[FfH II Art Team Blog]

[The_Coyote]

@ esvath

with your unit under my hands it´s much easier to explain the problem, look at the attached elohim archmage and try to reread the part with the order of the objects in the nif in my answer in the tutorial thread. If you compare your nif with this nif you will see that only the order of the bip and model has been changed.

(the "wrongly" displayes effect was caused by the "wrong" order, the bip with the effect was higher in the tree than the mesh itself, parts with transparency must be the last mesh part in the tree [not ever but often not doing this causes some problems], the same can be said for particle effects)

 

[Tasunke]

I fully support Mounted Mages for the HIppus.

I reccomend simply adding the horselord promotion to the arcane line as well, giving arcane units for hippus a base move of 2.

Which makes me think ... maybe there could be some sort of arcane-type trait for the Amurites (a minor leader) where all arcane units start with the mobility promotion. It sounds like something Faeryl would be interested in as well.

 

[esvath]

Since I am a little bit over-creative these days, here is the arcane pack for Sidar. To complement the unique art for Adept, I reskin Mage (the middle one) and Archmage (the last one) for Sidar. Hope you like it (and include it in many, many modmod )

Download here

 

[esvath]

And here is the solution to Malakim gender-bending arcane units!

The mage was reskinned from geisha by Chuggi. The archmage was reskinned from Elohim Mage by seZereth. Honestly, I never realize that FfH have too few female units until now...

Download it here

 

[esvath]

And the last one for today... Grigori new adept!

Since I could not find model good enough for Grigori Archmage, I opt for something else. I reskin a new adept, and then move the (current) adept into Mage, and the (current) Mage into Archmage. I am afraid this one is not too good. Don't know why, the face is rather...unpretty.


edit : after reading Lone Wolf comment, I will keep this for some Balseraph units

 

[esvath]

@ esvath

Thank you! Your tutorials are very helpful.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I like the Malakim mages (though perhaps the Elohim owl on the archmage needs to be removed and the scaling changed a bit), but the Grigori adept is indeed strange and looks like a Planar Gate creature .

Maybe for the Grigori Archmange you need to pimp up the Mage model a bit?

 

[esvath]

And how do I remove the owl from the archmage's staff? I don't know how to do it... yet

Not planar gate... the Grigori adept suffer face injury during their apprenticeship. When they graduate to Mage, the first thing they learn is face-lifting spells. Or maybe illusion )

 

[Annex]

And how do I remove the owl from the archmage's staff? I don't know how to do it... yet

Cant you just use Blender for that?

 

[Lone Wolf]

Not planar gate... the Grigori adept suffer face injury during their apprenticeship.

It's not the face, it's the weird Sheaim-Balseraph look in general.

Maybe to create a Grigori Archmage you should just change the texture on the Grigori Mage to something more posh?

My only further request is Elven FoL priests and Malakim Empyrean priests (the latter because I want them to be an UU). With the mages being so flavourful (even more with Esvath's creations), it's kinda strange for the priests to look all the same.

Can anyone just find that old Chalid model for me? Would be nice for a Luridus UU. I guess I can just use the old Lightbringer for a Vicar UU.

 

[esvath]

Well, for Grigori Adept, how about this? I reskinned Sidar female settler using Grigori adept.dds and voila! More human-looking than the last, I dare to say

I am trying to do something flavourful with Lanun's arcane line but couldn't find something interesting. Maybe I will start looking at somewhere else. My inspiration comes and goes as she pleases.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Well, for Grigori Adept, how about this? I reskinned Sidar female settler using Grigori adept.dds and voila! More human-looking than the last, I dare to say

That's cool. I think I'll just use the Grigori Mage unit graphics for both the Mage and the Archmage, slightly upscaling the Archmage.

I may use your Adept for some other purpose, though, like an analogue of Dural Professor from modmods for the Grigori.

I think that the Divine line is the area where the graphics lack, with the boring Great Prophet reskins. Especially jarring for Elven FoL priests and Empyrean priests, whose buttons suggest something fancier.

The Sidar arcane line looks too evil/demonic, IMO, BTW. They should really have faces. All other Sidar units have them. The mist surrounding the Archmage is better of as grey, not black.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Lanun should have a weather witch

 

[kumquatelvis]

I am trying to do something flavourful with Lanun's arcane line but couldn't find something interesting. Maybe I will start looking at somewhere else. My inspiration comes and goes as she pleases.

There were multiple threads arguing about the Lanun. Some wanted a sea witch, others a sea wench, and other still a hag of some sort. If you want inspiration watch the second two Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

 

[esvath]

I finally downloaded gimp and tinkered with dds for a while today. The result? Yay! I managed to reskin OsGabella!

I know OsGabella might never show up in FfH but still the idea of OsGabella as Sheaim hero is very attractive to me. So, here she is. I tried to make her as stern as possible. Look at her frown.

Download here.

 

[esvath]

The Sidar arcane line looks too evil/demonic, IMO, BTW. They should really have faces. All other Sidar units have them. The mist surrounding the Archmage is better of as grey, not black.

Since I can tinker with dds now, maybe I will add faces to Sidar units. But, they not evil IMHO. Just shadowy...

Lanun should have a weather witch

There were multiple threads arguing about the Lanun. Some wanted a sea witch, others a sea wench, and other still a hag of some sort. If you want inspiration watch the second two Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

How about adept = sea wench, mage = sea witch, archmage = more witchy sea witch (green skin etc)?

I am not sure whether to make these units look evil or more "normal"...

 

[Lone Wolf]

Since I can tinker with dds now, maybe I will add faces to Sidar units. But, they not evil IMHO. Just shadowy...

Well, the Archmage looks acceptable, I will use it. I like your Elohim and Malakim creations/reskins the most, though.

Your Ozzy is beautiful, too, I have a temptation to add her.

BTW, regarding the instructions, don't you need to tinker with UnitArtStylesAnd CivInfos.xml, too?

 

[esvath]

Then maybe you fall in love with the Elohim mage model, as I do too . The base model is so complex and realistic that practically any skins/dds work beautifully with them. Both Elohim and Malakim Archmagi were based on this model.

Now, all I can hope is the 3d artists here will produce more and more great 3d model

 

[Avahz Darkwood]

I finally downloaded gimp and tinkered with dds for a while today. The result? Yay! I managed to reskin OsGabella!

I know OsGabella might never show up in FfH but still the idea of OsGabella as Sheaim hero is very attractive to me. So, here she is. I tried to make her as stern as possible. Look at her frown.

Download here.

Oh goodie this will have to go into my Modular mod =) Already have her there...

 

[A_Hamster]

How about adept = sea wench, mage = sea witch, archmage = more witchy sea witch (green skin etc)?

I am not sure whether to make these units look evil or more "normal"...

Aye, a buxom saucy wench be perfect for a lanun Adept! However, as they gain power, they age and become ugly and sinister-looking, the the Archmage looking like something dragged up from the depths of the sea.

Progression:
Adept: Young, sexy, still human looking.
Mage: Elderly, wizened, sinister, but still human.
Archmage: Elderly, wizened, obviously evil and inhuman.