2h sword (practice icon)

Simons Mith · Post by **Simons Mith** » December 6th, 2006, 2:36 am

I had a go at producing a two-handed sword version of the old sword attack icon. I would be grateful for comments. Changes made: pommel enlarged, grip lengthened to two-handed grip, guard made wider and sword-catchers added to the ends, blade lengthened by about 20%, made pointier and wider. I'm least happy about the sword-catchers. What do actual artists think?

Reason I'm doing this is I think I've decided what the Great Mages use for er, summoned assistance, as per the Mage War campaign idea thread. And I want some spriting practice before producing a Dancing Sword unit.
This image, while old, looks reasonably similar to the sword graphics used in-game. (That is to say, the swords wielded by actual units, such as the Sergeant, et al.) But it seems that used as a unit, a sword of the same size as used by the units - e.g. as obtained from the franken-pack - aren't going to look big enough. I'm thinking I'm going to need something about 75% the height of a typical human. Hence a two-handed sword, and hence this practice run.

Post by **Jetrel** » December 6th, 2006, 5:21 am

huh?

That looks nice, but I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish.

If you're trying to make an attack icon, I'd refer you to the recent overhaul, which has icons very different from the old ones, and what you made.

Website · Post by **Sapient** » December 6th, 2006, 5:32 am

I think he's saying it's a floating sword, a unit sprite. In that case it needs a glowy halo or some kind of bobbing animation maybe. And the shadow is in entirely the wrong place. Another problem: it's in a plane precisely perpindicular to the viewer.

Post by **Zhukov** » December 6th, 2006, 5:36 am

Aw come on guys, read the post.

He's practicing to make an 'possessed sword' unit.

Post by **Jetrel** » December 6th, 2006, 10:15 am

Zhukov wrote:Aw come on guys, read the post.

He's practicing to make an 'possessed sword' unit.

I suspected that, but it was these issues on his part...

And the shadow is in entirely the wrong place. Another problem: it's in a plane precisely perpindicular to the viewer.

... that confused me.

Simons Mith · Post by **Simons Mith** » December 6th, 2006, 5:50 pm

Whoops, I'm sorry I wasn't clearer. I know this sword needs further adjustment before it's usable as a unit - it will need to be resized, its shadow altered, and the angle at which the blade hovers isn't likely to be 45 degrees. I wanted to start by making sure I'd got the basic proportions for a Wesnoth two-handed sword right. I could produce an accurate two-handed sword easily, by raytracing it, but I don't have a very good handle on the cartoony proportions used by Wesnoth units. By starting with just that one change, I was hoping to reduce the number of mistakes I make. Trying to convert this icon into a Dancing Sword unit in one pass would have introduced too many errors at once, some of which would doubtless have compounded one another and made it hard for me to know what to correct.

Post by **Darth Fool** » December 6th, 2006, 6:38 pm

When making a two-handed sword from a 1 handed sword, there are some things you should realize about how the proportions change. Obviously, one is not just a scaled up version of the other. Here are my observations about what you did wrong in scaling parts of the sword. I am not a swordsmith, master of swordsmanship, or an amazing artist, so take them for what they are worth.

1) The blade will get longer and a bit thicker, which you have done.
2) The guard can get a little bit bigger, but not a lot. It doesn't really need to get bigger at all. Remember, the guard is related to the size of the hand it is guarding, not the size of the blade. You have made the 2h guard much too big.
3) The pommell will get much bigger. This is because the pommell acts as a counter balance to the blade allowing the blade to be swung with much greater ease. The sword will be heavier, yet it will swing easier. It may seem counter intuitive, but think about carrying a heavy suitcase in one hand. it is much easier to carry it if you have an equally heavy suitcase in the other hand. Or, take a big heavy bar and hold it at one end. Try to turn it back and forth. then, hold it in the middle and do the same thing. So, basically, the pommell volume should scale with the blade volume. This is sometimes accomplished by extending the handle of the sword instead of just making the pommell bigger, so the handle becomes much larger than is needed for two hands.

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » December 6th, 2006, 6:48 pm

i don't really think this practice is relavant to making the dancing sword unitÃ¢â‚¬â€ the contexts are too different, and minor details that might be obsessed over at this scale will be unnoticed in the actually sword unit.

Besides, it's a magic, levitating sword. Nobody actually wields it. Who cares if the handle isn't ergonomically correct.