Crow's Artwork *Wizard and Orc Lieutenant

[doofus-01]

I wish gimp had a proper pencil eraser, and did 100% erasing

I think it can... somehow... but I can't remember how...

Use the "Hard Edge" option.

[GunChleoc]

Also, please explain "hue shifting."

I think it means: make the light areas a bit more yellowish and the shaded areas a bit more blueish.

[Amorphous]

Yeah, GunChleoc is on the right track. I'm hardly an expert, as artisticdude demonstrated here, but the basic idea is to gradually change from one color to another as you move up/down your color ramps. Cure puts it better, though, and his tutorial over at Pixeljoint is very useful when it comes to getting familiar with terms in pixel art.

Hue-shifting refers to having a transition of hues in a color ramp. A color ramp without hue-shifting is known as a straight ramp. In straight ramps, only the luminescence changes, while in hue-shifted ramps both hue and luminescence will (usually) change.






The first color ramp is a straight green ramp. The second image is a green ramp with hue-shifting applied. When using hue shifting, bend your highlights toward a certain color (yellow, in the example above), and move the darker colors toward a second color (I chose blue in the above example). Hue-shifting is used because straight ramps are usually boring and don't reflect the variety of hues we see in reality, and hue shifting can add subtle color contrast within a ramp.

Anyway, good luck with your project.

[Sleepwalker]

Hue shifting will generally make things look better yeah. How to apply it can depend on the material of the palette as well as it's targets environment. For example the yellowish brights and more blueish darks mimics normal daylight. The sun gives yellowish light while the sky lights the parts hidden in shadow from the sun with a blue tinted color or even purple. This is if your going to be scientific about it. You could also experiment with hue shifting and see what looks good for different things.

You could try make it look more textured too depending on what golem it is. Example you could check out blarumyrrans stony texture here even though it might be a bit bigger scale.

[Crow_T]

Thanks for the repies-

Regarding color shifting, that is certainly the more aesthetic approach, I was going for the more "cheap" approach, at least in the short term- something UMC people could use that was fun and added some extra dimension to their projects. True refinement can happen in the long term, plus the odds of this getting into mainline are about the same as me winning the Powerball so this is a UMC focused unit. More textures/separation of types is in my head, but will be time consuming- I feel simple color changes can suffice for now. If someone wants to grab this guy and modify him to fit their needs that's cool too, any mods posted here are all in good spirit! I also have a very rough melee attack animation I'm working on, any suggestions for specials/magic animations would be appreciated.

The unit that creates these is in sketch phase right now, I'd like to have them solid on paper before I head into the pixels

[Zoomo]

I tried to tweak the shading and colour a bit, then I messed with the proportions a bit. anyway heres what I came up with

[Crow_T]

Another sprite, a frankenorc:

new_orc.png (3.16 KiB) Viewed 5375 times

Goblin Maniac (original idea was a goblin with weak berserk, basically a mage killer) I also created a frankenogg of the berserker laugh for this guy, is it bad form to post sound files here?:

maniac.png (1.69 KiB) Viewed 5375 times

Edit: zoomo the shading looks smoother to me, good job- plus he is a bit plumper

[Crow_T]

A new troll base sprite, the original always looked like it had a stubby arm. Changed the head a bit too.

[Amorphous]

Yeah, I've always thought the arm was a tad too short. The new length looks pretty good, but the texture on the upper arm looks a little noisy. You might want to try smaller, larger clumps for texture.

Edit: D'oh! I meant fewer, larger clumps.

[Crow_T]

but the texture on the upper arm looks a little noisy. You might want to try smaller, larger clumps for texture.

Yeah, my spriting technique is still in the early stages- with fresh eyes today it is looking a bit rough though. I initially just wanted to block in the anatomical changes, if there is a chance for these edits to get into mainline I'll try to refine it, if not I'll move on to personal projects

[Sleepwalker]

Sorry but you made it worse, here's why:

I would move the arm further down instead of adding stuff on top. The stuff on top also don't really look like any recognizable muscle groups and is too noisy.

Why remove muscle definition from the torso and forearms?

Why did you remove the top of the head? The troll is looking down. If you wanted to make the head smaller in general then you need to reduce the forehead and move the ears down too.

[Crow_T]

The shoulders/chest do need work in terms of definition, also his club hand should be bigger in both versions. I don't agree about the head though, I feel my version is tougher looking. Guys with big heads don't look tough- big guys with little heads look like beasts.

[Crow_T]

A king unit:

[Amorphous]

That's pretty nice! You're definitely getting better. A few things that come to mind at first glance:

-He looks slightly hunchbacked, due to the shoulders being unusually high on his body.

-The crown and scepter are both a little hard to read because of the lack of outlines.

-The boots seem just a little off; I think defining the rim could help, but maybe it's just me.

[Crow_T]

Thanks for the crits, I do need to work on the shoulders, you are right. In my beginner's state I'm still not sure how to approach more delicate, detailed things like the crown. At the same time it may look better on a Wesnoth hex.