Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

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vultraz
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by vultraz »

:shock: That looks amazing!

As for her rage variant, it's only used for 5 dialog lines in the final scenario, three at the beginning and twice at the end. At some point when I improve the scenario I'll get around to using it further.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Celtic_Minstrel »

The main thing I notice about the nice Nym portrait is that her hair seems to be completely hidden, which means the sprite's hair can be whatever colour we want (eg red)!

Unless there's a hint of hair showing around the border of the headgear; I didn't really look closely.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by beetlenaut »

vultraz wrote: April 17th, 2018, 11:08 pmAs for her rage variant, it's only used for 5 dialog lines in the final scenario
IMHO there should be one at the end of Out of the Frying Pan too. But, I don't think anything would be spoiled by having a creepy Eloh there because that's where Kaleh starts to doubt her intentions anyway.
Eloh wrote:I am Eloh, bearer of the staff of Ishtar and slayer of the demon-god Zhangor. Do as I say! Submit to him or I will abandon your people to suffering and death. Your bones will litter the sand dunes, and vultures shall pick at your flesh. I am not a forgiving god, Kaleh.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by The_Gnat »

@ LordBob - Wow! That is great, even uncompleted. Also I really like Nym, she looks mature and capable and fits my idea of her very well!

Though I would agree with the others that Nym should look more cheerful. Perhaps two portraits could be made, with and without a smile and they could both be put into the campaign!

This would take some more code to implement but then she wouldn't look odd when she says "What about the bodies of the dead? We can't leave them to the crows." :whistle:
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by zookeeper »

LordBob wrote: April 17th, 2018, 10:20 pm Also, work in progress for Eloh.
Looks good to me.
LordBob wrote: April 17th, 2018, 10:20 pmI've been wondering, when and for what dialogs is her "angry" variant used? I'm tempted to make it creepy with hints of borderline cyborg, but we don't want to spoil the player if it shows up too early in the campaign.
As said, currently only in the final scenario, but I too thought it was used once or twice earlier, in scenarios 8-9. If the angry variant doesn't become too spoilerific, then we could indeed use it there as well. I'm not sure what kind of cyborgism you're imagining, so it's hard to say how well that would work. She can definitely be creepy, but she's not actually a cyborg so the hints would have to be pretty subtle.

One random idea for the angry variant: the vines (?) sprouting from her shoulders could be twisted into weird unnatural shapes, straight angles and all.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

zookeeper wrote: April 18th, 2018, 9:23 am She can definitely be creepy, but she's not actually a cyborg so the hints would have to be pretty subtle.
I did not think she was one, but from what I remember she isn't actually a goddess of the elves and maybe not even from this world. Since the sequel campaigns have these cyborg enemies and/or protagonists (I've only seen the portraits), I thought it could be a nice tie-in to suggest some of that technology on the visual of angered Eloh. Maybe a couple metallic wires twisting among the tormented vines (I do have some of that planned for the angered variant)

I guess the question this really comes down to should be : is she at least in part a machine, or still an organic being ?
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Caladbolg »

The way she presents herself to the elves is not so much a disguise as it is a projection. I imagine that if that image were disrupted in some way, it would not reveal some true form lying beneath, it'd merely dissolve or something. That aside, her 'true form' is decidedly non-human, resembling a huge stationary container of pulsing blue/green ooze judging from the sprite. Whether that thing is an organic (albeit alien) lifeform, mechanical, or a combination of both, I don't know, but making Eloh cyborg-like would probably not be accurate.

Considering how vastly different her 'true form' is from the image she shows the elves, I doubt you could hint at her true form in her portrait.
I second zookeper's idea about making the vine thingies bend into straight angles for the angry variant. If you want something metallic, then exaggerating the spikes on her headgear or replacing those blue elongated leaves (?) with daggers or something and making her more like a war-god of sorts might be interesting. Or making the portrait look more dissolved, like her form is dissipating into flames or smoke. And if you want to try to hint at her oozy blue self, maybe making her skin slightly gelatinous, phosphorescent blue-green could work but I don't know how appealing the end result would be.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Iris »

LordBob wrote: April 18th, 2018, 1:08 pmI did not think she was one, but from what I remember she isn't actually a goddess of the elves and maybe not even from this world. Since the sequel campaigns have these cyborg enemies and/or protagonists (I've only seen the portraits), I thought it could be a nice tie-in to suggest some of that technology on the visual of angered Eloh. Maybe a couple metallic wires twisting among the tormented vines (I do have some of that planned for the angered variant)
I didn’t want to go into details when zookeper asked me this morning since this is all non-canon stuff, but if you really, really, want to know...

(Spoilers for Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm ahead.)

According to IftU/AtS’s plot, Yechnagoth in UtBS is a fallen goddess, resurrected through a combination of technology and magic by Uria, who is the main antagonist for both campaigns and gets passing mentions in UtBS (or if you want to be meta, I actually created her from said passing mentions). The creature that is actually her final form in UtBS is her body, a vessel for her soul and for her source of power
Spoilers for After the Storm Episode III and the Untitled AtS Sequel:
The creatures seen at the end of UtBS do get additional screentime in IftU and AtS as the Verlissh. They are not particularly impressive on their own, but they are notably used to enable the reproduction of the biomechanical creatures also introduced in both campaigns, as well as a few other things.

So hopefully at this point it’s clear that Yechnagoth used to be a fully organic lifeform. In UtBS she’s almost completely organic, although as others said she presents herself to Kaleh and the others through embellished projections.
Spoilers for After the Storm Episode III and the Untitled AtS Sequel:
What I haven’t explained yet is where Eloh, the deity she impersonates in UtBS, fits in all of this.

Meta-speaking, “Eloh” does not exist in mainline canon until she’s introduced in UtBS. However, AtS rolls with the explanation that Eloh is known before the Fall, except that she is a deity that left Irdya long before elves came to exist in the first place. After the Fall and more specifically after the War of Wesmere, the Quenoth elves started to develop their own mythos around what little they knew about her and a historical figure that did participate in said war — Elynia, the Lady of Light, coprotagonist of IftU and protagonist of AtS.
Spoilers for After the Storm Episode III and the Untitled AtS Sequel:
At some point I considered working on extending the UtBS boss battle to make Yechnagoth’s projection take on two different forms besides the version of Eloh conceived by the Quenoth elves: a version closer to Elynia in appearance and thus completely alien to the Quenoth elves (except that would open up a plot hole in AtS E1 where the Quenoth elves still do not recognize Elynia about 360 years later), an adult version of her original form, and finally the undisguised creature we’re all familiarized with by now. I never got around to doing any of that since I felt that altering UtBS in any way that would render any parts of my campaigns canon would get me some flak from certain members of the community and the development team.
Author of the unofficial UtBS sequels Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by BTIsaac »

And if that's the case, the Eloh portrait here could also be used for Xia'el in Genesis. Just a thought.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Iris »

That seems unlikely since Xia’el is intentionally brown-haired whereas Elynia, the Stereotypical Mainline Epoch Elf™, and the Eloh draft are all light-haired.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

Ok, thanks a lot for taking the time to provide such detailed information. Organic projection it is then! I might also use that part about glowing veins and overdrive : it may or may not be realistic for 'Eloh' to display it at that specific moment, but visually it's sure to provide a striking effect.
shadowm wrote: April 18th, 2018, 9:29 pm That seems unlikely since Xia’el is intentionally brown-haired whereas Elynia, the Stereotypical Mainline Epoch Elf™, and the Eloh draft are all light-haired.
For the record, any variant based on changing color and/or removing parts of an existing portrait is really a matter of minutes with the source files, so if you think there's a potential use for it anywhere else feel free to ask.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

Alright, tentative finished Eloh. Still needs lines, other than that I think I can get to the angered variant
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Sudipta »

OMG! That is stunning! Just Wow. One of the best digital portraits i ever saw. It's a shame that such a beautiful portrait belong to a twisted deity :whistle:
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by BTIsaac »

Well technically it doesn't belong to her - she's borrowing it.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

So, progress. Nym's cheerier variant is done plus I also went back and revised Garak's portrait, which still needed some adjustments. I'm currently working on angered Eloh, I'll have her done later today and it will wrap up the essential cast.

After this I have an Elyssa in progress and room for one last portrait before the release of 1.14. It could be either :
- the merfolk priestress, Melusand
- the merfolk warrior, Esanoo
- a naga with bow (?)

I would make a choice based on their importance in the campaign and the quality of their generic portrait. Suggestions, anyone ?
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UtBS_garak.jpg
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