Ghastly

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thespaceinvader
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Re: Ghastly

Post by thespaceinvader »

I think the concept direction is probably the wrong one - this version seems to be focussing on big, gorilla-like power, where the Ghast is basically 'always hungry, never sated, enormous mouth'. I'm still a fan of the belly-mouth idea tbh.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Turuk »

:annoyed: Try not to think that everyone is jumping on you every time you post.


We are aware it is a work in progress, but when you ask someone to discuss the concept of a sprite, and then point out that most of what is on the sprite will be changed or has not been fixed yet or is not finished, it is hard to get an idea of what your concept is without asking questions to narrow it down. Especially since numerous concepts had been brought up in this thread since your last post.

The idea of giving it bulk by basically drawing a muscular but corpulent body could be a good way to go. It would fit with the nature of the entire unit line. By the same token, the mouth in the belly idea could go for the same ravenous nature, and the eventual possibility of having an animation of the belly mouth gnashing it's teeth would be unique.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Darker_Dreams »

thespaceinvader wrote:I think the concept direction is probably the wrong one - this version seems to be focussing on big, gorilla-like power, where the Ghast is basically 'always hungry, never sated, enormous mouth'.
I went for the "big, gorilla-like power" based off the idea that the critter is what it eats... getting bigger as it consumes without interfering with it's ability to (say) walk or fight.
thespaceinvader wrote:I'm still a fan of the belly-mouth idea tbh.
yeah, after my last post I got to reflecting on that again. I agree it's interesting, and I certainly like the concept better than some.
Turuk wrote::annoyed: Try not to think that everyone is jumping on you every time you post.
I don't.
I do think that I've been jumped on in this thread, I do see other people think the same, and I do feel like my requests for comment were ignored in favor of the critiques I asked not to get. isn't there a set of guidelines somewhere in these forums that discourage exactly that?

The annoyed smiley, by the by, is a spectacular way not to diffuse someone's defensiveness.
Turuk wrote:We are aware it is a work in progress, but when you ask someone to discuss the concept of a sprite, and then point out that most of what is on the sprite will be changed or has not been fixed yet or is not finished, it is hard to get an idea of what your concept is without asking questions to narrow it down.
How about; I'm not sure what you're trying to show with this. What I see is XYZ. this may be a function of A, B, or C which you've listed- if you'd like to comment or clarify whether these are by design or simply what you're referring when you say it's incomplete and needs work.

I can't read your mind. What I read was a post which listed a number of artistic concerns without context to your thinking.
Turuk wrote:Especially since numerous concepts had been brought up in this thread since your last post.
I was aware of the intervening posts. I can see how, not being able to read my mind, you wouldn't know that. However, if what you were interested in was comparison to those concepts, asking for discussion of how it relates to (or was potentially unaware of) those previous ideas would also have not felt like you ignored half my post.

I'm really not trying to lecture here. This thread has just frustrated me. A lot.
Turuk wrote: The idea of giving it bulk by basically drawing a muscular but corpulent body could be a good way to go. It would fit with the nature of the entire unit line. By the same token, the mouth in the belly idea could go for the same ravenous nature, and the eventual possibility of having an animation of the belly mouth gnashing it's teeth would be unique.
I think the belly-mouth version might become a favorite simply because of the uniqueness.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Turuk »

Darker_Dreams wrote:I don't.
I do think that I've been jumped on in this thread, I do see other people think the same, and I do feel like my requests for comment were ignored in favor of the critiques I asked not to get. isn't there a set of guidelines somewhere in these forums that discourage exactly that?

The annoyed smiley, by the by, is a spectacular way not to diffuse someone's defensiveness.
I did not care to try to diffuse your defensiveness. I was only asking my questions in order to establish your concept. You took my questions as me focusing on the artistic side of what you did. I was asking about the white patch and the assorted body parts in an effort to ascertain if they had something to do with your concept, i.e. ghouls are cannibals of others, and so maybe your concept was that his body might assimilate some of the very skin he eats, giving him a patchwork nature.
Darker_Dreams wrote:How about; I'm not sure what you're trying to show with this. What I see is XYZ. this may be a function of A, B, or C which you've listed- if you'd like to comment or clarify whether these are by design or simply what you're referring when you say it's incomplete and needs work. I can't read your mind. What I read was a post which listed a number of artistic concerns without context to your thinking.

I was aware of the intervening posts. I can see how, not being able to read my mind, you wouldn't know that. However, if what you were interested in was comparison to those concepts, asking for discussion of how it relates to (or was potentially unaware of) those previous ideas would also have not felt like you ignored half my post.
As you can understand I cannot read your mind, you can see why I was limited in my response. While I could say what I see is XYZ, is this a function of this or that, if you have said that this is a WIP so much needs to be touched up, I have no idea what to even touch on as it could all be subject to a change that you have not had time to implement yet. Hence my question about him seeming to be made up of various parts, as I was not sure what you were keeping.
Darker_Dreams wrote:I think the belly-mouth version might become a favorite simply because of the uniqueness.
Would you make it just a belly with a mouth, would you try to put eyes in the chest, or go off of the idea that the ghoul can sense meat for it's next meal?
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Darker_Dreams »

Turuk wrote:
Darker_Dreams wrote:I think the belly-mouth version might become a favorite simply because of the uniqueness.
Would you make it just a belly with a mouth, would you try to put eyes in the chest, or go off of the idea that the ghoul can sense meat for it's next meal?
Honestly, I like the "face" beetlenaut did on page 2... I think I'll poke at that a little, though I'm still not sure what should be done with the head/shoulders area.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Turuk »

Hmm... I did really like that one. What if for the shoulders you rounded them off, making them just smooth and fairly level? The shoulders in his sprite are hunched and so emphasize the missing head. Or you could merge the two concepts and apply the bulky nature to the limbs coming off the face.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Lord.Bedham »

could it be that you played to mutch Left 4 Death?
The last two Monstes look like bosses out of this game!^^
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Darker_Dreams »

images I've poked and prodded at... something to think about (and tear apart- I'll take pretty much anything aside from "you can't be serious" as constructive here). Obviously, I've gone back to the necrophage base rather than the larger ape-like version, which returns to the question of "enough different in play."

bedham; I, for one, only become aware of that game after exposure to the ideas with similar concepts here. On the other hand, they aren't revolutionary concepts.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Ghastly

Post by thespaceinvader »

Possibly keep just a little head - the stomach-mouth thing looks cool, but the eye-nipples look a little goofy. I'd suggest hunching the head down between the shoulders, something a little like the attached. No lower jaw on the head.

The attack animation could be a lunge forward, belly bash the enemy and stuff him into the mouth. I tried to find an example on youtube (i know there's a videogame character, probably a sumo, who does something similar) but i turned up a blank.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Darker_Dreams »

I actually tried something similar to the hunched down head first- but because the original is already pretty hunched I wasn't getting a clear enough difference, I'll see if I can stuff it down better...

as for the attack- that's pretty much what I was thinking; mouth gapes, stomach leads forward, and the arms come around in a "give me a hug" type gesture...
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Re: Ghastly

Post by thespaceinvader »

It looks really odd to have no head at all - a neck stump would probably be OK, if a little gross, but the solution I suggest keeps the head whilst radically changing the profile of the sprite. I'd love to see that attack animation. And, TBH, the ghast back in DiD, at the very least. I liked the unit, but the old sprite wasn't up to scratch.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by beetlenaut »

I think the whole character is too small. The whole body needs to be bigger--shoulders, arms, stomach, everything. Otherwise, we have a level 3 that is a touch smaller than a level 2. (I know you started with my drawing, but that wasn't necessarily supposed to be used--it was just supposed to show an idea.) I would shoot for halfway between what you have, and the "balloon" one.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Sleepwalker »

I agree that it should be larger or at least taller than a lvl 2 unit. Another way to go at it could be to increase the length of it's limbs giving it a little lankier look... Along with the mouth in stomach idea (which I like very much) I believe if done right it could give it a pretty disturbing look ( I won't say scary because I don't find such things scary, disturbing fits more). A bit of resemblance to the old ghast.
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Mefisto »

What about more arms and more mouths? Like this?
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Re: Ghastly

Post by Darker_Dreams »

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