Art for Era of Mystery

[Aura]

Well I have heard it both ways.

[Telaron]

Well I have heard it both ways.

Umm, what's the other way?

[Aura]

The two in the post before yours

[artisticdude]

There is only one form of pillow shading. Pillow shading is when the shading makes the light appear to emanate from an invisible source between the viewer and the object, which is a practical impossibility and therefore unrealistic. You need the armor brightest where the light shines on it, and darker where the light is blocked. As for the jagged lines, anti-aliasing is very helpful in dispelling those. I'll post an edit in a while to demonstrate what I mean.

[A-Red]

or that the shades don't get lighter/darker depending on where the limb etc is on the sprite ?

While the above definition of pillow-shading is correct, this is also a good point about your sprites, Aura. Since the sprite is slanted away from the viewer, making the farther arm or farther leg (just slightly) darker than the nearer one will help to create the sense of depth. Currently, depth perception of these sprites is quite skewed.

The newest sprite has some other issues with positioning. Since the figure is facing left (our left), the leg on the right is nearer to us...however, the stance of the legs and their respective angles suggests that the one on the left is nearer...mirror the legs, and you might get a less awkward pose. Also, the position of the staff is very confusing...it doesn't make sense for it to pass behind the leg...it should either be to the side or in front of it, more likely the latter...or if you put it in the other arm (on the side farther away from us) it could go behind that leg. See various staff-bearing mainline units.

[artisticdude]

mirror the legs, and you might get a less awkward pose.

EEEEVIL MIIRROOOORRRING.

Sorry, but I can't tolerate mirroring.

If at all possible, don't ever mirror anything. It looks cheap and sloppy. It's fine to mirror something for reference and then draw on top of it, but mirroring in general is frowned upon.

[A-Red]

I didn't mean just literally mirror it and leave it at that. I was making the point that the legs are awkwardly positioned, and one possible solution might be to put them in the reverse position, adjusted as necessary--the main reason being that the one theoretically angled away from us looks like it's angled toward us, and vice versa.

[pauxlo]

There is only one form of pillow shading. Pillow shading is when the shading makes the light appear to emanate from an invisible source between the viewer and the object, which is a practical impossibility and therefore unrealistic.

It is the usual lighting when you make a photo (in dark) with a bright flashlight mounted on your camera. So, not a "practical impossibility", but highly not appropriate for Wesnoth sprites (or portraits), since they are not flashlight photos.

[artisticdude]

It is the usual lighting when you make a photo (in dark) with a bright flashlight mounted on your camera. So, not a "practical impossibility"...

Yes, that's very true, I never thought of that. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Issyl]

Unfortunately the problem of the shading on your hoplite is not just a problem with the light direction, but with the way you shade. You need more contrast between what is "bright" and what is "dark" on your units, i.e. the points away from the light need to be darker, and the pixels closer to the light need highlights.

[Gwynnedrion]

not to disturb or anything. But I really like the art, pillow shading or not. Specially the skirmisher. I mean , at least it's not frankies so... And it's authentic.

[Aura]

Actually, most are edits (kinda different from frankies but not 100% scratch). The Tamer and Hunter are quite a lot custom, and the Skirmisher and Kiari Archer's shading is mostly custom but the outlines were done by someone else. The others vary in amount of custom stuff. Glad you like them though.

I am still meaning to get these done, hopefully I'll find time soon.

[Eagle_11]

Hiya, i have taken the two centaurs and edited them a bit because need sprite for an Centaur unit i want adding to Minotaurs, attaching them incase someone else would like to use.

centaur-RC-magenta-2-blue.png (4.3 KiB) Viewed 5144 times

lvl 1 sprite

centaur.png (4.06 KiB) Viewed 5144 times

centaur-lancer-RC-magenta-2-blue.png (5.2 KiB) Viewed 5144 times

lvl 2 sprite

centaur-lancer.png (4.97 KiB) Viewed 5144 times

[Hawkestin]

The spellblade's mount is supposed to be in touch with the spirit world and can see that way (I tried to add some bigger runes to the mount but they looked awful) which is why it is blindfolded. Maybe I'll recolor it to white with a grey mane and say in the background that albino mounts have spiritual powers and are ridden by the mystics. I will fix the knight though (his torso and parts of the rest of him were scratch so that's why they look somewhat off). Personally I'm happy with the ox-moose but if others think it's off as well I'll change it.

Here's a WIP for the knight's upgrade (gonna make the mount a little taller and make the rider look stronger, and fix the cloth shading).

really neat job man... it's a very nice character... the render looks great! now that makes me want to start to try it.. hehe