Messages

They only turn blue once you find them, of course.

Thanks to astauber for allowing me to wish my birthday buddies well, without sounding like I was fishing!

Happy birthday guys!

I agree with Ben, a great guide! I also agree that 32 bit could improve the look (it might help to begin on a transparent backdrop too).

But if you need to use 16 bit and don't want to clean up the anti-aliasing with a brush, you should be able to tune the tolerance of the flood fill tool to do the work for you.

Could you ask that question in the form of a photoshopped picture of a cute child?

I'm able to edit my game without the password as long as I'm logged in to the forum - doesn't that work for you?

I missed this... a belated happy birthday to Dave and Strazer and me!

And Ewan McGregor, though he doesn't visit the forums often.

[Photoshop Biweekly]

Just a couple of thoughts on the existing contests.

Photoshop Biweekly-
Interest has waned somewhat since DGMacphee handed it over to some loser who turned it into a regular winner-hosts-the-next contest. Ahem...

Like some of the less popular contests it often has good challenges, but few entries. Extending its length to a fortnight has helped, but I'd like to see it revitalised a little more.

Perhaps the host should provide at least one image which must be integrated into the entries. Or perhaps we could consider a photoshop-off to choose another regular host.


Coloring Contest-
This has been a bit of a mess, and is at the moment treading on the toes of the sprite jam. If it was renamed the Paintover Contest and didn't require a theme it might be fun. AGSers are always keen to paint-over work in the critics lounge. This would be an opportunity to do the same, but to subversive or comic effect.

I don't think it should be restricted to sprites either, any 2D line art ought to be submissible. I'll admit that this is close to the 'Sketch to Functional Background' contest but that doesn't seem to be running at the moment.

The other advantage of the name Paintover Contest, is that it wouldn't include the US spelling of 'colour'.

What was the process of coloring images for CMI?
I've been trying to duplicate this image to test my coloring.
I can't figure out how there are so many areas with bunches of colors that don't even seem to go together.
One of those yellow knobs alone contains 50 colors.
Was this done by hand?
How were the outlines rendered without going outside the color palette?
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What is the process of creating a background and coloring it in this style while using a limited palette?
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I can't say for certain, but I'd guess that the backdrops for CMI weren't painted with a limited pallete. I imagine they'd have been produced with millions of colours and then limited to under 256 with dithering to keep gradients looking smooth.

is it generally frowned upon to essentially trace over, even though your art is technically original?

Lots of AGSers trace images. Prince of Persia used tracing. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs used tracing! Lots of people trace, I don't think you should worry about it.

Using advanced imaging technology, I think we can work out who took this picture...