Portraits Discussion

[Snakebit STI]

Quoting: Vair

I'd [prefer a small number of] great portraits [that are] of one style

Seconded.
The ninja assassins could probably brought 'in style' by removing some of the details.

[Joseph Hewitt]

Quoting: Vair

It took only one page away from this post:...for people to eagerly go on portrait posting spree no matter how far those are in style and theme from what was agreed upon.

Relax. None of those graphics were created expressly for GH (so no effort lost), and I haven't accepted any of them into the game (so no harm done). People can post all kinds of portraits but the canon is what we'll use to decide what goes into the master archive.

Quoting: Snakebit STI

The ninja assassins could probably brought 'in style' by removing some of the details.

I don't know; I think it might be easier to create a female ninja from scratch. In addition to the shading, the line work is also very different.

[xpace]

It took only one page away from this post:

http://gearheadrpg.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=5&topic=1046#msg11495

..for people to eagerly go on portrait posting spree...

I think you might be jumping the guns here. Please read everything carefully...

Not all images on this thread since Hewitt's style collage were intended for direct insertion into GearHead. For instance, Francisco released (i.e., the license to use) his original "Heir to the throne" portraits and said we were "free to play with them." But he was not telling us that we should use them. (In fact, he said he didn't even like them.)

Also, on more than one occasion since, we've debated whether or not these new images could be accepted for GearHead since many of them do not seem to fit Hewitt's art style. I myself brought this up with regard to those new assassin images and about Francisco's "Heir to the throne" portraits.

Another words, we've already brought the issue up.

We are trying. I still believe that Francisco's old man portrait could be made to fit Hewitt's style. But we won't know unless one of us at least tries! And I think Phil made a good effort in trying to make those assassin portraits more of a cartoon/cell-style. But even he admits that more is needed for it to fit in. And so, we may yet alter these portraits even more.

Another words, it's sort of a work-in-progress.

And before someone points that out - I'd like less but great portraits but of one style (well, 'by one, two artists' would be better but that's probably rather impossible) than lot of good ones which create random and hardly digestible pulp when put together.

It was already discussed what to do with portraits that don't fit the official GearHead style. Hewitt told us he'll remove from the game those he believes don't fit. And I'm sure he will continue to refuse to include them in the future. However, he said we're more than welcome to compile our own portrait packs and send them in:

...we could release as many alternate portrait sets as people want to make...

Personally, I can appreciate Hewitt's decision to stick to one style - even if it means that my portraits don't make the cut. The game should be the better for it. I'm glad that portraits are getting more attention as I think that it can help. In fact, I do like the "1980s Sunrise giant robot cartoons look." (I just wish I'd found out about this style requirement sooner. ;-) )

In any case, I think the important thing to remember is that art, much like music, is a highly subjective medium. It really is a matter of taste. So I applaud the idea of allowing us to send in our own optional download portrait packs. As someone pointed out, it's easy enough for us to drop the portraits into the image directory.

That said, I also agree 100% with this:

Portraits are one thing we can never really have enough of, IMO.

[SharkD]

We could use a extra backgrounds to appear *behind* the sprites as well. I don't think the current photograph is good.

-Mike

[Joseph Hewitt]

Yeah, the current one isn't good. It's a photograph of the view from the window of the apartment I lived in when I started on GH1-SDL. It was originally meant to be a stand-in image but somehow became permanent.

[Vair]

Quoting: xpace

I think you might be jumping the guns here. Please read everything carefully...

Aside from my post giving out some of my humble opinion about most of posted artwork, it was remind of that canon before people start making more and more really nice but unfitting portraits and ultimately get irritated or disappointed when their work would not get used.. some are like that.

[Phil Munoz]

Yes.  The more I work on those assassin portraits, the more I think it would be far easier to just redraw the entire thing from scratch.

This just further convinces me that it would be better to use such images as inspirations for original images specifically made for gearhead.

I'm not a very good character designer.  Just look at the canon images.  Three of the portraits by me are wearing ordinary suits.

[SharkD]

Here are some alternate backdrops I made a long time ago.



They might be too realistic too.

-Mike

[xpace]

We could use a extra backgrounds to appear *behind* the sprites as well.

Agreed. As long as the quality is good.

Yeah, the current one isn't good. It's a photograph of the view from the window of the apartment I lived in when I started on GH1-SDL.

Actually, I kind of like it. I think it's usable. However, the bright colors might be too much of a color contrast - making the black outline of the cartoon portraits stand out and seem more pixelated.

Here are some alternate backdrops I made a long time ago.
They might be too realistic too.

The backgrounds are just backdrops and, as such, seem barely noticed most of the time. At least, I don't usually pay them much attention.

I don't recall it being stated that the background had to fit the 1980s cartoons look. Besides, IMO, neither of yours contrast as much as the current backdrop. The first one is especially fitting, since the color palette seems dark and a bit 'toon-ish.

Here's an idea: How about a script where the portrait background changes depending on the terrain? If implemented, I know I'd pay more attention to them. Some examples:

* Lunar City - Urban background with tall buildings, with dome and lunar surface visible
* Lunar Outpost - Suburban - some buildings and facilities, dome and lunar surface visible
* Lunar Surface - Barren rocks and craters
* Asteroid Outpost - Like Lunar Outpost, but the surface is rock of a different color
* Cities and Ports - Background appears very urban, with tall buildings
* Towns - Background appears suburban
* Village - Background appears rural, with few houses or buildings
* Wilderness - Background appears lush and green, with lots of trees and a stream
* Spinner Town/Port - Background appears urban, but with cylinder of Spinner wall visible
* Spinner Park - Background appears lush and green, with trees and streams (and wall)
* Spinner Farm - Background appears green, with fields and/or hydroponics (and wall)

But then, many characters nearly fill the portrait area as it is, so the background is not normally very visible. So such efforts might be for little return (unless the backgrounds were made bigger than the portrait).

[SharkD]

I might be able to create a few more using the same assets I created for the countryside battle loading screen I made. I don't have time just this minute, but I'll ad it to my to-do list. It shoudn't take a whole lot of work.

-Mike

[xpace]

Well, I decided to go ahead and draw a female ninja from scratch. My intention is to make this the opposite number of por_m_ninja and I hope one look is enough for this to be obvious. Actually, I tried to combine gogglegirl, allisonnewver, and m_ninja - taking bits from each and combining them to make something new.

Like usual, I drew my portrait on paper and then scanned in the image. However, this time I tried to keeping Hewitt's cartoon style in mind. To make it more 'toon-like, I traced over some of my pencil lines with a ballpoint pen to make them really dark and thick, leaving the lighter pencil to shading and faint lines.

To be honest, I did trace over parts of gogglegirl, allisonnewver and m_ninja. So I hope it's OK. Much of it was redrawn to fit, anyway.

Here's a portrait size of the raw black & white drawing:



So, do you think this will fit with por_m_ninja and Hewitt's collage? Oh, I do hope it fits!!!

I wanted to get this up tonight to get some feedback, but I do plan on coloring it in soon. Some of the shading needs a bit work, though. Part of it is too dark and part is too light. In particular, the iris of the eyes is much too dark.

But, I wonder if I should make the collar of the uniform white, instead of red like the rest? Also, I was thinking of giving her a pony tail. I think I'll make the sword hilt either green-toned or brown, but there's not much green (hair color). Perhaps I'll make two versions and have everyone decide.

[Phil Munoz]

Looks pretty good.  I would add a kind of fishnet shirt underneath the garb - it's what Japanese cartoons usually qualify as ninja maille armor.

About the iris, you could leave it as white and colour it in with green or red.

[xpace]

Needing a break from the female ninja, I decided to finish my conversion of Francisco Munoz's version of Delfador. Here's his original:



I thought this one would be easy. But the color swapping was actually challenging for me. Perhaps it's just my paint program, but I found that converting light colors, such as white and light gray, into shades of fluorescent green that GearHead can interpret as hair is very difficult. The guy's white beard turned out gray in GearHead. Which I suppose would have been fine for an old guy, except I wanted it to be hair color. I had similar problems with that first Lisar ("Sword Woman") on page 1 of this thread because of her platinum blond hair.

Anyway, through trial and error I got the beard to look right. I hope it is usable:



And here's how "Oldguy" looks in-game:



I decided to rename him "por_m_oldguy" so as not to confuse him with Delfador, whom he does not resemble much. Personally, I think he's close enough to Hewitt's portrait style to fit in. But then, I don't seem to be as picky about style as others. :-)

[xpace]

OK, I finally finished my female ninja!

Again, it took longer than I expected. (But then, I tend to be a perfectionist.) Uncertain about which details fans would prefer, I created three variations:



So, if you're reading this, please help me choose. From left to right is Girl A, Girl B, and Girl C. Which ninja do you prefer? (Note: If you like the pony tail, but prefer this with either the see-through chainmail or heavy chainmail, I can combine them.)

[EarthquakeDamage]

Go with the left one, possibly with the middle one's hair.