[WAR II] Pixel Art

[Suicune's Fire]

WAR Team: Jupiter Mining Corporation
Entry:

(glowy version)


(non glowy)
Fakemon selected: My Binode. c:

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Team: Trainer
Entry:

Fakemon selected: Neko's Lumebus

(I have no idea what time stuff ends so if it's too late, I understand. Haven't had time all week except for today xD)

[SassySnivy]

It's alright Sarah, I haven't had much time either. I won't be able to judge until I got home.

But your entry is too late. Sorry. I appreciate that you tried anyhow!

[SassySnivy]

Okay, so it's been brought to my attention that other WAR judges are just taking points off of entries that are a few hours late. And since that's literally just three hours late, I'll still count it to judge...just deduct points. :> @Pokemon Trainer Sarah

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Aww yay, thanks Speed :)

[SassySnivy]

Results! Will get around to posting ALL the judging tomorrow. Won't be home until then...
@monkeybard wins 1st place and gets 3 points for his team
@Suicune's Fire wins 2nd place and 2 points for her team
@Pokemon Trainer Sarah wins 3rd place and 1 point for her team

[SassySnivy]

Scoring

Spoiler:

monkeybard

@monkeybard

First Impression: 15/15

OH MY GOD LUIS THIS IS ****ING AMAZING. That was my first thought when I saw the WIP and then BAM this. You're right about the anti-aliasing around the outlines--it does work well on light / white backgrounds but I am really anal about universality. Still, your lighting and color choice just SCREAMS what Frost Dragon intended for this monster to feel like. The way that you used oranges, yellows, blues, and purples turned out amazingly, especially the way in which you used them so harmoniously. Plus it's a REALLY good use of a semi-complimentary color scheme. This blew me away.

Quality: 9/10

The anti-aliasing is really the only thing that docked a point from this. That's so terribly prevalent here. Just taking off all that anti-aliasing alone wouldn't have diminished the quality, and would have made it 100% more universally friendly. No kidding on this, because I actually just now gave it a shot. Also your contrast between your orange and darker orange could have been a TEENSY bit more. Also I think you may have missed a spot on the back leg where there's still pure black; and a couple of spots where it looks like you still had used a lighter purple color that doesn't exist anywhere else, but just letting you know! :o

Originality: 5/5

Your choice of Fakemon was both unexpected but so predictable. The colors you used and how you used them, the light source you choice, and the pose you chose were all just "wow."

Relativity: 5/5

Total: 34/35

Brettles

@Brettles

First Impression: 10/15

You've definitely come a LONG way since your first entry, Brettles. I know you haven't placed--and sorry if that is/was at all discouraging, I do hope it isn't--but you're one of the few people that stuck with this thing to the end. So I must thank you for that! After getting some advice from Xanthe, it looks like you did make some significant improvements. You can use a low color count without having to worry about dithering so much! :D Contrast isn't always a bad thing.

Quality: 6/10

One big glaring problem I noticed is that big ol' streak of light up near its dorsal fin. While I totally understand what you were going for, I think that harsh highlights like that need to be used a little more strategically. Also, it may have been a good idea to taper off the lines (the highlights) too, like this:

That way it at least comes off a little more naturally. :>
You also might have been able to save a couple of colors if you used black (or a color that acts as black) more throughout the piece. The darkest blue and the color right above (lighter than) that are so close together that you could have tried to do without one of them, for instance. If you were to have done this AND maybe used "black" a little more throughout your outlines (or again, a very dark color that can act as black), you would be able to distinguish certain shapes while still sparing one color that isn't really needed.
So since this hardly makes any sense as I'm typing it, let's look at the dorsal fin of this little guy and how it "rips" out of the paper, in a sense. Or whatever Joe was originally trying to go for. x]
The "rips" you made completely in that darkest blue are just that: solid color.
Actually looking back I see what Joe was aiming at: he made it so that the viewer would be able to see the other side of the ripped label, mimicking the transparent nature of a hollow plastic bottle. Makes sense. I think honestly that that whole area would be totally fine if you weren't to have included that third shade to shade the fin with.
These aren't the only problems quality-wise, but when I give crits I like to focus on the bigger things first and then narrow it down as the artist makes changes...that is if they decide to do so. :> So if you'd like to further this and try to improve it more, just give me a heads-up!

Originality: 3/5

I understand that you're somewhat new when it comes to making stuff like this from scratch...I think. I know you did it in last year's WAR but I've never seen any pixel art from you elsewhere, hence that being my assumption. x] But I'm totally rambling on
I still feel like you could have done a little more with this. It looks like you tried to copy the original artwork pretty exactly, which I can understand. Still, though, even if you were to have made the angle a little bit more 3/4-ish instead of a full profile view it might be more interesting to look at. And hell, maybe a little more fun to make?

Relativity: 5/5

Total: 24/35

Suicune's Fire

@Suicune's Fire

First Impression: 13/15

This is a great sprite rendition of the Fakemon you submitted for drawn art, and I definitely like how you made it. But like with Brettles: I'm not sure what more you could have done with it, but it's pretty standard. It's basically the same as your initial design, which doesn't make it stand out quite as much. :< The shading and everything was done superbly, just it wasn't very adventerous is all. x]

Quality: 9/10

No big problems here! I still think there may be some readability problems on its main body where you have all the circuitry-stuff going on, but I'm not sure that there's really much you could've done about that.

Originality: 3/5

I again feel like you could have done more with this. I do enjoy your choice of blues, though! And how you shaded it makes it really nice to look at.

Relativity: 5/5

Total: 30/35

Pokemon Trainer Sarah

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah

First Impression: 12/15

Firstly, congrats and I love you for not using pure black. xD Well..kinda. You kinda did use it in some spots, probably by mistake. I think its a nice touch that you used the "black" color for shading purposes, though I feel like the black is placed semi-randomly in some areas (i.e. the back / shoulder area), which doesn't seem to visually make much sense..
The fact that you made it animated, with the sparkles, is also a really nice touch that's also pretty subtle.
While ethereal is pretty hard to capture, I feel like the portrayal of this is a little more solid than how ethereal the original design was...at least with the body / abdomen, anyway!

Quality: 7/10

Just a nitpick, but I noticed that there's this dark red color that is very similar to the main body color. They're so similar, in fact, that I feel like there wasn't much of a need to distinguish the two colors apart from each other. Otherwise you did great with the colors! Love the hue-shifting, and I also love that you didn't just use a straight black color ramp for its body and instead made it lean more towards a rusty orange-brown, giving it much more life. :>
I feel like the shading of the wings, while of course they're supposed to look gradiented, looks a little rough. Maybe some mild dithering betweent the colors or maybe even a buffer color between the two colors (RGB Values) 213,114,47 and 239,176,61 would have helped smooth out that transition. Contrast isn't an inherently bad thing, but it kinda makes the wings here look too solid since the wings are meant to be very...not-solid and ethereal, as I said before. xD

Originality: 4/5

I really love the pose in this. The fact that the bottom of the torso / tail area looks like its sitting on a flat surface though takes away just a LITTLE bit from that magnificent appearance, but it's not too bad. It definitely captures the essence of the Fakemon! <3

Relativity: 5/5

Total: 28/35 - 3 (3 hours late) = 25/35

Sorry that some of these are kinda rushed, guys, and as always...if you need me to add more or if something doesn't seem clear to you, don't hesitate to let me know!! :o

[Suicune's Fire]

Eh, I'm happy with that. xD It took me a while to get it how it was there, but I'm happy. I realise I could have done it in a different pose; that would have made it much better looking, probably! I LOVE Luis's sprite and the others are really awesome as well!

[monkeybard]

Thanks for your hard work and all the fun Pixel Art challenges! I have no idea how I missed the stray colours when my palette was right there; I'll be more careful next time. I did consider doing another Fakemon but honestly, I could not resist :P