Khalifate facelift: Redux

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Wintermute
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Wintermute »

Great news, and great work. Thanks!
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Sleepwalker »

An update. Two sorts of lvl3 ish characters I wanted to do. A royal guard or the like, and a Vizier that I'm not really happy about. He had a cane too before but something about it made it look like the unit would have a "pimp slap" attack... Not sure what that unit would do. It might have boosting abilities for its allies and/or wield some forbidden "arts".
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khalifateRedux6.png
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homunculus
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by homunculus »

I like the orange masked archer best, not because of the mask, but because of readability.

You seem to put highlights in places that would make more details visible. I am sure you know that general form is more important than details.
Sleepwalker wrote:A royal guard or the like, and a Vizier that I'm not really happy about
With the most armored fighter (royal guard, I guess) it seems as if you couldn't cut off the area where the highlights can be because of holding on to visibility of the details.
And in the robed old man I suspect the collar highlight is not in the right place, and/or the collar highlight (or midtone) stretches too far left in the picture.
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Sleepwalker »

Yeah, yup you got me. I really wanted a certain set of details on this one, and I tried to strike a balance between having details and overall shape readable... Could use some more work I guess.

The archers are very WIP. Thanks for your observation, we'll see what I do. :)
homunculus wrote:And in the robed old man I suspect the collar highlight is not in the right place, and/or the collar highlight (or midtone) stretches too far left in the picture.
Hmm, now that you mention it, I see the collars shape isn't really right. I'll address it.
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Sleepwalker »

Hi guys, just popping in to bring an update... Wish I was a fast worker, had lots of time etc.
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khalifateRedux9.png
Sometimes we must be hurt in order to grow, fail in order to know, lose in order to gain, and sometimes we must have to be broken so we can be whole again...
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Blarumyrran
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Blarumyrran »

i notice that these - and really all your units, have always almost the exact same brightness overall? Are you sure that is good, I think a pattern of light areas and dark areas within a unit, and darker units and lighter units overall, are useful for telling units apart?
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Eagle_11
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Eagle_11 »

I would like to able to say something positive but those are too far caricaturized, for my taste ofcourse. Its not as if that there can be done anything about. The only thing i can do is hope that rest of the sprites in the new version arent drawn in this style. Again remainder that there is nothing wrong with the style itself and those are beautiful art, its just one of the very few i personally dont like.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Crow_T »

I think these are coming along nicely- color-wise its tough to say until you see these guys on some backgrounds (and team-colored, that pink is blinding), and I feel the style fits with the current sprites. Some look unfinished, but its an update obviously, not a final.

edit added a quick 50% gray BG with some texture- I think they look way better now :)
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khalifateReduxBG.jpg
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Sleepwalker
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Sleepwalker »

Blarumyrran:
Thanks for sharing your observation. Do you mean just these sprites or all my sprites since forever? I did have that constantly in mind to make areas of different brightness making these, going over them redoing stuff many times. That is, within a unit. I suppose I failed with that then. :augh: I did not think about having different units be brighter or darker than the other though, except for the assassin unit...

Eagle_11:
Hmm OK. Are you saying they are more of a caricature than the previous khalifate sprites? Maybe. I don't think they are more of a caricature than any existing mainline sprite though. Is it because of the subject matter?

Crow_T:
Yeah naturally they will look different in game compared to the bright forum background.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by fabi »

They are indeed more cliché than the old ones.
Albeit okay, we always play with clichés.
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by aquileia »

Sleepwalker wrote:Wish I was a fast worker, had lots of time etc.
Take your time, it is great that you are doing it at all!

The L1 and L2 units are all nice, but on one detail I definitely agree with Eagle_11 as being rather unrealistic - a sword fit for a club is uncomfortable, and dual-wielding those seems over the top.


Edit: Oh, and how would he sheathe them?


Edit 2: Looking at them more closely, the pauldrons of the Ghazi could profit from a little tone down too - they look massive for a L2.

My favorite so far is the Batal. One can perceive he's well protected but agile, and the green coat gives him (and the unit line) a unique flavor: Protecting his armor from abrasion during sand storms or keeping him warm when in the colder climate of Wesnoth, wherever his path (read: the campaign) may lead him.
Last edited by aquileia on February 11th, 2014, 11:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Blarumyrran
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Blarumyrran »

yes
Last edited by Blarumyrran on December 21st, 2017, 6:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Zoomo
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Zoomo »

Hello everyone!

I have always been a fan of the kalifate and see that they are now semi-integrated into mainline. While I think they need a good amount of polishing (such as possibly a secondary race in their faction) They are very cool. This inspired me to start working on a attack animation for the Arif. It's not finished yet but I think the movement is solid.
Swish-Swoosh.gif
Swish-Swoosh.gif (6.97 KiB) Viewed 10993 times
Anyways, tell me if you guys like it. :D

-EDIT- Also a defence animation (again, not super polished yet)
Blockidy-Block.gif
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homunculus
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by homunculus »

I like the slash animation, and I don't like the defense animation.

I like the slash animation because I get the impression the body moves forward slightly before the sword moves forward, and it looks nice overall, except that I would suggest raising the shield more, especially because attack often alternates with defense, so the attack animation would smoothly transition into defense animation if needed.

I don't like the defense animation, because the soldier is doing something strange instead of trying to defend with the shield. You can afford covering at least some of the face with the shield for one frame, can't you?

And the most fun detail of all, if you look at the last posts in this thread, you see a newer (and in my opinion better) version of the same sprite. Huh?
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Zoomo
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Re: Khalifate facelift: Redux

Post by Zoomo »

How about something like this? he blocks his face some more:
Blockidy-Block.gif
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