Avian Faction portraits and sprites

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orangebox
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Joined: May 3rd, 2012, 7:14 pm

Avian Faction portraits and sprites

Post by orangebox »

Hullo, this thread is dedicated to posting artworks from me for the faction I am trying to create. I'll be posting some WIPs and whatnot, perhaps hoping to get some comments or suggestions. I am aware that my art style is vastly different from the mainline portraits, but my capability only allows me so.

The Avians of my design are petite people, with adults about the physical height of a teenage human (14-16 of age). Comparatively, they are taller than dwarves and much more slender of frame. They have a pair of properly sized wings located on their hips. The wings are usually of a variety of bright colors, resembling more of the wings of tropical birds than predator birds. Their physical abilities aren't anything spectacular to boast about, other than their ability to fly and hawk-like sight. They embody the idea of nimble and dextrous than brute strength and stamina. The design of their clothing is a mixture of mostly nations around the Silk Road, as the faction of avians are nomadic in nature. The avians are always beautiful people, echoing with the idea of tropical birds being flashy and pleasing to the eyes. To the general populace of Wesnoth, the avians seems as if to only have a single gender - females. That is however untrue, as the males tend to look like females, and in most cases - much more beautiful. The males have a huge tendency to make sure that they are always pleasing to look at; similarly as male tropical birds (but their reasons are for mating).

Having a rather 'brittle' or weaker physical build, they are not able to easily achieve flight with heavy armor; thus the general design of the faction involves a lot of lightweight armors such as leather, cloth or silk. They wield small metal bucklers as shields, while their weapons are always a mixture of wood and steel in favour of a lighter weight.
Spoiler:
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To do list
Done
Done, may need more tweaking
Not Started
Started
Unsure if necessary

Kingfisher
Unit Portrait
Base Frame
Standing Idle Animation
Ground Movement Animation
Flying Idle Animation
Flying Movement Animation
Attack Animation Flying to Flying
Attack Animation Flying to Ground
Attack Animation Ground
Defend Animation Flying
Defend Animation Ground
Death Animation Flying
Death Animation Ground
Victory Animation

Hummingbird
Unit Portrait
Base Frame
Standing Idle Animation
Ground Movement Animation
Flying Idle Animation
Flying Movement Animation
Ranged Attack Animation Flying
Ranged Attack Animation Ground
Melee Attack Animation
Defend Animation
Death Animation
Victory Animation
Last edited by orangebox on May 21st, 2014, 6:32 pm, edited 23 times in total.
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Crow_T
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by Crow_T »

This looks very interesting, I look forward to seeing more of these :)
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

Thanks, here's an update on the progress. Far from done...
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Kingfisher2.jpg
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artisticdude
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by artisticdude »

You've obviously got some skill here. 8)

Regarding the avian anatomy: I'm not sure if they would realistically be able to fly with wings protruding from their hips, since a lot of their body weight would be balanced in front of the wings. The head/torso outweigh the legs, even without any armor or clothing, so that extra weight up front would probably make them tip forward when they tried to fly.

That said, you have an interesting concept. I look forward to seeing where you'll go with it. :)
"I'm never wrong. One time I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken."
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francophone
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by francophone »

I'll reiterate what I said in the thread of the faction: You can fly very well with the center of gravity front the wings. Pterosaurs did. This is not because it is unusual that this is impossible. Can move in the ground as in water in tractionas in push. More often pushed elsewhere. Some models are more common (in our time but not necessarily in other times). it does not mean that other models are impossible.
The difficulty would be if the wings are placed at the center of gravity. We can stand on on our feet or suspended by our hands. But if one is attached by the size, it's hard.
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

Well, they don't fly with their body laid horizontal, instead their torso is upright - but tilted towards the front a little. As the wings flap to push them forward, with the body slightly tilted to the front, it'll act as a counterweight. So technically, it's suppose to be within reason as well (Not to mention they don't look like the usual and normal avian designs, which I actually got rather bored of XD)
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homunculus
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by homunculus »

i think the previous hair (on the sketch) was better.
campaign ruthless in your nearest 1.11 add-on server
some wesnoth-related drawings
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Crow_T
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by Crow_T »

i think the previous hair (on the sketch) was better.
I agree, it felt more flowing and weighty.
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

I see, I suppose lush and thick hair lost against thin and scarce lol

Noted, I'll see if I can make it flowy rather than a thick bundle.
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homunculus
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by homunculus »

orangebox wrote:I see, I suppose lush and thick hair lost against thin and scarce lol

Noted, I'll see if I can make it flowy rather than a thick bundle.
i suspect there has been some confusion here.

the new hair is like screaming 'THIS ! IS ! HAIR !!! DO ! YOU ! UN-DER-STAND ?!!!' from 2 centimeters distance (less than 1 inch distance, afaik).
this kind of level of detail tends to have this kind of effect while the rest of the drawing is less detailed.
and, the detail of the new hair seemed ornamental and unnatural that way.
by ornamental i meant that it was too regular.
therefore, even if the general level of detail of the rest of the drawing would catch up (unless it ends up with regular pores and pimples on the skin, etc.), i still wouldn't like the hair because the individual strands are drawn like that.
the previous version was more like shading.
i hope that clarifies any possible misunderstandings.

this is, of course, just my personal opinion, i rather encourage you to feel free to draw the way you like most.
campaign ruthless in your nearest 1.11 add-on server
some wesnoth-related drawings
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

Ah that clears out a lot. Thanks for clarifying. Perhaps I'll firstly complete it before I change anything to see if it generally fits. I am aware that I have a knack of putting too much effort in details; specifically in one small area lol.
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Crow_T
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by Crow_T »

The detail level doesn't bother me so much because this is a wip, it's just the hair masses seem stiff, plus the original mass on the right side of her head looks more natural than the second version.
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

Sprites for Kingfisher (female)

Not sure if I'm doing it right, but critiques and comments please. I sort of re-sprited it based off zerovirus' version to make it look much more to what I am aiming for. Thanks zero for your 'base template'. (Which is the top left one) Personally, I'm going to be selecting either ones on the bottom (difference is only the color). I don't know if I should go for a blue-toned weapon and shield, or silver? (The hair is white on the left, and green on the right as well)

This is quite my first big try at pixel art, much different from actual painting. However I was glad to feel that the general placement of colors is the same; only difference being the placement of one pixel really determines how does it look. My eyes hurt from staring too much at the screen in extremely close proximities lol. An exciting experience however!
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Crow_T
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by Crow_T »

These look great, I'm liking the warm greys as opposed to the cool ones.

I posted some sprite creation apps in this forum a few days ago, maybe they can be of some use http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=36759
orangebox
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Re: Avian Faction portraits and designs

Post by orangebox »

Hey thanks for the heads up. I'm much of a noob so I'll stick with ms paint for the time being. (not too much headaches trying to figure out how to work the program anyway)

Kinda frankensteined the wings from zero's version. Looks much better IMO. C&C?
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