Inca - Manco Capac

[SMcM]

The reason I had him in the water initially was because I was under the mistaken impression that you thought that was a good idea, as you said:

btw the bg would be better the titicaca lake (as if he's emerging/walking on the water) if going for a mythical portrait

I misunderstood what you were trying to say, and though you were suggesting a leadersence with him being partially submerged in water.

Anyway, you right in saying it would be time consuming to remove the boats. It obviously isn't impossible, but definitely time consuming. Therefore, the best way forward is probably just discarding that background if we don't think that the standing on water and boats are a good idea.

So, though it is very simplistic, and barely took a minute to put together, this seems to deal with those problems. I would have blurred the background, but I think I recall you earlier mentioning that you weren't too keen on blurred backgrounds.

Spoiler :

 

[gia]

Yeah back then I was talking about the dawn of man screen. Could you put a fake shore at the front? I dont know the area but those plants seem to start growing much deeper into the water to me.

Regardless, could you fix the proportions of the inca? Either his torso is too big, arms included, or the rest of his body is too small.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Most leaderscenes don't even bother showing the feet actually, because you don't quite adress that part of the body when talking directly to someone.

Also, maybe use some blur effects to make the background less like a picture?

 

[SMcM]

Addressing Hoop Thrower, the reason I have not used blur is that in response to that earlier background I used, gia commented this:

To improve the current one you have to make it less blurry I feel (or does that look good ingame?)

gia, I can work on the proportions of the Inca; thus far, they are completely unchanged from the original picture I used.

 

[SMcM]

Okay, so I have slightly changed the proportions of the leader (I think he no longer appears to have such a wide torso), I have added a slight blur to the background (but nothing dramatic), and the leader is now standing on land. What do you think?

 

[SMcM]

I won't bother posting another picture for now, but I have made one more minor change; the leader was a bit blurry in the last one I posted, so I have addressed that.

Obviously if you are already happy enough with the current scene with the exception of the blurry leader then I will post that up, but right now I see no point in posting it.

 

[gia]

that would be cool, the torso looks 100% better, try to rotate his face a bit, its badly placed still, think of his face bones, and move his pupils to look at the player after you placed the face, if you can reduce his arms to fit the body without breaking everything up that would be cool, as well as the neckline / neckguard with gemstones thing that looks super stretched, Im pretty sure that's supposed to be just dyed clothes, havent seen an inca picture with gems that big.

 

[SMcM]

try to rotate his face a bit, its badly placed still, think of his face bones

His head is modeled on that of Julius Caesar from Civilization 4:

Spoiler :

He is not meant to be looking at you straight on. Anyway, I have edited his eyes, and his head is no longer facing up so much (in the picture of Capac which I have been using his body, he is looking up at the sun, so up until this point that position was unchanged). Additionally I have moved the leaderslightly to the right, as this helps it look more like he is looking at you.

One more thing that needs working on is his headband: it seems to have merged into his hairline when I sharpened up the image. I will address that at some point tomorrow perhaps, along with any other improvements you think necessary for me to him.

Whatever that is around his neck, I had changed it originally to look like gems to make it look more interesting, but you are right, it does look a little silly. I have now changed that; I now stands out less hopefully. Anyway, here it is:

 

[gia]

Shouldnt have used the face of a roman but look this is what I mean more or less (bad edits though):

If that was a 3d leader, the face texture would be outstretched all over the forehead and the neck and everything, have to be more careful.

The neckguard is under so many edits its just awful, but I still put it in a hopefully better position, I still dont like it that much, I dont know what it was originally but I imagine it was just the usual pajamas the amerindians wore, so just dyed wool or cotton or whatever, should have been kept normal size.

The right arm now hopefully looks less deformed, had to build a shoulder and an elbow for it with the paintbrush, the finish looks ugly but I think it looks more like a human body now.

Cut the tip of the jagged chin a bit but not too much because I felt it looked like a cartoon chin.

Painted his green eyes black.

The arm that is on the back of the body is no longer in front of the body :/ (left arm)

The leader is so noisy/blurry/under filters that maybe painting on top of the most noisy/burned areas with a 10% brush could make it look a bit like water colors and help (like the elbow on my pic but not that drastic) or maybe not.

 

[The Specialize]

His neck looks too thin. Looks like there is a giant chunk missing from it which is overall causing the head too look weird.

 

[gia]

on the one i posted? yea, because I made the chest wider but didnt touch the neck so its offcenter and still for the previous body, that muscle/carotid is not even in the proper place.

 

[The Specialize]

on the one i posted? yea, because I made the chest wider but didnt touch the neck so its offcenter and still for the previous body, that muscle/carotid is not even in the proper place.

It's kind of been like that in them all however, It is worse in the most recent picture.

 

[SMcM]

It does make sense to use Julius Caesar as a base; his head was at the right angle for what I wanted. And people use weird combinations to make leaders all of the time; take this Danish king scene created by by Jan Boruta, which appears to use Oda Nobunga partially for the face:

Spoiler :

One of the main problems with your editing of the image is that my version is made up of multiple layers, making it easier to edit. By only editing the flattened image, you give your self a much harder time.

Well, I'd agree that the arms look a lot better; you've really improved that aspect.

But that face really isn't looking so good. Especially the eyes; you said it didn't look like he was looking at you before, but if you compare what I had before with this, you will notice he now looks much less like he is looking at you. You can't make someone with a head facing away from you appear to look at you by centering their pupils; currently your version looks cross-eyed and confused, and it definitely does not appear to be facing you.

Anyway, here is another edit, this time with Gandhi's neck, a replication of the edit you made to his arm, darker eyes, and a jaw:

 

[SMcM]

A couple of more small edits:

Neck looked a bit too exposed before. Have covered it up a bit more.
Have also fixed his arm which hold the axe; this had got distorted so it looked weirdly thin.

 

[gia]

If you are going to go with that increase the width of the left arm/hand, it doesnt belong in that body

 

[SMcM]

If you are going to go with that increase the width of the left arm/hand, it doesnt belong in that body

I don't quite understand what you are talking about. As far as I can see, the main problem with the arms is that one is larger than the other, but it isn't really too noticeable.

 

[gia]

hmm he got a giant hulking arm on one side, and a baby one on the other, length is okay in comparison

 

[SMcM]

hmm he got a giant hulking arm on one side, and a baby one on the other, length is okay in comparison

Yeah, I suppose you're right. The problem before was that there was a random dip in the arm carrying the axe; it was strangely thin in the middle. So I corrected this by widening it at that point. But because I shrunk the other arm at some point, it now looks tiny.

Anyway, I have increased the size of the raised arm:

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Personally I'd say it's pretty good already, reminds me of Uighur_Caesar's leaderscenes, somehow.

 

[SMcM]

Personally I'd say it's pretty good already, reminds me of Uighur_Caesar's leaderscenes, somehow.

Thanks! It suppose it does look a little like the leaderscene for Uighur_Caesar's Gaunches mod.