FfH2 Wallpaper

as it seems i am not able to convey my views in a way that you understand what i want to express, perhaps its the lack of english skills or whatever :)
You are completely right, i will not bring this topic up again, just let me do a final statement on this particular one, as it might be good for your future ffh art:

Originally Posted by seZereth View Post
...my best friend after seeing the wondermovies for example told me i should do movies where you see thousands of slaves building the wonder and not only an abstract picture of something. well i said, thats not my part
What I provided for the wondermovies was a simple solution to add some atmosphere that the game was lacking at that point in time - with the skillsets I have at my disposal.

Originally Posted by hexagonian
I hope you do not misunderstand me on the following statement...I'm not trying to offend with it, but to clarify where I stand.

Unfortunately, I'm not inclined to start learning to create straight animation through 3-d rendering (like the programs you use for your units), or a cell-by-cell rendering technique. I do not have the interest, or the programs themselves, or even the money to invest in those programs.

I provide artwork for the Mod mainly because I enjoy the programs I use (as well as it sharpens my skills for my actual job), as well as the process. For volunteer work of this nature, once it becomes work, then it's time to move on. And if you want to kick some money my way, then perhaps I will decide to explore 3-d rendering.

So it can be your part if you want to do it...and I am not going to stop you either. Or if anyone else has the talent or time, or desire (see if your friend would be willing to learn how to do it...), they can jump in and join the team and create those types of images.

I was not talking about any kind of 3D or animation (while Blender3D is still a free program ;)). With your technique, i thought, it would be very easy, to get a pic from somewhere with workers, which you can then mix with a pic of the wonder in a half finished form and after that the wonder is finished in the next slide and it shines or whatever. you see, no need for a 3D program, just use your technique to make the wonders a bit more "wonderlike".

And use whatever you like, like Kael said, we will not be copyright legal on the 2D side for a long time, anyway.

cheers
 
So don't stress copywrights Hex. As much as we might love to have FfH2 be all legal, it isn't going to happen anytime soon.
Thank you for saying that (publicly too). Now let's never speak of copyright again... :lol:

No offense taken SeZ. I just wanted to clarify my viewpoint too... ;)

Your stated goal was to have original artwork for the game, so I am also working toward that goal.

I consider my stuff original because of the care, groundrules, and methods I am now using to create my final images for the 'Ice' phase. You may have a different opinion of that, but since Kael does not have a problem with how I arrive at my final product, I hope this issue can now be tabled.

As for the wondermovies, I created the wonder movies with a template, limiting the images to one per wonder, to keep down the number of pics I needed. All told, there were about 80 clips (wonders and palaces) I created, (hopefully all will make their way into the game eventually). With your proposed setup, I would also need 80 additional images of half-built wonders (and those would be a lot harder to find and create), as well as a variety of worker pics, that would also have to visually tie all the videos together in a consistent style.

Personally, I also wanted them short and to the point. The longer the video, the greater the urge to click out of it after a few plays.



My concern is more with style. You do amazing work, but its all about finding a way to make everything seem consistent rather than having a mix of very cool work that clashes with each other.
Actually this was one of the main reasons I started creating some leaderpics...to try to give the game a consistent overall graphic style.

I see the artwork of the denizens of the game falling into several categories.

1. Unit (sprite) art - It is actually very easy to give the units a consistent look from unit to unit because everyone on the team is using 3-d modelling programs. There is also a lot of margin for discrepancies, because most of the times, those units are not intended to be viewed in zoom-mode while playing the game. Most players will not be viewing them that way too.

And the main limitation with that type of artwork is that the units will look blocky and boxlike when blown up to a large size - thus it does not translate well into other areas. This is not the fault of the artist, but a limitation of the program. It will have a gamesque feel, not the look of Brom or Justin Sweet, who are more along the lines of high fantasy artists.

2. Leader pics - I do like many of the pics, but some of the pics are also poor quality, when held up in comparison to the others. The ones I posted over the last few days are my attempts to tackle the ones I think are the poorest-quality pics.

And I would not take some of the current ones out either...like Faeryl.

Look at the Faeryl pic and compare it to the current Os-Gabella or Thessa pics. Fearyl has an almost photo-realistic, hyper-crisp style, while the Os-Gabella and Thessa pics look very pixelated and blurry. Again, this is not the fault of the artist, but the source where you pulled those images to use in the game.

And actually, I do not want to do all of the leaders because there are so many of them. But I can provide higher quality pics for the ones which are poor quality.

3. Videos - My thought was to try to closely align the videos with the leader pics in a visual style. (Remember that you had me pull several leader pics out of my original video because the image qualities of those leader pics was poor...)

Both image types (videos/leaderpics) appear in the game in a large format that take up a sizable amount of screen real estate, so if those elements have a similar graphic look, it actually does a better job of tying the elements of the game together. And I do think that we will need to have some leader or people pics in the videos to give those videos more personality. It's just that I'm of the opinion that cutting the original leaderpics out of their current backgrounds, as created by the artist, might be something we should try to avoid in the future...to honor the original intent of the artist.

offtopic: Kael, just noticed you are from Ohio. Did you get nailed by the recent flooding? I live in Chicago and we got nailed with rain last night. My neighborhood looks like a bomb went off, with all of the fallen trees.

We still do not have power at home...
 
Doviello Battlemaster
 

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I like it, but his left arm looks unnatural. Maybe he could hold the axe with both hands.
 
What is really disturbing are his eyes, they are on his forehead :)

Also I do not think such a weapon would be any good in a fight. The upper axe end should be like a dog catchers 'lasso' or something.
 
Lord of the Sheaim
 

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Amelanchier

Aug 30 EDIT 1...adjusted face and facial hair
Aug 31 EDIT 2...sharpened facial features
 

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His nose and chin are aligned... oddly.
And an elf with a moustache? Odd.
 
Fixed the face on Amelanchier a little more...I've in the process of finetuning many of the desktops, especially the figures. All of them are works in progress.

New image for today...
Varn Gosam
 

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Valledia the Even

Sept 5 EDIT 1...fixed mouth
 

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Broken Hawk said:
Would it be possible to soften Thessa's facial features?. She is my favorite elf. :)
Adjusted...and she looks hot! ;)

JDexter said:
Hm, her lips look like they're flowing into each other...
Fixed...
 
Hexagonian...all your artwork looks awesome! When I create my own artwork, I find I use a similar method as you...find images and heavily edit them until they no longer are distinguishable from the original image. Keep up the good work :)

(Do you take requests for other mods? or are you exclusive to FFH2?)
 
Hexagonian...all your artwork looks awesome! When I create my own artwork, I find I use a similar method as you...find images and heavily edit them until they no longer are distinguishable from the original image. Keep up the good work :)

(Do you take requests for other mods? or are you exclusive to FFH2?)
I'm open to it. Though it depends on the quantity of items you want...and I do need to take a look at what you have going on in your Modwork, to see what I can offer to it.

PM me with some details too...what specifics you want, that sort of thing.

Right now I'm somewhat in a holding pattern for new ffh2 stuff. Most of the future work I do will be tied into the 'Ice' phase, which is only in the early planning stages.

So there really isn't too much I can do until I get more concrete details from the team.

The batch of ffh2 desktops are really for setting up some groundwork for potential backgrounds and figures, which can also find a home elsewhere and in other projects. Photoshop gives me a great deal of flexibility to alter elements. ;)
 
Your Capria looks ALOT like the girl from "Lost" Can't spell her name but her last name is Lily. Just curious as to if that was inspriation or not.
 
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