Descent Into Darkness Campaign: Ghast Revision

[Golden_Soldier]

I do like A although I did see a major problem with each of them
it seems to be attacking towards you
but shouldnt it be attacking towards the front and then to the left? It wouldnt make any sense if he is attacking somedody on his sides

[thespaceinvader]

No. We only have southeast and south attack directions in Wesnoth, not west. There's no need for him to attack to the sides.

[Golden_Soldier]

oh ok! I guess I am wrong then (on a side note... THAT GHAST IS AWESOME NO MATTER HOW YOU FIX IT UP FROM HERE I WILL BE EXCITED TO SEE THAT IN THE MAINLINE)

[Stern]

Thank you everyone for your input! By popular vote, animation A more closely matches the character of a ghast than does B. I will work on finishing A by fixing the alignment of the limbs movement, and afterwards I will finish the coloration and shading. I did an experiment to check the Ghast's angle of attack. It appears the finished Ghast animation will require offsets.

[thespaceinvader]

Most of them do, don't worry. And you thief!

[Stern]

I only take from the best.

After tinkering with the Ghoul, I believe I have fixed most of the "out of arc" problem. I adjusted the feet and some of the hand motions. What do you think?

[thespaceinvader]

I wonder whether the inside of the mouths want to have a bit more shadow - currently they look flat, rather than like open holes. Otherwise it looks good to go to me.

[boru]

Gets scarier every time I look at it.

Maybe posting the pngs will help you get in-depth critique from more sprite artists.

[johndh]

To add to what TSI said, the inside of the mouth is a scary place for a lot of people, and that might add a bit of "body horror" to it.

[Stern]

I think that ghasts are probably among Wesnoth's messiest eaters. Therefore I let the Ghast drool a bit before biting and added some shading to the inside of the mouth to make it more cavernous. I still need to finish the shading on the last two frames in addition to the claws.

What is your opinion on Ghast slobber?

[Major]

It would be awesome if you added a tongue, intestines or other bits and pieces in the mouths.

[artisticdude]

I'm not sure the slobber works... at first glance I see his lower stomach region sprouting spines all of the sudden. But that might just be me.

I'd agree with Major, seeing his tongue(s) would be cool (if ghasts have tongues?).

[johndh]

Hmm... I'm not a big fan of the drool. The animation plays too fast to really see it anyway. I had to watch it a few times to spot it, and I never would have noticed it if I weren't actually looking for it.

Regarding the inner mouth details: 1, 2. When looking at an open mouth, it's not just various shades of darkness. There's a tongue, some molars, a uvula, various membranes, etc., and it all comes together to be something fairly icky. I think part of the appeal of ghouls/necrophages/ghasts is that they're not only scary, but also disgusting. That might have been what you were going for with the saliva, but I think putting some moist pink stuff inside the mouth would be more visible and be a little more unsettling. Too bad we can't simulate the awful corpse breath it must have.

I'd agree with Major, seeing his tongue(s) would be cool (if ghasts have tongues?).

Assuming they're an evolution of the ghoul, which is made from a human(oid), I'd imagine that at least the mouth in the head would have a tongue. I know the old ghoul/necrophage portrait had quite a long one, in fact.

[thespaceinvader]

Nah, the slobber doesn't work - you'd need to do a LOT more animating to make it work. currently it drops out of the mouth for one frame then sucks back in. It would need to drip out, land on the floor, and dissipate for it to work, and even then I think it might just be a touch too much on an already fairly gross monster.

It still needs darker shadow in the mouths. A tongue might be cool too. I'll give an example after I've been swimming.

[Major]

I was thinking that the top mouth could have a tongue but the bottom mouth would probably have a random, cobbled together, nomming contraption, like Aliens mini mi tongue.