Elvish noble, Elvish Acolyte

[Faerie_Storm]

I just finished making animations for the elvish noble graphic from era of two suns, which is intended to be used in the default plus age of heros era. The base frame is also slightly modified from the version in era of two suns. In the image below, I have the base frame, 2 magic frames, a magic defend frame, base frame again for comparison, 2 melee frames and a melee defend frame in order from left to right.

I would like some feedback on how these graphics look, particularly the melee attack and defend frames, however feedback on the magic attack animations is also welcome.

[tr0ll]

/me not an artist so no technical comment on the pixel art.
i am guessing shadow of the weapon is not normally done because i dont recall it from other animations.

would there be more details coming later for the faerie fire attack? maybe a sparkly purplish effect

[Celtic_Minstrel]

Even if there were, it'd presumably be a halo and thus a separate image...

[Faerie_Storm]

Even if there were, it'd presumably be a halo and thus a separate image...

yes, halo's should be separate images. I'd use the same one as for the elvish lord.

[Horus2]

I only downloaded Era Of Two Suns to see what was the actual upgrade. And wow, since not having animations, that is quite a big one! Also, the remastered baseframe is a definite improvement over the original with drawn sword in one hand, and a separate grip in the other.

I really like what you have done, not just because it is seemingly high quality, but from a player's perspective. Developers frequently emphasised in the idea forum that it is not necessary for units to always have a somewhat full unit tree from 1 to 3, and that is right. But if half of the tree already exists, and on the top of that as a core unit, then how beneficial is to add the missing sprite with stats? Very beneficial it is, as to feature units in multiplayer eras often require to handle level 1 units. And i appreciate that the work you did is not something terribly era-specific, like a mecha or a sketchy dinosaur-riding archmage, which are all too common, but something more related to the original world and history of Wesnoth. People are going to love you. For instance, if you give permission, i will use it for sure for my own projects.

Now for the technical part, the only thing i noticed is that while the sprite in itself is a flawless piece, when compared to its advancement, the equal height of the two, and the wider stance with a more active pose may give a false impression on which one is the higher level, despite the extra team colour and golden ornaments on the Lord. This is not your fault, as level 2 sprite is indeed very slim and passive, but maybe just by decreasing your Noble's height by one pixel can help a lot. Also, there is a nearly continuous black line which is between his knees and hip, possibly the edge of the piece of armour on the legs, but i found it hard to read, as it really looks like a strike-through line with such hard contrast. Shortening that part would result in a waist having lower, in about the same height as the Elvish Fighter has it. That would solve both of my concerns.

I strongly suggest consulting about your sprite in the pro artist section, or ask one's opinion in pm, because it is really nice, and i repeat, the whole community could greatly benefit from it when finalised.

[Faerie_Storm]

I removed the line you suggested Horus2. It does looks a lot better just by removing that one line.

For instance, if you give permission, i will use it for sure for my own projects.

You are welcome to use it

[Faerie_Storm]

I just finished animating the Elvish Acolyte spirte (Found in After The Storm) and I would like some feedback on how it looks. Particularly for the melee attack animations

form left to right: Base frame, defend 1, defend 2, base frame, melee attack 1, melee attack 2, base frame, magic 1, magic 2, magic 3

Elvish Acolyte.png (6.7 KiB) Viewed 6894 times

For those who don't know, the Elvish Acolyte is a level 1 version of the Elvish Aesthetic (used in invasion from the unknown for a hero unit). Also used in Default plus Era

[Iris]

I just finished animating the Elvish Acolyte spirte (Found in After The Storm)

The baseframe is quite awful by itself, and I have been meaning to redraw it — I’ve only got around to revise the L3 and do some preliminary work on the L2 from that line.

I took the liberty of rendering these into GIF animations with the GIMP, although I had to guess their frame extents since the spritesheet you provided isn’t a grid of 72x72 squares:

acolyte-defense.gif (2.27 KiB) Viewed 6841 times

acolyte-melee.gif (2.32 KiB) Viewed 6841 times

acolyte-ranged.gif (2.76 KiB) Viewed 6841 times

The most glaring problem with these animations is that you are only animating the active elements. I’ll not go into detail here since Jetrel’s article in the wiki already does a good job at it, but basically, body motions do not work that way in reality.

Additionally, the unit’s shadow gets really inconsistent in some frames, particularly in the defense animation (in which gaps appear) and the melee animation (in which it mysteriously grows in size).

For those who don't know, the Elvish Acolyte is a level 1 version of the Elvish Aesthetic (used in invasion from the unknown for a hero unit). Also used in Default plus Era

‘Ascetic’, not ‘aesthetic’.

[Faerie_Storm]

I actually found his article on animation after I posted this. It was quite useful and I will be applying those principles to redo this animation soon. I wish I'd found them first!

Edit:

Re-drawn draft for the defence frames:

From left to right: base frame, defence 1, defence 2

Elvish Acolyte defense.png (3.99 KiB) Viewed 6812 times

I know I still need to fix her skirt in the last frame, and I'll probably change the angle of the staff too. She now moves more which is good (not just moving the staff/leg ...)

Still needs work but it is better then the first attempt at animation purely from a base frame

[homunculus]

i'd go to the beginning, just to be on the safe side.
because there is a chance of wasted effort.

what does this defense animation do, is it supposed to move the stick away from the enemy?
how does this movement defend the unit, unless it is meant to defend the valuable stick?

@shadowmaster:
about the base frame, is it generally what the unit should look like?
which means some little corrections are needed here and there, rather than the unit becoming something different?
i mean, i wonder if the concept might have changed, like: "the lady of light is no longer a tall elf, but from now on the lady of light is cute chubby elf--a glowing representation of prosperity cannot be very lean like the ghost of famine. also, she has five pairs of boobs that symbolize nourishment."
(as far as i remember the unit was lady of light, i might be wrong)

[Iris]

@shadowmaster:
about the base frame, is it generally what the unit should look like?
which means some little corrections are needed here and there, rather than the unit becoming something different?
[...]
(as far as i remember the unit was lady of light, i might be wrong)

The Elvish Acolyte line in AtS is a generic unit line purportedly* derived from Anlindë’s unit line from IftU. Elynia’s base unit type is the entirely different Sylvan Warden, which has remained largely unchanged since kitty’s portrait — I expect this to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.

* Technically, the concept for the Acolyte line came first—for a now abandoned era—and then I retconned Anlindë into the in-universe inspiration for the unit line.

[Faerie_Storm]

what does this defense animation do, is it supposed to move the stick away from the enemy?
how does this movement defend the unit, unless it is meant to defend the valuable stick?

She is supposed to be using her staff to block an enemy attack. I'm redoing the staff to have a better angle where she will move to hold it in both hands. Also I'm going to have it rotated more so that the hook is pointing more outward and have her take a step back.

Edit:
I'm going to leave her with one defence frame for now.

Redrawn getting hit frame

acolyte-defend2.png (1.91 KiB) Viewed 6747 times

[Iris]

Rendered; again, I had to guess the frame extents:

Animation A

acolyte-defense-2.gif (2.24 KiB) Viewed 6708 times

I wasn’t sure what to do with the single frame from the last attempt, so I tried making it the second defense frame for the previous attempt instead:

Animation B

acolyte-defense-4.gif (2.22 KiB) Viewed 6708 times

Mainly because it does not work as a single-frame defense animation:

Animation C

acolyte-defense-3.gif (1.55 KiB) Viewed 6708 times

(A) and (B) are obviously better than your initial attempt, but it still feels to me as though there’s a lot of a room for improvement. I should probably refrain from suggesting such improvements myself since I’m not an animator, but in (B) for instance, the staff should project a shadow on the skirt (which somehow doesn’t seem to flow like fabric despite the motion depicted here). Her right leg’s (left from the frame) shading should also reflect the fact that it’s moving backwards, away from the camera. Also, I think those ‘surprise’ icons above units’ heads are being phased out in new animations in mainline since a few years.

Just my two cents.

[Faerie_Storm]

Updated Elvish Acolyte defence frames.

from left to right: base frame, defence 1, defence 2

Elvish Acolyte defense.png (4.8 KiB) Viewed 6501 times

Still need to fix the shading on her right leg, I added in a defence 1 graphic as well as the defence 2 graphic

EDIT: made some changes to the defence 1 graphic, and shaded the right leg on both defence frames.