Items

[Jetrel]

Beetlenaut, semitransparent pixels are Evil and should be avoided whenever possible

I didn't use any at first, and then Jetryl said it needed antialiasing. I thought that he meant around the edges, which would kind of have to be semitransparent. I also thought everything was supposed to have a one pixel outline but that's apparently not the case. I guess I'm just not sure what the art requirements are (which is partly why everything I do gets redrawn).

Anti-aliasing can also happen inside a sprite, on the lines denoting various features of it.

If it's done on the edges, it does make it blend better with the surroundings, but it also creates a major maintenance burden, and makes the image "pop" very slightly less compared to it's surroundings.

[doofus-01]

I didn't use any at first, and then Jetryl said it needed antialiasing. I thought that he meant around the edges, which would kind of have to be semitransparent. I also thought everything was supposed to have a one pixel outline but that's apparently not the case. I guess I'm just not sure what the art requirements are (which is partly why everything I do gets redrawn).

Anti-aliasing can also happen inside a sprite, on the lines denoting various features of it.

If it's done on the edges, it does make it blend better with the surroundings, but it also creates a major maintenance burden, and makes the image "pop" very slightly less compared to it's surroundings.

So, the take-home message is... Items should "pop" so don't use any anti-aliasing on the edges, but don't use a one-colour outline? Scenery may be different, because it should blend somewhat, and the edges can be anti-aliased?

[doofus-01]

If I'm going to vent on the heaving animations, I suppose I should try to do something useful. There are still a few images in the core folder that really show their age, I think the green cloak and the barrel are two of them.

I guess the barrel isn't really finished, but if there are any comments, I can still make adjustments. The perspective is clearly different.
EDIT: Some variations for the barrel. It's mostly the same image, but the top is different, so a bunch of them on the screen might not look so strange.

[tekelili]

Spoiler:

battle-axe.png (1.86 KiB) Viewed 8090 times

halberd.png (4.06 KiB) Viewed 8090 times

shield-reflective.png (1.35 KiB) Viewed 8090 times

greatsword.png (1.08 KiB) Viewed 8090 times

longsword.png (1.16 KiB) Viewed 8090 times

I have done a quite large "download add-ons/steal images" task. I found a lot of acceptable ones, among them a few looked to me speceally good, so I am posting them, just in case they could be mainlained (I dont own any of this work, all come from add-on server).

[tekelili]

Sorry for double-post, I have no clue how solve 5 files attacment limit.

Spoiler:

hammer.png (1.32 KiB) Viewed 8088 times

bow-wood.png (792 Bytes) Viewed 8088 times

baneblade.png (1.66 KiB) Viewed 8088 times

helmet.png (1.53 KiB) Viewed 8088 times

swordbeam.png (2.19 KiB) Viewed 8076 times

[pauxlo]

@Tekelli: I think your images would be more useful if accompanied by at least the add-on name in which you found them, better even the name of the author, to be able to include due credit for them.

[tekelili]

@Tekelli: I think your images would be more useful if accompanied by at least the add-on name in which you found them, better even the name of the author, to be able to include due credit for them.

No way I can do that. Not only I lost track of add-on for each image, also I am not only one "stealing": all those images are in several add-on, because as better is an image, more add-on developers reuse them.

By the way I noticed 2 comon mistakes in lot of add-on developers (I mean, they would enjoy 2 simple advises):
1- They have the shadow often to se instead nw. (I rotate them with Windows visualizer).
2- Lot of item images have 50x50 and are displayed wrongly when user zoom or unzoom (I BLIT them at x,y=11,11 in a 72x72 blank).

[SkyOne]

@Tekelli: I think your images would be more useful if accompanied by at least the add-on name in which you found them, better even the name of the author, to be able to include due credit for them.

No way I can do that. Not only I lost track of add-on for each image, also I am not only one "stealing": all those images are in several add-on, because as better is an image, more add-on developers reuse them.

Ah, the second one, halbert, is probably mine from Brave Wings campaign. It should not be in the core folder, though, because it's just been combined with "staff-magic.png" and "axe.png". I just made it for the campaign a long ago, but if it is necessary, I am happy to re-draw it for the case.

EDIT: - three of others from me, but the first two should be in the scenery folder, not really items.

[doofus-01]

@Tekelli: I think your images would be more useful if accompanied by at least the add-on name in which you found them, better even the name of the author, to be able to include due credit for them.

No way I can do that. Not only I lost track of add-on for each image, also I am not only one "stealing": all those images are in several add-on, because as better is an image, more add-on developers reuse them. ... (snip)

I recognize some of those as images I drew (hammer, scimitar, shield, longsword), and I think I spent all of 8 minutes on them - they are the half-assed touched-up frankenstiens that they appear to be. Not mainline quality. If that is what's floating around in UMC-land, (I'll take tekelili's word), then maybe we need a UMC items project. Mainline seems to be dead or 'powers that be' are happy with the current images. (Does the barrel need a heaving animation?) (EDIT: That was more hostile than I intended.)

@SkyOne: You take some care of graphics in your campaigns, others are more timid. If there is some coherent demand for UMC-land artwork, let's move this to another topic in Art Workshop.



I'm not in charge, and I don't mean to hurl insults at anyone involved (you work with what you've got, nothing wrong with that), but as an art contributor, I hope nothing in the last few posts gets committed. If there is demand for something similar, we can work to do better.

[Mefisto]

I'm answering so late because only now I have some time. Doofus-01, the barrell needs some work. It has pillow shading and the plunks should apper bent and are straight. Take a look at the globe and how the meridians are shaping when you observe them from higher latitudes. Or just find some references of real wooden barrells in internet.

[Jetrel]

I feel like the new cloak is a big improvement, but the barrel is a significant regression over the current one. The current barrel perhaps could have its gamma adjusted, but is otherwise in no need of edits.

[beetlenaut]

The current barrel perhaps could have its gamma adjusted

I'm not much of an artist, but that's something I can do. As it happens, I have need of a barrel anyway. Any problem with this? Is it worth replacing?

old one on the right

barrels.png (2.96 KiB) Viewed 7336 times

[SFault]

To me the brighter looks better but it seems that the metal rings have misplaced reflection. It seems that the light comes straight from the camera but the drop shadow goes to left.

[beetlenaut]

To me the brighter looks better but it seems that the metal rings have misplaced reflection. It seems that the light comes straight from the camera but the drop shadow goes to left.

I had intended just to adjust the color because Jetrel said it didn't need editing. I think you're right though. This does look better to me. It's not pixel art anymore, but it seems like most items aren't.

barrels3.png (3.61 KiB) Viewed 7256 times

Edit: Made some minor edits.

[fabi]

Beetlenaut, now it looks like a significant improvement.