Heavy Infantry portrait

[thespaceinvader]

Thanks for the crit.

Re the mace: i intend to redesign it to match the one used in the attack icon for the unit:

which should fix these issues. I'll also move the angle of the handle down.

I'm leaning further and further towards the visor down. But i'd still like to be able to see the eyes - with the expression, i think they're quite menacing. And i don't personally like the portraits where you can't see anything but armour, they look kinda robotic... The eyes'll be in heavy shadow, though.

I'll have a fiddle with the shield, and move the mace-arm to a more forward position. I'll also probably take a chunk out of the breast plate to accommodate this.

I don't quite know what to do about the smoothly interlocking armour, though - i assume you mean where helmet meets neck-piece and neck-piece meets breastplate. Would it looks better if in each case the top piece was slightly above the bottom, and you could see where it wraps round behind... i'll make some edits and see if they look right.

To work.

[Kestenvarn]

I don't quite know what to do about the smoothly interlocking armour, though

It makes him look more like a robot than an armored knight. References.

[thespaceinvader]

Guess so...

[thespaceinvader]

New version, now with Realismâ„¢. And airholes. Mace still needs shading, but my tablet hand and my back are both giving up for the night...

Yeah, basically, another layer of shading added, as well as shadows around the edge of the helm (I scrapped the gorget all together...). Mace and shield completely redrawn. Edge of breast plate redrawn. Still needs shading on the chain mail portions, the shield face and the mace.

C+C?

[Aethaeryn]

No air holes on his left side?

[thespaceinvader]

Nope. I've seen plenty of reference supporting asymmetric helmets. PLus, doing them on the other side turned out too hard. Even as it is i need to do some more work on the visor to make the holey side seem as thick as the other side does.

[gabbro]

first, excellent work... this is much better than I could do.

A few things catch my eye.

* Where his right arm comes out of the chest plate seems very tight... no mobility.

* The transition between the helm and the chest plate is too similar, almost as if connected. perhaps it wouldn't go over his shoulders so much?

* The area where the visor connects to the helm appears flat (that connector is too circular... should be more oval). The angle that the helm points doesn't quite match that of the head. Or to state the same thing one more way, the back of the helm his is not where the back of the head appears to be.

* I believe his left shoulder spike should be a bit further back... just a tad.

that is all, carry on...

[Sgt. Groovy]

The torso still looks too much like viewed from front. One problem is the (his) left shoulder patch, it's not in the right perspective and comes too much on top of the rest of the armour. Also, there should be a seam on the (his) right side of the cuirass, they are not one-piece items. The hole for the arm could also be visible, as mentioned above.

The shading is generally ok, but I would make it darker (maybe only darken the light areas), in the sprite they seem to be wearing a dark, dull armout (though I'm painfully aware of how difficult it is to make a dull metal look with cell shading).

[Kestenvarn]

• The smoothly interlocking armor is unnatural. Think about real armor. What binds certain pieces in place? What is worn underneath to protect the gaps between the outer layers? Where are said gaps in your drawing, for that matter... the only 'separations' are currently thin, dark lines.
• What's with the lighting on the right arm?
• He is still trapped in a box.
  • As Sgt. Groovy said - chest, shoulders and limbs are facing forward while the rest is twisted to the side.
    • Because of the above, his right arm does not seem to be attached to his torso.
    • He could not actually be holding the shield. There is no room for him to do so in his current pose and still have so much of it fit within the portrait - this is part of what is meant about trapped in the box. The shield seems to be unnaturally wedged inside the border just to show off the fact that the unit has a shield.

[jdsampayo]

Congratulations, it's looking very good.

Please, can you move the ball that is attached to the shield a little more down?
In the sprite that ball is in the center of the shield, and because of that, it makes me feel that in the portrait the shield is smaller. And a little more small the ball if it is possible.

cheers.

[thespaceinvader]

Certainly can, that was one thing i have been meaning to do.

It's called a boss, by the way, the bit in the middle of the shield.

[thespaceinvader]

Booyah.

I'd call this preliminarily finished. C+C please, so that i can upgrade theat to completely finished...

The only slight thing i think might be needed is slightly bigger circles for the 'links' on the chain mail.

Also, the mace might want to move right a little. BUt that's easy, it's on a separate layer (actually, it's on about 4, but that's just my process...)

[Aethaeryn]

Nope. I've seen plenty of reference supporting asymmetric helmets. PLus, doing them on the other side turned out too hard. Even as it is i need to do some more work on the visor to make the holey side seem as thick as the other side does.

I don't know... it still doesn't seem right to me. There's something about symmetry that makes it generally look... right. Can I see some of your "references"?

[thespaceinvader]

>.>

<.<

Maybe not plenty. Most of it was from the film a Knight's Tale IIRC, i can't find any of it online.

[Sgt. Groovy]

The mace could use a bit more heavy linework to stand out from the background better (the hemisphere on the shield could also be a bit lower). The purple of the shield looks terribly smooth and a bit out of place, the shield in general would look better with some dent's and scratches on it.

The facing issue of the body still stands.