Vampire Bat portrait (in the RIGHT place this time!)

[Darn Penguin]

Hey, I just bought a book about Maya for a video game design course I want to take and I found out that the book comes with Sketchbook Pro.

While it wasn't fun to try to use with a mouse, I cranked out a concept for the Vampire Bat portrait that makes it a bit semi-humanoid, since I like to entertain the idea that they're actually a poor man's instant vampire kit.

The hole in its face is a nostril, not an eye. I thought it made for an interesting effect to have the creature apparently rely entirely on echolocation, and the lack of such an expressive facial feature detaches it from humanity by a safe margin.

Feel free to tell me what you think, or download and play with it, vote in the poll, modify it, etc.

I added some color to it, although the result is far from professional-looking.

[Changeling]

I think it's great, although you might want to show it's a nose by adding air coming out of it.

edit: Now it looks more like it's coming from its mouth rather than its nose.

I like it now, I think it's cooler, but have you considered attaching one end of the wing to the chest, something like Batman and Manbat? It makes more sense, bring attached to the wing in more places, to support the whole body.

[zookeeper]

Nice, but looks more like an aquatic demon than a vampire bat to me. I don't quite understand why you made it a humanoid since bats aren't like that.

EDIT: Well, ok, you gave an explanation of sorts for that, but...

[Noyga]

Well vampire bats are supposed to be undead creatures (ie vampires in their bat form), not living bats...
IHMO its face fits better that any other portraits i've seen before (including the picture attached to zookeeper's post).
Btw
- I agree with Zookepper it looks too humanoid
- It looks a too strong for the level 0 (ie Vampire Bat), it could be the level 1 (Blood Bat) or a extra levelup of it (like the extra bat in UtBS).

[Sgt. Groovy]

The wings don't really look like wings. The humanoid form doesn't look that bad on itself, but it's a terribly long way from the sprite.

[zookeeper]

Well vampire bats are supposed to be undead creatures (ie vampires in their bat form), not living bats...

They're undead vampire bats (probably of an unusually large variety, too). Having them be vampires in bat form would make zero sense, really.

[Darn Penguin]

Yeah, I was thinking it looks a little "beefy" for a level 0 myself.

I really need to either get a tablet (like that's going to happen with my current budget) or use a different program for coloring it in. Sketchbook's airbrush tool is handy, but a nightmare to use with the mouse.

[Eleazar]

Darn Penguin:
for mainline consideration, a portrait really needs to resemble the unit.
of course you are free to work on the portrait for a hybrid man/bat UMC unit.

Well vampire bats are supposed to be undead creatures (ie vampires in their bat form), not living bats...

I believe the old description favored a dracula-vampire in bat form idea, but happily that's been changed, since it (as zookeeper said) made no sense.

Vampire Bats are undead flying beasts that attack by biting their victims. While their fangs are not very powerful, the health of victims is drained away along with their blood, and given to the Bats.

In wesnoth, bats are relatively weak & cheap scouts. It's unnecessarily confusing to claim bats can take human(oid) form— a power that could conceivable be very useful in the game, but that they never do.

[Jetrel]

Posts about politics deleted; don't go there. Political metaphors are generally flamebait even if they're intended not to be.

As for the nature of the bat; I'm with Eleazar + Zookeeper - it's just a mundane creature under the control of an evil sorcerer. In fact, I'd be all for stripping it of its undead status, and its weaknesses to related damage types.

[Darn Penguin]

Well, now I'm tied with Nader, which is somewhat less sad, but the desires of the players and developers are still fairly clear. I still like the idea of them being more than bats myself, since an ordinary vampire bat wouldn't be able to kill even an unarmed human on its own. They're just not built to be predators.

By the way, I'm surprised more than one smart-aleck went with a gag vote. I suppose that shows that the maturity level of some of the other posters is right down there with my own.

[Darn Penguin]

edit: Now it looks more like it's coming from its mouth rather than its nose.

Well, as unrealistic as I was trying to make it look, I still felt it was fairly mammalian in nature, and mammals lose very little moisture from their nasal cavities.

So, what I'm saying is, in order to make the creature's breath realistically visible, most of it had to come from the mouth.

On an unrelated note, I applaud your proper usage of "it's" and "its."

[Changeling]

edit: Now it looks more like it's coming from its mouth rather than its nose.

Well, as unrealistic as I was trying to make it look, I still felt it was fairly mammalian in nature, and mammals lose very little moisture from their nasal cavities.

So, what I'm saying is, in order to make the creature's breath realistically visible, most of it had to come from the mouth.

On an unrelated note, I applaud your proper usage of "it's" and "its."

Thank you. Americans usually get that wrong.

Another suggestion: color the nose with a darker tone of the skin color. If it's in different colors, it'll look like eyes.

Also, the prospective is wrong. The ears and teeth suggests the head is twisted towards the audience, but the nose suggests profile.
The neck should be shorter. Wings connected to chest, as was suggested earlier. Also, remove blood from teeth. It looks unnatural, sticking out from his natural skin color.

One last thing is, of course, remove the black lines.

[Darn Penguin]

Well, if anyone ever wants to use this image, they can come back here or request it from me.

I may get to work on a more batlike bat tomorrow, and see what you guys think.

[irrevenant]

As for the nature of the bat; I'm with Eleazar + Zookeeper - it's just a mundane creature under the control of an evil sorcerer. In fact, I'd be all for stripping it of its undead status, and its weaknesses to related damage types.

IMO, either this should be done or the colouring of the sprite should be changed to reflect its undead status. Currently the bat sprite looks like a mundane creature.