Добавлено: Вт Июл 02, 2013 18:21
Заголовок сообщения: Old vs New(New Horizons sprite evolution)
Disclaimer
In this topic I decided to put old and new version together to show you our work and I also will write a little background(for entertainment value) of a each unit's "ultimate body transformation"
. I didn't do all this job by myself and a lot of great guys helped me with some sprites.
We did not change any of the original Eador sprites they are only here just for comparison with the upgrade.
Orc-chief
The strongest unit among the orc race.
Let's start with Orc-chief since it's the first unit I tried to enhance. The original was good, EXCEPT for the head, I mean it was just horrible, too small, like this guy caught a good old hammer in the head(or maybe a head shrinking spell) I know that orcs are supposed to be dumb but not to that degree.
Anyway, when I was not so experienced I tried to give him a head from the original Eador:Genesis orc, which produces (version02) That did the trick, but I never was satisfied neither with the quality, nor with shape itself. As my skills grew I finally managed to make a unique head and this time I made sure to match the colour of the head to the colour of the body
Original, Version02, Final.
Wolfrider
(thanks SC for additional sprite polishing)
Since we started with them orcs, lets me introduce you to another one - a Wolfrider. You know how we called him? An orc on a poodle and boy do this wolf looked messed. Strangely enough that never bothered me, I mean poodle or not - it is the same default Eador orc clone, just put on the wolf, that's not good. So I decided to make some enhancements. First I recolored his armor, then I removed a pauldron from it and gave wolfrider another axe. This unit throws axes so I thought that he bound to have another small one. Last but not least I made this wolf more menacing. Also in the final reduction I put a wolfhead helmet on wolfrider's head to further reduce the simularity to the orinial orc unit.
Original, New
Lord of Abyss
One of the strongest units among demon race.
Okay, the original was something weird: demon-like sword-like thingy. Also look at his size, this is no lord. The creator of this mod gave me an interesting image to work with, I shrank it and so the new LoA (version01) was born. Again it was not of a decent size, not suitable for THE LORD. Some tweaks and voila he is bigger (version02). It was like two months ago. A week ago I looked at this lord and had a very good idea on how to make him more demonic, MOAR FIRE
Better and more coloful fire around his arms, coupled with burning wings and red-hot wing bones.
Original, Version01, Version02, Final
Conclave magistrate
There are four units in the magistrate but since I didn't do anything with the Scholar I left him out of this picture.
The other three units in the magistrate are Adept, Magister and Archmagister. It always bugged me that a Magister(the second unit) has a magic staff that is inferior to the Adept's. So the original idea was to just swap staves. After swapping, the magistrate units made a lot more sense, however Archmagister's staff looked kind of lame. Suddenly I got an epiphany - Astrology, these guys have the whole astrology theme around them and what is the coolest thing in astrology? The Sun of course, so I gave Archmagister the Sun staff. I was very happy with the magistrate looks. A star, a moon and the sun - very nice - I thought. Suddenly I got another epiphany
that Magister's old staff, did not really have a star, so I gave Adept a gold star on top of his staff. So here it is the new magistrate bright and shiny with a nice astrology theme
*********************************************************************************************************************
Part II
**********************************************************************************************************************
Keshik
(thanks Nalsurv for the sprite)
This is the best unit in Nomads encounters. And also this is a Horsman Archer promotion.
This is the one I really hated, I mean the original sucked in all ways possible, undefinable features, weird palette - lots and lots of gray and too 2-dimensional. When I made(version02) I was still inexperienced and this was around the time when orc-chieftain version02 was born. I also made several mistakes. First of all Keshik has more melee attack 12 than range attack 10, also by the looks of the sprite I thought that he should wield a spear. Second - if you are an old time gamer you would know where did I steal that horse
So my version was regected. For the whole two months this ugly guy remained ugly. Suddenly, Nalsurv(fellow spriter) appeard, and man, he made an AMAZING Keshik(version03), I only tweaked it a bit, added a bit of gold here, some golden horse decorations there and created a nice good looking tail.(version04)
Original, Version02, Version03, Version04
Dark Priestess
(thanks Onion for the Demoness sprite
)
A healer/mage of the Drow race.
Dark Priestess never bothered me personally, because I was never into Drow, not that I don't like them(they are a strong race) BUT they are an evil race and I ALWAYS play as a good guy
However on the closer look she is unattractive, I mean come on!!! Drow are supposed to be a seductive and graceful not ugly. If you think that sprites can't look seductive well, think again
So one of the guys Onion gave us a lot of girl sprites(because his gf said that Eador lacks women). (Demon-girl) She was supposed to be a demon unit, but demons have A LOT of units and there was no place for her in any unit pool. So I performed a dark ritual and she became a Drow
Original, Demon-girl, Dark Priestess
Veteran Slinger
(thanks Безликий(faceless) for the help)
A promotion unit for Slinger. Nothing else to add
It's a Slinger who fighted in many battles, made them gains and became a veteran and... recieved a new T-shirt(well a shirt of course). I always was like, okay it's a good sprite, BUT it's the same Slinger just with the blue shirt, that's not how New Horizons sprites should be. He supposed to be more epic and I made him epic(version02). They(other guys) said:
They(others) - Why is he in a mithril chainmail, and why does he change his hair color.
Me - Well it's not a chainmail, it's a studded leather, chainmails do not have such kind of ornament and he changed color because he is a veteran?
They(others) - It's a mithril and black hair is weird
Me - okay, it does look like a mithril.
They(others) - He is wielding a censer(incense burner swung on chains).
Me - What? It's a sling on a chain.
They(others) - What? There is no such thing as a sling on a chain.
Me - There is! It's an epic thing suited for a veteran
They(others) - Chain is weird and it's a censer.
Me - Chain is cool!
Random guy - Sling supposed to be light, so your hand won't tire so quickly.
Me - okay
So, I gave him a helmet, changed his sling, recolored his studded leather armor.(version03) After some feedback I understood that red is a poor choice(can be mixed with the original on the battlefield) and his sling was indeed looking weird. One of the artists - Безликий, drew me a decent sling with a swing motion, so finally we came up with this (version04). I also recolored him into purple.
Default Slinger, Original veteran, Version02, Version03,Version04
*********************************************************************************************************************
Part III
**********************************************************************************************************************
Sniper evolution
(thanks Onion and Irbis for the help)
A promotion unit for Crossbowman.
Yeah, man I can't even call this just sniper, I mean it's not a mere changing of sprites or beautification, it is a whole god damn evolution. First of all let me say, why I scrapped the original. It was from HoMM VI. Even though there are some sprites from other games in this mod and I think we won't be able to change them, because they are awesome and look almost too good, we do try to change as many adopted from other games sprites as we can. Version01 - well even though it has Erathian tone about it, in fact it has nothing to do with HoMM III, I just happen to make this one like that. Anyway it was not a very good sprite so it never made into any release. Version02 - Same here, generally a good idea, but small crossbow(even worse than the one that crossbowman uses) kind of awkward leg position. Version03 - always made me think of a power armor, don't know why, it was a good overall sprite but again it never made into any release. I had a lousy attempt to change it Version03A but failed. That made me really crazy, I mean this sprite was supposed to be changed and it stayed the same for two months - it is a record, even Keshik was changed in a month. I was eager to put anything into Eador, so I just could've change the original and feel like the job is done. Version04 - was all that. It came I looked at it, said it's great, even though deep inside I knew it wasn't, and I edited it to Version04A. FINALLY it made into one a new release. Guess what? It had horrible feedback, everyone complained, too big, too ugly, too weird. Okay I tried to find another one and IRBIS gave me a sprite that I always wanted to avoid for no reason - Version05. Okay I shrank it in size made bigger crossbow, changed colors to red(cause it looks cool
) and voila version Final06. Funny thing is, I got so tired of sniper I didn't feel anything when it was done, though I liked it.
Original, Version01, Version02, Version03, Version03A, Version04, Version04A, Version05, Final06.
Bandit and Cuttroat A story of two outlaws
thanks IRBIS for the Cutthroat sprite.
Bandit - a promotion unit for the Thief
Cutthroat - a promotion unit for the Assassin.
It was a hate from the first site. When I saw these guys I just didn't like them. Bandit was kind of "okay", but Cutthroat - or man, he was horrible, I never managed to figure out what's what. What kind of armor does he have? Is he wearing hood or a helmet? Why is he so ugly
questions, questions, with no answer. Keep in mind that Assasin is a cool unit and its upgrade is a lot more cooler, so its a badass unit which can poison you to death. So baring in mind how cool Cutthroat is and how ugly it is, I started working on him and made a sprite, everyone was happy with, they praised my work, one thing bothered me though - this guy looked too much like a Thief and too far from Assassin. IRBIS suggested another sprite as a Cuttroat. But my version made into a release. A week later when I saw this guy in the battlefield I instantly remembered IRBISES version of Cuttroat and I suggested to make my version a Bandit and his version into a Cuttroat. I polished both units and there they are. One of the best outlaws out there
Moral is - you'll never know which unit you'll end up with, you may start with one but finish with the other
Thief, Bandit, Assassin, Cuttroat.
Warrior of Darkness and Lord of Darkness
Two Supreme Undead units
What I don't like about sprites is when you can't figure out details, basically when a sprite is a mess. This is another good example of it. Even though they have those epic "Darkness" names they looked like thorny, blacky, something. I barely identify them as undead units. I said to myself, I need to change this, I found a good image on the internet and shrank it -there goes a base for the Warrior of Darkness, I modified his sword and his armor. After a while I made made a lord. The most exciting part about these guys are their armor. You will never guess what was the model for it. It was... Iron man, yeah the marvel Iron Man. The red stuff on the Lord is another funny detail. At first, I guess I took inspiration from Warcraft III, I decided to do an icy armor. I drew some icy chunks on the Lord then for no apparent reason I recolored ice into red and it looked cool
So there they are - black iron man armor on a warrior and a lord coupled with red ice on the lords armor. As always you never know what will you come up with.
Warrior of Darkness, Lord of Darkness
_________________
Спрайты к Новым Горизонтам http://eador.com/B2/viewtopic.php?t=2734
Последний раз редактировалось: Drakon (Чт Сен 05, 2013 22:44), всего редактировалось 12 раз(а)
The Guild of Craftsmen
