Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on May 16, 2012 22:37:27 GMT -6
Well, uh, I wanted to ask if you guys wanted a little extra help with iconning. I'm not particularly great at it, but I figured since I'm kind of not doing anything right now, maybe I could help with something. I did a couple of icons for another game that used FF graphics (Final Fantasy Legacy) but most of the ones I did were just for fun or for myself to use. Nn...I don't know much of THG's icon states, if anything at all. I can more or less guess at what states do what, like for character icons or maybe turfs. I'm rather unsure about how well I could make monster icons, as I've never tried... I guess it's also worth pointing out that I haven't done anything with iconning for a pretty long time...Anywho. Just thought I'd put something on here, since my playing time on THG can be pretty...random. Guess I should point out what keys I tend to use on BYOND. I usually use ''Uzakura'' as a main key or ''True Swordsman'' as an alt. key. Hope I can help out. EDIT: Added a link to Filefactory for a sample of what I did on FFL. Sorry if you find the site annoying, but file uploading sites that actually are worth a flip are a bit rare these days. www.filefactory.com/file/2zdu1vyd44dv/n/Done_Stuff_rar
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Post by Kain on May 22, 2012 0:23:57 GMT -6
I took a look at the icons you posted. FFIV designs aside, are these made from scratch? They look pretty good.
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Soren
Hunter
To me, it was a Tuesday.
Posts: 103
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Post by Soren on May 22, 2012 0:37:04 GMT -6
Well I have two issues, really. The first is the fact that I don't really know you. Usually we don't recruit people into the Brotherhood unless they're a well-known and respected member of the community. Also, I don't really like many of them except some of the NPCs/character icons (which admittedly IS one thing we need, as I'm not very good at making them,) though I would like you to also try to make some monster samples. I could change my mind if you can design some cool monsters.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on May 22, 2012 6:59:15 GMT -6
--I used the original graphic for most of the NPCs, then trimmed it down/modified it, and worked with what I made. But, other than that, my own ideas went into that. Thanks. --Well, that's pretty understandable. Heck, before now, I never even used this account on the forum (the previous one aside, maybe). However, I'm not really looking for a position in the Brotherhood (granted, the thought is nice, really, but I don't know if I'd actually make for a good admin or if my help would actually warrant membership), so if it helps there, I could just be a contributor or something if it works out. As for the monster icons, I've never tried, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Oh, and thanks for taking a look at them. Hm...guess I should grab a few screenshots as a reference and get to work on those monster samples. EDIT: Got three different attempts at making a monster, an Imp, an Ogre, and a Giant Rat. Tried to retain the color scheme of the originals, and I more or less succeeded, but I think I didn't do so well on the Giant Rat, since it had roughly double the amount of color that the other two had. Took away some unnecessary colors, but left enough shading to keep it from getting too simple. ...That aside, I'm not 100% sure I'm good at monsters. Or I'm undeniably rusty at iconning. Nn...looks like Filefactory is being a bit unreliable too. Maybe I ought to change to a different host. www.filefactory.com/file/c5ad06b/n/First_monster_attempt_rarBut there you have it.
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Post by Kain on May 24, 2012 21:58:37 GMT -6
I like the Giant Rat and the Ogre, though they seem too...lighthearted, for lack of a better term. The Rat should look more monstrous and the Ogre's pose is sort of comical, but I'm guessing you already knew that. =p I think the Imp looks rather rough in comparison, though.
Out of curiosity, how are you with animations? Like spell effects and whatnot.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on May 25, 2012 0:05:41 GMT -6
Heh...I guess I did make them look too funny for a game with a plot like THG has. The Imp was kind of...my first try...Heh..eh...after that ''warm-up,'' I got to work on the other two.
Nn...as for animations, I played around with them a bit (for fun, like making my character on FFL ''cast'' a spell and then vanish, or perhaps making characters dance), but I haven't tried anything quite like magic effects before. Probably hard to get a decent reference with just screenshots like I did before, so I think I'll go find a nice spritesheet from somewhere to base my initial design off of and see if I'm any good at doing those.
Far as I could tell ingame, most spells are limited to those single 32x32 tiles and run for about...2-4 seconds tops...I'll work under that assumption for now.
Also, would it be feasible to animate, say, something like Forcefield, or would that cause a problem in the battle system? Not really an urgent question, but just something I thought I'd ask out of curiosity. 'Cause doing something like making FF look like it's oscillating or shifting might change it up a bit. Maybe do something like make the initial frame like it is now, then slowly fade out that color and return it to black, then make the color slowly reappear on the outside of those pixels, then revert it back once it hits full color, and repeat the process.
But, wait, FF has frames for attacks/magic, so making the animation cooperate with the original animation could be...hm.
Or, maybe...meh. I'll try something out. Gonna go to sleep for now.
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Soren
Hunter
To me, it was a Tuesday.
Posts: 103
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Post by Soren on May 30, 2012 14:18:30 GMT -6
Anyone who works on the game is a member of the Brotherhood, we do not take charity or random contributions. So if any of your stuff made it into the game we'd expect you to be rather dedicated with it.
That being said, I think you could use a bit more practice. I actually rather like the ogre though, even if it is comical. I do feel like you're trying a bit too hard to mimic what we already have, however. Why not try to make your own style? Be creative, see what comes of it.
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Post by Kain on May 30, 2012 22:21:24 GMT -6
Heh...I guess I did make them look too funny for a game with a plot like THG has. The Imp was kind of...my first try...Heh..eh...after that ''warm-up,'' I got to work on the other two. Nn...as for animations, I played around with them a bit (for fun, like making my character on FFL ''cast'' a spell and then vanish, or perhaps making characters dance), but I haven't tried anything quite like magic effects before. Probably hard to get a decent reference with just screenshots like I did before, so I think I'll go find a nice spritesheet from somewhere to base my initial design off of and see if I'm any good at doing those. Far as I could tell ingame, most spells are limited to those single 32x32 tiles and run for about...2-4 seconds tops...I'll work under that assumption for now. Also, would it be feasible to animate, say, something like Forcefield, or would that cause a problem in the battle system? Not really an urgent question, but just something I thought I'd ask out of curiosity. 'Cause doing something like making FF look like it's oscillating or shifting might change it up a bit. Maybe do something like make the initial frame like it is now, then slowly fade out that color and return it to black, then make the color slowly reappear on the outside of those pixels, then revert it back once it hits full color, and repeat the process. But, wait, FF has frames for attacks/magic, so making the animation cooperate with the original animation could be...hm. Or, maybe...meh. I'll try something out. Gonna go to sleep for now. If you could, try to limit any animations you try to 10 frames or so. In the future, we'd like to speed up battles by making many of the animations shorter. Of course, a longer animation as a show of skill is fine. And yeah, the frames are 32 x 32. A Forcefield animation would be possible, but it's like you said -- you may run into issues with the transition (or lack thereof) between the neutral and attacking/casting states. Also, I agree with Soren on not basing your examples so heavily on existing sprites, as there would be instances in which we'd have to break away from the original designs.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on May 31, 2012 18:02:24 GMT -6
Alright, so no more mimicry. Well, hopefully no more, at least. Sorry I haven't been on for a while, power outage more or less ruined my chances of working on it for a bit, but perhaps I made up for it with my attempt at animations. Also found out I could simply upload the file as an attachment instead of having to go through a file uploading site. And I call myself an avid computer user. -.-; I went with absolutely no references with these, (no screenshots, no spritesheets, etc.) and more or less went for my own thing with them. Except for the test dummy I used for the character animations. That one is a rather obvious recolor/rip of my own custom icon. Hm...I tried to do several different options when I did the spell animations. I left an adequate explanation of each on the readme I included, but without going too into it, I made variations of single-target and multi-target animations, including 'projectile' animations for Fire and Ice. (Not that I thought they would be used, but still. Fireballs are fireballs, no?) I'm not particularly proud of my Ice spell, though. Another thing I'm afraid of at the moment is how badly my spells look with a black outline (it somehow made it feel detached to me) but I suppose in a total black background like it is for many areas, that's not truly a concern until I consider areas with actual backgrounds. Eh...after I tried my hand at a Forcefield animation, I...kinda went crazy. And tried dumb stuff. Like my neardeath/death animation. .__. In a sense, I imagine death animation would technically be exempt from a frame limit, (within reason, anyways, a 30-second animation of a character running around screaming, ''Rosebud,'' would most likely be well out of order) but that's not something I'm 100% sure of. Especially if it turns out the animation would be replayed every time you enter commands, or whenever a dead player would have been able to move according to turn speed, or some other unforeseen error. ...Nn...I agree, though, that I could use practice. As for the Brotherhood membership, I understand this is more or less a test of my icon-making abilities, but maybe the actual membership can be held off until after I do something worthy of the occasion (like I completely redo a set of graphics). That way, if I do turn out to be unhelpful, all that would have to be done is to remove what I did and inform me that my work was unsatisfactory. I think. Eh...Sorry for the text walls. Attachments:
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Post by Kain on Jun 1, 2012 20:06:17 GMT -6
I took a look at the animations.
- I think the Fire and Ice animations may benefit from being larger.
- The projectile idea is neat (and does work), but I can't recall the travel time. One of the things we want to do in the future is make battles faster, and animations that just appear over the target are better for that. I like the idea, though.
- I really like the Fire 1 - Hit and Fire 1 - Area animations. The way the fire dissipates looks good. My favorite would have to be the Lit 1 - Single animation, though.
- I like what you did with Forcefield. Not much else to say about that, I suppose.
- I think the attacking animation would look better if the character were putting his body into it. As is, I think it lacks a certain...force, I guess. Looks more like he's slapping the enemy. =p
- I don't care for the casting animation, specifically the way the blue energy animates.
- Near-death and death animations look good. I like the way the character's hair gets a bit disheveled as he's falling.
Overall, I like them. If I see Sand around, I'll direct him to this thread and see what he thinks. Even if your help isn't accepted, I'm tempted to ask you to make a few THG-unrelated things for me in the future, haha.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on Jun 1, 2012 21:13:40 GMT -6
Glad you like some of them, although I made the spells small-ish 'cause...well...tier 1 spells are kind of small time, unless you're flinging super-high-Willpower-fueled spells anyways. Guess that's really just personal opinion, though. ._.;
Not sure if I made the attack animation or a joke or not, now that I'm just looking at them. Granted, sometimes damage-wise, you may as well be slapping chaotics...but that doesn't really excuse that. Nn...the casting animation does look terrible, I must admit. Perhaps I should retry it after I figure out a good way to do it aside from just playing with Alpha/transparency.
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Post by Kain on Jun 1, 2012 21:26:56 GMT -6
Glad you like some of them, although I made the spells small-ish 'cause...well...tier 1 spells are kind of small time, unless you're flinging super-high-Willpower-fueled spells anyways. Guess that's really just personal opinion, though. ._.; Yeah, I understand where you're coming from. It'd just be easier to see them if they were larger, especially with areas getting battle backgrounds. Eh, don't beat yourself up so much over those. I think most of the stuff you've done has looked fine, personally. No reason you can't give them another try. =)
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Soren
Hunter
To me, it was a Tuesday.
Posts: 103
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Post by Soren on Jun 2, 2012 12:22:45 GMT -6
Projectile moves actually travel pretty fast. I don't think they'd really be an issue.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on Jun 2, 2012 15:01:58 GMT -6
Alright, I think I've got the casting animation...aura...thing figured out. This time I didn't add the little character to it, just in case. (Unfortunately, since my connection is generally bad, I'm not sure whether or not I made it too long, since what I see tends to vary from a split second to two seconds...) Hopefully I did well enough, but I kind of wish I didn't go so...fiery on the Black Magic variant...Eh, it's pertinent if the user spams Nuke, I guess. Also, I went ahead and gave Ice1 a third try (This time, instead of firing icicles, it builds a small block of ice around the target and then dissipates). I, really, really don't know what it is about me and how badly I draw ice. But maybe I overcame it this time. For a bonus, after that I went off on another tangent and tried to make hit animations for slashing-type attacks (from what I'd imagine swords, axes, and perhaps a few certain polearms might use), classified by hit strength. Could not find a happy, gory medium between normal and mortal wound, so until I figure that out, Critical is left out. ._. Weak is meant to look like it merely scratched the surface of the target's body, and even generated a few sparks as the blade went across...Normal looks pretty...normal. Just a slash with a swooshing...animation...meh. Mortal Wound was meant to look like the weapon dug fully into the target's flesh and then carved it's way back out. Which sounds pretty bad, I guess. Oh, and despite multiple attempts at redoing the attack animation itself, I only succeeded in making it look more and more like I was slapping people. .__. So maybe it's just I'm bad with that. Or maybe I'm using too few frames. Anywho, hope you like these. Attachments:
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Post by Kain on Jun 2, 2012 16:05:47 GMT -6
For some reason, I can't open the .dmi file.
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Uzakura
Investigator
Ah...what was I doing again?
Posts: 10
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Post by Uzakura on Jun 3, 2012 8:15:21 GMT -6
Nn...maybe the forum doesn't take .dmi so well when presented like that. Might as well try .zip this time around. I checked the icon on my end with two different PCs. As a side note, if these were to be used, to make 'em look right for players, it's pretty much going to require two icon states with half of the left side on the new second state and the remaining part still in the original, since the icons of characters are shoved to the left as far as they can so weapon attacks aren't split in two like that... But...then that would require effectively every spell and hit animation in the game that targets a player to be split in two as well... Hm...tricky... Anywho, haven't heard anything out of this thread for almost a week, so I got a bit worried. Don't want to do necromancy or double-posting, so if anyone's still watching this, maybe they'll say somethin'. Attachments:
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Post by Kain on Jun 12, 2012 19:07:44 GMT -6
Sorry it took so long to reply.
I don't like the ice animation -- it lacks a certain impact, and the way it crumbles (with all the dark blue) looks odd to me as well. Sorry I can't be more specific. >_>
The casting animations look nice, the blue magic one in particular.
I like the slashes, but should they curve back toward the attacker like that? =p
Also, you needn't worry about thread necromancy. The forum gets so little activity that getting on people's cases for that would be stupid. >_>
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