A New Order units and pictures

[Darth Fool]

The colors are too flat, which makes the units look 2-dimensional. Try adding some shading to the individual colors to make them look 3d.

[Rhuvaen]

Yes, that is much better as one faction. I'm not seeing the Akladian 'fastfoot' units in that graphic, though! I hope you don't forget about them, they were good.

I looked hard at the guys with triangular hair and can now see that you tried to make some kind of topknot, right? I think it would look really cool , but you need a different colour for the cord - it's near-invisible. And some shading for the hair...

Some of these units look almost ready - good job. (although I think more artists should comment - hey, where are you Neos, Jetryls, fmunoz'es, Shadows, Aserejes, Distos?)

Like Darth Fool said, now you need to work on your shading . Make them look more realistic by using drastic shading. I can see with the green-legged guys that you started to shade them already, but the single legs are still too much of one shade. The same with all the faces, hair, clothes etc.

Also I see you're using a kind of royal blue as a main colour for your barbarians - it just doesn't look barbaric at all! Try another colour: maroon, rusty brown, pinkish-grey, yellow-ochre, or take the blue more into the purple with low saturation. They look like imperial elite in blue .

[Disto]

Well i haven't actually had much time on the forums, they're not bad but need a lot of polishing.

[wayfarer]

I´m none of the above listetd but take a look at my avatar you can use much colors and in the end the unit will look like a rainbow or you choose from the begininng 3 or 4 colors you will use them until the end and add some white and black contrasts with a brush. You will probably know something about complementary contrast some colours boost each other like orange and blue and others look very harmonic against each other. Both effects are usefull. Now it´s only up to the artist to choose the right way.

[szopen]

Sometimes I have a feeling that I am making no progress, but regres instead. I tried to made unit with morgenstern, finally i resigned and did it with sword, while reusing legs of fastfoot.

Ok, six more units. The difference between them is that three of them are lawful, while other three, while having the same stats, are chaotic.

Lvl 1: homeguard lvl 2: shieldguard lvl3 (better graphics would be nice) protector





lvl1 : raider lvl2 sturmknight (temporary name, need to find better!) lvl3: darknite (temporary name, need to find better)





Well, does have an idea (serious one) how to call these?

The heavy infantry line will be abandoned. Instead, clanmember will receive two advancements: into lawful homeguard and chaotic raider.

In addition, I would be happy for having lvl3 graphics for Lady Lorin and Gawen. for lvl1 -lvl2 Mirohidai (including ranged), and also new line of "witchers" (monster hunters). Chaotic lord would be also nice, as well as lawful lord and maybe some lvl4 unit.

[wayfarer]

May I make a swing with my limited skills?

it seems the graphic have all a lack of shading.

First you should get rid of the black lines within the graphic. Black outlines are Ok but not good. For me the green is a little bit to bright but in general I prefer darker colours. Else the bases are good it would need 5 min to aftershade them and they will look even better.

Well it´s not a perfect edit but well here is another example which is also not ready. If the shading is done right the images will look twice as good.

[szopen]

Thanks, wayfarer, for your remarks. Unfortunately my monitor (I think it the monitor fault, or maybe because I am pixel-art-blind ) causes that I fail to see the difference between the shading I did and your versions (except that they are a lot brighter). That's probably why I will be never good pixel artist

I will try later to add more contrast to the pictures, maybe the shading I use (different shades of green in legs of last units, it about four or five shades of green per leg) is not contrasted enough.

BTW, what do you all think about the chain mail? Does it look like chain-mail (sp? i mean the kind of armour) or still like buttoned shirt?

[wayfarer]

Thanks, wayfarer, for your remarks. Unfortunately my monitor (I think it the monitor fault, or maybe because I am pixel-art-blind ) causes that I fail to see the difference between the shading I did and your versions (except that they are a lot brighter). That's probably why I will be never good pixel artist

I will try later to add more contrast to the pictures, maybe the shading I use (different shades of green in legs of last units, it about four or five shades of green per leg) is not contrasted enough.

BTW, what do you all think about the chain mail? Does it look like chain-mail (sp? i mean the kind of armour) or still like buttoned shirt?

No the contrasts are good only the way you add them is wrong you are trieing to make it like Neorice single pixel per pixel it also works but it´s a lot more difficult. I´ll write something later about that and about the chainmail their is another good solution.

[wayfarer]

It seems that my edit just made your big brighter thats´s right. But you can add the contrast with the pen or you use the pencil (in gimb, Photoshop, etc) with white to add contrast this makes it easier for bigger areas (and smaller).
There is a tool in gimb I think in the english version it must be expose. With this tool you can add much more contrast as you can see in the example. the second torso is just with pencil some lines to mark the line the rest with expose.

The chainmail example here is from Jetryl. It works like 2 pixel down dark colour. 2 pixels down brighter colour. Next line shiftet. Then shading after the lightsource. the center should be lighter then the edges.
To be honest it´s quite difficult and it works mostly for bigger areas. Not something I would use everywhere.
I hope I could help a little.

So if someone with more wisdom disagrees please write it down here.

[fmunoz]

Using the technique described by wayfarer and you will get too whitish and faded images. Soft and good but not good for wesnoth.

Unit spirtes need sharp contrast. Dark edges to let them stand out of the background, and brigth colours to help you know what kind of unit it is... it should shout "I'm a 2nd level ant warrior" not "I'm a too soft pastel colours mesh of pixels which nobody can tell at first glance what kind of unit is"

You can use that technique but carefully (using a had pick shade version of the colour instead of white or black)

A good way to work with pixels is to use ZOOM x1000% or x1200% so you can see individual pixels.

A good way to pick colous is to use already used ones in another units.. you'll get good set of not too saturated (dont mind the human archers) not too faded colours.
Save the colours you are using somewhere (you will need them if you want to draw animation frames) and after that you can start using the non-one-pixel-at-a-time techniques. They are valid but you should use with caution.

[SaintDust]

i have a good question..

Where do you begin with an image?
DO you use one that is premade.

And..

How many working hours does it normaly take to make one?

[fmunoz]

It takes me 15-40 min to get image done. Extra frames takes 2-3 times less.

The hard part is just to think beforehand how your unit is going to be, even draw a doodle in a paper before hand.

I usually put another unit in a layer behind or copy it at one side to keep a sense in proportions. The spearman & swordsman were alwasy my favorite choices
I just draw with black (better or almost black) the shape and start adding the colour of each part.
There are a couple of animated gif...


These are more 1 year old and I really did a crappy job with them.

[szopen]

Hm... Another attempt at Lady lorin:

http://www.cs.put.poznan.pl/adanilecki/ ... blonde.png

She is supposed to be above 30, but not older than 40 (As usual, Ardonik and Bot-fluffy think she's 50). Not evil, but not nice either.

What do you think?

[wayfarer]

Hm... Another attempt at Lady lorin:

http://www.cs.put.poznan.pl/adanilecki/ ... blonde.png

She is supposed to be above 30, but not older than 40 (As usual, Ardonik and Bot-fluffy think she's 50). Not evil, but not nice either.

What do you think?

Looks good.

Fmunoz I must disagree with you you are a better artist than me (well perhaps not difficult) well the unit I`ve shown here looks like she has just escaped from Disney Land some wings and the Angel would be perfect. Some dark blue and green on the edges and these unit would work on every terrain in Wesnoth and with these techniques I can make units that look dark and sinister like the night I´ll prove that later. I´ve worked with the black edges before but I tried a new way and I like it better but that is personal taste.

[wayfarer]

If these unit looks like this I'll eat my hat! It´s made with the techniques mentioned above.

"I'm a too soft pastel colours mesh of pixels which nobody can tell at first glance what kind of unit is"