Cave spider revamp

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » December 26th, 2006, 4:02 pm

I'm a bit rusty, so I'm trying to get my sprite skills back with an attempt at a new cave spider. Mostly finished the main body, but I need some help with the legs. The eyes look a bit wierd too. I also need to shade the center portion under the abdomen. critics and comments appreciated

Post by **Blarumyrran** » December 26th, 2006, 5:21 pm

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » December 26th, 2006, 5:57 pm

Just an FYI, there is going to be coloring on the abdomen so it's more noticable against cave tiles. Right now my biggest concern is the eyes.

Post by **Blarumyrran** » December 26th, 2006, 6:51 pm

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » December 26th, 2006, 7:27 pm

as its a spider, it may have more eyes(3 or 5 would look cool)

Most spiders have eight eyes, some have six. The basic arrangement is in two rows, though it varies.

Tomsik · Post by **Tomsik** » December 26th, 2006, 7:34 pm

Two big eyes and few smaller ones would be best IMO. (that's how it works in reality too)

Post by **Jetrel** » December 26th, 2006, 8:31 pm

Though I don't agree with some of his other suggestions, Syntax_Error's suggestion about the eyes is spot-on.

ijuric · Post by **ijuric** » December 27th, 2006, 12:34 am

If you plan to keep such (or simmilar) legs and body proportions, you might reduce size of eyes. To me, this spider looks like orb weaving spider and those have small eyes.
Basicly, there are two types of spiders, ones which make orbs and eat what gets in them, and onew that hunt actively (since I spent 3 researching spiders on university I know few things about that). Great thing is that you can tell what strategy spider uses just by loooking at it. Hunters need good eyes for hunting so they have large or very large eyes. Their legs are also thick coz with thin legs you can't really run fast. Also, notice that front part of bodey is similar to back in size (spider on first picture looks hungary, back is usally bit bigger). Afterall, you can't run fast if your ass is huge.

Orb weaving spiders usually have long thin legs, which are great for walking on web, back part is larger compared to front and eyes are tiny. They react to vibrations, so good eyes are not so important.

Ofc, this is fantasy game and you can mix whatever styles you want to, but having wrong sized eyes just don't feel right. (well, maybe just to me coz I've seen too many spiders

)

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » December 27th, 2006, 4:06 am

thanks for the info. Here's another version with "fixed" eyes. Also going to redo the legs, the old one was crap. Please note the black lines are only going to be the position of the legs, not the legs themselves. And yes, the spider does have claws on its front two legs.

-wight- · Post by **-wight-** » December 27th, 2006, 4:25 am

the eyes are alot better

Post by **Sgt. Groovy** » December 27th, 2006, 1:53 pm

The eyes come in pairs, so unless this is a spider equivalent to cyclops, it should have even number of eyes (8 or 6, as I said).

The abdomen seems somehow twisted in relation to the thorax/head.

The claws in the end of the first limbs is a terrible idea, IMO, why not some angry looking cartoon eyes while you're at it? I would rather give it nasty looking fangs in it's chelicerae (the mouthparts).

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » December 27th, 2006, 2:17 pm

yes, looking at it now, the claws are terrible. I can see what your saying about the abdomen, the end part needs to point down more. I might make the fangs bigger, but that's a might. The reason the spider doesn't have angry cartoon eyes is because the current one does and they look stupid. The piercing red dots are a lot creepier than some big 'ol angry eyes. I'm also considering not coloring the abdomen so it looks like it blends in the with the cave.

Post by **irrevenant** » December 27th, 2006, 9:07 pm

Sgt. Groovy wrote:
as its a spider, it may have more eyes(3 or 5 would look cool)
Most spiders have eight eyes, some have six. The basic arrangement is in two rows, though it varies.

We're talking about a monstrous beast in a fantasy world here. Complete adherence to real world biology is not required.

Five eyes looks cool, but I don't know that you could make it look cool in the standard Wesnoth perspective.

Dragon Master · Post by **Dragon Master** » December 28th, 2006, 4:42 am

abdomen fix and added most of the legs (no claws). They still look a bit bad to me, perhaps I should make them a pixel thicker? The red bands also need to be a different color. Anything else?

-wight- · Post by **-wight-** » December 28th, 2006, 6:10 am

i think thicker legs like you said would be good. it would give it a more tarantular look.