Category: TheBroth

Which is partly why I'm writing this post... hehe :)

Seriously though, if you haven't already noticed, the home page of TheBroth now shows the top members of the week according to activity.

As of writing this, PanterA, Olesniczanin and MorningStar are dominating the list...

I'm trying to change that ;)

Don't forget to click on More to see the full list!

For 55, who asked about re-seeding tile colours.

Also see flipflop's colour seeding tips.

So here are the seeding images I used for the Grim Reaper Smiley and the subsequent modified seeding images that were used due to "not enough tiles of a particular colour" problem I frequently get.

The general principle of re-seeding tile colours is to use the same seeding image, but to alter a portion of that image to get more colours you want and less of what you don't need.

The overview:

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The first seeding image didn't have enough yellow, so I took the first seeding image and added more yellow and more white (I thought I would need more white, turns out I didn't) and the result is the second seeding image.

You'll notice that fundamentally the areas of colour in the seeding images stay the same. When the second seeding image is uploaded, the tiles will be in the same position and mostly will have the same colour and only a small proportion of tiles will need to be moved. If you go to the front of interim snapshot #2 you can see there are about 6 tiles that are the wrong colour in the artwork.

Note: Don't EVER use the "Arrange tiles..." option in edit room when re-seeding tile colours... I've actually done this before on accident and wanted to throw something out the window (I didn't take an interim snapshot).

The same principle applies to the third and fourth seeding images. I ran out of charcoal coloured tiles and it took 2 tries to get the tile colours right.

Alrighty, firstly, what's yoga pose #4?

Yoga pose artwork #4 is a variation on eka pada rajakapotasana, or one-legged king pigeon pose.

Eka - one
Pada - foot/leg
Raja - king
Kapota - pigeon
Asana - Pose/posture

Final snapshot:

This artwork was started before the new replay feature was introduced, so the first two intermin snapshots don't have have a movie replay. It's a little unfortunate, because most of the work happened before the first snapshot.

I didn't intend to release this artwork for another couple of weeks at least, even though it was completed. I won't go into details but the short of it is that I had to take a snapshot before I really wanted to and because the snapshot was taken, I decided not to wait and just add it in the public gallery.

I'll try to make this a quick description.

I spent about 3 hours and pushed about 2500-3000 tiles (I move tiles more than once) to get to the stage of the first snapshot.

Same old ran out of tiles of a particular colour problem, that's why there are interim snapshots. This is the second one:

Still battling with tiles colours and colour hunting:

This third interim snapshot has the movie replay feature. For me, the two most interesting aspects of the first movie replay of this artwork are:

1) my obsession with the damn hands
2) the evolution of a hair style

So, feeding my obsession with getting the hands to look like hands, I wanted some white tiles to work with. This means more colour hunting and we end up with this:

And very quickly I found out I would need another round of colour hunting for white tiles since the first one didn't result in many usable white tiles.

The finished product:

And just for a bit of fun, here's my attempt at the pose:

I used this photo as a reference for the hands.

Yoga pose artwork #3 is virabhadrasana B, or warrior pose B.

Virabhadra = hero or warrior
Asana = pose or posture

Virabhadrasana B is a very striking pose, made even more striking with this perspective.

I had conceived of making this yoga pose for a couple of weeks even before moving the first tile. I spent quite some time getting the colours I needed for this artwork. I think I seeded the room about 6 times before abandoning it because of frustration, and I hadn't even moved a tile yet!

I eventually came back to this artwork and actually had a couple of renditions because I didn't like the flesh colours I had initially used. This is the snapshot of the initial stages of this artwork with the original colours I had chosen.

The flesh was too pink and the artwork ultimately too large. I would have suffered severely with not enough tiles had I continued, so this particular version was abandoned and I started again.

I had to create a new colour seeding image with more browns and blacks for the hair (there wasn't enough in the first version, as you can probably see) and the flesh colours more toned down so there was less variation in colour and also a more yellow tone to the flesh.

I had also shrunk the artwork down to what I thought would be the right size so I would have more than enough tiles to complete it.

I can say now that my judgement of size was just a little bit off. I ended up shrinking down the artwork another 3-4 times near the completion because I was running out of flesh coloured tiles rapidly, as you can see:

The light coloured flesh tiles were also standing out too much instead of blending in with the rest of the skin tones. The darker skin tones were too dark and too pink, making shading less effective.

I went back to colour hunting. Lightened up the darker tiles, took out some saturation, changed the hue to slightly more yellow. Darkened down the lighter coloured flesh tiles.

This seemed to work, and I managed to be able to finish the artwork.

The hand had been reconstructed here. I did the best I could with the limited tiles I had, but it still turned out mittenish. By this time, I'm rather frustrated and annoyed with this artwork and just wanted it finished and out of the way.

But I wasn't happy with the colours yet. The darker flesh tiles were now too yellow and with not enough pink in them. The lighter flesh tiles also suffered the same problem, too yellow, not enough pink tones.

Back to colour seeding to add more pink back to the affected flesh colours. After the final finishing touches, yoga pose #3 is finished, mitten hand and all.

And to clarify a few points made in the comments: The hand looks small because it's meant to be a perspective thing, the further away an object, the smaller it appears. That was deliberate. The mitten hand was not deliberate but laziness on my part. I probably could have made it better had I not gotten really irritated with this artwork. The hidden face was deliberate, that's the perspective of the artwork, which was deliberately chosen so I wouldn't have to make a face :)

Previous yoga art blog:

Making of yoga pose #2

For now anyway...

Thanks to everyone who participated in the series of cartoon animal faces. There's plenty more animals we can make, but I need a break from them, and I'm sure the gallery could do with a break from them too!

I started them because cartoons are relatively easy to make and collaboration is therefore much easier. Besides, they were cute.

I may make one more, a penguin for cool penguin, but other than that, I'm taking a break from the toon faces.

By the way, as planned from the start, they're now part of an avatar gallery, so if you want a toon face as an avatar, simply go to edit avatar, click on the "Show gallery" button, select the avatar you want, click on the "Select avatar" button then on the "Submit" button to save your changes.

So I thought I'd write a little bit about a recent artwork, the one with the wings.

I had set up the shanti room with an unfinished snapshot of wings that I had started back in September.

I started the wings then lost inspiration, I took a snap just in case though. I thought it was an easy enough subject to finish in a relatively short amount of time, so I brought it back to life in the shanti room and left it for several hours. I had hoped someone/some people would find it interesting enough to finish it, sadly no. So I did it (mostly) myself, just to get it out of the way.

Just when I was close to finishing, I had to step away from the computer for a few minutes (like the haiku says... "must make time to eat.") and when I came back, it was partly destroyed. Not that I minded so much, it wasn't exactly hard to fix, just set me back 15 minutes or so.

So... one and a bit months later it's finally finished. If I hadn't lost my mojo back then, I probably could have done this in a couple of hours at most. Oh well, we sometimes lose interest in the artworks we make right?

I haven't rated the wings yet because I'm not sure if I like them myself yet. I'll fence sit for now.

Oh yeah, one more thing, this was done from memory, didn't use a picture or reference, although I did look at some wings before I started just for inspiration.

If you've been around TheBroth even for a little while, you may have picked up some of our very own "lingo". There's even been some new words added to the English dictionary.

Here's a quick list of the new words and lingo I've seen used around TheBroth.

Brothing - The act of dragging tiles at TheBroth or using TheBroth web site. eg: "I spend too much time Brothing when I should be working."

Instaban or Maximinus - The act of room owners instantly sending a player to the exile room using one click on the - button in a mosaic room. eg: "Don't make me instaban you..." and "That guy deserved that maximinus..."

Maxiplus - The act of room owners instantly giving another player a full green karma bar using one click on the + button in a mosaic room. eg: "Thanks for helping... here, have a maxiplus!"

Vool - Alternative word for "cool". eg: "TheBroth is very vool!"

Redded - Used when someone clicks on the - karma button in a mosaic room and the resulting red bar appears. eg: "Ok.. who redded me?!"

Greened - Opposited of redded.

Feel free to add to the list...

etiquette [et-i-kit, -ket] a prescribed or accepted code as to social behaviour.

TheBroth has a motto: Be nice and have fun.

This is only a guide. It was created to help clarify some of the "unwritten" rules to better enjoy yourself at TheBroth.

Etiquette for tile dragging

When you join a room where an artwork is already being made...

1. Don't destroy other people's work. This isn't really etiquette, it's a rule, an important one.
2. Use the chat to ask if you can join in, especially if you don't know the other people in the room.
3. Let other members know what you're doing via chat.
4. Don't work on the exact same area as someone else. Pick an area to work on where no one else is dragging tiles.
5. Keep an eye on on the chat. If you're doing something that others don't want you to do, someone will let you know via chat. Take note, and STOP. Ask for clarification of why if need be.
6. Don't go in and move tiles just one pixel in an effort to increase your contribution on the snapshots.

Etiquette on taking a snapshot

Thank you to rhain who first put this into words in the forum.

Etiquette for deciding who takes the snapshot are as follows:

1. The person who owns the room.
2. The person who started the picture.
3. The person who has done the most constructive work on the picture.
4. A person as decided amongst the group. For example, if there is a new member who hasn't taken a snapshot, the group may decide to let that new member take a snapshot, just for the experience.

Communication is the key to success

TheBroth has an integrated chat in each room to facilitate collaborative art making. While it's sometimes not necessary to chat to be able to join in, it certain helps to know what others are doing, and to let them know what you are doing.

So remember... be nice, and have fun! :-)

What I like about abstract art is that it's up to you how to interpret what is being presented to you. Some times the shapes are just pretty to look at, but some times there's a particular "story" to tell, a deeper meaning.

In my two abstract pieces, although unintended, a story evolved as I was dragging tiles around and placing them where I feel, as opposed to where they should go.

The artworks in question are:

So here's my interpretation of these two artworks. Be warned, it involves yoga... *gasp* (Gee, who woulda thunk?)

With these two pictures, I (personally) see the the illustration of "yoga", a term derived from the Sanskrit word "yuj" which means join, yoke or union.

So what do all these yoga practitioners look to "join"? There's several answers to that question. These people could be looking to form a union between their body, mind and soul. They could be looking to yoke with "God" (whoever, and whatever that may be for them). Or they could be looking to join their self, and their true self (self realisation).

The last description is what I see in the two artworks above.

So the first picture illustrates the state most of us are in, where our self and our true self, or atman, are not united but are connected.

The second picture illustrates what yoga can achieve, self realisation through the unification of one's self and true self.

I didn't intend to create anything in particular when working with these two artworks. It goes to show what can come out of a person when you let go and just make what you feel.

Anyway, so enough of my fluffly, spiritual, hippy talk. Go drag some tiles people.

I've been asked twice in 24 hours, so I thought I'd share with the masses how the name of Freaky Friday came about.

It's not so exciting. It was a Friday and I was having a weird day, hence Freaky Friday. I think we were testing the change name feature that we use to have ages and ages ago. The name kind of stuck and I started being known as "freaky" and "ff". I didn't want to confuse people so kept the name.

Similar sort of story with my avatar. He's Fluffy, destroyer of worlds. I'm sure some people would recognise this little pup. I pretty much picked a random picture from my hard drive, cropped it, added the letters "ff" and uploaded it. Took all of 2 minutes. Haven't changed it since, and I'm unlikely to do so... again, people recognise Fluffy as my avatar and I'm not one for confusing people, or myself.

And yes, I do realise Freaky Friday is a movie. I've seen it too, several months after the name was picked. I can't claim that the movie name didn't have an influence on my username here, but I wasn't thinking about it when the name was picked. I did, however, watch the movie just because it was named Freaky Friday.

So there you have it... now y'all know. Whether y'all care is another matter :)

I wouldn't mind knowing how everyone got their name, if they're willing to share.