Knuckstrike's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[With A Little Help]

Cute indeed

With the original picture I already thought they look cute, but now they look even more cute.
The styles of the four characters differ from each other, even now they're simplified. You did a really good job on that.

The only negative point of simplification is that they all look cute now, which is not what some of the characters are supposed to be I think.

The simplicity of this piece of art makes it difficult to review it. Overall I still think you did a great job.

Review request club

[Vikings!]

Good atmosphere

The detail and the atmosphere in this piece of art are what attracts me to it the most. The atmosphere part attracts me because of the colours that are used: almost everything is black or red, which fits well with a scene of vikings burning down and looting a whole village.
That this scene takes place at sunset is a good choice. It's just light enough to see it, but still makes a dark atmosphere.

The detail is good in a way that I didn't find anything odd in the 3D-modelling, and that the reflection on the water is done nice. The burning houses also have a nice level of detail and realism.

I would like to see more vikings though. Now there's just two of them, and I'm not even sure about one of them if he's a viking. The vikings fighting are what would attract me to it the most, but there are hardly any.

I did notice an odd thing with the wind though: If you look at the sail the wind seems to blow, while the the smoke columns rise straight upwards.
Another thing is that there are too few smoke columns for the many houses that are burning.

tl;dr : A nice picture with good detail and atmosphere, but a few small mistakes.

Review request club

samulis responds:

Ya, my problem is that my program doesn't allow really more than five to seven characters (I could probably push it with 12 or 14). Ideally, I would have a good 25 vikings and a pile of dead guards, but that's really out of the realm of possible with a real-time engine like this one. However, I am looking into getting some super low-poly characters, even just static models, I can use as stand-ins.

The age-old solution for the program is exporting out alpha-transparent images of characters then using a flat graphic "planter" tool that allows one to randomly "plant" characters around the set... the issue is that you can't adjust lighting and well, they ARE flat. :P

I could have changed the atmosphere... next time, I will make sure my particle FX are fitting and working in conjunction with the flow of the image.

Thanks for the feedback,
-Samulis

[Friendship is Paramount]

Nice style

I'm not going in detail on what the characters' personalities are like, since the previous two already did that, but I do like to say that I like how with each kid the pose is a bit different. The two to the left kind of look like they're happy, and they both look pretty cute. Their clothes are are the most detailed, or at least the most different from regular clothes, and that makes them stand out the most.

The two on the left look more like troublemakers, or at least kids who are different from most others, and don't really fit in. Their poses show their personality well. The third from the left almost looks like she just got out of prison, if not for the butterfly glasses.

I don't know if you chose it because of the effect, but I think the colours match the characters perfectly. With the brighter red and green for the "happy" ones and the dark blue and black for the "sad" ones the effects of the poses become even more powerful.

Râ'¬view râ'¬quest club

[Roman Forum- Full]

What a work it must've been.

I have absolutely no idea of how a modeling program works, or how it does the modeling, but it seems like a load of work. The structure is pretty realistic, and the details are amazing. Even from a very close zoom it seems nice.

The floor seems a bit odd though. I can't imaging a forum like this standing on a totally flat and mirroring surface like this. If you put a few people here and there it would seem more realistic.

It would be nice if you made the roof tiles a bit more different from each other. It would be even more work, but now you can easily distinguish the texture. It's also a bit wierd on the edges, that the tiles are just cut off there. They also seem a bit too structured, nice and modern for a forum like this.

Review request club

samulis responds:

This was my most epic endeavor to date... it took at least eight to ten hours. However, I am sure others who are more experienced and have better tools could do it in half the time and twice the quality.

I did the mirroring floor as a more aesthetic thing... in my other render, I have a floor similar to the walls. I should have tried a blend map or two on the tiles so they appear dirty, but I'll try that with my next project.

Thanks for the review,
-Samulis

[Paarthurnax Bust]

Very impressive

There's a lot of detail in this piece of art which makes it pretty good. I especially like the scale on his nose.

If you look at it from a close-up (by clicking the picture) you can see the spikes to the side of his mouth being a bit hazy at the ends. If you would've made them sharper it would seem more like a dragon IMO.

The scales on his head make him realistic. With them slowly becoming a horn the more you go to the back of his head is a good way to make a horn of a dragon.

It's just a head though. I feel like a whole dragon would be more scary/impressive. With the white background and him (or her) lacking a body it feels like more of a sketch then a piece of art.

Review request club

SuperBastard responds:

Thanks for the review! I see what you mean about the spikes on the side of the mouth getting hazy. I probably should have put the extra time into polishing those off better.

I probably should have drawn the whole thing, and not just the head, but I guess I burned myself out trying this new painting style. Maybe I should have just made this a .png with a transparent background! :P

[Diplomacy]

Awesome

One of the best things in this picture is its wings. It almost looks like there is no wing, but it's a very thin piece of skin. The clouds even shine through it. Wonderfully done.
His scales are nice too. You must have spent a lot of time on them.
His back leg seems to be twisted in a bit of an wierd position though. I'm not too familiar with the anatomy of dragons, but it seems a bit off.

The surroundings seem natural though. The clouds are nice, and the lighting in the sky gives a nice atmosphere. I also like how you did the light to the right of the dragon.

Until I almost finished with reviewing this, I finally saw the knight. You did well hiding him (or her) , but I would prefer him being a bit more clear. You could make the armour reflecting some of the very bright sunlight. It would give a nice effect.

SuperBastard responds:

Thanks, I appreciate the review! I'm glad you liked the surrounding environment. That was the part I was most worried about since I tend to be really bad at doing backgrounds. Cheers!

[Demonios Felices]

Oooh, ghosts.

I like the contrast in this piece. It's creepy with all the ghosts, but on the other hand they all seem very happy.

Some of the ghosts don't really seem like ghosts though. Some look more like worms. The one to the right of the one in the bottom left corner seems really odd, and misses an arm. There are a few who have this. That way it is like you just drew them in a few minutes, and randomly. If there would be some sort of structure in the ghosts, like them scaring someone in a circle, it would seem nicer IMO.
Or make something next to those ghosts. Are they happy because they scared someone, or do they just have a party? It would be funny to see a ghost party.
If one thing was coloured, it would give a nice contrast. Or make the ghost in the middle more detailed. Something that jumps out of the blue.

One of these things would make the piece less boring. It's very nice in its simplicity, but not a beautiful, special or amazing piece of art.

[Eyeball Tree Helix]

Very nice

The tree stands out, and I think that's what you tried to achieve with this picture. The background is a bit bland though. A sky, or some holy background to make it look like some holy tree would fit well IMO.

After a while I saw that the eyeball is made out of two different colours: red-ish and white. My monitor (or my eyes) aren't good enough to see that directly, but those details make it nice, and the red under the roots give it just a bit more of a realistic feeling.

The tree is drawn just great. I can imagine how time-consuming it has been to draw each leave apart, I don't see that anywhere else. The shadows
The trunk of the tree is very well done too. Lots of small roots is a great way to draw a tree. I see nothing wrong with that.

The shading seems a bit odd though. Why is there shading on the tree, but not on the eyeball? The light seems to come from the left if you look at the leaves, it seems to come from behind the viewer if you look at the intersection between the two trunks and it seems to come from every direction if you look at the eyeball.

These are just small points of improvement though, and the majority of the piece of art is just fine.

Review Request Club

Galneda responds:

But of course the tree stands out; the tree is the focal, solitary object, and the simple gradient background serves to only have you focus on the former. Though I'm not a fan of this background's simplicity either, I agree that a sky is in order. If I were to redo this, I would definitely include that.

It was intended to make the pinkish nerve-shadows faint, but I'm glad they weren't so subtle that they were completely overlooked. Thanks for the affirmation :D

Dude you have no idea, lol...those leaves sucked. And Coop down there wants me to put even MORE detail in them. lmao Thanks

Initially there was a thin black line on the side of the eyeball, but it didn't quite look right. When I removed it completely, I suppose I was pleased with how it all turned out and forgot to add the appropriate shading or highlighting to the eyeball itself. What this review shows me, however, that the lack of proportionate shading DOES throw it off, and I'll need to include it in future recreations. Thank you.

I greatly appreciate the review :D

[Shape Up Pumpkin]

Quite funny actually

I liked that you chose the easiest characters to carve. It's a funny contrast with all the other pumpkins with a lot of teeth and evil eyes.

You did basically the same last year though. I didn't see it back then, so for me it's original, but I can see that for others the joke isn't funny anymore.
I would've liked it more if a candle was in there. It would've been nice to see what kind of light those shapes created. Or you could project it on your wall.

Review request club

ZJ responds:

THX

[Everybody's Happy Nowadays]

Very minimalistic

They look even more like comic characters now, looking to each other with those gigantic eyes. Those big ears and the lack of noses makes it even clearer that they are comic characters. Normally it would've been a mistake, but in a comic you can draw your own characters, right? They look pretty cute being drawn so minimalistic.

The lighting seems a bit wierd though. The use of colours due to the light is perfect, but the light source seems to come from between them. But I don't see anything. You could place something in the middle to solve that, and it would make the background less boring.

I like their poses. How she puts her hand on her bag (I think it's a bag at least, it might just be a scarf.) seems pretty realistic.

Next to those two kids, you could maybe add something more? Perhaps one of those really cartoony text balloons? With an addition of just a few background details, you could make it look more like a scene, or a picture from a comic. Now I have the feeling it lacks something. Like it's just a sketch, but I don't think you meant it that way.

Aigis responds:

You're definitely right about the lighting. That's because this is made up of two pictures I drew at different times, with no intention of combining into one picture, until later.