SciFi/Fantasy Unit Graphics

[tanelorn]

Woa! I can't wait to see those miscreant minions of Mordor too! Woohoo!!!

[curtsibling]

Some freaks from frosty fantasy realms...

I was tweaking some fantasy units of my own, and I hope fairline is not too offended
that I borrowed a few elements of his uber-creations to enhance a few of these...!

In this little compo I have various units from four different races:



Units 1,2,3 = A Skeer Crusader, and Death Nuns.
Unit 4 = A Daargan Housecarl.
Units 5,6,7,8 = A Stavark Assassin, Guard, General, and Priestess.
Units 9,10 = A Khaarovian Trader and General.
(Khaarovs are the Humans in this scenario...)

My apologies to fairline that I am such a cheeky booger and plundered his work.

But his pixels are so inspirational...!

[fairline]

Fantastic

I can't see why you have my sig on them C. - they're new creations, and superb ones at that

New version of Bitterfrost in the offing?

[curtsibling]

Cheers, guvnor!

Well, they are sort of derived from yours, even on a small scale,
and nonetheless the swords and small details are defo from your units...
...And I just consider it good form to credit the orginator of a tweak...

PS
Yep - A new fantasy scen, set in the Bitter Froth world!

[Varwnos]

Very impressive units

There should be a tutorial about how one can make such a thing

[curtsibling]

Catfish's Cave is the place to go!

[Varwnos]

Where is Catfish's cave?

[curtsibling]

Try here!

http://users.tpg.com.au/jpwbeest/

[curtsibling]

Some more units from a new fantasy project...
Here come the traders!



From the top to bottom, we have:

Unit 1 = Khaarov Trader and his Vorax assistant.
Unit 2 = Stavark Countess and her Kaneg advisor.
Unit 3 = Daargan Merchant and an urchin helper.
Unit 4 = Skeer Trader and his lizard flunky.

Plenty of weird and wonderful characters in this one too!

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by curtsibling

Yep - A new fantasy scen, set in the Bitter Froth world!

And the units are magnificent!

[Varwnos]

hm, here is an Ohmu unit

[curtsibling]

Egads!

It moves - I thought my lack of sleep was catching up with me there for a moment!

Awesome creation...!

[curtsibling]

Some familiar faces from past times and freezing climes...!



Here we have Goldfist, The Lich King, a Nedling and an Ancient...

[fairline]

Top stuff Curt

@Varwnos: That's cool. Did you use the Jasc animation software to make it?

[Varwnos]

I used Bryce 5 (recently became free) to make the model + animate it, and then created a gif using UnFreeze (also free)

It consists of 8 pics, which can be taken apart using a number of methods (for example the primitive ctrl+prtnscn) so as to freeze it into a regular civ2 unit

[tanelorn]

Wonderfull units, fellas.
Here's my two bits:
Gnolls, Wolfrider chief, heroes & Orog.

[tanelorn]

Now that I'm at it here comes another rough & ready batch of Sigmarites: Greatswords & militia

[curtsibling]

Warhammer units, I presume?

Excellent work! I was always a big fan of the Empire!

[tanelorn]

Yep, and here's the guy with the warhammer himself:
A knight of the white wolf, wrapped in wolf-pelt, demons beware!

I modded the hammer out of yours, above, hope you don't mind.

[The ANZAC]

Originally posted by varwnos
I used Bryce 5 (recently became free) to make the model + animate it, and then created a gif using UnFreeze (also free)

It consists of 8 pics, which can be taken apart using a number of methods (for example the primitive ctrl+prtnscn) so as to freeze it into a regular civ2 unit

An idea: if the entire units.gif were made as an animated GIF, would it be displayed that way in-game? That could be pretty neat!

[curtsibling]

I think CIV2's gif format is different from those that are for animated gifs...

Although I hope I could be wrong!

[jim panse]

Looking great from my point of view here

Keep them coming

[curtsibling]

More BFIII units today!

Valorous heroes versus evil incarnates!



(1) Khaarov Champion.
(2) Eastern King.
(3) Ancient Doomknight.
(4) Undead Wight.

[Sarsstock]

Beautifull units Curt, I especially love the colouring used in the Khaarov Champion. Are these 100% your creation or modifications of Gareth's work? If they're yours for the most part I'd love to know afew of your tricks for colouring highlights and shading on units.

[curtsibling]

Many of the elements are fairline's and really go a long way to make these units look great.

I like to use PSP 5 for CIV2 units...

Things like the skirts on these knights are easy to achieve, with a bit of practice.

I tend to draw the shape of the skirt, with consideration for the pose the guy will be in...I use a flat colour and magic wand it, creating a mask area...

Then I use the spray can (size 3, 100% flow) and draw the highlight areas, clicking and holding shift to spray point-to-point...When I get a nice sheen effect, I use the spraycan along the edges of the skirt to get a shadow...I build up and spray away till I get a nice look, I recommend using layers (with the mask still on) to change colour or add deeper shadows or shades with 'overlay' or 'multiply'...It is a case of trial and error, and don't be afraid to cut and paste!

My biggest tip would be to use masks all the time, they are your friend...
And also study how shines and light catches objects in real-life...This really helps with units!

[Sarsstock]

Well I'm certainly no stranger to masks and layers, the cornerstones of modern graphic production (ie Dalek Tyrany Title), but for some reason I've had trouble translating the same techniques to small scale isometric Civ II units.

One of the biggest issues I've run into is the flow of light versus shadow and how it hits an isometric unit and how to keep it consistant. A good example of this being done right is the helmet of the Khaarov Champion unit you posted earlier, do you have any tips and or secrets in regards to that?

[curtsibling]

My apologies, if I sounded a bit patronising there, Sarsstock!
Your art skills are awesome, and I didn't mean to sound like
I was making light of your understanding of draftsmanship..!

I was speaking in terms of the CIV2 unit pixel artwork, which
we all know can be a different ball game...The trickiest thing
is to make a unit look solid and with nice grading of colours.

One trick is to make sure the lighter areas are all consistent with each other and
face the one direction...Also, make the lighter pixels reach a 'pinnacle' of lightness,
from a deeper shade - One good example is to look at the shoulders and belts of the units
I made, also if you look at the skirt of the Ancient Doomknight character, I merely made a
black skirt shape, masked it, and gradually highlighted it with the spray can, until I had
reached a point where the shine of the leathery material effect was reached. Same principle
for the Champion, only I used shades of deep wine red for the skirt. The armour was cut and
pasted from fairline, and followed the contours of his details to add some extra shadows,
and I then used a colour layer to add the gold trim on the armour.

The important thing is to grade the shades of pixels to create sharp corners with extremes
of light or shadow - You are using the same principles of art as we use on the big scale,
big at a size that makes us use colour economy and be creative with the pixels....

I would say to practice with cutting and pasting a character from existing ones, and then
try to integrate the different elements and then add your own bits and colours too...

[fairline]

that's an interesting insight into masks C

I use another method, which gives similar results: I draw a solid colour, as you do, and then reduce brush opacity to 25-30% in the tool options pop-up to add and progressively build up high- and lo-lights.

[tanelorn]

Enlightening!
Mge units look so obsolete next to these
Anyway, here go the warrior priests of Sigmar & Ulric, the flaggellants & the Teutogen guard.
All modded from Fairline originals.
More Warhammers!

[Sarsstock]

Very sound advice indeed, from both of you kind gents. I'll try it out over the next few days on afew side projects I've been tinkering with on and off and hopefully the results will improve a tad.

And please Curt, no need to apologize, you weren't condesending at all my friend . The only times I get irked by someone being condesending are when the condesender isn't even trying to hide the fact that he or she is intentionally being condesending.... I can't stand those people.

So no worries and thanks for the tips.