Art Help Request - Willing to Trade Codework

Anybody who is familiar with me knows that I just suck at artwork.

I have need for a couple of icons and perhaps a DOM scene, if anyone is willing to go to that level of work. I'd be willing to trade code-work on lua or XML in return for the art help (assuming the code you need isn't too crazy deep hard to do).

What I need is a leader icon and a unit icon. I was able to get a fairly decent-looking WIP icon by using a jpg file and using whoward's unit creation utility to turn it into an icon, but every time I try to "enhance" the starting jpg image it just turns out aweful.

Here are the jpgs I used to create the two Icons I am using at the moment:

Leader jpg:


Unit jpg:


And these are the resultant two Icon DDS files for the 256-size icons (links to offline site):
Leader Scipio
Proconsul Unit

The icons look "kinda OK" in-game, but I'd like them to look a little better.

Mostly I'd like the unit icon to be a little less busy, and have a bit more "color" to it. The leader icon I'd also like to look a little more like the usual Firaxis-style icons, and to make him look a little more "alive". I know this is kind of a vague description of what I need, but if someone is interested in helping me out, drop a reply and we can discuss in a bit more detail before you actually do any work.

The leader is an image of a surviving statue of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. The unit icon is an image from an Imperial-era Coin, as I recall, and is a depiction of a Roman Consul being "consular".

I'm doing a re-do of Rome. Eliminating Bore-Gustus and going for something more tied to the Republican Era of Rome.

If anyone can help me out, and drops a reply, I'll likely be away from my computer for the next several hours, but I'll check back in this thread sometime this evening.

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Rob, Paoukai, etc.: I'm not sure if these kinds of requests go in the Main C&C forum or if they're really supposed to be in one of the sub-fora. If the later is true, please do move to the correct location. Sorry in advance for the extra work.

Hmm, isn't there a better picture of Scipio Africanus? The current one kinda looks like he just got.. kicked in the nuts. Just saying
Maybe this is better?


In my opinion the second image is too small. Any possible alternative?

DJSHenninger said:

Hmm, isn't there a better picture of Scipio Africanus? The current one kinda looks like he just got.. kicked in the nuts. Just saying
Maybe this is better?


In my opinion the second image is too small. Any possible alternative?

Click to expand...

That image of Scipio is definitely more colorful. Is that an image you found via google that I overlooked?

Though I did like the image of the authenticated bust because it does show the man in all his depth, I thought. And his at-home rivals did deliver him an occassional helping of "kick in the nuts" after he helped win the wars against Carthage. As I recall his younger brother was convicted by Scipio's adversaries of something or other that was a surrogate offense for "being Scipio's brother", since no Roman court of the time would have charged Scipio himself with any crime, much less convicted him.

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As far as the other image, it was the only one I was able to find that was "symbollic" that depicted a Roman Consul as a magistrate of some kind, wielding the symbol and power of the office of consul from the curule chair without trying too much to depict any one person. It wouldn't be necessary for anyone to glue themselves to that image if they were willing to help me out with the artwork -- it could just be a guide as to the sort of thing I am after.

Until someone actually good at artwork comes along, you can use these (I did use DJSHenninger's suggestion):



Proconsul

Scipio

calcul8or said:

Until someone actually good at artwork comes along, you can use these (I did use DJSHenninger's suggestion):

Spoiler :

Proconsul

Scipio

Click to expand...

Those are far better than anything I've tried so far
I'll make the required Icon Size and see how they "feel" in-game. Though unless someone such as Janboruta suddenly art-bombs an awesomely astounding image for Scipio, I think the one you've done there is a keeper.

Thanks. Trust me, I won't be offended when an actual artist comes up with something better.

Since you were so set on the original image:



And an adjustment:

calcul8or said:

Since you were so set on the original image:

Spoiler :

And an adjustment:

Spoiler :

Click to expand...

Dude! I think I love you.

How do I throw those images into a GIMP .xcf file with the background "hashmarking" that icon files normally have?

And remember to...talk...very...slowly as I am really dumb when it comes to GIMP and doing anything more advanced than re-sizing and "export as".

I think these are the correct versions:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lo29s60jouyjyho/119px-Peter_II_of_Aragon_new_flat.xcf?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6w17fohzuq7t6gu/Scipio_statue_flat.xcf?dl=0

With the .jpg's: In GIMP, choose the "magic wand" tool, and click the white area around the icon, that should select it. Hopefully, the select won't bleed into the actual icon. Then, click "Layer...Transparency...Color to Alpha". It should pre-fill with white as the color to erase (the dialog box may pup under the window, for some reason). Click "OK" and you should have a clear icon background.

Sometimes it leaves some "residue" pixels around the edges. Click the transparent part again, then click "Select...Invert" (now the icon will be selected, instead of the outside. Click "Select...Shrink", enter 1 and click OK. Click "Select...Invert" again (to select the outside again), and press the delete key. White residue gone. But now your icon is too small, so click "Layer...Autocrop layer", then click "Layer...Scale" and scale back to 172. Click "Layer...Merge Down", then "Layer...Layer to Image Size", and you should be set.

After looking at things in-game from the first two icons you did, I think I might use the 1st Scipio as the unit icon, and the older more-gravitas Scipio icon you did as the Civilization-leader Icon. But first I'm going to add-in the second set of icons to a "next version" of the mod so I can get a better feel for what I like best.

Either way, Calcul8or, many thanks. If you need some code for something, let me know. I'm not whoward and I can't play him on television, but I am getting better at lua all the time.

And if I can figure out what I need to do to get it to work, I might use the better of the two "guy in chair" icons for player notifications or perhaps for use with Sukritact's Modular City Info Stack system to signal a player when a city is being affected by the presence of a Proconsul unit.

You help people all the time, LeeS, glad to help. I may need some lua for my next project, keep an eye open.