#gradient map win

[samyazasheaven]

Speaking in the third person... AM -- which is I -- AM is satisfied with the sacrifice. He -- that is to say, I -- will spare the village his -- that is to say, my -- wrath for today. I have -- as I said before -- spoken.

(black and white version under the cut)

[jesterway]

Laurie…. Shes everything to me……

[infinitegeli]

did anyone else see that trailer or was itjusf me

FUN STUFF UNDER THE CUT SECOND RENDITION straw page and drawing process edition

THANK YEW ALL FOR THE SUBMISSIONS <3 Mych joy much love muuuuch whimsy☺️☺️🪓☺️ We will be KILLING her soon!🌮🪓

here’s Rhe sketch stuff from the drawifn above the cut. sketching taco She only ever really gets oke plane. no budget for the rest. I couldn’t figure out what angle I wanted her for most of these. ANYWAAAIIIZ fun fact I made the Sun a ✨ cuz it’s the shape of the center of mics bow. Maybe that pulls the meaning of the peice together. Who knows. I don’t.

i balled out on these colors cuz I only ran it thru 1 Gradient map at the start then locked in for the rest. we win these.

also fun proces stuff cuz I’m so bored. most of my drawings get painted over so the lineart is usually just the first sketch. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to deal with like this but also it’s what I’m most used to. a lineart layer seems too daunting. anyways follow my twitter @ sawgaty and insta @ fortnitegod1089 for art chz i txtpost on here more

[almost-daily-tf2-sniper]

day 12

now THIS is a man who can fist fight an alligator (and win)

alt color close up bc gradient map my goat:

[p3stie]

"I'm not fortune's fool, I'm yours."

Process detailed in the read more

the idea for this piece exploded into my mind during my routine 2am spotify session and i feel like the "i can imagine anything" guy because i didnt even have to do multiple thumbnails for this piece (instant win). It started off as a feverish scribble in my sketchbook that i then quickly digitalized to start messing with the values.

After I found a layout that stuck i started refining it and looking for the right colors. Life is so beautiful when i remember that gradient maps exist <3

i felt like something was missing, so i added nightshade to the composition. No gay fanart is complete without blatant symbolism.

i drew a base version with no blood then scanned it and did a second pass with blood. Traditional is messy for me as a chronic ctrl z-er so making copies helps make this easier for me.

As you can see I did the shading and detailing for the frame on a separate page because why not. I did only one side of the frame because i could mirror it digitaly it later when i was compositing everything together.

Heres what the digital composite looked like before any detailing and coloring.

Overall, it took only about a day to complete thanks to my ability to eliminate superfluous, time wasting tasks like eating and sleeping.

Let me know if you like process explations like this because i could do more in the future : ]

[strawberry-seal77]

Hii!!! YTTD fanart from my inprogress playthrough with @rookeryyy!!!

We took a 15-20 minute break from playing and 7 hours later this image was sitting on my screen fully formed. also rook drew sara's warrior cats purrsona!!!

Extra images and thoughts under the cut!!!

Time Spent: 7 hours 24 minutes

Okay so first thing, if it's not obvious, this is them playing warrior cats on the playground!! We have decided they do this. Shadow the hedgehog and baby baby shadow are part of the awesome sillyness that happens when you make a drawing on vc!! Though baby baby shadow himself is a longer running joke between us.

Second thing, this playthrough is SUPER FUN !!!!! Chat and I split the voices evenly (somehow) and we've been adding on silly little bits as we play!!! Like Sara sleeping through the instructions of the gun game (and yet winning flawlessly) and Joe having unwaivering confidence in her.

Also Sara threatening to beat people up, as we see above <33

Though it DOES mean the game takes much longer to get through, especially if you're taking a SEVEN HOUR BREAK to draw FBDJHSBFH

the drawing was INTENDED to be a quick doodle but. as you can see. its gone past that

I had a good amount of struggle with Sara's fist, as I originally had her body turned away from the camera to look mainly at Joeheart, BUT it wasnt working, and I think it looks much better this way anyhow <33

The drawing was first sketched, then colored in grayscale, colors were put on by overlay layer, and after that I did a whole lotta paintover!! <3 As shown below

After I did the greyscale I actually had to use a gradient map to make the darks darker, cause I have a tendency to pick really light colors. All is well though!!

We decided that Sara would be leader of the warrior cats group on the playground, hence being Sarastar, and Joe would be a dog! She takes being a leader very seriously, including hiding snacks around the playground for her clan to hunt! I think I even smell a doritos bag by that bush over there...!!

It's not as obvious in my image as in Rook's, but we also decided that Sara identifies as a gun (because me saying "as a gunslinger" was misheard to be "as a gun"), and Joe is a furry.

im soo happy with this <3 theres so much to LOOK AT Im not used to large canvases <33

[mythicalviper-fr]

hi! Thank you for making your guide, it’s been so helpful as a new skin artist. I’m still confused about how to make good festival submissions (?) I thought my submission for Rockbreaker’s Ceremony fit all the conditions you talked about but no one seemed interested in my skin. Do you have any advice on how newer artists can make a good entry?

I'm happy the guide's helped! It is less of a checklist and more on how I personally approach the contest. There are a lot of things I don’t think I described well technique-wise, so I’ve considered making step-by-step tutorials to approach each contest that would better encapsulate the win conditions I described. But for now, here’s one way you can approach a contest, particularly if you’re a new artist.

1. Pick Your Breed (and Battles)

Breed variety, as I stated in the guide, is the Number One reason I win any contest. This is where I think I should’ve gone more into why I favored the Ridgeback F base - it’s important to pick a canvas that will not impede your ability to create and more importantly, a canvas that makes you comfortable as an artist. Ridgeback F has a big wingspace that serves as a good canvas and the anatomy is easy (for me) to design on, which is why this is the canvas I default to.

Here are some of the best “starter” canvases for new artists, in my personal opinion:

Wildclaw M and F: these bases, particularly the F pose, don’t get many submissions (look at their submission rate in the Gala!) They have a standard dino anatomy that’s easy to understand and work around.

Fae M: Fae rarely get entries. The big wingspace is a great canvas, and more importantly, the M Fae canvas is pretty small compared to the others, so it’s less daunting. The shrimp posture can be a bit hard to grasp, but you can honestly just do a wingcent.

Coatl M and F: Coatl is a great base for new artists if shadows and lines are disrupting your creative process, because they don’t have as much of those. (You can also turn shadows/lines off while you’re drawing. I usually have shadows off and lineart at 30% opacity. Just remember to turn them back on when you submit!)

2. Theme Your Skin: Canonical Elements

August goes into this better in his guide, but you generally want to stick closer to canon. Think of skin contests like an art contest for a fandom. If you were submitting to, say, a Percy Jackson art contest, you’ll probably draw inspiration from Greek and Roman mythology, not Aztec or Chinese mythology. Flight Rising is the same. So, here are canonical places you can draw inspiration from:

Past festival familiars and apparel

Existing vistas, scenes, and World Map locations

Artistic interpretations of the canonical lore

If you do want to go outside of canon, my suggestion is to pick a neutral element. This means something that doesn’t have any religious/otherwise connotations, and is still related to the flight. I.e.: icy mountains for the ice flight, different types of minerals for the earth flight, different types of plants for nature. You are making an official item for the site, so work with that in mind.

3. Skin Composition: Balance

Composition is how the elements in an art piece work together. I struggle a lot with it, so I am not the best person to speak on this. What I’ve found that works for me is focusing the canvas on one big thing and putting small elements around it. That big item is usually wings, which is a great neutral component that can take on attributes of different elements. If you look at my skins, they usually follow the equation of skin = 1 big element (wings, bones, crystals) + 2 small elements (gradients, sparkles, butterflies, leaves, flowers).

[RBC 2023 = bones + crystals + rocks] [TC 2022 = wings + gradient + wispy shadow things]

4. Skin Execution: Actually Drawing the Thing

The best part of festival contests is the skill bar is quite low. I am going to contradict myself slightly by saying you do need a basic understanding of how to draw, but aside from that, contests are forgiving if you aren’t an experienced artist. I had six months of experience when I won my first contest and more recently, I was drawing with zero wrist mobility. These are some of my recent skins that were created when I could not render the way I usually do or use line weight.

[TCC 2023 & ROR 2023] 

In comparison, here are skins when I could render and line weight.

[WS 2023 & GG 2023]

Importantly, all of these skins won. So that’s why, from my perspective, whether you’re an experienced artist or not, whether you know how to render or not, is not the point.

I don’t want to imply that you don’t need any skill to win a contest… it is a contest, after all. I think what I’m trying to say is: to make the best entry you can, you need to know the skills that complement YOUR art style. It isn’t necessarily the skill difference between artists that determines who wins, it’s how you use the skills you have to bring out the most in your piece. 

There is no one way to making good art. And the hardest obstacle as a new artist is finding out what enhances your art style. You may not even have an art style yet, and that’s okay. That’s why it’s vital you continue exploring - which contests are great for.

Again, everything in this post is only what I have personally observed. This approach will not work for everyone, since everyone’s creative process is going to be different. But I hope this is a good bare-bones, structured, guide as to what I personally focus on – and I hope that it’s good for reference, even if the specific steps aren’t helpful for you ^^

[mythauragame]

Development Update - September 2024

Hello folks! Miyazaki checking in with our development updates for the month of September. Between getting our newest art team member onboarded, cooking up some really exciting Fall Quarter concept art, a new color, and a new Mutation, it's been a really creative month for us.

Koa and Sark are hard at work on the back end, creating the systems that power the game. We've got functioning inventories, and Koa was able to have a Beast successfully use a healing potion in the Wild Area! I'm making headway on our intro quest, working in tandem with the art team to create assets to bring our very first area to life.

All in all: some solid progress this month!

Also, for Tumblr users: the August update didn't get posted here (I apologize!), but you can read it here.

Inventory System

This month, we focused on refining Mythaura’s inventory system, with special attention on making starting items function as expected. One of the most exciting additions is the Satchel feature. The satchel begins with 18 slots and can be expanded using non-premium currency, allowing for plenty of space to bring essentials on your adventures.

When preparing to explore, only provisions can be transferred from your stash to the satchel, but along the way, you’ll be able to pick up and store all types of loot. Additionally, the first row of your satchel is now displayed as a hotbar while exploring, enabling quick use of items like the Godspeed Potion, which boosts your movement speed, or a Torch to light your way in the dark.

However, be cautious—if you’re defeated while exploring, you’ll drop your satchel, leaving your items behind. You’ll need to return to the floor you were defeated on to recover it. If you’re defeated again before retrieving your original satchel, those items will be lost for good.

Fall Quarter (2024) Concepts

It’s the first day of Fall Quarter 2024, which means we’ve got new Quarterly Rewards for Sponsors to vote on on our Ko-fi page!

Which concepts would you like to see made into official site items? Sponsors of Bronze level or higher have a vote in deciding. Please check out the Companion post and the Glamour post on Ko-fi to cast your vote for the winning concepts!

Votes must be posted by October 27, 2024 at 11:59pm PST in order to be considered.

All Summer 2024 Rewards are now listed in our Ko-fi Shop for individual purchase for all Sponsor levels at $5 USD flat rate per unit. As a reminder, please remember that no more than 3 units of any given item can be purchased. If you purchase more than 3 units of any given item, your entire purchase will be refunded and you will need to place your order again, this time with no more than 3 units of any given item.

Summer 2024 Glamour: Corona Dragon

Summer 2024 Companion: Venomous Stalker

Summer 2024 Solid Gold Glamour: Solid Gold Griffin (Young)

Custom Color Contest Winner

In another round of incredible color concepts pitched to our team, we came away with an exciting new color, courtesy of user Noxith: Canyon!

Their reference images were canyons with a beautiful gradient of reds and oranges, along with other geographical features of the American Southwest, such as mesas.

Canyon adds a wonderful richness to the Mythauran color wheel. We encourage you to share your Canyon creations made in the Beast Creator with us!

New Mutation: Celestial

Astrology plays no small part in Mythauran culture, so perhaps it's not such a surprise that the genes of some Beasts born in Mythaura are mutated to show a map of brightly glowing constellations around their bodies.

As a reminder, Mutations are not Specials that can be applied via item. Instead, a Beast can rarely be born with a Mutation or they can rarely be obtained via a late-game boss encounter.

Mythauran Astrology: October

The month of October is referred to as Greenbright's Close, representing the official beginning of autumn and the winding down of greenery as foliage turns gold and red. This month is also associated with the constellation of the Physician and the malachite stone.

Mythaura v0.32

Dependency upgrades were made to improve stability.

Implemented new inventory services

Created satchels and added services to manage dropping and retrieving them.

Added energy and position tracking to wild area sessions.

Implemented filtering and context actions for inventories.

Starting items were created for each class and are automatically delivered to the satchel at game start.

Added battle item structure and functionality.

Added the ability to use an item from your satchel in battle.

Added functionality for health & energy-related items.

Added functionality for revival items.

A Hotbar with adjustable keybindings has been added to the UI when exploring.

A semi-final version of each skill tree was fully populated and began implementing said skills.

Thank You!

Thanks for sticking through to the end of the post, we always look forward to sharing our month's work with all of you--thank you for taking the time to read. We'll see you around the Discord.

We are also keeping all those impacted by Hurricane Helene in our thoughts. We hope you and your loved ones are all safe.

[firehouse13webtoondevelopment]

Advice, please?

So, I've been drawing Firehouse 13 traditionally. I like the control it gives me over my lines. Pen and ink also just has a very great and satisfying feel to it. Yet-- the problem, this whole time, is that I've been prepping it in grayscale in the hopes that the free digital art program on my desktop-- that I've been using for years-- had gradient mapping in its repitoire.

Gradient mapping, as a concept is entirely new to me, but the idea of being able to cut down on production time through mapping color through grayscale variations... was absolutely immeasurable, something I sorely needed and vied for.

But, as I found today, none of the free programs I've used in the past had it except for in their paid versions. Access to these game changing modes being controlled by a capitalistic paywall was a frustrating thing to learn. Don't misunderstand: the people behind these amazing programs absolutely deserve to be recognized and paid for their hard work, tenfold even. I however, am one broke pigeon.

I absolutely love these programs, and would kill to have a lifetime license to the paid versions, but I have found the lack of positive reviews on these paid products to be quite off-putting and discouraging.

I have read, however, albeit briefly, about a program that strives to leave free, open access for artists and authors of all backgrounds and demographics. This would be Krita, and I would like to hear accounts of users experienced in this program to give me their opinion.

The other option i have in mind is to color traditionally as well, then overlay lighting and shadow and spoken text digitally to save time.

What are your thoughts on this?

To also be honest, I've had a lot of problems struggling with my drive and motivation for doing this comic and the contest. I've been struggling with the thought that everything needs to be perfect and that I NEEDED to win this contest in order to prove my worth, feel secure in my talents as an artist, and feel as if I truly weren't a waste of space.

I know none of those things are true but it's still a very persistent and nagging thought pattern that I definitely need more therapy to work through.

Peace, Love, and Pigeons,

-Pigeon Fingers

🐦‍⬛✌️

[sailorchips]

Art Fight 2024: The Raven Cave Mage (OC from @blubearberry)

my magnum opus for this year’s Art Fight 😭🙏🤩 I was going to include this character in a mass attack but then this vision hit me at midnight and I had to see it through, even though I usually don’t paint (this brush worked a bit like watercolour) or do scenes!

the background was done with grayscale + gradient map but the character and raven weren’t 🫡 win for me

[sollucets]

beloveds @khaotunq, @pranink & @alexshenry tagged me to do:

every month of 2023! list your favorite/most popular gifset for each month.

i started making gifs in march this year, so january/february are off the table for this. it's funny that it hasn't even been a full year yet. it seems both somehow a lot longer and also like i remain some kind of photoshop baby at the same time. the images in this post will remain undescribed until i have some energy in my failing body, unfortunately

in any case:

march: midnight museum invades all 2 of my braincells. i download photoshop. the end is nigh

most popular: msp/eclipse pool parallel set

favorite: the bams i made for sof

(notes: it's hard to look back at these lmao. what is coloring and why don't i know her. why is everything so dark. who told me to use noise dithering and why did i ever think that was a good idea. anyway)

april: the eighth sense is airing! i meet many mutuals and friends. i figure out about the curves tool (thank god)

most popular: taehyung getting dunked on

(very deserved dunk; very bad set. the coloring of this scene was extremely questionable and i did nothing to fix it it looks so dull and gray. augh)

favorite: feet lining up / jihyun & jaewon on the beach

i really like this coloring actually. it's bright enough to actually see them, their skin doesn't look as weird, and i like the soft pink i made the beach. a win for baby photoshop user rowan

may: the purple is in full swing now

most popular: purple yok

first set to cross 1k! the purple is still very good but in hindsight there are things i now know i couldve done to help his skin. in any case. a banger. beloved

favorite: pink our skyy 2 hands set

[through tears] you're my space. also my first try at typography

june: i lose the will to gif some in the back half of this month, but i also learn to do a Lot of new things, like gradient maps & more complicated typography and transitions and such

most popular: puzzle piece hugs!

deserved! hard to gif and fun to look at

favorite: i think it might be the heartliming i made for vi now! but i still like khathadome from eden too.

july: i try giffing a few different shows. the only friends trailer comes out on the last day and i enter some kind of terrifying fugue state

most popular: sand and ray fighting / crying in the ofts trailer

do you guys remember the trailer 1080p? life was so good

favorite: nobody appreciates my ride enough

august: only friends airs, eclipse anniversary is concurrent, i lose my mind. i also learn to use the method of brightening that i still use & several other fundamental gif tricks

most popular: sandray car makeout

good for them! i start using significant grain on my ofts gifs from here on out and can never decide how i feel about that

favorite: orange/blue eclipse episode seven set

september: the madness continues

most popular: sand cooking for ray / special

ive giffed this scene three times and this is my least favorite coloring but what can you do. this is my third post to cross 1k

favorite: new rules set! i had mixed feelings when i posted it but it's really grown on me.

october: the madness is so much worse. only friends ends and i am left near-catatonic immediately, apparently. also, i learn to blend and use overlays and some other cool things. i join userdramas :'>

most popular: raysand afterglow. as it should be. cheek kissie

favorite: space girl!! show me the stars!!!

loved making this. purple and sparkly and gay. still super proud. that said other runner-up favorites in october are ray's o-face & the boyfriend shirt & akkaye's thumb thing collection

november: i am left cavernously empty after ofts ends and i fill the void with namtan

most popular: last twilight episode one porjai

she <3

favorite: gaipa userdramas set

again, i learned to use musescore for this set just so i could have those pretty notes. :')

december: i am punched in the face by seasonal depression. all is not well. i made just one gifset this month, but at least it was good? :')

and here we are today !! it was very fun to look over everything; thanks so much for playing and have a happy new year everyone

[morgg-g]

cw: eyestrain

experimented with. everything. gradient maps, chromatic abberation, halftones, and i think it turned out pretty good.

i think that wanting to "live" and wanting to "win" in yttd are two very different things even though they technically mean the same thing. this is based off that convo in 3-1a with maple where sara either says she "wants to escape with everyone" or that she "doesnt want to die" which TECHNICALLY mean the same thing, with different connotations: "escape" implies that she wants everyone to survive, while "not dying" implies that SHE wants to survive more than anyone else. "win" and "live" is that with less words. i love how she struggles with wanting to help everyone while also losing hope that that's possible and selfishly wanting to survive over anything i think it's really realistic

i really want to be one of those cool people who post their art with like one word as the caption but alas brevity is not my thing

my eyes hurt after looking at this for 2 hours straight

[pupfishs]

The biggest pro the app has is that its like the only non-subscription based drawing apps for the ipad. Ibispaint would win because the free version is decent but finding out gradient maps are paywalled has unfortunately knocked it down from #1 for me. SAD!

everyone lied to me about procreate being the best drawing app for ipad its not even the 2nd best. its like 3rd or 4th at least

[archivebottles]

some splat doodles in between doing a bigger project for an irl thing

[IMG ID: Three images of various Splatoon characters. Image 1 features Shiver and Frye in alternative detailed outfits reminiscent of their in-game outfits. Shiver is holding her fan and Frye is grabbing her own arm.

Image 2 is a few various drawings of Frye. Top left is her as the 'sitting cutely' reaction image. Top right is tiny Frye dressed as a 'portly little sailor boy' with a lollipop. Bottom left is a tiny Frye doing a peace sign and bottom right is Frye when she sits down in her splatfest performance doing the finger gun pose.

Image 3 is a page full of Marinas plus one Pearl. Left is a fullbody of Marina in coveralls and a tanktop with gloves and a wrench in her pocket. Upper right is a drawing of Marina welding on the ground and kicking her legs. Below that is Pearl and Marina doing the tongue out hands on head anime pose with the label on Marina saying 'built a pipe bomb.' Pearl's label says 'funded it.' /END ID]

[silverlistenstothings]

love and tenderness on planet podcast characters

[ryuubff]

first love (2022)

inspired by the 2022 film first love that jdrama was soooo good it had me bawling my eyes because well. i was an emotional mess trying to get through a break up (i still am babe 😍) but fuck it;s such a good drama i'm still listening to the song on repeat too BC ITS JUST S??#?$?#@?$@#

and the whole thing with first loves and the heartbreak from it all is just something i know all too well at the moment ............ but at least i'm not posting something miserable i have too many stupid unfinished doodles within that genre of gi doodles 😂😂😂😂

this is again anotehr tumblr exclusive art post for now.... i know kazuxiao basically doesn't exist here but it just reminds me of the simpler times that was kazuxiao twt in 2021 so it's. it's nice.