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

[LordBob]

I see I was wrong to fear for his wrists. Congrats on that !

One last comment I might have - it is a matter of design really, nothing about your drawing ability - is that altogether the armour feels more like the neglected gear of a living unit. With skeletons (especially low-levels), I'd paint a LOT more rust, leaving only a few patches of clean metal : if the corpse had time to rot to the bone, then so had its armour.


Below are reference of weathered iron, in the hope that it conveys my meaning better.
http://www.futura-sciences.com/uploads/ ... 02.jpg.jpg
http://www.texturesweb.fr/images/metal_rouille_420.jpg
http://lroy.club.fr/cpg133/albums/rouille/sDSC_5087.jpg
Rust
More rust

[Valkier]

Originally I did intend to go for an overall rusted and tattered look. Strictly speaking, something burried in the ground for that long WOULD look pretty bad. You're absolutely right. As I started to draw it on however, some things became apparent.

1.) While it would look cool and make sense under the context, It would NOT make sense functionally. Leather straps would be worn through. Metal crumbling. It basically means that if he took a step it would all fall off of him, so why bother having armor in the first place? I could draw straps that looked newer and capable of holding the beaten metal together, but it would look odd having newer sturdy straps on obviously broken and rusted metal. The two elements wouldn't have meshed well and would have made it seem convenient rather than practical.

2.) I considered allowing him to have his armor falling off with a few pieces left on his living corpse, but I wanted to keep most of the shape of the sprite. This meant keeping some shoulder pads and the top portion of his chest guard, as well as maintaining some of the metallic blue coloring that the sprites do display. Also, seeing as the archer sprite is missing a shoulder pad, if I went too far with the deterioration I felt it could cause some confusion.

3.) Nothing says he couldn't have taken the armor off someone he killed. Keeping in mind the sorry state his falling apart gear would have been, it made some sense to me that the necromancer would have ordered him to forage a bit for something a little better (but still beaten and old) equipment either off someone recently killed, or on a corpse remaining on a battlefield from months/years prior.

As of now, I think I need to make the units look perhaps a little better equipped as the levels upgrade, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong in my assumption. However if the poor state of affairs for equipment is allowed and encouraged, I will certainly work it into the L1 archer, or on all of the new ones if someone decides it suits the need.

I do agree with you completely. I just figured that for the purposes of maintaining similarity, certain aspects of "reality" were better left replaced by the fantasy.

[Turuk]

1.) While it would look cool and make sense under the context, It would NOT make sense functionally. Leather straps would be worn through. Metal crumbling. It basically means that if he took a step it would all fall off of him, so why bother having armor in the first place?

Magic has already been used to animate him and pull him out of the ground, holding him together and potentially his armor too.

3.) Nothing says he couldn't have taken the armor off someone he killed. Keeping in mind the sorry state his falling apart gear would have been, it made some sense to me that the necromancer would have ordered him to forage a bit for something a little better (but still beaten and old) equipment either off someone recently killed, or on a corpse remaining on a battlefield from months/years prior.

He has limited to no intelligence at this point, how would he know what was good or not? In his skull, rust might be the best thing.

[thespaceinvader]

More rust would certainly be consistent with out only other mainline armoured skeleton - the Death Knight. if you're willing to add it, that would be nice.

[Valkier]

Magic has already been used to animate him and pull him out of the ground, holding him together and potentially his armor too.

This is going to turn into something of a tedious argument.

If you guys want more rust on him, I can certainly do that. The way I do it would only take about half an hour really.

[bonehead11]

I just want to say I love your art its awesome...so clean, astonishing coulours... beautiful
Some things small things bug me... if I think the light is coming from where its coming, than those ribs should cast shadow on pelvis and the lack of shading for the axehead.
Otherwise nice.

[kitty]

This is going to turn into something of a tedious argument.

If you guys want more rust on him, I can certainly do that. The way I do it would only take about half an hour really.

The skeleton is fine as it is.
Lordbob has a valid point - more rust could be nice and appropriate. Emphasis on could. You are the artist - if you want more rust and dirt on him feel free to add it, if you are satisfied with the way he looks now, we'll get him commited as he is.

As of now, I think I need to make the units look perhaps a little better equipped as the levels upgrade, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong in my assumption.

Yes, that's generally the case. More equipment, better equipment, more decorations, bigger or more specialised weaponry - but in the case of your skeletons that could also mean that you give them just more impressive armour and weapons but also make them more and more decayed. Or you keep the level of decay similar throughout the line - again your artistic decision

[Valkier]

I think I'll commit him as he is for now. If the mood strikes me later to make some changes, I'll post them.

Deathblade time!

[thespaceinvader]

Committed the Skeleton to trunk. Just in time for 1.7.2 =)

[Jacques_Fol]

Just because skellies aren't used much for dialogue right now doesn't mean that they couldn't become popular enough (thanks to your portraits ) to get speaking roles in future.

As a testament to the veracity of Kitty's prediction, you may be happy to hear that your portrait has already made it into my campaign - details here. I do not wish to derail this thread, so any comments on the way it is used are welcome there as well.

Perhaps, as it may be pertinent to portrait art in general, just to highlight that I tried playing with positioning the portraits left and right for two characters having a discussion. I used a temporary workaround to set the right-sided image, although it will eventually presumably be possible to be set via simple WML code in the message dialogues (as explained in this thread by SkeletonCrew). If Valkier or some other artist would like to see this in action without having to play through the entire campaign, here's the relatively simple "shortcut":

Spoiler:

Download the campaign (A Rough Life) from the Add-ons server.

Locate the main campaign folder (a la "userdata\data\campaigns\A_Rough_Life").

Open the file "_main.cfg" with a text editor.

Find the line "first_scenario=1_Led_Astray" and replace 1_Led_Astray with 11_The_Day_of_Reckoning.

Now, when you start the campaign, you will immediately find yourself at the beginning of scenario 11. You will be missing some units that you should have from previous scenarios, so the initial dialogue will not make sense. But after turn 1 (and then 2 and 3), you will find some comic relief in the form of two skeletons having a conversation. That's where the mirrored positioning is used and it's those types of situations where I believe it will be particularly useful.

Finally, I should note that the skeleton portraits also appears in the newly added intro at the beginning of scenario 1, so you may wish to change that line back to see that, too (if you haven't already).

In any event, keep up the great work!

[Valkier]

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still here and starting work on the Deathblade portrait today. Update will come when I think I have something worth showing. To clear up something however, I only offered to help LordBob (and I use the term "help" due to lack of a better one) for in the future when I've done three or four skeletons and am sick of looking at dead bodies on the internet. Thanks for the list of alternatives, Kitty. I'll take a look at it again when I do get burnt out on the dead guys.

Trust me. I am very much enjoying my current projects and contributing to a game me and my friends like playing. I am not trying to step on anyones toes, insult, berate, condemn, stab, or even offer their soul up on high to a nameless God. If I ask a question or give a crit, it's just to try to help out.

Cheers

[Valkier]

Sort of a quick personality test render for the skeleton. Was going for a bit more of an insane look to him. May stick with it, may not.

[Vendanna]

Looking promising so far, I'm interested to see your view on the unit.

There was another user (Girgistian) attempt at the same unit, which I liked too, and could serve as inspiration for you.

http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/download/f ... &mode=view

I don't know how will the drawing turn out, but I'm having a feeling that you will do the unit justice as you did with the skeleton warrior, so take three cheers from me.

*Edit: Fixed typos

[Turuk]

My first thought was how an eye was still whole after the body had decomposed down to the bare skull.

[kitty]

My first thought was how an eye was still whole after the body had decomposed down to the bare skull.

Magic.

Not much to say apart from that yet - I like the feel you are going for. And that little repaired spot on his forehead is a nice detail. Perhaps the tongue is a bit much. Show us more!