Mute Sims 7 ~ OUT NOW!

[Arntonach]

Sorry, I tend to get carried away a little much on some of the more stupider things in life. Take my rants with a grain of salt, or the whole shaker if you insist.

[mutesauce]

Ok, I've seen the phrase "r21freak graphics" used several times now. Can anybody tell me what that means? I've honestly never heard the term before.

All the other points, I'll respond to those when I get home from work tonight.

[Gundam-Dude]

I'm just using it loosely to describe the particular overall look, feel and aesthetics of graphic sets that come out of R21freak, which all have a consistent look to them. Generally if I had to sum it all up:

- 418x164 ITG standard banner size.
- Mixture of typefaces, which are completely randomly chosen with no relevance whatsoever. Only legitimate designers would know what I'm talking about here but frankly for SM/ITG purposes nobody ****ing cares so this point is irrelevant.
- Huge lack of typography, usually breaking many typography rules and conventions. Again, nobody ****ing cares in the first place other than designers so this point is also irrelevant.
- Bold and BIG typeface usage. Type is never small and rarely ever as thin as a hairline.
- Coloured typefaces, usually never solid/pure white.
- Thorough usage of drop shadows, strokes, and gradients.
- Generally, very vibrant in colour. Never one solid colour scheme and usually very saturated.
- Often times, text is centered in the banner. Otherwise, offset on a slight angle.
- "Stolen" artwork with minimal editing, such as colour shifts and some brush work. This isn't really an issue because again nobody cares for the purposes of SM/ITG which are both open source. Legal issues aren't even existent here.

I'm not criticizing or bashing in any way shape or form although I'm generalizing a lot from a designer perspective. But you have to admit that you guys over at R21freak have really established an aesthetic standard for yourselves. This isn't a bad thing at all, every clique/community has their own thing going on to make themselves unique and different.

Personally, I dig it and you guys should take pride in your aesthetic standard, whether or not you realized this fact or not. In fact, you can say that I am envious to some degree because here in the keyboard community, we don't exactly have a set standard for aesthetics because everyone does their own thing for graphics, including myself. Graphics and aesthetics are never consistent looking unless they're from the same person, although at the same time we have much more freedom to explore and experiment as opposed to the R21freak style which all consistently look alike.

You KNOW it's a graphics set from R21freak when you see it, is basically what I'm getting at.

[wwplpmpn]

r21 freak gfx are the best, because they blend right in with the ITG song banners. likewise, if u use grids and typography on a community centre bulletin board flyer, it looks really weird and out of place

also personally, i think the gfx that the korean kb simfile community makes are rly rly cool (they are da bes), and i cant figure out how to make stuff look as cool as their gfx is

[xVaLoRx]

I always find it funny when people take the gfx more seriously than the charts lol

[Psychotik]

Originally Posted by Gundam-Dude

the R21freak style which all consistently look alike.

I'd say that mute actually has the most unique style of graphics on r21freak. I can actually tell apart somewhat accurately who made what graphics.

[mutesauce]

Alright, I'ma respond to this piece by piece.

Originally Posted by Arntonach

I hope that's not a joke or something. For single releases it's somewhat okay, but a bunch of people are going to download this pack and most of them won't be able to play anything. I know if the can't play the charts on pad they can play them on index, but then what's the point of making pad simfiles? It's not like people are better playing index than pad either; I passed a 7 footer on DDR way before being able to pass the same chart in SM.

Since you're not an ITG player, I can see why this would seem ridiculous to you. Believe me, I wish I had time to make full difficulties for all my files. In fact, I really do want to flesh out full singles difficulties for all of my files someday. But hey, there are only so many hours in a day. And even if I made full singles difficulties, I'm sure some people would still feel left out because there were no double charts. I learned a long time ago that trying to please everyone is a fool's game. My "target market," if you can call it that, is generally the AIJ/r21freak crowd that also plays expert single. I make expert single pad files primarily for myself; the fact that anyone else in the ITG community enjoys them is a bonus. I present them as they are, which is a bunch of single expert charts that I made to my own personal liking. Simple as that.

Originally Posted by Arntonach

You used a screencap from Speed Highway Act 2 for gfx for Radical Highway Act 1. And it was a low quality gamerip instead of the soundtrack version. And the tags are wrong too, it's Vengeance Is Mine (Cash Cash RMX) by Jun Senoue. At least try to do your homework.

This is the only part of your post that made you come off as being a bit ridiculous. Apparently I'm not as big of a Sonic fan as you, ha ha. I just picked the most decent-looking pic I could find of Sonic on a highway, man. Pretty sure nobody but you will notice or care that it's technically the wrong level.

Now the song itself was a simfile request from a random r21freak poster that I decided to pick up and do. The irony is that I *did* actually try to find the correct title and artist for the song. I found it listed at least two or three different ways on several different sites selling the OST, so I was more or less forced to guess. And furthermore, I even sought out a higher quality song file than the one the requester had provided.

I wouldn't expect you to know this about me, but anybody in the ITG community would assure you that if anyone gives a shit about properly labeling songs and having high-quality audio, it's me. I actually rant about this stuff on r21freak all the time. (Just the other day, I lectured on the proper labeling of a restep I did.) If you have a better song file, hell, I'll take it and re-upload the pack with that and the properly labelled song title/artist name.

Originally Posted by Arntonach

You need some help with your gfx. Not that they're bad, but they could use some liveliness. And sometimes you only seem to use the song title for gfx inspiration, which causes a clash with the mood of the song that doesn't fit well, unless that's intentional, of course.

Though I have no formal expertise in graphic design, I have a strong background in photography and photomanipulation and would say that I have a decent sense of design/typography/composition. I make no bones about the fact that my graphics are slapping text on a stolen image, but then again, neither do any other ITG simfile authors. Hell, we have an "overused graphics" thread on r21freak poking fun at this fact. I will be the first to acknowledge that some of my graphics are clunkers (I especially hate how Dreaming Snowdrop's gfx turned out). I wouldn't count myself in the absolute top tier of graphics guys in the ITG community, but by and large, I think my graphics get the job done pretty darn well.

This part is certainly subjective so I don't fault you for having your opinion. Aesthetics are aesthetics. I will say though that your statements are pretty vague here. If you'd care to be more specific about how anything is unfitting then I'm all ears.

Oh and to Gundam-Dude, thanks for your reply as well. In all honesty, I play absolutely zero kb files. (I physically can't because I have pretty bad tendonitis in my wrists.) So if your community does things drastically different when it comes to graphics, I'd be curious to see what you mean. Care to point me to a few packs or files that are exemplary? I'm always looking to absorb new ideas and improve my graphics.

[Gundam-Dude]

here are a few examples of some of the many style of graphics we have here. for the most part, everyone just does graphics related stuff as a hobby with the exception of me because I'm actually a graphic design major and have done design work in the industry.

wwplpmpn

Coolboyrulez

Antronach

Scylaax

And finally, myself

maybe some stuff to spark inspiration

[Lynn.]

nice song lists

[Kraezymann]

Alright, more mute sims! Keep 'em coming man

[Duplica]

I can 99% most of these. really fun stuff!

[Fluvs]

It nice!

[Arntonach]

Originally Posted by mutesauce

Since you're not an ITG player, I can see why this would seem ridiculous to you. Believe me, I wish I had time to make full difficulties for all my files. In fact, I really do want to flesh out full singles difficulties for all of my files someday. But hey, there are only so many hours in a day. And even if I made full singles difficulties, I'm sure some people would still feel left out because there were no double charts. I learned a long time ago that trying to please everyone is a fool's game. My "target market," if you can call it that, is generally the AIJ/r21freak crowd that also plays expert single. I make expert single pad files primarily for myself; the fact that anyone else in the ITG community enjoys them is a bonus. I present them as they are, which is a bunch of single expert charts that I made to my own personal liking. Simple as that.

Understandable. I mean, it is just a game, I just take things too seriously.

Originally Posted by mutesauce

This is the only part of your post that made you come off as being a bit ridiculous. Apparently I'm not as big of a Sonic fan as you, ha ha. I just picked the most decent-looking pic I could find of Sonic on a highway, man. Pretty sure nobody but you will notice or care that it's technically the wrong level.

Now the song itself was a simfile request from a random r21freak poster that I decided to pick up and do. The irony is that I *did* actually try to find the correct title and artist for the song. I found it listed at least two or three different ways on several different sites selling the OST, so I was more or less forced to guess. And furthermore, I even sought out a higher quality song file than the one the requester had provided.

I wouldn't expect you to know this about me, but anybody in the ITG community would assure you that if anyone gives a shit about properly labeling songs and having high-quality audio, it's me. I actually rant about this stuff on r21freak all the time. (Just the other day, I lectured on the proper labeling of a restep I did.) If you have a better song file, hell, I'll take it and re-upload the pack with that and the properly labelled song title/artist name.

Oh that's just generic sonic fan wank with a dash of overseriousness right there. If you're serious though, I'll hit you up later.

Originally Posted by mutesauce

Though I have no formal expertise in graphic design, I have a strong background in photography and photomanipulation and would say that I have a decent sense of design/typography/composition. I make no bones about the fact that my graphics are slapping text on a stolen image, but then again, neither do any other ITG simfile authors. Hell, we have an "overused graphics" thread on r21freak poking fun at this fact. I will be the first to acknowledge that some of my graphics are clunkers (I especially hate how Dreaming Snowdrop's gfx turned out). I wouldn't count myself in the absolute top tier of graphics guys in the ITG community, but by and large, I think my graphics get the job done pretty darn well.

This part is certainly subjective so I don't fault you for having your opinion. Aesthetics are aesthetics. I will say though that your statements are pretty vague here. If you'd care to be more specific about how anything is unfitting then I'm all ears.

Personally, so expect others to disagree with me, the gfx should emulate the feel of the song. For example, for you simfile "The Zelda Song" the mood the gfx gives off a clam feeling, something that the song doesn't have. I would have made it look digitally damaged so it would emulate the 8 bit breakbeat feel, although I would still keep it fresh with something else to keep from looking generic.

Thank you for listening & sincere apologies for forcing my ideas on you. I also paraphrased your text since it's just a few posts away.

[mutesauce]

Originally Posted by Arntonach

Oh that's just generic sonic fan wank with a dash of overseriousness right there. If you're serious though, I'll hit you up later.

Definitely serious about that. Either PM me with a link or post it here in the thread.

[Leo137]

i remember seeing some pack of you in a itg cabinet, i though they were files without audio so i didn't played them xd

[Duplica]

Originally Posted by Leo137

i remember seeing some pack of you in a itg cabinet, i though they were files without audio so i didn't played them xd

LOL

[NeoMasterPie]

Originally Posted by Leo137

i remember seeing some pack of you in a itg cabinet, i though they were files without audio so i didn't played them xd

asddskfhkasld

pat and antronach wanking all over the place

[Wineandbread]

mfw this thread turned into a gfx discussion thread

[xferrarix]

Excellent pack for ITG machines/pad

This made me get out my Cobalt Flux from my closet to get into some old pad files. Very well done

[- ...]

Originally Posted by xferrarix

Excellent pack for ITG machines/pad

This made me get out my Cobalt Flux from my closet to get into some old pad files. Very well done

This will be my inspiration for being less terrible on pad after I build one.