Lenh

Sprites with love are da best sprites. Cool stuff!

I am in support for nomination with random final selection. I feel like there's too much opportunity for favoritism unless you incorporate some random element into the process. So imo: take nominations, from the nominations randomly select one and go from there. Voting for (in no particular order, for no particular reason (maybe just as an example)): Ana, Aeo, Merc, Mewiyev, Vagrant, Serif, Char, Ghast, MarioKirby, GabrielKnight, Nickt, Levi64, singularity, deranger, Lt. Smirks, shinypichu, Skitty, Pi, Dei, Agro, Ragnarok, Yeti, AthenaWyrm. [Edit: Prime and Bly as well, since mapping is in this section.]

Pretty good for blindly animating them (they read and go up and down). They're missing some realistic aspects, e.g. mouth doesn't draw in when open, and the eyelids are squinty magic-eyelids on the last two, Ike has some upper-lip lift (snarl level) going. Think it's very much just a thing you have to compare them on top of each other for.

My bad, I was thinking of Serif.

that's happened a lot lately :/ Rephrased: In Merc's secret paint file mentioned in the quote, does he have everyone else's self-mugs or is Aeo's the only one? I'm just curious to see everyone all together.

Is Suiloir and BwdYeti and Ghast in there too?! Enquiring minds want to know!

Definitely if someone's interested in doing an SFSS, go for it! ^^; (I hosted a Creative Section Secret Santa for 2014. It was pretty straightforward, but did have some delays and some missing gifts/MIA recipients that were graciously covered by others in the end. Overall it seemed like people enjoyed it and said they had a good time with it regardless, so take it as you will!) The interviews and spotlights sound like great recognition standalone. Can't really think of anything that couldn't be covered by just mentioning it during the spotlight discussion~

I'm not really keen on being interviewed personally, unless it's just revealing something small and enough people are in (similar to a question of the day going on in the Project section). At the easiest and most passive I can think of just badges/achievements (Created X# things), but the forum structure isn't friendly towards allowing it to be automated, and keeping track of it would be a pain. Rewarding that would be fun (also questionable), alternatively you could use that activity to random select your highlights (instead of/in addition to a comment?). For the having something be judged and awarding a title based on a subjective (best anything / most improved / etc.), I agree it's probably isn't something to dig into. This section is small and familiar people already have their ideas of where everyone else stands, or time passes enough that someone else comes along and makes themselves more worth the title. Secret Santa 2016 Community Event

After trying I realized I'm pretty rusty and don't really have time to finish it, sorry. :/ Take the bits as you will (some stray grey and face cleanup, trying to match ref and go to FE-vanilla outlining)~ Lilina's probably a good a reference as any. You'll want to count the number of shades she uses for parts and kind of mimic that (2~3 for hair, 2~3 for clothing, note how sometimes they go with a black outline through the whole thing, but for particularly light edges they'll opt for the darkest blue/brown/red. I'm not familiar with pixeling in Photoshop, unfortunately. It's a pretty popular option though, so you should be able to google/find some good tutorials to get you familiar with the basic tools and setup necessary for it. Hope that's a start for you. ^^;

(Ahh that avatar's so cute and so is Yaris' design~) Will this be your only custom sprite, or are you looking to do more within your project? Right now its shading style is much different than vanilla FE; I can provide an edit but wanted to make sure whether it was even an issue first. One thing I noticed right off is that your color count is way up there (for a hack you want it to be 16 or less, traditionally you want to keep it low anyways). It's possible you might be using the brush tool instead of the pencil tool. Knowing what application you're using for pixeling would be helpful there. Are you just starting pixel/digital art? What sort of background do you have?

Looks better! Thought about it again, with RaGfA #2 I can see it being used as a bash-tool (and it has been before). Competitions specifically void out this rule and certain artist threads make it clear there's a certain level/timeframe that's not to be crossed. Maybe you can rephrase that into your request bit and write something up as the default policy for art threads. RaGfA #1 also is both a user and artist thing and applies more than just use without attribution theft. I'm sorry just to have thrown things and left all the effort to you the last time, so here's a redraft of the above thoughts: ------ +to Rules and Guidelines for Users 3. Don't spam requests. This includes bumping/reposting a request thread for a specific material, derailing a gallery thread with an unsolicited request, or broadcasting PM requests across multiple members. Creating one public thread with your particular request (with as much information as possible) is the recommended route, unless an artist has specified they're open to solicitation. Be respectful of other's time (they have their own interests and projects to fulfill) and understand that acceptance is on a volunteer basis and the community has no obligation to fulfill any request. Repeated offences blahblahblah. Regarding Submitted Content (replaces RaGfA) 1. Don't steal other artist's work. Unsolicited reuse of a created work is disrespectful to the source artist and the time they spent creating the material. If a user is caught using another artist's work outside the artist's permissions, they will be given a verbal warn and told to remove said work. If this behavior continues, the user will be punished harder.This can result in a suspension or even a ban. When in doubt of whether a source can be used, don't.* 2. By default, a work is open for feedback unless specified otherwise. Once a user puts their artwork to the public, it is viable for feedback unless limitations are specified by the content or event owner. Please be respectful of those who have taken the time to offer feedback, and also be considerate of the one submitting their work for display (everyone has feelings, after all). -------- *Does reposting need to be defined under the don't steal (e.g. when people post something to ask where it came from), or is that obvious enough that it falls outside that don't steal thing?

Looked it over, personal notes: - It's a wall of text hidden behind spoilers (verbose and complex). Imo doing it that way isn't particularly good for something users should just have to glance at and refer back to on occasion. - Code of Conduct before everything else, as that has to be followed first and foremost. - On Necroposting, I might suggest adding that the user just PM anything they intended for the artist's thread to the particular artist. Just saying 'don't do that' leaves someone hanging. (I'm thinking of a hypothetical case: when NickT finishes his Radiant Series, he'd probably still appreciate people pinging him with thanks or whatnot even after the necro deadline, and I wouldn't necessarily want anyone to feel they can't post on there without an option (even if it's a fairly obvious one, it's better to have that out there so both artists and viewers know it's a possibility).) - 'Competition Notice' Just use your own words here, or rephrase eCut's. It's adding needless complexity by saying something then quoting someone who says essentially the same thing. - The Moderator section is nice and helpful, good add. - I'm not much for the kinda's and mostly's peppered in there, although it's your own choice for personal flavor. - 'Rules and Guidelines for Users' imo is geared entirely towards feedback and makes it sound like that's the only thing you can do in this section (aside from submitting work for feedback). People don't start good at critique/feedback, and this sort of thing makes them hesitant to even try. This isn't what I want to see happen to the section as it's already dying via stagnation. -The rules in RaGfU are redundant with the CoC, I feel like you can reference it, but not necessarily reiterate it in detail unless you have something new to add. I understand what you're getting at in 1 and 2, but don't think it's something that can be dictated the way you have. It'll either be ignored, or it could stifle anyone new from introducing themselves here because the place is presented so formally. - I'd support a default board policy as an answer to the request/usage issue, just because it'd make things easier on everyone and people can tweak it if they want. Overall looks fine (request spam, theft, and respect are the main issues here and most are addressed). In this state it's not something I'd follow to a T but it's a decent enough base.

Imma echo Errant's comment and say I just don't know how to comment on these (and I wish there were a like button just to show support for particular sprites~). For the most part they look solid to me (and personally I think you're doing fine quality-wise). To answer your thought, it is a really interesting project with great results, and I do stop by and admire things every other time you've put up an update. Just don't really have much to say on it. ^^;

This is a great opportunity for you to get out of your current shell/slump. Stop listening to the voice in your head that says you can't!

Possibile causes on that: a) Most people have already done the free goods into a void thing and aren't willing to do it again b) there's not enough input of fresh youngins (or people not burned on ^) with time to spare to meet the random request market c) Nowadays people are more willing to ask for compensation than just ignore it and wait for someone to come by and do it for free / for the heck of it. I'm going with ©

Sounds cool! Looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. Do you have any idea on a timeframe till your next update (months, years, 2nd gen)?

I guess :P

If you're worried about nosy people then you can keep it purely to daily planner material instead (literally anything: did you go to the grocery store/anywhere outside, what you had to eat, did you talk with someone (friend or random), did you finish/work on a map in your project, what time you woke up / went to bed, general mood, money spends/gains, do you plan on doing any of the above tomorrow). Even if it's ordinary or something I think I can hang onto, I'd note it just so I can get it out of my head for the night. There's plenty of variants out there and I'd be happy to go on about it to see if there's something that strikes your fancy. Main thing is to just give it a shot.

For motivation I say maintain a schedule and start a daily journal, and stick to it no matter what. The rest can follow later, once you have some ambition built back up. Get an alarm clock for waking up, give yourself a 1 hour window of wind-down->sleep time (at least 30 without screentime), and stick to waking up and going to bed around the same time every day, give or take an hour on either end. It doesn't really matter the window that you decide to keep (I keep ~4PM-1AM for work reasons), but make sure you get consistently scheduled natural daylight in. It helps maintain a sense of time. Journaling helps me keep track of days, gives a sense of having done something (or assert that I really want to do something), and serves as a good sleep ritual, and it might help you too, imo. Before sleeping I spend about 15~45 minutes in bed to write/doodle in a little 4x6" journal I keep at my bedside. After that it's lights off, fan on, and sleep. It's usually not much more than personal thoughts, sometimes goals / accomplishments / interesting things that happened in the day, or just daydream material / project dialogue, but it's something, and looking at a completed booklet is nice.

For comparison on the eyes / facial feature placement. I think your original had it better, the left OPV eye seemed alright and right OPV needed some rework to balance it all (and eyebrows/some evidence of an eyesocket).

Those little gem icons are pretty sweet. Is that Ragna??? I agree with SnakeyMom that you have pillows/jaggies everywhere, plus your colors are currently all over the place (sometimes they work in their own style, sometimes they don't work at all). I'd probably suggest retrying the hair/clothing shading while using a lot of vanilla references.

I dunnoooo, mages and mercs was a good theme to roll with, it's just been that time was hard to come by. The unlimited submission fest sounds a little forced, given it's been hard to gather energy into forum activity lately and adding FEE3 to the mix is something that could've been prepared for much earlier. Feels like right now the quality bar is set high to the point people are hesitant about submitting/starting something? It should just be a fun forum game/thread with the bonus of maybe someone will use the results or take the extra steps to complete an entry into their own specific use. For now, could this just be a dumping and edit-share/collaboration ground (it can still keep the theme of the month, just not with the submit->grandReveal structure that it currently has) until there's enough activity/hype to merit an event again? Just a thought. [Edit: It's also 2015, bruhghastu]

Managed to get it done, entering the most basic of beasts ^^;