Heir to the Throne: Portraits

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kitty
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Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by kitty »

I got the go ahead to start working on a set of new portraits for Heir to the Throne from Jetrel. I'm a bit anxious since Jet's original ones have been around for so long and become quite iconic...

Anyways, here are first versions of neutral Konrad and Lisar (I plan at least angry and happy variants for both of them - would be any more warranted?). Both are, on Jet's request considerably older than the current iterations, they are supposed to be in their early 20s.
Lisar is basically a more realistic version of her former self, but the need to put some serious armour on her made me change her outfit completely.
Konrad on the other hand is more of a re-imagination, Jet asked for curly hair and I plan to keep his hair colour. Outfit-wise he's pretty much your typical young knight, but given he's been brought up by elves the ornaments are a bit floral and his tunic will be some kind of shimmery green-ish cloth.
Both of them will probably get new sprites (that's quite exciting for me, since the process is exactly the other way round most of the time!)!
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konrad1-neutral.png
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lisar-neutral.png
lisar-neutral.png (146.94 KiB) Viewed 24690 times
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Kraus
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Kraus »

Just saying: this project will be beyond interesting to follow, since HttT is, as you said, easily the most iconic Wesnoth campaign, and I'd love to see what you guys can work out of it.

It's very weird, but interesting, to see the old characters with so realistic and proper outifts after the simlistic and childlike anime look from before. I don't know if this is completely intentional or not, but if I wouldn't know better, I would have no idea these are actually Konrad and Li'sar.

It's a good touch to make them look very little alike, because of the plot twist. :)

I personally would like to see Konrad even more elf-like in his outfit, because he was completely surrounded and immersed by an elven society. This is what made the campaign a bit different, anyways, but it was never implemented much by anything else but unit choices. Until the end of the campaign it felt a bit weird to be playing basically two different factions in a single army, where the heroes don't really mix with either. The heroes should, in my opinion, be the arbitors if two factions are used in a single army, Konrad being the hero obviously in this case.
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kitty
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by kitty »

Kraus wrote:I personally would like to see Konrad even more elf-like in his outfit, because he was completely surrounded and immersed by an elven society. This is what made the campaign a bit different, anyways, but it was never implemented much by anything else but unit choices. Until the end of the campaign it felt a bit weird to be playing basically two different factions in a single army, where the heroes don't really mix with either. The heroes should, in my opinion, be the arbitors if two factions are used in a single army, Konrad being the hero obviously in this case.
That's an interesting point and I actually considered it - but then I thought they brought him up in the hope of him replacing Asheviere at some point and thus probably educated him in the way they thought would be proper for a human prince and put him in clothes that fit that role. At least that was my reasoning...
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Kraus »

kitty wrote:
Kraus wrote:I personally would like to see Konrad even more elf-like in his outfit, because he was completely surrounded and immersed by an elven society. This is what made the campaign a bit different, anyways, but it was never implemented much by anything else but unit choices. Until the end of the campaign it felt a bit weird to be playing basically two different factions in a single army, where the heroes don't really mix with either. The heroes should, in my opinion, be the arbitors if two factions are used in a single army, Konrad being the hero obviously in this case.
That's an interesting point and I actually considered it - but then I thought they brought him up in the hope of him replacing Asheviere at some point and thus probably educated him in the way they thought would be proper for a human prince and put him in clothes that fit that role. At least that was my reasoning...
Understandable. Aesthetically I just would've fancied more elven themes in the outfit, though, you know, just to make him not seem so out of place amongst the veteran elf warriors - or, as the campaign goes on, to make the elven elite seem less out of place amongst the humans.

I mean, why would a human fighter be dressed in human chain mail when he's been living all his life amongst elves. But then again, who knows? :)

And maybe the elves secretly wanted to infuse the human society with elven heritage, because, 'obviously it's better'. :)


Krausedit\\ Now that I think about it, there is a chance to choose who's going to eventually be the wielder of the Sceptre of Fire, Li'sar or Konrad - that might effectively give some space for the player also to choose either a more human oriented (Li'sar) or elf oriented (Konrad) leader at the same time. Just as a fun detail for those who like to specialise.

But I might be pushing it a bit too much at this point as it is. This is one direction that could be taken. :)
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by thespaceinvader »

I have to agree - but maybe this portrait could be reserved for later in the campaign, after he's met the dwarves. Chuck in a couple of lines of dialogue about getting him some gear fit for a human prince, bingo.
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AI
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by AI »

Li'sar is currently an elusivefoot (high dodge, negative resist, especially to blade), with some accompanying fluff in her description. Whether this is to match her current sprite/portrait or the other way around I don't know (it can probably be changed), but it's worth a thought.
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Jetrel »

@Kitty: a pleasant surprise on both of them. I really have no complaints at all. :D
AI wrote:Li'sar is currently an elusivefoot (high dodge, negative resist, especially to blade), with some accompanying fluff in her description. Whether this is to match her current sprite/portrait or the other way around I don't know (it can probably be changed), but it's worth a thought.
The other way around - I specifically requested we move away from that, and give her heavier armor so she actually looks like a commander in the field. Whether this gets reflected in gameplay stats is entirely up to the campaign designer, but it's likely that such a change would be quite low-impact. However, we are doing this to the appearance, because the current lightly clad look was originally from a sort of Frank Frazetta-style style character design, back before we had any coherent art direction. :doh: We're doing away with that entirely.

Also, everyone should be aware that I'm planning to tweak and/or redo the sprites to match kitty's portraits. Especially since the former pixeller of ours who made our current L2 lisar sprite borrowed some elements from a snes sprite, and that needs to get redone, anyways (it's possible the very last remaining bit of copyright infringement that particular person gave us, and it was waiting on a redo of the portraits).
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Frogger5 »

Excellent work, I'll have to play HttT (again) after this is commited. :D

Given the difference between the old portraits and these new ones, I hope we don't have a repeat of the whole drake sprites controversy. :roll:
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by ancestral »

It’ll be interesting to see how they look after shading, but I’d definitely be happy to see a young, spry Konrad. At the beginning of HttT, he should be turning 17 years old and Li’sar 19.
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Iris »

Jetrel wrote:(it's possible the very last remaining bit of copyright infringement that particular person gave us, and it was waiting on a redo of the portraits).
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by zookeeper »

As I said in irc, I have no complaints either; these look very good.
Jetrel wrote:
AI wrote:Li'sar is currently an elusivefoot (high dodge, negative resist, especially to blade), with some accompanying fluff in her description. Whether this is to match her current sprite/portrait or the other way around I don't know (it can probably be changed), but it's worth a thought.
The other way around - I specifically requested we move away from that, and give her heavier armor so she actually looks like a commander in the field. Whether this gets reflected in gameplay stats is entirely up to the campaign designer, but it's likely that such a change would be quite low-impact. However, we are doing this to the appearance, because the current lightly clad look was originally from a sort of Frank Frazetta-style style character design, back before we had any coherent art direction. :doh: We're doing away with that entirely.
Her resistances will have to change, but it really is a low-impact change if we compensate for it by dropping her defenses (or hitpoints, movement, whatever) a bit. Not a problem.
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by LordBob »

An amazing start ! I'd second the proposition of a stronger elvish influence in Conrad's early-campaign outfit, and keep the current one (which looks awesome by the way) for later scenarios :)

You may also want to give Lisar's cape some more attention : its folds and flow feel slightly awkward at the moment.
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by Guidrion »

Loving it! :D
Although, considering the "elvish influence" that has been discussed here, the bad shaving feels a bit strange from a guy who lived in a society where hygiene and appearance is so important. This leads me to another suggestion: a tired version of main portraits, considering that in some scenari, the fatigue is mentionned. Then, a badly shaved konrad with unkempt hair would be interesting.

Last suggestion, why not adding some royal symbol on Lisa? Considering Wesnoth is in civil war, it would make sense than both side use heraldry and symbol in a more proeminent way than before to show to who their loyalty goes. it would also be important when Ashevierists and wesnothi traditionnalists are fighting.
In her case, it could be a pin for her cape, a necklace (like classical christian cross), colored ropes around the shoulder (although it's more of an imperial feature than a medieval one...) or a tabard.
It could be the occasion to imagine the heraldry of Asheviere and her faction (completly new one or a modified sceptre of fire).
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by kitty »

Thanks for all the input!

And you're all right a slightly elvish inspired costume for the earlier scenarious would indeed be nice. But that means I'll have to do two versions of every expression I'll do. After talking with zookeeper yesterday I plan to do neutral, mad, glad and leadership plus a version with the scepter - that would mean nine (!) portraits for Konrad (and five for Lisar), that's pretty excessive but will be fun for me :lol2:

So: here is a elvish clad version of Konrad neutral (I want to try and keep the differences between this outfit and the other as minimal as possible in order to not having to do a redraw of the whole body four times...).

Plus first drafts of his mad and glad self (in human apparel).

And a reworked version of neutral Lisar, with a new cape (yes, the last one was a quick afterthought and blowing capes always look rather cheap) and some more loyalist items, namely the heraldic cords and a chiselled scepter of fire on her breastplate.

That's it for today...
Attachments
konrad-elvish-neutral1.png
konrad-elvish-neutral1.png (113.43 KiB) Viewed 24272 times
konrad-mad1.png
konrad-mad1.png (103.47 KiB) Viewed 24272 times
konrad-glad1.png
konrad-glad1.png (94.83 KiB) Viewed 24272 times
lisar-neutral2.png
lisar-neutral2.png (148.92 KiB) Viewed 24272 times
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Re: Heir to the Throne: Portraits

Post by thespaceinvader »

I think Konrad's sword hilt should be longer if you're going to show him with a two-handed grip like that. Otherwise, looking great.
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