EP

i remember seeing the link for this on dA before i went to work but when i got home i couldnt remember what it was i was looking for thanks for the link.

i think the main problem with the filter is that it looks much too pixelized, otherwise if you get it to look like its painted that would look really cool.

when shading, establish a single light source (in theory its easier then ambient lighting) objects facing that will be lighter then those turned away,objects with actual cornors will have crisper contrast, and objects that are rounded will have smoother transitions. Look around at different peoples sigs, in paticular in Media Market competitions that are for large amounts, usually you can see some nice shading in there to get a feel for how others pixel shade then keep doing it until you find a style that fits.

dont make it alot lighter, just the heart in the middle needs some brightening, the two dark ends are too extreme.

As my understanding is with graphics gale there are layers similar to photoshop, a more accessable and easier to use color table then paint, there is the spline line tool which is alot easier to draw a proper pixel curve and it has a free version you can use. Personnally i use paint since i like the ability to right click to place the background color and i haven't tried Graphics Gale very much.

Added another Island avatar. Kind of dissapointed that i cant call the first one Exile Island in refrence to my name (EP/ExilePhoenix) without thinking of the new Survivor series...ruined a perfectly good name for me. Well I do appreciate the positive remarks, I really do need some pointers on improving the water, the first (island) one turned out rather well with the water but the second doesn't seem to work as well.

looking pretty good, the one thing i notice that looks like it doesnt belong is the hat, theres something about it, im not sure if its the way the light comes off it (with the huge highlight only, since the fasce looks like it has a side light too) or the way it looks textured but it doesnt really seem to fit right.

EDIT: Another Island one, done using the same methods as the last one, the 3 main islands turned out well but the water and right bottom 2 islands dont seem to fit together as well as the earlier island. I got rid of a water variation in the middle because it didnt look like it belonged but it looks too empty there now. Maybe i will add a boat or something. Island: -if anyone has a good way to do water it would be greatly appreciated, in addition if anyone knows a good way to make a smooth dither it would be greatly appreciated before i expand upon the island i made. -done for some perspective practice creating persepective from cartesian plane Pipes: -based off something i drew on my calculator during class, bit of shading practice CC if you would please. Island: -6 colors for water -3 colors for foam -5 colors for trees -1 color for beaches -1 color for grassland -about 6 colors for all rocks -3 colors for brown border -Total=too many colors for the size (~25) Pipes: -1 color for red pipe -1 color for blue pipe -1 color for black pipe & gear -1 color for white background

First just as a quick aside I appologize about people such as paw_claw, Lowgravity, lemonfish, fanimaly etc that claimed you ripped without proof, and continued until a respected (and distinquished) member (MxM) said you didnt, once that occured they now appear to be on your side and apologetic. People like that are the main reason that i left RSC and came here. Now on to the sigs. I'm going to suggest that you continue drawing characters and backgrounds for yourself, and not just adding animation since, while animation is a nice talent to have, without developing your own (other) artistic skills it takes alot longer to get to the point where you can add animation to something and make it fit appropriately. When animating something you want to make it appropriate for that piece. The 4 123keon123 sigs are a good example of where you didnt really do this. The swirling, to fit better, would need to be done on just the background, not the entire sig (the character and text) and possibly slower. The other 3, which use blurs and fades to create a transition would be better suited to actually having something in them change, either text (for all 3) or the character/backgroud for the motion-blur/shift. While working with characters try as many different styles as you like, since you never know when one will click, but keeping a common theme is often a good way to improve on certain elements. For example faces, in all the sigs that you made the people for 2 of the 4 display emotion through the face (and body language), the other two look like you focused on creating a portion of the sig, such as an item, and the rest was more half-hearted. Best of luck on future works.

i believe he is saying to take the color of the background behind where the robe is, and turn down the Luminosity (abbrev. Lum in color editer) so that it looks like the background is showing through, giving the illusion of transparency

so can you actually show us what it looks like on a car or where ever it goes or do we have to use our imagination? may try something but would like to know what it looks like in the game.

wings beyond the right(left) arm need lots of work, unless the bone is sticking out at the bottom of the wings the wing's skin/hide should be sharper like there is an object impeding its deformation, which there is.

in addition if you actually want it to be a pixel sig then you have to draw things in the proper orientation, that pickaxe was drawn at a 90 degree angle and rotated in something like photoshop, you can always draw over it but if your going to do that you might as well do it right the first time, same concept for the moon/sun/circle in the sky, draw it yourself or use the circle tool with anti-aliasing turned off

I take back my comment about a sig full solution probably fitting no problem, 4 moves brings it to 2k, and having just written out a decent looking solution (from mixed start) it will take probably closer to 120 moves, or 60k, twice the limit, but im going to try it.

if i removed the transparency and the shadow i might be able to get a larger one to fit in to the limits, but that would probably be pushing it for an avatar, a sig on the other hand would prob fit no problem. removing transparency itself halfs the file size.

<== right there if you want an explanation its here post if you find any flaws with it and any ideas for another animation.

still need to fix the left (our right) arm, compared to the other arm it is much to short when in reality it is closer to us so should be larger. Also the muscle for the right bicep looks wierd (looks like he has two, one of which doesnt belong)

wings look pretty good, as long as they are colored right they should be fine but you have to be careful on making the holes look decent, particularly the ones with little flaps left. Not sure about the arms but the left (our right) arm looks a bit misshapen, could be because of pose but it still seems unnatural. The left leg also looks slightly out of place, twisted so that it starts further from the center of the body then it should, in comparison to where the front of the demon is based on the chest/belly.

i think it turned out ok except for the actual edges of the lamp on #1 (#2 has these blank) any ideas on how to make those edges better with just black and white would be appreciated, as well as more basic items that i could make like this for practice.

29th needs alot of work, everything is much to flat on the warrior in the foreground. Actually everything but the warrior in the foreground and the sky looks great (tree looks a little funny but still good). the pose the warrior is in also looks awkward, specifically the arms. Both arms appear to be a dead on view but the shield and sword make it look like they are angled back.

one quick question, what about sizing? if you look at the other city you have places like the bank, which seem to be on a smaller scale then other buildings, i.e. terley's skyscraper. (compare windows, etc)

Only things that really stand out as needing fixing before coloring is that the guy on the throne has a really big right (our left) arm, and the back of the mounted plaque appears angled up instead of down Like the teddy, wrapped sword (im assuming that is why it has all those dots on), and santa hat on the mounted head.

having established the alter idea, anyone else have some other ideas (got one of my own but don't think it will work either) or some corrections on the person?

I made a person but the original plan for him was to be stabbing a body with a sword but it didnt look that good so i gave him robes instead of the original armor that was going on and now i need a new idea on what type of background to incorporate him into, also i need some CC on the shading and what not. Thanks -EP

I think he was sarcastic because basically for short, you made a generic terregen piece, added a border, then degraded it fog looks too 2-d(also it should be placed near the islands or everywhere, not in the middle of an open body) sun should be removed(looks like the wrong place based on shadows the sun should be further to the left)