Leaderhead creation

[Rob (R8XFT)]

We've seen Teddy so far....are other leaderheads going to have a similar background are what are leaderhead creators planning for Civ 6?

 

[ldvhl]

I'm likely going to be using the same leaderheads I have for the Amalek and Squamish (and any others I make/get for V mods).

 

[DJSHenninger]

If I ever move to Civ VI, I'll probably stick with the kind of leaderscenes I'm currently making for Civ V. Regarding the background - don't know if anything's verified - it might be a placeholder background or just concept art, much like other missing art assets. If not, I'd probably not make those backgrounds, wouldn't exactly know how anyway. As for the cartoonish features - at least nobody can say my leaderscenes look ridiculous, since it would then be in line with the Civ VI leaderheads

 

[COF]

I quite curious on how to make LH which will fit this game's style. Of course there is the method of taking the parts of other leader, but this time everything is to cartoony to the point where it makes me worry how they will all come together in the end.

Of course one can always adjust these things with photoshop, but that will take a lot of time. But then again, considering how minimal the backgrounds are this time we might just save time compared to Civ5

 

[janboruta]

Of course one can always adjust these things with photoshop, but that will take a lot of time.

No difference to me. I'll likely shift to Civ 6 style of leaderheads, so modded ones don't stick out too much from the crowd. I'll be sticking to 2D too, since it's unlikely I'll be good enough at 3D anytime soon. Maybe in a few years.

 

[COF]

No difference to me. I'll likely shift to Civ 6 style of leaderheads, so modded ones don't stick out too much from the crowd.

Well, I was speaking as an amateur.

Spoiler :

Make a tutorial when the game is out pls

 

[sukritact]

Assuming 3D support is better than in Civ 5, I think I'd like to try my hand at making a custom animated 3D leader. I've a bit nervous about the cartoony style though; not sure how well I'll be able to emulate that. :/

 

[Kerfuffle]

Actually, I'm really excited to try and model and animate stuff for civ vi! Don't really do stuff in the vein of realism in my course, we do more stylised stuff so the aesthetic fits right at home for me. Although if I'm graduating this year that means I'll lose my students licence for Maya... And I have no where near $8000 dollarydoos for a one year subscription... I should probably start learning to use blender

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

I'm planning to stick with static leaders. One of my concerns about animating is - who is going to voice all the animated leaders? I've only seen Marbozir's preview but it looked like Teddy was speaking as per Civ 5 Firaxis leaderheads. Or would you be animating particular stances to indicate anger, happiness, neutrality etc?

 

[sukritact]

I'm planning to stick with static leaders. One of my concerns about animating is - who is going to voice all the animated leaders? I've only seen Marbozir's preview but it looked like Teddy was speaking as per Civ 5 Firaxis leaderheads. Or would you be animating particular stances to indicate anger, happiness, neutrality etc?

The latter; they already do that to some extent in civ 5; where they make gestures that indicate displeasure without saying anything. Essentially full body Civ 4 leaderscreens.

 

[Hoop Thrower]

Hm... wonder if Parkes sentences would be reusable for CivVI (assuming he's not in the basegame anyways).

 

[sukritact]

An interesting alternative would be 2D animated leader screens (a la Stellaris and Endless Legend); they'd certainly be less time consuming than full 3D models, and assuming Firaxis gives us decent access to 3D modding tools should be relatively easy to animate. It should allow 2D leaderscreens that extra bit of characterization that we've somewhat lost with the new background style.

 

[janboruta]

An interesting alternative would be 2D animated leader screens (a la Stellaris and Endless Legend); they'd certainly be less time consuming than full 3D models, and assuming Firaxis gives us decent access to 3D modding tools should be relatively easy to animate. It should allow 2D leaderscreens that extra bit of characterization that we've somewhat lost with the new background style.

I sense a new era of collaboration between the two of us coming up.

 

[JFD]

assuming Firaxis gives us decent access to 3D modding tools should be relatively easy to animate.

Fatal assumption. Remember, 2K is in charge, and they have to have some leverage

Well, I hope it is not too much work to replicate the Civ 6 style of leaders. I am content with whatever Jan produces for any civs that we work on, be it closer to 5 or 6.

 

[TPangolin]

Hm... wonder if Parkes sentences would be reusable for CivVI (assuming he's not in the basegame anyways).

Although Parkes looks a bit goofy already, we're going to start building him up again from the ground up. Even if we stick with Static, we might go ahead and at least add in new voice acting for all our leaders to make up for the lack of backgrounds.

Parkes will need to have a new voice to fit his new gruff demeanour

 

[sukritact]

Fatal assumption. Remember, 2K is in charge, and they have to have some leverage

After XCOM 2, I'm optimistic. Given the increased focus on 3D models (Units will have models, Buildings have models, we won't be able to mod in Wonders without models, etc.). Without this support Firaxis will essentially kills civ creation (Deliverator's tools were vital in even reskinning units) and prevents the return of massive total overhaul mods; I have hope they'll try and allow the Civ 5 modding community to transition over to Civ VI.

 

[janboruta]

Let's get on with it.

Spoiler :

(just a 3 hour concept art for now, but at least the background is halfway done)

 

[sukritact]

Let's get on with it.

Spoiler :

(just a 3 hour concept art for now, but at least the background is halfway done)

Awesome!

If you still wanna try for a 2.5D animated leaderscreen at some point don't forget that when you do the photomontage, the area beneath his arms will have to be properly done ass well.

 

[TPangolin]

Exceedingly well done. I'm now thoroughly hyped for what may come.

 

[janboruta]

If you still wanna try for a 2.5D animated leaderscreen at some point don't forget that when you do the photomontage, the area beneath his arms will have to be properly done ass well.

I'll figure it out - let's hope animated (in whatever fashion) leaderheads are easier to implement in Civ 6. But I'm working on multiple layers regardless, so working on each piece of layered clothing with arms on a separate layer is not an issue at all.

I'm on the fence whether I should shoot for the leaders being photomanips or stylised paintings. I'd have to put at least 6-8 hours into a good-looking leaderhead regardless of style (this includes detailed background and more refined painted leader, and the time of a photomanip is always a lottery). Honestly I can see both styles working well, and both could be 2.5D animations if it's possible (think Stellaris or Civ 5 1066/American Civil War scenario portraits we've used for standalone civs like the Anglo-Saxons).

If anything, painted leaders would serve as a static placeholder, while still being concept art for a possible 3D artist in the future. Even though I am not getting my hopes up one will appear for Civ 6 soon. I'm gonna sketch out more leaders we'd like to "port" from Civ 5 mods to Civ 6, at least ones that are less likely to be in the base game. (so no Frederick of Prussia for now)

EDIT: crosspost (of myself) from my facebook fanpage with some ponderings:

Someone on CivFanatics pointed out that the leaderscreens display much better shaders and effects than in Civ 5 already. Couple that with a more caricatural style and making photomontage of leaders is going to be less straightforward when it comes to capturing their character. Also, I suspect Civ 6 fallback 2D leaderheads will be in 1080p HD and that adds another layer of difficulty when looking for high-quality source images. Civ 5's 1600x900 resolution allowed for much less detailed things to be used and it still looked good. Of course, we'd still be able to make new Civ 6 leaders out of vanilla Civ 6 leaders, just grab a few screenshots of each one in different positions and we've got a solid base of assets to work with - and I am sure many will follow that route. Or they'll just find a decent enough 3D caricature of someone, steal it from the internet and use in a mod along with a photoshop-filtered background.

Speaking for myself, I am happy with the style of Civ 6 leaderheads - they are overall less resource-intensive, especially the backgrounds which can be painted and just look in line with vanilla ones right off the bat. Plus, I am definitely going to try and paint a few leaders up until completion, then try a few photomanips and see what happens. Overall it seems like a one giant practice opportunity for myself and I cannot feel bad about it. At the very least, I'll be able to create a more personal style of leaderheads this time around, hopefully one that still fits with the rest of the game. It's not a big difference in time for me - making a Civ 6 leaderhead so far takes the same amount of time as a Civ 5 one, anywhere between 4 and 8 hours.

I know I'll be out-produced by people who will simply take images off the internet and try to make them look in line with the game, but at this point I'd rather create my own artwork from scratch rather than use uncredited images from the web - everyone's doing it right now, myself included, and it carries some legal issues with it. By making completely new artwork for mods in a personal style, I'd be avoiding this legal trouble. Added benefit is that it would also untie Firaxis' hands when it comes to recognising and appreciating mods, as they possibly wouldn't want to deal with any issues with third-party assets being used. (as it was the case, for example, with Rob's Anno Domini and Civ 3)