[entivore]

I wonder, have any of you had success finding the legendary "Truely skilled sprite artist who works for free"? hehe.

I've started trying to do my own sprites, but I kinda suck and it's depressing.
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*Only in darkness can one truely shine*

[Sirocco]

Some people have, and usually four or five months into the project they tend to disappear, leaving you with a handful of pretty, but essentially useless art.

I don't like being screwed, so I do everything myself -- not that I would actually recommend that particular course; it can take years of practice to learn how to pixel under any given situation. I still occasionally come across things that give me a fit when I try to draw them... heh.

NormanH bailed on Illusion, Tomahawk bailed on Katsumi, I think Anthem of Dread lost an artist (I may be mistaken), Execute lost their artist about 5 hours before releasing their final Golem Child demo... the list is pretty huge :(

It was my extreme pleasure to watch DrAGONMaX turn into a fantastic pixel artist, and then watch him migrate to a professional position, which effectively removes him from the picture :( Not that I blame him in any way, it'd just be nice to collaborate with him on some stuff -- maybe in the future we'll do some minigames or something.

.

[white_door]

well this may be freaky but let me tell you a story..

Two programmers and a pixel guy.

For weeks I had been looking for an pixel artist to help out with my project, but it wasn't a big deal since our engine was still a baby and could do very much at all.

One day long ago on allegro.cc I stumbled across a post on allegro.cc on the new page titled, "Artist looking for programming team."

I gasped for breath, and raced to my email client to type in a hurried email with a few hastely prepared screenshots.. thinking surely I will be too late and he was already in a team... However luck or God was with me on that day, and he replied with in 30 minutes agreeing to join our project!

In the months that followed progress was good, myself and the other programmer finished huge amounts of the engine each week and the artist was able to do art that pluged straight in to the demo we were forming and give good input on how we could do things.

All things must come to a end and as the artist finished his studies and got a job with a group doing manga, he had less and less time to aid with the project. And then one day he had to leave the team or suffer work overload. He later went on to do pixel & concept art for a GBA team, but that is his story and not mine.

Minus one artist I bravely went to find another, after all how hard could it be? HAR HAR HAR Like you I've been searching ever since.. Both of us programmers have tried doing our own but not only do our gifts not lie in that area but compared against the existing work they look horrible. I think am on the verge of giving up hope, so I feel your pain, friend.

[JonathanA]

...Mainly because we've worked together for so long. That and his art style isn't strictly pixel-art, and very 'unique' to say the least.

I think he uses Illustrator or something, draws almost everything with vectors then colours (British spelling) it and scales it down. Everything has a very basic feel to it, but I like it.

He writes a comic. http://eljay.swoo.net/hypercomic/hypercomic.cgi?index=18

[Tenshi]

- It's been difficult to render characters recently since we moved to a new house (and don't have ethernet cables to the rooms yet) so I haven't anything new for Mandrake, but I guess I qualify as one of those "sprite artists who work for free", except I'm doing character renderings OF sprites, not sprite-work.
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- Jaeda

[Mamandrakeio]

s'ok tenshi, heh, we don't need any more portraits yet. I'll start pestering the hell out of you when we do though :)

[Zoggles]

Well, this is one currently planned section of the new Pixel-Zone.net currently being redesigned. i.e. pixellers can indicate their availability for work and programmers seeking an artist can browse some examples of that artists work and then approach him/her if suitable.

Having read this thread so far though, it has given me an added idea which is to maybe add some kind of 'reliability rating' to an artist. (ie if they are likely to disappear before completion of a project or if they produce stuff quickly and well) Just an initial idea.. would need to think about how to add it without leaving it open for abuse.

-Z-

[janus]

Didn't find a "Truely skilled sprite artist who works for free", but I did find a dollar in my couch cushions. Score! 1 out of 2 ain't bad.

[Guest]

Why limit it to just pixel artists? If features will be included to help those looking for pixel artists, there could be a rating system for repeat requesters, where pixel artists who worked with em can voice their complaints and whatnot

[mandrakedude]

or we could combine the two....heh...rpgdx and pixel-zone..heh

[Moira]

oooh, RPGDX+P-Z=one helluva site. ;)

Anyway, yeah...the ratings thing sounds good, for both artists and programmers/dev'rs. There should definitely be a place where people can add input...one possible problem I foresee, however, is making sure everything stays objective. If a dev'r finds an artist, or vice versa, and they turn out to have totally conflicting personalities (and therefore have problems working together on a project,) this shouldn't necessarily reflect on a rating; the artist could be the best available and very reliable, and the same for the programmer/dev'r, but if they end up pissed off at each other... While the ratings section can be set up to be as objective as possible, I'd say just keep an eye on the comments (if that's implemented.) I think that adding comments would be a great idea; it would just be something to be wary of if a project heads south.

M.
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"I like you. You have spunk, and moxy."
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"He's got a box with a demon in it that draws pictures. Do what the madman says and he will give you gold."

[Mandrake]

hey zog this reminds me of that PADAMACS site you were working on...except not at the same time :) this will be nifty. I'll probably be online tonight...after the Buff premier of course :)
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"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

[Moira]

[entivore]

A combined pixel and rpg dev place? Can anyone say Critique my crap! :p

Seriously though, it sounds like a good idea.
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*Only in darkness can one truely shine*

[Moira]

heh, no, they're not actually combining them...just discussing tying the two sites into each other a bit. I was just dreamin' there... ;)

M.
_________________
"I like you. You have spunk, and moxy."
---
"He's got a box with a demon in it that draws pictures. Do what the madman says and he will give you gold."