m1kclark's art Reviews on Newgrounds

[Darth Vader]

Darth Cylon

I can't help but reminded of Battlestar Galactica. Either way, this is epic and I'm glad you posted this "oldie"!

MindChamber responds:

ha yah I can see that, it was more at a stab at the republic commando troopers, but yeah I see some cyclon

[Jonas brothers]

:-°

I'm having trouble believing this isn't an altered photo. If it is, then I'm not a fan at all. If it is not, then I think you've got epic skill and a singular taste. My rating is the average of these opinions, though I invite you to tell us how you made the picture.

msg2007 responds:

its part of a product design for watchs, No I did not draw the pice but I did do the effects ect, its an altered photo

thanks for the review

[Smoking Space Man]

I love Blender

This is a nice model, but the composition (pose, background, lighting, camera angle) need work to really show it off. Right now, I can't really comment on materials or geometry because, well, I can't see it.

Also, some technical details: increase the anti-aliasing (OSA in the Render panel) to 11 or 16. Increase the resolution to at least 800x600, preferably 1024x768 or even 1200x800. Also, I don't how/why you did it, but the JPEG quality is seriously low. There are JPEG artifacts everywhere (see: above each foot, between arm & body on right).

Having said that .... THANK YOU FOR BEVELING!!!

falariem responds:

Well, thank you. I've only using Blender for a short time, so I'm not really concerned much with scene creation as I am with getting the character modeling right.

I agree with you on the anti-aliasing and the resolution settings, too. I've only just recently discovered those settings in the interface, and I usually work toward something around 700 square. As for the JPEG junk, my copy of Photoshop sucks. That, and I need to figure out a better way to handle the reds - those are the colors I notice the most not saving off correctly.

As I said, I'm still fairly new to the app, and I appreciate any feedback from those who see my work. :)

[Tomb Kings]

New style!

By and large, your other stuff is more anime/line-art style. This more realistic shading (there's a "painted" feel) is a very nice deviation, and very successful I think. The metal parts are particularly well done. The bones are where the "painted" feel is most prominent: I can't decide if that's a weakness or a strength, given the more realistic feel to the metal. Oh, and the shadows are (to use a technical term) BITCHIN'.

P.S. When I saw the thumbnail, I definitely thought, "It's Scorpion!!!"

Brakkenimation responds:

Hee, yeah - I've been trying to expand my drawing styles a bit from my usual lineart stuff. Glad you like it! I will keep your points in mind for future paintings (bitchin' shadows, good to know :P )

Haha, nope - not Scorpion! Maybe I will draw him someday :D

[Content not available]

Ugh, SOPA cartoons

The Art: Nice composition and gradients, a clear style giving a clear message, and an emotive character.

SOPA: (a) I hate SOPA too. (b) I'm getting tired of cartoons decrying SOPA because of "censorship". The bad thing about SOPA isn't its censorship, it's that SOPA provides the power to regular people and companies, to wantonly shut down other regular people's and companies' websites due to infractions of law that are (1) not so egregious to warrant a shutdown, (2) not within the website's purview to control, and (3) that could have been uploaded by the very person trying to eliminate the accused website. It's like McCarthyism but more arbitrary, and it goes WAY beyond blacked-out boobs.

So I guess I'm complaining that you don't hate SOPA *enough*. </rant>

[Thrust Into Chaos]

Is doing a dangerous thing our fault?

I read the (brief) entry on your profile about this. It's easy to judge, to say that you were doing something dangerous and paid the price. Of course, you had done it before and were rewarded that it worked before. That's why "danger" is such an amorphous concept. Your art appropriately brings forth the confusion and chaos of suffering because of your decision, but a decision made when you could not have appreciated this possible result. I know I would blame myself anyway ...

This image is a nice expression of (what I imagine is) your personal turmoil. I hope you continue to adapt and that the chaos calms.

[Scooby Doo (Set 1)]

I support thee, but

Much as I like the idea of using ads, etc., to distribute your content in a profitable fashion, I'm not such a big fan of the porn-ad-popups. In general, if I'm trying view your art (regardless of its adult-oriented nature), I'm probably not looking for the Live Jasmin webcam show. I personally wouldn't go this route for very long, but then again I don't know how to make porn-parody art, so my advice isn't strictly applicable!

In either case, good luck. Your 80s-animated parody-porn is the perfect mix of sleezy and nostalgic and deserves more attention. :-)

AKABUR responds:

Hm... I think I can switch those adult ads to "kid's friendly" ads. I'll do that with next scooby-doo set.

[Crystal Cave Dweller: render 1]

Good design but

So the creature design is pretty good, but the one weakness of both your submissions is that we have no sense of how the thing might move. You can put a creature in poses and in contexts such that the audience will "see" how it moves and what's about to happen within an image. This pose doesn't do that. This is sort of the "statue" pose, like a human standing straight with arms outstretched. To really make the creature stand out, it needs to feel alive i.e. moving.

Also, I love the background "ice", but it doesn't look like ice. I wish you had made it green-tinged and called a kryptonite cave, or maybe made it read and called it a crystalline-lava cave ... but ice? Ice is either transparent with microcracks, or it is white with a highly grainy (read: not crystalline) surface.

You're so close to delivering a fantastic piece, but there's little mechanistic things standing in its way at the moment.

toshema responds:

I understand what you are saying, I wanted to pose them differently. I was just having lots of trouble with transpose in zbrush and I couldn't pose them correctly.

and I decided to change it from ice to crystal, thats what I wanted at first anyways. I was told by someone else that it would be better for it to be ice.

[Android]

<debate>

This almost entirely a response to VidGameDude.

I don't think the "zbrush makes it too easy" argument is valid at a criticism. As stated, it sounds like your fundamental point of view is "Don't use new technology because it hamstrings your artistry." Meanwhile, 3D art in general is a manifestation of that. A "true" artist knows enough about perspective and perspective distortion that they don't need a computer to calculate light refraction off of polygons for them. This image could theoretically have been made by hand, or even in MS Paint; do we denigrate the entire 3D Art genre because it can be done using other media by "more skilled" artists?

And even within the world of 3D Art tools, I have literally spent *months* trying to make a human face in Blender, and it still looks like a partially melted ugly doll. Blender is pretty fantastic for particle effects, though, and for using simple algorithms on simple shapes to make complex patterns. So I might use Blender for a starship, zbrush for its pilot, and GIMP for post-processing: so what? Certain tools are best suited for certain tasks, like in a kitchen. So if sculpting organics is like chopping vegetables, then Blender is a like carving knife and zbrush is like a ... blender.

f(o_o)