Art Development for Era of the Future(critiques welcome)

[Huston]

EDIT: i have changed the name of the thread and am letting everyone know that Mirion147 has returned from his break. any art we make will be posted here for critiquing.

Ok. first off let me say i am not very artistic. but i need to do get images made for the Era of the Future's next faction, The Sea Dwarves.
The sea Dwarves are not very warrior like. Their form of government is a high council. and they worship the g-d of the sea. because of this they moved closer and closer to the sea until they were finnally able to adapt enough to where they could live in underwater caves. they maintained the basic dwarf body structure, but grew scales and gills. most of their fighters are just hunters. but some of them learned to ride sea creatures like mantas, sting rays and the dreaded sea serpents. their weapons are mostly made out of rocks and fish bones.

their units so far are:

Code: Select all

(Their main fighter line) Manta Rider -> Stingray Rider -> Serpent Rider
(their main scouting line) Dwarvish Hunter -> Dwarvish Huntsman -> Dwarvish HuntsMaster

                                                            ->  Wave Rider ->  Wave Master
                                                          /    
(The healer/ magician line) Ocean Apprentice - - -> Ice Apprentice ->  Crystal Master
                                                          \
                                                            -> Ocean Shaman ->  Ocean Mystic

for more info on these units(like attacks and stuff) check the zip file.

i need suggestions on how to make good art when i suck at art. specifically how would i add scales to dwarves and make it look good and how would I go about making a manta with a dwarf on it, a Sting ray with a dwarf on it and a sea serpent with a dwarf on it.

[melinath]

i need suggestions on how to make good art when i suck at art. specifically how would i add scales to dwarves and make it look good and how would I go about making a manta with a dwarf on it, a Sting ray with a dwarf on it and a sea serpent with a dwarf on it.

1. Practice! Try it and then post it here and hope someone says something useful.
2. Use the art tutorials.
3. google images is a wonderful place to look for reference material. I don't know whether it would help with thinking of how to texture scales on dwarf skin at sprite scale - there you should probably check out mainline scaly races.
4. Sea serpent with a dwarf on it you could probably semi-frankenstein. There's already a really good mainline sea serpent.

[thespaceinvader]

Get GIMP.

Have fun.

The rest is in the tutorials...

[Huston]

Get GIMP.

I have GIMP. it's the default for Ubuntu. problem is i don't know where to start. the only artistic background i have is one art class back in 6th grade 6 years ago.

i even failed at frankenstiening


it seems like the Era of the Future is going to die unless Mirion returns or another artist helps out.

[Girgistian]

Too bad.

[melinath]

The first time you try to do something is always a failure. If this is so important to you, try it again and post something. This is a workshop, but people can't give you suggestions on how to get better if you don't:
1. read the tutorials
2. give it a shot
3. post it.

Being ashamed of being bad at something won't help you get better and the chances of someone volunteering to do art for you are not great.

[masaber2]

well, i too use gimp and at first i was failiure, then i realized there is advanced option at gimp and you can change background color to transparency.

and my self, failed at mixing up parts so i just tried recoloring and adding it dot by dot my self.

for example-

takes me several minutes but it works.

i normally zoom in 16x and do dot by dot job. and mainly recoloring too. and practice. just get naked model and start putting cloths on or recolor and add objects and such. ill give you dummy ive been using



i made this kinds with that dummy. but its megaman model not BfW model so its practice, but i dont think it will work so well for your era.

you may use mine and mess it up also. if it helps you
i hope you get better very soon.

ps. ill like to work on your era also! i just need motivation of reason to work for me.

[Huston]

i'll try some more this week when i get a chance. i'll probably be busy most of this week though.


masaber2 if you want to sprite for the era feel free to do so. even if you don't make sprites for units that need them currently asnd want to make sprites for some new faction that would fit into the EotF go for it. i'll code any faction for anyone willing to make sprites for it but not wanting to learn to code.

[masaber2]

i'll try some more this week when i get a chance. i'll probably be busy most of this week though.


masaber2 if you want to sprite for the era feel free to do so. even if you don't make sprites for units that need them currently asnd want to make sprites for some new faction that would fit into the EotF go for it. i'll code any faction for anyone willing to make sprites for it but not wanting to learn to code.

well sprites ive been working on basically barly have any advances cause it was to be stuff like CnC with self lvl up and not advancements.
and cause of that, there is some stuff that will never be used in BfW such as instant kill ability or entrench and such and skills. (not like traits or ability)



so idk if i can make an faction, but ill list it anyway i guess.

ill send detail on mail, sprites here. (for exposure and such, idk, but i think playing Japanese games effected me a bit.. or so.)

race name: elruve (basically physical power elves, but they will look like barbaric orcs in most ways.)



and some from era of myth. (don't use this yet, didn't got reply saying i can use it.)

[Huston]

Ok. so i took a dwarvish rune smith and modified it. i was thinking of using it as a base frame for the Dwarvish Huntsman. How'd i do?

[woodmouse]

I think it's cool.
But the pile of tc looks somehow... hard to get. I mean, what is it? A net?

[Huston]

yes it's supposed to be a net.i took the net off the Merman entangler, shrunk it and modified it a little. I noticed that it wasn't very easy to tell that it's a net, any suggestions as to how i should make it more clear?

[woodmouse]

Well, I don't know, really. Oh, and the tc won't most probably work if you shrink things; it's only the few shades of magenta that work, and shrinking causes it to blur.

[A-Red]

He's also standing on it, which would make it pretty hard to use.

[melinath]

There are some funky white spots around the sprite, but I have to admit, it does look kind of like a sea dwarf. It's not terrible. I'd like to see a version where you don't shrink the net... (And where he's not standing on it, of course.) I miss his right hand and the position of the spear looks a bit awkward. But this is a good starting point.