Ancient/Pre-Steam Unit Graphics

[curtsibling]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[curtsibling]

My humble edit of Barocca's piratess...

[Cyrion]

@ Barocca & curt : very very nice!

[barocca]

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]

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]

These are pretty cool Barocca Did you draw them from scratch or are they rips?

[barocca]

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]

Indeed nice!

But what's up with the female pirates?

[curtsibling]

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]

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.