This is totally badass! The whole composition is really clean and awesome work in fading your colors!!
Reviews for "Level Up!"
Zanzlanz responds:
Woah thanks Chibazato! I'm glad it turned out readable - I was worried about cluttering it when I added more and more haha :D
As for the dithering, I used software dithering (because doing that by hand would take foreeever... though I think people just use tools for that anyway!). I really liked how it gave me the opportunity to make the colors much more vivid and set the focus more on the center. :)
This looks perfect as a poster! Hope you win! :)
Zanzlanz responds:
Dude I hope YOU win! Your submission is so incredible!
And thank you very much! :D
A mighty icon in pixel form! :D Snake not related to the level up procedure? How about the frog? Snail? Fish in your lap? Maybe those obstacles that need to be overcome to reach the next level, that keep seeping into the background, distractions, excess tasks, such stuff...
Really cool you actually made programs to make parts of the image, don't think I've ever heard of such things being done in the name of art before! Though the Mobius in the examples seem a lot more uneven than the one in the picture? Tweaked further before export, or modified in drawing after that...?
Love the texture, text and cubes in particular - all the orange stuff really stands out, and the centerpiece in its impeccable mobius frame... though think it would've been all the more pompous in gold? Also seeing as it seems like it's supposed to stand behind all other layers, it's a bit strange the floor actually goes in behind it, think it would've been perfect either as a gateway in the wall or as something floating in front of all... if so maybe with some form of pixel disturbance/effect to show the hovering.
Other than that: looks amazing! Great attention to detail, and fun to see the revisions it went through before its final form too. Happy Pixel Day!
-cd-
Zanzlanz responds:
Cyberdevil! Hey thanks man!
It's hard to articulate my decision to add a nature part of this, but it's related to the idea that when you take away the things that hold you back, you can be brought to a more peaceful, natural state of mind. I find feeling improved often goes hand-in-hand with this. Maybe this is not relatable to everyone though :)
On his feet are slippers - like bunny slippers. A fish would be super weird I think! :D
Yes the mobius things I linked to are re-coded shaders - an offshoot experiment. The original is made in Flash and looks like this:
https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/draw/62a0f25e1b55098aa299ffda01ff33e6
I just love making spinny things, and the challenge to make it in a shader was enticing.
A gold mobius frame would be nice as well, I agree! It was originally suppose to be dragons haha, but I thought I was starting to get ridiculous. In the end, I wanted it only to link the void to the background, so I chose to make it more of a transition than an object.
I would have liked to animate this piece, which would have helped with the effect you're talking about, but man I already spent too much time on it hahaha! Plus I wonder how would I animate the frog hovering there. x)
Thanks so much again! Happy Pixel Day to you too!