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[TheHappyFace]

After a while posting sprites on this forum i noticed  that the lack of criticism here concerns me.  

The purpose of this thread is to form a place where spriters can receive a good balance of criticism and compliments.
anyone can post sprites here and give comments on those posted.
of course there are some rules to keep in mind.

for posting sprites:
- not more than one of your sprites at the time.
to make sure there ain't over posting.
-place sprites (& descriptions) within a spoiler

for giving critic:
- good balance of positivity but also negativity in your comment.
- be precise, even if it takes some more words (or an image).
- if something is good or bad in your opinion, make sure it is clear that this is just an opinion. depth can be done wrong but style is mostly an opinion.
- motivate your comment, give arguments.

I hope that every spriter can learn from it  

also i'll try to respond and give comments to all sprites posted here.

Good luck and i'll hope we can help you make progress.

[TheHappyFace]

Spoiler

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i'll start off with my own sprite
description:

Spoiler

"A technologically advanced capital ship designed to house the gekelonian people. The Domus-class capital is the first ship created by the gekelonian poeple after the crisis.

The domus-class is a technological advanced capital. The hull has had many changes since it was designed. Every new technologies the gekelonians discovered on there travels got added to the design.

The main weakness of the Domus lies in his low venting and firepower for it's size. This problem is caused by the installation of a new type of armor. The armor is stronger and lighter than most materials known until now but it's harder to adjust and create. therefor mounts and vents were harder to add."

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[xenoargh]

This is a very good start, and I like the design, but it requires a great deal of pixel work before it's really game-ready.

Here is some specific critique:

Spoiler

1.  All fuzzy edges need to be blacklined and fixed.  Edges should be clean.
2.  Every panel line needs to have highlights added where appropriate.
3.  While the use of occlusion is strong, the overall effect is washed-out and the tonal quality is almost entirely weighted towards grays.  If you still have this in layers, consider using Curves to boost the light levels in the areas where you can get a better feeling of white.
4.  The blue-green paint areas need a lot of specific pixel fill and careful weathering / rubbing marks.
5.  Use a slightly darker shade in a one-pixel border where the light source (David used one slightly forward, not just directly overhead for the areas where it mattered) would cast shadow.
6.  Use contrast and small greebles to strengthen areas like the small "launch port" area to give them a little more detail and life.
7.  You may want to try a few small point lights on the the darker areas, where the contrast would serve them well and add a lot of life to the ship.

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[TheHappyFace]

This is a very good start, and I like the design, but it requires a great deal of pixel work before it's really game-ready.

Here is some specific critique:

Spoiler

1.  All fuzzy edges need to be blacklined and fixed.  Edges should be clean.
2.  Every panel line needs to have highlights added where appropriate.
3.  While the use of occlusion is strong, the overall effect is washed-out and the tonal quality is almost entirely weighted towards grays.  If you still have this in layers, consider using Curves to boost the light levels in the areas where you can get a better feeling of white.
4.  The blue-green paint areas need a lot of specific pixel fill and careful weathering / rubbing marks.
5.  Use a slightly darker shade in a one-pixel border where the light source (David used one slightly forward, not just directly overhead for the areas where it mattered) would cast shadow.
6.  Use contrast and small greebles to strengthen areas like the small "launch port" area to give them a little more detail and life.
7.  You may want to try a few small point lights on the the darker areas, where the contrast would serve them well and add a lot of life to the ship.

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many thanks for th comments
just got a questions. my english aint perfect therefor some things are harder for me to understand.
5. could you explain what you mean by this?   

[xenoargh]

Sorry for not writing it clearly, I can see why that was a confusing sentence if English isn't your first language!

Basically, the light source for Vanilla ships is slightly in front of and above the ships.  Therefore, big objects are going to cast a small, but visible, shadow onto things that they're over.  

Same thing applies to edge highlighting; pick areas where the light's going to fall naturally and give them a boost, using white pixels in a layer using the Soft Light setting (in most cases) and then reduce transparency until it's at the value you think works best.

An example, with before and after shots:

[Trylobot]

This is really quite an excellent sprite. (First time seeing it). Good work happyface!

[TheHappyFace]

Sorry for not writing it clearly, I can see why that was a confusing sentence if English isn't your first language!

Basically, the light source for Vanilla ships is slightly in front of and above the ships.  Therefore, big objects are going to cast a small, but visible, shadow onto things that they're over.  

Same thing applies to edge highlighting; pick areas where the light's going to fall naturally and give them a boost, using white pixels in a layer using the Soft Light setting (in most cases) and then reduce transparency until it's at the value you think works best.

An example, with before and after shots:

ah now i see.
i didnt know that yet.
thank you so much, i'll work on it today and if i'm ready i'll upload it.
if someday there is any sprite you want commented on just give me a signal.
i owe you one 

This is really quite an excellent sprite. (First time seeing it). Good work happyface!

that's not a motivated comment trylobot 
still thank you ^ ^

[Okim]

RSF (Russian Stellar Federation) main cruiser. Focuses mainly on ballistic weapons. Designed to engage the enemy in frontal assaults. Has several docking bays for fighters, but those are used only out of combat. Also has several emergency shuttle doors all over the hull as well as multiple vents and capacitors. Heavy armor plates cover the areas that are supposed to get hit the most. Powerful prone is heavily armored and contains limited number of weapons to prevent main ordnance from being disabled by enemy fire.

[TheHappyFace]

Spoiler

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RSF (Russian Stellar Federation) main cruiser. Focuses mainly on ballistic weapons. Designed to engage the enemy in frontal assaults. Has several docking bays for fighters, but those are used only out of combat. Also has several emergency shuttle doors all over the hull as well as multiple vents and capacitors. Heavy armor plates cover the areas that are supposed to get hit the most. Powerful prone is heavily armored and contains limited number of weapons to prevent main ordnance from being disabled by enemy fire.

hmm well , its quiet hard to give some real usefull comments on this.
You got a whole mod of this style. I like it ,
but most comments i have given are not valid for this style because its part of it.

Spoiler

- the ship looks a bit flat mainly because it exists of several levels with no sloping or round surfaces.
you might wanna add some of those to your sprite. (probaply sloping)
- also i am giving yu the advice that was given to me.
try to keep in mind that the starfarer light comes from top and then a little to the front,
so that the shadows on the back side are longer than those on the front side. (maybe not really clearly spoken, see xenoargh's post)
- i prefer sprites being not completly mirrored(just an opinion of mine). try adding and removing details to disrupt this.
- the engines are made of one colour. i guess that they are round . in that case the middle part should be lighter than the outer parts.
- the windows, are those sloping surfaces? if so then i would advice them to get a shade that matches that of a sloping surface.
(lowest part= darkest, highest part brightest)

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to finish my comment i wanna say that i envy the size of your mod. it's not easy to create nice sprites,
but it is a even greater challange to create so many without losing a lot of quality.

[Okim]

Well, its supposed to be flat. Including drives.

Now this ship while also being flat on top - has some sloops on the sides and round drives. What can you tell about it?

EDITED: Odd. My browser makes some dark magic over the png file.

Here is a jpg variant.

[TheHappyFace]

Spoiler

Well, its supposed to be flat. Including drives.

Now this ship while also being flat on top - has some sloops on the sides and round drives. What can you tell about it?

Spoiler

EDITED: Odd. My browser makes some dark magic over the png file.

Here is a jpg variant.

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hmm... so they're supposed to be flat..

I like there design, a bit alien like.
the external "arms" make the ship look unique.

Spoiler

- comparing it to the other one points me at colouring.
the purple-blue color is nice ,but i am more pointing at the coloured details
the middle got a lot of them but the back and the front not.
for me this seems a bit out of balance (in my opinion).

- you also might wanna change the window colouring so they are a bit more clear.
i mean that especially the front windows seem to blend with the rest of the ship instead of
.... how would i say samething like that in english... we would say "jump out".
like orange paint on ash.  . it might look better if it would be more like some of the other details like the yellow bars.

- one thing that also bothers me ,especially on a closer look,
is that the plating seems to disappear closer to the higher part of the ship (where the windows are).
i understand that you probaply did this due to the shadow but i think it woyuld be better to just continue those lines in a darker color.

- in my opinion the "poles" (is this the word?) in the middle don't fit the ship,
but i dont have any motivation for it :/ .
stomach feeling....  

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[Okim]

Poles? What do you mean?

Green windows are a problem indeed. But this particular faction is planned to use unique window colour (as all other factions in fact). Yellow is already used, red, black and blue are used too.

[TheHappyFace]

Poles? What do you mean?

Green windows are a problem indeed. But this particular faction is planned to use unique window colour (as all other factions in fact). Yellow is already used, red, black and blue are used too.

ehm those stick like things on the middle that point outside.
about the green window problem. if they are still in layer try to increase saturation and/or brightness

edit:
old vs new thanks to Xenoargh  

Spoiler

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i tried putting the lights on the darker area's but they turned out not really fitting the ship.
might add them later when i figure out there colour etcetera.
had some problems with the panel lines in the lighter area's sice they were allready 100%white.  

[mendonca]

Oh wow. Nice work indeed!

That sprite jumps out the screen so much more now.

In the interest of being critical, it looks like there are a few pixels kicking about that could do with tidying up, particularly where the cyan stripe hits the grey bits and the grey still pokes through a little. I think if you went through and methodically tidied that up it would improve the sprite again.

[TheHappyFace]

Oh wow. Nice work indeed!

That sprite jumps out the screen so much more now.

In the interest of being critical, it looks like there are a few pixels kicking about that could do with tidying up, particularly where the cyan stripe hits the grey bits and the grey still pokes through a little. I think if you went through and methodically tidied that up it would improve the sprite again.

^ ^
yes indeed,
to respond on your critisism  
i was planning on doing that after i got commented on the sprite
 ,since its probaply easier to do when i flatten the picture.

edit:

Spoiler

i made a frigat for the same faction.
the design is a bit daring ,so i would really like to hear what other people think of it.
the sprite itself probaply need some polishing...

Spoiler

me running from missles, making them ram asteroids and such.  
its a weak ,but really maneauvrable ship equipped with 4 small energy hardpoints
(accually wanted built-in weapons but for some reason it didnt work with trylobot's ship editor...)
ow and the engine flames are actually bigger than on in the picture

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