(08-01-2009, 07:39 PM)Sol Wrote: [ -> ]CCH, I understand you might have been among the best at the Nsider Forums, but these forums are almost completely dedicated to sprites and pixel art. You're in a whole different league, as it were. The standards are higher, and the critique might be harsher, but sometimes the best medicine can be bitter tasting. Remember that, and you'll probably be better off.
Now, from my standpoint, your pixel art isn't necessarily bad, but like some people have said, there are ways you can improve it. I'm not really sure why Umbreon doesn't have a mouth, and there are various parts in the linearts that are jagged and slightly misshapen. I know you said you like your pixel art to be crisp, but there's a difference between being crisp and being jagged. Circled in red are jagged/misshapen parts I noticed.
There are definitely other things you could improve/fix on the sprites that I can't specifically point out, myself, but other people can probably tell you what those are.
Secondly, just because there are worse pieces of spritework hosted on the site doesn't change the fact that yours needs work. Low-quality sprites and pixel art are an ongoing problem that the site is dealing with. Even disregarding the low quality stuff, why wouldn't you want to improve your artwork if it's been made apparent that there are aspects of it that can be made better? Saying "I think it's as good as it's going to get" is just being lazy. You made these to be used by other people, so if anything, other people's critiques of your artwork should be pretty important to you. If someone points out a flaw, it doesn't go away just because you don't think it matters. It's there until you fix it, and people will keep noticing it's there, until you fix it.
Of all the posts here, yours is the only one who did what I was asking for.
Guys, just because I don't do my pixel art in the same style you guys do doesn't mean it's wrong. Everyone has their own style, I prefer to keep my work simple.
I agree that the spots you marked needed work. Since I didn't want to use any AA effects, it was difficult for me to get those lines to flow the way I wanted them to. Those are points I wanted to work on, but couldn't figure out a way to improve it without using anti-aliasing.
Please understand guys, while AA might be useful in pixel art, my goal was to create a smooth and crisp look that used pure pixels rather than trying to blend them together. What I ask is that when I come in here and look for comments that you respect the style I was looking for and help me to improve on that specific style.
Instead, most of you pretty much are telling me every aspect of my art is wrong. You tell me the shading isn't contrasted enough. You tell me there's not enough shades. You tell me it needs anti-aliasing. You tell me the outlines are jagged and rough. These are not what I'm looking for.
I chose to use this style for a reason and all you guys are basically telling me is that I should just scrap all of these and do it over with an entirely different style. While you guys might think it was just a simple trace, I put a fair bit of effort into these and I don't want to have to change them just because you don't agree with my style.
At this point, I'm not even sure I want them on tSR at all. If no one is going to appreciate my work, what's the point? At least on Knite's Squire, people cared about the work I put into these and didn't immediately start picking out every little thing they didn't like. I don't mind criticism, but when you guys take it to a level of insulting my skill and telling me my work is basically worthless, it's kinda hard to value your opinion at all.
Sol, as you were the only one here to give me any useful tips for improving my work without telling me to do the whole thing over, I will try to work on those parts.
As for this thread, I'd prefer if it were locked or deleted. I'm not interested in hearing all the comments about me getting overly defensive just because I don't want to change the style of my artwork.