team threads

man that is kool...but now everyone will have to put up with my atrocious programmer art!

Hope the response to this thread isnt indicative of the popularity of Paintchat.
I'll have to try this out when I get home next week, although I suck when it comes to no ref drawing >(

There hasn't been a lot of people visiting, although the few people who are coming in are leaving behind some really funny things.. [:)]

I think maybe the fast connection required is the inhibitor, along with needing to download java software. I still think Paint Chat rocks though, and it's a great addition to the site. (Ponders on what a collaborative Programmer Chat would be like.... probably the same as IRC [:D])

page isnt loading at all now :( like "page cannot be displayed" error

My ip address got changed again >.< .. it should be working now.

I was working on Sumea at 2-3am this morning (I'm working on getting rid of all the tables and laying out the pages in CSS), and noticed that Sumea Paint Chat was a hive of activity! In fact, it seems it's been taken over by 16 year olds from Europe. And as you'd guess, there was plenty of bickering, name calling, rude pictures, personal attacks etc...

It was great. [:)]

I can't download the software for some odd reason? it just doesn't load the page when i click on the download. mybae its just my pc :S

Try the manual download. Select your OS here..

http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

I still havent gotten mine fixed.
:(

I actually tried the manual download, and tried it again then, same problem as i had with the other download, its quite weird.

Ive neve played NWN so i dont know what kind of character classes are available in any case heres a quick sketch i did during my lunch break. Still needs tweaking, i will post up others soon. let me know what you think.[^]

[img]http://www.boomspeed.com/solid80/darkimp.jpg[/img]

love it, hes got a bit of a darth maul theme to him, your muscles and pose and such are great :)

quote:Originally posted by MoonUnit

love it, hes got a bit of a darth maul theme to him, your muscles and pose and such are great :)

Thanks bud, much appreciated, i will post more soon.[:p]

ooooOOOOOH im likin this
question, will it be set out in orthographic view? because unless the desks are placed pretty far apart there will be a LOT of overlap. Atleast im guessing there will... we shall see >.> <.<

Nice, [8D] - I like it [:D]

So I guess late people get the least desirable seats in class?! [:D]

Ok, here's how Pixel Class will go!

http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeapixel/SumeaClass.asp

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeapixel/sumeaclass/pclass_example.gif[/img]
This is just an the example of what your submission can look like. Try to place your pixel self in the same spot as the character above. You can change absolutely anything you want, but don't touch or draw over the green parts! Your pixel art HAS to have you in it, and some sort of desk or other object (it doesn't have to be a desk - be creative as you like. It could be you sitting on a toilet for example). Please submit your pixel art as gif files, and yes, you can use animation as well!

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeapixel/sumeaclass/pclass_floor.gif[/img]
This is the floor tiling. Download this and use it as your floor. Don't edit this around the edges though because they kinda need to connect to your next classmate's floor.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeapixel/sumeaclass/pclass_desk.gif[/img]
This is for people who can't draw too well - use this as your reference. Download it, Delete the red parts and place the floor tiling in another layer below, colour it in / put in any details you like in Photoshop, and you should be right!

I'm still building the page, but as far as placements go, as soon as you finish your piece, then you can choose wherever you want to be placed! And again, be as crazy, zany, funny, creative as you like!

From now on, when you submit your piece, let me know where you want it to be placed by telling me "above left", "above right", "below left", "below right" in relation to someone elses's piece already on the page. Also give me a link to your website or Sumea profile page as well if you want your piece to link to something.

Whats acceptable.. after seeing alot of cut'n'paste art in pixel town.. could I just take a photo of myself, and re-size it?

like this?
[img]http://www.users.senet.com.au/~bannistr/art/class001.gif[/img]

(p.s. obviously this isn;t me.. I'ts the closest art I had to cut'n'paste)

Bane: kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?

A photo would look odd (especially when mixed with the other contributions), unless it was taken from a certain angle.. take a look at the perspective of the example - it has to be from that angle.

Anyway, it's preferred that you pixel it in yourself. Use the example as the base to draw on if you're having trouble!

And come on people, let's get this started.. [:)]

ok so our character/desk is not to leave the tiled area what so ever, no overlapping?

Yep, that's right.. so don't pixel on the grean bits!

well heres mine thus far...I may add more to it later, cos it is relatively unexciting...

[img]http://dinomedia.topcities.com/kane.bmp[/img]

there are a whole bunch of things in this pic so feel free to ask about any of them!

That's the stuff. [:)]

hoho, I'm gonna have to think about what I'm gonna do for this!!! This sounds like fun!! [:D]

Ok, I'm looking out for those guides Souri!!! But in the mean time have a look at this... I hope 3 frames will be ok. Souri, if this is no good tell me and I'll try an fix it up.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/matias/200491074325_matias.gif[/…]

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/matias/200491074325_matias.gif"]matias.gif[/url]
8.61 KB

That is awesome [:)]

Yep, guides coming real soon - probably by Sunday, a week before the deadline!

How "restricted" is the 'dont draw on the green area...

I mean, is 1-3 pixels ok.. or none at all..

Do I need to "edit" this:
[img]http://www.users.senet.com.au/~bannistr/art/class002.gif[/img]

Argh, there goes my dark throne idea [:(]

I guess that's ok. Just remember that the more you draw on the green parts, the more you're covering over your classmates work [:)]. As you can tell from the shape, they all slot next to/above/below each other..

yours and most of the rest of us malus :P

Oh sorry guys.. This is going to be a sorcerers desk with a pretty little succubus seated on the left... I'm not sure if I will be seated or crawling under the table.. LOL..

Ok.. I 'tiled' the image over and over.. I figure then that anything that goes into the 'lower green' will be cut off? or are the blue tiles your own background, which has our tables placed OVER it? in which case the lower green would be free for all, but all other tables 'might' cover it.. giving more depth...

as for mine.. I'll pull back the skull heads 2 pixels.. I dont want to cover someone elses brilliance

I hate to sound like a dummy but, how do I create actual pixel art in Photoshop? I've tried reducing my brush size to 1 pixel but I still get an anti-aliasing thing happening when I zoom in and use the brush tool.

shift+b to switch the brush to pencil, or hold the icon down in the tab.

Heres my homework. I dont think ill have space to animate a hop around but im going to try for a bit of head banging.
ahh cant you just hear those power chords..

hiiiight way to hell da da..da da da...

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/rannyroy/20049222390_rannyroy.gif"]rannyroy.gif[/url]
4.39 KB

Insert Image: [img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/rannyroy/20049222390_rannyroy.gi…]

thats pretty cool rannyroy, go acca dacca!!

Very cool, rannyroy! Love the SG!!

Hey, are n00b's allowed to try and get in on the action?

[img]http://www.meeze.com/dpm/frames.gif[/img]

...just workin' in the dungeon cuttin' some code.

That looks really cool [8D]

Souri, how is the page coming along? I think people will be more motivated to make something once we get an idea of how it will all look.
No rush or anything, I?m just curious. [:)]

Sorry, I'll try and get the page up as soon as possible. Been holding off I guess since I was focussed on redoing the site in css layout (god knows how much work I've put on msyelf >.<).

Did I mention that my 19" monitor made a buzzing sound then gave a loud "poof", followed by some smoke on Friday? [:(] I went out and bought a new 19" Flatron LG for $340, and goddamn, it is so bright and clear. I'm not used to the screen being so bright that I find myself squinting a lot of the time. I can put the resolution up to 2048x1536 ..[:0]

That's a mighty fine and clever piece you did there, mcdrewski [:D]

rannyroy that is fricken awesome! [:D]

angus is the man!

Actually, this might match the style a bit better.

Go impossible desk!

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/mcdrewski/2004105101539_dilbert…"[/img]

-d

http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeapixel/SumeaClass.asp

Just need to draw some pixel art walls/windows/tiles etc so it looks more like a room.

From now on, when you submit your piece, let me know where you want it to be placed by telling me "above left", "above right", "below left", "below right" in relation to someone elses's piece already on the page. Also give me a link to your website or Sumea profile page as well if you want your piece to link to something.

Here?s my desk. [8D] I?m just chillin? playing some old school console games:
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/palantir/200410147635_palantirs_…]

I don?t care much where I sit since I?m too busy playing games to notice people around me [;)]. But some cool tunes would be good to play to, so next to Angus would be great! [:D]

I suppose it should link to my profile (not that I've posted any more work since I joined [^]): http://www.sumea.com.au/sprofile.asp?member=277

That looks pretty good.
Biggest advice is to lay some hair on the face texture, that way his hairline wont be so sharp.

cheers :)

Yeah your right, I didn't even think about that.

Very cool, and very quickly done [:0]

Either his ears are lop sided or rest of the face is :)

Nice Matias [:D] What is he Barbarian ? Gotta love that thick neck lol!

thats great work, love the colouring but wowzers at that mega neck! :P

nice work. You kept the intent of the character through out the various stages too, which I think is good!

I think the giant neck is great, it makes him look massive, like a tank :)

Edit: just noticed he's kinda growling, nice effect.

Love that smug look :) He should make a fantastic final piece. The cloth on his shoulders does look a little stiff. It is only a sketch though.

love it, the facial expression really speaks volumes about his character

looks pretty neat :) cant off much in praise or pan cause its a quickie and all

hey thats a nice mood you've set in the picture. i think its pretty sweet for a half hour job. what program was it? looks very painterish :)

thanx. photoshop 7

Looking good pants :)
Your line work is really good.
The jaw line on the left looks too straight (thus slightly masculine), curve it up towards the ear might help abit.

Your definately improving good stuff;)

The shadow on the chest looks a bit off and around the right eye, but maybe I am getting the tattoo's and the shadows confused. And the breast could be a little softer where the strap is crossing it.
Overall I like it.
cool banana's :P

Thats awesome Pants, I was waiting for your entry to show up, fashionably late [;)]

Cool work Pants. Can't wait to see her with you usual coloured flair :) She doesn't have your usual anime stle, and she looks quite cool.

Nice un Pants, I think this one most fits in with the NWN/BG style, great stuff!

Thanks for the positive comments and crits guys, I will attempt (have attempted) to curve the jaw a little more and to soften the breast.

Funny thing about the anime thing Aven is that its not my usual stuff, just something I have been trying to learn, hence the majority of posts in that style.

[img]http://www.pantmonger.com/random/nw_wip02.jpg[/img]

Well I?m about two thirds though the basic value work, hope to finish the values tomorrow and start on the colour.

Pantmonger

Looking cool :) Well that explains why this style is better :) Sorry, I have only ever seen your anime styled work.

this is way cool...what's the inspiration your working from, your muse so to say?

Looking good Pants, something is wrong with her eye placement though.

Nice- i really like that B+W pic... funky stuff.

Yeah this one rules.

Possibly with the eyes comment, it seems that her eye line is slightly more to the horizontal than the rest of her face?

I know you still have to colour it, but leaving it black and white and pink does give it that romantic look.[:p]

Great work !

Aven: Thanks, as for my previous comment, no need to be sorry, I wasn??t angry or anything, it was jest an observance ??

Rosco: Thanks, Um my inspiration?K well I like to draw, im a bit of a fan boy so drawing fantasy and the like attracts me, other then that I just flicked through a magazine till I found a head I though would work well and then used it as reference.

Smeg: Thanks

Malus and IronhideNT: Thanks for the crit, I drifted the semi obscured eye down a bit to address the overly horizontal placement, it may need a bit more, Ill see what I can do.

[img]http://www.pantmonger.com/random/nw_wip03.jpg[/img]

Uptate, finished basic tones.

Pantmonger

Looks really sweet. The only thing I notice is that the hemisphere on her left shoulder looks a little funky. As if it has rolled to an odd position.

Looking good. How are you going to colour it?

Aven: Thanks, Ill try and fix that hemisphere so that it does not look so wrong.
Makk: Thanks, I?ll be adding the colour using photoshop (its the only digital art program I own).

Update: About 50% of the base colour done.

Pantmonger

[img]http://www.pantmonger.com/random/nw_wip04.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.pantmonger.com/random/nw_done.jpg[/img]

And I think I'm pretty much done.
Thanks to those who helped with this pic, it is appreciated.

Pantmonger

very very cool, no crits from me :D
reminds me of blizards warcraft 3 night-elves

Ended up really nice, well done pants. As for the colouring, to me she didnt have the night-elf feel, I really expected to see warm pinkish skin and a brunette lot of hair LOL!

Anyhoo it looks great!

She ended up really well done :) My eye is constantly drawn to that bright green light in the bg though.

Thanks for the compliments guys, Aven you are right about the green light (The glowing bow string) I did not think it would draw the eye so much, whoops.

Pantmonger

Hey, that looks like Jana Wendt! [:)]

Thats kinda freaky...... [:0]

Hey yeah it does look like her! Haha.. Wow that is freaky indeed!

[img]http://www.neomagination.com/funstuff/Jolie_Web2.jpg[/img]

Here is the start of me colouring it in Painter 8...which is somewhat different than Version 7 I have found. Running blind is certainly an interesting way to produce work, although I'm happy with how it's coming along.

Any crit would be welcomed...considerably...asI've never really done much 2D rendering before.

Them some nice biceps. Feels kind of odd seeing a Elvish woman that could kick my arse, but still cool anyway :)

The only fault I can really see is her nose. You have a line that tries to follow the centre line of her nose. Usually you would have that line hug the outer contour of the nose instead. It makes it look like her have juts out at her mouth area. This is made more noticeable by the area between her nose and upper lip being so vertical. Possibly raise the top of her head a little bit so it isn't quite so flat :)

Other than that it is looking pretty cool :)

Its looking good :)
For your skintones, dont use white for your highlights, a whiter hue of the skin tone works better, but dont use straight white. For shadows I use more saturated versions of the skintone. Laying down some cool blues in there occasionally for shadows helps as well. Also, warm colours in areas that you want to stand out look cheekbones, nose, etc can help lift the painting. I usaully paint some red into the nose and ears.
Its good to see another Painter user around here. The program can be a little daunting to begin with, but soon enough you will get the hang of it :)

Thanks for that, it reminded me to THINK before painting :)

I recall reading that sort of stuff just recently...but it's hard to break old habits. The world of texturing and 2D rendering is certinaly my weakest spot. Hence me working on it. I'm spending more time on this than a 'quick' thing would be....but I think it would be good to get the practice in and do it properly. I'm just now coming to grips with Painter again. So my process is speeding up now too.

Thanks again, I will need to look at my work in a whole new perspective...but it'll be better for it.

[img]http://www.neomagination.com/funstuff/Jolie_Web3.jpg[/img]

Here is my latest incarnation. Haven't started thinking yet of course. I'm actually tempted to lesave it as is and call it a day on it...going back and rethinking my strategy might make it look weird. And I've certainly spent more time on it than would be defined as 'quick'. I took the emblem on the front of her top off to save on time, but also to reduce her from monk with money...back to simple monk. I believe they dopn't believe in items of ornamentation ;) (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

I DID however learn a lot about Painter again. So that's certainly a good thing and will use that no doubt in some other 2D stuff I want to get onto.

I might still finish this yet however. As I like the character.

I SOO need a bigger tablet.

Thats coming along well Discimage.
I think you have painted the cloth area very well in particlar and you have improved with your skintones :)
There are quite a few hard edges where there neednt be (the top of the bridge of the nose, the sides of the throat area and the forehead area) and could be soften abit.
The neck area could use some more shadows from the surrounding neckline of the jumper.

You should keep going if you can, the hair can be painted in and then all thats left would be tweaking.

As for bigger tablets, I use a 4x5 and its fine. If you find that you need to use bigger brush strokes, zooming in on the area that you are working on can help a small bit.

The headpiece looks a little confusing, although its just a rough develment. The tats look good, ears are a tad high though.

a bit of an update...lowered eyes and rotated, didnt do much on the weekend..much meaning anything....have to hook the wacom back up, the mouse is killing me....
[img]http://rosco.5u.com/test01.jpg[/img]

okay...hosting site is being a dog....no remote linking...hmm first one work though....maybe their on to me..:(..

hmmm...interesting..tempromental so and so...

looking cool, will the skin remain that blue colour? i like it

nice,
some color variance in the skin would be cool.

thanks guys, probably will fade the skin a bit more, want to get a contrast going with the tatoo which i'll overlay later.

will add some extra colour spots, just an overlay me thinks.

perspective is a bit wack, will keep tweaking it, ear possibly too large for a half-elf, and rear of head looks as if he's taking a mace to the back of it....

hey the coluring looks very nice indeed. i like the colours alot. only thing i'd suggest is that his pony tail looks a little off to the side, but thats only if you intended it to be in the middle. i dont think the ears are to big at all. they just look a little stuck to the side of the head but thats only my personal oppinon and shouldt matter as i know you havent finished colouring him yet :)

big eyes...elves can seen in the dark...Doh! why didn't I think of that! thats what I like about seeing other peoples work.

I would love to see him finished with a blue tint to his skin. Maybe I'm showing my age, but in AD&D Drow (evil underground elves) were typically depicted with blue skin. That would fit with the albino look of the very white hair and big eyes too, even if its not along your origional character plan.

Rough colours and lighting. I'm thinking of desaturating her blue top just a little more.

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au//mlanham/2D/dnd_portraits/cleric_lighting.j…]

Coming along really nice !!

This looks like Photoshop, youre not using Painter!?!?!
I was actually thinking of doing mine in PS, simply becuase I think I can work faster in it.
Anyway, looking good, maybe give that skintone some more warmth.

Haha. Wrong Makk :) Painter 8.

Thanks for the advice. At that stage I thought I wanted her skin to be fairly pale and slightly desaturated to match that of Hades (and she would be either Neutral Evil or Lawful Evil). I have since made her skin warmer. I've also made her shirt more desaturated, and am thinking of toning down her gold. Not sure yet :)

EDIT: Done for today. I know I'm putting a little more effort into this than what HazarD probably intended. Meh :p

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au//mlanham/2D/dnd_portraits/ClericWIP_01.jpg[…]

Still have to add more highlights into the left hand side of her head (her left hand side). Any crits welcome :)

Looks awesome so far Aven , but I should have mentioned earlier, doesnt her hairline look a tad high on her head, or has she shaven the first inch back for.... err.. hades devotion purposes [:p]

And as far as the amount of effort going into it, I intend to do a pretty decent job on the avatar - to the best of my current abilities anyhoo, it's an area I've never ventured into all that much, and decided it's high time to flex the portrait muscle.

There is a suprisingly small number of penises in this one Mattt
:D

HazarD - Thanks. lol, I'll make sure I bring her receding hairline forward a bit. Either that or give her a nice Vampire like triangle of hair at the front :p It's just that you said spend about five hours on it. I have have spent about five hours so far on it. Oh my painting is way too slow.

Bob - If your gonna spell my name, at least get it right. There are only four letters in it :p I'll make sure I just take one in on the right hand side rubbing her cheek (no not that cheek... mainly as it isn't visible). Happy? :D

Hah! It looked PS to me, what brushes?
I think she could use some more contrast (stronger lighting) and more colours in the skintone, at the moment it looks all pink.
The ponytail at the back looks really good, paint the hair like that it will look really good. :)

I'm using some custom varients of the Fine Camel 30 Oil Brush. I just created two varients. One that is just opaque, and one that is used to smear and blend the colours. I changed them to turn off pressure size (always frustrates me :) )and have pressure opacity.

I will bring some more colours into her skin. Maybe give her some redish rouge on her cheeks (without going for the whore look ;) ). When I add in the backlights, i will bring in some yellow/taned tones from the bg :) Thanks for the advice :)

Just to be a pain, i think she looks better with much whiter skin. Seems to off set the strong colours of the clothes. comming along nice but :)

She looks great but i second john on the whiter skin comment.
right now with her warm skin she just looks like a female paladin or something (not sure about D&D or NWN character classes)

Damn. I thinking that she was looking a little less... evil than I hoped, and that she was starting to look more like a Paladin or a Fighter. At the moment, I have teo options. Change the colour balance of her skin in PS and then try to get the new skin tones in Painter, or i could keep on going, and just make her a Paladin. I'm thinking of going with the second option. I will just change her blue lips and kill the eyeliner. Change the colour of her armour and go from there.

If this turns out well, I wouldn't mind doing a second one to try to speed myself up a little. Maybe the Cleric can come out and play then :) Besides, I really should have put her in a nice dark gown ;)

Thanks for the honesty though John and MoonUnit :)

no worries, as a paladin shes a damn good one :D

the colour is a very minor crit. Not worth spending time fussing over unless you are planning this to be a portfolio piece. Just forge ahead I think, time better spent on other aspects.

awesome work aven. i really like the fece on her. and the armour is very stylish :)
i like how you have made the skin look so soft altho more contrast may be needed (as mentioned above)
cant wait to see more

John - Yeah. I have this thing where I like to try to make it as polished as I can. Should time permit though :)

Anuxinamoon - Thanks. I guess it is just my style. I prefer really soft shadows. Unless it is on something that I am trying to make really evil looking :)

I didn't have time to work on her over the weekend, but had time today. Fixed up her hair, armour and skin tones. Problen is that in fixing up her face, there is now something about it that doesn't sit right with me. I will finish everything off first and then probably go back to the face. I know that the dark purple armour may not be the most suitable colour for a Paladin, but it looks cool :p Crits welcome again :)

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au//mlanham/2D/dnd_portraits/ClericWIP_02.jpg[…]

damn, thats extremely good.
no crits at all really o.o i mean youve got all the texures perfect like the metal skin and hair as far as im concerned, looks a hell of a lot like a real avatar (well a mostly finished one) from baulders gate or something.

The colour values have changed quite dramatically! Must have taken some tweeking!! I like the 'brushed Steel' look on the armour. Are you planning the gold trim to be ultra-shiney to off set the matte armour? that would look good me thinks.

The whole pic has an unsusal feminie feel with its soft focus 'airbrush style' contours, soft colour selection and rounded forms. I could imagine it as box art for a game pitched at young teenage girls... hope that's not an off putting comment, its not meant to be.

MoonUnit - Thanks. That's some nice comment :)

John - Yeah. The colour changes on her skin did take a bit. Not too much though. I wanted to make the Gold trim really smooth and shiny. I guess that lack of patience and lack of knowledge made it end up not quite as shiny as I would have liked :) No offense taken at all. made me laugh :D

Final version, unless anyone sees anything majorly wrong. Fixed her face up a bit. I have spent enough time on it (16 hours or so), so I don't want to spend any more on it. It was fun to do and pushed me a little further than what I have done before. Thanks to all who provided feedback, and thanks to HazarD for suggesting it :D

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au//mlanham/2D/dnd_portraits/Paladin_Final.jpg…]

that is fantastic [:D] I love the airbrushiness of it. And the metal looks great to. Good job.

great work Aven, thats a top piece :)

Awesome work Aven, I do have something of note though, when I compare the final work and the pencil sketch - I notice that the hair looks pulled alot tighter across the head in the pencil sketch, where as the final piece is looks really fluffy almost animal like fur, a squirrels coat for instance.

Hair is definately not the easiest of things to paint, I know [:D] but i just thought I'd point that out :)

Very diffused lighting, nice work, my only niggle is her ear maybe but thats about it! Cool sort of burnished metal feel for her armour too!

You need to change that NWN link, the following error is given if you click it.

"On every single HTML page of GameFAQs is the following request:
Feel free to link to this page, but not directly to the FAQs..
You're seeing this error message because it appears that you're linking from an external site directly to one of the text files stored at GameFAQs. GameFAQs is not a free public file server. Bandwidth costs money, and when sites link directly to files stored on the site, it becomes both a financial and resource drain. We've tried asking, but some sites simply don't care, so now we've implemented a technical solution.
"

Pantmonger

It works if you copy paste it into your browser.

I realise that it would work if you put it into your browser, my point was more of along the lines of maybe we should honour the request of those hosting the article, paying for the bandwidth etc and link to the html.

It?s a courtesy thing.

Pantmonger

Fair argument, but I think that restriction is aimed more at pictures etc, stuff that gets downloaded each time a page is viewed.

In a roundabout way, by posting the direct link to the tute, I am saving them bandwidth, people can get to it without going to the main page.

But, still, I'll take the first link down..

Go here
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/27528.html
then goto the 'Playable Monster Skin/Portrait Guide'

Dagnabbit! I just got NWN, I didn't know you could create custom portraits! [:(] Man I already started playing, I'm such a chump I'll prolly end up discarding my character to make one with my own portrait! I have to say theres nothing like playing with your own painted portrait! None of this running into a dude thats.. hey exactly your double! If I get time I'm in (but I like my current dude! dilemma)

Is this where the activity is being held or is it in the sumea Draw club section as i would love to get in on it. Havent cruised the forums on a while, im finally back and ready to draw. Let me know guys and i will post some of my sketches soon. Thanks in advance, catch you round.[:D][:D]

wheres the intricate, almost fragile jewellery - the obligatory forest background!!

But hey :) It's looking pretty cool, I think the main criticism that can be levelled is one you yourself mentioned - it's a little boring.

The picture is nicely drawn, though, have you thought about doing the hair as a large mass/shape rather than by texture? As it is, it comes off a bit noisy.. Hair is always a bastard no matter which way you look at it.

Anyhow, wheres the colour :)

That would make a really cool NPC towns folk portrait :)

yeah, thats an excuse- err idea. She is a commoner, townsfolk..elf.
I might add a necklace, just for you Bob ;) haha, the hair is a pain in the ass to draw, even painting it I find hard.
Anyway, might do this in Painter or PS, havent decided.

nothing wrong with plain (actually I think she is quite pretty). You can concentrate on the primary task of a portrait rather than all the other bits like shiney bling and clothes too. Another good excuse for plain :)

she looks just fine to me :D even if she isnt overly dramatized.
Her ear looks a bit like a normal humans though, but if thats what you want then well.. you did good XP

Well, started the linework for my final version tonight-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/elfsketch1.jpg[/img]
I decided I would go on further-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/elfsketch2.jpg[/img]
Very happy that I did, but I had to do the hair even though I knew I would stuff it up-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/elfsketch3.jpg[/img]
Hair is something that I usally dont draw, and it shows. The scanner has amplified the surface texture that the paper has so it does like quite grainy. Regardless, does anyone have any advice for drawing hair?

Anyway, this may or may not be the finished product. Depending on "stuff" I may/may not take it into the digital realm.

Go Digital! Go Digital!!!!! Nice pencil work !

As for crits her nose looks a little flat - and the nostrils lines look very straight and not curved in toward the bridge. But thats a minor detail [:D]

Colour !

I honestly think that you had the hair spot on at the second step.. Remember, sometimes it's what you don't draw that really counts.

I hope you don't mind(if you do, I'll take it down no probs, and with an apology), but I decided to have a bit of a paint over, try play with some hair techniques.. Er, but got kinda side tracked.
http://www.boomspeed.com/sorcerorbob/elfsketch3.jpg

Anyhow, hair can be done many ways, the ones that spring to mind are the following.
1. Shape - The easiest way, is to simply make an outline of the shape of the hair, like your second pic. I like your second picture alot, as it puts all the focus on the face - yet my brain is telling me that there is hair there - letting my imagination do the rest.

2. Texture - this is the way you have done it, lotsa little lines to represent hair. It's a road I have been down many a time, sometimes it can look right, but alot of the time it can look very noisy. Your newest version of the picture is much better than the first :) But I can see where it looks like you started to get bored with it.

3. Tonally - Just use blocks of tone to define the shape of the hair.. You've put it abit in there, just imagine it without the texture.

What I did.. Hmm, well I know i made alot of mess.. But I basically tried to let cut down on unneccesary noise by simplifying some of the texture - you'll note that the areas where I kept it are the parts that frame the face, this, I hope, lures the viewers eye into the center.

You'll also note I changed a few phsyical aspects of the face. I just grabbed the liquify tool to move parts of the picture around.. Mostly it was done to change some 3/4 view issues (lips, nose and the cheek/jaw on the right). I think it made her face look a little weak though :/

Lastly, I went and darkened some of the areas, just to add an extra layer of tonal depth, and to help push the face forward.

Anyways, I really like how you've taken this one forward - I hope I have given you some ideas - and that you are ok with the butchering i did :/

She looks better.

I have to admit that my 3D work helped put my drawing a bit. Especially with hair. Make your hair like you would do it in 3D. Make guide hairs first, and then interpolate them. If you can get the guide hairs flowing right, you can achieve a good hairstyle with only a few hairs. At the moment, you just started off by defining the mass of the hair. Get the flow right and it should slowly fall into place :) The other thing is the length of your lines. You are trying to draw long hair by using short line lengths. It will always look sketchy. Turn your page sideways, relax your wrist, and draw from your elbow. Get some nice flowing lines happening :)

I have always had the same troubles with smooth tonal pencil work. The scans come up showing more paper grain than pencil tone. That is why I don't scan them :/ The only way I have had any sort of luck, was with a digital camera. The only thing is, you have to make sure that the image is either brightly enough lit from all angles so that you don't need a sharp light source picking up the countours of the paper (ie: flash). Should you not have strong enough even light, use weaker light, use a tripod and keep the shutter open for longer to get mroe light into it. It works a lot better.

The only advice I can give to your smooth shaded style is really bump up your contrast. Smooth pencil work looks really sweet when you have a great deal of contrast. Extend your highlights into your midtones, and make your shadows really concentrated and dark. The best example I can give is off a comic artist called Keu Cha. He did an amasing pinup in the Fathom Swimsuit Special. Her it is:

[img]http://home.netspeed.com.au/mlanham/swims017.jpg[/img]

If you can find a copy of it, pick it up. It looks even more gorgeous in real life (well, reprinted at least :p). The pic was just taken from some random web site ages ago. excuse the quality of it.

A VERY nice pin up but not sure if it is a good hair expamle for this case - it uses essentially a flat Silhouette with highlights to suggest form and volume... (actually the monitor I'm using is a bit shit so I might ge missing alot of detail). You could give this approach a try or you could look at defining the hair as volumes(ie forget that it is made of individual hairs and look at the overall mass), add tone accordingly then add final 'hairs' details with liney highlights and shadows. I agree with Aven about the pencil work. try longer smoother strokes to define the tone too.

Hazard: Thanks, I have done a rough start. Hopefully it turns out well

Bob: Wow, thanks heaps man :) I dont mind the paintover at all, really helped me out. You did a better job on the hair the me. I really wanted to leave it as is on the second step, but I wanted to push myself to practising doing the hair. Haha! I id get bored doing the hair! Lots of helpful advice there, thanks :)

Aven: Good points there. I did try to do too much with the hair. I will aim to get the hair to flow with only a few hairs. Something that I will practice. Thats a nice drawing there, although its abit too smooth for my taste. I used to just take photos with a digital camera, but they would turn out worse! haha

John: I was looking at the hair as lots of individual strands, instead of focusing on volumes. Good suggestion.

Wow, you guys really helped out on this. Big thankyou

JohnN - That pic was never intended to show how to do the hair. Just an example of the increased contrast :) The scan is pretty bad. In the full thing, you can actually see the hair folicles go from the highlights into silhouette and then into the respected strands. Looks very impressive.

Makk - Good luck with however you choose to carry it out. Keep us updated :)

Well, Im done. More tweaking could be done but I must move onto another project-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/elfcolour.jpg[/img]
Not that happy with how it turned out. I lost the look that her eyes had in the sketches, hell, the whole expression has changed :(
Anyway, there were some parts that pleased me. In particular the cheekbone area on her right side.
Here is a detial of it-
[img]http://members.optusnet.com.au/~rowanfamily/elfdetial.jpg[/img]

All in all, abit under 6hrs or so. Not bad...I guess :/

Fair enough Aven, yes hair works well with high contrast.
Makk, nice outcome for a quickie. I think you are starting down the right path with the hair here. Just need to define the forms/bulk further. I suspect that if you did several more passes at the hair you would get a really good result.

That ended up quite good for a quick go :)

I can only see two things that could do with some fixing up. The whole right hand side of her head could be pushed out just a little. Her eye is in just a bit too close to her nose (try to match up the inner most part of her eyes, with the outer most pasrt of the nostril). The other thing is her face looks a little crooked. That may just be from her right hand side though.

The skin tones are fantastic :)

hey Makk, I really like the skin tones on this lady. they give her a very warm feeling. Something I might point out is that you seem to have drawn the hair without acknologing the scalp inderneath it. (something i used to do ALOT) this can be fixed easily by painting more hair on the right side of her head (some poeple have mentioned something of sorts about this)

edit:: i just noticed the very first sketch you drew of her and you drew the face on a slight angle with the scalp in mind, but in the latter drawings you kept the head at that angle but straightened out the facial features somewhat which leads to its skewardiness. :) funny how when you look at something three times it finaly clicks! :)

also watch out for forehead shrinking (another thing i did alot) it doesnt look bad but keep in mind for future drawings a nice given space between then eyebrowns and the hairline.

but makk i must say im likeing the paint work on her and i hope you continue to refine her :) the cheek area you pointed out is really well done :)

Good start. Not much to crit apart from what has been said.
Will you be doing the final version traditional or digital?

Final version will be digital :)

Heres my first quick colour / lights / darks, done for tonight.

Will smooth up tomorrow. [:)]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/219_qtarncolor.jpg[/img]

Looking cool. Just needs a bg :)

Some good colour work in there, are you going to leave some linework there or paint over the top of it?
I would probably elimanite the wrinkle lines at the sides of his mouth area and lift the edges of his lips so he isnt got that frowning look on him. Also, maybe adjust his eyes so he is looking at the viewer, at the moment he looks like he is looking at my chest not my eyes.

Good point Makk thanks ! Will fix up the eyes.

Yeah im going to completely remove all the line work etc,and get to some smooth airbrushing. [:)]

Ill probably keep the sour look - but might make the lines from his nose down past the sides of his mouth a little less prominent.

Yeah, never make the cut as one of santa's elves with an expression like that!
Eyes looking at the viewer would be more engaging, or alternatively looking to one side past the viewer.

looking good cept for the previously mentioned eye thing and personally i think his nose is maybe a tad too long (vertically). maybe bring the eye line (along with the top of the nose) down a tad... well thats just a thought, i could be entirely wrong but its something my subconcious picked up.

oh and nice colours :D

hey troy when r u gonna post the newest version of him up? and if ur going to keep the cloack on him i suggest putting some more folds in it as it looks very non-cloth like.
but the face colours are nice. :)

Nice work hazard [:)] The skin looks really good. He looks like he's wearing a hoody heh.

Thanks for the comments guys, Ive cleaned up the linework quite a bit and begane painting the final version but have yet to get some good piece of time set aside to complete it, will upload as soon as its done tho [:D]

I like him [:D] But to me he looks more like an aged human, than an aged elf.

Not that I have REAL old elven wizard to reference mind you [:P] Cant wait to see him coloured!

Also i cant decide which goatie i like better the single pointy one or the double banger.

Love the shape of those ears on the big right one. Matter of fact he is my favourite version :)

Hey HazarD, I'm a REAL elven wizard, and JohnN's character looks just like my grandfather! [:P]

Could put an eye out with those cheek bones :D

The main one looks very cool :) Although nicely defined, he does look slightly pointy though.

okeyDokee, i've actually managed to do some wip-shots as I go. They are a bit small but should give an idea of how I progressed. I worked directily over the scanned image that I initially posted, resizing it to 300dpi. As you will notice I did some minor tweeking to the face as I went. Painting done in P'Shop with a mouse (Oh the cramp! it hurts, it hurts!)

I spend more time than I initially intended too. The painting section took about 6hrs, so total time for the project was 8hrs.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_avatar-wizard_wip.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_avatar-wizard_1aL.jpg[/img]

very nice work, love his facial hair (his beard is like a row of spikes :P) but like a few have mentioned, his cheekbones are a bit... dynamic :D

great stuff, and hey, i paint with the mouse :D been doing it for since i was a little primary school kid makin pwetty pictwures in MS paint :D

He turned out quite nicely. His shadows do look a little grey though. It would be really cool to see how far you could go if you kept on going with him :)

I second Aven's comments - I'd be interested to see how far you could go with a few more passes.

And mouse painted [:O] good god... full marks!!

What really stands out in this piece is the lighting of the model(image). It looks very solid .
All in all very good but the cheekbones are very harsh, especially the one thats on the right. There is a really hard shadow that is quite distracting.

man that lighting is awesome! i really like this guy. the skin colours are awesome. but like the comments above i think you could really make this guy look amazing with a few more detail passes on him.

agreed, very awsome :)

I've done some more revising on him. There are quite a few subtle changes including warming the cool tones and some plastic surgery on the cheek bones. I am thinking of doing some more detail and adding a background too, so further crits won't fall on deaf ears.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/258_avatar-wizard_2L.jpg[/img]

Heaps cooler :D

The only thing is now his gown is starting to look a little simplistic. Just the creases under his arm.

I love that metal medalion on the gown. It is really nicely done. You can tell that you hve heaps of experience with non-organics :)

Nice.....the different styles of painting do start to come out now as Aven points out about the cloak...the broach looks a too well done...

i usually follow the art teachers advice in the simpsons', either that or i'm usually to lazy to finish it :P

btw: i checked out your site, nice concept/illustrations i like the free style and shadow work

At this stage my eyes go straight to the broach heh, i Love the sharpness of it, id suggest either toning that down, or sharpening up the rest like Aven mentioned some material detail etc!

But i have to agree, the lightin in this piece is really well done methinks, also the mood, I love the expression on the old guys face, fits perfectly with a chaotic wizard. Shifty, looks as though he could burst into a rage of casting at the snap of a finger, if he felt the need to.

annoyingly the broach only took 15-20min! so it's not like i went out of my way to make it look so smooth and shiney. It does stand out though...I am looking at detailing the cloak more (maybe experimenting with photo texture on it) and adding some sort of background other than the mysterious fog. Once these elements are added I will revisit the broach and do it in a more 'painterly' technique if needed.

Btw unrelated to topic - but your avatar JohnN is hilarious! every single time I look at it, I laugh as if it were the first time I'd ever seen it.

Hah, good to see some new activites. ARe you planning anything for the texturing activity?

Yup, probably, I may dig up one of my old low poly models for people to do.. As I recall, some had some awful UV jobs though hehe :)

Hey, ive been away for a little while (6 months)- Umm... can someone fill me in I'd like to take part in these activities- when do we start- when is it due in by?? Do we post here????

Tomcat - hey man, nope, theres no timelimit, though you probably don't want to spend more than 4 - 5 days on it :)

Just post a new thread using the guidelines posted above, and get cracking!

Yes! Pick a RPG class and paint a avatar/portriat of that character. Good idea!

Was this suppose to be in the Quick Activities section?

Yes it was lol!

Anyways, im starting my portrait tonight.

Name: Q'tarn Valenost
Race: Elf
Class: Ranger/Theif

I look forward to seeing (and joining) progress. You are going to post wips for it, yes? each person could start a 'RPG-avatar:name,race,class' thread and post 3ish wips and a final. Maybe aiming to spend less than 5ish hrs total, to keep it in the spirit of 'quick activities'.

so just to clarify a few things

when u say avatar you mean the actual full character design as apposed to like a bust shot of the character? and is this limited to medievil-fantasy?

Well mines just going to be a Bust shot pretty much, like 80 odd percent of the ones you see for player avatars in Baldurs Gate / Neverwinter Nights.

Yip ill be posting wips. And no i dont see why it has to be restricted to any theme. [:D]

Hey HazarD,

What was the size that the Neverwinter Avatars?
I think you should set a size first off for this thing if it be your own choice of size or the Neverwinter Size.

It's just a fun challenge. Nothing serious. There aren't any rules. It is just to see how good a portrait painter you can be in a small amount of time. I don't think that the res really matters. If you do want to make it more useable for NWN, then read this

http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/neverwinter_nights_custom_p…

Ive been tied down, but promise to have my rough concepts real soon [:)]

USF: What Aven said [:P] [:)]

So is this avatar meant to be based on our actual lovely selves or what? [:P]
Any size?

Malus: can be anything you want really and any size too [:P], i just thought id put a post up about what i was up to in spare time, and anyone could join in if they felt the need to paint some portraits etc.

Im spending a bit of time on the portrait, its a really weak area of mine and I'd like to improove on it [:)] so comments and crits are definately welcome.

Just a note, those who take part in this activity, please post your work, updates, and comments in this thread only so we don't have a tonne of threads in the Sumea draw club section (since there are other things happening in here too). Tonnes of threads work in Quick Activities and Modeller Challenge sections because they have their own dedicated section.
Anyway, I'd love to take part but I wanna see someone do one first. [:)]

Good point Souri. How about we all post in 'Quick Activities'. then each person can start a thread: "Activity #2 - Avatar 'yourName'"

.... I think that is what i will intend to do :p

aven: dead link

Well ive had a spare hour to splash some ink around.

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/219_qtarn.jpg[/img]

This is my first concept / portrait for the guy, will probably play with a couple of others before finalising and colouring one etc.

Not all that happy with how he turned out, eyes too high on head as well as quite a few other niggly bits.

Hopefully iron these out, with the next couple of revisions.

Edit: Going to keep with the basic outline, but make small changes to facial features, more gaunt, shifty looking, maybe a devious smirk on his face instead of a bog standard emotionless stare [:0] with the next revisions.

Hazard (and others), I've started this activity in the other section, are we movin' over or should I bin the old post and repost here?

I've just noticed that S.Bob has started an Activity#2 in the 'Quick Activities' Section so I have re-adjusted to make the avatar project Activity#3

Hazard - That's pretty good for a quick go. The space between his eyes and nose looks a little long though.

MoonUnit - Sorry 'bout that. For those who want the Portrait Guide for NWN, here is the FAQ page:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/27528.html
Go down to In Depth FAQs and select the Portrait one. Should that link not work, go to www.gamefaqs.com and go to the game page and do it that way :)

JohnN - good thinking maestro! Ill re-post in the quick activities section [:)]

Aven - Yeah i know [:(] saw that after it was a bit late, it was worse but i covered it up a bit [:P] once that ink is on... its ON!

Hey guys, great idea here HazarD, I went ahead and 'created' a new challenge on the activity board.. I don't have mod access to this board, so was unable to move the entire thread.

Changed the naming convention a bit too, hope it doesn't inconvenience anyone.

im interested in doing some character pics guys, i will post some junk up soon.

http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1362

blame the slow buggers who havent spent 15mins making their plot....

I wanted to join in, but I see that all the plots are taken,

Also, The 'speed painting' and other such looks fun as well.

Yeh Draw Club is still active - we're just waiting on the Sumea Pixel Town activity to be finished before jumping on to the next one.

perhaps poking people to finish their plots, by naming them on the front news page would help [:)]

/me seconds Joel's motion :)

I have Gazunta's piece.. Will put it up once my computer stops being stupid.

And yeh, I'll put that list on the front page in a couple of weeks.. so there you go! You have 2 weeks left to do your plot!

gosh 2 months to do a modelling competition - containing 4 models. and 2 weeks to do a small piece of pixel art - souri.. your toooo generous [:P]

Yeah, I missed out on the last competition, when is the next one coming? [?]

Why wait? Why cant you run multiple competitions?? Can I start one? If so heres a pic, let it be the inspiration for a competetion

BANE STARS COMPETITION:
[img]www.users.senet.com.au/~bannistr/art/contest.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.users.senet.com.au/~bannistr/art/contest.jpg[/img]

[:O]

AARG burn that evil telecanetic monkey! with a harry potter hat, tsk tsk tsk these are dark times, my friend.

MONKEYS!!!!!!!!! I'm in!
[img]http://home.austarnet.com.au/esjakku/link%20art/telekmonkey.jpg[/img]
[:D]

[:O] so this is where all your "im busy!" time goes eh! drawing magical monkeys!! ive got my one big fat glass eye on you son! [:P]

they have control of me!! DAMN YOU MAGICAL MONKEYS! LET ME LIVE, OH WHY WONT YOU LET ME LIVE!!![:D]

well, you win.. there isn;t enough ' interest ' in this or anything really...

such a pity.. a regular once a week 'draw off' would be a great thing

End of May? I should be able to pull something together in a month.

Stu

Cool! anyone else? or is it going to be just me and Stu?

i'll see about joining in.. applying some smackdown etc. ;)

I have photoshop working now.. finally.

lol team battles, id have never thought of that one. I might be in on it, i only fear my skills looking somewhat.... sub par compared to you lot. Still no shame in the game and ive just finished watching enemy at the gates and i feeled a bit inspired :P .

i take it were talking more of a "promotional" peice then concept (ie cinematic over explanitory).

btw bob what did it take to get PS working

took a full format... the shitty thing is that i lost the password to my email, and my isp is being really bastardly getting it back to me.

I think I'll have time to join in this one if thats okay

Ok since this 'mini concept challenge' Isnt being judged formally, and is purely meant to be a fun exercise and maybe even an opportunity to create a folio peice. I am suggesting that we just post our work in this thread, so that anyone who is stopping by can see what we are doing.

Cheers!

just remembered about this one, might not be able to make it with exams and all around now

are people still doing this? I'll join in [:)]

USF waves as May goes by..

lol like i said above i couldnt do it, but i might get time in the upcoming holidays :D

The fanboy union watches with interest ;)

good luck to both of you

should be fun [:)]

I'll use my study time and bang it out tonight I think, give me the opportunity to learn something new [:)]

ohh the clash of the Titans. I will have to go for both of you. It's a great subject as well, MECH IS KOOL

wooo nelly, this is gonna be sweet!! Love the cyberpunkish theme too!! I am definitely tuning in for this outcome! oh, and I am currently unemployed as a fanboy so Doord if you win 2 in a row I'll offer my services!! Motto for success: Latch on to the winner!![:D]

Well if I can find time I will not disappoint you matias.

Joel will be the new Campion!!

as for the champion... well I guess the voting'll decide that..

/lame post

oh... whoops.. [:I]

Good luck to ye both.

Matt, don't make us chain you up and put a ball gag in your mouth... again.

ooohooohoo... yeth pleathh!!

im sensing a creepy bondage scene that could move out of the public eye if thats ok....

oh and btw, what the hell am i supposed to do with my sorc bob fan kit now!!! *joins hazard in pointless bob cheering*

haha fear not lads, there will be chance for more fanboy praise in my direction soon.

You're all sad pathetic ego strokers

*gets out pom poms and merchandising*

bob bob, he's our man...

Yeah, none of you have anything on joel!!

He has merchandising!!

*hoooooooot* blows air-horn

go sorceror bob, your winning!

Now would you look at that.. 11:35 on the 20th of April... So where are these pictures...Hmm.. At lest Bob was on time (and he had problems)GO BOB! :D

yup.. i win by default

hehe, posting tonight -- at work atm

quote:Originally posted by J.I. Styles

hehe, posting tonight -- at work atm

Well I don't have time to do it (E3 demo right now at work) sorry I have the character concept but no time to colour and light the rest of him.

Excuses, excuses.... *shakes head* Bad sportsmanship.

.

well it's all kinda screwed around, but that's fine -- time was a problem for both of us, so I respect that; I wouldn't of been able to produce much either if it wasn't for doing it within my study time.

Here's what I did -- didn't finish, didn't really wanna [:)]

full shot (25%):
[img]http://server6.uploadit.org/files/jistyles-challenge_full.jpg[/img]

detail shot (50%):
[img]http://server6.uploadit.org/files/jistyles-challenge_detail.jpg[/img]

Wow. That is really something. Excellent work JI.

25% geez louize, JI you set some really high standaards for yourself :)

*votes 1 for joel*

Brendans full stop just doesn't compare sorry :D

*votes 1 for joel*

Nice use of colour and it has a nice painted feel.

Nice work man, very nice, does have the brom touch which works well with dark cyberstuff. I like the idea of the harsh cyber-gear, very painful but then you can have an implant to turn off that pain can't you![:p] If I had do nit-pick I would say the ring thing on her thigh could use a shadow cos at the moment it looks to be floating. I'll hold off a day or two to see if doord can squeeze more hours out of his day, before giving a final verdict. Unfortunantly I think JI has to be crowned because the competition does work on a time limit. I still wouldn't mind seeing your base concept Doord! Please![:)]

HOLY CARP!!! That's very nice, Joel [:)]

Joel - you are heading on a one way road to brom status man. nuff said.

Very nice joel, you would have won anyway. Perspective on the left arm is a little off.

http://img30.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/amazon_2.jpg

Heya Chris, good to see you posting - apologies I never got back to your email before, first it was work to do then it was easter! Not that I'll complain about holidays however [;)]

Although a bit rough like you say, it conveys your idea well - I'm kinda getting a bikini/african tribal/female predator vibe from it [:)] I think it works, and conveys personality in the character.
For some reason my eye kept wandering to the little hip belt, expecting there to be a short little crude ceromonial dagger type of thing.
Obligatory crit:
combination of the background and her skin tones makes the majority of the image a very cool temperature, and her clothes being a warm reddy temp, it sticks out a lot and throws the balance of the image off - having either cooler bases for the reds, or pushing in warmer tones for the upper ranges of the skin would help a lot here, and bring that balance back.

nice one mr. styles :)

happy easter ;-)

I hear what you're saying about the color balance - I am trying a lot of new things with me sketches lately - I used to only ever really produce b+w linework and occasional forays into the world of colour and in a way I am waay behind where i should be in terms of colour theory! Still it's the crits of others which have formed the way I've learned everything so far so cheers! :)

I've just been digging around the web quite a bit about chroma key values and stuff and its only just starting to make sense - if you have any good links or suggested books to read or whatever that would be ace :D

I reckon the reason the eye goes straight for the belt is the influenced by the pose - both hands go there and it is a dark value in my sketch, i had planned a sword (theres a baldrick there ready) but then I kind of thought she was a bit too primitive to be using a fine sword and I changed me mind :D

I might do another pass on it soon as I get the time :)

quick tweaky
http://img30.photobucket.com/albums/v90/chrissdawaller/amazon_3.jpg

knocked down the linework too as it was a bit too punchy for my liking - funny how things look pretty different the 2nd time around! :D

I reckon I should be doing a 2nd pass on all of my quick sketches now, as im sure if nothing else i'll better spot where i'm going wrong :)

cheers!

Hey, great to see another guy participating!

Your line work really suits the gritty style of your character. (Considering you've spent a half hour is amazing).

Stylistically I don't have any complaints. I like the clean shaven but dreadlocky style hair do, with the primitive tribal look.

I think if I were to criticise , it would be in the anatomy in her legs. I think the knee of her left leg is too low and the calf muscle from that point is slightly puffing out too much. I can't put my finger on it, but it does seem as if the left leg is collapsing even though the weight is on her right.

Anyway great work , and I hope to see much more of your stuff!

she has got a fat malformed left leg hasnt she - i'll have a look at that when i do a 2nd pass :D

cheers for the positive resonse guys

Fat malformed?

Why is it that when we see a creature or an alien, we dont see any 'flaws' but when its a human it has to be perfect, unless its exaggerated malformity...

I think she looks fine as she is, As I see it, this swamp dwelling human, has had a difficult, but not hard life, as her skin is unblemished by damage, has had to maintain strength, and eats less than she should. If this is what your trying to portray or close, then your doing a great job.

What I meant was that her legs don't match in terms of their relative girth. ;-)

I'm a fat git myself so please don't think I'm against pies in ladies legs. :D

thx for the feedback tho - :)

sounds like a duel...cut sick, ill cast a vote!

good luck ladies.

high noon, draw paternah!

oooh that was bad I know but hey someone had to say it right?[:p]

my moneys on doord :P

w0000t! I'll vote, because i also have no life...... oh well!

Bob your up against it - if you can top doord, i bow down :D

ahhh man :) i had an entire scene thought out for mine

where are my fanboys/girls by the way!?!?

Fight, Fight, Fight.

Oh and HazarD, I did see your typo :)

Pantmonger

OMG!! i hax'ed brendans computer and found his early wip
[img]http://www.boomspeed.com/sorcerorbob/doordentry.jpg[/img]
I forfeit!!

*edit*
are those banana boots!!!

by the way, the sledging has begun!!!

DAmN! sorry pants!!

Bob i reckon yours will be sick as well .. without a charcater design for the both of you to stick to - i reckon it will make the judging even harder....

Go Bob, yay!

I have no idea who Bob is.

oohh.. Brendan drew little wings on himself [;)]

*fwaps pete*

they're boobs!!

i.. er.. mean.. they are.. wings.. yeah..

hahaha, I thought they were tits as well! Thats why I was pissing myself, drag in bannana boots!
aaah sledging, proud australian tradition, oh man I am tuning in for this!

yup, I'm at least going to take the sledging crown

I'll just stick around for the sledging.. I just fell the sledging will mostly be from Matt. Maybe Doord can hire me get SocBob back [:D]

i guess there will be some drawing in there somewhere....

I sure hope so.. will there be WIP's? or just a finshed picture at the end?

its a possibility guys!

Well get the jump on him by posting a WIP first bob, create that WOW factor!! [:P] DOH

looks like doord beat you to it.

Comments crits : nice work on the feet man, tits need a bit of work, can really see the steed coming out in that concept. big knockers and big banana boots, cept its male......

woooo! go sorcorer Bob, YOUR ALREADY WINNING just by entering! wooo! :D

Well thanks to everyone for the nice words on the WIP. I wasn't big on the banana feet but they seen to be a hit. What do you all think of the transsexual look I'm going for.

But Matt shame on you, hacking my computer. Must have taken a long time to do considering that I have no net connection (did you hack along the power line amazing.) BUT!! I think your time would have been better spend do odd jobs for little old ladies. So that you could pay someone to do this duel for you.

Rule changes above.

I would not like to show WIP so that the full impact of the works can be felt. I will to save of my work every 20 mins and the post WIP images at the end. And Maybe you would like to do the same Matt.

What do you think??

pay someone to do his work for him?! that's horrible nasty slander that is!

*hides the bag marked with a huge $ sign behind his back*

shut up styles u homo................*shakes head in confusion*
sorry styles, i just got caught in the moment of sledging. This is going to be a very funny thread, i can tell.

aargh, sledging backlash! I sortof agree with doord tho, WIP's would be cool but you loose the whole 'grand unveiling' effect which can be powerful, like if you have a super striking character, with awesome colour an presence seeing him slowly come together, while cool, loses his impact...
I think thats what doord was getting at, of course I could have been reading a completely different thread to everyone else[:p]

Just a note, just let SocBob and Doord do the sledging, last thing we need is an all out Sledge fight in there forum.

awwwwwwwww spolit all the fun USF [:(]

That turned out great :)

face = tri

Thanks J.I.

nice work, very well done for ur first in 6 :)

nice. even tho i don't model, nice.

Plot 9 for me please. are animated gifs a goer, or static images only?
-----
well here it is, took much longer than I thought it would! Looks like me and Souri are living in the swanky part of town. Lets hope that Inglis and Smeg arn't planning highrise apartments. Might damage our property value [;)]

[img]http://home.iprimus.com.au/johnnewall/extras/SumeaTown-johnn.gif[/img]

I guess animated gifs are ok, but only 2 frames! Too many submissions with lots of frames would clog loading times up a bit I reckons.

Inglis has a very good point. Lines would make it a little easier to understand the plot areas.

If you don't mind, I would like plot number 21.

Are images allowed to be anti-aliased (Sim City style), or do they have to be all aliased?

YEAH!

Can i have number 3!

The outline for borders is at http://www.sumea.com.au/sumeatown/SumeaTownGuide.gif .. You can overlap adjacent roads btw..

I want plot 19 :)

*goes off and makes joel do something for her*

Block 33 be mine :)

I thought your house was a little crooked Souri :p

Hey Joel, don't do. Make Chezza do it herself :D :Laughs an evil laugh to himself:

quote:Originally posted by Aven

Hey Joel, don't do. Make Chezza do it herself :D :Laughs an evil laugh to himself:

He will..... I said he had to or else I wouldn't share the plot with him!

*Stalks Souri*

Souri, could you please make Plot 19 Jacana & J.I. Styles? We're sharing a plot [:)]

Yay I'm finished!! Plot #56... in the seedy part of town!

[img] http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/69_rezn0r56.jpg [/img]

Thats me out the back dressed as a pimp with all the girls from my sumeatown "BOOBS" club.

"Its all about da bling bling!"

Scott.

[Note to souri: I couldn't upload a gif file, so I saved this as a jpg for the forums and mailed you the gif. I also uploaded this man shaking his fist [:D]]

[img] http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/69_theman.jpg [/img]

for all you people who arent the worlds best pixel pushers (like me for example :P ) heres a handy dandy tutorial link for getting good pixal art from reference pictures:
http://www.alanhettinger.com/tutorials/pixel/pixel.pdf

as you can see its .pdf so you will need reader to view it.

and on another note i claim block >>34<< for my moon base :D :D

quote:Originally posted by Aven

I thought your house was a little crooked Souri :p

Yeh, it is (especially the pool). Only realised halfway making it [:D] will be fixing it shortly.

ahahah. Nice scott. =D

Reznor that kicks ass! :)
hahaha :D

I want Plot 50 please :)

ill go number 14 if its available!

this is kool!

yeah actually ive gotta say this is a awesome little task, im enjoying pixel pushing more then i though i would :P

*goes back to making moonbase for posi 34*

btw are we rulling out the gradient tool? (i know some people like being... traditional)

Why, plot 17 looks simply devine. Have the papers waiting on my desk Monday morning, if you will good chap @:-)

gees...my place is gonna be heaps dingy...please excuse my dingyness

what would be the best program/s to draw these in?

number 20 please :D

number 24 if you please.

I've updated the guide so there's no confusion as to who actually gets the red line area to draw on. [;)] That link doesn't seem to be working, Kane. You know you shouldn't have spaces in filenames, btw.. [;)]

Ahh, working now. Strange.

hey souri is that gonna be OK to stick in the town? can I change it later?

also, when I save it as a GIF, is quality just goes crap...

I got the bmp one you had earlier. [:)]

[img]http://www.boomspeed.com/sorcerorbob/sorcerorbob.gif[/img]
Lazy damn construction workers!!

could I possibly change my Plot Souri? I managed to come up with something better...

[img]http://home.graffiti.net/dinomedia:graffiti.net/plot.bmp[/img]

Behold the Church of Nintendo!

YOU'VE LOST THE PLOT!!!!

Hehe... plot.

Scott.

Wont you take me to?

(guitar riff)

A PIXEL TOWN!

I'll be reserving Plot number 31, please.

would i be able to have plot nb. 31 (wow, i was coherent for almost an entire post, need more bromide)

_edit, saw last post, argh, how about 32 (yes, i'm greedy, want one of the big ones)