Ghastly
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- Darker_Dreams
- Posts: 608
- Joined: February 1st, 2008, 5:26 pm
Re: Ghastly
Now I've got an image of a unit that spawns new ghouls through a budding process- a plague power that only works after the unit has killed and eaten enough other creatures.Thrawn wrote:very rough WIP, but what I imagine it's like: as it keeps piling on flesh, it kinda starts being bloated, and the mouth in the stomach becomes an actual mouth. Also, just to again keep up the groteque greediness, a head is forming.
The coloring sucks, and the legs aren't right (I'm gonna make them mostly obscured by stomach, make them smaller ad less wierd.
I'm not sure what I should be taking away for this discussion, though.
Re: Ghastly
I have a bit of a concept idea. It involves the concept jdsampayo brought up about a 'thing' (physical or incorporeal) being implanted in the ghoul (as part of the transformation from live men) which causes the ghoul to hunger for flesh. As the ghoul becomes stronger by devouring victims it turns into a necrophage, the flesh it has consumed directly being added to it's bulk without digestion (the red tinged chest) and it's 'native' flesh being transformed (more muscle mass and the spikes). As the necrophage continues to gorge itself on corpses, the 'thing' (maybe some sort of cannibalistic spirit) continues to grow as is evidenced by the 'imported' flesh starting to cover the limbs of the necrophage like some sort of grotesque creepers (they'd act as an extra layer of muscles). It is both a separate entity and fully a part of the necrophage. Finally, the grisly maw opens in the belly showing the full awakening of the 'thing', the undead's original head sunken in folds of 'collected' flesh. More spikes have emerged from various junctures of mutated 'original' muscles (like shoulder blades and knees) and the digits of both hands and feet have been manipulated into vicious claws. The claws on the hands are so wicked that they are folded up against the forearm to prevent them from dragging along the ground when not in use. The necrophage has fully metamorphosed into a ghast. Ugh, perhaps a rename is in order. 'Something Maw', maybe 'Devouring Maw' or 'Ravening Maw' to refer to it's voracious appetite and the obvious gaping maw in it's belly. Now it will only draw more strength from devouring fresh kills with no more mutations (unless we want a level 4 ghoul running around).
Ok, in short my idea if for the level 3 ghoul to have more of that pink coloring spreading out from the chest, more spikes, bigger claws, a sunken head and a big toothy maw in it's stomach. I'd put up a sketch or something, but i don't have access to a scanner on this computer. Oh, and i think i like 'Ravening Maw' the best.
Ok, in short my idea if for the level 3 ghoul to have more of that pink coloring spreading out from the chest, more spikes, bigger claws, a sunken head and a big toothy maw in it's stomach. I'd put up a sketch or something, but i don't have access to a scanner on this computer. Oh, and i think i like 'Ravening Maw' the best.
Re: Ghastly
You appear to be right. Well, you can't win 'em all.Darker_Dreams wrote:JW;I think it looks more like a diaper or gratuitous effort at censorship and less like a loincloth at the smaller size... That's actually part of why it grew initially.
(referring to me.)
Re: Ghastly
What about this? It has spikes in the shoulders and knees, and it's a little bit slimmer. It's also taller like you people see.
(Necrophage for comparison)
(Necrophage for comparison)
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- thespaceinvader
- Retired Art Director
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Re: Ghastly
Not bad, but not as good, or as striking a concept, as Darker_Dreams is working on =)
Nice work, though.
Nice work, though.
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
- Darker_Dreams
- Posts: 608
- Joined: February 1st, 2008, 5:26 pm
Re: Ghastly
given that a number of people have moved back to the drawing board with alt ghast concepts rather than commenting on what's being worked on- I'm assuming there aren't comments to make and I'm just moving on. This is what I've got so far of a defense animation. Figuring out how to do the motion on that (currently) stationary arm is giving me some trouble.
- Attachments
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- ghast-defend.gif (8.22 KiB) Viewed 2992 times
Re: Ghastly
Hmm, it seems like he is going to show us his... erm, you know what... under the loincloth.
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Re: Ghastly
That actually looks like it is half of an excellent walking animation!
For it to look more like defense I would recommend that he raise an arm to block or something of that nature. The animation is quite smooth! Though a small point: the gap between the loincloth and leg doesn't look right. I would expect the cloth to shift as it moves, I also expected his leg to be thicker (so that there wouldn't be a gap between his leg and the cloth).
For it to look more like defense I would recommend that he raise an arm to block or something of that nature. The animation is quite smooth! Though a small point: the gap between the loincloth and leg doesn't look right. I would expect the cloth to shift as it moves, I also expected his leg to be thicker (so that there wouldn't be a gap between his leg and the cloth).
- Darker_Dreams
- Posts: 608
- Joined: February 1st, 2008, 5:26 pm
Re: Ghastly
too much going on with the mouth/torso/head area for my taste... I don't think I'd like the chewing-as-you-walk thing. but I've already got plans for recycling some pieces I developed for this into a walking animation.JW wrote:That actually looks like it is half of an excellent walking animation!
That'd be the much-maligned right arm, I'm trying to get a step-back/block thing- and the blocking arm isn't cooperating yet. The big problems are the joints- which always look like I've grabbed a hunk of pixels and shifted them (often in weird directions that have nothing to do with any moves I have made), and that arm-spike, which has deformed in ways that range from annoying to downright bizarre.JW wrote:For it to look more like defense I would recommend that he raise an arm to block or something of that nature.
Thank you! It's only 3 frames (not counting the base, and recycling in-out), but I've tried to limit any moving piece to about a single pixel of shift... as it provides that smoother motion. I made some larger moves initially, but I really wasn't happy with how jumpy everything got.JW wrote:The animation is quite smooth!
Incidentally, the small steps are easier to interpolate what's going on in the space vacated by a moved pixel, and to extrapolate what's happening at the edges.
Yeah, me and that loincloth have gone a couple rounds already, I'd kinda moved on for a bit with plans to come back- but I forgot to.JW wrote:Though a small point: the gap between the loincloth and leg doesn't look right. I would expect the cloth to shift as it moves, I also expected his leg to be thicker (so that there wouldn't be a gap between his leg and the cloth).
Thank you for calling my attention back to it.
Anyway, thanks for the comments, onward and upward.
- thespaceinvader
- Retired Art Director
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Re: Ghastly
You need to move the whole body - it looks odd to have half of it move when the other half stays in an identical position the whole time. Moving the arms to block or something would help too.
Nice work though =)
Nice work though =)
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
- Darker_Dreams
- Posts: 608
- Joined: February 1st, 2008, 5:26 pm
Re: Ghastly
getting the right arm to come up and block the way I want it to is killing me, so I've moved on for the moment.
edit; updated backup file.
Last edited by Darker_Dreams on February 3rd, 2009, 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Ghastly
For what it's worth, I'm not a fan of the stomach mouth thing. Even if it's portraying a hideous creature I don't enjoy sprites which look ugly. The necrophage is kinda leaning towards that direction as well, but it stays within reasonable limits.
Re: Ghastly
You mean like... "nightmare causing" ugly or uglily made?zookeeper wrote:I don't enjoy sprites which look ugly.
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- ShikadiQueen
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Re: Ghastly
I personally go for the second.
A clown is more scary than that thing. Way more scary.
A clown is more scary than that thing. Way more scary.
I got better!