From Behind the Visor

[Oguma]

Those=awesomeness. *gives another nickel*

[The Blind Archer]

Modified Oscar's head and squint-eyes a bit at the suggestions of members on other boards.

[Fireman]

Modified Oscar's head and squint-eyes a bit at the suggestions of members on other boards.

It looks much(can't find a better word) better now. :o

Nice job. Also, Kieran looks spot-on as well.

Edited November 9, 2008 by Fireman

[uguu]

These are very impressive but...

After a week of tinkering, Ludveck's pretty much done in my book. I decided to move onto a couple WIPs that I started several months ago and only just got inspired to finish.

Modified Oscar's head and squint-eyes a bit at the suggestions of members on other boards.

I see no differences. Except his head looks one pixel smaller in the 'fixed' version.

[Oguma]

These are very impressive but...

I see no differences. Except his head looks one pixel smaller in the 'fixed' version.

[Fireman]

These are very impressive but...

I see no differences. Except his head looks one pixel smaller in the 'fixed' version.

In the fixed version, his head is two pixels shorter(if you're looking at the longer side of the head), and in any case...

Even just one pixel can make all the difference. In the old version, the back of his head looked a little too wide and his eyes were a bit too high.

To me, the differences are as plain as daylight...

Edited November 9, 2008 by Fireman

[The Blind Archer]

More shading touchups, now that I've got his head's size right.

[Doom103]

You know what would be fun.

MAKE A SIGRUN ONE!

[The Blind Archer]

It's that time again. What time you ask? Time to point out the things I missed on my next full custom mug!

"Fall before the flag of Wolfkrone!"

It's still very much a WIP; especially the near shoulder. Can't seem to get the angle down right. >>

[Lord Glenn]

...I am seriously impressed. The amount of detail is shockingly amazing. (Not that I haven't seen some of your other works, but... Wow.)

The first thing that "jumps out" at me is that, compared to my understanding of the angle of the face, the raised face guard on her helmet seems to off center of her face. From the way I see the face, it appears as though Hilde is almost facing the screen, but the face guard would indicate that she is looking more towards the right than it appears.

Secondly, the shading on the bottom right part of the chin guard (her PoV) seems like the light is hitting it a bit too strong. However, I'd probably need to see what you actually referenced in order to properly see whether it was or not.

Lastly, in a couple of the screenshots I looked at, there are times when you can see part of Hilde's hair sticking out of the bottom-back part of her helmet. While this isn't the case in all of the screenshots and seems to depend on how she was standing in the shots, it might add a bit of flair to the open gap between the helmet and the shoulders.

For highly detailed armor... that's just amazing.

[The Blind Archer]

My first critique from a member of FESS, eh? Very interesting, and definitely a change in pace, and at least it's not just another "awesome". XD

And yeah, I don't doubt that there'd be a few shading errors here and there, and the chin guard gave me heck in a hamsterball (not so much as the top of her helmet and that shoulderpad, though >< ). For the angle of her face, I used this screenshot as a reference. Looking at some of her other screens, I noticed that she has some of her hair appearing on both sides of her face like the way I have it on her cheek; by leaving it out I hoped that'd be enough to show the angle. Guess not. xP Also, I'm familiar with those screens you mentioned with her hair in back; one of them was my detail reference. It was angled from the bottom, though, so I tried leaving it out for now, though I'll mess around and see if I can get it to work at all.

Come to think of it, I think this mug had the most references that I've ever used on a single mug. XD

Thanks for the pointers. Won't be getting to those suggestions right away, since I'm headed home tomorrow (woo, Thanksgiving break!), but I'll look into 'em when I can.

Edited November 21, 2008 by The Blind Archer

[Eltoshen]

Do you have any idea who Grimmjow is? From Bleach?

i can't say how long i've been dying to see a mug of his...

But in any case, your most recent work doesn't fail to impress. I can clearly tell it's one of your best works as well. I still don't know how the original character looks like so you'll have to stick with an "awesome". ;D

Edited November 21, 2008 by Eltoshen

[Lord Glenn]

My first critique from a member of FESS, eh? Very interesting, and definitely a change in pace, and at least it's not just another "awesome". XD

And yeah, I don't doubt that there'd be a few shading errors here and there, and the chin guard gave me heck in a hamsterball (not so much as the top of her helmet and that shoulderpad, though >< ). For the angle of her face, I used this screenshot as a reference. Looking at some of her other screens, I noticed that she has some of her hair appearing on both sides of her face like the way I have it on her cheek; by leaving it out I hoped that'd be enough to show the angle. Guess not. xP Also, I'm familiar with those screens you mentioned with her hair in back; one of them was my detail reference. It was angled from the bottom, though, so I tried leaving it out for now, though I'll mess around and see if I can get it to work at all.

Come to think of it, I think this mug had the most references that I've ever used on a single mug. XD

Thanks for the pointers. Won't be getting to those suggestions right away, since I'm headed home tomorrow (woo, Thanksgiving break!), but I'll look into 'em when I can.

Seeing as I'm a spriter myself (or, rather, former, since I never have time to do it anymore), you won't be getting just an "awesome" from me. (In fact, that applies to anything that I C/C from anyone.) Adding to that, we had a rule (which I zealously enforced) at FESS basically stating that posts like "Wow! That's awesome!" constituted spam, so people learned quickly to easily explain why they thought it was so awesome or it had the flaws that it did. (And, since I've seen some of your other works before, it's not as if I haven't critiqued them in my head. >_>)

Looking at the reference, I can see the angle a bit better. Given that, I think the best solution, at least from my limited perspective, would be to "angle" Hilde's face slightly to her left (probably a pixel or at most 2 of "movement"), while keeping the helmet in the same spot. If it looks worse that way than currently, it's not a super important detail, especially since the mug still looks awesome.

[The Blind Archer]

Mhmm... yeah, I'm vaguely familiar with FESS' standards for sprite critique and commentary. You certainly do live up to that reputation, to say the least.

That being said, here's the current update to Hilde.

For the angle, I shrunk her left side of her face a bit; brought it inwards. I also tinkered with the eyes in hopes of giving them a more defined sense of direction. I also noticed I made her chin guard fairly bulky on the far side of her face, so I shrunk that a bit as well. As for your other suggestions, I'm leaving the hair as is for the time being, but I did mess with the shading on her chin guard a bit.

Also, at the suggestion of a member on another board I frequent, I made her beauty mark (the mole) a bit darker.

Better or worse?

Edited November 21, 2008 by The Blind Archer

[Agro]

I think General Ludveck needs to, rather than being squashed, rotated so that his shoulders fit in. As it is, he looks rather squashed. I know this would prompt a full redo, but the current version looks very awkward

[Inactive Account]

So... much... awsum. Especially the LoZ ones.

AND THE RABBID DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

lolzorz

[Eltoshen]

Seeing as I'm a spriter myself (or, rather, former, since I never have time to do it anymore), you won't be getting just an "awesome" from me. (In fact, that applies to anything that I C/C from anyone.) Adding to that, we had a rule (which I zealously enforced) at FESS basically stating that posts like "Wow! That's awesome!" constituted spam, so people learned quickly to easily explain why they thought it was so awesome or it had the flaws that it did. (And, since I've seen some of your other works before, it's not as if I haven't critiqued them in my head. >_>)

Looking at the reference, I can see the angle a bit better. Given that, I think the best solution, at least from my limited perspective, would be to "angle" Hilde's face slightly to her left (probably a pixel or at most 2 of "movement"), while keeping the helmet in the same spot. If it looks worse that way than currently, it's not a super important detail, especially since the mug still looks awesome.

I was thinking that could be true to an extent, but some people don't exactly know how to critique a sprite as they don't have the skills needed to do so. Most people have to ability to tell if something is aesthetically attractive or not, though, and can tell when something is good. Besides, it prods the designer into telling them that people are actually checking your sprites out.

[roylover]

As always, you really do have quite a lovely collection of sprites here. ;3 My only concern is the problem you have relating to the face/neck/shoulders with your people, especially faces. The eyes are either too close together or the face looks off from the rest of the head. Anyways, if you have any specific ones you'll like me to take a closer look at, don't hesitate. :)

(Oh yes. I simply adore all the details you put into your mugs. D: You sure have patience.)

[The Blind Archer]

That's cool. You can start with my portrait of Shadow Dragon Minerva.

A two-day full custom job. Overall design and color off of her OA more than her DS mug; I don't like that big clump of hair that hangs in front of her face on the DS portrait.

Edit: I guess I'll post this here as well. It's a self-portrait mosaic/photomanip of sorts for my design class.

Edited December 1, 2008 by The Blind Archer

[Agro]

Minerva: Great work, Dei, although I couldn't help but notice that her armour is almost.. overdetailed? Not sure if that's a bad thing or not (most likely not), but it sets it apart from other FE mugs.

Photomanip: Looks great, except... how did you do it? XD. Also, bottom right tile doesn't seem to have enough distinction as a tile.

[Yuli]

So very good! I can't find any mistakes. Because I never played that game

Can't really say much about the mosaic/photomanip picture though. I don't know anything about those at all. :x

[Lord Glenn]

First off, I forgot to come back and comment on the update to Hilde. Just glancing at it, I can't see anything that stands out to me that would need fixed. *thumbsup*

On Minerva, the detail is as amazing, if not more than, as Hilde's mug. Her facial expression definitely captures what I've at least heard about her personality. (XD) The only things that "bug" me about the mug are her headband (I guess you can call it that) and her hair. More specifically, without some kind of border (which I realize is hard to do with that much detail crammed into that small of a space), at places, it looks like the headband is just kind of there, as a part of her forehead. The shading due to the light source is great, but the transition between the forehead and headband seems a bit iffy, IMO. As for the hair, this is less a complaint and more of a highly subjective opinion, but I can't say that I really like the overly detailed aspect of her hair. Yes, with FE9(kind of)/10/DS, sprites have gotten much more detail included within them, so I can see why the vast amount of detail is represented there. However, to me, it just doesn't look like her hair is flowing at all. It looks kind of like she hasn't showered in a week or so, and all of her strands of hair are kind of separated. They're not smooth and flowing like someone that's recently straighted their hair or something. (For example, if you look at Blackavar's (wonderful) Ishtar sprite, you can see the level of detail in the hair, but yet it still makes the hair flow remarkably well.)

[Blackavar]

Personally, I don't think it's possible to ever have too much detail. Your sprites have certainly proved this correct. :)

(How do you get your armor trimmings to be so amazingly thin?)

Anyways, Minerva:

The face looks very good, but I think the eyes look a little unfocused(?). The highlights near the bottom of each eye can either be moved up or removed altogether, and you could enlarge her pupils a bit more by shading a bit darker near the top. I don't remember how her official DS sprite looks at the moment, but it can't hurt to extends her left eyebrow by a few pixels with the 4th-darkest skin shade. I think you might still have room for more colors, so maybe a white and grey shade can help accentuate her eyes.

As for the hair, I don't think you have to extend the darkest shade that much near the top of hear head. Those top two pieces of the darkest shade extending from the middle of her head could probably be shortened by at least two pixels, moreso on the left (her POV) piece. Also, there are two small edge-pieces of hair on her right side above her headpiece that look almost horizontal and kind of disrupt the otherwise smooth flow of her hair...Maybe they can be moved down or merged into one piece, but they're not actually a problem if you want to leave them that way.

Two days? Now that's really fast for something that looks so good. :o

Self-portrait:

What sort of design class is this? (Sorry, I just love discussing art...)

I don't want to say too much without knowing what the assignment was, but speaking in general terms, either the colors or the contrast kind of make the piece feel a little muted. Perhaps you can try playing with composition to create a point of interest and then use colors/texture to complement that point? Though photomanip is not something I have experience in...

[The Blind Archer]

Alrighty, thanks you two. I can't get around to it just yet, since I'm currently elbow-deep in homework that needs to be done. Last couple weeks of the semester... yippee, college.

@ Blackavar: The portrait's for my Digital Art and Design class; computer oriented if that wasn't a giveaway. It's gotta be a 4x5 tile piece, and I wound up having to start over because the effects I had removed the variety in the detail and I didn't have a copy left over. >< Also, glad to finally meetcha; I've seen some of your stuff, and I can honestly say I was impressed.

Edit: Oh, and I worked on it over Thanksgiving break. I had nothing but time to work on it, so that's why it got done so fast. XD

Edited December 2, 2008 by The Blind Archer

[Elchikaah Haly]

Not great as a critique (since I'm not a spriter), but I really love your stuff, especially if they are full custom >_>

As for the photomanipulation picture, I must admit this kinda looks a bit too much like a photo with one or two quick filters, but the effect of having "seperating" the face in twenty squares adds some cool effects on it. :)