Minotaur Faction Art

[Quietus]

Hey, been playing wesnoth for a while, not actually very good at it lol, but i guess that comes with practise.

Just thought i would give spriting a try. I did this from scratch and if i have the time, might concider creating a faction of them. But for now this is just for fun and practise.

Please give me any advice and tips as to how i can improve the Grunt.

Thanks

EDIT: just realised that Grunt is the name of the orc unit lol so ive changed the name to "Minotaur Gore", or just Gore for short.

[Bob_The_Mighty]

For a first try, that's pretty damn impressive.

I'll leave it to the others to criticise.

[JW]

Hey, been playing wesnoth for a while, not actually very good at it lol, but i guess that comes with practise.

Just thought i would give spriting a try. I did this from scratch and if i have the time, might concider creating a faction of them. But for now this is just for fun and practise.

Please give me any advice and tips as to how i can improve the Grunt.

Thanks

That's really your first sprite?? Very nice.

My only advice on how to improve would be to remove the black outline on the blade of the axe mimic what the mainline images do with their blades.

But jeez....for a first effort, that's great!



(The Era of Myths could use some spriting help if you ever have time between projects)

[Quietus]

Thanks to both comments.

Its my first sprite but i do draw a bit of concept art for an MMORPG in the making. Im not an artist, though i do have a little experience in proportions. Plus the tutorials from this website helped alot!

I edited the blade, hopefully better.

And i will definately help with anything, just let me know what lol.

[Federalist marshal]

It reminds me of old Atari grpahics for some reason. IMHO, if you could get rid of that then it would be a very nice sprite.

[JW]

It reminds me of old Atari grpahics for some reason. IMHO, if you could get rid of that then it would be a very nice sprite.

How can he do this when he doesn't know what that means?

Try being more specific if possible.

[Quietus]

It reminds me of old Atari grpahics for some reason. IMHO, if you could get rid of that then it would be a very nice sprite.

Lol you've lost me

Though im curious now. What do you mean? lol

Oh and couldnt resist making a level 2. Not much change, just a bigger axe and armour.

[TL]

Pretty nice! Coloration in particular is excellent for the most part--outstanding for a first try, but pretty good by any standard.

Having said that, though, some critiques:
-The left arm (his left, holding the axe up near the head) is scrawny and positioned a bit awkwardly. One would expect the arm to hang down and curl upwards to support the axe from below, rather than having him stand there holding the whole arm up. You may want to beef up both arms slightly, actually, or else reduce the size of the chest as it is somewhat out of proportion with the arms: you've given him impressively huge pecs, and while his right arm at least looks fairly muscular it's still dwarfed in comparison.

I'm not sure the grip he's using on the axe (hands widely spaced, lower hand near the base and upper hand near the head) would really be appropriate--I would expect the grip to be closer together, and in particular farther down the pole away from the head for better leverage--but I am not an arms master by any means, so you may want a more informed opinion before making any changes there.

-He's rather squat, with legs proportionately very short compared to his rather large chest. This tends to be an area a lot of sprites in this scale take liberties with anyhow, so it may not be a real issue, especially since it does help emphasize the "bull"-ish nature of his physique.

-On that note, however, I'm not sure the horns are working for me. They are drawn and colored well enough... but they don't actually look much like a bull's horns. The horns here appear to be angling straight ahead or possibly even angling inwards slightly, but the horns on most breeds of bull (and certainly the iconic ones) mostly extend out perpendicularly from the head. For a generic beasty type monster guy the horns look great, but they don't really say "minotaur".

-Lastly, while the details are for the most part quite good, I don't really quite get the upper face around the eyes: the hard black lines surrounding the eyes almost make it look like he's wearing a domino mask. I would suggest softening/lightening the bottom edge of that black area so that it connects to the rest of the face better.



I hope you're not getting overwhelmed by the details here; I'm trying to be constructive here. All in all this is an excellent start with a lot going for it and it should not, I think, actually need that much work to be a really great sprite.

[thespaceinvader]

Firstly: welcome to the forums. These are great sprites, excellent work. A few minor (and not-already-mentioned) issues:

The eyes don't really stand out very well. It took me a couple of tries to work out exactly what was going on with the head. I suggest brightening the red a little more, and maybe surrounding it with a lighter shade of brown, rather than the near-black they have currently.

The legs finishing on a level make it look like they're facing directly to camera while the torso turns away. Making OUR left leg finish a few pixels below the one on our right would alleviate this, i think.

Also, overall, the outlines and colours in general are a little dark, i think, particularly around our left leg.

They also need shadows. And when displaying work which includes white blade edges, giving an alternate layered onto game terrain can be useful, as white and light coloured edges blend with the forum background and can look a little odd.

[irrevenant]

The waist up is awesome! The waist down is awesome too, but unfortunately facing the wrong way to match the torso.

I've made the same mistake myself (well, without the "awesome" bit ).

[Darth Jordius]

Wow, that's great work. When I finally get around to making my campaign I'll have to contact you to see about getting some custom artwork done.

[Quietus]

Thanks to all for their comments and critiques, all of which is helping and pointing out things i origionally didnt see.

Having said that, though, some critiques:
-The left arm (his left, holding the axe up near the head) is scrawny and positioned a bit awkwardly. One would expect the arm to hang down and curl upwards to support the axe from below, rather than having him stand there holding the whole arm up. You may want to beef up both arms slightly, actually, or else reduce the size of the chest as it is somewhat out of proportion with the arms: you've given him impressively huge pecs, and while his right arm at least looks fairly muscular it's still dwarfed in comparison.

Well origionally the gore was supposed to be the "small grunt" of the faction. He isnt inteneded to be that powerful, more intended to fill out the ranks.

Though yes i do think the overlord could do with a bit of buffing up. the lvl 2 sprite was just to quench my addiction of producing another sprite. I didnt really put that much care into the overlord so ill give him a bit of a make over later.

I'm not sure the grip he's using on the axe (hands widely spaced, lower hand near the base and upper hand near the head) would really be appropriate--I would expect the grip to be closer together, and in particular farther down the pole away from the head for better leverage--but I am not an arms master by any means, so you may want a more informed opinion before making any changes there.

It all depends on the stregnth of the wielder. Someone who is stronger can have their hands closer together giving them more attack power and momentum with every swing. Someone who is weaker has to even the weight out to prevent top heavyness. And so has their hands further apart. (a classic example is in titanic, when Jack is chained to the bar. Rose has to use the axe to free him. Less power but more control. But yes the Minotaurs are said to be strong powerful creatures so ill adjust that in good time.

-On that note, however, I'm not sure the horns are working for me. They are drawn and colored well enough... but they don't actually look much like a bull's horns. The horns here appear to be angling straight ahead or possibly even angling inwards slightly, but the horns on most breeds of bull (and certainly the iconic ones) mostly extend out perpendicularly from the head. For a generic beasty type monster guy the horns look great, but they don't really say "minotaur".

Yeah i wasnt that keen on them, but i couldnt really get them to look bullish without making them look too big. It is being worked on.

-Lastly, while the details are for the most part quite good, I don't really quite get the upper face around the eyes: the hard black lines surrounding the eyes almost make it look like he's wearing a domino mask. I would suggest softening/lightening the bottom edge of that black area so that it connects to the rest of the face better.

Lol thats been taken care off. He kept reminding me of some form of futuristic biker lol.

-He's rather squat, with legs proportionately very short compared to his rather large chest. This tends to be an area a lot of sprites in this scale take liberties with anyhow, so it may not be a real issue, especially since it does help emphasize the "bull"-ish nature of his physique.

The legs are sort of intened. Looking at bull pictures, it appears that the legs get smaller towards the hoove. But i will mkae the whole sprite slightly bigger, to make it seem less squat.

The legs finishing on a level make it look like they're facing directly to camera while the torso turns away. Making OUR left leg finish a few pixels below the one on our right would alleviate this, i think.

Yeah, im not that great with legs lol especially Bull legs. Ill have a little fiddle and hopefull sort it out.

The waist up is awesome! The waist down is awesome too, but unfortunately facing the wrong way to match the torso.

I've made the same mistake myself (well, without the "awesome" bit ).

Lol cheers

Wow, that's great work. When I finally get around to making my campaign I'll have to contact you to see about getting some custom artwork done.

Feel free, im a bit swamped at the moment with coursework and exams, and then other sprite work ontop of that. But just leave me a PM and ill try and help in what ever way possible.

Again thanks for all the input. Ill update and edit the origional sprites and include some new sprites as soon as ive done them, currently working on the Behemoth and some sprite edits for the Era of Myths.

EDIT: ok ive done some editing to the Gore. The legs i feel are a little better (they sort of look srtaight on now) But i feel they may need to be entirely redone lol.

Horns have been edited, as has the face and eyes. I didnt edit the arms of the Gore because they are intended to be a weaker and less muscular Minotaur than its successors. Please keep feeding back crit =D

Still no shadow, though ill get round to that after i figure out how to actually do it

[Quietus]

Ok, my next sprite is the first draft of the unit called Behomoth. It is sort of a behomoth just without the tale. Though there have been many different tales as to what they actually looked like in myths. This would be the unit tanker.

There is something definately wrong with him, but i cant put my finger on it. Any hows its a frist draft and therefore can only get better

[Stilgar]

Hah, he's actually quite cool looking. Kind of reminds me of a cyberdemon without the cyborg bits. As for something wrong with him? Maybe the right foot (our left) is crooked, and the hoof-prongs should point more forwards instead of down. Maybe, I'm not sure.

[Quietus]

Hah, he's actually quite cool looking. Kind of reminds me of a cyberdemon without the cyborg bits. As for something wrong with him? Maybe the right foot (our left) is crooked, and the hoof-prongs should point more forwards instead of down. Maybe, I'm not sure.

Woah how did i miss that XD lol

cheers thats made it look alot better. I redid the entire right leg to a better angle as well

EDIT:

Ok did another edit. This one is just adding some shadow underneath. I did this one and not the other two, because im happy with this one as a finnished product. If there is anything else people can see please tell .

Current work: wargs in EOM. Though i need the image files for them as i dont appear to have a campaign folder in my userdata .

Also changing some of the Gore's and Overlord's sprites. Dont know when i'll ahve them finnished.