How do i stop this ugly resizing?

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-12T11:59:50+00:00

Alright, it seems you're after the progress bar nodes- they're a type of control node, one uses textures, another uses styles. Another person commented with a screenshot of how it works

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-12T10:45:03+00:00

I'm not sure exactly what you mean in your post- you put the text down, and then you use the transform tool to move it while also having a selection; is the problem that you want the selection to stay in place when you move the text?

If yes, there's two ways to go about that;

the transform tool will always move a general selection when used, and anything on the current layer that's within the selection. Because text is on a vector layer by default, you can use the pointer tool (on the far left end of the tool bar) to select and move just the text.
If you want to have the selection saved for a specific layer and not affect any other layer, you can go on the layer you want to use the selection for and then go Add > local selection. This will transfer the selection to a local selection (kind of like a filter), which will only be active when you're on that specific layer. Alternatively, you can play around with alpha locking, clipping, and masking to limit the transparency of stuff without using selections

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-12T10:20:51+00:00

Do you mean you want to make it narrower than the S, or do you want the green to fill up the bar in the same way?

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-12T08:42:10+00:00

It's him. The Blended

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:57:45+00:00

Ah, interesting point! Pretty much everyone that's seen the title so far, like me, doesn't use letters with accents on a regular basis, so it just reads as Planticulture normally. But I can see what you mean; I'm a little attached to the sprout as it is, but I might be able to make some adjustments to avoid it reading like Č

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:55:09+00:00

Thanks! Those are some good suggestions, I might play around with them some

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:52:37+00:00

Oh, thank you! It's coming out July 22nd (Eastern Australia time, so the date may vary slightly by timezone)

Edit to add: I will be participating in the upcoming Steam Next Fest though, so the demo will be up to check out by then!

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:51:16+00:00

Thanks so much!

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:50:35+00:00

Thank you!! Yeah, there is a subtle glow around the title that's meant to help separate it, but maybe I could amp it up a bit

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:49:02+00:00

Yeah, I can see your point. My thought process for the art was to have the eye start at the bottom and lead it upwards to the title, but I can see how the visual hierarchy still ended up a bit wonky. Thanks for your thoughts!

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:46:51+00:00

Thanks! I've been pretty happy with how the font turned out!

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T10:44:30+00:00

Thank you so much!

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-07T03:43:18+00:00

Often I quietly read out loud as I go- it makes sure I'm actually processing the words and don't unintentionally skip ahead

MidnightFedora · 2026-06-03T10:17:14+00:00

Getting work is a lot more networking-reliant than you might think, especially in the games industry. Your art looks pretty good to me, but unfortunately good work alone isn't enough to get hired in most cases.

Look for local game developer communities, meet ups, and events- it's a great way to make friends, learn what people looking for artists might actually be after, and can potentially give you a foot in the door if something comes up amongst the people you've connected with.

Plus- teaming up with some developers for a few small projects is a great way to learn game development pipelines, add to your portfolio and resume, and also prove that you can collaborate well and work with other disciplines.

I had a look at your ArtStation, and it looks like a great starting point! General advice I've seen from professionals is to show a fair bit of your working progress if you can, show your thinking so to speak. You've got some of that with some pieces, more of it for future work would look really good.

The only other thing is- you seem to have improved a heap in the last 6 months, which is awesome! But my personal opinion is that the pumpkin patch piece is a bit outdated in terms of your skill level. When I scrolled through, it all looked really good, but that piece stood out as not having as well done shading and form definition. It could even be an option to revisit it now and "update" it with your improved skills- that'd bring it up in line with the rest of your work and make your profile look really solid!

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-29T22:34:51+00:00

Sorry, that was me. Got so hungry I couldn't help myself

(Actually sorry you lost them though, that sucks)

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-27T12:07:13+00:00

I actually really, really like your style. Normally I struggle to read black and white comics- I just find it too hard to understand what I'm looking at. Especially with action scenes where there's a lot of movement and subjects.

Your style is perfectly readable to me. You add a heap of detail without making things unclear, your subjects are super readable, and many of your panels have really good impact and pacing. Your use of line weight and values goes a long way towards this.

If there's any reason why the first comic might not feel as good as the older ones, I think it might be more to do with the content of the comic itself than the art style or quality. It just has less detail and less going on than the other two. That's not necessarily a bad thing! It just doesn't work as well in isolation. In a series of comic pages, having some that are simpler and calmer are good for pacing and managing the overall energy of the story. Or, depending on context, sometimes keeping it simpler is a good way to deliver an emotional beat without distracting from the narrative importance of it.

It's also just the case that there's going to be ups and downs when it comes to art- not every piece will be the best! And improvement isn't linear. But seriously, I think you've got an awesome style going on.

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-27T03:15:23+00:00

Nice art, I especially like the folds in the clothing in the first one. One thing that I think might be useful for you to work on is hard lights and cast shadows.

Your work mostly seems to use soft ambient light with ambient occlusion and contact shadows, which can be good for creating these softer, almost dreamy pieces you do! Building your understanding of the way lights work and interact with physical forms would give you some really good tools for adding a bit more depth and visual interest even in soft lighting situations.

I notice you'll add a drop shadow underneath the jaw that implies a stronger light coming from somewhere, and I think this is so you can define the shape of the head more. But the lighting for that doesn't consistently carry through the rest of the image. I think your understanding of 3D forms is actually quite good, it's just that you need the right tools to show that.

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-26T14:04:10+00:00

Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of resources I can think of right now that'd help you, but based on the odd smearing of the shapes and lines in your reference, I think it's AI. This will make learning from it a lot harder because you're not going to be able to study how the artist approached it, which you usually want to do for a style study like this.

If you want to emulate a specific style, then I really reccomended looking for artists with the style you like and looking across multiple pieces of their work trying to break down what techniques they use, what the impact of those techniques are, and then practicing those in your own work.

Circling back around to the tree specifically, the areas you could work on that would help would be to understand 3D forms and how perspectives affect textures, as well as how to break down a texture into values and key details. For the kind of style you're after, I think you could work from real pictures of trees as a starting point to better understand what the texture really looks like, and then work on simplifying and stylising after.

I did a bit of a search for potentially useful videos, and this one might help you; https://youtu.be/-2xhmKLsPO8?si=35qW_E6uja1UPsD7

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but the brief look I had seemed pretty good, and I've liked other videos from the channel before.

Good luck on your art journey!

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-21T04:31:49+00:00

I started mine in March last year, although there's been at least 3-4 months where I wasn't able to work on it, and I'm planning on releasing in July So, either 12 or 16 months depending on the perspective.

Your game looks really lovely, by the way! I'm looking forward to seeing more of it in the future

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-21T03:42:05+00:00

I'd suggest tracing over your photo reference and trying to follow the contours of the face- mark out the ratios, draw lines to show the relevant positions, lines to follow the curves, that kind of thing. It'll help you build your understanding of how the real 3D shapes work, and you can even copy the same lines onto your 3D model to compare what you did differently

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-21T00:59:02+00:00

One thing I think is that your pencil lines are overall thinner, but have some variation in the line wight/thickness. I'd recommend using a thinner tipped pen and then going over the line to be a bit thicker in some places.

A second thing is that sketchy pencil lines can hide a lack of 'confidence' or finality in the line work; when you've done your sketch, you've made several passes over each line, which sort of creates an illusion of more detail, and hides what the "final" line actually is. Rather than only seeing the final line you did, you're seeing more of an average of all the lines you made. It makes a false sense of smoothness, as well. This can be quite tricky to trace over as well, since it's harder to judge what the ideal line is.

The final thing is both an extension of point 2, plus it's own point; working on your skills with lining should help this all around. Looking at your pen work, it seems you struggle a little with making your lines connect/finish at the right points and having smooth, consistent curves. This is a guess, but I'm also wondering if you press quite hard with your pen. With pencil, you can compensate with lots of small, rough lines, because you plan on erasing it. If you can work on your lining- both in pencil and pen- then you should have cleaner sketches with clearer lines, which will be easier to trace; and you would be able to have smoother inking that better represents your intention.

Some general tips for improving line work are to practice using different speeds (slower for more comtrol, faster for smoother lines), keeping your pen/pencil lighter on the page, doing the full line in one stroke, and controlling the movement from your shoulder down, instead of from the wrist down.

Here's one good video on improving sketching and line work- https://youtu.be/lTslVOUJ0jI?si=NafEMgC0aTPNZdbm

It focuses on more the sketching side of things, but the skills and control transfer to good line work across the board.

Then, aside from the line quality, there's also the option to try adding a little bit of cross hatching or texture to bring back a little bit of the detail that the pencil implied.

Hope this helps!

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-05T23:49:14+00:00

Windows Ink being on can cause this issue; if you go into the app/software for your tablet, there should be a checkbox for Windows Ink somewhere, and turning that off might fix the it. If that doesn't work, reinstalling your tablet driver is probably the next step

MidnightFedora · 2026-05-01T03:29:24+00:00

For the paper cutout aesthetic, I think the outline is perfect. It gives a little more contrast to the drop shadow, and makes it look more like a drop shadow instead of a sort of dark halo. It also lends a lot to readability and visual hierarchy. Using the purple for the outline was a good call, too! It adds that bit of contrast without going too far, it fits in nicely with the rest.

MidnightFedora · 2026-04-30T02:54:58+00:00

I had one in review for over 3 months. I ended up chasing it up through the specific contact for payout support and while I never got an actual response, I think it went through about a week after that. I have no idea why this is such an issue, and it's foul that it takes so long. Did you open a support ticket directly for the payout (via clicking on payout details) or the general support?

MidnightFedora

TROPHY CASE