TMW-eA Art Perspective

[enchilado]

Making a 16x16 fork is, in fact, what I am considering.


As for the perspective guidelines here on this server - well, since nothing is the same perspective anyway, why bother changing the guidelines?

Removing them would seem to be a better idea if less criticism of the wrong perspective is your aim.

[skipy]

((IMO))
the player set is i think the base on which all else is made...some equipment is off and not right,as well as lots of the tile set or parts of tile sets..from what i understand there alot in the tiles that was already in the plans to be redone...to get started on big re-do on thing that need it..we need to know whats off...so a list of all the re dos would be a good place to start...and a list of the hacks(bugs)..then just do one thing at a time till all is done...not to say that at the same time we cant put new content in for the happiness of the players(like the new caves or the gy-inn stuff)......if we really want some sort of re-birth for the eA-tmw then a story ark(or several) and the quest to go with them...

---skipy

[Wombat]

Something we need to discuss also is if TMW-eA is the game that should attract people with formal art training or if we should accept that we are just a game that a player community makes happen. Obviously the two can mix, but we currently lack formally trained pixel artists.

If we are aiming to attract formally trained pixel artists, we may see less players offering their abilities to make art for the game. Right now, we are lucky to even have the number of people making art for the game as it is. Demanding we make the game attractive to formally trained pixel artists so they'd want to come into the game and expand it on their free time does sound nice in theory.

In reality, we are looking at large problem of rejecting art content from our present artists and seeing them leave, either forever or to alternative servers that won't place strict consistency higher than some new player-artists can achieve. To act like it is a simple matter where correctness is above most skill levels, where art critics shoot down attempt after attempt of new art efforts, we won't see this attract formally trained pixel artists either.

I can't say I favor making this game attractive to formal pixel artists as the line in the sand. I can say helping our current artists feel motivated to make their art rise in skill is more the goal. Motivation in this case, can be a mix of: adding less than ideal art to the game, fudging consistency for increased art content, giving advice on making art that makes it better than before, but doesn't make them feel like they are being walked on in the process.

Thoughts?

[Big Crunch]

I think perhaps a trained artist would be a good idea. If nothing else but to touch up work, advise and perhaps train (a little) our artists. Basically someone to polish things up. As a player I like to see content fly in. However a pro (or a talentedamatuer) could offer a little cohesion to the game and prevent it from possibly biecoming characture of itself. My 2cents

BC

[Len]

I think you need to ask yourself what is it you really want... Do you desire to become like Battle for Wesnoth who's members constantly increase their standards to obtain a higher quality product there by attracting more people? Or would you rather just be another stendhal?

[Crush]

Personally I think that eAthena should have a lower quality standard to keep the entry level for new artists low, while TMW Manaserv has a higher standard.

This would allow newcomers to have a quicker sense of achievment by seeing their work online and allow them to be integrated into the developer community. When their skills increase beyond the quality standard of the eA server they can proceed to the higher challenge of working on a Manaserv CR.

That way we can use the eA server as a "training camp" for new artists for the Manaserv CRs.

[argul]

I like Crushs idea.

This would make sure that these 2 points are done:

- First eAthena is developed further, if the ManaServ is up.

- The ManaServ could have less chaotic quests/content. (I mean is there something like a plot which goes through the whole game? some kind of quests, which have to be done in series, maybe with branches?)

[Rotonen]

Personally I think that eAthena should have a lower quality standard to keep the entry level for new artists low, while TMW Manaserv has a higher standard.

This would allow newcomers to have a quicker sense of achievment by seeing their work online and allow them to be integrated into the developer community. When their skills increase beyond the quality standard of the eA server they can proceed to the higher challenge of working on a Manaserv CR.

That way we can use the eA server as a "training camp" for new artists for the Manaserv CRs.

Still assuming TMW-eA is going for classical 90's console pixel art, TMW-CR and TMW-eA are heading different ways artwise. That is TMW-CR lowered the bar of art to "get shape right, texture" instead of going for higher pixel art to represent the world. In that light the flow of people progressing in their skills would actually be the other way around, if TMW-eA gets finally going and picks up new people and momentum.

[ChefChelios]

wombat, what is the result of this topic?

[Wombat]

We are keeping the player sprite and its perspective is shared with NPCs, monsters and equipment. Other than this, we are maintaining regular "in perspective" guidelines for the rest of the art. (45 degree top-down perspective. light appears to come from the North West. dark outlines but avoid pure black)

For our art, we also prefer raster over vector for all things, though vector cheating can be done, "smooth art" clashes with the desired style, which means going back over the shading with GIMP and add/fix anti-aliasing where needed.

For art needs, Poison_Ivy is currently the most active member of TMW-eA Art Team. He can give more details and advice on art direction, as well as approve art to be added to our git repository.