Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

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johndh
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by johndh »

Excellent work, as always. The consistent wands/staves among the various types of mages gives the feeling that they're really connected, all part of the same hierarchy. Ethiliel's costuming certainly has a distinctly elvish feel to it, rather than just a lady with pointy ears and a green dress.

However, my instinct when making a fist like that, would be to keep my arm closer to my body, where my elbow would be near my hip, kinda like this: http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/22 ... -38354.jpg. Maybe I'm wrong and that pose is totally normal, but it feels unnatural to me when I do it. If you're going for a more indignant or "cold anger" look, then leaving her hand on her hip like in the neutral portrait might actually look great, but I don't remember her dialog offhand so I can't really say if that would be fitting or not.

I probably wouldn't have noticed the outline on Hylas' beard, but it's bugging me a little bit now that it's been pointed out. :hmm: Oh well.
It's spelled "definitely", not "definately". "Defiantly" is a different word entirely.
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homunculus
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by homunculus »

oh, well, the posts that say that the neutral and mad ethiliel look like different people, but can't put a finger on it, do you have caucasian faces anywhere nearby?
no?
i think that is why you cannot put a finger on it.
in the neutral version the cheeks seem to be flat and low, in the mad version the cheekbones become high and prominent, which i would call caucasian.
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lol, maybe it is better if i don't say what i did, because i did something really truly horrible to that picture.
and i do not make any claims that i know facial anatomy extremely well, if i didn't mess up in a major way it was a lucky coincidence (but i probably did).
just got bored with reading the same thing over and over, and posted it for the heck (and fun) of it.

if kitty is getting depressed by the nitpicks: you wouldn't get any if people would not stare at your portraits long enough to notice them (e.g. her right arm, which is almost completely obscured by the cloth).
which means that people like to look at what you draw.
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Tet
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by Tet »

Well I like the original more.
Why? The altered version looks more hurt than angry. The nose got mixed up. The cheek shading is not necessary.
Actually people can look quit differently, if they change their facial expression.

If you don't believe me go to the mirror and make some funny faces.
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SouthernOracle
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by SouthernOracle »

Perhaps the reason they look different is we see more jaw-line and ear size in the profile than we can in the frontal. As Tet said, people are going to look different at different angles. Other than a minuscule correction to arch the outer eyebrows similarly (even though one is in frown mode), nothing really needs to be done in my opinion.
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homunculus
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by homunculus »

i cannot help noticing that, as people said they look like different people before, they are now trying to reason that they look same, in such way that it might need some clarification from my side.

1) i never intended to replace kitty or take over the portrait.
2) nor did i say any of the two portraits were bad.
3) nor did i say that they should be corrected, kitty decides that, and where time is best spent.
4) i do not believe grimaces would change the characteristic shape and placement of bones (and my own face is way too ripped for reference, grimaces before mirror are of no use).
5) it was a quick mock-up showing how 'could not be same person' effect would be reduced, 'you could bring the cheekbones back a bit, etc' might have been useless without a picture.
the intention was not a perfect flawless portrait, but a quick edit to the cheeks.
6) i did almost nothing, and the reason i don't want to get into specifics was that if people started using this method without restraint and for real drawing we would probably start seeing horrors (because it tends to introduce more flaws than it corrects, like the big nose, but it is likely that there are more major flaws) in the forum that would often be unintuitive and difficult to analyze (and rather useless, because correcting those would mean a redraw anyway).

anything else that is unclear, creating myths that start to live and develop on their own?
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Tet
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by Tet »

Well different people say different things. Thats life I guess.
I did mingle a lot of Kittys portraits on my wesnoth version. Most of them were really good practise for me. It makes you look on the work in far more details. Which helps to appriciate the technical skills even more.

If you want to alter a face on your private version of wesnoth.Just do it. I did it a lot myself.
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kitty
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by kitty »

And five months later I am back… :D

After finishing my master's degree I've got a bit more time on my hands and I hope to finish up The South Guard pretty quickly – actually I just finished shading both versions of Urza and the two missing variants of Deoran.

What important/amazing things happened while I was gone?
And any input on which campaign I should take care of next?
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monochromatic
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by monochromatic »

kitty wrote:And five months later I am back… :D

After finishing my master's degree I've got a bit more time on my hands and I hope to finish up The South Guard pretty quickly – actually I just finished shading both versions of Urza and the two missing variants of Deoran.
Congrats! Both these portraits look amazing! Really wonderful job! :D
kitty wrote:And any input on which campaign I should take care of next?
Is anyone doing Eastern Invasion? If not, I think it would be amazing if you did it!
EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize that it was already being done..
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zookeeper
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by zookeeper »

Great! So are these versions of Ethiliel, Gerrick, Deoran, Urza and Hylas ready for commit? It's been a long time and I don't think you've declared Ethiliel finished, so I'd like confirmation on whether these are indeed the final versions.
Spoiler:
kitty wrote:And any input on which campaign I should take care of next?
Well, there really aren't many left... there's UtBS, but since the desert elf redesign hasn't been done yet and probably won't for a while, so those should probably still wait.

LordBob's doing Sceptre of Fire, so that's covered. Also Valkier's doing NR, Ellisae's doing EI and DUHH's doing THoT, so if we assume that portraiting hijacking is off the table then those are covered as well.

Maybe SotBE? Those were intended to be superceded at some point in the future, and AFAIK no one else is planning on doing that anytime soon. That'd be 13 portraits.

Lastly, as always there's quite a few core monster units still without portraits, and a bunch of other units which should get better portraits eventually.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by thespaceinvader »

I'd be sad to see SotBE replaced, I'm not sure it's really warranted - but it could be done if you're really desperate. That, and I could well be nostalgic for the first actually-decent work I put into the game.
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by Boucman »

Maybe some Khalifate portraits ? or is it still too early for that ?

are we sure of the weapons they use ? or is there a possibility that some of them have to change for balance purpose ?
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zookeeper
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by zookeeper »

thespaceinvader wrote:I'd be sad to see SotBE replaced, I'm not sure it's really warranted - but it could be done if you're really desperate. That, and I could well be nostalgic for the first actually-decent work I put into the game.
Well I just recall that there was some sort of agreement that they should be replaced eventually, although I guess I could be remembering wrong. I don't personally see it as very important at all since they are pretty good.
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thespaceinvader
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by thespaceinvader »

Boucman wrote:Maybe some Khalifate portraits ? or is it still too early for that ?

are we sure of the weapons they use ? or is there a possibility that some of them have to change for balance purpose ?
Actually, this is probably a good point, save for the fact that I know Sleepwalker expressed an interest in doing them (and the skill, too). But that's going to be the next major art area that needs attention.
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kitty
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by kitty »

zookeeper wrote:Great! So are these versions of Ethiliel, Gerrick, Deoran, Urza and Hylas ready for commit? It's been a long time and I don't think you've declared Ethiliel finished, so I'd like confirmation on whether these are indeed the final versions.
Thanks for the info about the campaigns! And and yes Ethiliel is finished as well (it's just too long ago to touch her again..). Better get that whole thing done than dragging it out.
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Re: Kitty's random stuff: The South Guard

Post by beetlenaut »

I know that Jetryl called HttT, but that was at least a year ago when most of them needed work. Now that it's the only one not being worked on, he might let you do it. You could ask.
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