Avian Faction portraits and sprites

[Crendgrim]

About the whether-it-can-fly discussion, see the first page of this thread.

[Dugi]

I did not comment the portraits, I commented the animation the previous post contained. And on that one, she was hovering like if she had two cubic decimetres of heavy metals in her cloaca.

But I guess that this is not much constructive, so there is no reason for me to continue with this.

[Silence]

Out of curiousity, have you ever played Odin Sphere? The wing designs of the Avians seem to be based off the ones used for the Valkyries in that game.

[orangebox]

Yes I did and loved the game

The wings are heavily influenced from how the Valkyries have the wings on the hips. I fell in love with the idea and decided that it looks much more better than having wings on the back (never liked that idea however).

The avian faction I'm working on now is a product of my fandom over OS and attempts in roleplaying a nation similar to Ragnanival. Of course, the results were also influenced by my preferences over for the mongol horde. You could thus say, that the avian faction I'm working on now is a combination of my favourites

Looking at that animation, I wonder how can it fly.
She looks like if she was sitting on a bird or something, but most of all, where is her center of balance? Trunk, head and arms weigh much more than legs, so she would have to use her wings to counter the torque, and that would be more than twice as much power (not mentioning that just keeping oneself in the air requires almost all the power a human can create).
According to the portrait (that looks brilliant, just one eye's looks badly injured), they are are like centaurs, human trunk stuck to an animal body, so it should not be so out of balance, but still the human trunk must weigh much more than a bird's head of that size.

Hmm, I'm trying to depict the flying animation to be as believable as possible. If there's any specific elements in which you think should be improved, I'd appreciate it if you specified in detail.

For the general build of their physical body, I'd like to emphasize firstly, that they are not human.

However, even a human example can be made; imagine a cripple with only but their legs from birth. These individuals gain the ability to do astounding feats with only their legs, because they are born with it and are used to it - the legs seem to act in unbelievable ways that a normal human can never achieve. Replace that with an avian, who had wings on them ever since their day of birth.

Still, they resemble humans, but generally their body weight weighs quite little from the generally brittle and small body. Not to mention that a full grown adult would not even be as physically intimidating than a normal human peasant. Their wings may look small, but that's when it's tucked in. Upon being extended, I'd say it's sizeable enough to bear the weight of the host to achieve flight. With some training, they could of course wield weighty weapons into battle, but realistically speaking for a limited amount of time. They fair better and can stay longer in the skies if lightly equipped.

Thus explains the general design of why a melee avian unit needs to land in order to attack (being that their weapon is heavier, it indirectly shows that they need to be grounded once in a while, getting a breather) while the ranged avian unit practically stays in the air for as long as the entire battle (unless it gets netted down).

[homunculus]

[...](not mentioning that just keeping oneself in the air requires almost all the power a human can create)[...]

almost?
i remember some calculation that said about 5 times more than a human can create.
those avians probably have some massive flying muscles under the skirt, and that should provide the counterbalance for the body.

[GangrN]

@orangebox

much better now

stunning work.

Is it just me, or does the left eye's pupil look larger than the right eye's?

maybe but it's hard to know, since we saw it first we are still sticking to it. I think it's not very obvious now, let's take a while to see it with a fresh *eye*

[doofus-01]

I think the portraits show a frail/light torso, appropriate for what you were trying to achieve. The sprite animation may not adhere to physics, but that seems like a strange criterion for sprites anyway- it seems OK. But do pay most attention to how it looks "in game"; it isn't necessary to have an awesome looped GIF to have a good animation for the game (it can even hurt if it is too long).

[orangebox]

Enlarged her right iris since everyone feels it's uneven. It was originally done on purpose as I wanted to show part of her right iris is hidden when she looks towards the left, but found out it's unreasonable. Change the hairstyle slightly since it doesn't match her facial structure (They -are- humanoids who care very much about appearances after all) and added a random emblem/engraving on the shield. Will call this the final final version since the face looks much much better than how it was

[battlestar]

Love the shields, adds more culture to the portrait

[orangebox]

battlestar> Thanks! Just had a little extra day off so I'm using it to get all my unfinished work done :9

Whew! That takes off a huge load now that I've completed my portraits

[Crendgrim]

Regarding the kingfisher, to me it looks as if you lost the labial angles while redoing the face. Was that intended? Personally, I liked his/her old mouth better.
But I also do like the shield.

[orangebox]

Crendgrim, well yeah I removed it since it made her grin instead of being serious.

Temp Hiatus. Not dead, just a temp hiatus.

[GangrN]

@Crendgrim: I don't agree, I like the new one waay much better!

[Crow_T]

Hey orangebox, do you mind if I frankensprite some parts off of these for my own work? I like the new portraits btw, very nice.

[orangebox]

Sure, go ahead