Grom the Barbarian

[thespaceinvader]

Part of the issue with contrast is that you don't seem to have much in the way of shadows and highlighting on the arms and chest.

[jearrr]

Part of the issue with contrast is that you don't seem to have much in the way of shadows and highlighting on the arms and chest.

If I understand You right You mean there is a lack of objects on the chest arms that can generate shadow, or am I mistaken?

Or do You mean that I did not create realistic lightening effects on the arms, and thus there is not good effect of plasticity on the character?

gromcontrasts.png (14.91 KiB) Viewed 2982 times

The problem is that the more highlights I add to the sprite, the less it looks good. I can see very well on the Ogre how its brest and arm muscles are created.

I dont know why, somehow I liked no 6 better than the other versions. And somehow the darker body of No.6 does look the best when it comes the base color.

Any thoughts?

[Dixie]

to me, all four versions look mostly the same. I reckon there's some slightly brighter colors, but it's so hard to notice (so non-contrasted) that it barely shows at all. Your brights need to be way brighter, and your darks... well, it depends on which darks, I guess, maybe they are just not used well. (the one on the (our) left arm, for instance, are way too big/dark). This also applies to the belt-strap thing across his torso, btw.

As a rule of thumb, if an individual color differs less than 10 L values in the L*a*b color space between itself and another color in that "ramp" of brightness values, it's probably superfluous. To ascend a ramp of colors from pure black to pure white in pixel art, you shouldn't need more than 10 brightness values.

Use pre-existing color palettes. Seriously. Sometimes, a color that doesn't seem to fit at all makes all the difference. They the Orcish Assassin's garb, for exemple: closed in, the yellow pixels look weird, but in scale, it gives just the right feel for the material. Palettes are HARD. You should really consider using proved and true ones.

Also, the eyes are ok, I think, but I'm not sure wether or not I'd scrap the mouth. Somehow, it looks weird, I dunno.

[Zerovirus]

I'm not the best spriter here, but I suppose this example might be enough. I suggest you note my pallete changes; most tones such as skin and gold are not composed of a uniform color sliding up and down the luminority scale; rather, they are formed from changes in saturation and hue as well as luminosity. Only by combining all parts of color changes can you achieve a realistic pallete. I cut about 8 colors out of your entire sprite and still achieved something marginally better.

If that's a bit much to digest, just keep practicing- you'll get it sooner or later.

[thespaceinvader]

Zero nails the problem there. You say you've been adding highlihgts and shadows to your versions, but 5, 6, 7a and b look identical to me. I can;t see the difference. Zero's could do with a little more colour in the muscles, he;s a bit pasty at the moment, but he looks like he;s been shaded. Yours, the muscles just look like they're flat in a single colour.

[Fog]

I agree. I had thought that the palette was odd, but I didn't know why.

[jearrr]

I'm not the best spriter here, but I suppose this example might be enough. I suggest you note my pallete changes; most tones such as skin and gold are not composed of a uniform color sliding up and down the luminority scale; rather, they are formed from changes in saturation and hue as well as luminosity. Only by combining all parts of color changes can you achieve a realistic pallete. I cut about 8 colors out of your entire sprite and still achieved something marginally better.

If that's a bit much to digest, just keep practicing- you'll get it sooner or later.

Hello Zerovirus,
Hello all,

I do agree with You completely. You are an excellent spriter - Your coloring changes are putting the savage into the right light! You were absolutely right about the color spectrum/amount and contrast.

I allowed myself to shamelesses implement the proposed changes.

Yours,

Piotr

[jearrr]

Ask Yourself, o Mighty One, why in Wesnoth many a great elven heroes, mighty mages and necromancers, princess warriors and goblin chieftain heroes could be found, but yet no great savage has been seen that could claim the title of king of barbarians.

Know this, o Great One, before the fall of the greatest kingdom of the great continent a mighty man would master the power of steel and come down on the world, like it is written in the Chronicles of Wesmere: The towers of magic were burning as torches, when in the days of high adventure...

In the days of high adventure,
From the far north like a storm ,
came a barbarian man with the name of Grom,
hardened by lizards mines and savage lands,
to break kingdoms with strong hands.

grom010.png (5.56 KiB) Viewed 3241 times

Authors notes: Grom still needs to be fully animated. He is a master with the sword, and has the strenght of a bull - his hard punch that would break even a demi-gods jaw. When in the heat of battle, he might go berserk, killing all that is in his way.

Little is known of Groms childhood and history. Young in years, he was sold by orcish slavers to work in dreadful goblin slave mines of a saurian empire reborn. While many perished, he grew in strenght and perserverence, until the day he broke free from chains of slavery and came down upon the civilized world.

[Mountain_King]

You might want to know this first: You have the wrong subforum. Looking at your post, this would go better in scenario and campaign development. Art contributions is for contributions of art to the mainline game. As Grom is not in any of the mainline campaigns AFAIK, your post is misplaced. I have a feeling a moderator will come along any minute and move this for you, so you don't need me to keep talking.
Best Regards,
Mountain_King

[Sangel]

Truly, all should tremble before the mighty Grom.

At least, all in the Art Workshop - as Grom is not a mainline unit, the Art Workshop is his proper domain. I'll move the thread there; I expect others will be along shortly to offer more substantive critique on the art itself.

[Stern]

I like this Grom character. From his backstory, he sounds as if he is one of the toughest characters in Wesnoth.
Looking at the sprite, I notice that the outline that you use is made up of varying shades of solid black.
To improve Grom's base frame, I would experiment with varying shades of dark brown for an outline instead of solid black. This will make Grom more 3D and add contrast.

[Sgt. Groovy]

Just for him, we need to add [testosterone] tag in WML.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I'm cooking up a big ugly lizard which Grom might want to vanquish and wear it's skin or something.

You know, a big guy looks so much bigger when he's standing on the steaming carcass of a bigger guy who got in his way...

[Sgt. Groovy]

I'm cooking up a big ugly lizard which Grom might want to vanquish and wear it's skin or something.

Wear its skin? Belkar has a better idea of what to do with vanguished lizards.

[jearrr]

sagaofgrom.png (18.58 KiB) Viewed 2905 times

Indeed, Mountain_King and Sangel, You were right. I am currently putting together the Saga Of Grom - and in the many manuscripts it is written .. and thus banned was Grom from the mainline, and forth he went to the workshops of art..

I like this Grom character. From his backstory, he sounds as if he is one of the toughest characters in Wesnoth.
Looking at the sprite, I notice that the outline that you use is made up of varying shades of solid black.
To improve Grom's base frame, I would experiment with varying shades of dark brown for an outline instead of solid black. This will make Grom more 3D and add contrast.

I wish I had such eye for details, Stern. I will play around with the dark brown outlines once I will get a bit more time. It was really a fight for me to get that savage to where he is now, and I need a short break from placing pixels.

Oh, and You are right again: Grom is one of the toughest mortals living in Wesnoth. Lich bones are shaking of the sheer thought of his strong hands.

Just for him, we need to add [testosterone] tag in WML.

If You had eaten all those saurian eggs, I bet Your face would look different, too.. ;-)

I'm cooking up a big ugly lizard which Grom might want to vanquish and wear it's skin or something.
You know, a big guy looks so much bigger when he's standing on the steaming carcass of a bigger guy who got in his way...

Seriously? That sounds really good! I was already thinking about some fine archenemy, but it seems You hit the nail. A Lizards head was allmost want I wanted.
I am still in the middle of sorting out old pergaments that tell the tale of Grom. In fact, I might need some helping hands.