The Graphics Blog

By ExtraKen & LUCPIX

Welcome to the 2nd edition of The Graphics Blog!

This time we focus on the graphics produced for the latest pair of Habbox badge events, Mirrored Dimensions, and our inspiration behind the fabulous badges.

Click read more for a behind the scenes treat…

LUCPIX

Its.Dino paid close attention to everything Ken and I did during the internally-epic 1-week HxSS graphics making rush and offered me half of the responsibility/challenge of producing the next 2 fansite badges, with the high hopes something as spectacular as Summer Spectacular’s final results happened to become — come on, this guy here didn’t make an appearance on someone’s badge list since 2017’s Christmas!

Thankfully a whole bunch has improved since then in my perception, so I didn’t feel like a complete fish out of water whilst handling the tiny 40×40 .pngs — which is, for most, a nightmare!

The Witch Badge (badge code US151)

In spite of the many versions that have been attempted until we found a common ground based on a few conditions (their faces have to be mirrored to align our theme, make them feel like they’re being teleported somehow, and remember it’s Halloween!), this one was a very easy and smooth process! Instead of opting for a more attractive, or even intimidating witch, the one chosen risks on being a mixture of everything, even if it wasn’t quite thought out. At first she glances at you as though she’s the very last thing you see before you die but, suddenly, the sight of an almost-loose tooth along with her obvious natural ugliness and the magical teleporting aura below her breaks the seriousness she wants you to feel and then you keep living. In actuality, the greatest mission that the whole event this badge is a reward in has is knowing how to use the badge in a way it fits, given its experimental vibe which, as a pixel artist, mostly served to remove my “rust”. It provided me a solid way of thinking for how and what to do for the next Habbo content to come! While I am typing this, the Turkish Habbo’s folks already have managed to make a good use on their hotel for what Ken and I have done — the Witch badge being called “Welcome to the World of the Witches!”, which I found very cute! Google Translate told me that most of the local Habbos found our art “good” or variations on that mood!! Ah, and thanks for playing Mirrored Dimensions — it’s a fab game. Part II coming soon! [editor’s note: nope, it’s already open! Get these badges while you cannnnn]

The Santa Badge (badge code US156)

I am not the right person to assume things about my own work as I’m already too used to the smallest parts of it, which I suppose can be dangerous for the development of one’s appropriate self-criticism? But, in fact, even if it wasn’t originally meant to be like that (I almost always improvise — meaning that, yes, everything takes the risk of going wrong in the end), this badge in particular might get you through its ambivalent aspect. We don’t know if Santa is screaming for help, being extremely tickled, or feeling some type of guilty pleasure by being sucked into the holy blue teleporter. I chose not to question it very much, just went on with what each head is going to interpret from it while I digressed as a recovering badge-maker. On the badge’s earlier doodles, I used as a reference a lovely photograph of Hermeto Pascoal (the music God, basically) in which he looked like Santa Claus even more than he usually does. The idea was summarily burnt out 10 seconds after! Flash Habbo ends sometime around this Christmas, right? At the other side of that blue teleport Habbo 2020 waits for you and me. Whatever happens, we’ll be here! This is it. I come from the far future to wish you a Happix Xmas!

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ExtraKen

Wow this was a crazy one I can say that for sure! I was requested to make badges for this 2 parted event with the knowledge it being
“mirrored dimensions” and one halloween version and one christmas/winter version…

Honestly I struggled, its not easy to come to think of something that will match BOTH dimensions and kind of match with eachother!
Thankfully I had the amazing Lucas as help and he already came up with the Halloween witch badge, this while I was playing with the idea
of a demon so that works well together!

The Demon Badge (badge code US152)

My first inspiration for this badge was actually the hellhounds. I mean, if they existed I would probably have like 100. I also wanted something scary looking but not anything we have had on Habbo before, so here I was digging into the occult when I came upon the idea of turning my “hellhound” into the prince of darkness (fits my personality right?). This for me was an easy going one, because I had in my mind what I wanted and how I wanted it to look. I went with green flames because why do flames always have to be red? In my mind, green speaks more evil than red does! I also wanted some sort of punk spirit vibe. I always like to have some underlying style in my work. If you remember the HxSS mascots you will know – refresh your memory of those by clicking here.

The Rudolph Badge (badge code US157)

…but then came the difficult part! Lucas had already made a great Santa badge and I was struggling: what can I do to match Santa and my demon? I first tried to make an angel badge which is shown in my WIPs below as well, but the feeling it gave me was tooooo religious. Then I thought well, a demon is commanded by a witch right?? So who is the pet of Santa? RUDOLPH of course! What would the world be without the legendary reindeers?

Ok so I need to make Rudolph but sort of in the same punk/grunge style as my demon badge… Which ain’t easy for a happy looking reindeer. I think I did manage to make it look like it fits together without losing the soul of each character though. I first tried a more “northern lights” type background for Rudolph but it felt like it clashed with the demon badge, so I decided to go with snow ’cause you know it’s winter…
I did love the northern lights effect but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want. That is why I keep altering my badges until I feel absolutely happy about them! And I do, this is actually the first time I made a badge for the Christmas event that actually involves a Christmas character! So yeah happy me! Hope you like it <3

Hope you all love the badges as much as we do, we try to make the best for the community and I am lucky to have the talented Lucas by my side for this!

Stay tuned for more graphics blogs in the future!

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