The Shifters (EOM) sprite art

Post by **Zhukov** » January 8th, 2006, 1:12 am

I just remembered...
You originally oultined an art plan which would have the lower level units being mostly human with animal characteristics, then gaining more animal at level 2, and finally becoming completely animal at level 3. (Perhaps even a level 4 that becomes something...more...

)

That sounded like total brilliance. This was actually the thing that made me think that the Shifters could well be a grain of wheat among the piles of chaff that are filling the Idea's forum.

Are you still going with this?

JW · Post by JW » January 8th, 2006, 3:01 am

Zhukov wrote:I just remembered...
You originally oultined an art plan which would have the lower level units being mostly human with animal characteristics, then gaining more animal at level 2, and finally becoming completely animal at level 3. (Perhaps even a level 4 that becomes something...more...)

That sounded like total brilliance. This was actually the thing that made me think that the Shifters could well be a grain of wheat among the piles of chaff that are filling the Idea's forum.

Are you still going with this?

That would be nice, but like I said, my art skills are crap so...we'll see. Thank you for your confidence in the idea. I'll see what I can do.

Post by **Zhukov** » January 8th, 2006, 3:20 am

JW wrote:...my art skills are crap so...

My answer to that is simple:
Anyone who possesses functional brain, eyes and three+ fingers can learn to draw.

If you are still struggling by the time I have finished my current Wesnothian art pursuits I will try my hand at some Shifters. Animals, and half-animals, might be beyond my meagre skills, but I would relish the challenge. If nothing else, I would learn more.

If I were not otherwise engaged I would be doing these now. But please don't bank on my help, I won't be free for some time.

JW · Post by JW » January 9th, 2006, 6:19 am

Slightly modified Serpent Shifter (and the previous):

ps, I dont know how to make the shadow 40% transparent using GIMP. I don't do art programs very well.

-edit-
wow, compared to the first version, the guy looks pretty tight!

Website · Post by **Sapient** » January 14th, 2006, 11:39 pm

My artistic concept for the shifters is to show that they are magic forms rather than animals. Their color is ashy black and gray, with earth-tone highlights. Surrounding them is an aura of magical flame, which they can shift the color of at will. (team color, 50% opacity).

The bright edge of the flame is also beneficial so that the dark form looks good in caves.

Website · Post by **Sapient** » January 14th, 2006, 11:52 pm

Apparently, Team Color doesn't support opacity yet... I'll have to bring that up in the other Forum.

edit: Ok, nevermind. The opacity works fine, the problem is the color swatches aren't being recognized for some reason.

edit2: Here it is. The team color flame is lighter and more subtle now, at 25% opacity. It may be a bit too big, though.

Post by **Darth Fool** » January 15th, 2006, 11:46 am

Sapient wrote:Apparently, Team Color doesn't support opacity yet... I'll have to bring that up in the other Forum.

edit: Ok, nevermind. The opacity works fine, the problem is the color swatches aren't being recognized for some reason.

Do you call the correct macro in the unit cfg file?

Website · Post by **Sapient** » January 15th, 2006, 4:37 pm

Darth Fool wrote: Do you call the correct macro in the unit cfg file?

Yes, it works now.

I found my main error was related to the use of the smudge tool. It was a long and grueling process, but I got all the color back into the exact color swatch.

A secondary error related to semi-transparent team colors mixing with shadow underneath. Overlapping parts of the shadow layer were cut to fix this.

Try the image I posted, and you will see it works just fine now.

JW · Post by JW » January 17th, 2006, 12:55 pm

Here's the sea-snake I've been working on...although I just can't get his head quite right...

-edit-

also attatching the falcon-shifter image that I've been using in game. This is not mine and I am trying to find the original source to credit the creator.

JW · Post by JW » March 9th, 2006, 12:02 am

I'm getting back into the art side of my Shifter endeavor somewhat. Right now I'll accept any critiques and criticisms on the serpent shifter seen in my avatar (or go up a few posts). I'll upload some more snakes soon, but I have to redownload the gimp to mess around with it again. Leonhard is also currently working on "something" inside the faction, though I'm not sure what.

Once I get some of these badboys painted up, I'll try to put together an official MP release. This may, unfortunately, still take a good amount of time...

Post by **Zhukov** » April 4th, 2006, 10:31 am

Yeah, slight case of thread ressurection.

I have been experimenting with GIMP's paintbrush and a drawing tablet. In the process I ended up drawing a cobra (I've always liked drawing them, even as a kid). After I scribbled this I remembered your shifter faction and how it had some snakes in it. so rather then ave this consigned to the messy depths of my hard drive's art folder I thought you mught have some use for it. (I seem to recall a poison spitting snake it your faction somewhere, this could fit...)

Obviously it's not finished, and being an experiment it's pretty awful. However you might be able to do some editing. If you are interested say so and I will clean it up myself and make it presentable. This was only a 10-minute scribble, I think with some work it could turn out half-decent.

Of course, if you have no use for it, give the word and it shall promptly disappear

.

SmokemJags · Post by **SmokemJags** » April 4th, 2006, 10:40 am

I bet that cobra would have a really neat looking attack animation if he ever got one.

sparr · Post by **sparr** » April 4th, 2006, 11:14 am

The sea snake could use more definition around the eyes.

As to making transparent shadows in GIMP... Make a new layer. Move it down under the main layer. Draw a solid black shadow. Adjust the transparency of the whole shadow layer to X%. When you save as png the layers will be merged as-visible.

Post by **Zhukov** » April 4th, 2006, 11:33 am

sparr wrote:As to making transparent shadows in GIMP... Make a new layer. Move it down under the main layer. Draw a solid black shadow. Adjust the transparency of the whole shadow layer to X%. When you save as png the layers will be merged as-visible.

If you are talking to me, that is exactly what I did, and more. Full instructions on how to do shadows can be found here. The procedure written on the linked page is what I do.

Post by **Leonhard** » April 4th, 2006, 12:24 pm

Hi Zhukov!

I think sparr spoke to JW. And don't you have to blur your shadow a bit? That's what I had undestood I had to do.

As a matter of fact I'm working on the Shifters units' art for the moment. I don't know JW point of view on that, but for a matter of consistency I should go on this alone. This is only my preference, if you really want to give it a go, mail me and I'd be glad to send you my drawings, so that we can discuss them. Otherwise, I really like your cobra, I will most certainly inspire myself from it for the animal forms of the Shifters. I'm sorry the units are long to do, and they're my first ones, and I've got other things to do, which I can't neglect.