36 réponses à ce sujet

[The Amethyst Dragon]

I'm working on updating some of the really rough looking older shield models found in the CEP today. Starting with the circular-ish large wooden ones before going onto others.

 

So, I'm looking at the pictures for some of these, and while most are straightforward to update (Greyhawk holy symbols? easy enough to find new copies to work with), others require a little more liberty be taken. Still, most of those are easy enough to figure out and make better images for. And yes, I'm making them look like they're painted onto the wood, rather than onto flat canvases.

 

However...does anyone know what this one is supposed to be a picture of (number 206)? It looks to me like a dark peach or a light colored plum, but I honestly have no idea. And I don't know who the original creator was to ask them (or find the original Vault submission to check).

 

 

 

 

Just to give some examples of what I'm working on, here's textures I've updated this evening:

 

[Snugglehoof]

Those look incredible!

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Those look incredible!

Thanks. A 15 year old copy of Photoshop (still works with Windows 8.1!) + Google image search + trying to remake shields with basically the same (yet better looking) designs (so builders won't have to change any item descriptions if they used the old ones). Pretty much the same thing I did several years ago for the hanging merchant signs.

 

There's a few more shield screenshots (from last summer) on the polls page for possible content overhauls. (link)

[Proleric]

Really great work. I especially like the care and attention to retain the original meaning of the symbol, as that can find its way into dialogue as well as descriptions.

[Pstemarie]

They do look really good. The only one that looks a little out of place is large shield 096. The image is fantastic, but it kind of reminds me more of the terminator than anything from NWN. Have you thought of replacing the metallic skull coloration with one that looks more like bone?

[Carcerian]

Wow, that looks amazing, a huge improvement over the older art assets

[Tarot Redhand]

Oh, dang! I've assiduously been collecting old shields on the new vault as they have been posted by Turkeys with a view to updating them sometime later. Looks like I'll have to revise that idea now. One thing I guarantee is that I am not going to touch monsters.

 

<initiating evil eye glint mode>

 

AD did you know that some so-called wooden shields actually had a covering of leather over the wood in order to make the shields more resilient   ?

 

<terminates all modes>

 

TR

[MerricksDad]

They do look really good. The only one that looks a little out of place is large shield 096. The image is fantastic, but it kind of reminds me more of the terminator than anything from NWN. Have you thought of replacing the metallic skull coloration with one that looks more like bone?

 

I agree, I think that shield was intended to be more vampiric than metal, and more animal than human. It looks more like a werewolf skull from the front. Maybe we need to do a bones CCC and have everybody try their hand at a ton of skulls, bones, claws, and weapons and armor made from the like. That will populate the usable skeletal content to the max, and then we can reuse all that stuff for other purposes.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

They do look really good. The only one that looks a little out of place is large shield 096. The image is fantastic, but it kind of reminds me more of the terminator than anything from NWN. Have you thought of replacing the metallic skull coloration with one that looks more like bone?

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking that one looked a little too "computer graphic-y" still. I was thinking it was a metal skull in the original (due to the blue to white shades of the original), but intend for it to look like it's a painting of a metal skull. I'll try it with a more white bone looking one today (and return the fangs) and if I like the results, probably go with that.

[Gruftlord]

Oh those look great. Do i assume correctly, that you will also switch the shield model to these more round, wooden ones? That's awesome. The old ones are really low quality.

I also like to think of shield 96 as a vampire or werewolf skull.

[Verilazic]

Could 206 be a dragon egg?

[Frith5]

Great work, especially in upgrading while retaining the original, as has been noted.

On the skull imagery, I thought it looked like a bas-relief metal skull. If that was the intention, maybe a shadow around it could help it stand forth from the background of the shield? The addition of a few brads or rivets could help it look separate but attached too, if that's the intention.

 

Nice stuff, as usual.

[Jfoxtail]

However...does anyone know what this one is supposed to be a picture of (number 206)? It looks to me like a dark peach or a light colored plum, but I honestly have no idea. And I don't know who the original creator was to ask them (or find the original Vault submission to check).

 

---

 

Answer : Not that this is authoritative but I would suggest a Grape (for Wine) rampant on a Golden Sun.

 

Think god / godess / godling of wine.

 

A better replacement might be a vine of grapes upon a rayed sun.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Do i assume correctly, that you will also switch the shield model to these more round, wooden ones? That's awesome. The old ones are really low quality.

 

Yes, you assume correctly. Here's one of the toolset screenshots I took last summer when first considering this update. It only goes from 8 sides to 12 sides, but with the textures used, that 50% increase in sides makes a big difference. The new ones use an existing wooden shield as a starting point, then I altered it to make the face easier to change.

 

[Carrot Sticks]

The difference is really night and day: the model and texture combination work out very nicely together.

[Jedijax]

I think the idea is great, and the quality is far superior to that of the originals, but I also think some of the textures are not merging well with the shield base. While the symbols look better, some are too colorful or too simple in texture, which contrasts a lot with the highly detailed wooden shield. The ship and crown one is an example of this, as the emblem looks very colorful for warpaint, or the fleur de lis star which looks like a sticker on a barrel top. The very same shield base was used for many other shield variations, and I think you could take out the "worn-out" look some of the previous authors gave them, which makes in my opinion, for a more realistic look. Of course, this is but an aesthetic preference, and you may be going for the exact opposite, which is the shiny, fantasy-looking, smooth look of other works, in which case, this comment would be moot.

 

The bi-colored shields, the very first ones, unfortunately, still look very low-quality despite applying the new wooden face. I believe those would only do with a completely different texture.

Close

[Tiberius_Morguhn]

These look outstanding!  I've been working on some additional shield options myself if you need any of these for CEP.  The large shields are pretty much finished, but I'm still working on some bucklers and I'm not happy with the current state of the back of the tower shields (also have about 6 more versions).  I also have a kite large shield template but the back of it is causing me some grief right now as well (not pictured).

 

The textures are primarily based off of the Dark Souls 2 shield contest runner-ups.  There are also a few from Deviant Art whose authors gave permission for use on their pages.

 

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Tiberius_Morguhn: Those are some nice looking shields. CEP is almost out of space for large shields (so could only fit a few more new ones), but has plenty of room left for new tower shields and bucklers/small shields.

 

I did some more texture and model work today. I think I'm going to change the crown over the ship coloration a bit, but I'm happy with the rest.

 

For the Greyhawk holy symbol shields, some I'm using existing (and well known) images on the shields, for others I'm taking some liberties (because the well known versions just don't look good on a shield). Besides, in the real world holy symbols often have differences in their depictions, I figure D&D ones likely do as well.

 

A few of the shields have an alpha channel, so bits of them will be at least a little shiny, as if they have metal on the front of them rather than being just paint.

 

[Khuzadrepa]

Amazing work here, guys!! Loving it!

[The Amethyst Dragon]

I'm done with the rounded wooden shields now and I'm working on metal shields (23 large shields left to make). The textures take the longest to make, since I'm kind of a stickler for details. The metal shields will all use the same base shield model (based on a 1.69 one) though, so once the textures are finished the models are a snap to whip up.

 

When these are done, I'm going to push out the 2.61 update (with the large shields overhaul and 2da fixes). I'll look at tower shields after that.

 

Thanks to Jfoxtail's comment, I went ahead and assumed it's a grape for #206. It's now more obvious, being a bunch of grapes with vine leaves over yellow. There was also another questionable one that, looking closely, vaguely resembled a bad drawing of a moon, so I made a better version (#251).

 

It's a lot of work on small details, but the results are a lot of coolness. It's almost a shame I don't use anything Forgotten Realms in my PW, because I'm really digging the Cyric and Malar symbol shields now. Eh, maybe I'll use the Malar one anyway for some demon cult or something.

 

[Tarot Redhand]

If the Cyric one is the shield with a skull in that picture, you could always use it for a squadron of elite troops. As a UK example there was the 17th/21st lancers who's cap-badge was ->

 

 

TR

[Zarathustra217]

Amazing job AD, those old shields made me cringe.

[Drewskie]

Don't know to what extent you will be supporting PQ, but any chance some of these could be included in there as well?  Playing around with some of the different shield combos, it looks like there is room for expansion.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Drewskie:

 

I'm sure that once I get access to the inner workings of Project Q (mainly, the ability to add new content and have it show up through the Q updater), I could add these updated shields if there's enough space. I'm sure there's model name/number conflicts, but those are simple enough to address. No guarantees that I'll keep updating Q, but I'll see what I can make time for.

 

My hope is to make things easier in the future by getting CEP to use the same sort of incremental updater as Q so that future downloads are smaller and faster. We'll see once I get access to the Q workings, to see if I can easily adapt it to work with CEP.

[Proleric]

I hope you'll retain the option to download the latest version, as updaters don't suit everyone.