haltnetwork-blog

[haltnetwork-blog]

A reference page for the wonderful world of armor in D&D. 

Print resolution here.

[haltnetwork-blog]

There should be an air instrument band called Air on Smith

[haltnetwork-blog]

Why do I only want to write when I'm sleep deprived

[haltnetwork-blog]

i imagine getting my own place all the time and going down to the grocery store early in the morning before everyone else and to the coffee shop and having a really small place with wide windows and lots of plants and shelves of books and a tiny kitchen where i can make tea and noodles and a bed with a pile of blankets and just a place i can make uniquely my own or maybe a place i could share with someone but i just think about this place a lot idk

[haltnetwork-blog]

This was the best non-political sketch of the night!

[haltnetwork-blog]

Wario so Wario…

[haltnetwork-blog]

art cheats

hello i am here today to not lose track of the art cheats i have discovered over the years. what i call art cheat is actually a cool filter/coloring style/way to shade/etc. that singlehandedly makes art like 20 times better

80’s anime style

glitch effect

glow effects

adding colors to grayscale paintings

foreshortening ( coil )

foreshortening ( perspective )

clipping group (lines)

clipping group (colors)

dramatic lighting ( GOOD )

shading metal

lighting faces

that is all for today, do stay tuned as i am always hunting for cool shit like this

[haltnetwork-blog]

🐯 🐯 🐯

[haltnetwork-blog]

I think the best piece of character design advice I ever received was actually from a band leadership camp I attended in june of 2017. 

the speaker there gave lots of advice for leaders—obviously, it was a leadership camp—but his saying about personality flaws struck me as useful for writers too. 

he said to us all “your curses are your blessings and your blessings are your curses” and went on to explain how because he was such a great speaker, it made him a terrible listener. he could give speeches for hours on end and inspire thousands of people, but as soon as someone wanted to talk to him one on one or vent to him, he struggled with it. 

he had us write down our greatest weakness and relate it to our biggest strength (mine being that I am far too emotional, but I’m gentle with others because I can understand their emotions), and the whole time people are sharing theirs, my mind was running wild with all my characters and their flaws.

previously, I had added flaws as an after thought, as in “this character seems too perfect. how can I make them not-like-that?” but that’s not how people or personalities work. for every human alive, their flaws and their strengths are directly related to each other. you can’t have one without the other.

is your character strong-willed? that can easily turn into stubbornness. is your character compassionate? maybe they give too many chances. are they loyal? then they’ll destroy the world for the people they love.

it works the other way around too: maybe your villain only hates the protagonist’s people because they love their own and just have a twisted sense of how to protect them. maybe your antagonist is arrogant, but they’ll be confident in everything they do.

tl;dr “your curses are your blessings, and your blessings are your curses” there is no such thing as a character flaw, just a strength that has been stretched too far.

[haltnetwork-blog]

I guess the African player just abandoned the game and they only keep multiplying because of the auto clicker

Do you ever think that each country is a clicker game for divine entities and the player of India is either a more focused player or just has a lot of free time on their hands

[haltnetwork-blog]

Do you ever think that each country is a clicker game for divine entities and the player of India is either a more focused player or just has a lot of free time on their hands

[haltnetwork-blog]

Sometimes I think about what the perfect murder would be and I've come to the conclusion that it is a very specific thing. The person would have to be a masochist and you would need to get into a sexual level with them. Then you just choke them to death during sex and tell the police you got a bit too into it. If they are a known masochist or if you record a porn video with them, that is just further proof.

Hopefully that's how the judicial system works.

[haltnetwork-blog]

So I got this ad on youtube...

It’s for U.S. Cellular, specifically advertising how great their streaming service is. You can even , the guy in the ad says, stream hours of grass mowing.

And I go… “wait a minute…that sounds weird…why hasn’t this ad ended yet?”

And I look at the bottom. 

the ad is seven hours long.

[haltnetwork-blog]

GUYS THEY FIGURED OUT THE ROMAN CONCRETE RECIPE THAT MAKES IT IMMUNE TO SEAWATER

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/mystery-of-2000-year-old-roman-concrete-solved-by-scientists/ar-BBDO5VC

[haltnetwork-blog]

Decoding dress codes

Via

[haltnetwork-blog]

The big texturing tutorial

1. Definition

Texturing is a technique that involves adding local shading and details on surfaces to better represent the material of an object. This technique is of course closely linked to shading in general. This is usually applied after defining a global shading.

From left to right :

Lineart

Global shading

Completed sprite

One of the big differences between global and local shading is homogeneity. The very principle of global shading is to give a sufficiently contrasting effect between the shaded and lit areas to bring out volume and depth. Conversely, a texture must be as homogeneous as possible. It must be able to be applied on large, uniform surfaces, without making it look bad.

2. Applying a texture

A texture being homogeneous in terms of its luminosity/contrast, if it is applied to an object without taking into account the global shading, we will lose any effect of volume and depth.

A texture applied to a sphere without shading. Only the deformation of the texture can give us a clue on the shape of the object, but it is still difficult to discern. Homogeneous contrast When applying a texture to an object, shadows must also be taken into account. It is therefore important to maintain a uniform contrast between colours. A dark line separating a light zone from a dark zone should not keep the same colour between these two zones.

The color of the line will be lighter on the lighter side and darker on the darker side to preserve its contrast with the background. In the same way it is possible to apply a texture or pattern on a shaded object, by proceeding to a simple color shifting in our palette.

Combination of a texture (left) and an object that is not textured but shaded (middle).

3. Local shading

Since shading is used to highlight the bumps, there are generally two possible cases:

A groove

A bump

Each of these cases can be more or less accentuated by playing on the colors, the intensity of shadows and lights.

On the upper line, troughs ranging from the weakest to the strongest bumps. On the second line, these are bumps that stand out. The mastery of these light bumps is very important, it is the basis of the textures, and will make it possible to manage all the simple cases, such as wood or matte plastic. Example of application on a simple object:

4. Reflections

The application of a reflection is done in a simple way, by applying diagonal strips of light of varying thicknesses, and following a few rules.

A trough or bump will create an offset at the reflection level (proportional to the height change). As for the shadows, there is no absolute, depending on the palette or the material represented, it is possible to lighten or not the area at the reflection level. It is also important not to have parallel light bands on faces that are not oriented in the same direction, as on this cube:

Concrete example of the application of a gold texture on our drawers:

Or, added reflections on our previous crate:

5. Dithering and granularity

Dithering consists in creating a new false color from a checkerboard or other regular pattern of two colors close enough to give an illusion of mixing. The closer the colours are, the stronger the illusion will be. The more the colours are contrasted, the stronger the granularity effect will be.

Dithering is basically used to obtain fake intermediate shades on limited palettes, but it is also very useful for making complex and rough textures.

Example of complex dithering separating 3 colors over a wide area.

The nature of the pattern totally changes the roughness aspect. Example of the application of a sandy rock on our drawers:

Or add grain to our crate:

6. The art of destruction

The more complex a texture is, the more it will combine fundamental techniques such as bumpiness, reflections or granularity. However, some materials need to go further, by cutting, slash or breaking the base support.

Cuts It works much like bump, but on a much finer surface. We are subject to the same rules, of which here is a summary image:

From the finest to the most pronounced, on the first line of the cuts, and on the second of the bumps. A concrete example on our crate:

Exercises

Since nothing beats practice to learn, here is a series of examples from the simplest to the most complicated.

For each exercise resolved, post your results.

Mastering tools

Add a strong bump on the text of this image, except the ‘x’ which must be a groove (the center must be dug more strongly than the rest of the ‘x’):

Palette:

Add reflections on the image obtained between the two red lines shown below:

Now cut and break the letter ‘e’ as well as possible.

Add grain to the letter ‘l’.

Finalize a sprite

Texturize/colorize this sprite:

Palette:

Add reflections on the inside of the doors to give the impression that there are windows.

Add damage (cuts etc) on the right side of the wardrobe.

Make a variant of this cabinet by redoing it in gold using the palette of the gold drawers example in the tutorial. Palette:

Do the same with the sandy rock. Palette:

Sample solutions

Here are some solutions by a talented friend :

Gif process

The end.