Mainline campaign sprites and animations needed

[Gyra_Solune]

I think the blue's more ideal so it can be a more versatile sprite. The idea of recoloring variations beyond team color is very very cool and could have a lot of applications beyond just this scenario, so if the loyalists will be made into a more brownish bronze in UTBS, their associated new unit ought to use the exact same code and as such the exact same colors as the normal loyalists.

Still this is really cool and I had no idea it was possible. There's all sorts of neat ways to implement this to illustrate that a group is fundamentally different with little actual changes. Elves that live way further north that hold out in snowy forests? Change their green to white! Clashers being armed by humans? Make their bronze into the blue-silver! A well-off band of dark cultists who've ended up as proper lords of their domain? Make their (and their ghosts') robes purple instead of the usual ruddy green! Weird variants of mermen or nagas or saurians? Their body colors can be all sorts of different hues. I want to see this function tried on different things - it looks so deceptively simple yet already I think of a lot of cool things that can be done with it. Not to mention how it might apply to UMCs as well - I for one would love to see Chaos Empire variants that aren't all doom and death and horror and maybe making their rad but sorta unambiguous armor all white and paladin-like.

Actually if it's not too much trouble, since I don't know exactly how you applied that other color-changing function, could I be a bother and ask to see how something like those examples I mentioned might look, zookeeper? Unless it's a particularly complicated process of course - the code you copied was short but I am unsure if that paints the whole picture of what you need to do to get it to look like that.

[zookeeper]

I think the blue's more ideal so it can be a more versatile sprite. The idea of recoloring variations beyond team color is very very cool and could have a lot of applications beyond just this scenario, so if the loyalists will be made into a more brownish bronze in UTBS, their associated new unit ought to use the exact same code and as such the exact same colors as the normal loyalists.

Still this is really cool and I had no idea it was possible. There's all sorts of neat ways to implement this to illustrate that a group is fundamentally different with little actual changes. Elves that live way further north that hold out in snowy forests? Change their green to white! Clashers being armed by humans? Make their bronze into the blue-silver! A well-off band of dark cultists who've ended up as proper lords of their domain? Make their (and their ghosts') robes purple instead of the usual ruddy green! Weird variants of mermen or nagas or saurians? Their body colors can be all sorts of different hues. I want to see this function tried on different things - it looks so deceptively simple yet already I think of a lot of cool things that can be done with it. Not to mention how it might apply to UMCs as well - I for one would love to see Chaos Empire variants that aren't all doom and death and horror and maybe making their rad but sorta unambiguous armor all white and paladin-like.

It's easy to colour-shift any set of sprites which have a consistent palette, as exchanging palettes with ~RC() is simple, and you should do that whenever possible. The problem here is that the loyalists do not have a consistent palette; the exact pixel values of for example the two brightest tones of the blue armour colour vary across units, and across animation frames. That is, ~RC() cannot be used, unless one wants to spend a week compiling a list of all possible colours across all loyalists unit frames first, or standardizes their palettes first. A lot of work either way and I didn't want to get side-tracked.

So, instead, I have the aforementioned ~CHAN() formulas which selectively modify only pixels which pass the condition of red <= green and green <= blue + 3, which is one way of saying "only the armour and swords/spearheads". Note that it is not perfect; sometimes that means shifting a pixel in someone's hand, or not shifting a bunch of pixels in the Dragoon's shield, etc, and probably a lot more issues in animation frames. But it's close enough that you generally don't see anything wrong, although I haven't really checked animations.

Actually if it's not too much trouble, since I don't know exactly how you applied that other color-changing function, could I be a bother and ask to see how something like those examples I mentioned might look, zookeeper? Unless it's a particularly complicated process of course - the code you copied was short but I am unsure if that paints the whole picture of what you need to do to get it to look like that.

No, that's all there is to that particular piece of recolouring. To apply the same principle to other units you just have to figure out what the formula for selecting the pixels to modify is. In this case, the blue armour was possible to isolate with a simple formula, but in some cases there isn't going to be one. For example you could shift elves' green clothing, but then the leaves in Druids' and Sorceress' staffs would also be affected.

The entirety of the code I used is as simple as this:

Code: Select all

    [event]
        name=unit placed
        first_time_only=no

        [filter]
            race=human

            [not]
                type_adv_tree=Heavy Infantryman,Javelineer
            [/not]

            [not]
                [filter_wml]
                    [modifications]
                        [object]
                            armor_color_shift=yes
                        [/object]
                    [/modifications]
                [/filter_wml]
            [/not]
        [/filter]

        [object]
            armor_color_shift=yes
            silent=yes

            [effect]
                apply_to=image_mod
#define ARMOR_SHIFT NEWCHAN ORIGCHAN
if(red <= green and green <= blue + 3, ({NEWCHAN} / 255.0)^2 * 255.0, {ORIGCHAN})#enddef
                add="CHAN({ARMOR_SHIFT blue red}, {ARMOR_SHIFT green green}, {ARMOR_SHIFT red blue})"
            [/effect]
        [/object]
    [/event]

[Vyncyn]

This is hopefully a good mix between ranger and lieutenant.

human-commander.png (1.69 KiB) Viewed 4061 times

[ForestDragon]

Great!

[Eagle_11]

There is something coming off odd with looks like end of his gauntlet going into the arm.
I realize its one of those very long ones covering about half your arm at outer side but still. Also the gauntlet on his bow hand may need extended a little.
Otherwise that should do as an base sprite.

[nuorc]

There is something coming off odd with looks like end of his gauntlet going into the arm.

Probably because it is cut straight, and with its length it looks like it would also cover the inside of the elbow, making it difficult to bend the arm. Maybe the gauntlets could be longer on the outside?

Spoiler:

[Vyncyn]

After some unsatisfying attempts at fixing the gauntlet, I copied from the the Li’sar sprite and made some changed to fit better.

[zookeeper]

My bad for not thinking of it sooner, but... gauntlets aren't really what you'd want to wear when using a bow, I'd imagine. But that should be easy to fix; just turn the gauntlets into vambraces by colouring the hands as skin instead.

Other than that it looks ready to me.

[Eagle_11]

You can simply recolor the hand part of those gauntlets into fingerless leather glove but keep the metal bracers, prolly should work best.

[Kwandulin]

Early attempts of new Kaleh and Nym sprites for UtbS. Roughly basing on the work of Jetrel and Vyncyn (bolas). Ideas?

[beetlenaut]

You should probably check out UtBS in 1.13.7 because the units were redesigned. In that version, Kaleh and Nym are both Quenoth Youths, with a sword as their main weapon. They can both choose bolas later when they upgrade, but there are other options too.

[Vyncyn]

You can simply recolor the hand part of those gauntlets into fingerless leather glove but keep the metal bracers, prolly should work best.

Tried it, but fingerless leather gloves looked very hard to read.
Here is a simple redraw without gloves

human-commander.png (1.72 KiB) Viewed 3814 times

Roughly basing on the work of Jetrel and Vyncyn (bolas)

Just gonna mention that I didn't create the bolas on the witness spites, but copied them from the UTBS prowler (with some slight changes).

[Kwandulin]

You should probably check out UtBS in 1.13.7 because the units were redesigned. In that version, Kaleh and Nym are both Quenoth Youths, with a sword as their main weapon. They can both choose bolas later when they upgrade, but there are other options too.

Do they look too old? Are sprite variations needed, where they wear 1. no bolas and 2. bolas?

The human commander looks amazing!

[beetlenaut]

Do they look too old? Are sprite variations needed, where they wear 1. no bolas and 2. bolas?

My point was that both of them are the same unit type now, so they shouldn't look too different. They have a 5-4 sword attack, and 4-3 bow, which doesn't really match what you drew I don't think. However, the current units only have a level-1 base frame, so we need some higher-level sprites. The upgrade mechanism allows them to choose a path: leader, hunter, or warrior. The hunter path gets bolas. I don't think we really need variations with and without the bolas though because we could just have them pull the weapon from behind them. On the other hand, it would be ideal to eventually have slightly different level-2 and level-3 images for each path. Maybe what you have could work for Nym as a level-3 hunter, and Kaleh as a level-2 warrior for example.

This is all there is at the moment:

youth.png (1.15 KiB) Viewed 3799 times

[zookeeper]

Tried it, but fingerless leather gloves looked very hard to read.
Here is a simple redraw without gloves

Looks ready to me.

Early attempts of new Kaleh and Nym sprites for UtbS. Roughly basing on the work of Jetrel and Vyncyn (bolas). Ideas?

Kaleh's non-sword arm/hand is rather hard to read due to the blue thingy on this forearm. Also he seems to have tiny feet - they might be the same size as Nym's, which might be the same size as in some other sprite, but his bulky silhouette makes them look tiny in comparison. It'd probably also make him a bit less bulky overall if a few pixels were trimmed off his waist/skirt/leg so that there'd be one pixel's width of empty space between the sword arm and the body.

Nym looks okay, although I don't know what LordBob wants to do with her portrait so I don't know whether the blonde hair can work.

They both have sword and bow, but can get bolas as an upgrade. So, frames where they have bolas can and will be used.

My point was that both of them are the same unit type now, so they shouldn't look too different. They have a 5-4 sword attack, and 4-3 bow, which doesn't really match what you drew I don't think. However, the current units only have a level-1 base frame, so we need some higher-level sprites. The upgrade mechanism allows them to choose a path: leader, hunter, or warrior. The hunter path gets bolas. I don't think we really need variations with and without the bolas though because we could just have them pull the weapon from behind them. On the other hand, it would be ideal to eventually have slightly different level-2 and level-3 images for each path. Maybe what you have could work for Nym as a level-3 hunter, and Kaleh as a level-2 warrior for example.

Ideally, sure it would be great to have different versions. However, the upgrade paths aren't mutually exclusive; you can be a leader and a hunter and a warrior, and you only need 6 advancements to max out. You can't really make different poses for warrior, hunter, leader, warrior+hunter, warrior+leader, hunter+leader and warrior+hunter+leader. The only way I can see that we could feasibly introduce subtle visual differences depending on the advancements chosen would be image_mod-based palette shifting; maybe being a hunter gives you differently-coloured clothing, being a warrior gives you a differently-coloured sword and being a leader gives you more bling. Those would be doable since they wouldn't conflict with each other or require separate sprites.

However, their unit level does increase on the first two levelups normally from 1 to 2 to 3, so we can certainly have them gain a bit of height or subtle differences in pose just like any other unit. But since they do stay as essentially the same unit type, I don't see the point in making the level progression result in the kind of major visual differences that usually exist between the 3 levels of a hero unit.