Valkiers portraits: It's like I can touch you!

[kitty]

Nice! The new ribs work just fine. I'd suggest a bit more texture for the wood and less shiny cloth before adding the lines.

[grzywacz]

kitty: you can download and open that model for transformation and editing with Sketchup: http://sketchup.google.com/

[Valkier]

Draug is next! Joy!

Edit: Cleaning smudges on the transparent .png. Wish I knew how those got there.

[Girgistian]

Draug is next! Joy!

Happy happy! Joy joy! Kitty will of course have the final say on this, but I'd like to see more definition of the visible parts of the skull, and his right side seems an awful lot less shiny than his left side. It does look great as it is, but I can't help myself when it comes to nitpicking superior artists' works.

[Valkier]

Draug is next! Joy!

Happy happy! Joy joy! Kitty will of course have the final say on this, but I'd like to see more definition of the visible parts of the skull, and his right side seems an awful lot less shiny than his left side. It does look great as it is, but I can't help myself when it comes to nitpicking superior artists' works.

Couple reasons for why I did those two things actually. First, his skull is largely in shadow because of his helmet. Over defining the skull would have diminished the effect since skulls tend to be full of curves that roll from one area to another. Basically, it would have ended up like a very dark skull rather than a skull being overshadowed.

As for the left side being less shiny than the right, that's mostly me exaggerating the idea that that side is further from the light source. I put in some light highlights to it to show that it is a curved surface, but any more and it's going to bring it out too much and make it look like there's a second invisible light source between his arms.

Hope that explains it.

[melinath]

Hmm... shouldn't the shininess be the same then, but just less of it? Metal gives distinct highlights (I think..?) even when far from the light source.

On another note, his helmet reads oddly. I don't know why I'm just noticing this now... the little bit poking off the front of the helmet isn't in line with the helmet's crest, but looks like it's supposed to be.

[Bad_Dog]

The arrow sticking up and the one sticking down totally confuse my perception of the angle the shield is held...

If it's meant as a broken arrow, its shadow should be almost parallel to the shaft, maybe??

[cretin]

now that i notice it it really does, the one pointing down, i thought it was a broken arrow first... but im not so sure anymore. It is confusing

[Valkier]

It is broken, so the shadow wouldn't follow paralell to each individual shaft. Given the angel the light hits it and the angle of the shield, it would also appear slightly distorted than if it were on a level flat surface.

The easiest way I can describe it is when you're doing lighting and you need to do a cast shadow, you almost have to picture as though you're in the position of the light source itself. It makes everything you see have a perfect silhouette of that object behind it, and depending on the foreshortening of what THAT object may be on, it will distort it significantly through stretching or widening. It's what makes the cast shadow of a bottle appear to have a round top instead of flat, because of the perspective from the light source, the top of the bottle would be round.

[Zarel]

Hope that explains it.

One thing about unit portraits, is that they must stand without explanation. I mean, someone looking at a unit portrait isn't going to see your explanation... If it seems "wrong" to an average viewer, even if it isn't, it may be worth changing.

(Just putting an opinion out there; you may choose to ignore it if you wish.)

[Valkier]

While I do appreciate the interest here, and believe me I an flattered, I think its best I move away from this one for now. Obviously, nothing I do is going to be perfect so I basically need to find some solid ground to land on and walk to the next plan so to speak. What I am going to do is make a list on the front page of the things that people have raised in all the portraits I have and will do, and at a later date go back and make the tweaks as needed. I think right now however, all portraits I've done including the Revenant are at a decent stage where I can call it finished and most people would agree.

It seems far more important to me to get the rest of the skeletons portraits than to go back and try to make everything thus far "perfect". Once I get done with the Draug and the skeleton archer line however, I will be more than happy to review the list I make and start doing the tweaks and pokes.

[cretin]

well i really like what you have done with the skeleton line, and i cant wait to see your draug. i didnt really want to bring up the arrow thing anyways, since its a small issue and you had already completed the entire thing.

[Skrim]

One thing I find about these skeletons is that their armor is pretty shiny and intact. This is not a problem in itself, it's just that, I noticed that they appear to contradict the existing Death Knight portrait in regards to what condition an Undead skeleton's armor should be in.

The Revenant's armor has almost no rust and just a couple of blood stains, while the Death Knight's equipment is entirely covered in rust. Is this just a thing of the Rev being lower-level and not so heavily decayed, or is it something else?

[melinath]

One thing I find about these skeletons is that their armor is pretty shiny and intact. This is not a problem in itself, it's just that, I noticed that they appear to contradict the existing Death Knight portrait in regards to what condition an Undead skeleton's armor should be in.

The Revenant's armor has almost no rust and just a couple of blood stains, while the Death Knight's equipment is entirely covered in rust. Is this just a thing of the Rev being lower-level and not so heavily decayed, or is it something else?

Anyone interested in the answer to this question can read the long discussion about why Valkier doesn't use all that much rust and how this is his artistic decision. That link is to page six of this thread. I'm fairly certain that the subject does not need to be brought up again.

[Skrim]

Ahh, thanks for the link. It's believable that the necromancer forages armor off his victims for his minions to use.

But the contradiction between these skellies and the DK still stands from a player point-of-view, unless of course the DK's portrait is not finalized. It wouldn't make sense for a necromancer to use intact stolen armor on low-level skellies while leaving his Death Knight generals in their old crumbling suits of rust.