thespaceinvader's portraits - Ancient Wose

[Jetrel]

Yeah. That's more like it!

[thespaceinvader]

Final, unless kitty has anythign further on it. If I don't see her before 5ish, I'll commit anyway, since 1.7.2's coming out, and make any final tweaks afterwards.

[Vendanna]

I'm having a problem with the wooden handle of one of the axes (the one on his right arm), the wood looks detached from the blade (and is more patent on the small scale one).

The second problem I see (but that cannot be really fixed easily) is that the axe positions on his back are hard to discern as a "separate entity" and looks like a weird weapon rather than two different axes at first glance

I know, its probably hard to make these portraits, but I didn't noticed the sketch before I could give some critique about it.

The left arm shading looks curious as well, but overall its easily recognizable as one of your pieces (mostly for the lightning you use) I like the face coloration the best especially the sides of the face

The other really good and nice drawed is the leather vest, it reminds me a bit about the elves (for the metal dots?) and lays nicely on the dwarf body

[kitty]

If I don't see her before 5ish, I'll commit anyway, since 1.7.2's coming out, and make any final tweaks afterwards.

I've said it in the past and I'll say it again: [censored] stop setting up [censored] deadlines, just because you want to make some release. If you want some piece desperately included in a certain release, finish it sooner. I won't start planning my life around your poor just under the deadline time management.

Anyways, looking better. But the rear arm ist still muddy and suggests strange form. Wether ref my paintover or google some ref. And while the new highlights on the vest looks nice and very leather-like their placement doesn't make a lot of sense, wether you've got the higlights on the left hand side of the pads on the one side or on the other, atm both halfes of the pads seem lit from opposite directions.

[thespaceinvader]

It's not my deadline - I get them from Ivanovic in chat. If you'd prefer me not to try to make them, I'm happy with that. And I followed your paintover as best i could when I r-shaded the arm. I'll go back and have another look.

[kitty]

It's not my deadline - I get them from Ivanovic in chat. If you'd prefer me not to try to make them, I'm happy with that. And I followed your paintover as best i could when I r-shaded the arm. I'll go back and have another look.

Of course Ivanovic sets the deadline for the releases, not you. But I honestly don't care if a specific portrait gets included in a specific release or the next one - I want it included when it has the necessary quality. Unfinished, placeholder-ish or otherwise sub-par graphics won't get included.
Better less pictures than less quality. But you are able to produce the necessary quality anyway - just take the time to do that and don't rush it to squeeze it in a release.

[thespaceinvader]

Hopefully this is an improvement. I've modified the shading on his brigandine, and changed the arm to be as close as I can get it you yours without copy/pasting...

I guess I prefer to see an almost-finished image in a release than no image at all, when the tweaks are as minor as they are. I'm happy to work your way, though.

[kitty]

Oh my, I don't know why getting this arm right seems that hard. I'm really sorry to pester you, but as you know it's for the good of the project and perhaps even for your artistic development

Yesterday's versions were too dark and muddy around the ellbow and today you've set up too much lights there. Basically everything is fine apart from that thin light around the crook of the arm. I really hope that I'm right - but please have a look at the paintover or another photo ref again, the ellbow area should be slightly overshadowed. If you have a light going around the whole arm, like it is now, the arm will rather appear like rubber.

[thespaceinvader]

Etc.

[kitty]

Yep - get him in!

[thespaceinvader]

Back to the Wose - I've made some minor modifications to the layout, in an effort to clear up the tangent between the arm and the branch behind it. I've also slightly rounded the flatter portions of the canopy, which took away from the tallness of the image. Finally, I've tried to improve the feel of the canopy by making us able to see right through it in some areas, a feature which even the most densely leaved trees tend to have. I've begun a render test for the leaves - look at the upper right corner to see it. If this looks reasonable, I'll go ahead and render the whole thing, but i don't want to o too much of it and then find that it's not good enough, since it's quite a time consuming render, and there's a heck of a lot of foliage...

[cobra]

Looks good.

The only thing that bugs me is that it seems like its too tall in the portrait. See what I mean?



The unit itself is more bulky and thick.

But besides that, nice work.

[Turuk]

Looks good.

The only thing that bugs me is that it seems like its too tall in the portrait. See what I mean?



The unit itself is more bulky and thick.

True, but as TSI noted earlier in his thread, the wose has to fit within the same portrait space that all units share and yet still give an impression of great height. Thus he employed elements to make it look as if it was taller than most of the portraits we see, though it may lose the squat bulk of the sprite.

[thespaceinvader]

It's difficult - the thing I'm trying to convey with this portrait is tallness. The ancient and elder woses are canonically indistinguishable from old oak trees. And old oak trees are around 30 to 40 feet tall. The maximum height for a portrait is 500 pixels - this portrait is final size. Comparing it with the height of, say, a horseman, it's roughly the same pixel height. So I need to convey the tallness in some other way.

It's also worth noting that the sprites are quite short, because they were designed in the days when base frames had to be within the hex. I wouldn't want to redesign them, cos they're very nice and well-balanced sprites, but they don't convey the tallness of the unit that I'd like to in the portrait.

[cobra]

True, but as TSI noted earlier in his thread, the wose has to fit within the same portrait space that all units share and yet still give an impression of great height. Thus he employed elements to make it look as if it was taller than most of the portraits we see, though it may lose the squat bulk of the sprite.

Ohhh, well then that makes sense, for the height. I was not aware they all had to be the same size.

Perhaps, making it thicker yet keeping the height it has now?