story art

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doofus-01
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Re: story art

Post by doofus-01 »

This doesn't really answer your question, but looking at the two scenes you posted, I think it may be worth mentioning:

The bottom of the picture will have text on top of it. One could shift the picture up so that the text is below it, but won't it look better if the text is above a relatively empty portion of the image? For example, in The Fall, have the fighting figures higher up so they don't compete with the text, and have empty forest floor near the bottom where that text would be.

I think this isn't always followed currently, but it was something that was mentioned earlier in this thread.
EDIT: Here, it's what the "black stripe" is about http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?p=284074#p284074. Even if the interface changes, there will be text there.
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Alarantalara
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Re: story art

Post by Alarantalara »

I tried them out in game and for the Fall at least, the fighters seem to be in perfect position to me.
Screenshots attached so others more expert than I can judge.
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ss2.jpg
ss1.jpg
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doofus-01
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Re: story art

Post by doofus-01 »

It may indeed be OK as is, but I think you are using a much larger resolution than I do, because the text looks so tiny. I'm not at home, so I can't take a screen-shot or test that what I'm saying is correct, but how does it look on something like 800X600?
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Alarantalara
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Re: story art

Post by Alarantalara »

Redone at about 800x600. It might be off by a pixel or so. The Fall still looks pretty good, but I'm less certain about the summer image now. A screen with more text could cause a problem.
What about aligning the images with the top of the screen after scaling? Having all the black at the bottom might help.
ss2.2.jpg
ss1.2.jpg
Edit: A much better option: Move the text with the new features from 1.7. As long as there is an unimportant part somewhere, it works.
ss3.jpg
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LordBob
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Re: story art

Post by LordBob »

Nah, it still looks and works better with the text below. :hmm:
As to the idea of carefully positionning unimportant features, I'll give it a try but I don't think we should rely on this alone as
a/ it restrains composition and makes it lot more complex (yet challenging, which is a good thing :eng: )
b/ not to mention that the amount of picture covered is hardly predictable as it seems to depend on screen resolution.

I'm considering 3 options :
- if there's a way to display just the buttons without any text at the beginning or end of the sequence, the viewer will be able to take a look at the whole picture once for all and we don't have to worry about it anymore.
- if by any chance the height of the text background is adjustable, lower it in order to minimize the amount of picture covered.
- I can make wider images, so that there'll be more dead space at the top & bottom of the screen.

While we're at it, I'd like to define a set of standard sizes (more like, min/max height/width) that will allow future contributors to account for the very problems we're discussing.
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Re: story art

Post by Alarantalara »

I'm not sure the third option will be easy to make work without an excess of widening. This screenshot is 1280x720 windowed for the worst of all worlds: maximum coverage by text and black bars on the sides. And that's without extra vertical space being used for something like the Windows taskbar or OS X dock.

Edit: I forgot to mention that your first option is very possible. Just look at the journey maps from Heir to the Throne.
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doofus-01
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Re: story art

Post by doofus-01 »

LordBob wrote:While we're at it, I'd like to define a set of standard sizes (more like, min/max height/width) that will allow future contributors to account for the very problems we're discussing.
I can't speak with too much authority here, but I can say that the background images like these get auto-scaled, so the size probably doesn't matter too much (within reason*). Maybe it's better to focus on the aspect ratio? If so, would 4:3 be the best? Or something like 16:9, but make it croppable to 4:3, so put nothing important on the sides.

* meaning less that 640X480 will probably look too blurry on big screens, and more than 4000X3000 (?) and these files will get too big.
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LordBob
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Re: story art

Post by LordBob »

I've given the matter some thought and came up with a 4:3, 1280*1024 standard. The final image includes a black background in the top & bottom, which should be enough to accomodate text in the higher resolutions.

While we're at it, refined version for scenario 2 and a first attempt for scenario 3
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tRoW_story_01-A_Summer_Of_Storms.jpg
tRoW_story_02-The_Fall.jpg
tRoW_story_03-A_Harrowing escape.jpg
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Zerovirus
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Re: story art

Post by Zerovirus »

Yeah, way too much space as compared to the subject matter- sharpen up the trail of soldiers, though I bet you already see the need for that.
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Re: story art

Post by beetlenaut »

I have a request. So far, all you pictures show a variety of enemy soldiers, but only spearmen on Halrdic's side. It would be nice if you would change one or two of them to a mage or bowman (which would not take much modification), and/or add the occasional mounted soldier.

Also, 1280x1024 is 4:5, which has never been a common ratio. While I'm sure there are still a lot of 4:3 monitors out there, 16:9 is now standard for new monitors.
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Re: story art

Post by LordBob »

Also, 1280x1024 is 4:5, which has never been a common ratio. While I'm sure there are still a lot of 4:3 monitors out there, 16:9 is now standard for new monitors.
My bad, this is what happens when I forget to think before I write. :doh:
Meh, let's consider 16:9 as our aimed standard,then (I'm curious : does this ratio apply to smartphone/tablet screens as well ?) and agree on a pixel size to make sure I'm not derailing again.
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Re: story art

Post by AI »

My phone is 800x480 (well, 480x800), which is 5:3, but on smaller phones, 480x320 and 320x240 are common, which are 3:2 and 4:3 respectively.
For comparison, all iphones before the iphone 4 (which has 960x640) were 480x320.
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Re: story art

Post by thespaceinvader »

Aiming for the widest standard resolution seems sensible. We can always add letterboxing, but we can't take it away as easily.
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Re: story art

Post by Jetrel »

thespaceinvader wrote:Aiming for the widest standard resolution seems sensible. We can always add letterboxing, but we can't take it away as easily.
You can letterbox vertically or horizontally. 4:3 stuff goes onto widescreen with black bars on the sides. 16:9 goes onto regularscreen with black bars on the bottom and top.

IMO either 4:3 or 16:9 is reasonable. Just do one of those, because they're the accepted standards.
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Re: story art

Post by LordBob »

It's been a while since I dabbled in story art, but I might have stuff to offer.

See, I've recently started a series of landscape studies for educational purposes. The aim, as far as I'm concerned, is to improve my understanding of colour while studying a variety of styles from master painters. Unlike my usual line of work and because they are studies, these pictures will be very much painterly, altogether sketchy and are likely to vary in style. They're meant to improve in time, of course. :)

Where this might be of interest to Wesnoth is that we are -as far as I understand- crually lacking generic story art, and maybe there are some campaign developers out there to whom studies would be better than nothing at all. Besides, releasing some under the GPL license might help other projects.

I've attached below a sample: mountains, such as they might be on a bright summer's day. Do you think it can have a use ingame ?. I'll be doing them anyway, and once done it doesn't take a lot of effort to turn your average landscape into potential story material...
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Study_mountains.jpg
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