Draconian Era - Art thread (Or lack of art thread)

[siddh]

Hello. I'm trying to make a playable multiplayer era. I'm currently working on it on the developement version. It is possible that this era will not get properly finished. I don't know how to ask properly. Is anyone would be interested in making a unit icon for the era?

Era has 8 factions and approximately 100 units. Some of the units might get removed as (if) the era develops further.

I have made placeholder icons. Basically it's a "faction icon" + "text label", so theyr'e not really graphics.

Currently I would include any art made by anyone for the era, as there are no alternatives. I tried doing some art work, but so far it hasn't really worked out, since I'm not really an artist. Most importantly though I have been a little lazy working on this on and off. If I actually get this done (like I said it might not happen) then I'll probably work on the grahpics also. But now I'm also having WML problems with making abilities work.

Here's a list of units for the ERA if anyone is interested:
However the idea is that someone wants to make art for any specific unit, for the time being, that would be welcome. But there's a lot of units and I don't really expect to get them done this way, but rather over time as the era progresses.

Cabal (Vampire Faction I)
Black Knight with 2h-greatsword
Corrupted noble with a short sword and small crossbow
Corrupted novice mage with a small knife and casts fireblast
Fallen Paladin with 2h-sword (mounted) cast battlecurse (slow) has terror (negative leadership)
Fallen Priest ranged poisoning attack (unholy dmg) "unholy blight", also increases the holy resistance of surrounding allies
Ghoul Servant (Regenerates) Mace
Human Minion Archer, longbow and short sword
Orc Minion Fighter (Essentially like grunt)
Orc Minion Slave with Cuffed Fists (for attack)
Timber Wolf (Bite, charge+slow)
Vampire Bat

Cabal Matriarch, flying, vampiric aura (drain from allies+enemies), deregenerates vampiric touch (drain, slow) syphon soul (ranged, drain)
Vampire Warrior, Iron spear, similar vampiric aura, but weaker version

Styx (Vampire Faction II)
Black Knight, same as vamp faction I
Bone Sentry - skeleton with a worn spear
Corpse Wolf - Undead wolf, poison instead of slow
Ghast, negative leadership, much weaker during day
Ghoul Servant, Similar to Vamp Faction I but with [censored] sword
Human Minion Fighter, similar but human
Human Minion Slave, similar but human
Shade, well this is essentially another variant of ghost in default
Stygian Initiate, lesser ghoul touch, and chilling wind for ranged. Caster type
Stygian Prophet, Ritual dagger, and ranged magical attack. This unit is still missing a twist, that has to be added later
Stygian Shepherd, Commands Undead (leadership), Frost blade (does extra cold damage in addition to normal blade)
Vampire bat, also
Walking Dead, well it's the same thematically as in default

Vampire Fiend, negative leadership, hides in swamps, backstab, also has charge
Vampire Necromancer, counterpart for matriarch, ranged cold attack, which has plague. Also commands undead
Vampire Rajal, it's a leadership type vampire

Btw the use of the name "styx/stygian" and any other similarities with dugi's campaign are purely coincidential, as I made the era before trying that.

Bavarian Horde (Barbarian Faction)
Barbarian with 2h-axe (male only)
Barbarian with 2h-hammer (male only)
Barbarian with 2h-sword (male,female)
Barbarian with 2h-spear (female)
Warrior with Halberd
Warrior with Sword
Warrior with Spear
Boor with mace
Wild with Spear
Savage with 2-round berserk, weapon undecided, but probably blade damage and sword
Cave bear with claws. Does blade damage and extra crushing damage with each hit

Chadzin Creed
This faction is a combination of native american types or pirates and roman legionnaires types, there's also a bit of a military hierarchy theme. One of their most cenrtal abilities is "guard duty" which allows guard units to negate upkeep when placed in a village. It changes the way the faction can be played (more passively, slower getting initiative).

Chadzin archer, longbow
Chadzin Enforcer, shield and mace.. nearest comparison is heavy infantry, but shield increases protection from ranged
(but WML for that ability doesn't actually work because you can't filter for combat range in [resistance], so gonna have to figure out how to do that.. applies to all units with the shield for now)
Chadzin Guard with sword , has guard duty ability
Chadzin Guard with spear , has guard duty ability
Chadzin Knight with sword (mounted)
Chadzin legionnaire has formation ability, supports other legionnaires by increasing their resistance, as well as enforcers
(but formation reduces resitsances to some magic types, like fire)
Chadzin Sergeant, leadership unit
Chadzin Strongbow, has crossbow, does impale dmg instead of pierce (like normal bows)
Chadzin Swashbuckler, nearest point of comparison would be fencer in default
Chadzin Cutthroat, kind of like a pirate thief/fencer combination
Chadzin Warpath, this unit has fearless ability and negative leadership, sort of like a native warrior
Chadzin Lookout, basically a scout unit for getting information and moving through difficult terrain
Chadzin Mender, healer
Chadzin Mystic, lightning ranged attack
Chadzin Watchdog, no upkeep dog, has a slowing charge attack
(Note the dog can't capture villages(well once I manage to make a WML for that)
Same is true for all other animals + witness orb by the way)

Ranger's Cove
This is basically a ranger kind of faction... So it's a forest theme, a little like elves. They can also recruit some animals. This should happen through an empath unit, but the WML for how that works isnt done.. Anyway..

Druid, ranged lightning attack, increases lightning resistance for surrounding allies, heals/cures when in vegetated terrain
Empath, a female unit that allows recruitment of animals. Also can charm animals from enemy sides
Guerrilla, has some stealth abilities, sword and bow
Hunter, sword and poisoning bow, has a synergy ability with wolf
Huntress, ambush, Spear (firststrike) and spearthrow, has synergy ability with lynx
Ranger, cures poison when in Hills+Forest hex, swords
Sage, magical ranged attack (weak), Cures and gives surrounding allies resistance vs holy and unholy
Warden (shield), gives allies cold resistance, weak cold ranged attack, and sword

for animals there's
Wolf, Lynx, Owl for now. Owl is a stealthy scout unit, with exceptional ability to defeat bats

Emberforge Dwarf Faction (Like Knalgans, somewhat)
Blacksmith, Hammer attack, is somewhat resistant to fire
Bulwark, Similar to Guardsman in many respects, has shield and only source of impale damage for dwarves
Cleric, heals and increases unholy resistance for surrounding allies
Fighter, Hammer + Shield
Miner, Pick axe, has improved abilities fighting in mountains.. Also might have a special ability later
Priest, Shield, Hammer does extra damage to undead, and has holy ranged attack
Stormhammer, has hammers for melee and ranged attack, which do extra lightning damage
Warrior, axe
Gnome Spy, this unit has good stealth abilities and a looking glass. But it might get removed from the era.
Gnome Tinker, Repairs golems, and has a ranged fire attack
Iron Golem, has very good resistances, and vulnerabilities, moves slowly
Poacher, does extra damage against animals (perhaps too much)
Thief, like in default (kind of) but has also a stealth ability

Gryphon, and gryphon rider are flying units

Sublime Cabinet
This is a faction of magic and tricks. Several caster types. They can also recruit spiders. Their primary melee tanking unit is a spider, lightweaver goliath, with no other special abilities. Rest of the units all have powerful abilities, but are weak.

Elementalist (elf) cold ranged attack, can move on water terrains, extra cold dmg on melee attack
Elementalist (gnome) fire aura (attacker takes fire damage), ranged fire attack
Elementalist (human) lightning dmg on melee attack, and ranged lightning attack

Magus (elf) has a ranged attack that always hits,but otherwise is not a good

Lightweave Diviner, illuminates, ranged holy, and reduces physical damage for surrounding units (enemies also)
Lightweave Inimi (probably needs a new name), heals, and has a very powerful ranged attack Pacify, makes opponent unable to attack on his next turn
Lightweaver Goliath, a Giant Spider that has no special ability

Orbweave Falce (needs a new name), Scythe with precise
Orbweave Hekse (name perhaps), ranged arcane attack
Orbweave Mirade (Name! ) has very powerful ranged attack that makes target unable to attack and move
Orbweaver tarantula, stealth abilities, slowing web ranged attack

Shadoweave Sorciere, illuminates (darkens), hides surrounding allies with nightstalk ability, ranged shadow attack
Shadoweave Stalker, ranged shadow attack, reduces targets cold resistance, roguelike unit, has stealth abilities
Shadoweave Vicier, ranged cold attack
Shadoweaver Recluse, a spider with cavestalk, poison melee, ranged slow

Witness Orb, unit that has night and daystalk, no combat abilities, but is the best scout in the game. Can't capture villages (once wml is done for that...)

Touclan
Samurai faction with lots of different kinds of units, but is very weak on magical attacks
Archer Cavalry, ranged bow, mounted
Warrior Cavalry, heavy resistances, mounted blade, negative leadership
Yari Cavalry, has spears, mounted, impale damage
Samurai Archer, Ranged bow attack, high dmg ratio
Samurai Warrior, heavy infantry, takes less damage when attacking
Naginata, heavy infantry, takes less damage when defending
Yamabushi, scout unit, hides in mountains, cures poison in hills+forest hex
Sohei Naginata, Warrior monks with halberds, fearless ability, does impale and blade
Sohei Kanabo, Warrior monks with maces, fearless ability
Ronin, has stealth ability, and precise melee attack
Ninja 1, marskman ranged attack and backstab melee, + normal melee without backstab
Ninja 2, Poisoning ranged attack, slow on melee attack
Monk, throws arcane dmg ofuda scrolls
Kitsune, Flying spirit

[Dugi]

Getting artwork for an era is the hardest and most time consuming part of making an era. The time needed to draw a sprite is more than a hour for most people. The time needed to code a unit is several minutes (animation timing can extent this quite significantly, but in that case, doing the graphics will take many hours). Furthermore, coding the units requires very little skill, while doing the graphics needs a lot of skill. For short, the probability that somebody will volunteer to draw 100 sprites for you is close to 0.

I think that you should read this.

You'll have to do the graphics yourself. There are ways to get relatively acceptable graphics without much skill and without much work.
1. Steal some art. Look into the /images/ folder of Ageless Era, you'll find an insane amount of artwork there. Check also this place.
2. Use the technique called frankensteining. Crop and paste parts of units on other units, recolour them, make some slight corrections and you have a quite decently looking unit quickly.
3. This might require somewhat more advanced coding, but frankensteining can be automated. You create a repository of armours, weapons, heads, other body parts, and use ImagePathFunctionWML in unit code to sew it together.
4. This might create good looking and well animated sprites, but requires learning a lot. Create them in Blender, where can easily model stuff that would not look too bad in 72x72 resolution, switch weapons and armour, and animate stuff. Then render them in png format.
If you create an era with some kind of half-good graphics and the era shows to be good gameplay-wise, some artists might offer their art to you, but don't expect pure ideas to be drawn.

[siddh]

Well for starters I wasn't asking anyone to make 100 sprites, instead just asking if anyone is interested in making any specific icon, but I had to list the units so that if anyone was interested, they'd know what there would be to choose from. Secondly I know making graphics is more time consuming, also I have read the sticky.

Thanks for the tips though!

[GL_Network]

What exactly are you looking for? Attack icons (what icons usually refer to) or unit sprites? The former is actually quite easy and you shouldn't have a problem with using the mainline ones anyway, since people mostly only take attention to them if they are absent or inconsistent with the attack. As for unit sprites, I think many of your ideas can be done by only recoloring and making small modifications to mainline units, something which you should be able to do yourself (read some of the art tutorials on the wiki, of which there is a list here). Creating an unit from scratch is hard, but recoloring one is not much so.

I agree with the tips of Dugi and would add that if an unit from your era is only ''same as X but on a different faction'', you should use the mainline unit directly instead. I see no good reason to do otherwise.

[siddh]

I agree with the tips of Dugi and would add that if an unit from your era is only ''same as X but on a different faction'', you should use the mainline unit directly instead. I see no good reason to do otherwise.

Yeah that's pretty much idea, but that only works for a couple of units...

[siddh]

Started doing a portrait out of the blue but it just looks too cute and there's some other problems too.. At least it totally doesnt look like it was from wesnoth. But what do you think?

[Wussel]

I would recommend looking at existing art like this one:

http://shabazik.deviantart.com/gallery/29015996

There are a lot of units ready to use with little adaption.

Keep in mind that you would have to aproach the artist extremly nicely and ask for permisson.

http://shabazik.deviantart.com/art/Vamp ... -340321356

I made you a little 5 min animation from that artwork. It is gif, so you can not use it ingame and you should not without permission of artist.

vampire_blade_dancer_by_shabazik-d5mm9n0.gif (3.14 KiB) Viewed 5720 times

[siddh]

Here are some images used in the era currently , some of which are modified from mainline (well obviously:D)

[siddh]

It's a long way to go...

[siddh]

First unit for touclan..

[dipseydoodle]

Here's a quick one.

[siddh]

Nice one Dipsey

Ps. I replaced the old golem (I understand that was the idea from irc) with your version, thanks! Also updated the era on both developement and stable versions server so if you want to check it out it should be there

[Patch]

Howdy, I took the freedom to make the Chadzin Watchdog. But the dog is not from native americans, I used an American Bulldog as reference, because I couldn't find a proper image of a dog from the natives...

I must ask, is it level 0? It's rather small. But I made a bigger one, intended to be the next level, Guarddog? You see, Watchdog being level 0 is not bad, after all, a Watchdog is a dog that barks at an intruder, whilst a Guarddog barks and attacks.
Should I make level 2/3?

Regards, Patch.

[siddh]

Howdy, I took the freedom to make the Chadzin Watchdog. But the dog is not from native americans, I used an American Bulldog as reference, because I couldn't find a proper image of a dog from the natives...

I must ask, is it level 0? It's rather small. But I made a bigger one, intended to be the next level, Guarddog? You see, Watchdog being level 0 is not bad, after all, a Watchdog is a dog that barks at an intruder, whilst a Guarddog barks and attacks.
Should I make level 2/3?

Regards, Patch.

Nice work Patch! I want to be frank and as a matter of personal opinion I would want to use a picture of a dog with a standard length snout, considering the dog's abilities in this era are similar to the abilities of wolves in this era = A biting attack with charge that slows the defender. But other than that I think the images are flawless. I also think these have good character and create an interesting atmosphere. If it's ok with you I would like to use these images for the Chadzin Watchdog?

Since you brought up the issue of "watchdog/guarddog" - I didn't know there's a distinction, but now I think it would make sense for the watchdog to advance into a guarddog?

Ps. Oh actually it seems your idea was exactly that watchdog->guarddog
PPS. Also my opinion about the snout was incorrect

[Patch]

If it's ok with you I would like to use these images for the Chadzin Watchdog?

Ah no need to ask for permission, I made them for this era.

Ps. Oh actually it seems your idea was exactly that watchdog->guarddog

Certainly.

I'll work on putting the TC to them, and making a tad smaller the tail of the Guarddog.
I don't really have much experience on cats(Lynx) but if I can, I'll give it a go.
Also, what's a

Boor with mace

?