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Author Topic: Fanart / Armour  (Read 24205 times)

Offline Vulgar Monkey

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Fanart / Armour
« on: June 29, 2014, 06:00:29 am »
Hi all,

So, I'e been using my spare time to learn photoshop (well, re-learn after 10 years off), and the release of V1.0 OpenXcom inspired me to do a little mini-project. Thought it'd be worth sharing.

I havent actually had a chance to try the mod yet, but it looks very promising! Good work guys.



« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 06:09:04 am by Vulgar Monkey »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2014, 07:34:48 am »
Nice. Reeeaaaally nice.

Speaking of a mod, do you mean some X-Com addition you are making?

Offline Aldorn

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2014, 01:08:16 pm »
If you are looking for some job here  ;), have a look at Solarius FMP mod (Final Mod Pack) and inspect the Research tree
Having images for new research nodes would be very helpful  :)

Global idea would be have images split in two parts : left side = black, right side = image as nice as the one you created
See Alien Alloy below as an example
« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 01:10:13 pm by Aldorn »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2014, 02:44:29 pm »
I definitely wouldn't say no. XD I'll release the first version within days, so everyone will see what it is and what it needs.

Offline Warboy1982

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2014, 03:14:20 pm »
amazing the conclusions you people will jump to, notice he never said he was making a mod, and within 2 posts it's already part of the FMP, and you're making UFOPaedia image requests.
maybe appreciate his artistic talent and wait until he discloses further details about what he has planned before you try to assimilate and influence his efforts?

nice work, vulgar monkey, looks like you haven't lost your touch, although the highlighting and shading on his left arm looks somehow high contrast, like too much bloom has been applied? minor critique aside this is a very interesting take on the power armour design, certainly much more appealing to me than the baggy beige suits i'm used to.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 03:31:43 pm by Warboy1982 »

Offline Aldorn

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2014, 03:44:04 pm »
amazing the conclusions you people will jump to, notice he never said he was making a mod, and within 2 posts it's already part of the FMP, and you're making UFOPaedia image requests.
maybe appreciate his artistic talent and wait until he discloses further details about what he has planned before you try to assimilate and influence his efforts?
You are not wrong  :-[
So VM,
1) Apologies !
2) Welcome !!
3) Congratulations for this amazing work !!!
« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 03:47:50 pm by Aldorn »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2014, 04:10:24 pm »
amazing the conclusions you people will jump to, notice he never said he was making a mod, and within 2 posts it's already part of the FMP, and you're making UFOPaedia image requests.
maybe appreciate his artistic talent and wait until he discloses further details about what he has planned before you try to assimilate and influence his efforts?

Frankly, you're right. The truth is, sorry but Aldorn got a bit too far ahead and put both Vulgar Monkey and me in an uncomfortable situation. I thought making some non-consecutive comment would smooth things out. Now I can see I should have reacted more strongly, but the damage is done.

As for "he never said he was making a mod", yes he kind of did - he said he was doing a "mini-project". I was merely interested if it was a mod.

Offline Vulgar Monkey

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2014, 08:10:44 pm »
Lol, looking back I can see how my wording could be interpreted either way! That's fine, dont worry about it.

But yes, the mini-project is just painting in itself - since I'm trying to set myself particular goals and develop some more professional standards, I break things down into mini-projects.....it's what seems too work for me in regards to self-teaching.

My intent was simply to share the picture since it was related to and inspired by the work of the devteam (great work again btw), but as it happens if you do need more pictures doing then I'm 'available' (ie I currently have nothing better to do with my time, lol), so if you can give me specifics I could have a think about it. Frankly it'd be doing me a favour too as it'd give me something to sink my teeth into.

The good (and challenging) thing about xcom assets is that they're lo-res and muddy enough to suggest an idea, but allow for a lot of interpretation. Aside from using the silhouette and a couple of interesting hardpoints around the helmet (eyes, antenna, odd little mouthpiece) the old armour for example was very open, so that makes it a great way to practice concepting out ideas from an existing IP imo. Could be fun.

Can't make any promises, but I suppose the thing with concept arting is that 90% of the stuff that gets turned out by the artists never gets used anyway, so the more stuff you get the better, right?

Warboy - absolutely, good eyes! Yes, for a moment I was considering applying the high contrast gloss from the gauntlets to the whole body, but since this was a test piece I ended up with them being shinier than the rest, and just colour shifted the rest of it to attempt some sort of pearlescence. Just a bit of an experiment really. First time I've dared try reflective materials tbh so I'm just pleased it wasnt a complete write-off. :)
I borrow a technique from car modelling and had the 'paint' build up over a few layers of base/metallic/gloss, so it's easy enough to change.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2014, 08:22:03 pm by Vulgar Monkey »

Offline Aldorn

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2014, 03:47:19 pm »
My intent was simply to share the picture since it was related to and inspired by the work of the devteam (great work again btw), but as it happens if you do need more pictures doing then I'm 'available' (ie I currently have nothing better to do with my time, lol), so if you can give me specifics I could have a think about it. Frankly it'd be doing me a favour too as it'd give me something to sink my teeth into.
So VM, I will not lose this opportunity !

Can't make any promises, but I suppose the thing with concept arting is that 90% of the stuff that gets turned out by the artists never gets used anyway, so the more stuff you get the better, right?
Even if you provide just one image, this would be more than nothing !
No one here is forced to do anything, and providing some stuff to others is just already very pretty.

So if I give some details of what could be interesting in my opinion.

Some nice pictures (constrained as possible to fit vanilla spirit) would be useful, in order to illustrate some new modded research topics

Have a look at advanced research description below (provided by Solarius FMP).
Spoiler:
      STR_POWER_SOURCE_MINIATURIZATION: Power Source Miniaturization
      STR_POWER_SOURCE_MINIATURIZATION_UFOPEDIA: With Anti-Matter Containment research complete, we have developed the technology of building a miniaturized version of the UFO Power Source.  This advanced battery greatly exceeds any other portable power source we had before.

      STR_ALIEN_POWER_SYSTEMS: Alien Power Systems
      STR_POWER_SYSTEMS_UFOPEDIA: "Alien technology routinely uses incredibly advanced components that store, release and transmit high energies easily, safely and with minimal losses.  Although completely different in design from our own equipment, and using unusual materials, they can now be copied relatively easily by our engineers and used for a variety of applications."

      STR_ALIEN_BIOLOGY: Alien Biology
      STR_ALIEN_BIOLOGY_UFOPEDIA: "Our preliminary research regarding alien remains show an astonishing fact: they have DNA much like ourselves, but it is so different that we should assume it has some extraterrestrial origins - or at least coming from some inconceivable depths of time.  Moreover, we also found certain fragments that seem to have been added artificially, fragments that were probably extracted from modern Earth organisms.  Our theory is that it helps the aliens to adapt to our environment, but even so, this adaptation is either short-term or incomplete: lacking the pre-processed nutrients and with poor immunology, the alien would be unable to survive on Earth for more than a day or two, therefore special arrangements must be made to keep a living specimen for study."

      STR_ADVANCED_PLASMA_PHYSICS: Advanced Plasma Physics
      STR_ADVANCED_PLASMA_PHYSICS_UFOPEDIA: "While plasma has been known to human science for decades, it remained highly unpredictable and difficult to produce in a controlled environment.  The alien culture seems to have overcome these obstacles centuries ago, thanks to some dedicated mathematical equations and technological advancements derived from them.  Now we are able to understand and copy this equipment for our own energy needs."

      STR_TRACTOR_BEAM_GENERATOR: Tractor Beam Generator
      STR_TRACTOR_BEAM_GENERATOR_UFOPEDIA: "This large-scale device is used in Alien Bases to assist large UFOs with precise landing.  It employs artificial gravity to decrease and otherwise manipulate mass of large objects at up to 400 metres.  It is, however, far too bulky to be mounted on any flying craft, even the largest UFOs, and therefore provides no advantage to our troops."

      STR_ALIEN_GRAVITY_GENERATOR: Alien Gravity Generator
      STR_ALIEN_GRAVITY_GENERATOR_UFOPEDIA: "Alien Gravity Generator is in fact a graviton emitter, which can amplify, nullify or modulate gravity fields on small scales.  While it has no direct combat application, it is sure to be a great boon to human space exploration, atmospheric flight and many fields of engineering."

      STR_FUSION_EXPLOSIVES: Fusion Explosives
      STR_FUSION_EXPLOSIVES_UFOPEDIA: "While the Elerium in itself element is extremely efficient at releasing large amounts of energy at once, it can also be used to initiate a fusion reaction.  While not as efficient, a fusion blast is far cheaper and easier to create.  Combined in the right proportion with a highly energetic crystalline material, this allows for violent discharges of energy, emitting large amounts of heat but very little radiation.  This discovery can potentially revolutionize human warfare against the aliens."

      STR_PARTICLE_MICROACCELERATION: Particle Microacceleration
      STR_PARTICLE_MICROACCELERATION_UFOPEDIA: "Many alien designs, including plasma weapons, feature a particle acceleration chamber.  Based on gravity modulation, this component accelerates small lumps of matter to whirl at great velocities, creating enough heat to produce plasma.  This process is very fast, but it requires E-115 to provide the necessary amount of energy."

      STR_ANTIMATTER_CONTAINMENT: Anti-Matter Containment
      STR_ANTIMATTER_CONTAINMENT_UFOPEDIA: "Anti-matter is an excellent source of energy, but it is also why it's extremely unstable.  The aliens have overcome this problem by a clever application of gravity fields, separating the anti-matter from normal matter and thus preventing them from reacting with each other, as long as the field is in place.  This discovery is likely to bring great advancement to the human civilization, and can certainly be used against the alien threat."

      STR_DELTA_RADIATION: Delta Radiation
      STR_DELTA_RADIATION_UFOPEDIA: "Delta rays are completely different from any other sort of radiation known to humanity, as they are shifted out into something that can only be described as 'hyperspace'. These rays generally do not interact with ordinary matter or energy, so they are harmless to humans and impossible to detect with ordinary equipment.  They do, however, react with the Elerium element, exciting its atoms and destabilizing their structure, therefore allowing for quick conversion from matter to energy.  Unfortunately, the right frequency to provoke this reaction makes their range extremely short, which prevents us from disrupting alien weaponry on the battlefield."

      STR_ALIEN_ELECTRONICS: Alien Electronics
      STR_ALIEN_ELECTRONICS_UFOPEDIA: "Instead of integrated microprocessors, the aliens use specially grown crystal matrices to create logic machines.  While not inherently faster, these crystals allow for a multi-threaded communication between its nodes, therefore achieving and even surpassing the level of the theoretical quantum computer.  Now we have the rough understanding on how these alien 'electronics' work and even how to program them, but sadly we do not possess the technology to make them from scratch - we need to rely on whatever we can gather on the battlefield."

      STR_ALIEN_CODES: Alien Codes
      STR_ALIEN_CODES_UFOPEDIA: "For interplanetary communication, the aliens use special equipment that seems to be able to emit waves which travel faster than the speed of light.  These waves are modulated to encode messages with a complex, yet logical pattern.  This pattern is now understood by us, which gives us hope of attaining the possibility of intercepting and decoding alien communications."

      STR_ALIEN_NEUROPSYCHOLOGY: Alien Neuropsychology
      STR_ALIEN_NEUROPSYCHOLOGY_UFOPEDIA: "While there are many types of alien life forms, they do share certain neuropsychological features that are either inherent to their species or artificially inserted.  These features allow the aliens to cooperate in a hive-like manner, despite obvious biological differences.  These common patterns seem to be related mostly to non-verbal communication, internal visualisation and transmission of simple emotions.  Now we can have expect to be able to somehow tap into their interpersonal communication channels and possibly use it to our advantage."

      STR_ALIEN_SUBJUGATION: Alien Subjugation
      STR_ALIEN_SUBJUGATION_UFOPEDIA: "While humans use electrical impulses to cause a neural system to overload, the aliens have developed a much more efficient and safer method, based on gravitic distortion.  A gravity wave of a fine-tuned frequency disrupts higher brain functions within a fraction of a second, while leaving other bodily functions unharmed.  This method is extremely effective in temporarily disabling humans, be it on the battlefield or in alien surgery rooms."

      STR_PLASMA_WEAPONS: Plasma Weapons
      STR_PLASMA_WEAPONS_UFOPEDIA: "Plasma weapons are very powerful tools of war, based on accelerating particles from within a minute anti-gravity field."

      STR_FUSION_WEAPONS: Fusion Weapons
      STR_FUSION_WEAPONS_UFOPEDIA: "Fusion weapons use Elerium-based explosives to create powerful blasts of pure energy."

      STR_ALIEN_OPTICAL_PROCESSOR: Alien Optical Processor
      STR_ALIEN_OPTICAL_PROCESSOR_UFOPEDIA: "Aliens use a special device to communicate with their navigation equipment.  This device emits carefully modulated flashes of bright light directly into the eyes of the operator, stimulating their brain and therefore feeding them with information.  It is unclear how this device receives feedback from the pilot, but it seems to read and analyze their brain wave patterns, which are then processed and fed into the UFO Navigation."

      STR_ALIEN_GARDENS: Alien Gardens
      STR_ALIEN_GARDENS_UFOPEDIA: "Alien Bases contain special facilities for cultivation of genetically engineered plant-like life forms.  Despite their name, these 'gardens' play little part in alien food production; instead they produce various biochemicals used in alien industry and warfare."

      STR_ALLOY_AMMO: Alien Alloy Ammunition
      STR_ALLOY_CANNON_UFOPEDIA: Recent advances in material science - brought about by studying the Alien Alloys - have enabled us to construct a fearsome craft weapon, much more powerful than the previous cannon.
      STR_ALLOY_AMMO_UFOPEDIA: With the knowledge of how to process the ultra-strong yet lightweight alien alloys, we can now manufacture alloy bullets capable of withstanding higher muzzle velocities without disintegrating, fired from alloy casings that are lighter yet stronger than previously possible.

      STR_FUSION_WEAPONS_CALIBRATION: Fusion Weapons Calibration
      STR_FUSION_WEAPONS_CALIBRATION_UFOPEDIA: "Alien fusion weapons are extremely potent, but they must be recalibrated daily to stay usable.  Since we have learned how to do so, we can employ such alien weapons from now on, provided that we manage to secure them on the battlefield."

      STR_PLASMA_WEAPONS_CALIBRATION: Plasma Weapons Calibration
      STR_PLASMA_WEAPONS_CALIBRATION_UFOPEDIA: "Alien plasma weapon clips must be recalibrated daily to stay usable.  Since we have learned how to do so, we can employ such alien weapons from now on, provided that we manage to secure them on the battlefield."

Beware that it's WIP, and Solarius will have the last word on it as he is the owner (@Solars, I hope I will not offense you asking this for your stuff, as I'm not sure to have well understand your previous answer regarding any confidentiality of your stuff ; if you disagree, I will just remove this post)

In any case, wait for some other people to give their own opinion on it, I just put forward an idea

Beware with transparency / black, palettes, ... (I can just warn you on this, without be able to help you in no way :-\)


As an example, see below two screen shot of how it is displayed in game
- 1st one is vanilla
- 2nd one is modded

Third image (IMG_UFOPAEDIA_ADVANCED_TECHNOLOGIES.PNG, whose owner is Solarius even if I changed the file name) is the source file used (in my mod) to obtain the second screen
Also, picture is only drawn on right side of image, left side being transparent/black (I don't really know)

FYI, I use this image for any other new technology, so as you can see, I could make with just one image... In that way, more images would be a nice to have !
« Last Edit: June 30, 2014, 03:57:49 pm by Aldorn »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2014, 04:07:36 pm »
The FMP is a group project, I'm merely doing almost all the work. XD

Sure, I've planned to add pictures to the new research. I haven't gotten to it yet, since I want a working release first, but worthy contributions are priceless. So Vulgar Monkey, if you like the project and would like to participate, you'll be more than welcome!

Offline Vulgar Monkey

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2014, 06:47:14 pm »
Well, on an initial skim read I've had a few vague ideas pop up already, largely due to the fantastically written blurb text.

As for immediate matters though, I have a couple of questions:
1) What do I need to know about the game pallete? I assume just the 256 colours available in the other images?
2) So, how does the text screen handle transparency? Going from the sample screens, am I to assume that pure white just comes out as transparent and all others are left as is, or am I misunderstanding?
3) Would you like these to any particular timeframe, or shall we just see how things tick along? For reference, that armour took a couple of days painting and maybe a day of faffing around with sketches, planning, thinking and experimentation. On and off anyway, an hour here an hour there. But then again, that was at 4800x3600 resolution, and xcom runs at.....less. What was it again, 320x240?

Also, just to give you an idea, as well as the established art style I was getting a bit of an Alpha Centauri vibe from some descriptions, if anyone remembers those cutscenes?
« Last Edit: June 30, 2014, 07:14:03 pm by Vulgar Monkey »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2014, 07:15:28 pm »
Well, on an initial skim read I've had a few vague ideas pop up already, largely due to the fantastically written blurb text.

That's great to hear!

As for immediate matters though, I have a couple of questions:
1) What do I need to know about the game pallete?

It's a complex issue, since there are several palettes used by various parts. As I understand, you're interested in the big Ufopedia pictures, so I'm attaching a pic that certainly has the right palette for this (courtesy of Dioxine).

2) So, how does the text screen handle transparency? Going from the sample screens, am I to assume that pure white just comes out as transparent and all others are left as is, or am I misunderstanding?

Still under assumption we're discussing big pics, to the best of my (meagre) knowledge they can be non-transparent - the text will be displayed on them. We'll just need empty space for the text. Still, I haven't really played with big Ufopedia pics.

3) Would you like these to any particular timeframe, or shall we just see how things tick along? For reference, that armour took a couple of days painting and maybe a day of faffing around with sketches, planning, thinking and experimentation. On and off anyway, an hour here an hour there. But then again, that was at 4800x3600 resolution, and xcom runs at.....less.

Nothing like that, we're working in our spare time anyway. Whenever there's some new content, I'll be adding it to the next release. So don't worry, there's no special commitment except what people impose on themselves.

Also, just to give you an idea, as well as the established art style I was getting a bit of an Alpha Centauri vibe from some descriptions, if anyone remembers those cutscenes?

Sure I do! Loved the game, even though it kind of sucked as a game... :D But I can't say if I've been in any way inspired by Alpha Centauri. If anything, I may have mimicked Xenonauts, though it wasn't my intention.

Thanks for expressing the interest, hopefully this will lead to something awesome! :)

Offline Vulgar Monkey

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2014, 11:15:57 pm »
Ok, I'm a little new to pixel-art so have gone away to look up some techniques, and think I have a grasp on things. There's a certain technique that lets you put together lo-res imagines with hi-res input.....if that makes much sense. :D

Anyway, that's beside the point, I just wanted to check another thing that occurred to me just now while looking at the vanilla ufopaedia entries. Are your new techs sitting alongside vanilla entries, or are some of them meant to act as replacements? I'm just wondering if it's worth doubling up on redundant topics like vanilla 'UFO Power Source' (which already has an image), or if I'd be better off focusing on the more exotic stuff which doesnt have an existing analogue in game already?


Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2014, 03:08:38 am »
Anyway, that's beside the point, I just wanted to check another thing that occurred to me just now while looking at the vanilla ufopaedia entries. Are your new techs sitting alongside vanilla entries, or are some of them meant to act as replacements? I'm just wondering if it's worth doubling up on redundant topics like vanilla 'UFO Power Source' (which already has an image), or if I'd be better off focusing on the more exotic stuff which doesnt have an existing analogue in game already?

I haven't removed any vanilla research topic, only added new ones. This means that the UFO Power Source stays as it were, though its prerequisites may be different.
I hope this answers your question :) In short, only new stuff requires attention.

Offline Vulgar Monkey

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Re: Fanart / Armour
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2014, 09:04:29 pm »
Right, thought I'd share what I've got so far. I actually did all these within a few days and was going to hold off until I'd done the rest this week.....but I ended up getting sidetracked by other stuff this week and didnt get around to anything. One part procrastination, another part juggling several jobs at once. Meh.










Anyway, I have to say it's an interesting workflow doing uber lo-res index art, I quite like it. However, I do have to bare in mind the low level of detail and what that allows.....in one or two of those I think I tried to do too much with the image. For example, the green dude was meant to have the fusion explosives detonation reflected in his goggles, but at such lo res it doesnt really read well - I'd probably go back and try to just zoom in on one lens, and try not to mess up the composition too much.

The only other thing I'm not 100% sure on is if it keeps with the feel of existing art. I never used to notice as an xcom player, but the art for ufopaedia entries (of which there isnt as much as I remember) is of a totally different style to the menu backgrounds. The former are semi-realistic, the latter very comicbook. Frankly I'm surprised just how much of a gradient you can achieve with the existing palette, and I think I might have overdone the lighting as a result. Still, some of the remaining stuff should end up a bit more industrial, and with the indexing method it's easy to mess with levels, colour balance, and posterisation effects to achieve a different look. Little bit of trivia....running this stuff though the cutout filter makes it look just like Flashback, all faux-polygonal and stuff. :)
« Last Edit: July 12, 2014, 09:20:04 pm by Vulgar Monkey »