Reepurr's stuff: Rainforest shelter

[Reepurr]

Thanks!

Good catch with its back. Does this look any better?

sea-serpent2.png (68.61 KiB) Viewed 5087 times

[Kraus]

Just a few things I picked up:

-You crossed the black lines on the back. Careful with those!
-The foreheads highlights don't follow the original. The head's three dimensional too, not just a tube.
-In all marked parts the blend of shades could be smoother.

It's funny how the shades you added are actually pretty well done, but the extreme highlights don't work nearly that well. Maybe just tone the highlights down, and work from there?

Just my take on it!

[catgirl_ranger]

The highlights you added to the back fight with the shading from the original. For the purpose of just spiffing this up a little, I think it's best to run with what's there (unless you want to *really* work on shading and light sources a lot, and *then* I think it's best to get a picture that's easier to see what's what in it in the first place ).

The shadows on the neck look good, I didn't realize you'd added shadow too, until maybe the third time I looked at the two pics together, subtle, but it really makes it pop. The shading on the back doesn't do quite as well, it makes me wonder exactly where the light source is supposed to be, but looks okay enough, that bit on the base of the neck looks overdone to me (the original highlight just seems to be splitting off to go down the flipper next to it). The shadow the flipper casts is a good idea, but it should be more like a wedge, coming to a point where the flipper connects to the body, and how wide it gets at the bottom depending on where the light is coming from.

Since Kraus brought it up: I don't remember seeing non-sprite art from you before (so I can't say if that has improved), but I'm fairly impressed with your edit, hope to see more other stuff. And if that sprite you have as your icon now is from scratch, they have gotten better.

Also, I love what you've done with the light parts, maybe you could add a little bit of shade to the lower jaw and a tiny bit of highlight to part of the webbed crest too.

[Reepurr]

I'm sorry I haven't responded to your crits with the sea serpent, I've been busy working on my secret campaign. It's one of those- no, wait, it's secret.


Captain Darot, one of the more impressive units in the campaign, is currently hogging the lieutenant's portrait even though he's a sergeant. This is rather sad, so I've sketched up a concept for him.

This is NOT lineart, it's a sketch I've done. Lineart will go over it once the concept's sorted.

sketch.png (49.09 KiB) Viewed 4802 times

The main issues with it are the helmet, which I basically don't know what to do with, the shield, which doesn't suit the sprite, and the bit on the left side of the shield, something I can't work out what to do for. Should I give him a hanging chainmail tunic with a leather belt (for the scabbard) over it, or what?
EDIT: Oh yeah, and another issue is anatomy. Um...yeah.

[StDrake]

If you don't know how to make something that has a real world version the actions are quite simple - look for reference objects, browse through different examples, choose/mix/transform elements of those to decide how your version should look

hmm..a captain who is a sergeant who looks like a lieutenant?

As for anatomy - don't draw like me is a good start (meaning - trying to draw things exactly how they should look like from nothing but voices in your head). It seems skilled artists use some kind of circle+skeleton mesh.

[thespaceinvader]

Sketch on paper. Seriously, it will make your life SO much easier as a starting artist.

[Reepurr]

Sketch on paper. Seriously, it will make your life SO much easier as a starting artist.

I read that all Wesnoth portraits have to be completely digitalised...

[thespaceinvader]

1: You're not now, nor are you likely to be in the near future, drawing for mainline. What things have to be to meet mainline standard is irrelevant. And, for that matter, there's no prohibition against sketching on paper before a picture is inked and coloured digitally. Several of my better portraits used this workflow, including the Saurian Augur.

2: You need to learn to draw AT ALL before you draw on the computer, especially if you don't yet have the tools.

So get a pad, get a HB pencil, get some anatomy books. Fill the pad with anatomy sketches alongside whatever else you happen to be attempting to draw at any given moment. Practice, practice, practice.

[Reepurr]

Just quickly dropping off a Slurbow. Anyone know how to animate these stupid ribbon-plume thingies?

slurbow-ranged.gif (5.61 KiB) Viewed 4632 times

EDIT: Li'l changes.

slurbow-ranged.gif (5.57 KiB) Viewed 4631 times

[StDrake]

I'd say you've handled the ribbon quite neatly, but the crossbow movement is a tad jumpy, not to mention you seem to attack directly to the right, not ne/se
wasn't the slurbow animated already?

[homunculus]

the bright highlight that appears when the crossbow is horizontal is cool, but on the viewer side part (string, i suppose) it looks bit like a white splash that doesn't integrate with the rest of the image very well.

the crossbow seems to be moving back and forth, but shouldn't the curved bow part become straighter when the bolt is shot?
i don't seem to be noticing this very much, if there is such thing at all.

now that i think more of it, the back ends of real crossbows look like a crossbow is meant to be supported by the shoulder while shooting.
you will probably get away with shooting from the hip, though.

[Zigg]

The bandanna movement looks strange, IMO.

[johndh]

Crossbows don't kick like that.

[Reepurr]

Whew. Good reminder of why I don't put my crossbows straight into Contribs.

Crossbows don't kick like that.

This is pixelart. It widely uses exagerration. (If all I'm moving is a string and a bendy metal thing, how is the viewer supposed to tell it's shooting, in-game?)

@ StDrake: Yes, the slurbow's animated already. However, to my knowledge it doesn't fit with the new commission-level graphics needed these days. They need to be replaced because they're wrong.
I can assure you he's attacking southeast, maybe it just doesn't seem like that because to make the recoil visible enough he must be sliding in two dimensions.
It's possible the crossbow is a bit jumpy because of the frames I'm using - around 4, same quantity as with my highly unsuccessful sergeant.

@ homunculus: Yeah. That's the string.
Should a solid piece of metal really become straighter? How far can an inch-thick sheet of metal bend?
Good to see you support my shoot-from-the-hip decision...

@ Zigg: I guessed it was going to look strange. We all think we know how to animate ribbons, then when it actually comes down to it we find ourselves bemused by it. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this, please tell me.


EDIT: More capeyness. And you can compare it with the 1.9.4 mainline one.

slurbow-ranged.gif (5.59 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

slurbow-ranged-old.gif (2.97 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

[Sleepwalker]

To clearer convey the feeling of him shooting SE, you could also have him get a kick upwards a pixel or so.

The ribbon might mean trouble. Not because you have animated it wrong or anything, I think it looks correct as it is, but because I reckon in this case you should animate it based on a bob animation. Why? Well, unless there's pretty strong wind in the bob animation it will look out of sync. But then if there isn't any wind the ribbon would be hanging down out of view behind the head... If you can't see it in the units normal state it might look strange if it only pops out during attack animation, or it might not -unsure. And then, if the bob animation has wind, the cape would be affected.

The scale of the cape movement is good, that is, it moves around a good amount of pixels. But you should check how it actually moves. At first glance it looks OK, but when I look closer I see that it moves in the opposite direction to the recoil. To be anal the cape would move like a fast low wave, flowing out from the top of his back.

Otherwise looking good.