Sea Serpent Portrait WIP

Post by **Zhukov** » August 15th, 2006, 5:56 am

Arg! No don't! Why does the water cut off on the left edge of the pictue?! It gives me the impression of him perched on a 'pile' of water. Also it curves around his body wrong, to the left of the fin.

Also, is realistic water reflections what people should be aiming for? The current water units (i.e. Mermen) have something much simpler and IMO better looking. Realistic water doesn't quite fit the cartoon-ish style, although niether does it particulalry clash with it.

[/my two cents]

Website · Post by **Sapient** » August 15th, 2006, 7:03 am

Perched in a pile of water? It looks really good to me. The portraits aren't supposed to recreate the entire landsacpe. (disclaimer: not an art dev)

Post by **zookeeper** » August 15th, 2006, 8:19 am

I agree that the left side looks rather odd now - the few previous ones (where you were playing with the reflections) didn't have this problem, but this one does.

Post by **Pic** » August 15th, 2006, 3:03 pm

Its obviously shallow water because he knew he had to pose for a portrait

The left side looks wonky because I moved the water line on the right side, but before I fiddle the water more, let us wait for an art dev to tell us which they prefer, this water, or the water back in the thread more similar to the other waters in the game (of course if this water is preferred it would be simple to make the other waters this water, I have gotten a lot of practise at water now)

Post by **Pic** » August 15th, 2006, 3:22 pm

Also the water to the far right of the image, just touching his body is wonky slightly. That will also be fixed.

Of course what everyone including me has forgotten is that the image will be shrunk or cropped to make it 205 x 205. The shrink may hide a multitude of sins.

Like below, a crop and shrink and a plain old shrink. Of course the water will ahve to be slighty extended in the just old shrink and then faded out, but thats not hard.

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » August 17th, 2006, 12:34 am

I'm glad to see new talent is being attracted to Wesnoth.

I do still drop by from time to time...

Post by **Pic** » August 17th, 2006, 12:57 am

It's nice to see that new people are so welcome

...

Can an art dev suggest what to do with that water? Should i fix this style or revert to the old one?

Post by **Darth Fool** » August 17th, 2006, 2:41 pm

I think that the sea_serpent3_200.png is good enough to commit. Of course, I am not an art dev...

Post by **Jormungandr** » August 17th, 2006, 11:12 pm

Very nice.

For aquatic stuff like this, I think the water effect need not fill the portrait from edge to edge, but if that's the case it needs to extend somewhat past whatever is floating in it. When the edge of the ripples touch the edge of the body, (as in seaserpantblahblah.png), it looks odd.

In this case, filling the whole lower portion of the image (as in sea_serpent3_200.png) works just as well (the serpent fills so much of the image, it's really the only option).

By comparison, the ripples I used for the merfolk were the quickest and dirtiest method imaginable, and I do not encourage people to imitate it. This looks much better, and I don't feel it clashes with the slightly cartoon style of the serpent at all.

Post by **Pic** » August 17th, 2006, 11:45 pm

Well, thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a insightful and useful opinion from the person who did the other water style

If the serpentblahblah was going to be used I would extend the water off the left side and then fade it out into the darkness as it cuts off to suddenly there, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m aware of it and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s because I drew the image larger then this...and...In the wrong proportions from what I should of

There are also a few other tweaks i would do to clean it a bit on both images, but nothing major. (I.e. make its curve more realistically in a few places)