Zanryu

Well, my parents being so nervous about this sorta thing, I'd never convince them. Also, me being 15, I would have to be in a hotel with them. AND, we went to Florida last Summer, so we're not gonna be going again... this Summer we're going to Tennessee. If I were 18, had money and had a way to get down there, I'd sure as hell go. Oh, also, in b4 "OSHIT IT'S ZAN"

... Doesn't look like Ike? Hrmm...

Yes, it sucks, but it's Gears of War.

Entry #1: I already told you what was up, but you fixed a fair bit of it. As it stands, I only see a couple shading errors and that problem with the collar. 7.5/10 Entry #2: Nothing's changed. 3/10 Entry #3: Too many colours, mixed outlines, I think you used custom colours too, and they don't look like they fit the rules if you did. Neat design though. 5.5/10 Entry #4: Love the design, and I can't find TOO many faults. One thing, however: the shoulder plate's separation doesn't look good, there needs to be a darker shade of gray to make it look good. The back of the hair looks too flat and shaded oddly, but the rest is pretty nice. 8.5/10 Entry #5: Alright... the neck is too long, for starters, that's what sticks out the most. Then there's the fact the colours aren't too pretty, the neck shading is pretty bad, and the hair that goes down his neck is farther into the neck than it should be. 5/10 Entry #6: Too many colours, mixing game colours. That's what I see right away. Then I also see the cape's shading... now, capes are my weak point usually, but that shading just looks bad. Not trying to be too harsh or anything, but straight lines don't work for capes. especially if they're that thick. I also noticed that the chin covers a bit of the collar, which is a no-no. One last thing: the shoulder plates. They just look off... like you stretched the nearer one and shrunk the other side's. But you didn't even alter the shading, so they look really poorly done. 4/10 Entry #7: I can honestly say I quite enjoy this design. It's simple and uniform, but looks nice. If you were to touch this up, I can't say I'd dislike the mug. One thing that REALLY bothers me is the shading above his right eye. It's not shaded right, and needs to be darker. Also, the neck doesn't meet with the collar in the right spot and is too straight, and rather poorly shaded. I also noticed you took out the darkest skin tone... that didn't work out too well. Aside from that, just fix up the shading immediately under the headband and just under the cape, on the shoulder plate. This one was a VERY tough call... I had a hell of a hard time choosing between the seventh and fourth entries, but here it is... 8/10 - There's one last thing I noticed when comparing the two entries... on this entry, the cape is too flat at the end, it's unnatural. That's the ONE thing that forced me to choose entry number four over this. All in all it was a nice effort, hope to see even better turn outs next round.

Okay, first thing's first: JPG'd. That's the number one WORST mistake a spriter can make, it makes the quality HORRIBLE and almost impossible to judge, but I'll manage. Zooming in it doesn't look like you even used the outline colour on anything but the face. The lower part of the shoulder plate is a rush job and looks like it lacks shading under the trim of the upper piece. It also looks like you used pure white on the hair, but it may also be really bright yellow... I'd suggest using official colours for spriting until you've got all the rules of the style down, otherwise the custom colours won't work and it'll look poorly done. So yeah; needs better colours, needs an outline colour, needs shading touch ups pretty much everywhere, needs normal quality. Aside from that I can't say much until I see a version with good quality. EDIT: Yogurt, your mug is decent, but it's not spectacular. I'd say it's the second best so far. The stuff is spliced on decently enough, but there's one thing that REALLY irks me: the neck has been cut off a tad, and you can still see part of Raven's neck along the collar. On top of that, the way the collar cuts off doesn't look natural in the least. The ponytail... at the angle it's on, it shouldn't be going over the shoulder, it should be going behind it. As it stands now, his ponytail would have to be curved to end up there on his shoulder. However, it's straighter than it is curved, so it shouldn't be placed as it is. Another thing is the colour choice. I noticed you used a lot of FE8 colours, but I also noticed you used the FE7 outline and mixed shades from games. That's one of the worst things you can do in this style; although the styles are so similar, the colour depth is VASTLY different. FE6 and FE7 had more vibrant colours, whereas FE8 has darker, duller tones that look more realistic than FE6/7's did. Using FE8 colours with an FE7 outline is a VERY bad move, given that the darker shades tend to be darker than the outline. I'd suggest you either use all FE6/7 or all FE8 colours for best results. Aside from that, it's decent enough. Good job. EDIT: AoD, your mug is the best quality of the three in the topic, but it's not without faults. Most glaring fault is Raven's head on Roy's body. Raven's head doesn't fit well with Roy's body AT ALL, so shrinking the head or enlarging the body would be the best bet. I also noticed you used the FE8 outline, which is good... but in that case, you should use ALL FE8 colours, as opposed to mixing and matching. Colm's shoulder plate was worked in nicely, but the part beside it, under the cape, is VERY bare and VERY bland. Try covering it up a bit with some design or something of the sort. Maybe extend the shoulder plate as if it were a metal arm? Or just an entire arm of armour? Something like that would be interesting. Another thing: the cape's colours don't fit too well together. The colour scheme is a nice choice, but the shades themselves weren't such a good choice. Final point is that the chin looks like it's scooted to the side a tad, fiddle with the darker shades around there to try and fix it, you'll probably get it eventually. EDIT: Oh, I'd also like to mention that both Yogurt and AoD went over the 16 colour limit. Yogurt's sprite has two different sets of skin shades, three different sets of blues, etc. AoD has three shades of one skin tone and an entire set of skin shades of another tone. That pushed his sprite just over the limit.

If you're the best, people WILL like your work at some point. If you're the best, you end up going above and beyond what most other spriters do, and you end up making phenomenal stuff that, even though some dislike the design of it, people will adore it, and respect the work you've done due to the sheer quality of the work. I mean, there's this guy on deviantArt. He goes by the name of "fool" there. He made an isometric (diagonal view to make the object look 3D) castle in somethinglike 32 colours. Now... this castle was MASSIVE, and the water was all over, and fairly deep. With those 32 colours, he turned the castle into an absolute MASTERPIECE. Did I like the layout of the castle? Not really, no. But if it's good, it's good. I won't go and say something else is better because I prefer it, I'll merely say 'I prefer this piece over fool's castle because...'. Nothing I've seen so far has topped fool's castle, and I'll admit that. Why? Because no one has matched his technical skill with sprite work; the shading was incredible, the shaping was great, placement looked good and flowed naturally, and the other little details... they were spectacular, even the water was phenomenal. And quality isn't opinionated, it's either it's good quality or it isn't. You can't say that "IMO, this has better quality". Because that's probably not true. To have good quality, it has to fit the criteria of something with good quality, opinion is bull shit. If it was based off of what you liked best, then yeah, fine go ahead and say it, but it isn't, last I checked. Now, I'm off to school before I miss my bus again. >_>

Most people actually won;t notice those things. And if they do, they're clueless as to how it can be fixed. If you know the ins and outs of this stuff, you can be constructive and give tips. And if this isn't based on skill, this'll end up being a popularity contest or filled with bias. People will see purple armour and be like, "OMG PURPLE ARMOUR". Or pink hair and be all, "OMG PINK HAIR." The point of this contest is to have someone make their works as good as they can, and have the better works come out on top each round. You aren't the best because people like your stuff better, you're the best if you've mastered the style's limits and whatnot. A guy can make a bad ass design for a character, but the sprite is poorly done, whereas someone cna make a hideous design, but make a PERFECT sprite. The person with the less appeal in the design SHOULD win, because the sprite's quality is better. If these were based off of opinion, then no one would be good or bad. Sorry hon, but there are good spriters and bad spriters. Ignoring that and voting off of opinion and bias doesn't work if you want to see who's better, it only shows who or what PREFERRED. Preferred =/= Skilled. EDIT: Look at these: Now, the first sprite has a boring, design. I can't say the design is attractive. However, it's got AMAZING quality. The second sprite has a cooler design (unoriginal, but coolor and more attractive). BUT, the quality is terrible. If you vote for the better design, then the better spriter loses because of a vote that was formed off of irrelevence.

That's one note. People can spot if something is a little off here and there, but only someone with a lot of technical skill can point out all the faults, or almost all the faults. Say like, my ex girlfriend were a judge in this topic. She'd think all of theme were pretty good probably, and she'd maybe notice a flaw here or there (a proportional flaw, most likely). On the other hand, I'll notice shading errors, proportional issues, shaping problems, colour errors, placement faults, and more. That's why it's best to take someone who knows the style and other spriting techniques as a judge, the'll be more accurate.

You mean entries? If you do, if a judge signs up and votes with bias, they shouldn't be a judge. One last thing; I think the judges who are spriters should post what they think of every piece publicly so the entrants can improve. The other judges wouldn't exactly have very constructive criticism, considering they don't know the style or terms for spriting that well, so they wouldn't have to post publicly, but yeah. Spriting judges should give public C&C IMO.

I'd say two, because again, odd numbers don't allow ties. EDIT: Fox, it sounds good in your opinion in that case. But to actually judge something as 'good', you have to look at the technical aspects of the piece to see how well it was done and whatnot, and you can actually tell if it's good.

Odd numbers are best, no way to tie that way. I also edited my post, btw.

Damn, got here too late to be a judge... ah well, I'll just watch then. EDIT: Also, Doom's right. It should be judged at a professional standpoint, voting for the BEST mug, not which you like best. I mean, it's not fair if one person makes a fucking h4x mug, but everyone prefers the overall design of another, so the one who did a better job loses. =/

I'm gonna have to say I prefer her with short hair. For some reason I just don't think the long hair suited her, at least not with that style. Shorter looks... I dunno, I just like it. =/

Her eyes are gorgeous, what are you smoking? And the hair could be straighter, yeah, but if it was to be exactly like Tifa's it'd have to be past her ass and tied at the end. =/

What, you can't tell that it's Tifa? Shame on you all, shame on you.

='D

Huh, people still remember me? Sweet.

HERE'S some good fuckin' cosplay. I leave you to fap now.

I have the newest FF, actually. It works at my friend's house and at school, it's just a problem with my computer not liking Firefox I think. And I'm not a fan of putting quotes in sigs. I did it once for a Twilight Princess signature with Link, it looked pretty good. I quoted the chorus of Metallica's Enter Sandman, specifically the "Exit light, enter night." part. I thought it fit well with Twilight Princess's theme. Too b ad I lost that sig ages ago...

Firefox refuses to sign me in to Serenes Forest, and I hate to use Internet Explorer, so I just left. FF hasn't fixed itself yet, so I'll just sign in from time to time to check out my topics and other minor things that are goin' down. Anyway, comments plz. D:

Well, I've made no progress on Tylor's portrait as of yet, I can't shade the face right. So I'm gonna work on my shading and all that good stuff. Someone I met the other day requested a Zero Suit Samus sprite. Safe to say that I'm gonna deliver. B) And here's a sig I made too... Yeah. I dunno if I'll be coming back, FF is still being a bitch and I hate IE. D:

Still can't sign on with FF at home so I'm using IE atm, but just because I HAVE to post this. Something I'm working on. Hardcore WIP, gonna fix it up as I shade. Made in memory of my friend Tylor, who died on July 30th this year. I'll miss him... and I'll never forget him. <3 you Tylor. I'll be reading your comments as a guest on FF and commenting every chance I get at school, unless I REALLY have to say something in which case I'll use IE at home. But I want this to be my best piece to date, it's the very least I can do for Tylor. Nothing I do will be enough, but this is a start on trying to do ALMOST enough. So yeah, be as harsh as possible, please.

I'm at school right now, only reason I'm on. =X So, like, I can login using IE at home, but with Firefox it says I've successfully logged in, but I'm still a guest. Shows me on the memebr list as online, but I'm not. Is it just an error with FF, or is it an error with SF related to compatability with FF? It's really pissing me off, because I hate using IE, and FF finally works on my computer back home.

I'm only gonna comment on these, because you don't seem to grasp when Swordsalmon has even shoved his own points into the ground by stating Oscar beats Titania in at least one thing. Titania can't be the best if she's not winning in everything now can she? First quote: No, the experience gain is the same. A level 15 Oscar gains the same experience against certain level enemies as another level 15 Oscar against the same enemies. The value will never change until the level difference changes. What I'm saying is, if used right, Oscar will promote earlier than SS has stated because if you DO use Oscar right, the experience gain will be 90% the same. Second quote: In this case it does. If I can have Oscar promoted on these chapters while using other characters, then it can be done easily. If it can be done easily, then it means something now doesn't it?

Well, I know who I'm rooting for when I start watching Gabon. XD I think the noob Smash fans who think Marth is a chick (I still wanna kill them) will shit bricks. The others? Not too sure...