Skeletal Pirate Art Hoard (ARR!)

[Neoskel]

Avast, since these here skeletal pirates be such a hit i be moving them out of my personal sprite thread so more scurvy dogs can pitch in after being overcome by awesome without feeling guilty.

So here be the first two of the boney buccaneers, ere they be edited to better match with their prospective stats. They're also due to have their shadows updated.

[xbriannova]

I like them . I can see some parts that are Frankensteined from other units but they looked original, really! The thundersticks did make me wonder though... How on Earth did that bone pirate steal himself that thunderstick from? I don't think Dwarves need ships in Wesnoth do they?

[Exasperation]

Here are the animation frames I made for them so far - obviously these will need to be fixed to match the new equipment after the base frames get their equipment changed.

[Neoskel]

I like them . I can see some parts that are Frankensteined from other units but they looked original, really! The thundersticks did make me wonder though... How on Earth did that bone pirate steal himself that thunderstick from? I don't think Dwarves need ships in Wesnoth do they?

Exactly. No one said this guy was from Wesnoth, he's thematically piratey. I do plan to do a mainline-compatible version with a crossbow instead of a gun though.

Here's the level one of the mixed fighter pirate. Could use a better hat/headgear...head. Will go a treasure hunting.

Edit: Bevested swashbuckler, wielding a belaying pin.

Edit2: Updated the pirate's shadow, and cleaned up his animation frames some.

[xbriannova]

Oh okay, cool. Man, this should really give the undead some flavour. They could use a variety and I guess when any campaign makers need any they could get it from you .

[Exasperation]

And here's the attack animation for the swashbuckler updated for vest, belaying pin, and better shadows.

vested.zip

new Swashbuckler attack frames

(7.93 KiB) Downloaded 458 times

action-vest.gif (3.67 KiB) Viewed 6590 times

Edit - took a stab at a simple belaying pin attack animation. Reuses one of the frames from the sword attack (only one new frame).

belay.gif (2.59 KiB) Viewed 6584 times

bone-swashbuckler-attack-2b.png (2.62 KiB) Viewed 6584 times

[Hroppa]

Something about the belaying pin doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the unit, to me. Maybe reduce the saturation? The brown comes over a bit too strong.

Nevertheless, awesome stuff

[thespaceinvader]

A few things: the free hand should move more. A lot more. Look at the Thug's animation for hints. The body should move more, too. And the weapon swipe should be a single colour, and more pointed, and go across two frames, with it 'reeling in' to the weapon in the second frame. Again, look to the thug for inspiration.

But above all, exaggerate the movements. Make them BIG, because they need to be for them to be noticeable. Think like you're animating a cartoon =)

EDIT: Compare and contrast:

[Neoskel]

Something about the belaying pin doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the unit, to me. Maybe reduce the saturation? The brown comes over a bit too strong.

This is a good point, it was bothering me too. Why would decaying dull-colored pirates have new shiny wooden items? So i redid all the wood (belaying pin and the handles on the guns) in a 'deader' color. To make things easier on Exasperation i recolored all instances i could find in all the animations as well. Here's a zip and an example.

[Hroppa]

Much better Looking back at the Bone Freebooter, though, I'm finding it hard to make out his actual gun. Maybe moving the hand away from the body and/or enlarging it would do the trick?

[Exasperation]

Is this an improvement? I also did a different sword animation for him which shares the same windup frames - I figured that would mesh a little better with a defense animation once I get one I'm happy with.
I have noticed that a lot of the mainline motion blurs are two-colored (including the one used as an example in the motion blur tutorial, which is a white blur with bluish edges) - is this similar to the shadow issue, where the standard changed a couple of times before being finalized?

[melinath]

That looks a lot better! Only problem I see is that the motion blur on the club attack is the same color as for the sword attack - and since the sword kinda moves up, it looks almost like a second sword attack instead of what it actually is. Might help to keep the sword down - or even move it to our left, held out away from the body for the club strike.

[thespaceinvader]

I couldn't tell til i read your post that the attacks were different. They should look COMPLETELY different. You don't wind up the same way to attack with both hands.

Try copying that motion for the sword, and the thug's for the club.

And once more: make the motions BIG. Look at how far the dwarf above swings his dagger. Then look how far your skellie swings his sword. Your skellie is just waving his, not attacking with it.

If you don't want this sort of help, you should say so. I'm pushing you on this because these sprites are very cool, and I'd love to see them looking the bast that they possibly could.

[Exasperation]

I don't mind the advice. I'd like to see these animations turn out better, too. I went back and tried extending the swing, but it made it look less like a swing and more like a wave. So I spent some time comparing the thunderer with the swashbuckler, and realized that while the weapons (and arms) were being swung in a similar fashion, the way the body was moving was different. So I went back to the deathblade frames looking for better body/leg positions to use, and came up with these:

bone-swashbuckler-sword.gif (4.89 KiB) Viewed 6349 times

It's not as smooth as the thunderer's animation, but is it at least a step in the right direction?

[Hroppa]

From what I can see, definitely an improvement You could take it even further, though, I think, so that the blade comes right across the belaying pin, and the body moves further right.