I love it so far! Nice to see someone running with the theme of fall/Halloween.
Thanks! That means a lot to me!
I went with it mainly because it was the only idea that really jumped out at me as I was looking through the palettes. As I said on yesterday's daily, I don't really like autumn. Contests like these are said to be a good way to get out of one's artistic comfort zone. Dealing with textures WAY simpler than what I'd normally make and working with a theme that I don't particularly care for and a higher resolution than I'm used to working in is about as far from my comfort zone as I can get! Seriously, by the time this contest is over I'll return to work on Sanity feeling like I just got back from a month in a foreign country. (OK, maybe not. Hyperbole and all that)
Wow, 12 textures a day? I guess I'm not going to make it then.
That's only if all of the blocks are required. I have no idea what "most" in Rule #6 means. For all I know it could mean 51% of all the block textures at which case it would only be half that amount.
Also, that number was for me personally. It'll be different if you have more or less done than I do.
Ah, derp. I didn't see your entry so I thought you were commenting on what I said. It helps if you quote who you're replying to.
Your textures aren't all that simple. There's quite a bit of dithering in them. As others have said, I don't think they qualify for this contest.
Outside of the contest, though, they're not bad. Not all that good either. I'm not a big fan of the pillow shading on the bricks. It looks like you've sort of gone with a light direction... but didn't totally commit to it with a lot of highlight on the bottom of the brick. If you want to do this, use a block model to make that version a top-face only and have a different version with more definite lighting for the sides.
I like the glass quite a bit. I feel that with that pattern large windows would be decorative without being distracting. Very nice.
On the other hand there's also the issue of the dark line in the sand. What's that supposed to be anyway? Seems odd that it would be a shadow that dark on sand that hasn't been sculpted.
The grass is quite good. Possibly the closest to a "simple" texture you have, it really seems like blades of grass. Although there's something of a pattern to it, I don't think it would be all that distracting. This is also a great opportunity to use random textures. Remove the random rotation from your grass block model and instead have two or three additional variations of the same grass texture to break up the pattern a little bit. I'll bet it'll look amazing.
Finally, ores all look the same. This is becoming a HUGE pet-peeve of mine, and seems lazy and repetitive. Shape is as much a part of identifying a block quickly as the color is.
The dithering is very good, and you have some good ideas. You have excellent technique, you just need to work on design in a few places.
"Fall of Autumn" Daily - Day 3: A Little Cobblestone Village
Today was a good day. I created 37 textures for this challenge, and a few for "Sanity" as well. I finally feel like I'm catching up to those of you who got started on the first day of the competition! Right now, I'm 27% of the way through the blocks, so I still have a long way to go to make the 60%-75% that Peyton mentioned as being the requirement. Still, at this rate it'll only take me about four more days to get to that point.
Hopefully I can get a few more done tonight before going to bed. I'll count those as part of tomorrow, though.
Critiques are appreciated... but don't bother mentioning the ugly diagonal in the cobblestone. I already see it, and am going to fix it right now!
You are so fast at making textures it blows my mind how you can churn out 37 texture in a day, wow.
It's because I'm a loser who has absolutely no life.
Actually, that's only part of it. A big part of it is the simple style. I don't need to put a lot of thought into what I do, relying on large clusters of pixels and shapes rather than trying to get the shading perfect. Contrast the pack that I'm making with this challenge with "Sanity". I can spend all day doing just ten or eleven textures for that pack, so even though the canvas for "Fall of Autumn" is four times as large I can still make the textures three times as quickly due to the simple style.
The rest of it is just conditioning from my one and only gig working in the gaming industry. I worked for a small indie studio that, unfortunately, went out of business without producing a single game. Working in that environment getting things done quickly was the name of the game so I really had to condition myself to do my work as efficiently as possible. I wasn't doing texture work there, but the same work habits still come through in my artwork to this day.
I cringe at the though of what people working at a better run studio would say about my workflow.
Anyway, here's some more progress: cobble, moss stone, and glass.
I've never been a fan of the broken border on glass, particularly if there's no streaks on the inside.
On the other hand, I do like the cobble. Particularly the mossy cobble. It's an interesting choice not having it green... though I don't remember which palette you said you were using so for all I know you don't have a green to use. Either way I like it because it provides a nice subversion to the usual mossy stone making it feel wet, damp, and clammy more than actually mossy. Well done!
I've never been a fan of the broken border on glass, particularly if there's no streaks on the inside.
On the other hand, I do like the cobble. Particularly the mossy cobble. It's an interesting choice not having it green... though I don't remember which palette you said you were using so for all I know you don't have a green to use. Either way I like it because it provides a nice subversion to the usual mossy stone making it feel wet, damp, and clammy more than actually mossy. Well done!
I did try a solid border, but it didn't look as good to me, so I went with the broken border. As for the cobble, that's just the style of the pack. I'm trying for shape and line with a (shh!) monochromatic color scheme. You'll notice that in the wool screenshot I posted (on p10), there are nine "colors" of grayscale and only seven actual colors
Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.
The roses are wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head.
"Fall of Autumn" Daily - Day 4: A Tower in the Mesa
Not feeling too good about the amount I got done today. I got 36 more textures done... but 14 of them are effectively just a single texture recolored multiple times. That would be the hardened clay, in case anyone is wondering. I'm not even sure if I like it. It's far more geometric than most of the designs in the pack, but it was really all I could come up with. I don't know. I might fiddle with it more later.
And speaking of textures I'm not sure I like, how about that sandstone? I'm not at all happy with it, but sandstone has always been one of those textures that always seems to illude me. Not sure why. Regardless, I don't really like it, but I'm going to keep it for now because, well, I can't think of anything better.
I intended to have the furnace, dispenser, and dropper done as well, but I added WAY too much detail to the textures and, well, they had to be scrapped because they didn't fit the contest. At all. Add to that the fact that I re-did the stone bricks three times and this wasn't nearly as productive a days as it should have been.
I'm quite proud of the cactus though.
Critiques are appreciated... even though I already know I don't like most of it today.
I did try a solid border, but it didn't look as good to me, so I went with the broken border. As for the cobble, that's just the style of the pack. I'm trying for shape and line with a (shh!) monochromatic color scheme. You'll notice that in the wool screenshot I posted (on p10), there are nine "colors" of grayscale and only seven actual colors
Ah, OK. I see what you're going for. Yea, I think you've done a rather good job of it!
It's actually only 16 colors. It looks impressive because it has a bunch of charts and graphs with it that show a lot of cool information that will probably never be of use to anyone.
So I'm gonna give this a shot. My palette to contribute is the DB16 palette.
And I'm going to be using Peyton's palette.
That would be amazing with a high-res pack, what with all the crosshatched colour mixes you can make. Unfortunately, since dithering isn't allowed, it's going to be quite a challenge to anybody who picks it...
Since when is dithering not allowed? Dithering doesn't automatically make it 'unsimple'.
When you look at a well-dithered texture do you automatically say "Oh, how simple!" If you do... you're in the minority on this one. Most people ho look at a texture with dithering see it as pixel art that has, by the nature of having complex shading, escaped the "simple pack" ghetto.
Again, just my two cents. Not for me to make a ruling on. I'll let Peyton handle that.
On dithering, it's only not simple if it's used for shading. Dithering to make a new color doesn't make the texture un-simple, as in this screenshot (NOT part of the contest -- for anyone curious, it was for the MS Paint challenge before it was shut down)
"Fall of Autumn" Daily - Day 5: A Tale of Snow and Redstone
I'm stopping a little early today because I'm tired. I got 32 textures done, and that's quite enough for me. Well... 32 main textures. I also did a few extras for block model tricks but I doubt they count for the contest.
Using a palette really highlights how much we really need to be able to change the colors of hard-coded stuff like Redstone. Just look at that screenshot! It stands out like a sore thumb being so much brighter and more saturated than literally everything else in the scene. I would just remove the overlay... but then there's the problem of telling signal strength by looking at it. It's kind of a no-win situation.
I kind of hate and kind of love the snow. The darker leaves amidst the white snow just look ugly. Then again... I could also argue that they look like autumn. Just a thin layer of snow covering the fallen leaves with some brown still sticking through the thin powder. Hmmm... Let me know what you think about it. I won't change it for the contest (I have no shades of gray in between the leaves and the white), but I may change it afterwards based on feedback.
That aside, I did pretty much all of the technical blocks today and I'm pretty happy with them. Not entirely keen on how comparators and repeaters look when lit. It hadn't occurred to me that the "torch" part of the models would be different between the two. I suppose I could go mucking about in the model files if I wanted to, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Let me know what you think.
Critiques are appreciated.
Also... does it feel like this party is starting to die out? I feel like everyone's started to get their coats and I'm still dancing...
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Retired StaffThanks! That means a lot to me!
I went with it mainly because it was the only idea that really jumped out at me as I was looking through the palettes. As I said on yesterday's daily, I don't really like autumn. Contests like these are said to be a good way to get out of one's artistic comfort zone. Dealing with textures WAY simpler than what I'd normally make and working with a theme that I don't particularly care for and a higher resolution than I'm used to working in is about as far from my comfort zone as I can get!
That's only if all of the blocks are required. I have no idea what "most" in Rule #6 means.
Also, that number was for me personally. It'll be different if you have more or less done than I do.
Cozzmy, those definitely are not simple
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Retired StaffScreenshots have been posted. I'll leave that for you to decide for yourself.
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Retired StaffAh, derp.
Your textures aren't all that simple. There's quite a bit of dithering in them. As others have said, I don't think they qualify for this contest.
Outside of the contest, though, they're not bad. Not all that good either. I'm not a big fan of the pillow shading on the bricks. It looks like you've sort of gone with a light direction... but didn't totally commit to it with a lot of highlight on the bottom of the brick. If you want to do this, use a block model to make that version a top-face only and have a different version with more definite lighting for the sides.
I like the glass quite a bit. I feel that with that pattern large windows would be decorative without being distracting. Very nice.
On the other hand there's also the issue of the dark line in the sand. What's that supposed to be anyway? Seems odd that it would be a shadow that dark on sand that hasn't been sculpted.
The grass is quite good. Possibly the closest to a "simple" texture you have, it really seems like blades of grass. Although there's something of a pattern to it, I don't think it would be all that distracting. This is also a great opportunity to use random textures. Remove the random rotation from your grass block model and instead have two or three additional variations of the same grass texture to break up the pattern a little bit. I'll bet it'll look amazing.
Finally, ores all look the same. This is becoming a HUGE pet-peeve of mine, and seems lazy and repetitive. Shape is as much a part of identifying a block quickly as the color is.
The dithering is very good, and you have some good ideas. You have excellent technique, you just need to work on design in a few places.
I hope that helps you.
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Retired StaffToday was a good day. I created 37 textures for this challenge, and a few for "Sanity" as well. I finally feel like I'm catching up to those of you who got started on the first day of the competition!
Hopefully I can get a few more done tonight before going to bed. I'll count those as part of tomorrow, though.
Critiques are appreciated... but don't bother mentioning the ugly diagonal in the cobblestone. I already see it, and am going to fix it right now!
You are so fast at making textures it blows my mind how you can churn out 37 texture in a day, wow.
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Retired StaffThanks! That's very high praise!
It's because I'm a loser who has absolutely no life.
Actually, that's only part of it. A big part of it is the simple style. I don't need to put a lot of thought into what I do, relying on large clusters of pixels and shapes rather than trying to get the shading perfect. Contrast the pack that I'm making with this challenge with "Sanity". I can spend all day doing just ten or eleven textures for that pack, so even though the canvas for "Fall of Autumn" is four times as large I can still make the textures three times as quickly due to the simple style.
The rest of it is just conditioning from my one and only gig working in the gaming industry. I worked for a small indie studio that, unfortunately, went out of business without producing a single game.
I cringe at the though of what people working at a better run studio would say about my workflow.
Madness!
Anyway, here's some more progress: cobble, moss stone, and glass.
Putting the CENDENT back in transcendent!
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Retired StaffNo, Sanity!
I've never been a fan of the broken border on glass, particularly if there's no streaks on the inside.
On the other hand, I do like the cobble. Particularly the mossy cobble. It's an interesting choice not having it green... though I don't remember which palette you said you were using so for all I know you don't have a green to use.
Quoth the raven
I did try a solid border, but it didn't look as good to me, so I went with the broken border. As for the cobble, that's just the style of the pack. I'm trying for shape and line with a (shh!) monochromatic color scheme. You'll notice that in the wool screenshot I posted (on p10), there are nine "colors" of grayscale and only seven actual colors
Putting the CENDENT back in transcendent!
And I'm going to be using Peyton's palette.
The roses are wilted, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty, and so is your head.
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Retired StaffAnd speaking of textures I'm not sure I like, how about that sandstone? I'm not at all happy with it, but sandstone has always been one of those textures that always seems to illude me. Not sure why.
I intended to have the furnace, dispenser, and dropper done as well, but I added WAY too much detail to the textures and, well, they had to be scrapped because they didn't fit the contest. At all.
I'm quite proud of the cactus though.
Critiques are appreciated... even though I already know I don't like most of it today.
Ah, OK. I see what you're going for. Yea, I think you've done a rather good job of it!
It's actually only 16 colors. It looks impressive because it has a bunch of charts and graphs with it that show a lot of cool information that will probably never be of use to anyone.
That would be amazing with a high-res pack, what with all the crosshatched colour mixes you can make. Unfortunately, since dithering isn't allowed, it's going to be quite a challenge to anybody who picks it...
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Retired StaffWhen you look at a well-dithered texture do you automatically say "Oh, how simple!" If you do... you're in the minority on this one. Most people ho look at a texture with dithering see it as pixel art that has, by the nature of having complex shading, escaped the "simple pack" ghetto.
Again, just my two cents. Not for me to make a ruling on. I'll let Peyton handle that.
Putting the CENDENT back in transcendent!
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Retired StaffI'm stopping a little early today because I'm tired. I got 32 textures done, and that's quite enough for me. Well... 32 main textures. I also did a few extras for block model tricks but I doubt they count for the contest.
Using a palette really highlights how much we really need to be able to change the colors of hard-coded stuff like Redstone. Just look at that screenshot! It stands out like a sore thumb being so much brighter and more saturated than literally everything else in the scene. I would just remove the overlay... but then there's the problem of telling signal strength by looking at it. It's kind of a no-win situation.
I kind of hate and kind of love the snow. The darker leaves amidst the white snow just look ugly. Then again... I could also argue that they look like autumn. Just a thin layer of snow covering the fallen leaves with some brown still sticking through the thin powder. Hmmm... Let me know what you think about it. I won't change it for the contest (I have no shades of gray in between the leaves and the white), but I may change it afterwards based on feedback.
That aside, I did pretty much all of the technical blocks today and I'm pretty happy with them. Not entirely keen on how comparators and repeaters look when lit. It hadn't occurred to me that the "torch" part of the models would be different between the two. I suppose I could go mucking about in the model files if I wanted to, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Let me know what you think.
Critiques are appreciated.
Also... does it feel like this party is starting to die out? I feel like everyone's started to get their coats and I'm still dancing...