Nightmares

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mystic x the unknown
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Nightmares

Post by mystic x the unknown »

Hi, here comes unit graphics topic for Nightmares of Meloen faction by krotop. Unit images developed here will replace the placeholder sprites. Feel free to comment and make suggestions. Some unit designs are not definite and might be changed.

The units are composed of materialised nightmares and aberrations - magically mutated animals. I'll post passages from in-game descriptions with the sprites. You can read the story in the faction's thread.

old screenshot..old screenshot 2
----
Dark Egg:
"These hideous monsters came from the very first fear of Meloen : to mother a physically or mentally ill child. Not quite formed yet, dark eggs partly break the shell with their powerful legs, then their naturally agressive instinct guide them to charge and complete their hatch onto foes."
Image

Black Cat:
"Black cats are simple forest creatures that have turned into a hideous chimera by Meloen's thoughts and, although no one knows what kind of magic is behind their power, it seems that any creature that cross their evil eyes is stroke by misfortune."
cats3.png
cats3.png (29.29 KiB) Viewed 12354 times
most of the recent and old sprites:
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sprite_test_package.zip
>> WARNING << using this might break your installation
(1.56 MiB) Downloaded 984 times
Last edited by mystic x the unknown on October 14th, 2009, 8:29 am, edited 12 times in total.
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mystic x the unknown
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Re: Nightmares

Post by mystic x the unknown »

Eye of Disdain:
"Bad dreams after bad dreams, growing to nightmares, Meloen fell into a paranoid dementia, thinking to be judged for her misdeeds and revived her childhood, when she was afraid of the way people looked at her. The eyes of disdain were born from this fear and now attack mentally their victims, turning their complexes into physical sufferings."
manfoot1.png
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I really liked the idea of long-legged eyeballs but because those legs look too human, I changed them to look more animal-like:Image
(four legged meant for level-ups. Includes ideas from Skizzaltix and Velensk)
Last edited by mystic x the unknown on October 14th, 2009, 8:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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mystic x the unknown
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Re: Nightmares

Post by mystic x the unknown »

Spectre of Death:
"In her moments of happiness, Meloen enjoyed gazing at butterflies. In these rare moments of meditation she also got conscious of how much they were short lived and realised her own condition of life.

During a sleep, while she was pregnant, Meloen saw a spooky spirit shaped like a butterfly, floating above her and the child she was holding, and immediatly identified the spirit as an underling of death itself, warning her that she wouldn't live long enough to see her child growth. There was little time then, before spectres of death spread into the forest."
butterflies.png
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(middle one is the original)

attack animation sketch:
s2.gif
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it's supposed to stick it's tongue into foes

wing paint proposals:
suck.png
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Last edited by mystic x the unknown on March 3rd, 2009, 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Skizzaltix
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Skizzaltix »

Nice! These are looking good. Great job!

Eggs: I'd go with the second from the left or the one on the left--The second from the right looks like a rock, and the other looks like metal :?

Cats: I like the one on the left--The green feels a little weird.

Eyes: I like the one with the tentacle best... :O
Something feels weird about the eye itself, though; I think it might be the white of the eye. What if you were to have a pure red eye with the pupil? ...Or a pure black eye with a red pupil. Now that could be cool...

Spectres: Looking pretty good--What if you were to have it unfold its wings, with them solid black as-is, but then have the skull flash on for a frame or two as it hits the enemy unit? Maybe have the inside of the wings flash red, with the skull black? Play around a little, and I guarantee you you'll come up with something good :)

Again, good work!
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Turuk
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Turuk »

For the Egg, I would go with the one of the left personally, it conveys the nature of it being an egg without the color implying it might be another object (as Skizzaltix noted).

Cats: Same thing, the green seems a bit off to me as well.

For the eye, I like the coiled leg to stand on, it reminds me a bit of Suezofrom Monster Rancher.

As to the Spectre, I like what Skizzaltix suggested as well, of having the skull flash as it attacks the opposing unit, adding to the scare effect of the monster. Maybe have it so only random bits of the white skull are drawn (which do not seem to make any discernible object), but then as the unit attacks, fill in the rest of the white to fill the skull.
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Lord Ork
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Lord Ork »

Cool ideas.

I would like that the skull is a bit less cleared. It seems pasted. My suggestion is trying to make it resemble a natural draw. It is more disturbing that way, like here:
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deathPapillon.png
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Neoskel
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Neoskel »

Lord Ork wrote:Cool ideas.

I would like that the skull is a bit less cleared. It seems pasted. My suggestion is trying to make it resemble a natural draw. It is more disturbing that way, like here:
You are aware that that's not actually the natural pattern right? I recognise the 'nakedwomen skull' art piece. You got that from a Silence of the Lambs poster if i am not mistaken.

(On a related note, the death's-head hawk moth isn't in the papillionidae sub-family but in sphingidae. :eng: )
Last edited by Neoskel on February 20th, 2009, 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Nightmares

Post by thespaceinvader »

That's not the real thing, but the real thing is only mildly less creepy...
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Lord Ork
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Lord Ork »

Neoskel wrote:
Lord Ork wrote: You are aware that that's not actually the natural pattern right?
Yeah. I was only speaking about making it feels more natural, like this movie's cover artist did. TSI, that picture is awesome!
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Velensk
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Velensk »

I came up with another idea after you left (or at least said you did) prehaps you could have the the legs come up over the eye so that it sort of hangs between them.
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mystic x the unknown
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Re: Nightmares

Post by mystic x the unknown »

thanks for all the on-topic replies!
I decided to make rough outlines for most of the unit levels. They looked too different from other sprites so I coloured them as well. Please tell about any interesting ideas how to change or even completely redo individual units.

-----
wip of all units: (except eyes and elementals) Image
Creepers (first from right):
These degenerated insects group with each other to raid living beings in an irrationally aggressive way. A significant amount of reports from farmers states about clouds of bees wreaking havoc into their sheptels.
-----
an attempt at armored Child and Avatar of Foolishness: (armor because it has resistantances)
Image
-----
notes

I couldn't come up with much diversification for higher levels, especially for the spectre. Some of my (bad) ideas were making higher level made of 2 specters leaning on others back sideways to enemy and making level-1 spectre a caterpillar.
I'll try to change the spectre to make the antennae and tongue during attack better visible. (ideas for that welcome)

the cat level 2's head could be shown as beginning to split into 2, which would look like some of the 2 headed animals that have merged heads with 3 eyes total.
Last edited by mystic x the unknown on October 14th, 2009, 8:44 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Thrawn
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Thrawn »

these all look wicked impressive--and I like the armored CoF
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Lord Ork
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Lord Ork »

Tremendous. I can't wait until they are on the server.
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Skizzaltix
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Re: Nightmares

Post by Skizzaltix »

Armored CoF looks good--Though, I'd change the color of the fleshy bit up front to match the armor, if I were you :hmm:
Possibly the armored one could be the level 3, if you made it a little bigger?
Anyway, awesome job on all of these! :D
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woodmouse
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Re: Nightmares

Post by woodmouse »

Wow, I love all of these. :D
I like the four legged eye thing the most.
Check out my sprites!
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