Rawr makes music and the artz

[Rawr]

So basically I re-evaluated my music for the ten thousandth time and realized pretty much all of it was crap (again) so I started over (again) on this album project.

Vacation was a good source of inspiration I think, and I went again with trying to create some more electronic-rock inspired tunes. Gonna call the album 'Spectrum'. Keep in mind these are demos (no vocals yet on them) and the mastering may or may not be final for some tracks. As for why vacation was a good source of inspiration, mainly it was because I was listening to loads of Apoptygma Berzerk and Pendulum haha. Edit: Oh, and a tiny bit of Depeche Mode too xD. Just a tiny bit.

The Dark (demo)

Spectrum (demo)

The Light (demo)

Just three of the new tracks. I have two more I don't think I've posted here yet that are still not finished. I have another two on my sisters laptop that I would like to bring onto this one to tighten up some more, and then I have a cover song I am working on. I also have one project I just started today that I hope to get done sometime before the week is done. Been working on these pretty much all day since I've gotten back from vacation, the longest night I pulled being until 4am on the track 'The Dark'.

So that brings me to about 9 tracks I have to work with, 7 that are pretty much definite. Lyrics have been written for about half the tracks so far (minus the cover obviously lol, I don't have to write a thing).

Enjoy I guess! I'm having fun with this new direction, much better than my first attempt at it at any rate!

[LarkSS]

The custom sprite looks cool dude, hahah ( your problem with the feet imo is that they are too angled down when they should be making aroundd 90 degree angles with her legs. )

I haven't had a chance to look at your music yet; I gotta go soon and your file sizes are huge for .mp3s. =P I'll maybe comment later.

[Rawr]

Thanks for the comments, and about the feet I'll agree! Maybe when I have some time (when I'm not working on my music) I'll fix it up =)

As for the mp3 filesize, its cause I put it on the highest quality and then some of the lengths are long. I just put it at whatever the highest quality was outta Audition, though maybe its because I am using the VBR setting and not a CBR?

[LarkSS]

VBR is actually supposed to make the file size smaller by reducing the bitrate when it thinks more isn't necessary. =P For previewing, I usually use 192kbps, but for final renders I use 320kbps.

[Cyber Rat]

I like "Spectrum" best, but I haven't spent enough time listening to all the tracks to make a final verdict. Music takes time to grow on me...

[Rawr]

Heh, thanks! I've got a long way to go before I'll probably make anything of any real awesome quality, but I'm just happy I'm at least improving somewhat =). So even if my music doesn't grow on you, your comments are still very much appreciated =D!

[Rawr]

Stuff.

Music

College + Moving is preventing me from ever really finishing this stuff. Anyway, I made up a few video game tracks on there too for kicks one day. You can find them as Chase, Underwater1, and Underwater 2. They are repetitive cause I was bored when I made them and wasn't looking for anything spectacular. Out of the other tracks I recommend The Dark, Spectrum, and Phantom. Nothing To Lose was to be a cover track. Time and Chainsaw are mastered out pretty bad.

That aside, has some arts or something:

Right, so the robot cat thing was a character concept I have for what would probably play out in a game that would almost be like Sonic meets Megaman sorta deal. The wierd sketchy thing beside it was a sketch I started of the possible main villain. I like coming up with concepts I'll never probably act upon.

The dude in the bottom is my pal Airlight's character, Adonis , that I sketched out and colored.

Done for some people on a forum I go to, I was doing some VG character requests in the IRC channel. Too bad only three people wanted anything, so I drew up Sonic and Ristar while waiting. Then I got bored lol. Excuse the massive whitespace, I forgot to crop it.

Just a couple character sketches I did one night while talking to a friend. Huzzah.

Then for something sprited because I was bored in the IRC of said forum (a comic battle forum called War for Arcadia if anyone is interested).

Still not finished. Gonna redo a lot of things on there. Been trying to improve my spriting and shite.

I need to post more around here! Its been a while guys.

[Kessler12]

I wish i could draw like you.

[squallff8]

Like Ristar Sketch =)

[Death_Daniel]

I wish i could draw like you.

Like MFZB will tell you, It doesn't come naturaly. The secret to it is "You Learn" simple as that. Practice, Practice and Practice some more.

[Rawr]

Like MFZB will tell you, It doesn't come naturaly. The secret to it is "You Learn" simple as that. Practice, Practice and Practice some more.

This. And I still have a long way at that!

Thanks guys!

[LarkSS]

How much of the "something sprited" image is original?

[Death_Daniel]

How much of the "something sprited" image is original?

Wouldn't he state if it wasn't all custom?

[Rawr]

How much of the "something sprited" image is original?

100% dude. I'm still not done it yet, I haven't had the time to go back and add rails and shit to the broken pathways. I also wanted to add a billboard piece in the background too, just haven't gotten around to it.

Edit:

Another sprite piece. This was done to try and fit in with the BlazBlue style. I did this a while ago actually, the only other place I put it up on was Dustloop. Its still a WIP cause there are lots of messy lines and stuff. Haven't had the time to go back around to it yet! Based off an unused character design from the game. I was also going to do up a scrapped character design of this black samurai dude but just haven't had the time.

[Carl Winslow]

I love your style, it's very pretty! I wish there were more people who had really sketchy and wild stuff.

[LarkSS]

You should take my question is a compliment. ;> Your sketches and pixel art work are just totally awesome.

[Rawr]

Oh haha, thanks guys! I definitely do take that as a compliment, I might have just sounded aggressive since I'm sick and stuff like that.

Thanks again dudes =)

[Rawr]

for college I am making a fake games company webpage so I decided to edit that one mock screenshot I made before and quickly threw together two mock screens for the game this company is making. If that sentence or whatever made no sense, its 2am and I've been working on a multitude of college assignments for close to 9 hours today. I hate semesters ending...ugh.

So yeah, sprite quality is rather inconsistent. I think maybe eventually I would like to turn this into a reality kinda though. I mean I already have some of the base shit here I guess.

[Rawr]

Sketchtime!

Tossin' around some character ideas.

From another project I am working on with a friend, been in progress since summer! HOPEFULLY I can have something surface with this next year. Sketchy and not all the drawings look good

A comic I drew based on an IRC chat. Some other dude named Ben, and myself had a conversation I had to quickly sketch out. The dialogue is pretty much ripped exactly from the chat, except the last panel I made up. Its not all that funny though xD;

A work in progress image! The robotic dude holding the hat is not my character, the rest are. It was from a whole 'draw things steampunk' sorta art jam thing that we are doing on a comic battle site I'm on.

Really shitty background I tried making because I suck at them!

Enjoy I guess!

[Cyber Rat]

First pic: concept wise, it looks pretty bland. The characters look like something that's been done to death and then once more. Of course, an appropriate story could help flesh them out, but just based on the pic, I'd probably say "Oh, look, more mercenaries/big damn heroes". Of course, if you're aiming for that, then by all means, see it through.

Last pic: I really like this one, as far as concept goes. I don't see anything wrong with the background, but I'm not exactly good for technical input.

Based on this post alone, you seem to enjoy drawing archetypes, but have a hard time giving them some unique details. Mind you, archetypes aren't a bad thing, but you should use them as guidelines only.

[Rawr]

Based on this post alone, you seem to enjoy drawing archetypes, but have a hard time giving them some unique details. Mind you, archetypes aren't a bad thing, but you should use them as guidelines only.

I use them more or less as a starting point, and I'm actually not too concerned whether or not the originality on it expands much further in all honesty! Originality is pretty much dead, if you think its original then chances are its not. Reason I say that is that a lot of things have been done already, and so right now a lot of these sketches are just ideas that I've been having and are something to pass the time. If I like where things are going, I'll eventually start building upon it.

First pic: concept wise, it looks pretty bland. The characters look like something that's been done to death and then once more. Of course, an appropriate story could help flesh them out, but just based on the pic, I'd probably say "Oh, look, more mercenaries/big damn heroes". Of course, if you're aiming for that, then by all means, see it through.

I actually just drew those up for the first time pretty much yesterday. Also, looks can be deceiving . Again, also not looking for 100% originality. Every character has been done to death and then once more by this point in time anyway, its inevitable. I've had days where I think I've come up with a really cool original idea only to see it somewhere else, but it doesn't bother me much.

If I told you those characters were actually not mercenaries or "big damn heroes" I bet you wouldn't believe me, but as characters they are actually a group of criminals. I just didn't want to make them look completely evil. Not sure exactly what type of criminals yet, but I have yet to work that out! I'll probably keep doing more sketches, add more steampunk elements to it now that I have a basic idea.

[Serephim]

It is not a good idea to judge characters based on their outfits alone. The most generic looking characters can be made great through a good story. Saying a character design looks "done to death" is a pretty shallow criticism. Unless you want him to strive to make the MOST ORIGINAL THING EVER in every character he draws i dont think you'll get what your looking for. On the other hand, if they were wearing completely normal attire, there wouldn't be much to generalize about them.

[Cyber Rat]

It is not a good idea to judge characters based on their outfits alone. The most generic looking characters can be made great through a good story. Saying a character design looks "done to death" is a pretty shallow criticism. Unless you want him to strive to make the MOST ORIGINAL THING EVER in every character he draws i dont think you'll get what your looking for. On the other hand, if they were wearing completely normal attire, there wouldn't be much to generalize about them.

When I'm talking about design, the last thing I mean are clothes... The characters in the first pic honestly radiate a typical US cartoon team feeling. The brute, the genki girl, the brooding loner and the insane looking gentleman? All packed into one? They don't need clothes for me to notice those things.

Originality is pretty much dead, if you think its original then chances are its not.

That's what artists have been saying for the last 500 years. No, originality is not dead, there is just much more clutter thanks to the Internet. If you're gonna limit yourself from the start like this, you're gonna lose a lot of respect as an artist.

If I told you those characters were actually not mercenaries or "big damn heroes" I bet you wouldn't believe me, but as characters they are actually a group of criminals. I just didn't want to make them look completely evil.

That was pretty much my next guess in the long line of team cliches. Of course, this is not a bad thing, but combined with my first comment in this post, it really looks like mediocrity.

[Rawr]

Edit: There was a long post here, but whatever. I was blowing off steam. However...

I don't mind constructive criticism. So far nothing you have said has really been constructive, aside from telling me things are cliche and that things look mediocre. If you have any actual constructive things to say on how you would make things better, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I really am not getting anything out of this at all.

Edit2: Yeah, I was letting off some steam with the post. Anyway : http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TropesAreTools?from=Main.TropesAreNotBad. Basically what I was trying to say before.

[Cyber Rat]

I can't tell you how to improve the concept for the characters because there is no point building upon them. The basis is just bad in my opinion.

I am aware that tropes/cliches aren't bad, but when somebody looks at your characters and the first thing he sees are the archetypes they represent, rather than seeing them as characters, then something is amiss. I love steampunk, I love playing with tropes and cliches, but from where I'm standing, the idea looks just plain bad.

I know that a cliche basis can turn into something completely different, I'm working on that kind of story myself. But from your post, your reasons sound like you just don't want to try harder, and see nothing wrong with that.

I don't know about the letting off steam, since I haven't read your original post, but just so you know, I try to offer critique in this forum whenever I can. I have no benefit from saying something is awesome or sucks, I say what I honestly think. If you scroll through the rest of your thread you'll see that I said I liked some of your earlier stuff. I think that particular work and concept is bad, and I commented on it.

I might be right, and I might be wrong, but I've had a LOT of ideas in my lifetime, and I've dropped almost all of them because they were shit. I've ended up with 1 detailed concept, and 2 ideas out of hundreds over the last 10 years. A lot of them were dear to me but were ultimately shit and weren't worth working on.

And finally, from the article you linked:

Every story is influenced by what came before it — and storytellers (e.g., writers, directors, actors) are bound to show that influence, intentionally or not, in the process of telling. Just because something's been used before doesn't mean it's a cliché, and stories often gain something by having ties to other works. That said, there certainly is such thing as too derivative, but there's a difference between playing a trope straight and utter Cliche Storm.

The thing in big bold letters is ultimately my problem with your picture/idea, in case it wasn't too clear. It's too much like a lot of things.