Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

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LordBob
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

Ah, yes, I will definitely see to it, then. It seemed okay when painting on the full-res canvas, but I should have known better and checked how eyes read once the image is shrinked to its final size. :oops:
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Kylix »

beetlenaut wrote:We plan to change the sprites (or miniatures) too. In the end, the sprites will match the portraits.
Their sprites are already cool, the portraits should match the sprites...
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Kylix »

I think Quenoth elves should receive these characteristics: sustenance and camouflage (this one possibly for the desert rangers) and then the stun weapon special. Obviously it's implied that not all the units must have these characteristics and stun weapon.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Wussel »

I am not sure if pushing this thread will bring us anywhere. Lord Bob was most likely asked to work slow on this.

And the discussion about art style, skin color and gender was probably not encouraging either. I am guessing, we will see the result once it is done to prevent more embarrassing issues.

Lord Bob is a great artist and works very professional. Due to his prior programming carrier he can work great on software projects. This thing seems to be just snail tracked. And the only valid reason for that could only be the whim of the customer.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Iris »

There are reasons for LordBob taking a while to complete this, and some of them have been posted in this very thread. None of them have anything to do with him being requested to work at a slow pace, as that is not a thing which has been done. So, please refrain from making random guesses about the delays.

As for gameplay changes, there is a thread for that, whereas this one is solely for managing objective critique on the portraits.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by doofus-01 »

LordBob is still working on this, "whim of the customer" has nothing to do with anything. Dealing with unhelpful criticism of the skin color, etc. sapped his enthusiasm for posting publicly here. He is sympathetic to the sharing ideal of our community, so maybe we'll see more from him here at some point.

I've been pestering him for updates on the Quenoth Elves because I'm trying to work on the sprites, here is a WIP he shared (and he is OK with my sharing)
-------------------------
EDIT: Removing image link. It looked OK when I was logged in, but there must be some board permissions thing, not everyone could see it. LordBob posted it below, so it doesn't matter anyway.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Wussel »

LordBob wrote: January 30th, 2016, 12:13 am ...
The lead time is entirely my fault: because Wesnoth does not stress itself over commercial deadlines, I have a tendency to delay its commissions in favor of other projects. Yet work has been plentiful lately so this sort of thinking led to a vicious circle where I kept picking up task after task - including another game of our very own Dave - which resulted in several months of inactivity here. My deepest apologies :oops:
...
Here is LordBob's explanation in his own words more than 2 years ago. Sorry about my bad English. Please interpret for yourself. Who actually is this Dave who occupies him elsewhere?

The discussion did not help as doofus said too. At least this one I was getting right. However the link to the current picture seems to be dysfunctional? Maybe the permission of doofus to publish it, was not good enough?
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

The link does work for me and it shows a sample that I did provide to doofus-01 and a few others with explicit permission to share. I'll repeat it below with additional samples of my recent work.

To clarify my statement quoted above :

In the course of this commission I have worked at a snail pace of my own accord. That happened because I made some questionable choices over the past two years and because the Wesnoth team are very nice people who did not pressure me despite the horrible track record I was establishing. Motivation may arguably have played into this as I've been on this project for 10 years, but no-one ever asked me to take things slow. This should be absolutely clear.

Also, "Dave" as in the original creator of Battle for Wesnoth. He also (co-)created two other games (that I know of) including the aforementioned Argentum Age, but I am not contributing much over there at the moment. Life and business is really what keeps me occupied.
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desert-elves_scout-line.jpg
desert-elves_fighter-line.jpg
desert-elves_beast-rider-line.jpg
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by The_Gnat »

8) :D Wow! I love the artwork you have done, it is nothing less than awesome!

Thanks for the explanation about things, personally i feel that in order for something really to be voluntary it has to be at the contributors own pace. With that i mean: take your time, we all (I hope) appreciate your work at what ever speed you are able to and want to do so! :)

(Before i had not been a huge fan of the changing of style for the desert elves but now i will say - after seeing your portraits - that i really look forward to the revised version of UTBS!!)
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

So, a quick Desert Elves update.

Scout line is finished and I'm working my way through the shaman line. I'm posting a preview of the shaman WiP in case anyone would want to have a go at the sprites.
Note that I strayed from the usual grounded gear for the Shyde and Sylph, since they're supposedly magical and not completely of this world. Let me know if that's overdoing it.
Also I removed the staves from both lvl 3 units to differentiate them from the lvl 2, but I can put them back if it's better that way.

And thanks The_Gnat, your kind words are appreciated :)
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typo : the label below the evolved Sun Singer should read "Sun Sylph"
typo : the label below the evolved Sun Singer should read "Sun Sylph"
desert-elves_scout-line.jpg
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by kurt751 »

They all look awesome!
I personally agree about losing the staffs, they would look a little strange on flying/hovering creatures (being originally walking sticks). And no, you're not overdoing it IMHO, it's all very rational.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Wussel »

All very great. And maybe there is time to formulate an updated art guideline in writing.

I would say it is time to ask for "no line" art for everything new in example. I would suggest to ask for full body drawings as well. You do all this for many years now. Why not making it official?
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by LordBob »

Thanks for the feedback guys. Shaman line is fully done, including 2 derivated portraits that will serve for Zhul in UtBS. I tried to pick colors that will make her stand out from the generic druids, but if need be they can be edited to feel closer to the rest of the Quenoth faction.

Oh, and yeah, her skin is lighter than the rest of the cast's as a wink to their elven ancestry. I figured since she's this wise old sage of the tribe her birth might go back to a time when the genome of their ancestors might not have been altered as much by the environment.
Wussel wrote: April 6th, 2018, 11:12 amI would say it is time to ask for "no line" art for everything new in example. I would suggest to ask for full body drawings as well. You do all this for many years now. Why not making it official?
It is tempting, I have to admit. However, we're now at a point where the vast majority of portraits do have lines and by that I mean well over a hundred portraits if we account for every faction and campaign. At the current pace of art production it's going to be a looooooooooong time before the balance naturally tips towards "no line", same goes for "full body".

Also, full body opens a whole new can of worms where we have to decide how to display them in dialogs and how to mix them with cropped portraits.
What I could do is release the full body portraits for use in story art & story dialogs in between scenarios. We could also request from contributors of new artwork that they provide a full body portrait to be kept for similar uses. But making them the norm for dialogs is probably too much trouble at the moment.


Story art styles are a whole different topic, though.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by beetlenaut »

Oh, very nice. I think the Quenoth elves might be my favorite series of yours--there is a lot to look at in each portrait.
LordBob wrote: April 13th, 2018, 10:52 pm I tried to pick colors that will make her stand out from the generic druids
Like you said, she's very old, so that seems appropriate. Green is a good choice too since when you find her, she is standing over the remains of a tree.
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Re: Lordbob's commissionned work: UtBS

Post by Sudipta »

Wow, all of them are fantastic. I especially love the L4 shyde. The wings of both the shyde and sylph look very nice.
The head of the sun sylph is a little difficult to understand seems to me. Whats the grey circle on her forehead? And her hair seems to be 2 colors- orange and brown. Still looks cool
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