artisticdude's Art

[melinath]

That's a pretty sweet helmet. It's lacking dark outlines, but those can be added. (What unit is it from?)
I'd suggest making the color and look of the armor better match the color and look of the helmet,rather than vice versa. That'd bring it farther away from the swordsman - make it a more unique unit.

[JackBarber]

Maybe you could make the armor a darker color...?
Also, I think the gold trim or whatever would go ok with it.

[artisticdude]

Right, I fixed up the helmet a bit (is it enough?) and made a version with a full plate of chest armor instead of the 'scale' armor the swordsman has. New shield will probably be done by tomorrow at the latest. Do you think I should add magenta to the shield like the swordsman's has, or should it be a solid greyish-blue? Actually, the helmet had dark outlines before I modified it (I'll have to add those in later). I'll get to the gold trim when I've got the shape and color of the armor defined. Gold is always nice.

Edit: Okay, I've just added another attempt (masterswordsman3) This one has the edges of the helmet darkened up and the armor colored to match the helmet instead of the other way around. By the way, does this unit advance to royal guard? If it does, I was thinking of making the new shield I'm working on resemble the royal guard's.

[artisticdude]

I apologize for double posting, but I'd already edited my last post. I went with the assumption that the master swordsman would advance to royal guard. Alas, my attempt at making a decent shield for this guy ended in failure... I don't even have the courage to post a picture of it. So I copy/pasted the royal guard's shield, turned it around, recolored and resized it, and here you have the result. As far as I'm concerned, this guy is finished. But f you have any suggestions or criticism, go ahead and post it. I want this as good as it can get.

[melinath]

Hey, looks great! The reworked shield works well. There are a couple problems, still.

Screenshot.png (42.28 KiB) Viewed 4129 times

Need to be fixed:
1. The team coloring is off. Make sure that the magenta segments match exactly with the the team color palette.
2. The big sword disappears beneath the logos in the corner of the hex.

comparison.gif (3.01 KiB) Viewed 4127 times

Optional:
3. The sword master is still very obviously derived from the swordsman. While this isn't enough to keep me from using the unit, (The lieutenant is also a swordsman derivative) it would be good practice for you to redraw him a bit - keep the helmet and armor structure but a new pose. This could also fix the problem with the sword and the logos.

[artisticdude]

Hey, you made him into a unit! Wow, I'm happy someone actually dared to do that! I can't believe the team color is off, I'll have to check that. And that sword stuff sure is disappointing, but I should be able to rectify that easily enough. As for the fact that it is still a rip-off of the swordsman, I think changing the legs (posture, size) might fix that. The top of the helmet still looks a little weird. I might want to darken it up just a little bit. (Sigh) I guess I'm not done, despite what I said in my previous post. Are there any postures for holding the sword you'd recommend? Should he hold it down like the royal guard, or diagonally across his chest?

[melinath]

I don't think I really have any recommendations, no. Either of the suggestions you made would be fine, or anything else you come up with. Just remember when considering a new pose to think of the whole body. Though you don't seem like the type to just move an arm.

[Mirion147]

I'm liking that sprite. Good job .

[artisticdude]

Sorry, don't know how this happened. Must have sent the same message twice. My real message (and the included file) is below.

[artisticdude]

Here I've fixed the team color issue and darkened up the top of his helmet just a little bit to give the visor more believability (is that really a word?). I added a completely hand-drawn sword. What do you think? There's something not quite right about it, but I can't figure out what exactly. Still working on getting different legs in there, but that's still a big maybe right now. By the way, the helmet I used originally came from the grand knight unit in the game core.

[melinath]

I like the new sword angle a lot more; however, the TC is still off. How are you checking it/fixing it? You have to use a hard-edged tool like a pencil... the hex values have to match exactly for the game to catch them.

In terms of what looks off: the sword seems less shiny than it should be; it also cuts the sword master's body in half, so the shadows between the sword and shield end up looking flat and disconnected. You might be able to fix it by adding some deeper shadows to that area.

[artisticdude]

Do you think I should darken the corner of the shield underneath the sword to make it look like the sword is in front of the shield? I'll try brightening up the sword. I specifically sampled the link you gave me to do the TC. I must have messed up somewhere along, perhaps I had it set on anti-alias. I'll take another look at that (and I said I was done how long ago? ).

Update: No one has responded yet so I'm updating my previous post. I've brightened up the sword and redone the shadows. Still working on the TC. Just for fun, I tried a couple variations on the leg armor. Are any of them better than the original?

[Mirion147]

Just another thought for sword placement: you could have him hold the sword just facing more forward then too the side, if you did it right it could look really good, or it would just look like a short sword due to the foreshortening.

I'm going to take a look at it if you don't mind (maybe I'll try and rework the TC as well.)

[artisticdude]

Mind? No way! Go ahead and shove it around any way you want. Thanks for bothering. I updated my last post while you were writing your post. I added some variations on the leg armor. What do you guys think?

[Mirion147]

Well I personally like the ones with knees, TC or no TC.

Here's what I wipped up: In trying to fix the TC I think I might have messed up the shield perspective . I also darkened the helmet and I swear that sword looked better when it wasn't on the browser... .