Ancient/Pre-Steam Unit Graphics

curtsibling · March 13, 2006, 07:59

Originally posted by barocca
i need some inspiration/help

this is my first "person" unit

the top wench is the one i am working on,
the bottom wench i made too bright

it's the hat
i cannot get it right,
anyone care to have a go?
mybe rake it back a little, add a plume too if you wish,
(it would fit with the theme)

i included the lighter version to give you some more colours to play with,
please only use the colours in the file so i can feed her back into her unit gif

i will most likely put her lighter hair back on, (i had to make the clothes darker),
so if you wanted to add back her lighter face and hair feel free.

(if you wanted to play with her weapons, make the sword a cutlass or modify the pistol or whatever - go for it)

i'll give her a shadow later

thanks
B.

I'll take a little look at this sea-wench when I get home...

(that could be quoted out of context, I know...!)

N35t0r · March 13, 2006, 09:53

Originally posted by fairline
Thanks gents

Here's some elephants, all based on Catfish's splendid African elephant icon which I brazenly stole from his site

I've size-reduced him, then turned him into an Indian elephant (big head, small ears, hump-back) and then given him the full-on ancient Indian paint job. This last icon is a taster for a graphic re-hash of Harlan's Mongols which is nearing completion.

IIRC, the elephants which were used in the ancient med weren't African Elephants (which dwell to the south of the sahara), but a diferent species(?), similar to them but smaller. They went the way of the dodo due to all the warfare in which they were used.

Sarsstock · March 13, 2006, 10:54

I believe I read once they were Moroccan Elephants, that like Nestor said went extinct due to the terrible way they're population was managed by every mediterranean power of the time.

fairline · March 13, 2006, 11:22

Nestor has it right as far as the Carthaginians went; they used the now-extinct North African species which was a much smaller version of the African. It was too small to fit a howdah on, so they rode it bareback. The Indians used the Indian elephant (suprise!) which they either rode bareback or with a howdah. The Diadochi also used the Indian elephant, generally with a howdah.

The unit is for an Indian civ BTW.

barocca · March 14, 2006, 07:26

five down (kinda), - dozens to go

since these are the first "people" units i have ever done i am more than happy for people to modify them and repost them (simply drop your tag into the image),
also happy to hear constructive critique's too

so if you see something you can improve on feel free to go right ahead.

the last image in this strip i am not really happy with, every time i go back and look i see another pixel i need to change.
i'd like to hang more pistols of his bandoliers, but they just clutter him up (Blackbeard/ Edward Teach)

Curt is going to have a go at improving number 3's hat
(Anne Bonney)
(i just can't seem to get it right)

(cropped the unit.gif file - normal size)

and 2x magnification

cheers,
B.

curtsibling · March 14, 2006, 09:34

I plan to post up something within a few hours for you, Barocca!

curtsibling · March 15, 2006, 01:40

My humble edit of Barocca's piratess...

Cyrion · March 15, 2006, 01:41

@ Barocca & curt : very very nice!

barocca · March 15, 2006, 02:36

Originally posted by curtsibling
My humble edit of Barocca's piratess...

i know the smiley i need, it' starts like this one,

, then he topples backwards and rolls around like a plate - i cant find it

thats more than a tweak, thats a complete makeover,
you gave her B..Bo..um..Body(lol) and a face, hair tweak, weapons tweak, boots, clothing...a complete makeover and then some,

i have my work cut out for me to bring my other up to scratch
(i have made a couple more today - sigh - i am an amateur...)

many many thanks, and inspirational TOO!
lots of advice in that simple pic

B.

if you are not sure what i am raving on about, download the file below, open in paint or photoshop (copy from paint to photoshop if photoshop gives any trouble) and check the differences - you'll see what i mean about inspirational)

curts version is the top image, mine is the bottom

barocca · March 15, 2006, 03:45

now here's wench #3

the top left is where i left off,
the next 3 are tweaks after seeing curts astonishing work with wench #1
(wench#3's left hand is meant to be that flat, as you can see she was always intended to be issued weapons)

wench #2 (blue and white) i'll work on later - almost time for sleep

i think tomorrow is tweaking the others i have already made,
as always there is room for improvement, all ideas welcome

cheers,
B.

fairline · March 15, 2006, 12:06

These are pretty cool Barocca

Did you draw them from scratch or are they rips?

barocca · March 15, 2006, 18:19

oki - what qualifies as a rip?

they are not cloned from other civ units or other games,
but they are not scratch drawn either,

it does take around 3 to 4 hours to make each one though. (i'm still learning)
by now i could probably draw some completely from scratch,
but i'm too chicken yet...

(if i clone some i'll let you know - i do have a couple of candidates for cloning in mind - from over 3000 units in over 70 unit.gifs i could find only a handfull that i can clone into pirate units i may be happy with)

Eivind IV · March 16, 2006, 01:43

Indeed nice!

But what's up with the female pirates?

curtsibling · March 16, 2006, 01:46

I am glad you like the tweaks Barocca!

If you want to jam on any more of these units, I
would be delighted to add some pixels to the mix.

barocca · March 16, 2006, 04:00

here's the current lot,
i am afraid i think little can be done for blackbeard on the end (i think i will have to start all over)

i did some work on the blue/white female, so i included both versions,
the red skirted piratess, i included all three of her versions

i made a new one today, after spending some time tweaking

the lady you have already tweaked is pride of place at the moment

this IS the unit gif, pallette added and file cropped,
(getting the pallette into the working file is a favourite trick of mine)

the rows of black and blue down the bottom are spare colour slots, just be aware that if you assign a colour to those spare slots check all existing images carefully to make sure the dumb (lazy) software did not use a duplicate black or pale blue from the spare slots in an existing image

(i am certain you know how to edit the pallette, please update the pallette display in the unit gif for me too)

many thanks
cheer,
B.

barocca · March 16, 2006, 04:06

Originally posted by Eivind IV
Indeed nice!

But what's up with the female pirates?

i like female pirates

,

they could be unique characters - like anne bonney, mary read etc,
they could be spies, diplomats or you could have a female pirate civ battling a male pirate civ...
:-)
B.

Dr Kellogg · March 16, 2006, 05:02

I really like your pirates, particularly their detailed and colourful clothes!

barocca · March 17, 2006, 06:59

this one is Not Finished,
(of course if Curt wants to take him and play with him, by all means)

i have spent SIX hours on him so far, it's late, i have been awake 32 hours (work and other real life issues) and i am tired, so i am taking a break.

this one came from a "cartoony" photo of a model figurine by a company called the foundry, i found the image when i was researching pirates, it is on a few websites displaying examples of the foundry's work
(i have not yet BEEN to the foundry, i simply used the image i found)

after i cut away the background and the figurines base this is what i'm left with

tons of detail, and way too big.

I keep this image open in photoshop as a reference while i am working on the unit pic.

(not all my "steps" are illustrated here, i make backup copies of the image all the time, so if i dont like the way part of it turned out i simply go back to the backups)

(2x magnification)
the first thing i have to do is shrink him down and import him into my "construction" unit gif.
looks ugly now, thats why i keep an original open

then i worked on his head/face/hat,
next i pick a body part and tinker with it, i often copy that part seperately and work on it, then copy it back over the unit - (rinse and repeat).
in this case i worked on his right arm. sleeve, then cuff,
next i came back across the body filling in his over coat and waistcoat,
i did some early work on his left sleeve and started down the body and on his sash,
his left lower coat i decided was a right mess, so i gave him a cutlass - every pirate needs a cutlass,
then i tweaked the cutlass and continued on his lower left coat and thigh protectors, and his lower right coat,
next came his boots, these i copied from my pirate with the blue trouser and red jacket above,
i could not get them to work correctly so i made a reverse image and gave the new guy two right boots,
tweaked them and the trousers and a few random pixels,
finally gave him some new pistols and did some more on the left sleeve and cuff
- i am NOT totally happy with him at the moment,
but sleep/rest first, then play some more in the morning.

cheers,
B.

EDIT here's the finsihed product, a few tweaks, buttons, shading

here's the normal size unit gif (of the overnight version, not the final one)

Cyrion · March 17, 2006, 08:59

Very nice!

And very interesting to follow the whole creation process!

tanelorn · March 17, 2006, 09:30

Very nice indeed

It is actually very similar to what I did (mostly) with the warhammer units in the sci-fi thread.
To speed the Catfish process however I sampled colour from the original and hand-painted the detail... This works fine for prominent features like the eyes,nose, buttons, cloth folds etc.
Why don't you give it a try?
Let me guess what the loot is... slave girls?

barocca · March 19, 2006, 00:06

@tanelorn and @fairlane
clones there be...

i have cloned some of your units into pirates, some of them i combined with mine (legs/boots),
one i added curt's neat hat to,
some i combined two (or more) of yours,
only a handfull all up though, i can maybe squeeze 3 or 4 more out of your enemies of rome and civil war units
(i could clone a few others too but they will be almost identical to the ones already done - no point in too much duplication really)

a few of your units will slot right in, settlers and priests,
i'll add them in when i finish,
this is not a scenario unit set, as such, it is a collection, some of which i am going to use for a scenario, but mainly they are for anyone else who wants to make a 1700's era scenario featuring pirates.

the very last one (when you look at him 2x mag) is very "village people", but hey, i wouldn't mess with him.
And Ghengis Khan made a very neat pirate, all he needed was a hat and a cutlass.

[edit]fairlanes chinese rifle, from imperialism, fits the theme very nicely!

seeing these guys are created from your originals if you see pixel or ten out of place and want to tweak them please go right ahead.

i have another handful of units that i can clone or that will fit right into the mix, they have no tags in them, they came from different scenario's, how do i credit the authors?

cheers,
B.

jim panse · March 19, 2006, 02:42

Looking good

curtsibling · March 19, 2006, 07:29

Certainly the best gang of privateer cut-throats I have
seen in quite some time...And the tutorial is top notch!

Great work!

tanelorn · March 19, 2006, 10:21

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum !

Sarsstock · March 20, 2006, 18:59

Its been a while since I've contributed to the unit threads (in part because of a hush hush work in project) so I thought I'd offer these up for the community's enjoyment. They're all mods from Gareth's "Enemies of Rome" Carthagian Spearman, for which I had the inspiration after a hundred or so hours of playing Eivind's "Colonialism II".

A North American Aboriginal Warrior, a Zulu Warrior, and a generic West African Warrior.