Warmachine Mod

[HoneyBadger]

Honestly, sprites aren't that difficult to make. They're hard to make *well*, admittedly, but the more you practice, the better they get-and bad sprites trump no sprites.

[Sombre]

I don't think bad sprites trump no sprites. But either situation will stop people playing the mod. I know I don't even try stuff like that -shrug-

Hb is a good example of someone improving with practice. But a bad example of how to go about making sprites, because he uses paint and doesn't use the vanilla sprites as any sort of base. Not his fault, but not a good idea if you can avoid it.

[Edratman]

Sombre is on record that anyone can make sprites.

I am living proof that he is wrong.

What I do use often is the RGB/GBR/whatever color shift on existing sprites. Then all I have to do is some sort of half-a**ed flesh tone recoloring of faces/hands and another half-a**ed recoloring of head wear/boots/belts/weapons. It looks okay to me, but then again I doubt that I am a fair judge.

If you aim to make great new original sprites like Sombre and Amos, than you probably need to have some talent at it.

[Sombre]

I honestly don't have any artistic talent. I sucked when I started doing dom3 graphics too, it's just a matter of practice and planning. You have to have a clear idea of what you want something to look like. You have to have comparable work done by actual artists to look at (like vanilla sprites, google searched images etc). You have to establish what /not/ to do in terms of proportions and colour palettes etc.

Then you just keeping going. You can't expect to be as practiced as me Edratman, because you haven't had nearly as much practice or put as much effort in.

lch just reminded me of this old quote:

[00:51] lch: "Hey all. As you probably know, or have noticed, I'm far from a talented or trained artist - I'm just someone who decided to have a go at making graphics for Dom3 monsters and found it relaxing and enjoyable." - Sombre's words, 13-06-07

[Edratman]

Sombre, one question.

On good sprites there are hundreds of pixels(?) with subtle color differences that create shadings/shadows and other features. How is this done. When I recolor I use "custom color" to make a few slightly differnt colors, the place them individually where I think they should go. But it is very difficult, actually damn near impossible, for me at least, to duplicate the quantity of shadings and then place them properly.

What I do works on small areas like faces, weapons, boots, but does not look right on an entire sprite. The sprite appears flat, childish and inept.

[Sombre]

Well there are various ways. If you just want to change the colour of something but retain the lightness darkness etc, then you'd use some sort of colour shifting or retouch tool. I personally use Paint Shop Pro and have no idea how to use anything else.

Of course I basically do shading by hand using retouch tools and various settings of selection. PSP can making shading pretty easy for you.

[HoneyBadger]

I don't agree that it's always the best idea to modify off of existing sprites. I tried working off of some of Kristoffer's sprites, when I had the opportunity, and it was a disaster. His style is just not my style. Infact, I don't even really understand it. Sombre's is closer, but still *much* different, no matter how good I got. I could maybe work from them, but they'd look like a sloppy rip-off of his work, rather than anything of my own. Now I do agree that it's easier to get colors and looks right when you've got a set to work from, but just modifying existing sprites is blah... Ofcourse, it's a *lot* harder and more work intensive, and harder to match the style of the game exactly, but by the third Nation or so, you'll have a nice set of your own images to improve upon and modify, and it'll preserve your own artistic take on things a lot better. And-once again-*doing* is how you get better. This isn't oil painting, it's atleast as much skill and experience as it is any "natural talent".

Also, Edratman, I find that the better I get at drawing sprites, the less I actually switch between colors. I don't know why that is, but they seem to look cleaner with just strategic shading.

And Sombre, I don't know if you've checked them out recently, but I've updated quite a few of my sprites, and I think they're starting to look a little better. I've also taken your advice and finally managed to get the main picture in full resolution by using a free upload site-so thanks!

[Sombre]

You are improving badger. I did see that you have revamped some of your sprites. I'm still not sure about your style in terms of fitting in dom3 though. I think if you keep practicing and at a later date try modifying a vanilla sprite, you'll get a different result from your first attempt.

[HoneyBadger]

I know how important it is to you that the styles match up, Sombre, and I agree, it's very nice if they do, but I kind of like them to look a little different. I'm big on the idea that Nations represent different ways to look at the world, and since I'm going almost purely by memory as to how sprites in the game look, I don't consider it a failing if they *don't* quite match up-since I've got both philosophical and physical excuses to comfort me