Recent posts by SeerOfShadow on Kongregate

Topic: The Arts / A pixel art house I made for my game.

Originally posted by MoonlaughMaster:

Protip: Black outlines are bad and you should feel bad. Make the outlines a darker color of what the inside is. ¹

¹ unless it’s the edge of the object. Black outlines are okay in that case.

Ah, I think there might be a few more exceptions, but I’ll modify it to remove the black outlines, and see how it looks.

Topic: The Arts / A pixel art house I made for my game.

Originally posted by petesahooligan:

It looks like you’re creating a Tudor-style building. It’s kind of the go-to architectural style for medieval buildings. Tudors are often brick or hand-stacked rock on the ground floor then heavy beams for the 2nd floor (and higher). The heavy beams are often filled with waddle and covered with plaster, then painted white. (Waddle is like straw and mud and stuff.)

Red-fired bricks didn’t really enter the architectural scene until later, but bricks (in the general sense) have been around forever. They’re one of our oldest building materials. Before red bricks, they were often sand-colored… shades of brown. The corners of buildings needed to be stronger, so stacks of heavier blocks were sometimes used at the corners to help strengthen the building.

Windows didn’t really exist on ground floors. It was usually more like barn doors and shutters. The second (and higher) floors were where the people lived, so they had windows. Windows usually had a simple paned design. Older homes like this were heated by fire, so a chimney, (usually attached to the outer wall of a house), was common. Roofs were usually slate and hung taller and narrower than our common shingle today. (Don’t know if that level of detail really matters; the color is right.) It was common to see the ends of beams sticking right out through the side of the house, or holding up the eaves. (The roofs often overhanged the building by quite a bit.)

This is Mel Gibson’s home. It’s a Tudor-style.

Ah, that’s a very nice detailed description of a Tudor-style building. I was actually going for a kind of modern, but revamped old house (Like the house is older, but was recently revamped to fit modern needs). That’s kind of a sketchy description, but is the best way to explain it. (And if this helps any, I’m trying to get an apocalyptic modern look to the home.)

Topic: The Arts / Gallery of Stuff - TWA: Game/Comic/Other Crap Artist

I’ve been looking through this thread in my spare time, and I’ve got to say, I’ve quite enjoyed what I’ve seen. I happen to enjoy your art style; for it is done in an intricate sloppy way, though I don’t know the exact term if there is one. You also seem to match colours quite well, to make things visible when needed, while keeping the colouration entertaining to the audiences eye. I would add in a few things that you could do better, but I usually only work on pixel art (I can’t seem to do anything but just that), so I’d not exactly have a fair say of what should be there, and what could be better.

I also checked out your tutorials expecting to learn nothing, but I quite enjoyed them, as to I learned a bit that I have either forgotten, or never learned in the first place. I also liked the way you added humor to liven it up at some parts that are inevitably boring no matter how they’re explained. The only problem I found was that there were a few spelling and grammatical errors littered throughout some of the tutorials, but that’s only a minor issue, and is easily overlooked.

I also think that your animations were done quite well. I think the paper-like crinkle overlay in your most recent animation was a very nice touch, as well! I just don’t exactly know what a “Rowntrees” is, so I didn’t entirely get the point. But anyways, if you could let me in on the program you used to create the animations, I’d be quite thankful, for I’ve not found any animating programs that are anywhere above sub-par.

I wish you the best of luck on your future artistic endeavors, and am looking forward to your future projects!

Topic: The Arts / Which logo is best?

Definitely 4, but 10 and 11 seem quite cool too.

Topic: The Arts / A pixel art house I made for my game.

Originally posted by clasher235:

Looks a bit flat, you may wish to add some diversity and wear to the bricks. As for the windows, the cracks just don’t look right IMO, but I can’t make good broken glass either, so I’m unable to help you there. The roof looks very nice, and the problems I described probably wouldn’t be offputting to anyone playing the game, so you don’t really have to worry, though fixing them would improve the piece as a whole quite a bit.

Anyways, I like RPG type games(I assume this is what you’re making, based on the perspective and style), and I wish you luck creating yours.

Ah, I was actually planning on making some kind of wear (Or maybe cracks) in the bricks and just the walls and such, but when I tried the cracks, it just didn’t look right. And I’ve been messing around a bit with the wear, but I haven’t found what fits the style of the building in general thus far. Heh, and yeah, the glass does seem a bit off, now that you mention it. I’ll play around with that a bit too, and see if I can’t make it any better. Thank you about the roof though, I felt I could have done a bit better on it (As to it looks a bit odd in the very middle, but I couldn’t find any other way to give it symmetry and a roof-like look), but it’s nice to hear that it was apparently done well! Ah, and I’ll definitely take some of those comments to mind, and see what I can do.

You’re right about it being an RPG styled game, and it’s the first time I’ve actually done the art myself, without collaborators to help with the art, so I’m just looking to the forums for anything that can be done better, and just any helpful advice that can be given.

Thank you for the wonderful critique, and luck though!

EDIT – I went ahead and looked into a bit of your advice, and made a second prototype. I think the variation made a world of difference, but I’m not sure if it still needs more done to the bricks.

Topic: The Arts / A pixel art house I made for my game.

I’d love to have any feedback on it possible, for I’m not sure what to do to make it better. Thank you, and I hope that you like it! (The name in the top right says “Khran”, which is short for Khranos, my pseudonym. And the red grid is what I’m using to put the house itself into the game, to make it easier on level design). And lastly, for anybody wondering, the house is supposed to be in more of an apocalyptic and modern state.

- Prototype 1 –

- Prototype 2 – Newest!

(Added a slight variation to the bricks, and modified the windows a bit, but I’m not entirely sure whether for better or for worse)

Topic: The Arts / - Faded Reality - Art by SeerOfShadow (Khranos) -

Originally posted by 1Smart_Cookie:

wow, that is amazing! great job, keep it up. :D

Thanks! I’m glad that you like it.

Originally posted by Oboe_Passion:

I can’t tell what medium it is, photography perhaps?

It was a photo to start with, but it has been heavily modified, and has had a ton of stuff added. So basically, you’d hardly see a resemblance between the real photo and this.

Originally posted by petesahooligan:

I like it but I have a few issues with it.

I particularly like the colors. I think the tones in the grasses are great… subtle, evocative.

I dislike the fact that you may or may not have used someone else’s photo for a source. That would fall within my personal range of ethics if it weren’t such a “filtery” interpretation. Redrawing, or using the image as reference is one thing. Using someone else’s image as source is another. That credit in the corner should be your name. If it’s not, that’s a problem for me.

Shelving that, I think the image could be improved by a adjusting the composition slightly. You could go more formal by centering the subject, or more comfortable by positioning the subject along a golden mean. (Some people call this the “law of thirds”.) You can even sub-divide the golden mean to create smaller proportions. The horizon line appears to fall within this range… 2/3rds of the bottom 1/3rd.

Finally, you’ve got some JPG artifacting that you can fix by adding a small about of noise. Look at your original PSD file in channels and these will be apparent. (It’s best to go in and fix them by hand… not with a noise filter… if it’s a PSD illustration, rather than a photograph.)

Ah, I’m glad that you like the colors and tones.

This image did start out as a photo, yes, but I made sure that it was on free domain to use and modify freely. And for this particular piece, the original image was half-way a reference, and half-way a source. And if you look closely at the credit, it says “Khran” (Which is short for Khranos), which is the usual name I’d go by.

I see where you’re coming from with that, and I agree, I probably could center it to give it a bit more of a fluency. And I’ll look into this “law of thirds” technique, and see which one I’d most prefer to use for my next pieces.

I also didn’t create this piece in PSD format, but I might go and convert it, so that I could try and do that. And I’d rather add it by hand than by filter anyways, usually you’ll get a more wanted outcome when you do that kind of stuff by hand.

Thanks for the critique though, it’ll be quite helpful in my future endeavors! (But for now, I might possibly go back and modify this one with a few of the things you suggested, just for some added practice).

Topic: The Arts / - Faded Reality - Art by SeerOfShadow (Khranos) -

This is a work of art that I created the other day in my spare time. Any constructive criticism would be much appreciated, and I’d love to know anybodies opinion on it; just try and back it with some reasoning whether good or bad! Enjoy.

Topic: The Arts / - Change - A poem by SeerOfShadow (Khranos) -

This happens to be maybe my 15th or 20th half successful work of poetry I’ve had, and I felt I might as well share it here, with the Kongregate community. It’s my most recent work as well, and another one should be finished in the near future. And for any of you wondering, “Khranos” is my pen-name. I hope that you enjoy this poem as much as I enjoyed writing it, and any constructive feedback or criticism would be much appreciated!

- Change -

In my distress,
I must confess,
How this world has come to be.

The clarity is gone,
Blindness has won,
I, for one, not for me.

To be changed,
Is a diamond for the poor,
Unreality.

And if you wish,
You may as well be a fish,
In the midst of a poison sea.

To not understand,
Is a strategy to be undone,
You’ll only be a pawn, against a queen.

But to see the facts,
You’ll stay intact,
Though will be a king, in a player-less game.

By that time,
You’ll have already won,
And have life’s only key.

Though it’s required,
By your entire,
To escape, conformity.

But the people won’t see,
Until the world will change,
Therefore all of eternity.

~ Khranos
5 / 10 / 12

Topic: Call of Gods / [Event] The Storm for Gems

I’d laugh if they got more than one sale, on any of the packages.

Topic: Kongregate / New Kongregate Version: Game Page Changes and Bug Fixes

Ah, this was a very useful update indeed. I’m glad that the tags will be a lot more sorted out though, because I’ve been seeing a lot of sorting problems with games because of them.

Topic: Collaborations / I'm a musician looking to collab on some small and maybe big projects

I may actually be interested in working with you. I’ve got a small project currently, and I’ve been looking for somebody that does that kind of music! Just send me a PM, if you’d like any details whatsoever, because the game currently has no music at the moment.

Thanks,
~Khranos

Topic: Collaborations / Need beta testers for Pipeline (new collab tool)

This program looks very interesting. It’d probably help a lot with the lack of communication me and my developing team is facing. Is there a place I could submit a few suggestions though?

Topic: The Arts / (Art) Futuristic Warship On The Mountain

Originally posted by TheWhiteAngel:

Colour’s not the only thing that creates contrast. The jagged shapes should contrast with things that shouldn’t be jagged, yet were made that way – sun, moon, ground. And the contrast would then be from the jagged ship of metal to curvy bumps in the ground made by wind, and obviously the sun and moon are not jagged. I say this because what I get from this is dark emotion that I suggest to be kept to the ship, everything else around it is completely different in shape -and because of the shapes the reader can identify the other things that are differences.

At the moment, this is confusion more than anything else. Also, obvious thing here – sun and moon at the same time? Can you see where I’m going with this? It’s not enjoyable if everything’s confusing.

Ah, I can see what you’re meaning here. But just a bit of a foreword, the sun and the moon are out at the same time for a purpose. It is there to show the meaning of the ship, as to being the point of the piece, and to show size comparison. It’s like the phrase, “On the top of the world”, as to being able to see both at once. And As to the jaggedness to smoothness, I can see what you’re getting at. I’ll probably need to modify the elements (Such as the ground, sun, and moon) to match more with the ship. I’ll post a revised version up soon. Oh, and also, thanks for the advice!

Topic: The Arts / (Art) Futuristic Warship On The Mountain

This is a black and white, angular piece I made in about 5 minutes. Yes, I know there is no colour, that is part of what makes it… itself. It’s mainly just supposed to be a simplistic piece that’s easy on the eyes. I hope you like it! -

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb441/Khranos/WarshipOntheMountain.png
(Photo is too large to post here…)

Topic: The Arts / A collection of my poetry. (2 new poems!) Last Update - 11/14/11

Originally posted by rawismojo:

I like these pretty well. The one thing I’d point out is that I’d work with playing with line breaks that aren’t necessarily ended with punctuation. Since poems, when read, are visually striking compared to most other written works, you can use line breaks a type of soft-punctuation to shape the piece. I think the places where you choose line breaks are pretty good, but not all of them necessarily need the pause that a period or comma dictates. I wonder if they wouldn’t read a bit more fluidly if you just look at omitting some of your commas and see how they read.

I’m glad you like them. But I can see where you’re getting at with the punctuation thing, it’s just always been a habit to end the stanza with a period and a line with a comma. That usually works just fine, but looking back, I can already see a few places I could leave out most punctuation. And about the line breaks, I’ve just always had trouble trying to make some stanzas for example 3 lines, and others 4; it just usually happens to make it sound out of place. Thanks for the tip, and taking the time to reply.

Topic: The Arts / A collection of my poetry. (2 new poems!) Last Update - 11/14/11

Originally posted by Ramos_emanuel:

Better change your profile to drawing, only a few people here like to read that much txt

Eh, just saying, you can’t just “Change” to being an artist. I’m only good at pixel art, but it’s nothing amazing. I write poetry mostly for myself, it’s just been a way to focus more on myself and the world around me, while having a good by-product. I only post what I write for those who actually enjoy reading poetry; I hardly care if almost nobody likes poetry, because that’s just an “Almost”.

Topic: Kongregate / If you publish a first version of the game, and it gets terrible ratings, then later publish it again, when it's very updated, is this allowed?

Well, thanks guys, this will be useful later on!

Topic: Kongregate / If you publish a first version of the game, and it gets terrible ratings, then later publish it again, when it's very updated, is this allowed?

Hmm, so I would be able to upload a game, and just add a V1.0, V2.0, et cetera, for big updates? I’m pretty sure that should be mostly acceptable, as that one “Drag Racer” game has done that.

Topic: Kongregate / If you publish a first version of the game, and it gets terrible ratings, then later publish it again, when it's very updated, is this allowed?

With the game I’ve been making, I published it when it was absolutely terrible. Now, it is very much so updated from it’s starting version, and I feel it will get much better ratings, as well as more plays from a new beginning. Would this be against the rules, or is it perfectly allowed?

Topic: The Arts / [Group] Prophets of Pixels TWO

Hey, I’m just wanting to get some advice for something I just started working on. So far, I’m not very good at much pixel art, as to my perspectives always being off, but I’d like to get some advice for the general shape, and shading for a 2D helicopter I just started messing around with -

As you can see, I was working with shading for a while, but I quickly ran out of darkened blues. The helicopter is based off of the HH-65 Dolphin if you’re wondering about the shape. Thanks!

Topic: The Arts / A collection of my poetry. (2 new poems!) Last Update - 11/14/11

New poem is up! I’d love some feedback, as to feedback helps me more than “That’s good!”, or “That’s terrible!”.

Topic: The Arts / A collection of my poetry. (2 new poems!) Last Update - 11/14/11

Tomatoman, poetry means something different to everybody, there’s not one perfect definition of poetry. It’s a technique that each person perfects to their own taste. Cliche is a hard word to come up when it comes to poetry, unless it is pretty much some other persons work. Thanks for taking the time to reply though.

Topic: The Arts / A collection of my poetry. (2 new poems!) Last Update - 11/14/11

After being in a major poetry slump, I’ve finally recovered to be an even better poet! I’ll be putting up my newest poem very soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Topic: Collaborations / Looking for somebody to help me out with story lines and ideas!

Reserved