implemented that, he got the drone going on a patrol path and stop when the player was infront.  he wrote a GL based renderer and essentially an entire game engine in JAVA, but now he is porting and re factoring the codebase in D, I'm helping with GTK GUI, for the engines toolkit should be interesting, it's a homage to retro games and deus ex, 95% of the art is me so far, the gun model (but not UVs or textures) was a fellow artist friend. and collaborated on the drone bot.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #227 on: August 13, 2013, 06:51:16 pm
I had a nice birthday :)
Went with a friend to 'Go Ape' in Thetford Forest which is an obstacle course up in the trees with rope ladders, ziplines and a bit when you leap off and swing into a net.  And then I had a lovely meal at the classic american themed restaurant Frankie & Benny's and had a meal of many meats. :D
Good times were had by me.  ;D
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Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #228 on: August 24, 2013, 02:11:57 am
Just saw this new G'MIC filter that automatically extracts all non-overlapping objects from an image into individual layers:

(overlapping bounding boxes is handled correctly, it's only when the pixels overlap that two objects cannot be distinguished)

Seems like it should be incredibly useful.
If you insist on being pessimistic about your own abilities, consider also being pessimistic about the accuracy of that pessimistic judgement.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #229 on: September 04, 2013, 01:03:34 pm
this offtopic thread sure got a bit overloaded with images. =p
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #230 on: September 06, 2013, 05:44:04 pm
Well yeah! Just the way we like it.

Offline Grimsane

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #231 on: September 08, 2013, 12:34:35 pm
happy belated birthday carn, and haha yeah feel quite a large bit of responsibility for that :P

haha nice is that your' work Mathias? :P

so what's everyone been upto?
been pretty flatout my side.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #232 on: September 08, 2013, 10:28:29 pm
Yep. Top third of a poster advertising rotisserie chicken for display in grocery stores. I just think it's funny - Like the chicken is being tortured with fire. But . . . it sells. hehe

I have a big project cooking. It'll be a long time before any details are released, though. A game. I'm actually writing the plot's second draft in a Google Doc as we speak . . .
Got pretty high hopes for it.
Yep.

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #233 on: September 08, 2013, 11:19:22 pm
I just started taking Art History this week. I expect great things! :crazy:
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #234 on: September 11, 2013, 08:54:04 pm
C.R.A.P.

Offline Corinthian Baby

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #235 on: September 13, 2013, 04:33:58 am
Had an idea for a topic, thought maybe I'd run it by through here. How about a paintover thread for pixel art? Some popular digital painting sites do it and it's a lot of fun/learning from everyone involved:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=265541
http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3214

I realize that some of our members do this regularly in the pixel critique section (Shout out to people like PixelPileDriver, Grimsane, Facet and the likes for indulging us with these), but this could be a quick hit and run critique, or a compilation of great paintovers from the past to mull over and pick apart.

Offline surt

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #236 on: September 13, 2013, 09:29:11 pm
Anyone know of any tools for editing NES-like tilemaps with editing of tile palette assignment separate from the tile pixel data?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #237 on: September 13, 2013, 10:27:30 pm
Surt: Not sure if that's what you mean, but there's yy-chr for doing actual NES graphics.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #238 on: September 13, 2013, 11:06:02 pm
Tilemap editing, specificaly for doing NES-style mockups. Place down the the tiles on the map and place the palettes on the map seperately. From what I could see yy-chr looks to just edit tile image data not tilemaps. Integrated tile and palette editing would be cool too though.

Been turned on by ptoing's recent submissions to PJ and always wanted to do something like arne's Adventure Marne Bros.

Offline Kasumi

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #239 on: September 15, 2013, 01:29:28 am
Try NES screen tool? Find it on this page.
I make actual NES games. Thus, I'm the unofficial forum dealer of too much information about the NES

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #240 on: September 15, 2013, 03:08:56 am
That's the kind of thing. The GUI is a bit bleurgh (what's up with all these tools with fixed window sizes), but it does the trick.
EDIT: Actually it looks like you can't make a map larger than the nametables which limits its usefulness for what I want.

EDIT^2:
ptoing and I (mostly ptoing) figured out how to do this with Pro Motion.
Formula mode. Indexed.
Left click: (fg - (fg mod 4)) + (a mod 4)
Right click: (bg - (bg mod 4)) + (a mod 4)
Use with grid and grid-sized brush.
Subpalettes laid out in steps of 4.
Select a colour in the desired subpalette then painting will swap all colours with those in that subpalette.

fg - (fg mod 4): the start index of the subpalette in the global palette
a mod 4: the index in the subpalette
« Last Edit: September 17, 2013, 09:31:25 am by surt »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #241 on: September 21, 2013, 03:37:56 pm
Just dropping in to announce that we've released Dinothawr! ;D
We've released the source code, creative commons assets and a few builds (Android and Windows so far). We're hoping to port it to more platforms in the time to come.



You can read more here:
http://forum.themaister.net/viewtopic.php?id=926

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #242 on: September 21, 2013, 04:09:36 pm
Congrats on finishing it. But why are the pixels filtered?  :'( I tried to set filtering to false in the retroarch cfg, seems to do nothing :/
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #243 on: September 22, 2013, 09:26:28 am
I didn't get to polish the graphics as much as I wanted to, but I wanted to finish it now since we showcased it on Friday and it seemed to be ready for release. It was fun to see people test it. There was some sort of multiplayer co-op going on with a bunch of people pointing at their friend's screen to make suggestions. A bunch of players skipped to the final level to see if they could beat it. Despite really admirable persistence, no one managed to solve it during the course of the day. >:D

Did you set video_smooth = false in the config? Alternatively you can do it through RGUI (press F1) by going to video options > shader options > default filter and setting it to nearest instead of linear. If you want RGUI options to be persistent, it requires config_save_on_exit = true to be set in the config file.

You can also turn on integer scale by setting video_scale_integer = true or going to video options > integer scale and setting it to on.

I also noticed the config file uses UNIX-style linebreaks. Was fun trying to edit that in notepad. :crazy: So we should probably fix that. Also, for some reason, the music sounds awful in Windows 7 for me, but headphones don't work either, so it might just be Windows being inexplicably broken.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2013, 09:31:12 am by Arachne »

Offline ErekT

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #244 on: September 22, 2013, 09:40:59 am
I'm stuck at 5-1 and feeling stupid :P Great little game tho, it's easy to just keep at it. The music fits nicely with the puzzley-ness too.

Pressing F1 in-game worked, but maybe add a simpler toggle to turn all that filtering on/off in one go?

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #245 on: September 22, 2013, 10:18:56 am
The video_smooth thing did not work for me. I did that before. But the F1 shader options do work, so that's good :)
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #246 on: September 24, 2013, 11:51:30 am
Good little game.  Not my usual thing but had charm and some nice pixels (once I turned off the filters). :)
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #247 on: September 27, 2013, 12:10:07 pm
Glad to hear you like it! :) The Android version, at least, has a pixel purist setting which disables filtering and uses integer-based scaling, so something like that would definitely have been nice for the PC versions as well. We did develop a launcher for it at some point, so maybe it can be updated eventually.

The line breaks have been fixed now, and I noticed I also had problems with config settings not changing. As it turns out, I failed to notice that the config lines were commented out. :lol::-[

Offline BioLink

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #248 on: September 28, 2013, 02:28:58 am
Hello I recently got the trial version of the program named above and I am having a but of trouble with it. I cant figure out simply how to select my sprite and move it around and freely rotate it. Is this even a feature there is no select tool in my tool bar and this is frustrating me to no end.

TY in advance

I figure it out by mashing a bunch of buttons so nvm
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 03:01:33 am by BioLink »

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #249 on: September 28, 2013, 11:35:26 am
people are stupid.
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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #250 on: September 28, 2013, 02:19:02 pm
Hello I recently got the trial version of the program named above and I am having a but of trouble with it. I cant figure out simply how to select my sprite and move it around and freely rotate it. Is this even a feature there is no select tool in my tool bar and this is frustrating me to no end.

TY in advance

I figure it out by mashing a bunch of buttons so nvm

Have you ever thought about reading the manual? Press F1 and all that? ProMotion is a bit different from the current standard when it comes to art applications because it is built on a way older standard, namely Deluxe Paint. Don't bash things before you get to know if they can or can't actually do what you want.
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #251 on: September 28, 2013, 07:13:11 pm
oh, i do hate pixelling fingers...
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Offline ptoing

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #252 on: September 28, 2013, 07:20:46 pm
You hate a lot of things in general, no?
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #253 on: September 28, 2013, 07:32:36 pm
nope. 

edit:  ok fingers looking ok-ish... but then i gotta take the same fingers and make them look a bit more feminine... no idea how. :P
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 08:04:00 pm by Carnivac »
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Offline surt

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #254 on: September 28, 2013, 08:25:20 pm
A pink bow perhaps? I find that usually does the trick for me.

Offline Carnivac

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #255 on: September 28, 2013, 08:57:24 pm
i find bows almost as tricky to pixel as fingers.  :P 

anyways enough pixels for now.  time for cookies then gotta learn me some more lines for the play i be doings. woo!
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Offline Dusty

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #256 on: September 28, 2013, 10:45:40 pm
Oh... yay we're on a new page! No more huge images making me think twice about visiting this thread.

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #257 on: September 28, 2013, 11:34:42 pm
No massive images is nice during slow connection weeks!

I've finally gotten around to playing Dark Souls, today. Picked it up on the Steam sale earlier this week for the cheap. So far, I'm completely enamored with it!
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

Offline Larwick

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #258 on: September 29, 2013, 12:57:33 am
I've finally gotten around to playing Dark Souls, today. Picked it up on the Steam sale earlier this week for the cheap. So far, I'm completely enamored with it!

Are you playing with a controller or keyboard/mouse? I really wanted to play it but I don't have a controller.  :(

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #259 on: September 29, 2013, 11:31:12 am
I've finally gotten around to playing Dark Souls, today. Picked it up on the Steam sale earlier this week for the cheap. So far, I'm completely enamored with it!

Are you playing with a controller or keyboard/mouse? I really wanted to play it but I don't have a controller.  :(

I'm using my wired 360-controller that I bought 5-6 years ago. However, it seems there are some who use keyboard/mouse exclusively. There's even a mod/fix for making the mouse-controlled camera work more smoothly, which suggests a demand. There might be a few hurdles in the way of making it work alright, but it's definitely doable.
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

Offline Larwick

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #260 on: September 29, 2013, 12:09:10 pm
I'm using my wired 360-controller that I bought 5-6 years ago. However, it seems there are some who use keyboard/mouse exclusively. There's even a mod/fix for making the mouse-controlled camera work more smoothly, which suggests a demand. There might be a few hurdles in the way of making it work alright, but it's definitely doable.

Interesting thanks.  :-*

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #261 on: September 29, 2013, 02:20:46 pm
Get this unofficial version of DSMfix for the latest Dark Souls update. The author is the guy who also created DSCfix, his modification is legit.
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #262 on: September 29, 2013, 05:02:43 pm
I'm counting on Crow being on top of this kind of information. Any other important modifications, Crow? Graphics or performance boosting? Is this catch-all mod all there is to it?

I just got completely outclassed by the strange, flying boss monster in the forest. :ouch:
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #263 on: September 29, 2013, 05:28:30 pm
DSfix (the one you linked), DSCfix to connect to friends more easily, DSMfix (see my post above) if you want to play with mouse and keyboard. Also, in the future, DSVfix again. Right now, you won't need it, but I'll add some more features soon-ish.
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline surt

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #264 on: September 29, 2013, 08:15:36 pm
I must have spent six hours trying to get the damn game to run then when I finally got it working I got the shits with the hideously clunky console controls after half an hour and never touched it again.

Offline Crow

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #265 on: September 29, 2013, 08:36:00 pm
It's definitely worth the time. Get DSMfix if you don't have a controller.
Discord: Ennea#9999

Offline Helm

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #266 on: October 03, 2013, 03:12:56 am
http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/awrX8WB_460sa.gif consider this and its implications for pixel clusters

Offline Mathias

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #267 on: October 03, 2013, 09:14:10 pm
Pixel fractal. Seen that somewhere before. I want to see it go one more step.

What is it that you think it says?

Offline ptoing

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #268 on: October 04, 2013, 01:11:28 am
2 more steps.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15588722/post/clusterfractal.gif

It shows how awesome the tetris z block cluster is in general. It is very good for oranic stuff among other things.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2013, 03:13:17 am by ptoing »
There are no ugly colours, only ugly combinations of colours.

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #269 on: October 05, 2013, 09:23:33 pm
Does anyone have any good fashion references?  I'm doodling some characters and I'm having troubles figuring out how their clothing should look.  I'm not looking for the oddball runway stuff, nor fashion with specific function, just general things that people actually wear. 

The late 80s had some ankle boots.  In the early 90s it was Doc Martins.  In late 90s-early 00s it was big clompy things.  Nowadays...?  Are neckties wide or narrow these days?  That sort of thing.   It would be good to have a selection across categories like conservative vs stylish vs regional things. 

Tourist

Offline Charlieton

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #270 on: October 05, 2013, 11:55:38 pm
If you're looking for "what people actually wear", I guess looking through major clothing brand catalogues is a good place to start. People are going to wear the clothes these provide, and the brands are going to try and supply the kind of clothes people wear. Perfect feedback-loop, no? https://www.hm.com/us/ http://www.jcpenney.com/ http://www.jc.se/ (common swedish store - perhaps some regional differences to be found?)

Honestly, though, I'm at a complete loss for this kind of knowledge, too. I'd also like the kind of fashion reference that you're looking for. Maybe there's a fitting category on Pinterest? (I only have a vague idea of how that site works...)

Here's a wonderful site to get lost in: http://www.humansofnewyork.com/
« Last Edit: October 06, 2013, 01:01:48 pm by Charlieton »
Det skulle vara lätt för mig att säga att jag inte gillar dig, men det gör jag; tror jag

Offline Tourist

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #271 on: October 07, 2013, 04:10:23 am
Looking at clothing catalogs is a great idea.  That should be enough to get a snapshot of current clothing styles.  It's still going to take some work to map the catalogues to the target markets and any relevant cultural things, but it's a starting point.  Thanks for the suggestion!

Tourist

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #272 on: October 15, 2013, 03:34:57 am
Anybody playing the Battlefield 4 beta on PC?
Friend me if you want to do a few games.
I play mostly assault class so I'll try to revive you if you die.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #273 on: November 03, 2013, 12:52:26 am
looks somewhat interesting:

http://spritelamp.com/
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Offline Argyle

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #274 on: November 05, 2013, 03:36:19 am
Anyone sitting on a spare Hearthstone beta key? Looking to be able to play with my wife but they stopped sending keys out I guess.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #275 on: November 06, 2013, 01:26:56 am
Anyone sitting on a spare Hearthstone beta key? Looking to be able to play with my wife but they stopped sending keys out I guess.
I'm in like 40 giveaways and have 2 opted in emails, if I ever get 2 keys (or God forbid, even 1) I will give it to you.

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #276 on: November 09, 2013, 08:17:57 pm
Does anybody have any experience doing pixel art with a cintiq? I've done both pixel art and illustration on my intuos, but thinking of making the upgrade this Christmas.

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #277 on: November 09, 2013, 10:10:39 pm
Quote
Does anybody have any experience doing pixel art with a cintiq? I've done both pixel art and illustration on my intuos, but thinking of making the upgrade this Christmas.
In the past I used a 21UX but I gave it to my girlfriend.
Honestly I felt like it was a bit overly large to work with sometimes, blocking the keyboard, being too high up, too far back etc.
But at the time i was using the monitor stand that it comes with.
Using something like this greatly improves it.
You can position it better, closer, push it away when your done, use it standing up etc.
But if you decide to get the Large Cintiq and an arm make sure it can hold the correct amount of weight.
The 21UX is extremely heavy.

Now I use a 12SW with this arm.
I think I like it better but it has one major draw back.
The max resolution is 1280x800.
This can really squeeze the interface on some programs.
Here's a printScreen from the cintiq:



But it's not so bad that its unusable.
When I work on tall images I usually change the screen orientation to Portrait.
Also they may have improved the resolution in newer models, if there is one, not sure.

I still use the mouse a lot more, I'd say I do about 75% of the time.
But I also only spend about an hour a day drawing so I'm sure you'd get a lot more use out of it.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Ryumaru

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #278 on: November 09, 2013, 10:49:01 pm
PixelPiledriver: This is really helpful, thank you!

I'm thinking of getting this model, which has a higher resolution ( 1920x1080)
https://store.wacom.com/us/en/product/DTK1300?

This one is also smaller so I hope that using keyboard shortcuts will still feel natural. When the monitor is on the computer it makes sense to be interacting with the keyboard, but with a cintiq i'm not quite sure how it will all feel. If I do get it I would be sure to make full use of the tablets input buttons as well.

Do you feel that the cintiq can still allow for pixel perfect precision? I haven't used a mouse to pixel in at least 4 years I think. I've been fine with my intuos, so I would assume it would be ok on the cintiq as well. There is always zoom I guess!

Offline PixelPiledriver

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #279 on: November 10, 2013, 07:23:20 am
Quote
I'm thinking of getting this model, which has a higher resolution ( 1920x1080)
Yah that looks cool.  :y:
Glad they upped the resolution.

Quote
This one is also smaller so I hope that using keyboard shortcuts will still feel natural. When the monitor is on the computer it makes sense to be interacting with the keyboard, but with a cintiq i'm not quite sure how it will all feel.
You can place it pretty close to you and put the keyboard on a sliding tray underneath the desk.
Or get an arm making it very easy to access the keyboard with it floating above.
But an arm is some extra cost you may not want to pay.
I'd suggest trying it without and see if it works for you.
If not I highly recommend it as it will make your life much easier.

Quote
If I do get it I would be sure to make full use of the tablets input buttons as well.
I never use these, as I don't like holding the device.
And I really need a keyboard to get anything done.
I am getting old so I need to sit up straight and have it float near my face without obstructing anything on my desk or my back will start to hurt.  :blind:
But some people are perfectly happy clutching the cintiq and using the tablet buttons.
You may find that this fits your style of drawing.

Quote
Do you feel that the cintiq can still allow for pixel perfect precision?
The cursor on my older Cintiq used to wiggle a little bit.
Not sure if it was the pen or the monitor.
And sometimes it would not wiggle at all.
But with my new one I've never found this to be a problem.
Some people say that they have grown too attached to a tablet and that using a cintiq is different because their hand get's in the way of drawing.
While it didn't bother me that much this prompted me to try calibrating the pen off center.
My cursor appears about 1 1/2 inches to the top left of my actual pen point.
It seems odd at first but I've grown to prefer it over direct pen placement.

Also I had to change some settings in my registry to get it working correctly with Windows 8.
The pen delay and some other stuff.
It wasn't too complicated but not something I would have figured out on my own.
If you need those links I can try to go dig them up.
And knowing that it is, we seek what it is... ~ Aristotle, Posterior Analytics, Chapter 1

Offline Ai

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Re: Official Off-Topic Thread 2014

Reply #280 on: November 11, 2013, 10:45:05 pm
TreeSheets (main site) simple tutorial

Now this is what I wanted in a text editor .. spreadsheet .. outliner .. mindmapper.
Nestable cells! Auto-folding/expansion on zoom!