Ragoon's Graphics For HoMM3SW

Guess it's ready for animating

Nice! I really like the new bow design. The old one looked a bit clumsy. I thought it was a mistake that the sting was on the side pointing to her body, but it turns out I was wrong. It makes sense and all other H2 creatures also have it like that, so my mistake

Oh, I forgot about the chest strip that holds quiver :p Will fix with animating

Really cool creature, it fits right in!

On a sliglty off topic basis, would be nice to get a full history of the mod. I think I have read it somewhere. But it would be nice to have it oficially so when new players come they can see when and how it all started!

As for Ragoon, congratulations on the colored name, you deserve it! Also, what is your favorite creature? what creature was most fun to make ?

robizeratul wrote:

congratulations on the colored name, you deserve it! Also, what is your favorite creature? what creature was most fun to make ?

Thanks! I'm able to update threads and edit posts now :p You can see it in animations thread especially

If you ask about base game then I would chose ogre as my favourite, they're really tanky and powerful :p Though wizard and necro are my main factions of choice

I had most fun animating acolyte, since I love it's design, I'm into desert magicians, assasins
His death animation, like being washed out like sand is my definite favorite
Bandit follows that too

robizeratul wrote:

On a sliglty off topic basis, would be nice to get a full history of the mod. I think I have read it somewhere. But it would be nice to have it oficially so when new players come they can see when and how it all started!

I might make a topic about that sometime. I have gathered a lot of information and pictures over the years

An official bio will be also created someday closer to the release of v1.0.

It can be serpent bow like HIII. Corners looks like serpent head and tail.

Baronus wrote:

It can be serpent bow like HIII. Corners looks like serpent head and tail.

I think there is too little space for that, plus I would have to include it in animations and there is no way for it to look the same at diferent angles. Another thing is that the simpler it is, the better (h2 style)

If animation is complete of course it is some work. Your project :-)

Time to show some progress.

MEDUSA QUEEN
Every animation took a whole day this time since I have to make it look identical as original homm2 medusa
What it means is that I had to recolor every original frame by hand, add different motion to bow and quiver (especially in death animation) and add whole new shoot one fitting the rest.

It will probably be enough for the beta v0.8, since there are other creatures that are needed

PS Abilities are coming!

SEPARATE:

This is no less than fantastic!

Very, very beautiful

Okay, so after Orzie's post with fixed creatures for the beta in graphics discussion thread I wanted to post my touches which are just ideas really, but you can tell me which changes you like and which you don't

So, starting with lizardman.
1. Changed crest on top of his head. Note that upgraded version will have it fully grown (at least in my vision   )
2. Changed quiver because it seemed very organised
3. Added spiky handle to the bow which makes it unique while keeping it close to the vanilla bows
4. Changed color of quiver strip/shirt to break this sea of the brown color in the center which was made very unpleasant to see with his new glove
5. Made corners of his toes little more edgy, his feet seemed soft before







And secondly... our favourite struggle of the last months!
Yep, talking about the harpy. I just cant stand how it turned out, way off from what I had in mind in the beginning. Even though I clearly have a different idea about how it should look than Orzie, I still wanted to make something with her. She is looking like a wild angel right now with wings just attached to her back.
I didn't changed anything from her geometry as it does not make sense at this point, after so many versions already. So I've given another shoot with wing shape and with a dagger version. She still seems bigger in comparison to the lineup like v1.0 version does.
Wing shape was inspired by the very first version of mine you can see there:

First harpy design from Ragoon:

PLEASE DONT HURT ME ORZIE







What do you think about these changes?

Ragoon wrote:

Okay, so after Orzie's post with fixed creatures for the beta in graphics discussion thread I wanted to post my touches which are just ideas really, but you can tell me which changes you like and which you don't

So, starting with lizardman.
1. Changed crest on top of his head. Note that upgraded version will have it fully grown (at least in my vision   )
2. Changed quiver because it seemed very organised
3. Added spiky handle to the bow which makes it unique while keeping it close to the vanilla bows
4. Changed color of quiver strip/shirt to break this sea of the brown color in the center which was made very unpleasant to see with his new glove
5. Made corners of his toes little more edgy, his feet seemed soft before

I approve all of the changes except probably the head (but we need to check if it fits in the lineup first). Even with the old head crest it seemed a little too slouchy, losing in posture to the neighbouring Tribal. Probably it's not a big problem.

Concerning the strip, I'm for this option also. Turquoise is good for accessories for this sprite.

There was a concept of Lizardman Warrior by Kivo back in the time, the traits of which I'd like to transfer: the Indian-style headgear to fill the Shaman niche a little and to make it more atmospheric and fitting to the Tribal, and the turquoise skin color to provide an interesting change without breaking the gamma of the lineup (and soft acceptable reference to Heroes 3, too). Green is the basic color of the Witch, but dynamics here may work for the greater good.

Ragoon wrote:

And secondly... our favourite struggle of the last months!
Yep, talking about the harpy. I just cant stand how it turned out, way off from what I had in mind in the beginning. Even though I clearly have a different idea about how it should look than Orzie, I still wanted to make something with her. She is looking like a wild angel right now with wings just attached to her back.
I didn't changed anything from her geometry as it does not make sense at this point, after so many versions already. So I've given another shoot with wing shape and with a dagger version. She still seems bigger in comparison to the lineup like v1.0 version does.
Wing shape was inspired by the very first version of mine you can see there:

First harpy design from Ragoon:

What do you think about these changes?

What's the most fun, the current Harpy version is much closer to your initial variant than to all of the brutal iterations, so I can't see where's the problem with your initial idea anyhow.

Surprisingly, I approve the change. On DF2 forum branch I was also told that the wings are too mathematically correct (and this is true), so this wing shape is definitely a musthave. There were comments about the legs being moved too much in front, but right now I don't think it's a problem and I consciously moved the hips like that. The Harpy's butt looked too bulky and the posture suffered.

Concerning the daggers, it's a duplicate of the Rogue, one way or another. If you still feel uncomfortable about the bare hands, you can try to adjust her claws accordingly. Moreover, adding a weapon will result in a need of upgradeable version of the Harpy, which means not only more work, but also a reimagination of the Harpy as a conscious creature while probably (probably) it's a better option to leave it half-conscious mythological creature similar to the Griffin.

In addition, it would not be nice to add an upgrade to the Harpy having a no-retaliation attack. In my opinion, it's not satisfying the playing style of the Barbarian, who relies on attack solely and suffers full damage in retaliation without remorse from the enemy - this is probably one of the things responsible for Heroes 2 atmosphere, like lack of shooters for the Necromancer also, who relies on necromancy, or lack of flyers for the Knight who relies on ballistics (in theory, we have some ideas how to make his siege skills work better). A Harpy who still is not as effective in castle siege (because to block shooters it needs to lose a turn without attack) is also contributing to the overall H2 gameplay style of the Barbarian which is more or less preserved in H3SW. With such approach an upgrade is not needed even more.

Whoa, that went smoother than expected XD

I understand that warrior is on me?
About lizardman's posture, I dont see nothing wrong with it, remember that he's a reptile, not human  

Some addictional visualisations:

Hmm, looking not as bad as I actually thought. Let's see what our guys say on the matter. Preliminarily, I'm not against the new shape of the head.

Quote :

I understand that warrior is on me?

You can do it if you want. The only required adjustments are the skin recolor (and respective recolor of accessories to for example Yellow so the Lizardman Warrior will still have a color variety) and a mentioned headgear design. Other than that, no changes are required.

The claws for the Harpy can be probably made even larger (+1 px length for example)

UPD. Please use the updated Wyvern so the image is the most presentable

I'll experiment with claws more before animating, it feels good to find a middleground for the harpy

Sure, will do warrior, maybe even now, but no promise.
Updated lineup images too.

My only concern is about a new Lizardman's crest. If he is going to have an upgrade, it looks like a good idea, but what about the shorter crest?

I don't know if I like shorter one this much. I started making warrior and right now can tell you that the plume will cover whole crest (will look badass thou!)

//EDIT

LIZARDMAN WARRIOR
Which version is better?

Wauw, really nice progress guys! So nice to see all these beautiful sprites

About harpy: I don't quite know which of the version I prefer, but I vote for no weapons because as Orzie said I find her too wild to use weapons, but she should definitely use either her feet or claws

About lizardman: I would like to keep the crest of the basic lizardman and keep the upgrade also. He looks AMAZING! I prefer the version with yellowish strips since the turquoise  blend in with his scale color too much, I didn't quiet notice them on the line-up. The yellow also fits nice with the wasp, frog, tribal ect.

I am strongly against yellow accessories, they make the Lizardman Warrior too chaotic and standing out of place near the Tribal and others. There is no need in such color variety, the turquoise version fits much more to the lineup in general. Other than that, excellent work!

Concerning the crest - really can't decide, both options are fine for me. The newer variant requires a bit of polishment in my opinion though, because currently it's composed of sole black color which may seem a little rough.

A suggestion from Axolotl from DF2 forums (bottomleft corner). Concerns the turquoise bracelets which blend too much with the body, but yellow ones are too bright and motley => brown bracelets as an option.

I generally agree.

If yellow is no-go, then I prefer the brown ones like shown here

Definitely brown, yellow seem to be a bit to bright indeed.

Btw, Ragoon, I've added your updates to the upgraded rogue animation