[FfH II Art Team Blog]

FWIW, I'm pretty sure I saw that BtS will allow unique unit art for civilisations without the duplicate unit entries - yay for Sez' goal! I'd be surprised if that wasn't prompted mainly by FfH. That'll also clean up a lot of the confusing text and civilopedia entries, and make those unique unit lists consist of the ones with actual gameplay changes, so it'll just be the Clan with a huge list :)
 
well, my intention is to have all civilizations ALL UNITS UNIQUE.
Right now I normally do some units of one civ (mostly melee), before I go on to another Civ.
But I am considering doing eventually the lower tier units of all civs first (well at least for those civs which I am responsible for), so you get a distinctive start.
But this will take time ;)

I hope you dont have anything against it?

Heh, I was just thinking that the Malakim warriors were looking sort of bland, and hoping that you'd eventually get around to awesome-izing them. :D
 
Is there any unit art the art team isn't planning to create themselves?

Or, asked another way: Will unit art created specifically for FfH by the civ community be accepted for use in future versions of FfH? If yes, what units are presently not being created or conceived by the art team?
 
Is there any unit art the art team isn't planning to create themselves?

Or, asked another way: Will unit art created specifically for FfH by the civ community be accepted for use in future versions of FfH? If yes, what units are presently not being created or conceived by the art team?

We would love to get unit art submissions from the community. But I will warn that included art needs to look like it fits in with the rest of the art so thats a pretty high bar.

If you would like to try how about one of the following:

1. Infernal Mage replacement (demonic mage)
2. Balseraph Scout (lesser carnival worker)
3. Revelers (be creative, remember they are blind)
 
Is there any unit art the art team isn't planning to create themselves?

Or, asked another way: Will unit art created specifically for FfH by the civ community be accepted for use in future versions of FfH? If yes, what units are presently not being created or conceived by the art team?

like Kael said,
you are very welcome to submit and show here what you created, but please ensure the quality is high and it fits by means of colour, background and flavour.
So, I suggest you do it in a wip-screenshot style, so you can get feedback on your direction.
And try to not use any copyrighted material please!
 
Hmm, I do not know were to post this sugestion so here it goes.

Althou I do not like 'borrowed' material in any form, but since you already have Bloodthirster starting as Hyborem, why wont you take the Eldar Avatar of Khain as model for the Avatar of Wrath?





[I will try to find an animated git of those two fighting together - got it :)]
 
@SeZ: Yeah, I'm hoping to see Ploe's interpretation of the Valkyrie, too, but I finished mine a while ago; I just haven't posted it yet due to ISP issues.

I'm posting an image of what I have so-far. I'll add the zip later. The files can be found here. Once its up, you guys can tweak it as much as you want. As long as it's vaguely recognizable, I'll be happy.

The Sudarshana is meant to be a Malakim replacement for the Archer line. That screenshot is a bit old, though, as I made the chakram texture a lot less blue and more glass-like since then. Optimally, I'd have a first-strike animation of him throwing one of the chakrams at an enemy, but that's beyond Blender's (and my) capabilities. The White Mage staff has also been reverted to the default leaves staff, since I hated the hearts-and-wings design in the end.

The Sheaim Conjurer was based off of Magus from Chrono Trigger (hence the blue hair and scythe), but I gave him normal-looking skin so he'd match the Eater of Dreams more closely (there's an alternate skin that looks much closer to Magus' design). I don't know if I should keep the blue hair or not. :lol:

The design on the back of the Malakim Prophet is one I made up for the "Path of the Wanderer", a Lugus religion based off one of Qes' posts a while back. I tried to use the Malakim flag symbol instead, but I settled on the Path. Like the Sudarshana, this one has darker skin than the default unit to go with the desert life theme, but I have caucasian skins for both that fit in better with the existing units.

The C'thulhu (sp?) Dreadnought at the bottom was one of my first totally-from-scratch units. To be honest, I'm not sure if the model works in civ yet, but it loads in NifSkope and NifViewer, so it should work. ;)

And the last one was a Riding Golem made entirely of props that I was going to attach to a Warrior's skeleton. That didn't go so well, so I'm re-doing it with the Swordsman model underneath. The rider is actually part of the texture on the torso, something that came out quite nice, actually.
 
I've just been playing a game as the Ljosalfar with the Fellowship of Leaves religion. To be honest I've included Blaze's Maxmod with it so that elves can bloom forests on their own city centers.

Having a forested city center looks cool. However, having a metropolis of grass huts doesn't look cool.

I imagined having a cityset for the Fellowship of Leaves that looks like Lothlorien, golden trees. The existing buildings of the FoL are mixed in with green trees, so I imagined golden and green trees mixed together as well. I also imagined a lot of nice looking towers poking up from the trees so that people could spend their time gazing out on the treescape.

I haven't been able to find any golden trees anywhere, but I was able to find a tower-heavy cityset (ganart's eastern renaissance cityset) and hacked it into my current FfH2 game.



I thought the well-spaced towers poking out through the trees was a cool look.

Is there any chance that the Fellowship of Leaves building art can be changed from grass huts to towers + golden trees? I have thought about trying to do it myself but I'd have to start from zero knowledge of modeling which might take a while. If I did could it be considered for addition into the real mod? Or could someone else do it?
 
I've just been playing a game as the Ljosalfar with the Fellowship of Leaves religion. To be honest I've included Blaze's Maxmod with it so that elves can bloom forests on their own city centers.

Having a forested city center looks cool. However, having a metropolis of grass huts doesn't look cool.

I imagined having a cityset for the Fellowship of Leaves that looks like Lothlorien, golden trees. The existing buildings of the FoL are mixed in with green trees, so I imagined golden and green trees mixed together as well. I also imagined a lot of nice looking towers poking up from the trees so that people could spend their time gazing out on the treescape.

I haven't been able to find any golden trees anywhere, but I was able to find a tower-heavy cityset (ganart's eastern renaissance cityset) and hacked it into my current FfH2 game.



I thought the well-spaced towers poking out through the trees was a cool look.

Is there any chance that the Fellowship of Leaves building art can be changed from grass huts to towers + golden trees? I have thought about trying to do it myself but I'd have to start from zero knowledge of modeling which might take a while. If I did could it be considered for addition into the real mod? Or could someone else do it?

We are planning to do civ speceif city set (in a near future (well, it depends of your conception of near :D )). Those religions city set are a placeholder solution.
 
UPDATE: 31. o5. o7

The competition ended!
see end of post

Ok, guys, here is a small competition for everyone who wants to take part :)
Edited!

The Elohim Monk and Elohim Warrior are included in 0.22
They are the Units the competition is about


Ok, and now the competetive part:
Try to take some cool screenshots (I suggest flying camera for this) and select the best (most action) screenshot or even better get artistical and maybe put parts of some screenshots into a composition or modify it in any way you think will improve it (perhaps you end up with something that is more a wallpaper than a plain screenshot). After that paste it as one picture here.

So, we are looking for any kind of contribution, let it be a screenshot, a composition, a drawing or even a nice gifanimation or video.
Points will be given for action, creativity and atmosphere.

And, just to make sure:
At least one of the new units has to be included and if you want to use pics from the net for a composition, try not to use stuff from other games, thanks.


As this is my first try of getting some live into the public art section, i think we should set a deadline on next wednesday the 30th and see how much contributions (if any at all :) ) there will be.

After that the art team will find the best one and the winners picture will stay in the first post and titled with winning picture of the first competition ;) (or maybe someone comes up with a better prize :)).

If this turns out to be fun, maybe we can do more stuff like this in the future. And any kind of ideas and suggestions for improving a competition like this are very welcome


to enter flying camera mode:

go to your civ4 directory
then open the _civ4config.ini
then use the find button looking for "camera" or scroll down manually until you found "allow camera flying"
set AllowFlying= from 0 to 1
Then ingame, when you ant to enter or leave the flying camera mode press Alt+Ctrl+F simultaniously

UPDATE: 31. o5. o7

The competition ended!

In a way Pi has won the competition (his pic was cool and no one else submitted a pic which obeyed the rules ) ;), but I think its better to call this a testrun and start a new one (with much more time for everyone to contribute, clearer goal and better prized) in some days (I expect weekend or start of next week).

I will try to realize an idea and if it shows to be exciting and reproduceable with gimp, I will set it up for a competiton and the best artists will for sure get a place at the homepage.
And the winner may even decide what (and how) we create next, artwise that is. Or if he wants he can even request his alter ego (like a model with his face or whatever) being implemented in the mod in form of a unit (or respectively face of a Unit).
We will think of something motivating ;)

In the meantime, take a cam with you if you go for a walk through the woods or countryside.
And make sure to download gimp and get familiar with its tools ;)
And post comments about a reasonable prize you would like to earn for your best submission.
I could try to create something like a small tutorial for the next competition if people want it (just to show you that you can achieve great stuff with small effort)

WINNING PIC:
 
How do you enter flying camera mod?

ok, go to your civ4 directory
then open the _civ4config.ini
then use the find button looking for "camera" or scroll down manually until you found "allow camera flying"
set AllowFlying= from 0 to 1
Then ingame, when you ant to enter or leave the flying camera mode press Alt+Ctrl+F simultaniously


hope you ill use it to get some cool screenies :)
 
We are planning to do civ speceif city set (in a near future (well, it depends of your conception of near :D )). Those religions city set are a placeholder solution.

I can't wait. any time frame on some of these done?
 
Ok, guys here is something to give you an example of what I had in mind when I started the contest. It was something along this:



This is just a quick example and far from being perfect (but well I dont take part in the competition, so its alright), for several reasons:
-The perspective seems not to be right if you look longer on it
-The lighting is incorrect, due to being composed of several pieces
-The action element is lost in the green and hard to distinquish
-An big grim Ogre is missing.

But overall it is a nice pic to have a look at and with a bit work it could be a really decent one.

In general it is not hard, you need some background pics (like those plants i shot when i was on a walk here in bedfordshire ;)) and some screenshots with flying camera and then you have to fiddle them together and lie some filter or paint or whatever you want to add.
Have a try, its fun :)
 
Last day of the "contest"...

so, due to the lack of contributors, i dont know what to do.

I really appreciate any form of comment, from anyone, on this, to know what i did wrong or why it did not work.
Which will lead to the decision if we start something similar in a different, better way or if we better leave it.

Thank you.
 
All photoshoppers are busy earning money :)
You might try postponing the deadline.
The contest idea itself is nice. I like the new elohim units.
 
I, for one, figured someone more skilled would make a contribution, making anything from me useless... doesn't look like that happened, though.

(Edit: Not attempting to belittle Pi with that - didn't notice anyone had submitted something resembling what was requested.)
 
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