Swamplings Art Thread - comments greatly appreciated

[boru]

This thread is to help me coordinate with the people who are working on art for my UMC campaign Swamplings.

If you have a comment about playing the campaign, please post it here.

If you think you may want to create some original art for this campaign, PM me. Please don’t go off and draw stuff first, I don’t want anyone wasting their time. For now, I’m fine with just using placeholders and frankensteins until I can add quality art.

Speaking of frankensteins, this one may be useful to anyone who needs a wolf rider alternate:

Spoiler:

eeepwr.png (248.75 KiB) Viewed 7001 times

I’ve been working on some story art, inspired by JAP. You can see some of his work and my attempts at reworking them here.

Also, a thank you to the people who have contributed art to this campaign, either directly or just by making their art freely available:

Stern - Goblin Trumpeter, Goblin Prime, giant rat and mosquito sprites
Gangr'N - Misris, Wolf & Eeep portraits.
Artisticdude - Saurian child and Jinx.
Elvish Hunter - thundergobo and bosavi
Rhyging - mausoleum tile
Alarantalara - waterfalls, animated pool and cave water tiles
JAP - landscapes
Inferno8 - Master of Fire
Bera - goblin portraits
Valkier - undead portraits
Lord Bob - orc portraits
Scavenger - portraits & story art
BomSite - mangroves and submerged trees

Here is a list of art needs for the game. It’s sort of complete, but not yet completely complete. Please do not mistake this for an open call, but if you want to contribute something, PM me.

Spoiler:

PORTRAITS:
* Female Goblin portrait - for Misris, who is a love-interest type character, so I can't use a really ugly female goblin with warts and facial hair, but she ought to look goblinesque, not pretty. Look at Bera's excellent Rouser and Impaler portraits in mainline, for reference as what a goblin ought to look like. I need two one portraits of her: as wolfrider and a stealth unit.
* Saurian Ghast portrait - for some crazy reason, there is no saurian ghast portrait to be found anywhere! I'm sure there will be billions of uses for this portrait once it is created. Okay, dozens. Well, let's round it off and say, more than zero, because I need a saurian ghast. Look at the awesome sprite Stern is working on here.
* Saurian Augur - there is a mainline augur/soothsayer/oracle portrait, but Skandix is a special guy and he deserves a special portrait. Skandix is mad. It's quite possible that all augurs are mad, but Skandix had some really bad childhood experiences and as an adult he witnessed the invasion of his home city, so he's really out there. His favorite phrase is "I curse you!" and it would be great to have a portrait where it looks like he is saying exactly that.
* Kennison - a bowman of high birth.
* Clammie as assassin portrait - a high quality frankenstein of the mainline goblin rouser portrait in an assassin mask would be fine.
* Clammie as white mage portrait - a high quality frankenstein of the mainline goblin rouser portrait in a white robe would be fine.
* Reed - Reed is a goblin mimic. He's lived all his life as a slave to the saurians, in service to an augur. He has learned to mimic the augur's curse and heal spells. Also has a melee staff attack. The mimic hunches over as if he's a saurian. His staff is a branch, no gem.
* Um Brok - Troll rocklobber. He’s usually telling someone off, so his portrait should reflect that.
* I'm also in need of a few interesting saurian and goblin portraits for minor characters.

MAP:
* large map of the bog - in the style of the main Wesnoth map .. to track movements of the tribe during story parts.

SCENERY & ITEMS:
* milkweed plant: a good source image is here.
* wagon sprite: for the "Thunderstruck" scenario. Similar to the mainline caravan icon, without a driver.
* bat house item: something that looks more like a bathouse than the thing I'm using (items/chest.png)

Here's a graphic presentation of the unit tree. It should be obvious which of these are placeholders. Read this for more info on custom units.

Spoiler:

[GangrN]

Hello

Could not load your campaign since am still on Wesnoth 1.6.5, have t upgrade.
Meanwhile, here is a sketch of some facial expressions I imagined for the gobmaid

Tell me what you think

[boru]

GangrN,

There are a lot of things I like about the faces. Many of your choices are good for the character, in general I'd say you are going in the right direction.

I wish I had the ability to give a full artist's critique but as a non-artist there is only so much I can say. Hopefully we'll get some real artists to comment on your work as it progresses.

Looking at the mainline male goblins, I see their ears are fatter and not as long, but the ears you've drawn are reasonably close enough to simply say "females have different ears," and leave it at that. I think you're well within the bounds of artistic expression here. The cat's eyes, well, they are different, but they work well for this character, since she is a nightstalker and stealth unit. Goblins are nocturnal, they fight better at night, so I think the cat's eyes make her interesting and different. I also like the choice of the pronounced cheekbones and somewhat thick lips. If you look at the direwolf rider portrait, you will see he has similar teeth with long incisors, but they don't extend over his lower lip. That is a detail I think you ought to change. So keep the long incisors but they remain inside the mouth.

Her nose is radically different from the male goblins, so much so that I think you'll have to broaden it somewhat and/or reposition the nostrils. Again, male and female can be somewhat different, but I think we are straying a bit too far.

The choice of an earring is good for goblins in general, Bera's goblins all have some kind of adornments and even the lowly spearman has a few piercings. Keep in mind though, that Misris is meant to be undetectable and can ambush her foes, so her jewelry cannot be really bright or ornate.

Since you're unfamiliar with the game, I'll give you two snippets of dialog which will hopefully give you a sense of Misris' character:

Clammie: "Oh! I didn’t see you, Misris."
Misris: "That is the idea."
Clammie: "I don’t like it when females are on the battlefield. This is not our way!"
Misris: "If it doesn’t keep us alive, our way is useless. I saw what happened to Terro. I will not stand apart."
===
Clammie: "You may find things to hunt in the north. You'll also find humans, so be careful."
Sklizle: "That is not enough. We are hungry now! We shall have food from you, one way or the other!"
Misris: "Clammie, we ought to give them something for their young. I will give my rations."
Clammie: "For your children, we will leave some fish."

[GangrN]

Thank you for your comments, I am glad you are content with it. I have to warn you first: since I am working I will work on the portrait mainly during week ends.

Do you think you will have the use of several portraits? I think we can start with the impassible one (up left). In fact, the excerpts you gave seem to be compatible with a steady face. Maybe she could be seen from another point of view, a little from behind.

Another thing: what is your idea of a stealth unit? a little like the orcish assassin, clad in ribbons like a mummy?
Or rather like native south americans, with paintings on their skin?

[boru]

Thank you for your comments, I am glad you are content with it. I have to warn you first: since I am working I will work on the portrait mainly during week ends.

Not a problem.

Do you think you will have the use of several portraits? I think we can start with the impassible one (up left). In fact, the excerpts you gave seem to be compatible with a steady face. Maybe she could be seen from another point of view, a little from behind.

I agree that starting with the neutral expression in top left is best. If you want to draw more, that is great too. It would be very nice to have a second one with her riding a wolf. Different expressions are a good idea too. The one with her gritting her teeth is pretty cool.

Another thing: what is your idea of a stealth unit? a little like the orcish assassin, clad in ribbons like a mummy? Or rather like native south americans, with paintings on their skin?

She could be painted. It would have to be some kind of mottled green, since they live in a swamp. The goblin stealth unit shouldn't look too similar to the orcs. I'm intentionally being vague so you can do a portrait that is uniquely yours.

[Stern]

I have been working with the goblin trumpeter. What do you think?

[boru]

He looks GREAT, Stern! For some reason he looks a little blurred in the forum, but he looks great in game.

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My only crits would be: I'm not sure what he'd use his yellow quiver for, because he has no ranged attack. Also, is this his attack frame? It's more dynamic than most standing frames.

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[Neoskel]

My only crits would be: I'm not sure what he'd use his yellow quiver for, because he has no ranged attack.

It looks like it's supposed to be a brass trumpet. You know, since he's a goblin trumpeter.

[Stern]

Neoskel hit the nail on the head. The Goblin Trumpeter carries his trumpet on his back so that it is out of the way while he works with his spear. The trumpet will become more apparent during his leadership frames.
I have a really cool idea for an attack animation. The Trumpeter rolls his knees forward to gain momentum, leaps into the air, and thrusts downwards. His spear gets all sparky like the new drake attacks as he strikes his opponent. The trumpeter then lands and leaps back into his "ready" stance. In short, this will be a really fun unit.

[boru]

Neoskel hit the nail on the head. The Goblin Trumpeter carries his trumpet on his back so that it is out of the way while he works with his spear. The trumpet will become more apparent during his leadership frames.
I have a really cool idea for an attack animation. The Trumpeter rolls his knees forward to gain momentum, leaps into the air, and thrusts downwards. His spear gets all sparky like the new drake attacks as he strikes his opponent. The trumpeter then lands and leaps back into his "ready" stance. In short, this will be a really fun unit.

The trumpet? (looks for appropriate smiley ... hmm, there is none!)

Okay, I will have to concoct some reason they might come across brass horns in a swamp. Not impossible, after all WINR, besides they have thundersticks, hatchets, etc. So maybe some elven drum and bugle corps got lost in the swamp ... hmm ...

The attack animation sounds spectacular. Remind me to put in one of those horn signal sounds for the leadership frames.

[Fog]

It appears not to be a brass trumpet but a an animal horn with brass rim, but I may be entirely wrong. Perhaps it would be better to remove the brass?

[boru]

Ancient trumpets came in all shapes and sizes.

The original idea from the unit is based on this mainline portrait. However the sprite (and his horn) can be significantly different.

Brass is a little bit incongruous, but actually I can see the goblins all rallying around one of their guys because he's carrying a big shiny thing.

[thespaceinvader]

An animal horn would be more appropriate, I suspect.

[GangrN]

For Moonbeam goblin and Nocturne, I found two Sprites that could replace the existing one:
http://www.wesnoth.org/units/1.6/en_GB/ ... unter.html
http://www.wesnoth.org/units/1.6/en_GB/ ... assin.html
You could use its stats also (or nerf them a little since they are Swamp savvy and the original era is not equally balanced)

I also saw an interesting ability: Hit and Run.
http://www.wesnoth.org/units/1.6/en_GB/ ... rrior.html
If it works as I see it (move is not ended with attack), it could be interesting (and very "gobelinesque") to make some units have this ability.

[GangrN]

About the land, and only if you are interested in designing original swamps:
One sees swamps are inspiring you, you always try new hexes.
I think mangrove trees should be reworked. Maybe one should try to represent a magrove forest rather than separate mangrove tree. Moreover, I don't know if it's feasible, but mangrove hexes should be swamp and forest instead of water, or water and forest when flooded. Otherwise you don't want to use them (for you units, I mean).
Maybe swamps should be more complex, with more ground or forest patches.
It reminds me of the different types of swamps that exist.
All swamps don't look like that wesnothian ugly herbs. Seamarshes are especially interesting in such a game, since their status changes with the tide. You have coastal mangroves, on the seashore: they are eather a flooded forest, or a swamp of mud depending on the tide. You have slikkes and schorres: the schorres look like these herbs, and they are "dry" swamps. The slikke are "muddy swamps": at low tide, it is a mud plains; at high tide, the sea invades it very quickly, since they are very flat: one says the sea covers it at the rate of a running horse, and people are often trapped on a lonely sandbar. I think you could spice up some scenarios this way (for tide effects, see "the war of Dragon" EoM scenario). It would be quite interesting to play with a moving terrain, imo.
There are also Florida and Louisiane swamps, one for herbs, the other for trees, but both have many river arms. The Marais Poitevin in France is an example of dry/wet swamp alternance, too.
The Danube has also very interesting variations: during the tides, some temporary pools form. Eels favor these pools isolated from the main rivberbed.
Russian rivers, like the Volga, suffer also periodical phenomenon: since the source is south, the exit congeals before, and melts after (it is contrary to most of rivers, which come from mountains). So the melting waters break the ice during the spring, leading to the flooding of the plains nearby. These could be used in an adventure or campaign.