thespaceinvader sprites: current, animals

[Turuk]

I said no word about fat. I just said that this cow has too concave belly for bovine. Gnus, bisons and african buffalos which picture I could find via google don't look that slim. And they aren't fat.

Ok, but why google all those so you can give critique? He distinctly pointed out the animal he was using as reference.

[Sleepwalker]

Animals looking good.

At first I didn't understand why you went with such a ugly looking cow breed, but I understand now that they're supposed to be wild cows so I suppose it makes sense to use a zebu. One thing though; The shoulder and hip muscles (or whatever they are called) looks a bit too big to me, too wide mostly. But its a nitpick and if you have begun animating them then don't worry about it.

[thespaceinvader]

They're intended to be semi-wild, yes - bear in mind that what we think of as cows (usually Holsteins...) have been selectively bred for a good thousand years more than the tech level we see in Wesnoth. it makes sense that they should be correspondingly less domesticated.

EDIT: animations and sounds. Now I need to get the cfgs in order... I've decided to make separate ones for male and female calves (steer and heifer respectively) but i'm running into issues making them...

EDIT: also, beginning work on a request from Espreon for the Water Serpent, a smaller relative of the sea serpent or, alternatively, a primitive relative of the naga, which is my own preference.

[Corvvs]

Nice serpent... though I'm not sure what that light green thing on *his* right is... it seems someone has taken a blob of green jelly and dropped it right next to him. Is it a fin? My beloved flatworm idea manifest?

[thespaceinvader]

Hopefully this should clear it up - it's a nice diaphanous fin running the length of his body...

[woodmouse]

Wow, that's really cool! I like it a lot, but I think it's still not clear that it's a fin. Because it looks like scales, to me at least.

[thespaceinvader]

It's scales underneath...

It might be worth increasing the contrast beneath the fins so that it's clear where the distinction is.

[woodmouse]

Hmm, I think the thing that makes it look like scales and not fin is the perspective. I'm not sure how to fix it, but if you understand this drawn-in-a-second-picture, then you see what I mean.

[thespaceinvader]

It's supposed to be hanging down around the unit like a skirt, not sticking out sideways as you've drawn. This might clarify:

[woodmouse]

Oh, now I understand. Then it's just my imagination.

[Ranger M]

you'll need to make a standing animation with those waving/undulating, because right now it just looks like it has a light brown belly

[thespaceinvader]

This unit is going to be challenging to animate... Hopefully this clarifies a little further - the areas beneath the fins should be in deeper shade, after all...

[Ranger M]

ah I see, I was looking at the previous thing thinking that the top image was the bottom image and a plain green serpent

this looks good, but I think that the fins should be of a higher transparency

[Darker_Dreams]

Am I mistaken that the change is a larger fin? Whatever it is, I think that's a good direction to head. It is certainly clearer that' we're not just looking at underbelly now.

you probably want to drift a little further, whether it's more of the same, reducing transparency, increasing contrast, or something else- right now I have to spend a second staring at it closely to finish filtering out exactly what's up (ie; where the fin comes up and connects in the front), it's obvious there's something going on there now (which is an improvement over before where it wasn't clear) but without some work to interpret, its not clear exactly *what*.

[thespaceinvader]

Possibly, i think that variable transparency on the fins might help - making the support structures and edges a little more solid, and the skin in the middle a little less might help.