My Artwork and Looking for Suggestions

[melinath]

If someone could point out a 'from start to finish' tutorial, that would be great.

Er... if you follow the links that TSI gave you (this is always a good idea) you will find the tutorial you are looking for.

I like the new hood shape! Now it just needs a bit of a rim like the ranger's got to show it has an edge. Right now the front looks kind of rounded off.

In terms of lighting: although it's true that the fire is a red light source, also keep in mind that wesnoth has a very general light source coming from... the southeast or so. So the fire would be in addition to that, maybe even drowned out by it (think flashlight on a sunny day). Though coolness might win over reality in this case.

Shadows: The one under the hood (that gives it its shape) is really good. The one under the sword probably shouldn't be there; it definitely shouldn't be so wide. Oh, and the shadow under him can be smaller, esp. in the back.

Feet: I can't tell if he's wearing armor or boots. Armor would have clearer distinctions (ref swordsman) and boots in Wesnoth generally have this funky little lip (ref the other figures). The runeblade's present feet are a bit ambiguous.

I like how this is coming along! Look forward to seeing what you do after reading the sprite tutorial. I'd assumed you had already read it since these are such good first tries...

[potatomanjack]

Er... if you follow the links that TSI gave you (this is always a good idea) you will find the tutorial you are looking for.

I did read those tutorials. What I meant to say was a picture tutorial showing the development of a sprite from scratch starting with like an outline, then 1st colouring, second colouring... etc. to finish.

If there is one of those, then I guess I just missed it

I like the new hood shape! Now it just needs a bit of a rim like the ranger's got to show it has an edge. Right now the front looks kind of rounded off.

In terms of lighting: although it's true that the fire is a red light source, also keep in mind that wesnoth has a very general light source coming from... the southeast or so. So the fire would be in addition to that, maybe even drowned out by it (think flashlight on a sunny day). Though coolness might win over reality in this case.

Shadows: The one under the hood (that gives it its shape) is really good. The one under the sword probably shouldn't be there; it definitely shouldn't be so wide. Oh, and the shadow under him can be smaller, esp. in the back.

Feet: I can't tell if he's wearing armor or boots. Armor would have clearer distinctions (ref swordsman) and boots in Wesnoth generally have this funky little lip (ref the other figures). The runeblade's present feet are a bit ambiguous.

They were supposed to be plate , but looking back can see that they look more like blobs than anything at this point. I also agree with the shadow under the sword being way too big.

I'll work on those suggestions for the next pass. I think he's getting close!

[thespaceinvader]

Personally, I very rarely work a sprite right from blank page to finished item - I'll usually work around an extant base. And unfortunately, I can't say I've ever recorded any of the processes from any of the ones I have done, so I can't help you there, unfortunately.

Neoriceisgood (guy who made the Drake sprites, in both their incarnations) has done a couple, though: http://neoriceisgood.deviantart.com/art ... e-50148074
http://neoriceisgood.deviantart.com/art ... p-61060489
http://neoriceisgood.deviantart.com/art ... O-59238378

They really go to show that even one artist can have a variety of different methods - what really matters is the finished product. In your case, you need to sort out the legs and arms, give them joints and, particularly on the arms, muscles. (As a general rule, there are exceptions) Don't use long expanses of dead-straight lines on organic stuff, they look wrong. Make the hips curved, not straight. Just a few things to get you started

[melinath]

Here's the Scratch-built-sprite tutorial from the wiki. I forgot that it's stuck down in a separate Sprite Art section of the page...

[potatomanjack]

Cool, thanks for the links

They will really help me learn the process of building sprites.

The next version of the Runeblade is done, and I'm getting pretty psyched about the results. I think he's looking pretty cool now if I may say so myself.

Cheers,

PMJ

[thespaceinvader]

You could do with anti aliasing the edge of the sword a bit - it's currently very noticeably stepped. Possibly making the feet a little bigger would be good too. Again, compare them to those on a mainline sprite.

But otherwise, this looks good. The only other thing i'd suggest would be to use a wider range of brightness on your TC - that is going to come out very dark. The TC system is designed around using most of the range of shades for normal lighting.

[potatomanjack]

You could do with anti aliasing the edge of the sword a bit - it's currently very noticeably stepped. Possibly making the feet a little bigger would be good too. Again, compare them to those on a mainline sprite.

But otherwise, this looks good. The only other thing i'd suggest would be to use a wider range of brightness on your TC - that is going to come out very dark. The TC system is designed around using most of the range of shades for normal lighting.

Thanks for the tips (again).

Just reread the anti-aliasing tutorial, and it made so much more sense this time. Also makes a big difference to his sword.

I also tried to drighten the cape a little. Hopefully will help any TC stuff.

Finally I added a couple of extra pixels to his feet, and they seem to be pretty much the same size as the swordsman's ones, although the boots do look a tiny bit less bulky... I should probably try to bulk them up for realism's sake, as I imaging it's hard to get form fitting plate boots on

Anyway, thanks again so much for all the help on this. It's been really educational and fun.

[thespaceinvader]

Looks good. I'd also suggest you put a bright line down the centre of the sword, to make it a bit mroe metallic.

[potatomanjack]

Gotcha,

But I seem to now have the aliasing problem again...

[thespaceinvader]

That looks fine =)

[melinath]

This is really good, potatomanjack. Especially the hood looks excellent.
There are a couple things that you could tweak to make it look even better:

1. His left shoulder looks a bit odd - like the armor is digging into his body.
2. Looking at it again, his legs seem a bit skimpy compared to the swordsman and the ranger. Perhaps a bit wider with more defined knees? (One thing that might help is removing the sword's drop-shadow completely. He seems to be holding it at an angle away from him, not across his body, so light coming from forward/right/above would cast a shadow much lower, if at all.)
3. You could try fiddling with the antialiasing on that sword highlight a bit more. I don't know if paint lets you do 20% weight of a color... it might be easier to wait until you can do it with gimp. This isn't that big of an issue, though.
4. The shadow beneath him could be smaller. Compare to the other units or check the tutorial once more. This is important, but will have to be done with gimp.
5. I'm having a little trouble with his body - waist/crotch area. It looks odd, but I can't figure out why...

[thespaceinvader]

The shadow shouldn't fall that far behind him. And following the tutorial with regards to shadow colour would be good

[potatomanjack]

This is really good, potatomanjack. Especially the hood looks excellent.
There are a couple things that you could tweak to make it look even better:

1. His left shoulder looks a bit odd - like the armor is digging into his body.
2. Looking at it again, his legs seem a bit skimpy compared to the swordsman and the ranger. Perhaps a bit wider with more defined knees? (One thing that might help is removing the sword's drop-shadow completely. He seems to be holding it at an angle away from him, not across his body, so light coming from forward/right/above would cast a shadow much lower, if at all.)
3. You could try fiddling with the antialiasing on that sword highlight a bit more. I don't know if paint lets you do 20% weight of a color... it might be easier to wait until you can do it with gimp. This isn't that big of an issue, though.
4. The shadow beneath him could be smaller. Compare to the other units or check the tutorial once more. This is important, but will have to be done with gimp.
5. I'm having a little trouble with his body - waist/crotch area. It looks odd, but I can't figure out why...

Took a shot at the first two issues. I think he looks a bit better now (especially the arm) and his legs now have a visible crotch, and also more definition showing his left leg as being slightly in front of his right. Also, in looking back at his legs/waist area, I think that the problem was that they weren't aligned to where they should be in relation to his body considering the stance he was taking. I think that's also better now.

I'll need to do the shadow/sword when I have gimp tonight per the instructions

[Ryorin]

His legs look too straight now, the shading and the shape of them need to be rounded.

Right now it looks like they are not in perspective anymore. Plus the knees shouldn't have identical (Or almost) highlights on them.

Incredibly good though, all things considered.

[Zerovirus]

I personally liked the first version of the runeblade's sword best. It looked battle scarred, though I'm not sure if that was intentional. With the newest's legs, I suggest moving the foot back with the left leg.

What you have:
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What would work better IMO:
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