Cuttle Fish

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Turuk
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Turuk »

/agree with Sapient.

I think it has to do with the fact that so much of the space is left empty around the head, and so it easily appears dwarfed by the frame and therefore smaller; not quite as imposing and scary as the game conveys.
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turin
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by turin »

Turuk wrote:/agree with Sapient.

I think it has to do with the fact that so much of the space is left empty around the head, and so it easily appears dwarfed by the frame and therefore smaller; not quite as imposing and scary as the game conveys.
The cropping can be changed to extend vertically beyond the 400x400 square - to be perhaps 500x400. That way it'll take up more space horizontally and vertically.
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Turuk
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Turuk »

Thought of that, just thought maybe it should be close to the edges of the crop, like about to burst out of the frame, that's all. ;)

Works for me though. :)
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zookeeper
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by zookeeper »

A couple of further points:

1. Basically the only dialogue cuttlefish have is the "*splash* *splash* Grarrrrrr!!!" kind. Like someone suggested, having a couple of tentacles up in a more aggressive manner would be great.
2. It'd be great if the presence of water was indicated by splashes and reflections similar to the mermaid initiate.
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Sgt. Groovy
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Sgt. Groovy »

The first thing I can say is study more reference. It currently looks too cartoony. For one thing, they usually have patterned skin, and their pupils are w-shaped, not round (I think this would give it a good "inhuman" look, instead of the human-like "angry" one you're aiming for now).

I think it might be more appropriate to make it completely submerged, then the arms and tentacles (there's a difference!) would look better, and there would be no problem of how to iclude the water.
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kitty
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by kitty »

great to have you on the portrait team, fmunoz!

and that's a nice cuttlefish! i'd like to see both of zookeeper's suggestions taken into consideration and the skin could use some more love - some of the examples in groovy's link (no need to be really realisic for this kind of monster but there are a few interesting inspirations) have quite fascinating patterns.
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Sgt. Groovy »

I would also strongly suggest reconsidering the whole pose, because right now it's basically a top view. I guess this also stems from certain anthropomorphism, it's intuitive to think everything above the eyes to be "head" and mouth and appendages to be "below" the eyes. But in reality, they are in horizontal position, the eyes are not in front, but at the top.
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Spi »

Is it just me or does that right eye seem to prominent (compared to the left one)?
Other than that, /agree with kitty and Groovy, patterned skin would look really great on this kind of portrait.
I'm a bit more neutral on the actual 'dwarfed' feeling: here we're not dwarfing him I feel but rather using a frontal eye-level view: in this way the cuttlefish is 'reduced' to our size: maybe making the tentacles wrap around the edge of the picture and raising the eyes will convey a more 'brutal giant' expression.

Way to go anyways!
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by fmunoz »

Cephalopod Necormancy!
Behold a new skin for the cuttlefish.
Still need work on it but seems improved, texture + head change + extra tentacles going back.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by thespaceinvader »

Brighter speculars will really add to the slimy feel. The shoudl be almost white at their brightest, but you'll have to be careful about their placement. Nice work =)
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kitty
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by kitty »

I'm glad you didn't abandon your cuttlefish :)

Generally much better than the previous version!

Some nitpicks: Get rid of the outlines around the eyes' highlights, that's typical comic style (I really like your webcomic btw).
And try to gently tint the linework's colour - just a tad of green in there would make this guy much more in-style.
If you feel like it you could also try to experiment with some more colours - atm the whole cuttlefish is very monochrome, a few more hues could bring him much more to life. While in reality the whole animal could perhaps have a uniform local colour every bit of ambient light and reflections etc. will spice up things. Simply add a layer set to colour on top and add a few blue-ish, turquise or even brown-ish tints.

Other than that, really nice work! Do you plan to take care of other monster units, too?
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by fmunoz »

kitty wrote:(I really like your webcomic btw).
<mmmmm you must be thinking in another person I dont have a webcomic (nearest thing: I did some guest strips for the GearHead developer).
I'll try to follow your advice regarding the portrait, but not today, I left the xcf file in another computer.
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kitty
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by kitty »

fmunoz wrote:
kitty wrote:(I really like your webcomic btw).
<mmmmm you must be thinking in another person I dont have a webcomic (nearest thing: I did some guest strips for the GearHead developer).
:hmm: Hmm, strange. Sorry for the mix-up!
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by doofus-01 »

This got stalled for some reason. I've started my own version, hopefully it will be in a usable state before 1.14.
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Sapient
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Re: Cuttle Fish

Post by Sapient »

I don't think this is a workable model. Even though it is named Cuttlefish, it is an aggressive, overgrown giant more akin to the mythical Kraken. So, IMO head should be made smaller and tentacles should be larger, to emphasize this extra growth.

As for composition, the portrait should probably show the mouth (it can be made to look more fearsome than a normal cuttlefish), and one or more raised tentacles prepared to strike, and the rest of the cuttlefish can be partially underwater. Not sure if you can recycle the foaming water at the bottom of the sea-serpent pic or not, but it would be nice if Lordbob has a seperate layer for that.
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