The Era of Myths art project thread

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capricious one
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by capricious one »

Guest_1219 wrote: 1) The flesh artisan had some artifacts that caused an unsightly purple seam to crop up. I suspect someone used the paintbrush tool there instead of the pencil. It's fixed. Makes you wonder why it wasn't fixed sooner. (was this sprite due to be replaced?)
I believe the flesh artisan was originally a much bigger sprite by Eternal that was shrunk to the size it is now resulting in the artifacts. If I remember correctly, it was cleaned a bit after the shrink as the TC didn't work after the shrink, and the shrunk version actually replaced a sprite by Melon. All of that is probably buried somewhere in this thread...
Guest_1219
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Guest_1219 »

Oh I see.

Originally I wanted to make base-frames for the celestials, warg and a third faction, but I had no idea sprites would be this intensive. How long does it usually take you guys to make these?

EDIT: I almost forgot to add messenger tweaks.
messenger.png
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messenger-female.png
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Reepurr
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Reepurr »

Allow me to be the first to critique your work. The legionaries especially. Don't get me wrong, you're a very good artist, but...

1. You've overdone the 'light bits next to the outlines' bit slightly. It can make armour look cool and 'pop', but it's not really so cool when you're looking at a sprite where the -ONLY- light bits are next to the outlines.

2. When you're looking at a really bright part of a sprite, don't throw in a pile of really dark outlines. Lighten the outlines as you lighten the shading.

3. Things cause shadows. When things cause shadows, other things get darker. I think this should be shown a bit more with your legionaries.

Applied a few mods to your sprites as well. :whistle:
celestians.png
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Guest_1219
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Guest_1219 »

Thank you for your assistance, they do look better with the corrections. I especially like what you did with the watchkeeper's helmet, I had been trying to add some kind of detail to his helmet but gave up halfway.

Also, I noticed there's a missing white pixel on the keeper's shield, FYI for any downloaders.
Guest_1219
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Guest_1219 »

What's presented here are the wizards on the left, the sicarius in the middle, the quester in the upper right corner, and the messengers in the lower right corner. A couple of these are animation frames, but that will become apparent to those who download the zip file.

So... what's going on lately? Anything new or interesting?
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Zerovirus
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Zerovirus »

Again, very nice! You seem to be quite talented when it comes to designing armor.
Guest_1219
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Guest_1219 »

Divine Knight
divine_knight.png
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Most all of the celestial sprites have new art now, which is something of an accomplishment for me :) now only the high tier units like the Divine Champion, holy sentinels, heralds and lantern archons remain to be finished.

But now I'm faced with a dilemma: Compared to older mainline units like the elf fighter or spearman, I think my sprite art lines up rather well, well enough that it wouldn't look severely out of place next to them. Compared to recent mainline sprites however, like the new cavalry units and drakes, they seem to lack luster. If I wanted to make my sprite art more dramatic and appealing like more recent mainline sprites, what would I have to do? I feel the problem largely lies in missing features, details and embellishments in comparison to mainline units, and if that's the case, perhaps it can be handily remedied if I can get a few ideas from the community on what to add. Honestly, I'm at a loss here.
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Zerovirus
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Zerovirus »

Aha! We have somebody who wants to sprite with more audacity, more verve, and more stunning details? This is a job for me! To the Zeromobile!

(I actually think you have potential for making mainline sprites! For most people, I doubt getting something to equal level with mainline sprites is a possibility at all.)

The secret to making sprites cooler without losing their essence is to add accessories, in my experience/opinion. This generally means making the armor look cooler through tricks that do not require more skill in pixelart but rather more time invested into whatever sprite you're making.

Note that these are all SHORTCUTS and not replacements for actual skill in pixelart. For the long term, it's still better to learn how to draw well rather than learn how to draw with these quick tricks.

That said, such accessories and tricks that I commonly use include:

>Belt Buckles: Belt buckles are shiny, and small. They're detailed things that make it look as if you put more detail in when you may not have.

>Overlapping plates/MOAR PLATES: This, again, creates more detail for the sake of detail. It's pointless in reality, but can be used effectively to make cooler-looking armor. You can also add secondary pauldrons, side-guards, layered greaves... In general, if you're not sure how to make an armored unit cooler, you can add more plates of metal. This is also partially true in reality- stronger warriors can wear heavier, more complex plate armor.

>Complex clothing: If you're drawing a mage, this is what you're going to have to go for. Look up some references for robes, the more exotic and unrealistic the better. We're drawing sprites- rule of cool is the deal here. Random straps hanging from the belt? Why not? Fluttering ribbons orbiting the arms? Sure. SIX LAYERS OF CAPES? GO FOR IT! (I actually have a sprite which is an example of six different capes, for the skeptical readers.) In fact, that leads us to our next little trick-

>Capes: Yeah. Capes make ANYTHING look more important/authoritative/experienced/higher-level
.
>Use more teamcolor: Teamcolor is a comparatively saturated palette (compared to those in mainline of course) and makes your piece look more vivid. If the palette you're using isn't quite optimal and you're not skilled enough to figure out what's wrong, teamcolor is a pretty good fallback. Just don't make it look like your warrior's made out of bubblegum.

>Shinier armor/metals: Contrast is VERY IMPORTANT! Using contrast effectively is important in bringing the eye to look at something and focus on it.

>Angel Wings: Angel wings are, by their nature, made of several overlapping cluster-shapes. This is similar to the overlapping-plates theory, as each part of the wing can be treated similar to another overlapping plate. Also, angel wings- especially on the side of the helmet- are a nice visual shortcut for 'holy, experienced, skilled, honored'- etc. This also includes other head ornaments, including, say, halos, spiked helmets, thematic crests atop the helmet, etc.

>Make your sprites larger: This is the final default. Note that the Drakes are much larger than the loyalists, and that the Drakes are also a lot cooler as a result of having more space to insert detail. The loyalist upgrade in the Art Development thread will mitigate some of that, but in general the larger your sprite is, the more freedom you will have to make it look awesome.

In the image I attached, I added extra armor plates, made the existing plates more complex, added angel wings to the side of the helmets, added a belt buckle, added the (obligatory) cape, and made the mace shinier.

e: also you could draw huge anime-like coolswords like i do half the time but that is probably not something that will be useful to you
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Guest_1219
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Guest_1219 »

Thanks for your encouragement, this was very helpful to me! Copy pasted it for later.

Judging from your list and the illustration you gave, I think what would help here would be a buckle and sash/armor detail.
I'm saving helmet wings for a different unit though. This particular line of crusaders is going more for the capirote look, with pointy helmets instead.

BTW: To whomever is up-keeping EoM, I checked the 1.9 trunk @ "http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/C/era_EOM_5.10.0svn.html", and some of the new celestial sprites are missing. For example, the new "sage" is there but the preceding unit, the "great wizard", is not, and the legionnaire line are the new ones, but they're pre-tweak from before reepurr got through with them. (I think in this case, I would like reepurr's tweaked legionaries instead of my old ones, especially what with the keeper's helmet.) Anyway I thought you should know.
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doofus-01
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by doofus-01 »

Guest_1219's sprite looked smoother, the shoulder and chest plates look more like a real surface. I've got no problem with most of what Zerovirus said, but do be careful not to go too far. If you try to add too many details, you get fuzzy/noisy/pixelated crap.

Stick to your guns, you're on the right track. If anything, work on poses (I'm thinking of the winged elves & their torsos).
Zerovirus wrote:>Shinier armor/metals: Contrast is VERY IMPORTANT! Using contrast effectively is important in bringing the eye to look at something and focus on it.
I do worry, just a little, that this is not being carried into mainline. The metal is not so metallic anymore.
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nayru25
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Joined: January 10th, 2012, 5:44 am

Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by nayru25 »

Here are some images I made a long while ago.

Here is a possible Harbinger for the Windsong
harbinger.png
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I just removed the bottom TC band, and duplicated the sword.
*edit* I am working on a much better version I hope to get done soon...

A possible replacement for the sunburst icon, as I feel the current fireball icon does not portray the look of the attack well.
sunburst.png
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The image is from the painterly spell icons, which can be found here:
http://opengameart.org/content/painterly-spell-icons

and a forum discussion may be found here:
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php? ... ns#p468440

I only resized, and added the wesnoth icon border.

Hopefully you will find these useful.
Last edited by nayru25 on April 10th, 2012, 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
william150
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by william150 »

very good, but could change the position of the arm and new sword.
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nayru25
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by nayru25 »

I finally finished my next version of the harbinger...
New Harbinger
New Harbinger
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I tried to keep with megane's original style, but I still have not mastered anti-aliasing, and the sprite is facing forward, unlike the majority of the Windsong sprites.

Other things...
I have noticed that in the vampire faction, the methusalem is still using the sire baseframe. Having seen neoskel's baseframe here, I would like to ask the current thoughts on it as I believe it is serviceable as both male and female baseframes, and it is clearly an improvement on the recycled one.
Last edited by nayru25 on April 15th, 2012, 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Drakefriend
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by Drakefriend »

I indeed already committed Neoskel's Methusalem in the SVN version, however, he is only used for the male; Female Sires and Methusalem now use the formerly unused Mistress resp. Duchess sprite.
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nayru25
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Re: The Era of Myths art project thread

Post by nayru25 »

Ah, the SVN, so that's why I haven't seen it, I'll put that on my to get list.

Thankyou for your quick response.
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