Well here is a quick concept for a pretty easy sprite for Darlavon. He is a minor character, but we have a great portrait for him so we might as well give him a sprite as well. I'm sure there are some patches that could incorporate him. I have no intention of being able to finish this on my own, especially since I finish hardly any sprites, so all help is welcome. I have already talked to Nojgaard about helping. Right now he is a combination of:
Knight Body
Weigraf Hair
Dycedarg Beard.
What do people think of the basic design and palette? I'm really happy with his head and hair color. The black gloves and boots are working decently well. In his portrait it appears he has a brown cape. It kind of looks like he has Weigraf's scarf as well, but I'm not sure how to incorporate that into a design.
I really like this. I know its knight basically, but these colors are working wonders. I'm sure we can change the portrait a little to look more like the outfit if worst comes to wear.
I'll just say this. If you finish this sprite, I will gladly put him in DD. :D
Oh man, I love this palette. The zoomed in version looks exquisite, but the boots and pants blend in the zoomed out version. As for the sprite itself, I think it looks good; it resembles him well. Except for the eyes. McSleepy over here does not need angry eyes. I also pictured the character as less of a warrior and more of a scholar, but the execution here is great, so I don't care.
I thought he was a retired soldier, myself.
EDIT: Whaddaya know: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Darlavon
soldier!
I think this is pretty good, the only thing that needs some work is the eyes, maybe giving him a soft look in the eyes and not the angry one of the knight could make him even better.
Quote from: Eternal248 on August 06, 2011, 03:32:32 pm
I'll just say this. If you finish this sprite, I will gladly put him in DD. :D
That battle sounds like realy cool, but he'll need a skillset, let's see what you come up with Et, i bet it will be good.
Psh, he just needs "Be Oneself" to put enemies to sleep. :P
Thanks everyone for the comments and compliments.
@Mav: The gray above his boots is a little odd, though that is just the original Knight which has some odd color sharing choices. It should be pretty easy to just turn to a different brown shade to make it work better. Do you think the gray/white on his chest works and the navy blue?
Great advice about the eyes, I will change them. Maybe I can make his beard a bit thicker too. If this is all this guy needs, he could be done really quick. I wonder if a belt could make him look a bit thicker/fatter, and then switch out his chest plate.
The gray/white and navy blue combo definitely works, so keep that as is. You can experiment with changing the boot colors, but I really think you can get away with the current palette. Thickening the beard would also be a great idea.
Eyes, shouldn't be nice, most older sprites in FFT have this kind of eyes. Those look similiar to Orlandu, but a straight copy of Orlandu's should fix it. For the scarf, I don't advise using Wiegraf, sprite already uses the hair, so scarf would make two things. My vote is for Scholar's scarf that Jimmy made, it would look great on him. Colors on the chest and the like blend quite a bit like pointed earlier, but I am sure you can think of something here.
Oh, and other thing, his eyes currently have too much grey as evebrowse used, it should have more dark shades. Perhaps if you want to have eyebrowse visible, use Draclau.
Keep in mind that those "older sprites" also have portraits with more stern-looking eyes, like Orlandu, Gafgarion, and Goltana. Sad-eyed Simon has eyes that match his portrait.
Which I really like, cause they actually match the character. Simon knows about the church etc. It really comes together. It's the little things that Impress me.
Quote from: mav on August 07, 2011, 05:06:17 pm
Keep in mind that those "older sprites" also have portraits with more stern-looking eyes, like Orlandu, Gafgarion, and Goltana. Sad-eyed Simon has eyes that match his portrait.
Yes, but giving him normal or nice eyes like mentioned earlier will make him look too generic. Just look at 40yo man or woman, those two already have other eye style.
I have tried a couple different eyes so far but they aren't turning out too well so far. Anyone else willing to try out some new eyes on the front diagonal frame to see what some could eye and eyebrow options would be.
Really good palette choice. I only dislike the grey inner part of the cape on the 3/4 view but that's just a little easy fix.
Okay here are two new eye options. I tried regular Knight and some others, but they were too bad to even who. What I have below from left to right is:
1) Rudvich
2) 60 year old man
3) 60 year old man + Mustache
4) Dycedarg (eye from first post)
I have a few more to try, but not too many options are even kind of working.
I think this one, with a less highlighted beard, looks nice. without mustache is a good second, though.
I'm stuck between 3 and 4. The problem with 3, I think, is that the eyes are -too- solemn.
I prefer 4, 3 looks a bit sad. I know it's his mustache, but it looks kinda like a frown, so when I look at 3 I feel like he's about to cry. I'd like to see 1 with a forward view, though.
i liked 3, the one with the mustache.
Number 2 is my favourite. 3rd is looking too sad with this moustache on, 4th is looking good, but I somehwat prefer 2. I am still interested in seeing more eye concepts though, but if you are tired, then I vote for 2.
I'm thinking we should have a winner out of these options, what do you all think?
1) Rudvich
2) 60 year old man
3) 60 year old man + Mustache
4) #3 + minor mustache changes
5) Simon's eyes and mustache
6) Dycedarg (eye from first post)
Simon really fits him the most, in my opinion.
Quote from: Kagebunji on August 08, 2011, 12:02:15 pm
Simon really fits him the most, in my opinion.
Seconded, though the 60-year-old man also looks good. The other ones just look odd.
Simon
Simon ones all the way.
Yeah, Simon wins.
Great, this is particularly encouraging because I threw the Simon face together really quickly and it has a few minor errors. So once I get those ironed out he should look even better. I think I will try darkening up the eyebrows as well. Should I make the symbol on his cape navy instead of white?
I'd have to see it first. Navy would certainly look more regal, but I'm not sure how it'd look with the brown.
I don't know how you see it, but personally I think some kind of armor on his chest would be nice, something small, like Agrias's plate. This is not a must, just an idea I had.
I'm with you Kage, I was almost thinking that the female Knight's breastplate could perhaps work. My other primary concern is the shorts/boots and how those white pixels just throw everything off. Chapter 2/3 Delita's body and legs might be the solution if I can get the colors to work together. Then Darlavon my get some black metal armor. Part of me wants to keep him pretty close to the original Knight design and not get this too complicated though. I will throw together some previews and we can see.
I don't like the idea of him having armor simply because he strikes me more as a scholar than a knight. </two_cents>
Simon looks good to me, all of the other ones besides the first one posted look scared or something. Also the cape is still grey on the inside unlike the other views which is orange.. so who ever takes this on don't forget to make the views match or it'll look like it flashes in game. #5 and 6 both look good to me.
Yeah Eternal I'm on a similar vain of thought that he can't be particularly badass looking. The black leather gloves and boots are already pushing it frankly, if any other color worked I would consider it. I will try several different things just to test them out, like the scarf, but I really don't want to make this too complicated when he already looks good. Plus if you look at the standard knight portrait they have a similar looking scarf thing as Darlavon, so that points to no need for a scarf and him being more knight like.
Good catch on the grays and dark browns Lijj, but this is how all the knight sprites are so I doubt it will be an issue.
I pictured him as a bent-over old guy with a cane. Or as a mediator. Doesn't his record say he only participated in one battle in the Fifty Year War?
He isn't that much of a fighter, but from the portrait he looks very similar to a male knight. That is what I'm basing my design off of.
He's a 'book smart fighter' who never saw much field time. God I can't remember who I was going to compare him to from history, but I love this knight look. Just creepy how much you guys are obsessing over his face haha.
Okay here he is will all Simon face and a new body. I can go back to the knight body if people think it looks better, but rather a fan of this. It makes him look a bit less a warrior and maybe a bit thick around the middle. I could use some suggestions on the rear side view on his head. Oh and the front facing work took some editing to look even half decent, is it working now?
It looks pretty damn good to me. Instead of the sash you might want to just give him a belt, kinda like Olan's, if you want to have it at some angle. Also, how many skin colors you use? I think only two. And to fix back side view, try putting some darker gray shades in the place where skin is.
That is actually Olan's belt...but I maybe tried fixing it a bit much so it goes too high. I can change that and then it will look more like a belt again.
I have two skin tones plus a brown shade as a third. Why do you ask, do you think it needs better depth?
If it is Olan, then it does go too high on forward side view, makes it look like a sash instead. Depth is ok, but I feel more dark shades on the back side view could help(in the place I specified in the last post).
The only major changes I made was shortening him for the rear and side rear views. I'm afraid I over did it for the side rear views, what do people think? I'm pretty sure he is working under 16 colors just fine as well.
He is shorter all right, however if you shorten one frame, all should follow. I don't mind personally him being a lil shorter than regular, he is an old man, and IMO it fits him in some way, heh. I like it so far.
I like this new design a lot! I didn't see the changes til now..
The cape is missing part of it on the walking frames. but I understand it's a WIP so np for now.
LOL I can't believe I didn't notice that, and easy fix though, thanks for the tip Lijj.
The front view looks like his tunic and leggings are attached to each other like a leotard, whereas the other views look as though they are the same color but separate. It may only be one frame, but it keeps throwing me off.
Yeah that is how Orran/Olan originally looked as well. I will see what I can do, but for the forward facing frame I care little. I have made a lot of progress. I almost down to just getting his face right on every frame, body is practically done.
I take my facial hair very seriously, thus I was rather dissatisfied with how Darlavon's was looking. Plus as I continued on with the sprite I found myself giving him a much better looking full beard for many of the frames. The result is that I did some tweaks and I'm very happy with it now. I'm about 75% done, the only major milestone left is getting the rear side head looking better. For some reason the Weigraf hair just looks like crap from that angle. In all honesty many of the sprite have bad hair from this angle.
First attempt at Darlavon is on the left, new one is on the right. I wish I could grow a beard looking that good.
The beard looks great now Cheetah, good job. Hopefully you complete this one and finally end your drought :P.
Beard is much better, much cooler. Sash makes him more elegant, gives him the professor feeling. Good job Cheetah.
Yeah, that beard does look quite a bit better. Just a minor semi-related question: was Darlavon associated with the Hokuten, Nanten, or neither?
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I do believe I actually will finish this one, just need to get that head looking good in the rear side view. This project was supposed to be just a quick headswap and it has certainly become a lot more, but it is at least looking quite good.
Looking quite good indeed. The new beard is the shiz
great looking sprite, the frontal frame needs more shoulder tho
How is he coming along, Cheetah? Run into any problems?
Haven't had a chance to work on it for a bit. Things are going smoothly though.
I am very close to having this done. Hopefully this weekend. Here is the current preview.