New attack buttons - scratchpad

[battlestar]

This is pretty hard

I kept having trouble making corners with selection tools (ie the blade tip)
Also having trouble making it look like metal (ie the shiny glazing)
And adding texture to the shaft...
And... other stuff...

Wonder if anyone can send me their file with layers if it's openable in photoshop... so I could learn from it, that would be a great help.

Here's my first try doing this:

[Sabata]

Here's my first try doing this:

Nice, its usefull for me

[Blarumyrran]

whoa battlestar, thats awesome, if you let me, ill borrow it (and edit a bit) for my own Fiend faction needs.

a few notes tho
* the pole is too thin
* the blade would better be towards the enemy, so a horizontal flip would be good (only the sythe, not frame, of course)

[pekka]

I'm guessing from the complete lack of response that you disagree with my observations regarding the Warhammer.

For general information could you please briefly explain why?

Sorry I haven't answered and thats only because personally I'm not Internet forum oriented guy at all.

I also somewhat agree your points here, but if I would have stopped to fix things forever so that everyone likes the product I couldn't draw the other icons I've done recently. The matial is under released under GPL, so everyone can edit it further.

Wonder if anyone can send me their file with layers if it's openable in photoshop... so I could learn from it, that would be a great help.

I can send here couple of icon WIPs with the full layer structure in next week = The next time I'll be in Internet.

[Ranger M]

Some people, in shading, don't use a full gamut of brights/darks (here's looking at you, Ranger M);

Ack, ye know me too well.

seriously though, I've been working on this, the jacket on that last guy I sent you has gotten much more highlights and dark areas even before you replied, and I think that I might try that method for the rest of the stuff I do for that image (its not like it's a completely different method to my current one, just an improvement)

and of course, I don't get the shapes right first time either, thats what the trimming is for.

@battlestar: for a first try that's great theres a few problems with it (blue metal? the shading on the pole is uneven, the perspective on the pole to blade attachment seems off), but nothing that can't be easily fixed.

[Boucman]

battlestar: I think the problem with your scyth is not so much the artistical quality, (the blade looks good and the shaft is too thin to really judge)

the problem is the composition

all our attack icons are closeups... it gives them a very dynamic feeling, and allows more details. Yours is trying to show the weapon instead of painting it as a tool of war.

I would do a closeup on the part where the shaft and blade meet, showing aproximately 2/r of the blade.

if you want to show the whole blade I would "turn away" from the viewer, to give more perspective. A scyth is a weapon where you can play a lot with perspective, use it...

[Noyga]

I did commit pekka's blank icon and undead axes (axe, battle-axe, deathblade).

[Blarumyrran]

my first try, give suggestions.

[Kestenvarn]

Blade is too thin/small, icon not bright enough; overall, not same style.

[Flametrooper]

Angles generally are used - i.e that scythe would be pointed at, or away from, the viewer at a slight angle, not just straight up/down. Kest: I thought sickles did have thin blades, though?

[Gus]

Yeah, i guess he meant that it's not close enough. Keep the blade thin, but draw it closer to the viewer, as was mentioned before, to stay consistent with the current style.

[Jetrel]

icon not bright enough

Or perhaps more helpfully; the brightest brights in the icon need to be brighter - in this style, the brightest brights should almost always be pure white, even if there aren't many of them.

In fact, there really isn't any "shading" in your icon - to fix this, know that flat sections of metal will reflect different amounts of light, even if the whole surface is facing the same direction. Think of how the sun reflects off of a chrome bumper - there's are bright spots on it, from the reflection. It's not all the same grey. In fact, there are some spots on the chrome that are black.

[Jetrel]

I did commit pekka's blank icon and undead axes (axe, battle-axe, deathblade).

Good call, those need zero editing; I'm incapable of improving on that.

I also committed the enchantress staff icon as "staff-elven.png".


The greatsword awaits some editry by me. That one I can actually do something useful to.

[Kestenvarn]

I thought sickles did have thin blades, though?

Yes, but since this is a cartoony style they would be exaggerated.

@Syntax: Take a look at the Scythe, Chakram, or another curved blade and see how those work.

[Blarumyrran]

a new try.

it doesnt seem like a normal sickle anymore, but its fantasy anyway. say its a WAR sickle.

does it look better now?



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btw, what attack is Chakram.png used for?