fire dragon redo

Production of artwork for the game by regular contributors takes place here.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

User avatar
Eternal
Art Contributor
Posts: 592
Joined: March 18th, 2006, 3:50 pm
Location: Finland

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Eternal »

An update!
I'm off to serve my duty in the army but I doubt that slows my work on this very much. :P
Attachments
FireDragon_progress6.png
FireDragon_progress6.png (13.33 KiB) Viewed 14316 times
I wish I had more time in my hands.
User avatar
Eternal
Art Contributor
Posts: 592
Joined: March 18th, 2006, 3:50 pm
Location: Finland

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Eternal »

And so I return to the world of the living once more...

With less and less time spent on drawing and spriting, it's getting hard to keep up with the current Wesnoth standards. The art has gotten amazingly beautiful. Great improvement! :D
Life has given me some strange turns and various opportunities which I have grasped the moment they were presented. I wish I had more time in my hands because there are just too many interesting things in this world that I would love to explore and try out.

It makes me kind of sad to see my skills rust. To sit down and draw something only to see it's not looking good, when even my mind can't fool me, it is tough. It's like I'm writing in someone elses script, and I know what I'm trying to write but I just can't read the text. :augh:

So here is what I have for the dragon sprite:

Finished detailing everything except the wings. After a dozen failed tryouts to detail them, I got frustrated and they are in blocking state.
The tail has some trouble with the plates in the peak of the curve.
The pallette... I can't even begin to think how many unsatisfactory tryouts I had. I ended up with this pink and pretty solution. :wink:

But this is it. I don't know what to do anymore. Help me out here!
Attachments
The ever so glorious project is nearing it's final steps.
The ever so glorious project is nearing it's final steps.
FireDragon_progress7.png (15.33 KiB) Viewed 13491 times
I wish I had more time in my hands.
User avatar
Zerovirus
Art Contributor
Posts: 1693
Joined: July 8th, 2009, 4:51 pm

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Zerovirus »

Oh my god you are awesome.

Some of the parts look like they could use stronger outlines, such as some plates on the tail that blend together and the back leg.

EDIT: Actually, there's a large discrepancy on outlining over the sprite in general. The tail is quite strongly outlined while the body and back leg generally are less stark.
User avatar
thespaceinvader
Retired Art Director
Posts: 8414
Joined: August 25th, 2007, 10:12 am
Location: Oxford, UK
Contact:

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by thespaceinvader »

I still can't shake my dislike of how chunky the front claws are, particularly his right/our left. I think they'd look better more blade-like, they're very round now. There's also quite a lot of banding in the chest/neck scutes (now that jet's made me aware of it, I can't stop seeing it...). Other than those and the minor niggles you and zero have mentioned this is looking great.
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
User avatar
Zerovirus
Art Contributor
Posts: 1693
Joined: July 8th, 2009, 4:51 pm

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Zerovirus »

I think it's more the discrepancy between the two front claws; the leg closest to us has huge claws but the one farther away has most of the claws hidden by perspective and overlap making it look more reasonably sized. EIther one would be fine for me but the difference is what's making people confused, perhaps. In addition, the further claw and closer claw don't match up in perspective; the closer claw seems more from an aerial view whereas the farther claw is more of a side view.

Still, a bit late for me to be coming up with all these niggles. Shoulda signed on at the beginning of this voyage.
User avatar
Eternal
Art Contributor
Posts: 592
Joined: March 18th, 2006, 3:50 pm
Location: Finland

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Eternal »

Oh, damn. I forgot to colour the lines of the tail. Fixing!

Perspective with a sprite this size is very hard to tackle. I could try to test what those fruther claws look like when matched with the closer ones. And I'll try to de-chunkify them.

But I'm not sure what tsi meant with the banding... You mean those neck scutes are awfully aligned?
I wish I had more time in my hands.
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Jetrel »

I am actually working on a tweak, I've just gotten horribly sidetracked. :doh:
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Jetrel »

:| Still not done, as you can see on the tail, but I have to hang up the stylus for the night.

Shifted up the shoulder anatomy to give it more of an imposing "bull-dog" type build. I still might want to pull-in that far arm (towards its elbow); something's funny about the positioning, still. I might also make the belly "scutes" less geometrically stylized.


For anyone who cares; you can see on the tail, how I block in a highlight, and one-or-two other tones, without bothering with outlines. It's a "painterly" approach to doing sprites. Many sprite artists work by doing line-art and then coloring-in the line art; this is a different way, which has some ups and downs. One upside is that it definitely seems nicer when it's being used to block texture on surfaces.
Attachments
FireDragon.png
FireDragon.png (12.83 KiB) Viewed 12976 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Eternal
Art Contributor
Posts: 592
Joined: March 18th, 2006, 3:50 pm
Location: Finland

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Eternal »

Bulky! I like what you did to the scutes. The old ones were horrible. :D

But the neck is confusing me... I guess it has something to do with the far arm positioned like that, but I'm not sure. He needs bigger horns now that he looks so bulky.
With increase in size, the wings are starting to look too small for him to actually fly with them. Do we increase their size as well?
And now that I look at them, at least the far wing needs to be moved closer to the neck. Looks like his right wing is sprouting from behind the shoulder, as supposed to, whereas the far wing looks like it comes out from between his lower ribs.

I wish to play around with this one. First thing when I get home today.
I wish I had more time in my hands.
User avatar
thespaceinvader
Retired Art Director
Posts: 8414
Joined: August 25th, 2007, 10:12 am
Location: Oxford, UK
Contact:

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by thespaceinvader »

Let's face it, in order for him to fly his wings would need to be about 20 times the size they are now. Something the size of a house simply doesn't fly - so get them to look right, don't worry about actually making him look like he'd be able to fly IRL.

I think making the chest look a little wider would be a good plan, that's contributing to the slightly odd feel to the position of the far foreleg. I'd also like to see the belly scutes extend up the neck to the chin level. But that foreleg could also do with being 5 or so pixels further back.

I do prefer this layout considering that all our dragons are villains - it looks suitably brutish and vicious. The other one feels a little nobler and less mean in comparison, and would be more suitable if we had good-guy dragons. I'd be inclined to keep it handy, however, so that UMC authors could use it, it would be dead easy to recolour into ice dragons or what have you.
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
User avatar
Eternal
Art Contributor
Posts: 592
Joined: March 18th, 2006, 3:50 pm
Location: Finland

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Eternal »

Didn't get the horns done all the way, but you can see what's coming.
Gotta sleep now.
Attachments
FireDragon_Jetrel-edit1.png
FireDragon_Jetrel-edit1.png (17.87 KiB) Viewed 12850 times
I wish I had more time in my hands.
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Jetrel »

I moved the wing to about halfways of eternal's slide forward - it felt like his "over-corrected".

Other than that, I think we're pretty much done. Finally.




@Eternal: Mind if I post this to DA/etc with notes of your considerable involvement in making it? I think it's cool enough to show off. :D
Attachments
FireDragon.png
FireDragon.png (13.99 KiB) Viewed 12792 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
Jetrel
Posts: 7242
Joined: February 23rd, 2004, 3:36 am
Location: Midwest US

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by Jetrel »

:doh: Bouncing it off zookeeper and blarumyrran yielded this. It's meant to better center the chest plates, which, as you know, are a pain to get right. :hmm:
Attachments
FireDragon.png
FireDragon.png (14.41 KiB) Viewed 12777 times
Play Frogatto & Friends - a finished, open-source adventure game!
User avatar
thespaceinvader
Retired Art Director
Posts: 8414
Joined: August 25th, 2007, 10:12 am
Location: Oxford, UK
Contact:

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by thespaceinvader »

The lower jaw feels perhaps a little ill-defined, but otherwise I think that's a goer. And I think there may be a see-through spot right in the middle of his forehead. I'll see if I can raise pixelmind, the guy who agreed to animate it.
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
User avatar
pixelmind
Art Contributor
Posts: 53
Joined: January 21st, 2009, 8:18 pm

Re: fire dragon redo

Post by pixelmind »

That's one big bad dragon. Looks really great. Much much better than my version.

I'm still lurking in the dark waiting for the day to return ;).
Work is busy as always and I'm currently working on my own animated short movie and game as well but I'll definitely sit down and try animate this wonderful dragon.
It may takes a week or two till I find some spare time though.
Post Reply