Chit-Chat: "L'art pour l'art" - DCC

Not sure I'd be any good as a cake artist, though it's certainly something I wouldn't mind trying one time XD

Though I think I'll stick to what I do right now, which is mostly wiring electronics and making graphics that really need improvement.

um i dont think i would want to do cake design, because i would end up eating everything lol. i'll just stick to photoshop!

Lornami said:

You can also order cake dummies, that are just circle styrofoam that doesn't shed. If you put a small weight on top of those to hold them down while you ice them, as long as you nail them to a board you can decorate them and move them, and just scrape off the icing to do it again. That's how my co-worker learned how to do it at first workplace, I just got thrown into doing full cakes from the start. The steepest cost is the materials. When you're learning you should just use white, and use a canvas piping bag so you can wash it out instead of throwing away the plastic ones.

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You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to order a few of those things, crack into my mother in law's gear (she's got a much nicer set than I do, like those spinning circle plates and everything!-- I'm still piping out of Ziploc bags with the tips trimmed lmao), and just go for it. If I feel like I get a grasp on it, then maybe I'll look at some local bakeries. Worst case I'll have a bunch of fun!

When I get everything I'll posts some pics! :))

Never been a good cake decorator. probably because I've only ever tried once and failed horribly

Anyway, was wondering if I could get opinions on this Primal Groudon semi-pixel over. Made a couple of modifications to the outline. Doing it as part of a suggestion for GPX+.

Fairy said:

You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to order a few of those things, crack into my mother in law's gear (she's got a much nicer set than I do, like those spinning circle plates and everything!-- I'm still piping out of Ziploc bags with the tips trimmed lmao), and just go for it. If I feel like I get a grasp on it, then maybe I'll look at some local bakeries. Worst case I'll have a bunch of fun!

When I get everything I'll posts some pics! :))

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Please do! That's a good attitude to have and it totally means you're gonna have a blast! I look forward to seeing some lovely cake designs ;)

Gigadweeb said:

Never been a good cake decorator. probably because I've only ever tried once and failed horribly

Anyway, was wondering if I could get opinions on this Primal Groudon semi-pixel over. Made a couple of modifications to the outline. Doing it as part of a suggestion for GPX+.

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I would say make the primal lines (the yellow) thinner. I know the lines are normally quite thick, but in this case it kinda distorts the quality of the sprite. That and the claws need a black outline/something to define them. They look too big, and a mess at the moment, where they extend into the hand. Try and get rid off those white lines, or make them equal and fit. Also try and use some stronger contrast between the light areas and the shading. I can just about see it, but it should be more present. Right now Groudon is quite flat. Is that helpful to you?

Ninja Aiden said:

Please do! That's a good attitude to have and it totally means you're gonna have a blast! I look forward to seeing some lovely cake designs ;)



I would say make the primal lines (the yellow) thinner. I know the lines are normally quite thick, but in this case it kinda distorts the quality of the sprite. That and the claws need a black outline/something to define them. They look too big, and a mess at the moment, where they extend into the hand. Try and get rid off those white lines, or make them equal and fit. Also try and use some stronger contrast between the light areas and the shading. I can just about see it, but it should be more present. Right now Groudon is quite flat. Is that helpful to you?

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Hey, thanks dude. I tried thinning out the lines and adding more shading. Unfortunately, PG's glowing lines doesn't really allow for that much shading, so I had to kind of go against its design.



Should I try making the shades a bit darker?

Gigadweeb said:

Hey, thanks dude. I tried thinning out the lines and adding more shading. Unfortunately, PG's glowing lines doesn't really allow for that much shading, so I had to kind of go against its design.

Should I try making the shades a bit darker?

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First things first the hands look so much better. A simple bit of definition really improved it. I would say for the shading, you need to look at the red parts of PG. The shading on the grey of his underbelly is fine now, just try and darken the other parts, and it'll be much better :)

Ninja Aiden said:

First things first the hands look so much better. A simple bit of definition really improved it. I would say for the shading, you need to look at the red parts of PG. The shading on the grey of his underbelly is fine now, just try and darken the other parts, and it'll be much better :)

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Thanks again, dude. Hopefully this should be my final edit, haha.

Let's compare!
First piece:


Updated piece:


I think that speaks for itself, don't you? :D

That's a nice looking sprite you've got there! My advice, watch your pillow shading. There's no clear, defined source of lighting that I can tell. There's also 29 colors present, not the 23 you have in your palette, which is a lot for a sprite anyway. I don't know if you have size/color restrictions, though if this is for GPX I imagine there is, it's definitely something you want to be mindful of.

I recommend working on the outline a bit more. It's jagged and unsmooth in some places, and the coloring can be extremely light, which takes away depth. Lines, be it either outline or shading, usually have some smoothness to them, unless it's a sharp edge. This smoothness is basically the amount of pixels going either up or down per part of the line. That's pixels that actually touch each other. This really helps with making the sprite more smooth. Fairy also has a good point about pillow shading. I have a lot of tutorials saved about shading and spriting, I can see if I can dig those up for ya, if you're interested?

Thanks for the advice, guys.

To be honest, I didn't notice there were 29 colours. Gonna fix that up now.

Also, the pillowshading is a bit iffy, but the fact that PG's lines are supposed to glow kind of put me in a predicament.

No problem! Spriting can be tricky, but you definitely have something good going here.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I recommend just getting down the appropriate shading before trying to add any kind of glowing effect, because honestly if the two are in contrast with one another it's just going to look messy. You're better off going with the "normal" shading/lighting since that's going to be what gives the piece consistency. Makes it easier on the eye with such contrasting colors.

We actually have a tutorial right here that may be useful to you! And if you want an awesome reference, Layell did an amazing Primal Groudon sprite, here. Keep at it and let us see how it goes! :)

Fairy said:

You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to order a few of those things, crack into my mother in law's gear (she's got a much nicer set than I do, like those spinning circle plates and everything!-- I'm still piping out of Ziploc bags with the tips trimmed lmao), and just go for it. If I feel like I get a grasp on it, then maybe I'll look at some local bakeries. Worst case I'll have a bunch of fun!

When I get everything I'll posts some pics! :))

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Yay!! The spinning circle plates are turntables. I have a crappy plastic one at home, but hey it works. At work we have $80 ones that work very well.
(I broke one actually. Also Friday I stacked a wedding cake for the first time. And ended up running my fingers through it hahahahahahahHAHAH)

...Anyways, I had heard about that! You could just use the edge of a plastic ziploc bag, but I never tried it. I'd worry about the bag busting along the seam. We use plastic decorating bags for colors beside white and we just replace them every week. We also put packing tape around the bottom to help them last a little longer and prevent busting, so I wonder if that'd help you out! But like I said, just getting one canvas bag and practicing with white would do you a lot of good. Most walmarts I go to now carry wilton stuff, as does michaels, and it's not ridiculously expensive, as long as you don't get like their big packs with all the whistles. Just a 2 couplers, a bag, and a set or two can get you a long way.

You can look at videos on youtube, a lot with the Wilton method, but a lot of times their techniques aren't really efficient, (oh my god they take forever) and are based around using fancier tools. My boss started out with very little, so she's taught us how to work with less. So please ask me any questions if you need help, or anything! I can find resources/list things for you to start with. : D
(Lets start Aiden's tutoring and I'll be your Cake Mentor hahah)

The Ziploc technique is exactly as fragile as it sounds, lol. It'll be good for bullshitting though though, if for whatever reason I can't find any canvas bags. There's a craft store near me that I'm going to check out today, since they have a lot of cooking-hobbyist type items. So I'm going to see if I can't get a set for cheap. I'm like super excited!

Finally, I think I'm happy with it! Thanks so much lads. I'll probably go back over it when I've improved and make it better, but whatever. Pleased with the end result.

That latest update is really good! The shading looks really good on the leg now, well done!

I have no idea what any of this Ziploc technique is. Too much cake talk in the DCC haha!

EDIT: Due to the overwhelming amount of positive feedback from the discussion, I will likely begin working on the Graphics School in the near future. Give me time to plan it all out and you'll see it probably after the upcoming GT.

Sprited the Moonlight Greatsword from Dark Souls. Please rate.

Hey all,

I wanted to get some feedback on my current signature. I made it myself, but I'm still not very well-versed in designing graphics and such. I'm happy with the background, but I feel like it still lacks depth. Anyone have any advice? :)

Sopheria said:

Hey all,

I wanted to get some feedback on my current signature. I made it myself, but I'm still not very well-versed in designing graphics and such. I'm happy with the background, but I feel like it still lacks depth. Anyone have any advice? :)

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For a start, put it in the quick Q&A thread, that's why I made it :P

I want to write something quite long on it for you, but I'm not yet sure how to word it. If you move it to Q&A before I come back, I'll give you the advice there :)