31 replies to this topic

[m@tt]

Just to show what following a tutorial can do:



A decent job for a first try, imo. Not perfect - still a bit too photo-ish, hair doesn't look great (the filters ruined it, so I had to rebuild the hair myself - hows that for dedication ), and the outline is a bit thick on the staff.

My tips - learn to fade using an Eraser with 25% opacity. And be careful when removing the background. With your pic, his arms has holes in him ffs! And you can still see other brush strokes.

[Allathar]

Or you could use in-game footage for your art, like I did as avatar.

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[Mathijs]

Good job guess who.

Yes, I am sure that lying to him will really help him improve. If you cannot take criticism, DO NOT POST.

[astrinax]

mh gollum, Im sure to your standards eldaron and dain's palantirs are good. That's not the question here.

Thats a bunch bull that you'd come to their aid and try to justify their being jerks by saying "just a filter" all that stuff about tutorial's are things they should have said instead of saying "im not sorry for sounding like im picking on you"

You do have vaild point, room for improvement sure. that dosent make it ok to be straight up rude. I don't care.

this place is full of good jobs because thats a standard of nice. Those are not critiques. saying "thats just a filter" is not a critique either.

And I definitly agree with both Deathbringer and Uldimaras (and also what larui touched on), both practicing and honing in on one thing at a time will improve skills.

all in all from so far what im reading in this post, Taralom has had the best things to say, offering great help and being honest.

oh, and matias, without being to angry you can just shove it man. He did do a good job. I never lied and I stand by what I said. I don't think you can call him on not taking criticism wrong because he didn't recive any. just a bunch of "just a filter". thats not critisism just a couple of people on high horses. I never said i'd help him improve either. this is a showcase forum, to showcase works. Its up to them to take any given crits and improve.

[JEV3]

Maybe their criticism was "Put some more work into it, don't just throw a photo and filter it" and also a remark that "People make too big a deal out of 2d art".

I don't think any offense is intended to anybody. As for overreaction towards it, 2d Art is not really that extraordinary... There are some people here that make it look extraordinary through practice and a bit of work, *more than copy/paste/filter* however even good 2d Art is still a very basic skill. It is a good start to modding, but will not give you the familiarity of leafing through codes, nor the practicality of skinning and binding.

*New techniques* are also not that exciting, because everyone should and probably does have their OWN technique. I took some from Cal's tutorial and modified a bit for my off-color technique, it is nothing to boast for. The pic looks like a desaturated, colorized photo, which isn't exactly very spectacular. Alot of the criticism that says "put more work into it" is based on the appearance that there wasn't much work put into it.

To Guess Who, keep in mind that there are many ways to make 2d art... and there isn't necessarily a correct way, albeit perhaps a more fitting way. (I made several blue palantirs for a pirate mod at one time, wouldn't fit in normal BFME2 if you see what I mean) All of the better looking ways take some work though. Also who said you need to use Parchment as your bg? You could replace all of them to use water or fire as the BG texture for good and evil... Use your imagination and work on it, and you'll hopefully be bound to get more appreciation.

To Astrinax, calm down... Please, no offense is meant as far as I can see... And don't forget that even in an online community you can show some respect, especially to veteran modders and admins. Whether or not you meant to show very little of such, it appears that way to me...

@mhgollum: Nice palantir, the fading is very well done. I would suggest however, that you duplicate it, and desaturate it into a fitting color and then set the layer on top as a color layer to get rid of some of that blue-ish color.

---d'oh, wrote another essay post! ---

[astrinax]

I don't think any offense is intended to anybody. As for overreaction towards it, 2d Art is not really that extraordinary... good 2d Art is still a very basic skill..

that's your opinion.

To Astrinax, calm down... Please, no offense is meant as far as I can see...

I mean big deal you can use google and put on a filter.It doesn't show that much skill. And im NOT sorry if it sounds like im picking on you.

a-are you blind?

show some respect, especially to veteran modders and admins. Whether or not you meant to show very little of such, it appears that way to me...

I will not show respect to admins and "veteran" modders for this behavior. nor you for supporting it. good day sir.

[Guess Who]

So long can't be bothered to read, great art mh_gollum.
And another thing i do know how to make 2d art i was just tryin a dif way.
And Allathar i know that your good, no need to show off .
I can't take ingame shots when their is nothing ingame yet...

[JEV3]

I don't think any offense is intended to anybody. As for overreaction towards it, 2d Art is not really that extraordinary... good 2d Art is still a very basic skill..

that's your opinion.

To Astrinax, calm down... Please, no offense is meant as far as I can see...

I mean big deal you can use google and put on a filter.It doesn't show that much skill. And im NOT sorry if it sounds like im picking on you.

a-are you blind?

In context it appears to be irony directed in relation to Dain's post. I personally don't think offense was intended, nor did Guess Who apparently take any offense from it with his reply, or has decided not to show it. I have taken offense a good deal of times and concealed it to avoid it heating up into something I would regret being a party to. (a flame war for example) I try to designate good reason as my utmost priority in every post, so if my posts show little of it, it is only honest confusion.

show some respect, especially to veteran modders and admins. Whether or not you meant to show very little of such, it appears that way to me...

I will not show respect to admins and "veteran" modders for this behavior. nor you for supporting it. good day sir.

Sir? Thats a form of respect... I would not support the behavior you accuse them of exercising, therefore I firmly believe they are not trying to put Guess Who or anybody down. Whether or not you or I believe they are unjustly criticizing him, one should not judge from a seemingly ironic post or one that could give offense despite any meant, one should not judge from that whether an admin or "veteran" modder deserves respect... Nor is this the place to discuss whether they deserve any respect.

@Guess Who: There are lots of sources where you can get pics for palantirs, and they don't need to all be LOTR related... For SF portraits, Caluadan often modified a generic picture to fit in LOTR. While at the time it was only a cropped photo, he still made some of the pics look so different from the source you would hardly recognize it from the pic. Also if one technique doesn't work (this one didn't it appears, for it seemed rushed and brought the question to many whether you put much work at all into it) just try another one. As I said before of a technique not being so correct but rather unfitting, it doesn't fit to have a portrait appeared to have a photo slapped onto it. Keep trying and I hope to see some better stuff in the future!

And yes, long posts, I have a tendency to write essay posts. It comes from putting ALOT of thought into posts. Suffice it to say I defended the criticism as real criticism which was considered mere flaming by Astrinax... I also explained how they might have a point in what they said.

[Guess Who]

is this better? 2 versions tiny different each.

[Lauri]

well, kinda, but not really...

This time, we can barely see who it is, AND... his head should always be at the center of the pic, so it looks good in-game Or a tiny bit above the center...
Anyways, it is better than the first one Keep on workin'!

OT: And please stop tearing down Guess Who's topic... I would really like to lock this topic, but I won't, because it's GUESS WHO's damn topic to show off his 2D ART, to get CRITICS and stuff like that... it's not a breeding ground for discussions....
So, please stop the war before it's started, or I'll have to do terrible things in here... like, for example, delete a hell of alot of posts...
Thank you...

[Guess Who]

Thanks Lauri.

[Taralom]

the first one is better,
just as i've said before.
try to do the head a wee tiny bit above the center of the picture.
Don't try to put the cup in the picture as well since it has no purpose for the game.
(unless you've got a power like: fury of the doomed cup )

try to find a picture where Denethor looks just at the side of the camera. Action pictures from the siege of Minas Tirith will do.

do you've got the english version of the GIMP or photoshop installed?
if you do but you're from a different language, it should be okay
if not... well... try using a dictionary (i'm dutch for example and it sure helped me)