Looking for feedback on a new style of art asset.

[WalrusJones]

As many of you know, the artist who did much of the work for V1 of my mod, Laggy wolf, Has mysteriously vanished.

As such, I have found that I have needed to learn to do my own art (OR die trying,) and I have discovered incredibly workable methodology for getting a adequate looking spirte, as well as having modified many existing unused sprites in the games files to finish off my semi-fictional Tier 3 firearm sprites (Which consist of a mix of psudo-futuristic firearms, like a good story set in the 90's in ye olde 70's would portray, and weapons like the 1911, and G3, which gun fanatics would goad me if I refused to include these practical options from the time period.)

Edit: I came to an impasse where issues with the base image ended up causing the sprite to be somewhat..... Unusable in the actual game.

It is currently in the cleaning phase (The wood is slightly too saturated to fit with the games art style, the small bits contrast a little awkwardly in its current phase, and its outline fades out to white instead of black,) and much like Laggy Wolfs very well done images, are heavily Photoshopped and stylized versions of real life guns, with bits and pieces of my own spiriting to fix parts that simply would look awkward.

As for the state of my mod:

Many of my intended features are likely impossible at the moment, with current GUI, as such, progressing past tier 1 in a balanced fashion isn't going to be possible until multi-ammo gui becomes a possibility.

I will finish the first tiers expansion (Fix all animations, alien armor, re-balance lasers, plasma and tier 4, look into getting permission to use the more-shotguns mod,) and release the sprites for all three tiers in preparation for the multi-ballistic-ammo gui.

This will become V2, as I intend to do a lot more then was originally entailed in V1.1.

V1.1 will be available Tuesday, it will contain new sound assets, a few new art assets, some improvements to old art assets (Particularly the SKS, which I had totally ruined experimenting on before, has been reverted. The Lars lever has been sharpened as well...)

Additionally, it will have a teaser of a few of the sprites I am working on, or will be using (Copies of otherwise unused assets, most of which are modified, or are likely to be replaced.)

Following this, I will be looking for your complaints, and working on improving balance for the various V2.X versions.

Also, a little more:

(This time, the M1911 (Which is T3) will be replacing the Beretta (Which is T2.) Don't worry... Its just that the M1911 sprite is less new and exciting at the moment, and I just finished this.)

(Probably the best looking in game sprite, due to the level of detail it appears to have.)

(Note: Tier 3 weapons are generally supposed to either be psudo-futuristic, M1911, or actually a modern gun that somehow you have progressed tech far enough to make in the 70's using alien materials.... I ended up using far too many modern guns, due to the fact that the Psudo-futuristic weapon designs generally flopped due to their images having too many problematic issues to show off... For now.)

(Once again, Tier 3 uses some modern guns. I really wish I used fewer of them, but the designs that had souls are going to take much longer to do properly, the above calico M950 variant was supposed to take the place of this, but of course... This sprite simply turned out more polished... Eventually, I will replace this, or find a use for the M950 variant.)

Edited July 8, 2013 by WalrusJones

[Ragnarok]

Hum. They look too realistic for the cartoonish style yu find everywhere else in XN ?

[WalrusJones]

Hum. They look too realistic for the cartoonish style yu find everywhere else in XN ?

I have noticed that the in-game rifles tend to have a surprising amount of detail, but yes. I totally agree with you that they are marginally too realistic.

[Ragnarok]

The first rifle is the closest style i would try to stick with. Maybe use a minor blur to scale down the details.

Of course you can stick with the detail, but i believe it would look kinda weird when paired with "stock" item on a soldier.

[WalrusJones]

I actually blur them with three layers, one which is 50% opaque, one 25% opaque, and one 30% opaque.

Almost none of the original weapon details shine through.

[Mytheos]

I think they look great.

I have no idea what you are using, but if "Details" are a problem you could scale up/down the resolution and then adjust it back to default maybe?

Or use a scale tool and stretch it out and then shrink it down again?

That should remove more details and I guess give it a more "Gamey" look?

But I dont know anything...so /shrug

And the part of my brain that has Adobe CS in it...is oddly not functioning right now so sorry for not using proper terms.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Mytheos

[WalrusJones]

I think they look great.

I have no idea what you are using, but if "Details" are a problem you could scale up/down the resolution and then adjust it back to default maybe?

Or use a scale tool and stretch it out and then shrink it down again?

That should remove more details and I guess give it a more "Gamey" look?

But I dont know anything...so /shrug

And the part of my brain that has Adobe CS in it...is oddly not functioning right now so sorry for not using proper terms.

Its less the details, and more that they are less subtle then the original art they are supposed to mingle with..

[cspruce]

Is this the kind of look you are looking for?

PSD: http://www.gamefront.com/files/23499432/scar.zip

Edited July 9, 2013 by cspruce

[WalrusJones]

Nah

I am trying to make the scar appear to be a basic, "unpainted" model for a reason (Relating to a breakthrough made prior to allien alloys fabrications, but after they are understood in my mod...)

However, I have overall decided that the five new ones I have are currently good enough. (And I inserted them into the game to ensure that they don't look out of place... Fortunately, They don't.)

This is probably the closest to what I want: Its incredibly reminiscent to the original MP5 image I borrowed as one of my first art assets, which is as good as I could ever get without creating an actual sprite over the course of a whole day.

Edited July 9, 2013 by WalrusJones

[Ragnarok]

I like that one.

[cspruce]

looks blurry...

[WalrusJones]

That's part of what I had to do to make it not look like a real guns.

The blurs, however, went on the bottom layer.

The only thing that went on top were pixelization layers (Which generally smooth things in cells, as opposed to truly blurring.)

Of course, I have found that using guns that have great deals of color to them has been a good thing in recent ones, as selective saturation can be very eyecatching (As my photography student-ness has taught me.)

[Ragnarok]

Would you mind uploading your .PSD so i can take a look at it ?

[WalrusJones]

Would you mind uploading your .PSD so i can take a look at it ?

.PDN.

I can't save PSD's with my current, budget software arrangement.

I could do it for certain ones, yes.

I just finished the four hour job that this one was, if that would be good for an example of my workflow.

(I Am aware that the edges area a little rough, and will fix it EVENTUALLY.

Its hard to get it large enough ingame for it to matter currently.)

I decided to replace the SKS, when I traced Laggy Wolf's source image to wikipedia (Thus, risking me using a image that technically isn't owned by me to make my images,) and noticed that it wasn't an ideal image for the whole Xeno-Fication process (FAR too shiny in that image.)

Edited July 13, 2013 by WalrusJones