Descent into Darkness Campaign: Giant Rat Revision

[melinath]

Hear, hear. Give it outlines! I also like the middle size, incidentally.

[AI]

For real-life size comparison:

There's also the Giant Rat, which can get over 90 cm long and weigh over 90 kg, but it's not actually a rat, or at least, no more than hamsters, gerbils and mice.

[Zigg]

Middle one is best.

[Stern]

The general consensus is that the middle Giant Rat is the proper size. The next step is to figure out what kind of color the giant rat is and the texture of its fur. The previous Giant Rats were a flat brown with no texture. Attached to this post is a Giant Rat of the proper size with a dark gray color and spiky texture. This is a similar motif to the Giant Rat picture that was posted earlier. What color of a Giant Rat would you like to see?

[Speedbrain]

I like the gray, I just worry about how it would look on the cave terrain.

[AI]

Quite visible.

[thespaceinvader]

That colour looks fine, but the tail and feet look even more out of place (particularly on the screenie) when the rat is that dark - i'd make them browner and darker.

[Zigg]

Grey and cave don't mix.

[thespaceinvader]

Incorrect. I don't know why you felt the need to post that...

[StDrake]

i don't see any problem with tail nor feet being out of place with the body, but they somehow do blend with the cavey enviroment don't you think?

[Speedbrain]

I think what TSI might be getting at (not to put words in his mouth) is the feet and tail color looks a little cartoony. I think other than that it does look awesome.

[Stern]

The Giant Rat's dark grey fur makes it stand out while on the mostly brown cave floor. The feet on the other hand are a bit trickier to solve. I decided that although the Giant Rat only appears in a cave, that it should deserve a shadow. After following this tutorial: "http://wiki.wesnoth.org/Creating_Shadows_Under_Units" I started on darkening the tail and feet so that they matched the Rat's ears. I found that the hindfoot of the Giant Rat was in fact missing its middle toe. Attached to this post is a comparison of these changes in chronological order and the current version of the graphic with a transparent background. Let me know if the feet and tail have been adjusted properly and whether or not to now continue onto animation.

[thespaceinvader]

The third one looks good to me. How do you feel about making it an attack animation and a defend animation?

[beetlenaut]

This looks great, except that I still think the tail looks wrong. I would suggest positioning it more like this:

[Stern]

I think that Beetlenaut raises a very valid point. If a rat is at rest, it will probably not be holding its tail off the ground in the manner that was portrayed in my earlier work. Therefore I applied the Beetlenaut's idea to the Giant Rat and recolored it. I think that the Giant Rat now looks more natural and relaxed. There may be some slight coloring/shading issues to attend to, but those seem to be relatively minor at this point.
I will begin animating attack and defense frames soon. My idea for an attack towards the lower right hand corner could be a jump with some biting action. Scurrying forward and biting might be more natural, but it does not elicit the right kind of movement that I would expect from meeting a Giant Rat in a cave.