Portraits for The Dark Hordes (by tsunami_)

[tsunami_]

I have agreed to draw new portraits for The Dark Hordes, which is being completed by KameRamen.

Original portraits:

gwiti.png (41.27 KiB) Viewed 837 times

gwiti_lich.png (54.88 KiB) Viewed 837 times

gwiti-demilich.png (44.25 KiB) Viewed 837 times

nati.png (41.37 KiB) Viewed 837 times

tanar.png (45.23 KiB) Viewed 837 times

For now, I am making human portraits for Gwiti and Nati.
This is a thread for criticism and suggestions.

---

[tsunami_]

I have made some sketches. I will choose more appealing colours later, for now I will complete the outlines first.

gwiti-initiate.png (125.25 KiB) Viewed 829 times

gwiti-deathmaster.png (170.62 KiB) Viewed 829 times

nati-deathmaster.png (175.4 KiB) Viewed 829 times

@KameRamen I had the idea to make Gwiti ragged-y at first, but then have fancier clothing as he levels up (probably he looted good stuff from his brother and the mage tower ).
And also to add the flaming eyes at level 2 and only glowing a bit at level 1. (I am giving myself more work )
By the way, if you are disliking something I am drawing, you should say it early when it is easier to change.
---
I am thinking about the staves. Should I put a human skull on Gwiti's staff, or a strange skull (I suppose orc or ogre?). Should I give Nati a staff? he has one in the sprite. Suggestions welcome.

---

[Refumee]

Those look great
Would it be possible to get additional portraits for Nati?
So we can make maybe an alternative path?

For example the player looses to Nati and then can continue as him.

[Roge_Tebnelok]

Incredible. Looking forward to finished versions. Would be nice to have Gwiti without gloves and then with blood dripping from them, including his lich form, as well as fully undead Nati. They could probably share the same staff, either with or without skull, latter probably better, but later it can be augmented with halves of Morgorath's.

[tsunami_]

Would it be possible to get additional portraits for Nati?

I have not heard of plans for a story branch, but it would not be difficult to make a red version and a blue version of the lich portraits. And Nati will perhaps return as a ghost? There is a note like that in the storyboards.

later it can be augmented with halves of Morgorath's.

Oh, this is a good idea. So I will draw a fancy staff without skull but also make edits with the half-skull and full-skull.

[tsunami_]

Here is the initiate portrait with clean lines. Colours are just for illustration still.

I think I will add things to the gloves, like gold thread or runes. And for the lich portraits I will put the fingerless gloves with blood on them. Otherwise, without flesh on the fingers, the gloves would have the aspect of dish-gloves ...not very serious.

[MathBrush]

These look great! Love the fabric details and the shadows and color choices.

[Heindal]

I really like the sketches and the clean lines portrait is really cool. Keep up the great work .

[tsunami_]

Cleaned-up deathmaster. I will try to work on it a little every day.

I would like to give Nati gold armour instead of bone armour to differentiate Gwiti and Nati. Maybe I will make an imagemod for the sprite and propose it to KameRamen. I learnt it from Refumee .
I wonder if it is possible, to replace or alter all the animation sprites of a unit during the campaign, without creating a whole new unit.

optional_staff.png (3.78 KiB) Viewed 631 times

[KameRamen]

Hello! Thank you so much for working on these. They are very nice and I especially like their expressions.
Sorry I am a little late in checking.

I wonder if it is possible, to replace or alter all the animation sprites of a unit during the campaign, without creating a whole new unit.

Yes, I believe it is possible. Perhaps using the [variation] tag would be quicker.

[tsunami_]

Thank you. Drawing expressions is fun . I will also re-play the cutscenes with the portraits added to make sure they are not totally inappropriate. I am assuming a progression like this:

Code: Select all

Lv1: Scenarios 1-3
Lv2: Scenarios 2-5
Lv3: Scenarios 4-8
Lv4: Scenarios 6+

Sorry I am a little late in checking.

Don't worry. I would wait for your comment after I finished the clean line drawings anyway.

Perhaps using the [variation] tag would be quicker.

It would be nice to have sprite variations for the half-skull and full-skull, but also it would be nice to have the descriptions menu not cluttered or confusing. I will leave this aside for now.

Here is the hairier brother:

I have given him gold armour for now. I will later adjust the colour.

deathmaster-gold-armour.png (181.68 KiB) Viewed 545 times

I will tell you my next steps.
First I will fix the line drawings:

• Bone armour is all strange. I will obtain a pile of bones (I know where), and I will sketch them for study.

• I tried to make the deathmasters look like decomposing/drying up but NOT like old men. I think I have not succeeded . I will add back in the flaming eyes to see if it fixes.

• Then I will think about details to add on, for example on the staff and shoulder-plates.

Then, if you are happy with them, I will begin properly the colouring and shading.

---
(General message)
Criticism and suggestions are also welcome! I will not leave in a huff .
Compliments are of course useful because I become more motivated (but do not feel obliged. Really).

---

[tsunami_]

I will leave this aside for now.

Lies.

I found out, that if you add "hide_help=yes" in a variation code, then the variation will not appear in the menu and if you check the unit, you will go to the base unit description. So actually it is perfect.
I made an implementation of staff variation for the deathmaster. I made the animation sprites as well. Happily, the unit code used the old animation syntax, so adding BLIT was easy.

dm-variations.png (147.55 KiB) Viewed 475 times

How to re-create:

The materials to activate variations are in the attached zip file.
Step 1: In The_Dark_Hordes/units, replace Deathmaster.cfg and also add here "animation_variation_macro.cfg".
Step 2: In The_Dark_Hordes/_main.cfg, add a line of code in +units like this:

Code: Select all

[+units]
    {INCLUDE_LOCAL /units/animation_variation_macro.cfg     }
    {INCLUDE_LOCAL /units }
[/units]

Step 3: In The_Dark_Hordes/images/units add the folder "staffheads" (next to "human-loyalists", "undead" and "undead-necromancers" folders)
Step 4: In the same place, replace the folder "undead-necromancers" with the new one. It will change the default staff to bauble instead of skull. (Original sprites are preserved.)
Step 5: Debug some deathmasters.

The code and macro for demilich and dread lich variations will be the same, only need new sprites.

edit: staff is a frankenstein of these materials, from Dark Sorcerer and Arch Mage sprites.

staffhead_pieces.png (1.77 KiB) Viewed 367 times

[tsunami_]

@

Here are the fixed-up line images (higher resolution than before). Now with better bones and some other things. I did not change the initiate portrait.
You should tell me now if you want anything added or removed. I will wait for a reply before doing any more drawing.

Here are coloured versions of normal size so you can check them in the game. I changed some of the colours.
The shading will be arranged like this but I will draw it blurrier to better match the other portraits.

gwiti-initiate.png (128.76 KiB) Viewed 371 times

gwiti-deathmaster.png (183.3 KiB) Viewed 371 times

nati-deathmaster.png (181.65 KiB) Viewed 371 times

I used this image-mod on Nati.

Code: Select all

    [side]
        type=Deathmaster
        id="Nati Ha'atel"
        profile="portraits/nati-deathmaster.png"
        name= _ "Nati Ha’atel"
        side=2
        canrecruit=yes
        facing=ne
        [modifications]
            [object]
                silent=yes
                [effect]
                    apply_to=image_mod
                    add=PAL(73697E,A3A7AB,D2BDA9 > 776B27,E4E483,D6D69C)
                [/effect]
            [/object]
        [/modifications]

---

[KameRamen]

Hello, thank you for your work. Your codes and mods are also very helpful. Sorry it has taken me a week to reply. It is due to a series of exhausting things in my real life.

Here are the fixed-up line images (higher resolution than before). Now with better bones and some other things. I did not change the initiate portrait.
You should tell me now if you want anything added or removed. I will wait for a reply before doing any more drawing.

These are great in my opinion. I think there is no need to make any major changes.

I would like to implement your codes into the campaign early on.
(I have been a little unwell for the past few days and may be late again in replying, but I will still get back to you.)

[tsunami_]

Sorry it has taken me a week to reply. It is due to a series of exhausting things in my real life.

That is understandable! I will go on and finish the portraits this week, so check here again on Friday or Saturday.

When you add them to your add-on, can you add them with the licence CC BY-NC-SA? I read the entire text of that licence and GPL-2 (which is the default) and for .png files I think it is much more sensible. In spirit they are the same (anyone can use and edit the art).

I would like to implement your codes into the campaign early on.

Of course you can use any code or images I posted here.

---