War of Terrador Portraits

[Frenzik]

So I have taken it upon my to create Portraits for the War of Terrador Era and Campaign(I was given the go by DragonChampion). I am fairly new to editing photos with Gimp and Photo-shop (Even IF i've had them for like a year now). I have started the Terradorian faction and these are a few sketches that i've come up with. I did them backwards for some reason.(i started with the level 3 units first...)

Critiques are both welcome and appreciated

Level 3- Terrador's Finest (I realize that he is much smaller than the others...inpart, that is becasue i shrunk the pic and the distance is different because of the fact that he's carrying a minigun that is a bit hard to fit(for me at least)
level 2- Veteran Soldier-
level 2- Shotgunner (When you pull that trigger, You ARE ruining someones day!!:))
Level 1- Soldier

I started to shade and color Terradors finest, but the shading was a mess, so i'll eventually redo it, though i doubt it'll be much better. I plan on finishing the faction, but someone wants to contribute art, TWOT is in need of Xlash Portraits and Zendarian Portraits.

[Reepurr]

So...out of interest, why did you feel the need to create an extra thread?

Anyway, the art. Your lineart looks very nice, but you saved as JPG. Jpegs are the scourge of art - they take art and stuff it down the recycling bin. Essentially, they get unhappy with clean, clear shading (like pixelart) and turn it into some fuzzy random-pixel horror show.

Also, your Terrador's Finest - your first attempt at shading was indeed a mess, and I know you're going to redo it, but I thought I'd do a 'quick and dirty' mock-up of what I thought the shading should be like on the helmet (assuming it's made of metal anyway). Feel free to ignore it if you want.

This is my first time ever shading a portrait, so please go easy on me...

finest.png (69.62 KiB) Viewed 7590 times

[bigkahuna]

I think the Terrador's Finest is looking rather good so far, but the bullet chains are a mystery to me (why does it need bullets with green flames coming out of it...?)

Also, the Soldier looks rather stiff, and the shotgunner is holding his gun in an awkward position.

Besides that, good preliminary work!

[Reepurr]

I think the Terrador's Finest is looking rather good so far, but the bullet chains are a mystery to me (why does it need bullets with green flames coming out of it...?)

They're batteries for the laser.
(Either that or they use copper chloride, which burns with a greenish-blue flame)
Also, WINR.

and the shotgunner is holding his gun in an awkward position.

It's the same way you :should: hold a rifle. One hand near the trigger, butt [as in the back of the gun] glued to the shoulder area, one hand out in front holding up the barrel.
The only thing I see wrong with it is that shotguns generally have two barrels, don't they?

[Kanapka]

Pump-action shotuguns have one barrel, the kind that has the bullets loaded into barrels has two barrels.

I think that Shotgunner's left arm is too far from his body - soldiers holding their rifles that way have the weapon close to their body (ref1 ref2)

[Frenzik]

Thanx for the Replies.



@Bigkahuna

The Bullet chains were intended to be capsules/bullets/whatever of gas. The idea was that another chemical/gas element (not shown) would react with the gas causing a violent reaction which would result in a bolt of superheated gas. I am no scientist or chemist ect...I just sort off based it of the star-wars approach to it.(super heated plasma?)...green flames? Hm....green gas i suppose.

the Soldier does look stiff...i'll have to fix that somehow.

@Reepurr
Hem...your explanation is a cool one. I created the new one specifically for portrait development...The original was sprites and any art in general. I have a couple other small, nit picky reasons.

I uploaded it as a jpeg to save upload time. Our connection is slower that most-my original work was saved in png format.

as for the barrel, shotguns can have one or two. example:

http://www.dreadgazebo.com/gunporn/wp-c ... hotgun.jpg

Your shading job was nice, but it used a different light source than i was planning. i'll work on it.
I'll probably finish at least inking the sketches before shading Terradors finest.
@Kanapka

I see what you mean, i'll move his arm down a bit.

[Reepurr]

Actually, I just realised I'd done a "hit self" moment.

It can't be copper chloride gunpowder or, in fact, any time of combustible, that propels the bullets. The reason is that on your typical barren moon, there's no air. No air = no oxygen. Without oxygen, combustibles can't catch fire, as oxygen is needed to fuel a fire.

I wonder what Flamethrowers use?

The bolt of gas idea is okay, except I'm wondering how big those guns would have to be to be to not melt.
And how gas does pierce damage.

This is a very weird art conversation.

[Dragonchampion]

Flamethrowers use a chemical that simulates fire, much like the weapons themselves when they fire lasers. it only gives the ILLUSION of firing flames from the tip, but in reality it is causing the molecules on the atomic level to vibrate so much that the air (or vacuum) itself is given the appearance of fire.

[johndh]

as for the barrel, shotguns can have one or two. example:

One? Two? So naïve.
http://tml.travellercentral.com/hillberg/index.html

in reality it is causing the molecules on the atomic level to vibrate so much that the air (or vacuum) itself is given the appearance of fire.

Molecules of the vacuum? Seriously? I'm not even going to explain how wrong that is.

The simple solution is either to have a tank of (compressed/liquid) oxygen accompanying it, like a blowtorch.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/blowtorch.htm/printable

Alternatively, it electrically agitates a tank of some gas to the point where it becomes plasma, which would be roughly the same effect as a flamethrower.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ial_plasma

[Dragonchampion]

You got it then. I made the flamethrower because I thought it would be a good unit to have in the terradorian military, wasn't going for realism that much, lol. But yeah, considering they do have a massive tank on their back, it makes sense.

[Frenzik]

HOLY CRAP!! I WANT THAT SHOTGUN!!!!!

Funny...i just finished the flamethrower unit and the captain unit...I designed it correct then, according to your pic..

I inked the Veteran soldier, but my computer crashed just as i was saving it...curses!

Will have them up with altered Shotgunner sometime today.

[AI]

It can't be copper chloride gunpowder or, in fact, any time of combustible, that propels the bullets. The reason is that on your typical barren moon, there's no air. No air = no oxygen. Without oxygen, combustibles can't catch fire, as oxygen is needed to fuel a fire.

And the definition of a (chemical) 'explosive' is that it contains its own oxidizer, therefore not needing any air.