Weekly Mug Shot Contest

[Florete]

I understand what you're saying, and the only real problem is this:

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.

Seriously? Who cares if you're the best at something if people don't like your work? Does it matter if you're a great writer if people don't like your stories? Does it matter if you're the greatest musician if people don't like your music? I can't speak for the other judges, but I know I won't be biased.

As for your two sprites there, I actually preferred the first before I read what you said about them. The second one... well, something doesn't look quite right. Honestly, we need a judge or two who really knows the craft, I agree there. But we also have a public opinion vote on this. What's the point of that if it's not opinionated? Overall quality itself can be opinionated depending on how you look at things.

[Deity]

Lol. That takes out Bianchi for a judge. XD

I'd like to see someone try to mix Gheb, Seth, and Ephiran. That would be interesting.

Send me a pic of them, I can put it together.

And we ended up with many judges. I am out of this one, Though I will submit a lil somn later.

[Serene]

So wait, do the judges just post their scores, no like conversation with the other judges about the look of the mug

[Fireman]

So wait, do the judges just post their scores, no like conversation with the other judges about the look of the mug

You can have a conversation with the other judges if you want, but otherwise, each judge gives their own individual score for each mug.

[Serene]

You can have a conversation with the other judges if you want, but otherwise, each judge gives their own individual score for each mug.

Alrighty then, saves on the process. Just wondering

[Decus]

Nothing special. Raven head, Roy body, Colm shoulderpad. This one was really hard to add in Colm pieces :/ I also changed the outline and skin tone to match the one in FE8. :D

[Zanryu]

Seriously? Who cares if you're the best at something if people don't like your work? Does it matter if you're a great writer if people don't like your stories? Does it matter if you're the greatest musician if people don't like your music? I can't speak for the other judges, but I know I won't be biased.

As for your two sprites there, I actually preferred the first before I read what you said about them. The second one... well, something doesn't look quite right. Honestly, we need a judge or two who really knows the craft, I agree there. But we also have a public opinion vote on this. What's the point of that if it's not opinionated? Overall quality itself can be opinionated depending on how you look at things.

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. >_>

[Deity]

That Is why I quit in the first place, too many judges.

[Magical CC]

my first time, hope it's not so bad....anyway, I joint the race.

[Deity]

my first time, hope it's not so bad....anyway, I joint the race.

Its not too bad if it is your first time. The guy needs a neck though, and could of used better colors.

[Doom103]

See, I wish I could mug, but I can't, I cab just make sigs :P

[Freohr Datia]

my first time, hope it's not so bad....anyway, I joint the race.

I don't sees no problems with it! I see a neck! =D I like it!

[_____]

Its not too bad if it is your first time. The guy needs a neck though, and could of used better colors.

Didn't you just say you weren't a judge?

[Deity]

Didn't you just say you weren't a judge?

I wouldnt call that judging, I was simply giving feedback, and those, my friend, are two seperate things.

If I were to be a judge, I would of been a little harsher. ^_^

[Zanryu]

my first time, hope it's not so bad....anyway, I joint the race.

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.

Edited October 18, 2008 by xX_Wasure_Xx

[Decus]

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.

I couldn't really see much fault having Raven's head on Roy's body. Guess I didn't look at the size closely enough. >.<

The only thing that wasn't non-FE8 color was the shoulderpad, which was from Raven or someone I think. I guess I could change the color.

I noticed that area, but I couldn't decide if I would change the colors to fit the cape. The shoulder plate was very hard for me to think about, as to me, it looked like a mech arm. Oh well, I'll think of something :D

The colors were from Colm's belt thing but, OK. Or are you saying the color of the shoulder plate doesn't go well with the cape?

Chins aren't exactly my forte, but they piss me off. I'll see what I can do.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW PROUD I AM TO RECEIVE SUCH DETAILED CRITICISM, ZANRYU

[Fireman]

JUDGES:

Give us each of your scores. You may use any sort of rating system you wish, such as a score out of 10 points, stars, or anything that makes you happy.

Entry #1

Entry #2

Entry #3

Entry #4

Entry #5

Entry #6

Entry #7

MUGGERS:

Here is the mug set for Week 2. The due date has been changed. From now on, the deadline for mugs will be Friday at midnight(Pacific Time).

You are to make a mug out of the following three:

Edited October 19, 2008 by Fireman

[Fireman]

The judging deadline for each week will be every Friday, 11:59PM (Pacific Time Zone).

[Fireman]

I have added Entry #7 to the list now too. Any day now, judges.

[Mufasa]

Entry #1 - 9/10 I like it. A little too much blue.

Entry #2 - 6/10 The head's too small for his body.

Entry #3 - 8/10 Something's off about the color. The body's colors are too vibrant when compared to the head.

Entry #4 - 9/10 Pretty good.

Entry #5 - 9/10 The red scarf clashes with the light blue shirt.

Entry #6 - 7/10 Kinda bland and uninteresting, but not bad.

Entry #7 - 8/10 A little too blue. And it looks like only one color blue.

Of all of them, if I had to pick a winner, I'd say #5

[Freohr Datia]

Hmm... all this time and only one judge judged?

[Fireman]

Hmm... all this time and only one judge judged?

Two, actually. One did it by PM, but yeah...

[noremaC]

can you post the PM?

[Fireman]

can you post the PM?

I asked him/her. No response yet.

[Fireman]

Adding in a new rule:

You can either post your score for each mug in this topic or PM your score for each mug directly to me and only me.

Btw, three judges have voted so far.

Edited October 19, 2008 by Fireman