Style Evaluation (Formerly: Non-Sonic Sprites)

[Deebs]

I won't read through all that because I am dealing with my own projects but guess what

First of all, I did aim the criticism at you. But why? Because you are responsible for this project, thus any problem this project has will be directed to you. This is how leading projects work. I have led several community projects and that's how it always worked for me. If a partner of some group fucks up, the leader will take responsibility for that. I, as a critique person, won't even care about who made what. I am here solely to point the wrong things so they can be corrected.

... receiving critique aimed specifically at me for something of which I am not responsible for**. ...

** With the understanding that I am responsible for saying "yeah, that's good enough to be put up"- though I will speak that my personal judgement is not very good, and is part of the reason why these projects rely quite a bit on outside input both for contributions and for critique.

Already noted and aware of, along with details that I know my limitations and therefor rely on the understanding and wisdom of others to help come to decisions. I am not an expert in any degree and have never claimed otherwise. I do my best to lead the project because I want to see this get off the ground. There is a degree of trust that I must put into other people who are more skilled than I am that they know what they are doing. To me, something may look good- but I do not trust my own perception. For this reason, I have polled a great deal of the sprites for what was the preferred version, believing that the masses will, overall, chose which is correct. Often times in these cases sprites that I have thought were 'good' or even 'perfect' were tossed entirely wayside. In the end, looking back, I see where my own perception was faulty and I believe that the eyes of many triumph over my own.

Second, if you took my criticism as an attack, you seriously need to rethink browsing tSR because that's how 90% of the people around here gives criticism. I wasn't being blunt. I was being direct to the point. If you felt offended by that then well, tough luck, it's not getting any 'softer' than it is. My advice is as helpful as your fluffy version, and if you can't see my point in the way I wrote that, then you should post them at somewhere like dA: you'll get plenty of 'omg amazing' comments.

There is a solid difference in asking for critique without condescending additions and asking for mindless praise. Mindless praise is nonconstructive- I prefer constructive dialogue. Part of being constructive is not clouding your critique with added cruft and sarcasm. Just say what you need to say without adding snipes. I try my best to be reasonable and I see absolutely no reason why it 'has' to be this way other than 'most of TsR' is like this. Why can we not speak to each other on a base level of respect for each other?

Third, sticking to style "handcuffs", as I'd like to call them, is a dumb idea. It's a handcuff because it's keeping you tied to visuals that don't make sense at all. That small one-pixel speck is not making the sprite better. It is instead making him look like he's made out of plastic. Mario is not plastic, therefore that technique is unnecessary. Tridimensionality is achieved by shading accordingly, not by tiny specks. Same with the 'light gray' instead of... white. This brings the whole style down and it makes the sprites look severely handicapped. It's "up to you", though. You can either have a clean, sharp style or an aged, illogical style.

I understand that you have issues with the shading and that you see my request to keep to it as a handicap. However, as I said, I -do- in fact want a more plasticine look. If you can achieve that without the grey specks, I would be greatly appreciative of you showing me that method so that I may learn from you and update my work accordingly.

The point is, I am not trying to attack you or your project, but it sucks to see such potential being wasted on blurry and cluttered sprites. I also am fed up of people who can't accept a """""harsh""""" (inside a lot of quote marks because it wasn't even harsh at all) criticism without going 'you could at least say (insert euphemistic version of the same exact criticism)'.

I'm glad that you accepted the changes starsock and I did, but there are much more flaws you should take care of.

I want to see the best for this project so I find criticism very important, as it's a vital key to evaluation and improvement. Each critique not only helps the sprites, but it also helps fine tune my own ability to discern areas in need of improvement in other sprites.

It's just that I see no reason why there shouldn't be at the very least a thin layer of civility. I hope I've made it obvious, or if I have not that I soon will, that I am dedicated to positive change and improvement and that I do in fact highly value critique. I hope you did notice that I did not disregard your critique despite having issue with your method of communicating it- the method of communication did not eliminate the importance of critique given. I am simply asking that in the future that we can do without the additional barbs- they cloud the matter are are entirely unnecessary. I will continue to voice my request that in the future that critiques be given plainly without additional cattiness- I will listen just as attentively to your critique.

Thanks.

That said, lets please move on to improvement and creation of sprites for this project, please.