In case anyone is interested, I did in fact attempt a critique video for Ventura. Please check it out when you have time (warning: long) and leave feedback on what I could do better in future videos.
Nah, I'm kidding. It's a really well-produced video. I like that you're going really in-depth on the subject matter here, but is it worth all the effort when you can usually tell right off the bat wether you'll like (& download) a pack or not?
However, for other artist such as myself *cough*, it's quite educational to hear such a concise opinion on the overall artstyle.
Here's the thing: I'm not sure. So far everyone who gave me feedback has said that they enjoyed it and found it interesting. This includes artists and non-artists alike.
However most of the people who said they'd give me feedback didn't. As such it's entirely possible that the majority of people didn't like it and just aren't saying anything. So really, I have no idea. All I can do is continue to make videos that people say they like and I guess the people who don't say anything can just go wanting.
TL;DR : Perfect video for texture artists, less so for your average players that are just looking for a pack to use.
I'm going to try to be more concise in future videos, but it's hard because I want to comment on everything. These videos really are geared more towards artists, or at least people who care about the medium, since they are proper reviews and not just the usual "this is grass... this is podzol..." kinda crap that's all too common.
I don't want to release the map specifically because I don't want other people using it in lame reviews. Making something like this isn't difficult per say... but it does take a bit of time learning the tools of map making. Honestly if you can figure out the workings of modern resource packs you can probably figure out how to do what I did.
Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate it!
I'd agree with Vexilius here. The video was very well done, detailed and informative, but it's length won't attract the more casual minecraft audience. If you could, maybe find a way to shorten them a bit, while still making it informative; this video was almost an hour long, and thats without items or many mobs. But other than that, great job! I hope to see more videos soon.
I'd agree with Vexilius here. The video was very well done, detailed and informative, but it's length won't attract the more casual minecraft audience. If you could, maybe find a way to shorten them a bit, while still making it informative; this video was almost an hour long, and thats without items or many mobs. But other than that, great job! I hope to see more videos soon.
Edit: Ninja'd.
I'll work on keeping everything more concise in future videos. I'm still learning how to do this sort of thing as it's a lot different than the normal LP type of video. The length has come up a lot... interestingly with almost everyone saying that other people probably wouldn't enjoy watching it. This makes me wonder if it isn't just fine to have them be an hour and that everyone just assumes that everyone else has a short attention span.
But regardless, I'll try to keep them to 45 minutes from now on. Try. No Guarantees.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I appreciate it a lot!
I have one thing to say: Jump cuts! The length of the video could be dramatically reduced by assessing each texture and eliminating any silence in between texture criticisms (obviously some silence is good, to give the listener time to reflect).
Here's the thing about tiling. I agreed with a lot of your assessments to do with tiling, but some of them are... problematic. In 16x, it's almost impossible to avoid some level of tiling without using randomized textures. At higher resolutions, it becomes an even worse problem because tiling problems can only be avoided by sacrificing detail. Still a good critique overall.
Also, I think you overlaid your commentary track twice? You start commentating, then you start commentating again about 3 seconds later, which gives the whole video a very slight delay between visual and audio.
I have one thing to say: Jump cuts! The length of the video could be dramatically reduced by assessing each texture and eliminating any silence in between texture criticisms (obviously some silence is good, to give the listener time to reflect).
I'm still working on how I do these. I appreciate the feedback. I tried keeping the dead air to a minimum, but apparently I didn't do a good enough job. I'll see about getting better in the future.
Here's the thing about tiling. I agreed with a lot of your assessments to do with tiling, but some of them are... problematic. In 16x, it's almost impossible to avoid some level of tiling without using randomized textures. At higher resolutions, it becomes an even worse problem because tiling problems can only be avoided by sacrificing detail. Still a good critique overall.
I only called it out in places where I felt that it was particularly obvious. Even at 16x, there's a lot you can do to trick the eye into not seeing the tiling. A good example is to never have a standout detail that repeats only once in a texture, or that repeats in a strict line. I made note of it because I feel like this pack could have done better with it given how simple it was supposed to be.
Also, I think you overlaid your commentary track twice? You start commentating, then you start commentating again about 3 seconds later, which gives the whole video a very slight delay between visual and audio.
I don't hear this, nor do I see it in my video editor. Since you're the only person to bring it up, I'm thinking it's a problem on your end... or Youtube just messed up for you. Does it happen with any of my other videos? Alternately, can anyone else confirm this is a thing?
It appears that the entity addons for Pocket Edition are built right into resource packs from the information gathered on the front page video. Very exciting if entity addons end up coming to the Java version of the game. Resource packs will be loaded!
Refining some textures in Ventura, here's the stone bricks and oak:
Toned down the contrast and added another highlight. Still not happy with the oak logs, but they're better than what they originally were anyway. Whatcha think?
The problem with your oak logs I think is that they are too bubbly. I think your original design was good, but it would be better if you had a more rectangular chunky look than a circular blob look. That is, emphasis the verticality of the bark.
I can see what you're going for with the polished diorite, and to an extent with the andesite. However, I'm not terribly convinced by the polished Granite for some reason. It's a good idea, but the border in-between each square is too defined for me: The side to side border should be less dark, so there's an "easier" transition. It's a great improvement though.
I'm not sure if you want to try this, but perhaps you could introduce a similar style of polished stone for each type? I'm not sure which one you would prefer, but ironically I think the granite has the most potential for 'uniqueness' in relation to your other textures. While the polished diorite could be an alternate texture for stone bricks (if it were darker), I think the different stones should stand out in at least some sense, rather than being lighter versions of other blocks. Perhaps...
Andesite could be more patterned on the inside edge - details like cracks of light brick forms within the colourfield.
Diorite could be a slightly diagonal version of the granite? OR even four small polished-andesite blocks, obviously 8x8 tiled 4 times, so that you could have more ways to have a 'manufactured' style.
What makes a good end stone texture? My pack is sort of a bleak/hellish theme while being "Faithful". so I tried some stuff like making some different black colored endstones but it always looks kinda weird... I think the skybox kinda throws me off? I don't honestly know.
In case anyone is interested, I did in fact attempt a critique video for Ventura. Please check it out when you have time (warning: long) and leave feedback on what I could do better in future videos.
Fantastic video! It's so nice to see someone reviewing a pack who actually knows what they're talking about, none of the usual "oh, here's sand. Looking pretty good. Here's stone... nice. Here's grass... looking great". You're not afraid to actually criticize.
I will criticize both the pack & video. I broke down his video & tell him everything I like & hated about his video. Now I could make a video criticizing the pack too, BUT the video would not be a good as my other (artwork timelapses) videos, also I'm not that good of an artist to be criticizing the pack(s)
As a result, I've been trying to make do with the default folder viewer of Windows 8.
Everything seemed to be going fine, in a disjointed sort of way, until I suddenly got an error message when I tried to open the pack that I was working on minutes before.
"The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid'
I cannot open it.
Is there a way to fix this? Will I be able to open it with WinRAR?
EDIT: The pack loaded fine in Minecraft. I guess nothing's really wrong.
I've honestly rewatched your video, or at least parts of it, a lot more than I expected. I really hope you're working on more because there's nothing else like that on youtube for resource packs. It's entertaining, interesting and informative to watch.
I mean there are still a few things to be improved, but I really hope we'll be seeing a lot more of these in the future!
I've honestly rewatched your video, or at least parts of it, a lot more than I expected. I really hope you're working on more because there's nothing else like that on youtube for resource packs. It's entertaining, interesting and informative to watch.
I mean there are still a few things to be improved, but I really hope we'll be seeing a lot more of these in the future!
There will definitely be more coming. Right now I'm finishing up doing Horror maps for October. I'm planning to have another one as a Super Secret Bonus Video (don't tell anyone, but spread the word) this Saturday. After that I'd like to make it a weekly feature of my channel. Certainly there must be at least 52 packs in circulation for me to talk about over a year... right?
But unless there's a major rebellion or I totally run out of stuff to critique I'm not dropping Alvoria Critiques from my channel. It's the series I most wanted to do since the beginning so there's no way I'm giving it up.
In case anyone is interested, I did in fact attempt a critique video for Ventura. Please check it out when you have time (warning: long) and leave feedback on what I could do better in future videos.
Is my voice really that bad?
Here's the thing: I'm not sure. So far everyone who gave me feedback has said that they enjoyed it and found it interesting. This includes artists and non-artists alike.
However most of the people who said they'd give me feedback didn't. As such it's entirely possible that the majority of people didn't like it and just aren't saying anything. So really, I have no idea. All I can do is continue to make videos that people say they like and I guess the people who don't say anything can just go wanting.
I'm going to try to be more concise in future videos, but it's hard because I want to comment on everything. These videos really are geared more towards artists, or at least people who care about the medium, since they are proper reviews and not just the usual "this is grass... this is podzol..." kinda crap that's all too common.
I don't want to release the map specifically because I don't want other people using it in lame reviews. Making something like this isn't difficult per say... but it does take a bit of time learning the tools of map making. Honestly if you can figure out the workings of modern resource packs you can probably figure out how to do what I did.
Thank you for the feedback! I really appreciate it!
I'd agree with Vexilius here. The video was very well done, detailed and informative, but it's length won't attract the more casual minecraft audience. If you could, maybe find a way to shorten them a bit, while still making it informative; this video was almost an hour long, and thats without items or many mobs. But other than that, great job! I hope to see more videos soon.
Edit: Ninja'd.
I'll work on keeping everything more concise in future videos. I'm still learning how to do this sort of thing as it's a lot different than the normal LP type of video. The length has come up a lot... interestingly with almost everyone saying that other people probably wouldn't enjoy watching it. This makes me wonder if it isn't just fine to have them be an hour and that everyone just assumes that everyone else has a short attention span.
But regardless, I'll try to keep them to 45 minutes from now on. Try. No Guarantees.
Thank you very much for your feedback. I appreciate it a lot!
I have one thing to say: Jump cuts! The length of the video could be dramatically reduced by assessing each texture and eliminating any silence in between texture criticisms (obviously some silence is good, to give the listener time to reflect).
Here's the thing about tiling. I agreed with a lot of your assessments to do with tiling, but some of them are... problematic. In 16x, it's almost impossible to avoid some level of tiling without using randomized textures. At higher resolutions, it becomes an even worse problem because tiling problems can only be avoided by sacrificing detail. Still a good critique overall.
Also, I think you overlaid your commentary track twice? You start commentating, then you start commentating again about 3 seconds later, which gives the whole video a very slight delay between visual and audio.
I really like those reviews
I'm still working on how I do these. I appreciate the feedback. I tried keeping the dead air to a minimum, but apparently I didn't do a good enough job. I'll see about getting better in the future.
I only called it out in places where I felt that it was particularly obvious. Even at 16x, there's a lot you can do to trick the eye into not seeing the tiling. A good example is to never have a standout detail that repeats only once in a texture, or that repeats in a strict line. I made note of it because I feel like this pack could have done better with it given how simple it was supposed to be.
I don't hear this, nor do I see it in my video editor. Since you're the only person to bring it up, I'm thinking it's a problem on your end... or Youtube just messed up for you. Does it happen with any of my other videos? Alternately, can anyone else confirm this is a thing?
Thank you!
Made a bunch of stuff:
Llamas for 1.10...
• Follow Lithos on Twitter for release announcments
* Join the Lithos Discord for previews and to help
It appears that the entity addons for Pocket Edition are built right into resource packs from the information gathered on the front page video. Very exciting if entity addons end up coming to the Java version of the game. Resource packs will be loaded!
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The problem with your oak logs I think is that they are too bubbly. I think your original design was good, but it would be better if you had a more rectangular chunky look than a circular blob look. That is, emphasis the verticality of the bark.
I can see what you're going for with the polished diorite, and to an extent with the andesite. However, I'm not terribly convinced by the polished Granite for some reason. It's a good idea, but the border in-between each square is too defined for me: The side to side border should be less dark, so there's an "easier" transition. It's a great improvement though.
I'm not sure if you want to try this, but perhaps you could introduce a similar style of polished stone for each type? I'm not sure which one you would prefer, but ironically I think the granite has the most potential for 'uniqueness' in relation to your other textures. While the polished diorite could be an alternate texture for stone bricks (if it were darker), I think the different stones should stand out in at least some sense, rather than being lighter versions of other blocks. Perhaps...
Andesite could be more patterned on the inside edge - details like cracks of light brick forms within the colourfield.
Diorite could be a slightly diagonal version of the granite? OR even four small polished-andesite blocks, obviously 8x8 tiled 4 times, so that you could have more ways to have a 'manufactured' style.
What makes a good end stone texture? My pack is sort of a bleak/hellish theme while being "Faithful". so I tried some stuff like making some different black colored endstones but it always looks kinda weird... I think the skybox kinda throws me off? I don't honestly know.
Fantastic video! It's so nice to see someone reviewing a pack who actually knows what they're talking about, none of the usual "oh, here's sand. Looking pretty good. Here's stone... nice. Here's grass... looking great". You're not afraid to actually criticize.
I will criticize both the pack & video. I broke down his video & tell him everything I like & hated about his video. Now I could make a video criticizing the pack too, BUT the video would not be a good as my other (artwork timelapses) videos, also I'm not that good of an artist to be criticizing the pack(s)
I've been stuck on a computer without WinRAR.
As a result, I've been trying to make do with the default folder viewer of Windows 8.
Everything seemed to be going fine, in a disjointed sort of way, until I suddenly got an error message when I tried to open the pack that I was working on minutes before.
"The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid'
I cannot open it.
Is there a way to fix this? Will I be able to open it with WinRAR?
EDIT: The pack loaded fine in Minecraft. I guess nothing's really wrong.
I've honestly rewatched your video, or at least parts of it, a lot more than I expected. I really hope you're working on more because there's nothing else like that on youtube for resource packs. It's entertaining, interesting and informative to watch.
I mean there are still a few things to be improved, but I really hope we'll be seeing a lot more of these in the future!
There will definitely be more coming. Right now I'm finishing up doing Horror maps for October. I'm planning to have another one as a Super Secret Bonus Video (don't tell anyone, but spread the word) this Saturday. After that I'd like to make it a weekly feature of my channel. Certainly there must be at least 52 packs in circulation for me to talk about over a year... right?
But unless there's a major rebellion or I totally run out of stuff to critique I'm not dropping Alvoria Critiques from my channel. It's the series I most wanted to do since the beginning so there's no way I'm giving it up.
Is it still possible to change the record music?
Should be,
My records work in 1.10