WIP forum FAQ and tips
Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26014
Printed Date: 12 September 2025 at 11:44am
Topic: WIP forum FAQ and tips
Posted By: Hapiel
Subject: WIP forum FAQ and tips
Date Posted: 03 November 2017 at 2:31pm
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Hey WIP forum visitors, To improve the WIP forum experience, I want to create a short and compact FAQ/readmy sticky post for here in the WIP forums. This in order to help prevent and solve common problems, and to potentially increase activity. Before I go ahead and turn up with a big list in place I wanted to ask you for your input. Which problems do you see in the WIP forums? What questions do you have? How do you think most threads could be improved? All help is welcome, from making a tiny suggestion to completely rewriting my post, or even telling me that this idea is stupid and I should leave it  Some inspiration is taken from https://pixelation.org/index.php?topic=4265.msg53081 - WotP and from https://www.reddit.com/r/PixelArt/comments/yjt1p/how_to_read_cc/ - Reddit The post so far: --- This sub forum is about sharing your Work In Progress, receiving constructive criticism (CC) and improving your art! Anyone who loves learning and helping others is encouraged to post here. How to post images Images need to be hosted externally to be included in a forum post. Any hosting service will do, but we recommend Imgur.com as their images never go down and they do not compress your pixel art. Once you've uploaded to Imgur you want to either get the BBCode Share Link, or right click on your image and copy the (direct) image location/image address You'll then want to put the [img] and [/img] tags around the direct image location, so your final code looks like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/aaa000.png[/img] Alternatively you can also insert an image by clicking the insert image button  in the editor, and pasting the direct image location there.Make sure your image is saved in a lossless format such as .PNG, never use .JPG when saving pixel art. The forum has a zoom function on all images. Click to zoom, shift click to zoom out. Therefor, please post your images at normal 1x zoom level, there is no need to scale it up. Please crop your images before you post them, it is not pretty when you post a large white canvas with only a small sprite on it. How do I ask for Critique? Asking critique is an art form on it's own, but here is a quick summary of guidelines to help your post and art succeed: Show some effort! Nobody likes to respond to incredibly crude stuff. Once you've put in a couple of hours, your work will start to attract responses. If you have multiple versions, share them all! Once critique starts to come in, you might feel like you need to redo your whole piece. In any case, remember that the more effort you put in, the more value you will get out! In case you don't get much (or any) response after a day or two, keep on posting your progress or new experiments. Sometimes it takes multiple attempts before someone can recommend help Be specific. Ask questions about the problems you have, tell us where you got stuck. Also, it is easier to ask critique for 1 work of art at a time than for a whole collection or series. Be inclusive. Tell us what your art is for, what your inspirations and references are, perhaps which limitations you have. Respond! People who leave replies are hoping you include their suggestions in the next version of your artwork. If you don't consider their comments, why should they respond in the first place? If you do not understand the critique that is delivered to you, ask questions about it. At the very least, consider being thankful and thank people for their time and comments. Remember, every response you get is intended to help you, even if it feels rude or invalid. This forum is mainly for pixel art, but Non Pixel Art is very welcome too. If you want to get feedback on digital drawings, 3d models or anything else, please put the tag [NPA] in your post title! For more tips on asking critique I recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuEQAG4cRWY - this video. Why should I critique someone's art? We highly encourage engaging in the WIP forum and giving out some critique. Through explaining you will receive a better understanding of what you already think you know. Also you can learn much faster if you can learn from the mistakes and successes from others, than if you're just on your own! Whatever you see here, try to analyze it. What did the creator intend? Why does it look good, or bad? How could it be improved? Suggestions are often presented in the form of descriptions or edits. You could even go as far as making a mini tutorial which might be useful for other artists with similar problems too! The best critique is written with the receiver in mind. Remember that they are only human, and might be insecure. Critique their work, not their person. Making critique can be fun. You can think about or edit artworks which you usually don't get to work on, and it often takes much less effort than starting a piece of your own. By helping each other, we can help raise this community and art form to a higher level. Who doesn't want to participate in that? Even more than asking critique, giving critique is an art. If you're interested in learning more about it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9neybpOvjaQ - this video might be a good place to start. Selection of useful PixelJoint links The pixel art tutorial Noobtorials External links thread (will be created soon) Recommended software thread (will be created soon) |
Replies:
Posted By: NancyGold
Date Posted: 03 November 2017 at 6:04pm
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Your WotP link seems broken: "No input file specified." |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 04 November 2017 at 10:46am
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Thanks snv, links are fixed now! New part of the post: How do I ask for Critique? Asking critique is an art form on it's own, but here is a quick summary of guidelines to help your post and art succeed: Show some effort! Nobody likes to respond to incredibly crude stuff. Once you've put in a couple of hours, your work will start to attract responses. If you have multiple versions, share them all! Once critique starts to come in, you might feel like you need to redo your whole piece. In any case, remember that the more effort you put in, the more value you will get out! Be specific. Ask questions about the problems you have, tell us where you got stuck. Also, it is easier to ask critique for 1 work of art at a time than for a whole collection or series. Be inclusive. Tell us what your art is for, what your inspirations and references are, perhaps which limitations you have. Respond! People who leave replies are hoping you include their suggestions in the next version of your artwork. If you don't consider their comments, why should they respond in the first place? If you do not understand the critique that is delivered to you, ask questions about it. At the very least, consider being thankful and thank people for their time and comments. Remember, every response you get is intended to help you, even if it feels rude or invalid. For more tips on asking critique I recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuEQAG4cRWY - this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuEQAG4cRWY - --- Did I miss anything, is anything redundant/ unnecessary here, and is there any bit that could be improved / shortened? Thanks in advance ( Do you see I'm testing my own theories here?  ) |
Posted By: AshCrimson
Date Posted: 04 November 2017 at 1:01pm
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I'd recommend continuing to post stuff, even if you don't get a lot of (or any!) posts, sometimes it takes multiple pieces before someone can recommend help. Also i think a mention on what counts as "Non Pixel Art" might be helpful, even a short one. |
Posted By: Hapiel
Date Posted: 05 November 2017 at 3:36pm
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Thanks AshCrimson! Both your suggestions have been edited into the top post! I found the part below the hardest to write, trying not to copy the pixelation version one on one... suggestions are welcome! Why should I critique someone's art? We highly encourage engaging in the WIP forum and giving out some critique. Through explaining you will receive a better understanding of what you already think you know. Also you can learn much faster if you can learn from the mistakes and successes from others, than if you're just on your own! Whatever you see here, try to analyze it. What did the creator intend? Why does it look good, or bad? How could it be improved? Suggestions are often presented in the form of descriptions or edits. You could even go as far as making a mini tutorial which might be useful for other artists with similar problems too! The best critique is written with the receiver in mind. Remember that they are only human, and might be insecure. Critique their work, not their person. Making critique can be fun. You can think about or edit artworks which you usually don't get to work on, and it often takes much less effort than starting a piece of your own. By helping each other, we can help raise this community and art form to a higher level. Who doesn't want to participate in that? Even more than asking critique, giving critique is an art. If you're interested in learning more about it, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9neybpOvjaQ - this video might be a good place to start. |