Campaign art - Sceptre of Fire

[mameluke]

Mameluke : the horse is not exactly parallel to the screen

Yes, that is clearly visible imho. No possibility to see that wrong.

I just mean that the line somehow look artificial.
That's all I can say cause I lack in English and art
... Maybe there should be some very small reflection at some places like you did on the right (front) side of the horse where the chainmail changes to the background?
(That's not an art advice, just I second try to articulate what I mean )

Or is it the general shadow which gives a wrong roundness to the back?
Well... if I'm the only one seeing gosts there please ignore me... I mean the picture is awesome, thats not the point

[Jetrel]

As for Alanin's outfit, he is a member of the royal guard and Hadric's envoy, hence the gold and shield heraldry. I can tone down or remove the gold though, so that he looks more like a soldier - royal guards are elite warriors, but do not necessarily carry much bling.

I don't think that's a concern; given it's current luster, I took it as decorative brass/bronze. It's also pretty sedate decoration as-is, already much subdued compared to, say, the grand marshal or whatnot.

[LordBob]

Campaign-start portrait for Alanin. He's final, save for the lines which are still missing.
Further portraits will hopefully be quicker. I'm dropping the idea of dwarven improved plate for later portraits, though : unless some specific dialog is added in the scenarios, it wouldn't be obvious to the average player, and as such isn't worth the extra time.

[zookeeper]

Perfect.

So... everything except Khrakrahs and the variations of Alanin (including the unmounted one) are done, right? I could get all these committed now and then wire in remaining ones as you finish them, or I could wait until the whole set is complete - whichever you prefer.

[doofus-01]

I have to point out that the horse's armor is incredible, lest that go unnoticed.

[Shinobody]

Yet scales on back of the horse (near tail) look unshaded; That stands out even more, since rest of the portrait is really good.

[Jetrel]

Yet scales on back of the horse (near tail) look unshaded; That stands out even more, since rest of the portrait is really good.

I myself think they're more or less shaded correctly; nevertheless constructive critiques like this are appreciated, so please don't feel like I'm "telling you off" by contradicting you.

[uncleshelby]

Wow, that is beautiful.
I dunno how you art people do it, but it's amazing.
I think I'll try SoF Just for this.

[LordBob]

A quick notice that I'm not dead
It is true that the rear scales do look of a somewhat lower standard than the rest of the horse's armour, so I'll give them a shot. I'm currently working on gradually aging variantions of the portrait.

Zookeeper: thanks for asking. Unless there's a release soon in which you think it'd be appropriate to include new SoF material, I'd rather wait until the whole set is done before we commit them.

Edit: first variation of Alanin done (save for the lines). Two more are planned, but they'll be simpler. Note the added warm clothes and cheeks reddened by cold, since most of the campaign takes place in high mountains. The last variation will do away with the cold, though, considering the last couple of scenarios happen underground.

[kitty]

Wow.

You obviously leveled up in the last months!
I really love everything I'm seeing, so just some nitpicky c&c for the sake of it:
Young Alanin's hand seems rather small in comparison to his face. And while the shape of the gambeson is probably right, it creates an unfortunate silhouette resembling a broken arm.
I love the simple cold breath effects, they are really effective! But the reddened cheeks and nose look painted on, that's mainly due to the hue, they should be a bluer shade of red. And I was really confused if this is a completely new character or an aged version of Alanin. I think you changed too much, I'd recommend keeping the beard's style the same. And finally I think the shadow cast by the fur isn't deep enough, atm stuff merges into each other in that area.

[AI]

Note that the last two scenarios do not contain Alanin. Scenario 7 focuses on him racing towards wesnoth to inform the king.

[zookeeper]

Cool. However, I'd agree with kitty that the difference to the first one is quite big; in the first one the helmet covers his hair and he looks pretty young and the helmet really affects how I read his facial features, whereas in this one the helmet is removed and we see a receding hairline which in my eyes immediately adds more than 10 years to what he seemed like in the first one. On the other hand I suppose it's pretty difficult to show much signs of age if he keeps the helmet on, so I can't really tell what the best course of action is here.

Edit: first variation of Alanin done (save for the lines). Two more are planned, but they'll be simpler. Note the added warm clothes and cheeks reddened by cold, since most of the campaign takes place in high mountains. The last variation will do away with the cold, though, considering the last couple of scenarios happen underground.

As AI said, Alanin isn't present in the last two underground scenarios; when the others go underground, Alanin rides back to Wesnoth.

If we want cold breath, then we might need such an alternative for every one of his portraits; I think all of them are used both outdoors during winter as well as in spring/summer or underground (except for the last, unmounted one).

[LordBob]

Has it really been another two months since I last posted ? Well rest assured, I didn't exactly fall off the face of the earth. However, going freelance is time-consuming, as you'll have guessed. I'll try and wrap up this series when things settle down a bit, which may be anytime next month.

Kitty, your review is welcome. I'll fiddle with both portraits accordingly.
Regarding recognizable facial features and aging, I'll make it simple : only the youngest Alanin will retain his helmet, and there will be another portrait in between, with more hair, less beard and fewer wrinkles . It'll be a simple paintover of the current "horseback-old" though, so do not expect as many variations.

As for the cold breath thing, producing breath/breathless alts is simple enough. The question is, do we want to double the number of portraits ?

[zookeeper]

As for the cold breath thing, producing breath/breathless alts is simple enough. The question is, do we want to double the number of portraits ?

If the cold breath layer can be identical on all the portraits it would be used on (and I don't see any reason why it couldn't), then we can make it a separate image and simply overlay it on whichever portrait we want in whichever piece of dialogue we want. There shouldn't be any kind of problems in doing it that way.

[rmj]

Can the horse actually see where its going with that armor? It doesn't seem that both eyes can focus on an object.