LilyCobalt

This was a great idea. Everything looks fantastic.

Now for my one and only question...

For CoH/CoV art that doesn't quite fit any of the gallery catagories... I'm assuming "best guess" is the way to go?

Another thought on the pixellish look...

When zooming in and out, Photoshop will hit both 66.7% and 33.3% view. Viewing your work at these "odd" sizes can cause some distortion.

If the new file you opened was a bit too big for a 100% view, it would have automatically zoomed out to 66.7%.

I don't post much, but I'd love to join! (My last piece was even CoH-related!)

http://lilyinblue.deviantart.com

I've never used a Bamboo, but I used a Wacom Graphire (which was the precursor to the Bamboo) 4x5 for about three years. It honestly served me just fine. I did some great (at least in my opinion!) work on it. The Bamboo is definitely a small step up from that, even. It is definitely a good starter tablet.

I'm working on an Intuos 3 6x8 now. The 6x8 is a very comfortable size and I'm honestly not sure I'd ever want to go much bigger. We have one of Wacom's ginormous tablets (12x19?) here in the studio at work and I hate the thing. It needs far too much arm movement.

The eye can also trick you. You might think your proportions and geometry are in good shape, but they aren't. The guidelines can be some insurance against that.

Though, if all else fails... there's the tried and true "look at the mirror image" to check for geometry issues method. It's amazing what problems are revealed when you look at it another way.

Still... yay guidelines.

Thanks for all of the comments, guys.

I am really proud of this piece. I'm really glad you all like it.

Next step... do more!

It's been ages since I've delurked in this thread, but I finally have a reason to do so... new art!

http://lilyinblue.deviantart.com/art...nist-144914440

This is the first time in ages since I've finished a CoH-related piece. I've been working on this on and off for well over a year now. Finally found the time to add the finishing touches tonight.

I've always loved the Carnival Illusionists. I'd been wanting to draw one for a long time. I added a few "creative embellishments" to the design details here and there, of course.

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Of course villains should win. Frequently, and with great fanfare. What the villain should not win is the final battle.

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I think that explained what I was trying to say upthread far better. The villian's victories will all be along the road to that final battle, but at the final battle... the hero will always win.

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You've been having an AFFAIR?!!

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Yes. I'm very, very sorry. (But not sorry enough to stop!)

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Sounds like EVE Online...

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Ew. Gross.

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To a large extent, yeah, when worlds like that ask people to play a villain, what they really mean is they want someone to play the Heel. Your job is to make the heroes look more bad-[censored] when they stomp you. After a few years of this, things can get pretty silly. Heroes need to get owned periodically. It keeps them honest.

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To me, it seems like most of hero-pwning comes in the form of the small (though often tragic and harrowing) losses that come along the road to the final victory. They feel much pain and whatnot, thus making them stronger and more determined to defeat the big bad guy who made it rain blood over your hometown and turned all of the children into his zombie army.

Losing so many children of the town to their fate as shambling undead hordes is the loss. Finally defeating the guy is the win.

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It's the Law of Inverse Villain Threat. The more of a threat a villain poses in the world ("I am World Eater Man! I shall now Consume The Entire Earth!"), the less of a threat that villain actually is because in most cases they simply can't succeed (or if they do it will be promptly reset after a tadge of angst). The more likely that the world can continue mostly unbruised if the villain's plan succeeds, the greater the danger it actually poses.

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Ha! That actually describes... well... just about everything very nicely. Well put!

I've been involved with another game for about 8 years. It is pretty RP intensive, which is aided by a very dynamic world that does change over time depending on what happens. (Although not always, the status quo is rather prevalent as well.) Most people are on the side of good. Plenty aren't. However, few of the 'bad' guys often come across as too believable. They haven't quite figured out how to mesh themselves with a dynamic, living world in an organic way.

Someone I know over there made a very wise point about being a bad guy: "In order to play the villian well, you have to be willing to lose."

This thread is about exceptions to that rule, but it is still the general rule. The villian exists as a foil to the hero and to give the hero something to fight against and triumph over. If the villian truly wins... it can be pretty much "game over."

I had something similar happen to me recently. I contacted support, and they awarded my "stuck" Vet reward for me. They also told me that said bug would affect me again for my next one (due in July) and to send in another support request then. And, apparently, from that point forward mine should start awarding normally again. It was all pretty smooth. I had my missing reward about a day and a half after sending the request.

Super Jump is usually my travel power of choice. However, my first and favorite character started out as a super speeder. I was playing with her build one day and found she had some extra slots. I added super jump in on top of super speed.

Is it overkill? Absolutely. Necessary? Not in the slightest. Is it super fun? Oh yes.

... at the very least, she's certainly excessively mobile. (And almost always first to the door!)

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Martial Arts is a little endurance-heavy for its attacks, though not as much as Broadsword. I myself would recommend keeping the EndRedux in your attacks. However, my build has about 4-5 toggles running at the same time with QR and Stamina, compared to the 2-3 that you would have. You might need to experiment to see if you would rather go EndRedux or RechargeRedux, but by the time to get Targeting Drone, I would recommend sticking with one EndRedux into your attacks.

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My Ma/Regan usually runs three toggles. She has both QR and Stamina. She has some EndRedux in her build (which unfortunately I can't post right now due to being at work) due to IO sets, though nothing was ever deliberately slotted for EndRedux. She is a complete energizer bunny. The only time she ever needs to stop or slowdown is when I fail to notice that Malta Sapper that's right behind me.

Given that you aren't runny more than 2 or 3 toggles, you could probably achieve the same effect if you desired.

I do have the Alien Skin filters, including the fur/hair one. I generally find that it can make a good base for short hair and fur, but it still needs some painting over. For long hair, I tend to find that it doesn't obey gravity at all - it's generally too rigid.

If you are going to paint your hair in post-render, I would suggest you get yourself some brushes. For the main part of the hair, they can speed the process a bit. Photoshop's native dry media brushes can do an okay job, but I have some brushes I downloaded that aren't quite as dense that really do the job beautifully. For the loose strands, then, I just switch over to a small, hard round brush. 1 or 3 pixels, generally, depending on what resolution I'm working at.

In short, Flash has some vector functions.

Illustrator's purpose is vector functions.

Everything Flash can do, Illustrator can do with about 100x more options. They can both do the basics, but Illustrator will offer you far more in the end.

That looks absolutely real. Great stuff.

I don't think I've posted any art on this forum since... Summer of 2007? I really need someone to kick me in the backside a few times to get me moving, artistically speaking. I've had a remarkably non-productive year. However, I'm back at it. I have a new piece I'm working on that I hope to have posted by the end of the month. I'm pretty happy with how it's coming so far.

I have one level 50 hero and one level 49 and a half villian. We can probably turn her into a level 50 villian this weekend. The new piece I'm working on? While CoH related... none of the above. It's something far less glamorous than a level 50 character. (Though it actually does come in a level 50 variety!) I do keep meaning to give my scrapper and namesake a portrait of her very own, but it's sort of way back there in the to-do list.

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See, it's enough of a disconnect that you're drawing DOWN but looking UP, but when gliding your hand down an inch makes a line appear across HALF your screen, like it would with a smaller tablet, it takes getting used to. BUT, if the tablet is about the size of your monitor, gliding your hand an inch on the tablet means you get a line that's actually an inch on the screen.

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One way or another, it does take some time to get used to. Funny thing though... my work just bought one of the 12x19 Intuos tablets this week for general studio use and whoever needs it for whatever. It's amazing... but at the same time I'm finding it really tough to adjust to as I'm just so used to a small tablet.

... what I wouldn't do to get one of those for home use though!

Firstly, they are absolutely worth it. Absolutely.

I'm currently working with a 6x11 Wacom Intuos 3. I've had it for about a year. Before that, I was working with a 4x6 Wacom Graphire for... well... quite awhile. I always like to mention that because the 4x6 Graphire was pretty much the bottom of the barrel as far as Wacom goes. But you know what? It served me just fine.

Wacom doesn't make the Graphire anymore. The Graphire line got replaced with the Wacom Bamboo. The small size (4x6) Bamboo Fun comes with a bunch of graphics software... and it retails for less than $100. You could probably find one just about anywhere that sells computer stuff. It's not the fanciest tablet on the market, but I'm sure it would serve you well.

Okey dokey. Unlurking time.

Another piece of software I haven't seen mentioned here is ArtRage. I haven't actually used it, but one of my artist friends has been raving about it to me lately. It seems like a good, inexpensive alternative to Painter. (Only $25 for the full version.)

And on digital drawing. In the end, it is just like drawing on paper... except on a tablet. The biggest different I tend to find is in friction. It takes some time getting used to the smoother surface of the tablet, and the disconnect between your hand and the screen. But, you will get used to it quickly.

For digital inking, I actually find that hopping over to a vector-based graphics program can help. (My hand just isn't steady enough to do free-hand inking and have it come out smooth enough.) I use Adobe Illustrator for that. Inkscape is probably the best free vector software out there, if you don't want to keep throwing cash at Adobe.

... although, a lot of digital artists also tend to skip "inking" all together. I rarely do it.

Hello. Lurker here.

I haven't actually posted a new, finished anything in about a year and a half. (Likely one reason for my lurkitude.) I'm definitely on the side of rusty right now and am, in some ways, trying to re-learn a bunch of this on my own. Nevertheless, I thought I'd chime in.

On shading, like others have said, tutorials tutorials tutorials. Read a bunch. Try a bunch of techniques. This is one thing that will take a lot of time and practice to get down. I used to do most of mine just by hand with Photoshop's airbrush tools. Now, I've gotten a bit lazy and cheat a bit using gaussian blurs to help the process along. Glowy things can be easier. Most graphics programs have some filters that can achieve the effect for you. Just be careful with filters - it's very easy to overdo it.

And since there's been so much talk about inking and such, I've recently come to learn for myself that getting those nice, smooth lines can be a LOT easier in a vector program like Adobe Illustrator as opposed to working in a pixel-based program like Photoshop. Of course, the coloring/shading/detail work still needs to be done in Photoshop.

Most of my newer work (that is... when I finish it) is a combination of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Corel's Painter - all with a Wacom Tablet. (And don't think you need the fanciest, most expensive tablet. I worked on their bottom-of-the-line tablet for years and it did the job I needed it to just fine. You can get a perfectly good tablet for under $100 these days.)

As an artist myself, I usually say "fire away!" in regards to the critics. I am of the view that it does help me get better. Since my biggest failing is that I work slower than most slugs, I don't put much out for public viewing, so I will take anything I can get. I do know that not everyone feels the same way.

To expound upon one thing Scarf Girl mentioned about non-artists critiquing... I think if anyone says to me, "Something about this part looks funny to me," no matter who they are, I'll take a look. I think sometimes if we stare at our own work long enough, we start seeing what we think is there rather than what is actually there. However, if that somebody has shown no artistic skill of their own, and they say, "This looks funny to me. Here is how you should fix it," my response is likely to be one of extreme irritation. It actually reminds me of an incident involving one of my pieces and a friend of mine. The piece had a gradient background that was light at the top and dark at the bottom. He said I should flip it. I said he was wrong. He was. If I made it dark at the top, the entire picture would be top-weighted, it threw off the balance of light and dark, and it drove the focal point sort of down around her thighs (?!). I tried to illustrate this point. He never agreed. However, if someone whose work I admire says, "This part looks a little off. Here is a suggestion for how you might want to fix it," then I will try my best to take the advice to heart.

Something about attracting more flies with honey? I think critiques are easier to stomach with the right phrasing. Like I bolded above, they sound better as a suggestion rather than saying, "DO THIS!" Also, specific is good. "This looks funny because..." is a lot more helpful than, "This looks funny." Finally, always pad it with the positive. My friend that I mentioned above is always quite generous with the critiques. He rarely has anything good to say. And he wonders why I hate showing my stuff to him...

I guess to echo what a lot of others said, I'd probably PM the person just to ask if they are interested in specific critiques. If they say yes, then fire away in PM number 2.

Oddly, I STILL haven't taken screenshots of my first main hero... and she's closing in on 50. But, I did take a series of shots of my first villian.

Here's the first!

Here's another from the same series, just because I like it.

Yeah, I tend to crop things for composition and what not. Also, when I made these I didn't know how to turn the various parts of the GUI off, so I had to crop them out.

Maybe I'll take some pictures of my hero when she does actually make 50...