In which badp tries to create a 16×16 avatar that doesn't suck, unsuccessfully

badp

04:34

4 colors. 16×16 scaled up. Thoughts?

hm. I probably liked the blue in my old avatar better though. This blue is kinda pale and weak.

hm. This makes the CIC too remarked though

John

@badp Too "brackets with capital I"

@badp Yeah, that.

badp

Need to make the mask brighter

John

@badp I zoomed out, and this one looked like just CIC with eyes. I think your pea-size body needs to be lighter.

badp

This looks kinda frightened actually

and... pretty damn :3

Kinda skully too.

How about this?

...now it looks like a lightbulb.

John

@badp You look too confused for a ninja pea.

badp

04:47

Confused? I wanted to give it a "huh. wtf." look.

John

@badp You totally nailed the "huh" part.

badp

I dunno, I guess I'll experiment with this one until enough people tell me to change back, which will make @Mana feel better.

John

@badp And I'll change mine to another one of yours and my name to badp and we'll see which one of us everyone likes better! :P

badp

Oh, you do have quite a few choices

dropbox.com/gallery/1164414/1/Avatars?h=60ea2f

John

@badp Seriously though, I've always wondered how hard it would be to impersonate someone in chat. Assuming no one ever clicks through to your chat profile of course, but who does that after the first day?

badp

04:53

You can't impersonate a mod - you'd lack either blue text or the diamond

For regular users... good luck writing something that reads like somebody other than yourself

let alone something that reads like the person you're impersonating

OH COME ON Gravatar.

You managed to fuck it up.

Let me guess - if I submit a 16×16 image you'll still fuck it up, this time in the upscaling.

John

@badp sighes Someone always has to shoot down all my schemes. (Fortunately before I manage to get myself in trouble.) Usually it's Grace Note though. :P

badp

Let's try uploading a higher resolution version

Yeah, this looks better.

Funny how you have to upload at 1024×1024 to make the picture look right at 16×16

John

Oh ew. Change it back. But after someone says this in front of Mana.

You're totally ruining the whole "Blob Wars" image I have of you.

Well, the big one on the right looks ok, just not the little one.

badp

Do the pixel look all smushed?

I've uploaded a new version, you might still be loading the old one.

The one I currently have displays correctly at 16×16, which was the whole point.

As for the bandana... I suppose I could look into it.

@John I assume you're looking at this yellow angry blob

John

@badp Yeah. That's Bob the Blob (not to be confused with this guy). He's way more awesomer than Tinka the scout.

Btw, if you haven't played Blob Wars: Blob and Conquer, you totally should.

And on that note, I must be off. Good Night/Morning!

badp

05:04

how about

I don't quite like the way the 'eyebrows' bend in the one I currently have.

(I moved the bend one pixel to the right and removed the corners.)

(It's funny just how much control you can have -- and do need -- even in such a small domain

I probably need to bend the larger eye too though.

doing that makes me look angry though. :/

← 52 messages moved from The Bridge

user30

11:34

what's up with your avatar anyway?

badp

it's a true 16×16 avatar now.

user30

you have a problem with your eye.

user30

anyway, time for some more evil genius

user30

oh redis. you so good.

badp

@ThomasMcDonald huh?

user30

11:38

your left eye

user30

is larger than your right

badp

yeah, I added a touch of 'wtf?' to the face.

Otherwise it looked to skeleton-y.

user30

oh, okay

user30

waaaa feed update

user30

with about 300 closed questions

badp

12:14

yeah, we need to take a closer look at skyrim and bf3 questions

Grace Note

12:38

Did you switch to your 16x16? Your face is all lopsided

user30

See above

Grace Note

Ooh, I see

Ronan Forman

13:32

@badp That logo needs more dither.

badp

which?

Ronan Forman

Your gravatar.

badp

It's 4 colors

why does it need dither?

Ronan Forman

It's too flat, add some shading. and in 8-bit dither shading looks best.

badp

Keep in mind the avatar needs to scale up to 128×128

so I can't just go and color every other pixel darker

like this @RonanForman?

I have lost count of how many colors I use now tbh

GnomeSlice

13:41

@badp Yes, like that.

That looks great.

Shall I continue your bracket in the tournament using that?

badp

I'm not final yet tbh.

Now, this version's 8 colors.

Yi Jiang

@badp At that size, the top and bottom of the circle is pretty much invisible

badp

@YiJiang 16×16 is the use case I'm optimizing for, though

My previous avatar looked like crap in that size

besides... ninja is the theme. Top and bottom being barely visible kinda fits.

Here it is scaled up.

I think that's eight colors, but I can't be sure.

← 39 messages moved from The Bridge

GnomeSlice

@badp Looks like 9

badp

Hm?

GnomeSlice

13:47

The lighter colour on the top and bottom sections don't appear to be quite the same.

badp

1. Background = eye color

2. Eye color = top left corner of face

GnomeSlice

@badp Oh, that's not black?

10 colours then.

badp

3. Mask base color = bottom right corner of face

Yi Jiang

At 16x16, the top and bottom of the circle needs more contrast with the background for it to be visible

badp

4. Mask base color darker

5. Mask base color lighter

6. Face base color darker

Yi Jiang

13:49

Or you know, we could just pretend your avatar consists of a blue band with two eyes :P

badp

7. Face base color lighter

8. Face border = pupils (black)

I think this covers the entire image

@YiJiang You mean the mask's?

GnomeSlice

@badp The lighter colours in the top and bottom of the mask don't seem to be the same.

Yi Jiang

@badp Yeah

GnomeSlice

I definitely count 10 colours.

The darker mask colours don't appear to match either.

badp

Made the value bonus/malus 12 now

(24 - base mask, 12 - darker, 36 - lighter)

GnomeSlice

13:53

9 colours now.

badp

although the lighter version looks like it needs to be saturated a bit less

@GnomeSlice What's the ninth color?

GnomeSlice

Let me number it on the image, I can't keep track of it all at once.

Oops. Wrong image file.

badp

oh. They might be 10 after all

GnomeSlice

Yes, there's 10.

Top and bottom mask pieces contain 4 different ones, in total, not including the border colour.

Wait, no.

The top and bottom mask pieces contain 3 different colours.

So there are 9.

Are you using Chrome, @badp?

badp

This is what you mean right?

I'll have to make 9 = 4

Grace Note

13:57

Color-by-numbers. Haven't had one of those books for years

Ronan Forman

Wait the lines and the back are the same colour? They look the same.

GnomeSlice

@badp Not quite, the little bit of grey at the bottom of the face should be 6, not 4.

@badp But yes.

@GraceNote I used to hate those.

badp

@GnomeSlice Um, yeah, it's 6, not 4. Duh

er

Ronan Forman

Make 5=9 and 2=3

badp

GnomeSlice

13:59

Why does it need to be only 8 colours, anyway?

@badp No, it needs the darker blue.

Why not make the dark blue border/eye colour just flat black?

Ronan Forman

@gnome that's what I said: 2=3

badp

@GnomeSlice because I want the pupils to be distinguishable if you look hard enough

also, 2 remains in the background

GnomeSlice

@badp They aren't distinguishable already.

Especially at 16x16.

Try it, I think you'll find it looks fine.

Why does it need to be 8 colours, anyway?

badp

er

2's gone.

With it, the background's gone too.

GnomeSlice

@badp In this one, it looks like you have some mad 5 o'clock shadow or something, and the lower mask border becomes a mouth line.

@badp This one too.

@RonanForman We can begin our FS games if you like.

badp

14:04

@GnomeSlice Do you still see it?

GnomeSlice

@badp Unfortunately, even in the tiny one the mask border looks kind of like a mouth.

I think you should stick with all blue in the face area.

badp

I guess there's not much I can do about it

GnomeSlice

Why does it need to be 8 colours?

In which the community elects GnomeSp…

A terrifically important decision for Gaming.

badp

GnomeSlice

These rooms never work out.

badp

14:07

Here, back to 8 colors

I was at 8 before

GnomeSlice

@badp Better.

badp

I kinda nerfed the mask shadows and highlights, but that white now is too viisble

and the overall change from the flat version is really subtle

a bit too subtle

need to perk it

GnomeSlice

@badp I actually like it like that. Post a larger version.

badp

GnomeSlice

@badp I think that looks fine.

badp

14:11

@GnomeSlice If I'm going for de-rezzed for the size, I might as well go de-rezzed on colors too. Also it makes it easier for me.

GnomeSlice

@badp de-rezzed? I'm not sure what that means. Are you making the image only 16x16, or are you making a larger one that looks GOOD at 16x16?

badp

The simplest way to make an image that looks good at 16×16 is to make it at 16×16 and then scale it up

GnomeSlice

@badp Then it tends to look bad at a larger size.

badp

Nah, it's minecrafty. :P

Pixelated, maaaaaaaan.

GnomeSlice

Things don't really scale up that way.

I imagine the way you're getting those larger screenshots is you're doing it in MS paint, and just zooming in then printscreening.

badp

14:14

also 16×16 is the size of a Minecraft texture 'bit'

No, MS Paint is too smart and does bilinear

also it screws up with the colors

I'm using Paint.NET

Resizing with nearest neighbour

GnomeSlice

Whatever. Either way, you're drawing it at 16x16, then zooming in and printscreening.

badp

No, I'm saving, not printscreening.

You bad person. :P

GnomeSlice

I'm surprised it resizes so cleanly, in that case.

badp

58 secs ago, by badp

Resizing with nearest neighbour

GnomeSlice

Nearest Neighbour?

badp

14:16

Basically, when scaling up it just cranks the size of each pixel up, separately.

GnomeSlice

@badp Aha. So it's essentially zooming in, then printscreening.

:P

badp

:|

except done right :P

GnomeSlice

ಠ_ಠ

badp

Anyway, I've 'deployed' the current version

GnomeSlice

@badp I can't see it when I click on your name because the list of rooms you're on goes off the top of my screen.

badp

14:18

A reload will do

GnomeSlice

@badp I did that. I mean I can't see the larger one. Anyway, the 16x16 looks fine.

What was wrong with your old one?

badp

↑ previous avatar at 16×16

After I bothered mana about how bad his previous avatar looked at 16×16, I decided I just had to optimize my avatar as well.

Also - I've drawn every single pixel of this one. The previous 80×80 avatar was just ripped off from some forum emoticon, and, in the case of Gaming, recoloured.

GnomeSlice

@badp Except that's not actually 16x16.

It's been blown up.

badp

Yeah, but you can see that things still weren't looking good - especially the pupils

GnomeSlice

Looked fine at 16x16.

Image resolution is all about compromise.

badp

14:23

Also, I didn't quite recolor every single pixels - a bit of yellow remained in the corners and that bothered me

Yeah, I'm going uncompromising on 16×16 here.

Now to see how the yellow version works out.

I probably need to crank up the luminosity too.

although this doesn't look too bad for a starting point

Actually it's probably fine.

GnomeSlice

@badp Looks a little green.

badp

All I did is change the hue to 60

so it can't be green... mathematically

John

19:26

@badp Generic +1 for the Rchern references.

In which the community elects GnomeSp…

Transcript for

In which badp tries to create a 16×16…