Artwork: Show Off

Hey!

This is the re-post of a topic we created a while ago, the purpose of which is for players to ask for crit and/or advice from moderators about their overlays. This can be what needs fixing in order for it to be accepted, what we'd recommend improving, etc.

In order to conserve serverspace and maintain quality, kitty has decided that we should tighten up on future submissions. Older submissions will not be removed even if they don't fit our newer criteria, but in order to help clarify our updated strictness, we've created this preliminary location for players to use :)

-Basically this just gives you a chance to find out if you're going to be accepted/rejected without having to submit the whole deal-

Please be aware that our replies will be made up of constructive criticism and advice on how to improve the overlay - it isn't to show off or gather compliments from players. Please also understand that what we say is not due to any personal issues, etc, and is purely professionally-related. Additionally, this is not mandatory for mods: We are volunteering out time to specifically spend on improving your artwork, so please be mindful in any and all frustration you might have ;3;

Multiple mods may comment on your overlay, or maybe just one. Either way, please don't disregard one's advice if somene else says something you prefer - each opinion is as valid as the others.

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So, how this will work:

Player Posts
Post a picture of your item on the dino it's supposed to be on.
include a title or brief description - just to let us know what it is in case we get confused XD

After you get a reply, feel free to respond and/or post again with an updated picture


Mod Crit Form
Necessary Changes: This section will mention changes that your overlay must make in order to be accepted. They give an idea of the hard criteria we want overlays to meet and details on the aspects we're strictest on can be found here

Recommended Changes: This section is more of a general critique. Listening to these will probably increase your chances of getting your overlay accepted, but they're more specifically targeted towards creating a stronger image than towards specifically getting the overlay to match EX standards.

(optional) Redline: Sometimes mods will be willing to spend a bit of extra time going over your picture to show you visually what can be improved/etc.

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Gobbles!
sorry for the delay once again! Let's get this crit rolling

First off, nice concept. I always love seeing armor on dinos <3

Necessary Changes
Hardening up the shading on this would definitely help pull it together. Armor does have some degree of that smokey burnished look to it, but it's also got some heavier sharper shadows that it picks up from lack of light. Consider, for instance, the armors on this page: link. The area's in direct light get bright, often sharp highlights, the areas in the falloff section have that burnished foggy grey feeling, and the areas in direct shadow get relatively hard darks.

Committing to a single lightsource might help you determine where to put darks, if you're stuck. For instance, putting the light in the front-top-left would let you know that there should be some harder shadows on the armor on the back of his head, since they're blocked from the light by his neck mass.

Recommended Changes
One thing I'd particularly love to see on this would be variation on linewidth. Making the lines thicker and thinner in an organic way tends to add a bit of life to pieces and helps them look less flat. You can see evidence of that in the EX dino you're working on, particularly at detailed points like folds and lines that don't connect with other lines. Tapering loose lines helps integrate them into the drawing without looking like the lines have simply been placed over the art.

Additionally, the thing I always recommend with armor is that you consider adding some non-grey colors to the mix. Once again, referencing the armor link I gave earlier, you can see that even the plainest grey armors pick up a bit of green in their midtones, a bit of yellow in their hightlights, and sometimes bits of red and blue in other confusing areas. Additional colors helps give the armor a bit of a worn and textured feel. Metal loves picking up colors from oils and reflections, so there's a lot of potential for interesting color playing.

Final comment, since I just thought of it, but it might look potentially cool if you added some straps/etc to show how the armor is held onto the dinosaur. Consider, for instance, the straps on horse armor for reference.

Anyway, would love to see how this goes :D always happy to watch overlays progress!

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lol sorry- i can never stick to just one thing-

yet another set of armor- i looked at the previous post i tried to pick up on what you were saying- i added plenty of straps - wasnt sure how to incorperate the other reflected colors you were talking about (sorry) - i tried highlighting and shadowing best i could- i tried the thinner/thicker line thing and the way i draw made it look off some how- i added two blocks of color on straps because it looked boring with just blackish grey all over the place- etc....

again sorry for having you typre so much lol

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hey, sorry about late reply! I was on vacation for a while. anyway, um!

looking much cooler :D the straps definitely add to the believability

Necessary changes: If you could just lighten it all up, that'd be nice. The red areas look fine, but the black areas are so dark you can't really see the shading, etc? other than that, it seems like it might be good to go <3!

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I have two ideas, and I did quick rough drafts because I need to go to bed and I didn't want to forget them. xD What I would like to know, is what do I need to do to make them sight-worthey?


One is a matrixey idea thing...



The other (bear with me, I'm half asleep) A falling apart world.


So, what do I need to do? <3

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I'm going to ask the mods on this one because I already have an overlay in limbo.

So what I am attempting is to give the Terror Birds feathered legs, like those feathered leg chickens.

I'm thinking of doing them in black, white(shown), blue and red.

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ack, sorry about delay in responding here! feel free to bump this thread a lot if I don't respond for a while XD

@nightly:

Love the matrix one, no necessary changes :D

Optional changes!
might be cool to see a tiny bit of hue variation in this? I'm not actually sure. but maybe a few really light colored blue/greens and then a few warmer bright yellow/greens? try it out and see what you think!

also might be neat to see just a few lines with thicker lines, to give it a bit more foreground/background play, but I'm not really sure how it'd look, so you might be able to judge better than I can :D

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the falling apart world is a really awesome concept, but it took me a bit to figure out what you meant <3

Necessary changes!
This might not be entirely necessary, but I'd love if the green and blue were more subdued? right now they look sort of similar to 00FF00 and 0000FF. Maybe try mixing some greens into the blue, to get it to look more ocean-y? and maybe mix in some yellows and browns into the green to get it more clearly earth-y?
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/photos/000/203/20320.jpg
http://www.sustainable-gardening.com/wp-content/uploads/MossFlickrIonushi.jpg

I'd suggest just googling "ocean" and "grass" or "moss" a bit to check out what tones they give you :D you'd be surprised how much color variation is in these things!

Optional changes!
I'd love to see a more organic looking space/background for this! it's not necessary, but the perfect lensflare circle at first confused me, since it feels almost machine-like?

some neat space paintings
http://the-orange-demon.tumblr.com/post/44679590280/digital-worlds-by-tyler-young-i-need-moar-space

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@CDQ

figured I'd keep these on separate posts, in case I need to link back to them later

Looks great! I love the concept <3 feathered bird legs are so cute

Necessary Changes!
I just see a few stray pixels around that need cleaning, and it seems like the female's back leg has gotten a little fuzzed up? possibly from the duplication process c: other than that, it seems good to go!

Optional changes!
I'd love to see a bit more angle and size variation on the feathers! since they're mostly sticking out at the same angle, it sort of gives the impression of firm-ness, like they're scales or something! Particularly that one long straight feather on the center of both their feets. I might also try to break up the long line down the back of their further away legs, since it adds to the feeling that the feathers are hard objects, rather than something textured on

Redline!

fullsize here

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Male redo ...

Does this look better? Should I try again? Should I go back?

I tried to follow the redline as much as I could. I also added (last minute) a broken feather on the back leg.

After my head stops pounding I'll edit the female.

Female Redo ...

Nothing fancy with this since I had to start from scratch. But I followed the redline direction as best I could. I'm having trouble seeing my "triangles" as soft fuzzy things.

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CDQ Please post those! :o :D that would look amazing on them!

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Just waiting on a mod (most likely Bob) to say this and that needs changing, that and that is something you may think about. Or "Great go add it".

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@CDQ yeah, looks great :D the feather's seem much softer now

I think you're at acceptable range now, so no necessary changes <3

if you want to fiddle a bit more, giving the lady some slightly harder shading might be nice, like on the male. EX tends to use cellshading, so similarly hard-edged shading meshes well with it. but as is, you can probably get away with it :)

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