The Mana World Forums

ElvenProgrammer has been trying to contact Talaroc a lot of times. Either it was without succes or Talaroc hasn't got any time.
Eitherway ElvenProgrammer asked me to finish the playerset, as can be seen on the wiki. But unfortunately, like most people currently, I'm very busy. There are three things I'm working on for school. All needs to be finished before christmas.
After that I'll probably be swimming in a pool filled with time. So then I'll start working on the playersset... and the tiles for Tulimshar houses and the Savannah.

the problem is, that especially the character sprites need a really consistent style. you could tell when some of the sprites are made by someone else. i could never pixel in exactly the same style as talaroc does.

Has anyone else noticed how creepy the position of the eyes are in all of the side views on the character sheet?

Shouldn't they be higher on the character's head instead of where his mouth would be (if he had one)?

I'm okay with the position of his eyes in the front view because the face is foreshortened due to the perspective, but the eyes should be several pixels higher in the side views.


EDIT: Fixed a couple typos.

now where you say it: yes you are right. the eyes are right behind the nosetip. the eyes of a normal face are always a little bit above the nosetip. anyone here who feels like doing that quick cut&paste job?

At least keep in mind that we're not looking at the character from the side, but rather with the camera looking down at about 45 degrees. Maybe some small correction would still be fine but not a lot I think.

I've corrected one of the sitting frames. I can't fix the punching animations because no one has made it clear whether he's supposed to be standing or moving, or whatever while he's doing the action - some leadership on the part of people running this project would be nice.

In fact, no one has made it clear whether those are indeed punching animations, or if they're dagger-stabbing animations.

The ones with the red dot are not done. SOMEONE FINISH THIS ALREADY, or perhaps just include it in the game as it is, to get things moving. I'm not on your project, I'm not on your team. And I don't want to do it. My project is wesnoth - I am here at the mana world to play, not to work - if nothing else perhaps to help out a friend (talaroc).

Here also are at least the beginnings of some hair sets, cropped out so that people can plop them into a proper sprite sheet:

Coloring and shape inspiration for some of them came from a combination of Last Exile, and Ragnarok Online - I like the soft, muted colors that they use. In the final form, I suggest making these actually grayscale in the sprite sheet, and coloring them programmatically - allowing the player to have any hue of hair that they choose.

wow, that looks really great. am i seeing a female spriteset there? looks really cute. how far is that female spriteset?

yes, i think you should make the hairsets greyscale so that we can convert the colors easily.

thoughs are sweet!

Crush wrote:wow, that looks really great. am i seeing a female spriteset there? looks really cute. how far is that female spriteset?

yes, i think you should make the hairsets greyscale so that we can convert the colors easily.

Uhm, thanks. =) The female spriteset is fortunately just a permutation of the male spriteset - you just cut and paste the relevant sections (torso and hips) and they're finished. This means that making a female version of the male spriteset is quite easy.

Jetryl: let me say again that I'm impressed by your skills, the sitting frame looks a lot better now and the hair sets, well they feel so natural, I really love them. You were asking about the punch animation, well its meant to be a stab attack that could also be used as a punch attack, but mostly a stab attack. And he should not be moving or at least not walking. I just talked to Talaroc this morning and he said he has to give up, at least for a while since school is killing him, so I was thinking to assign this task to neko-mon, but if you can help us well you're welcome. I know wesnoth is your project, but we could really appreciate your help/suggestions. And I remember someone promised to help us after the release of version 1.0 of a certain game... 1.02 was already released
Once we completed the stab/punch animation and death frames, we're ready to replace the current playerset and start thinking on adding clothes, hairs, more weapons, a female set and whatever else, so maybe I'm begging you, but please help us with everything you can

ElvenProgrammer wrote:Jetryl: let me say again that I'm impressed by your skills, the sitting frame looks a lot better now and the hair sets, well they feel so natural, I really love them.

I'm touched.

ElvenProgrammer wrote:I just talked to Talaroc this morning and he said he has to give up, at least for a while since school is killing him, so I was thinking to assign this task to neko-mon, but if you can help us well you're welcome.

A warning to you - the chief reason you don't have many "1337 artistz" working for you is because you guys don't seem to be doing much on your end. If you want projects like this to succeed, you need to demonstate your own committment to it. I mean - grab a brush and start_Duck_pixeling already. Don't whine about "I'm not talented" or "I'm not as experienced as you." Bullshit - I didn't get good by talent - I got good because of two things:

1] Force of will
2] Absolute willingness to accept and change, but also to seek out and identify my own mistakes. None of this prissy "It looks better saturated and I'm right about that" bullshit that crush has been whining about on his god-awful woodland tileset. Learning from mistakes is a touchy thing, largely due to the ambiguity about what constitutes one in the first place, but despite being very difficult, it's absolutely essential.

If you want this project to succeed, you have to be willing to dive in and do ANYTHING that really needs to be done. I find it preposterous that in over a year, you've basically done nothing. No new server, no new playerset, nothing of significance. (whereas wesnoth has not only our own homemade multiplayer server, but a separate content server application as well). Show some commitment, and you'll get some amazing people who'll do stuff for you. But you need to build it, or they won't come.

ElvenProgrammer wrote:And I remember someone promised to help us after the release of version 1.0 of a certain game... 1.02 was already released Once we completed the stab/punch animation and death frames, we're ready to replace the current playerset and start thinking on adding clothes, hairs, more weapons, a female set and whatever else, so maybe I'm begging you, but please help us with everything you can

Promise fulfilled - here is version 0.99 of your sprite sheet. I'm going to clean up some Chocolate Cupcake on the feet later tonight, and then I'm done with this - permanently. I'll make side views of those hairsets, the female version of the spritesheet, and then I'm going away until you get your act together; possibly forever.



You need to inspire some people - that's your job as project leader.

Jetryl, really great job on the hair and I love the new punch/stab frames. I don't know how they look animated but they sure look promising.
Pitty you're leaving us.

Modanung wrote:Pity you're leaving us.

No, the real pity is the reason why I'm doing so. The writing is on the wall - I think your project is screwed, but please prove me wrong...

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Here's the finished male spritesheet:

And the first half (really 2/3, given mirroring) of the female spritesheet:
more coming in about 12 hours or so from now...