wizzardz: completed.

[woodmouse]

That's great! Punkmancer.
(This is not spam. This is just a comment about how cool it is.)

[kitty]

just finished shading. i've got two versions one with fx and one without.

which one do you prefer? or do you suggest a completely different effect?
and comments and criticism on all other aspects is also appreciated....


otherwise i consider him finished, but i'll hold off my yay-last-mage-yay dance until he is approved and commited!

[doofus-01]

I'd go for the one without the lightning. Magic stuff going between his hand and the skull makes it look like he's totally in control. If he and the skull are just looking in the same direction, maybe the skull/death is partly in control.

Maybe that isn't an effect you're going for, but I thought it was the case with the female.

Looks good either way though.

[YaymeQ]

The light on the females is pinkish and has attitude ... I think the cool blue is a little too generic doesn't stand out as well. (Though I can't think of a better color ... guys can have pink power too right?) It's great though.

[Boucman]

yeah, go without any magical effect (or another one if you have a good idea) the current one looks cheap, and the lightning going out of the eye socket don't work for me, it looks a bit artificial, and destroy the double gaze effect...

I usually find it cheap to add a red glare in a skull to make it look necromantic, but it might work here, gaze are powerfull composition tool, and a double gaze at the audience might give more power to the whole drawing...


but it might not... give it a try and juge. if it doesn't work, you shouldn't event post it here

[EELuminatus]

It is another great job of portrait art - I'm amazed especially by the look of his skin (great choice of colours... makes him look somewhat close to death. )

However, there are two issues, in my opinion:
- the effect has been mentioned before... the lightning just doesn't fit. Another suggestion would be to add some green clouds of poisonous stench emanating from the skull ("the smell of death surrounds me"...) You don't have to add an effect, though, he looks good without one - but perhaps not powerful enough (compared to the dark adept and his female version) - maybe that's also because of another problem:
- he looks way too friendly. I got the feeling there's a gentle smile on his lips, which does not make him look entirely like a master of dark arts, but rather a bit like P. Lustig (former moderator of a german TV-show, who explained technical and natural topics for children.)
(My god, of course that's an exaggeration, but he fits in there and I guess you get the point... )

I guess you could rather easily fix that by changing the shading around his mouth just a little...

[Jozrael]

What's odd is that I originally got a very sinister vibe from him, but taking a second look, I can DEFINITELY see where you're coming from with the smiling old man thing.

It's kinda like those pictures where you can see two totally different things, my mind keeps alternating back and forth between the two.

[kitty]

here we go again.

i'm still unsure what to do about the effect, i tried both green smoke and red eyes, but those looked very, very silly... i spare you sight. at the moment i think about leaving him without one - but still suggestions or paint overs are appreciated!


EELuminatus - never, ever mention Peter Lustig again!!! he was the nightmare of my childhood, i always found him very creepy - *shudder*! dandelions are weired, too! but you were right, his expression was too friendly - i did some edits. better now?

[tsr]

Hm, almost a random thought:

How about letting the scull do the sinister look (probably with a red glow) and the necro turn his head in the same direction as the body?

I think that might look like they are really one, but it might look just plain silly

/tsr - as always feel free to ignore

[kitty]

thank you all for your input again!

here is my latest version: i decided to give him a purpel-ish effect to make him more similar to his female pendant (the original idea was to have on turquoise and one purple corrsponding to the units two attacs, but it didn't work and i dropped it). its simply some magical smoke/fire comming out of the skull's eye sockets. i still like the connection between the sorceror and his staff but i don't think that this should be the main focus- he is addicted/controled by dark magic not by the skull itself. this way you can see a connection if you want to, but its not what it is all about.

and meh - the purple smoke looks [censored] on the light blue forum. but it's cool ingame. i promise!



tsr - i already tested red glowing eyes and they look plain silly. and i don't want to turn the necro's head if i can avoid it - i would have to redraw it completly (and i actually like the way it looks now) and i think a portrait should show the face...

[Angry Andersen]

Looks great.

One suggestion: Would it be possible to include the punk-version as an easter egg? That is, 19 out of 20 times you look at the unit description the normal picture appears, but on those 5% of times you get to see the Necropunk?

[mameluke]

5% is far to much imho?
Are there already easter eggs?
That's worth a new topic...

[tsr]

tsr - i already tested red glowing eyes and they look plain silly. and i don't want to turn the necro's head if i can avoid it - i would have to redraw it completly (and i actually like the way it looks now) and i think a portrait should show the face...

Ok, imho it was worth a shot

/tsr

[Shadow]

Delicious.

To explain my point a bit. I would imagine a necro not to be old just old looking and worn out. These guy looks old and has a disaffected face. Like I said an old Punk who has survived his own ideals. Actual I even could imagine him as a sympathic anti hero.

If you would choose these path you are either mad and ignoring the risks just for the power you gain or you choose to ignore the consequences out of arrogance just to get embittered about the looses.

Either way I would have gone either for worn out manic or a embittered one. It is not the drawing just the expression of the face. Just my 2 cents.

[Sgt. Groovy]

I like everything but the purple. There are several problems with it:

• If the magical "flames" are supposed to be the sources of the purple cast elsewhere, then they should be much brighter. Now they seem dimmer than the highlight on the forehead. The scene is flooded with white light from above and that's where the viewers eyes are supposed to be adjusted to.To have the reflections of the purple light visible it should be fairly bright.
• There is too litlle attenuation to it. The parts where the purple light shines on the body and head are at least ten times as far as the parts of the skull, yet the purple cast is as strong there as on the skull. The apparent attenuation of a point light source should be inversely proportional to the distance (the actual attenuation is proportional to the inverse cube of the distance, but the sensitivity of the eye is logarithmic to the opposite direction).
• The surface of the forehead would not reflect light from the direction of the skull toward the viewer. Having puprle cast there makes it look like the purple light is coming from above.

All these issues together make the purple cast look like a cheap paste-on effect.