Nenau's sprites, advice welcome

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doofus-01
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by doofus-01 »

Hi nenau,
The oriental spearman looks better, but might even need another pixel taller for his head (jaw, not forehead). If you're worried about making his head too big, you can dark shades to the left side of his face. The shadow-less straight line of his right leg is also a bit jarring, adding a bit of slant/curvature would make it look more natural.

The lower line of the naked swordsman's right hand and sword could be similar contrast to the sprite outline, to make it easier to read. His arms seem a bit short. His head might also do with more pixels, I'm not sure what you're going for with his cat-ears :hmm:
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Midnight_Carnival
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by Midnight_Carnival »

Hey my friend, please don't take this as criticism but rather advice.
1) I greatly admire you for drawing units from scratch and making units without (much?/any?) frankensteining.
2) You have a way to go before you are as good as some of the scary art contributors here (as do most of us) but the more you draw the better you will become, as I think was already pointed out, your shading is improving.
3) having said all that I suggest you look at martial arts, look at historical European martial arts manuscripts produced back in the days when swords and spears, etc were in use. Fighters adopt the stances they do for good reasons relating to how they were trained and which weapons/armour they use.
Many of your units appear to be standing in a way which has the weight on the back foot. You will see similar stances in such things as rapier fighting, but they are not so common. Might I recommend you look at how people stand when they have their weight mainly on the back foot, how they stand when their weight is evenly distributed and how they stand when their weight is on the forward foot.

The two I'm mainly referring to are the spearman who appears to have one leg kind of poking out from behind his shield and the. Naked swordsman.
I'm all for running in naked without regard for your safety (or dignity), but before he threw himself into battle, that man would have been trained as a swordsman and I'm sorry, I'm not convinced by the way you drew him standing that he really knows what he's doing there :roll:
Maybe look at some Capo Ferro, he drew a ton of swordsmen similarly attired to yours :lol: :lol: :lol:
Keep up the good work, love the elephant.
...apparenly we can't go with it or something.
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hello,
Thank you both of you for your answers.
I don't feel like working hard on the spearman anymore. I've changed a few pixels to match your advice, but nothing that deserve an upload...

On the other hand, with the naked guy :
celtic fury
celtic fury
celtic-fury-c.png (2.29 KiB) Viewed 7616 times
* Changed his right leg (leftmost on the picture) in order to get something that looks like a combat stance.
* Added outilne to the sword
* Made his right arm longer
* Changed his haircut and made his head bigger. About the cat ears, I had just tried to give him unkempt hair :mrgreen:
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hello,

I've finished the lvl2 berserker. I'm not really satisfied with his legs though...
lvl2 celtic berserker
lvl2 celtic berserker
celtic-fury1.png (2.38 KiB) Viewed 7545 times
My concerns are about the lvl3 berserker: I don't know how to make him look more threatening... Maybe I should keep this one as lvl3 and draw an other lvl2. What do you think ?
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Samonella
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by Samonella »

I'm a definite non-artist, but I'd say to have more messy hair, down to the shoulders at least, and a different sword pose. Either more aggressive, holding it back like the Naga Fighter portrait, or more relaxed, resting it across a shoulder like the Elvish Champion sprite.

Nice units, btw. :)
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nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hi, Samonella,

Actually, the guy is a nobelman, and the celtic noblemen (at least gallic, I'm unsure about the others) in the time my campaign is taking place (I st century) used to have short hair.
About the sword, it's true that the pose doesn't look natural. I think I made it too large, that's why it looks too heavy to be hold like that.
I'll keep the idea of a more agressive sword pose for the lvl 3 guy.
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Samonella
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by Samonella »

nenau wrote:I'll keep the idea of a more agressive sword pose for the lvl 3 guy.
Sounds good, since I actually meant those to be suggestions for the level three. The current level two already two looks as good as your other sprites to me.
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nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Samonella wrote: I actually meant those to be suggestions for the level three.
I didn't understand it first, and now it makes sense. I'll keep the idea of messy hair too as it will make the guy more impressive. Thanks for the input !
Anyway, first, I need to redraw the sword of the last sprite...
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hi,

First a corrected lvl 2 berserker :
he now has a shadow and the sword was updated
he now has a shadow and the sword was updated
celtic-fury1.png (3.15 KiB) Viewed 7368 times
And then a lvl 3 oriental marksman :
lvl 3 marksman
lvl 3 marksman
marksman.png (2.56 KiB) Viewed 7368 times
-Falcon
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by -Falcon »

Cool berserker. :D

However, the marksman looks a bit flat and the belt is either too high up, making his legs look too short, or his legs are too long compared to his body.
Wussel
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by Wussel »

Maybe more contrast? Meaning more darker tones?
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hello,

Thanks to the advice given, I tried to draw a better version of this marksman (not sure how it ended though...).
New trial for the marksman
New trial for the marksman
marksman.png (2.57 KiB) Viewed 7225 times
And the last guy from the berserker's line (actually I followed Samonella's advice) :
Ultimate berserker
Ultimate berserker
celtic-fury2.png (3.54 KiB) Viewed 7225 times
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The_Gnat
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by The_Gnat »

Nice i like the sprites you have drawn :D the only suggestion i have is to try to make the archer's features more prominent.
longbowman.png
longbowman.png (1.27 KiB) Viewed 7165 times
If you look at this image of a similar type of unit (from mainline wesnoth) you can see his larger head (in comparison to his body) and more clear arms and legs. Of course i suggest you make only slight changes because the style of clothing on your archer seem as if they would be more baggy and loose. :)
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hi,

Thank you for the input. Here we go for a new version.
marksman.png
marksman.png (2.72 KiB) Viewed 7083 times
nenau
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Re: Nenau's sprites, needing advice

Post by nenau »

Hello,

I draw a lvl1 celtic Carnyx carrier (kind of mounted flagbearer / trumpet player)
celtic-flagbearer_f.png
celtic-flagbearer_f.png (3.36 KiB) Viewed 6575 times
As it's the first time a draw a horse, I tried to imitate the mainline and UMC ones.
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