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Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:44 pm
by Ralf
This winter picture is great. On ZxArt there is also a version without Speccy characters.

I don't remeber if anybody before on Spectrum draw trees with combination of navy and white colours. They are most contrasting colours non black in Spectrum palette and it's looks really good.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:50 pm
by R-Tape
Yep^ I wish I could do a scene like this. For once the speccy palette has all it needs for a landscape - 5,1,7 for the icy exterior and 2,6 for the glowing warm shalet.

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Here are the easy ones, are there any craftily hidden ones?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:12 pm
by Andy Green
R-Tape wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:50 pm Yep^ I wish I could do a scene like this. For once the speccy palette has all it needs for a landscape - 5,1,7 for the icy exterior and 2,6 for the glowing warm shalet.

Image

Here are the easy ones, are there any craftily hidden ones?
You've got 'em all! Well done! Nope, no hidden ones although one person did pick up on what looks like a face directly above Monty Mole. Wasn't the intention LOL.

Thank you all for your very kind comments on my pic though. Really appreciate it! :D

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:56 am
by R-Tape
I wondered about that one, in fact there were a few that I looked at twice or thrice.

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From left: sad mutant pig thing, nasty Tyrannosaurus, Maureen Tucker, vomiting Otter.

In fact the chimney's started looking at me funny....Nurse!

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 12:02 pm
by Andy Green
Stoppppppp! Your mind is playing tricks on you now lol. ;)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:18 pm
by Radastan
Andy Green wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2017 12:42 am Image
Sorry, but I need to retouch a bit your image...

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Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:25 pm
by R-Tape
Heh, the festive 'spot the difference' competition?

EDIT - got it, must be blind.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:56 pm
by Ralf
Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers ;)

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:15 pm
by R-Tape
Ralf wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:56 pm Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers ;)
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Not if we set bit 7.

I'm sure Andy will be happy to see his screen getting incrementally better...

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:02 am
by AndyC
R-Tape wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:15 pm
Ralf wrote: Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:56 pm Now the man on the left looks like he is without trousers ;)
Image

Not if we set bit 7.

I'm sure Andy will be happy to see history screen getting incrementally better...
Excellent. He looked like he was flashing and now he definitely is

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:27 pm
by RMartins
I like a lot how the colors were uaed in the winter scene screen.
They give the right feeling of cold and hot, and dark and light.

But there is something that bugs the hell out of me.

The house roof is larger/taller on the front side.
This sense of size is given by the black shadow around the windows on the left.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:26 pm
by R-Tape
RMartins wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 2:27 pm But there is something that bugs the hell out of me.

The house roof is larger/taller on the front side.
This sense of size is given by the black shadow around the windows on the left.
Ha now you've said it I can't tell. Is it technically wrong or just asymmetric?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:44 pm
by AndyC
It's not unheard of for ski lodges to gave asymmetric rooves. I'm not sure about the windows though, they're flat-on on two sides, which makes the perspective seem a bit off. Not sure you can work around that and the attribute limitations though...

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:51 pm
by RMartins
Now that you made me look at it again ...
The roof is higher on top, on the left side of the chimney than on the right.

One could probably retract the roof a bit, to make it center over the windows,
But only trying it will tell, if it works.

Cool screen anyway :D

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:09 am
by Andy Green
Thanks for the kind comments and Happy New Year to you all by the way!

Re: Kane. I love how you guys have changed the skin colour which ironically, I had also played about with before I saw the amended images here LOL. Yellow does seem to suit the two characters on left while leaving the Indian in magenta.

Re: Horace and Friends Ski Lodge. The lodge roof is isometrically correct as I had copied it from a photo I found online although the windows could've been better placed but put anywhere else would've resulted in attribute clash. Although the more I keep looking at it, the more I want to "fine-tune" it lol.

I topped off 2017 with a new loading screen. This time for a fictitious game called Combat Wombat from a comic called Hex Loader that is set in the British computer games industry of the 1980s featuring the humble 48K Spectrum. It's written by Dan Whitehead (veteran games journalist and author of Speccy Nation books). Dan asked if I'd be interested in doing one for him and I couldn't refuse! I have to say that this one has been a real test of my pixel skills and it's taken me considerably longer to do than any others I've done (around 10 hours). Anyhow, hope you all like it! :D

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Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 11:28 am
by Ast A. Moore
Damn, these are impressive!

Would two oxen, a sheep, and three goats be enough compensation, if I humbly asked you to redo the loading screen for my shoot-’em-up?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 12:45 pm
by R-Tape
Pretty good, but it doesn't wow me as much as your others. IMO the layout's not quite right and it feels a bit lifeless.

(Sorry, your fault for setting the bar so high :D )

Thanks for the reminder about Hex Loader, sold.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:50 pm
by Andy Green
Nowt wrong with being honest with your opinion, R Tape!! I had several ideas floating around (lots of colour, actual background pic, etc.) but decided to keep to the theme and style of the comic (all in black and white so used minimal colours in the pic with the red/blue bars to give it a "ready for action" look) which Dan Whitehead is really pleased with. I did think about adding a mixture of colour to the Wombat but because of the level of detail, would have resulted in a lot of colour clash, or disfigured sections to compensate. Like I said before, I'm not a professional pixel artist (honest!) and do these because I enjoy doing them. :mrgreen:

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 8:23 pm
by Andy Green
Back to my roots of doing alternative loading screens. This time for Maziacs. A game I absolutely loved on the Spectrum and ZX81 (called Mazogs). Below is my tribute to this brilliant game.
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Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:55 pm
by Juan F. Ramirez
Great screen for a great game

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 12:17 am
by Andy Green
A couple more...

This one is an alternative loading screen for Galaxian (Atarisoft):

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Alternative loading screen for Invaders (Artic Computing. Also known as - wait for it - Space Invaders):

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Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:09 pm
by Ralf
Great stuff Andy! Please don't stop :)

If I may ask, what are your next plans?

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 3:21 pm
by Ast A. Moore
Great work, Andy, as always.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2018 11:08 pm
by R-Tape
Where've they gone? I saw them this morning and they looked great.

Combat Wombat also encouraged me to buy the 2 issues of Hexloader by the way :D A good read and interesting to see where it goes, although each issue was a bit short.

Re: New loading screens by Andy Green

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:35 pm
by Andy Green
R-Tape - yeah, I noticed that yesterday the images weren't there. Showing now though. Must had been a glitch! Well, showing on mobile....

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Ralf - pixel art is on hold at the moment. I lost my grip on a cup of tea and it spilled over half my laptop. Quick as a flash I upended it and disconnected all connections. Dried it all out. Fortunately, the laptop is functioning as it was before the spillage. Unfortumately, all USB ports are fried. I use a wired mouse to do screens (laptop doesn't have a wireless port). Taking it to repair shop tomorrow to get an estimate. Hopefully its not going to cost a lot otherwise Im going to habe to wait until I get enough money. After Christmas is not a good time financially lol. My wife said I can use her laptop if need be when shes not using it. Just got to transfer all my art folders and program across. I've had the laptop 5 years. First time I've spilled anything on it.