Ristar

Yeah... what did you actually make? Which pixelart is yours or did you just animate seperate frames? You're just being a bit vague about what it actually is we're meant to be looking at and appreciating :S

Been playing nearly 6 years now, I started at 14 and I'm 20 this year... ugh. I feel so old.

That is a pretty rockin' blanket Rael. I think I already showed everyone my Les Paul, I don't have my frankenstein guitar with me at uni either, so all I have are pictures with my beautiful acoustic: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tKL5VejDewc a video with it in. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2343/2205199419_294d43daac.jpg?v=0 me at a gig... yay.

Just to clarify, how much of the stuff did you do yourself? Perhaps you could post the frames you edited?

Am that a schecter?

Don't eat the green chicken etc.

Why?

Looks fun, origami is pretty class.

boo giving credit where it's due, if you look back to the first post there's definitely been an improvement, without a doubt. Research more logos, steal ideas, merge ideas, make them your own

haha I think I almost remember it... good times like. remember when people thought i did the art for sonic battle?

Nah I was a right fatty back in't day cheers! a pick from back in't day. sex-ee.

I'm the blonde, long haired one Me advertising lager obvs

sonic heroes was utter piffle... really really bad. I only got the Wii version, but I do enjoy it, sure it's not the best game ever but I was really happy to see that there weren't that many bugs and that, at least, the sonic sections made me want to play them again. I just think Sega are stepping in the right direction, anything's better than SOnic Next Gen. _ristar

Why bother asking? You've generally ignored everyone's advice so far. To answer, no it isn't. It's following the same formula as always which is: Lots of Gradients Blending Effects Outlines Sonic Picture in Background And it doesn't look good, it looks tacky and boring.

So I whacked on Sonic Adventure DX the other day to kill some time, and for some reason, when the Sega/Sonic Team logo, appeared I just got thrown down memory lane as to when my mate, Carl, got his Dreamcast. Remember the DreamOn demo (i think it was called this anyway)? I remember the faint whirring of the dreamcast, the long beeps of the VMUs when they had run out of power, that amazing soundpiece on the Dreamcast BIOS screen. And Toy Commander! When I think back to the Dreamcast, I'm just filled with the same coolness as a pack of the most fresh, expensive Philadelphia cheese. My other fond Sega memory is the UK Sonic and Knuckles advert. I was only about 6 or 7 at the time, but I think I remember all these bikers gathered around a TV in a dingy room talking about how "hard" Knuckles is. Oh man... the good old days.

Professor Layton was really quite brilliant, it's just a shame it has like no replay value whatsoever... apart from maybe getting a friend to have a go at the puzzle you found hardest. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness has been pretty amazing; I loved the original Disgaea on PS2, but the PSP version is absolutely brilliant. There's a good amount of extra features added to the game and I haven't really even touched any of them yet... I'm just enjoying playing through the game at the moment. Quite a big fan of Cooking Guide as well, has helped me and the wife sort out quite a few meals whilst we've been at uni.

Hmm... Some of them I quite like but it seems you might be getting too reliant on gradients and other blending effects without first really working on the black and white layout of your text and/or logo. I'd like to see a really bold, interesting looking black and white logo to start with. One of the worst formulas to work with it just putting some fonts together that kind of work with each other and then splashing gradients and drop shadows on them. Just try and think, what do you want your logo to say? Which bits are important and thus need emphasising? Have a think about that and you should be on your way

Characters from a story I'm sort of working on... not really sure about much yet but I've at least got these characters down. All done in Photoshop

Hmm... proportions are a bit off, and I'm not sure about the composition. It kind of looks like Sonic's just going to crash into that wall. Perhaps you need to think about the composition of the picture more and what you were wanting it to look like? Otherwise good stuff!

I change my answer. When by Opeth. If you've never listened to Opeth, please do, it'll change your life.

Reuben - We're All Going Home in an Ambulance

I'm failing to miss the point here. I justified in my statement that I was speaking from experience yet you all seem to be reiterating my idea whilst attempting to disprove it. It's advice, peeps, if you don't like it then ignore it. And at no point did I say that people who couldn't draw had no life, hmm, do I detect someone disagreeing a bit too much here?

ok Spike, I've had a look. That's not the typical western anime thing I was on about. And I respect it as you've done something quite different to the usual. My gripes are that in some of the pics the eyes are too close together to look natural or don't follow the flow of the face. Also in the all over body pics, the hands are too small, and as Link said, the index finger looks a little deflated. A good thing to do is get a mirror and take some pictures of your hand in it and use those as a reference. Final gripe is that in the bottom picture, the bloke's right leg seems to be at an odd angle. If the leg is behind his left leg then the folds want to be going the other way at the knee. Good work though, keep it up.

I'm talking from experience, Spike. It's not a dig at anyone, but if you take my advice offensively then you're missing the point of the topic altogether.

Now I've been meaning to post this for a long time for the budding artists on the forum. A long, long, long time ago I was a member here and I used to do a bit of art here and there - looking back I realise how naive that artwork was. I can say now that a lot of my art has improved dramatically (I also realised that I hate anime now). #1. Get a life - It sounds harsh, but what you have to realise is that a lot of anime is about humans, and outside of your house are humans. At school/college/wherever just get a little sketchpad and start doing speed drawings of people. Trying to catch their pose. The more and more you draw people you start to see how their faces/bodies etc. are constructed - this is a key factor in drawing humans for yourself. A lot of the time I see these horrific square eyes which look unbelievably unnatural, pointy noses etc. and these all scream to me "Western Fanboy Trying to Draw Anime." This may be your style but in the end it never looks convincing. Practice self portraits, look into proportions. Another thing that's annoying is the plot that a lot of western "anime" takes. It's usually about some guy called Kentaro who goes to college but has superpowers and all the girls around him wear short skirts which he perves over and has nosebleeds. Come on mate, that never ever happens in a million years, even in a fiction novel it's not believable and on top of that - the whole premise is incredibly stale. Do something original, dive deep into your own emotions and experiences - getting a life is key to that. Now this whole idea sounds offensive, but back when I was 14 I thought I had a life. I didn't, I'd go to school, come home, flick on Excel Saga or some rubbish anime like that, and read my How to Draw Manga books. Since then, I've lost loads of weight, had some lady-love and made some amazing friends. All of those have combined to create some fantastic experiences which have influenced me. On top of that, friends will pose for you and give you some constructive criticism - so you don't have to turn to the internet. #2. Research - Now it's one thing to copy off an anime, it's another to look into the creator and see where their influences come from. Bruce Lee movies? Fine, bugger the anime, rent a bruce lee dvd and pause it, drawing the stills. Again, practice this and you'll start to understand the anatomy. #3. Be natural - A lot of pictures I see here just give the impression that the creator was trying too hard to achieve a style. If you need to really try then it means that the style you're after just isn't working for you. Think rationally, if you're trying to draw anime and it's not working then maybe the anime style just isn't for you. As we've been talking about basing the art on humans and not the anime style, you have to realise that all this time you've been drawing these reference pictures you've been developing your very own style. Anime is just one little box in the field of cartoons (and let's face it, anime is just a cartoon), you may well be developing your own style which could be revolutionary. #4. Practice - Now this doesn't mean sitting down at a desk every night and knocking off 10 pictures of a nude model - doodling is a great way of practicing drawing. I have psychology folders and textbooks absolutely COVERED with doodles, drawings and lyrics. Doodling is a way of letting some of the unconscious flow out, you'll realise that a lot of the things you think you've forgotten will elucidate themselves in the doodles. I've been drawing since I could first hold a pen and in comparison to a lot of artists out there, I'm still utter wank. But the thing about art in general is that it's a constant journey, the more you research, practise, draw and live will enhance your skills. This is just as applicable to drawing anime or more. To be honest what I'm trying to tell those who strive to achieve the anime style is to step away from it and view it from outside of the box. With the experience of the world outside anime you'll be able to look back on it and be able to either get better at drawing it or turn your back on it altogether. Apologies for length, but the girlfriend didn't complain.