ErikH2000
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I'm working on the artwork for the CD jewel case cover now. I'm going to post about what I'm doing here and upload some images. I did something like this before, and it was pretty fun. You are welcome to give feedback and suggestions, but I reserve the right to do what I fracking want.

All artwork posted here will be licensed under Creative Commons with the requirements for attribution and non-commercial use.

-Erik

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The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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ErikH2000
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File: First Sketch.jpg (153.5 KB)
Downloaded 913 times.
License: Creative Commons
Noncommercial 3.0

Here's the first sketch I made for the cover. I made sure to leave a few "dead" areas for "DROD: The City Beneath" text and the Caravel logo to go. This sketch I just made to figure out the layout I want to have.

Note that all of the images I post will be secreted because they are all kind of large.

-Erik



____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 02-26-2007 12:18 AM]

ErikH2000
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File: Lost Beethro.jpg (42.6 KB)
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License: Creative Commons
Noncommercial 3.0

About halfway through the sketch, I discovered that the empty space of the roads coincidentally looked a lot like a body. Maybe like Beethro's body? I thought a little about the story of the game where Beethro must learn to integrate with the city and its inhabitants to make progress. Okay! Happily, I resolved to make the figure of Beethro visually match his surrounding city. I drew another sketch of just Beethro in the pose I wanted, which you can see below.

-Erik




____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 02-26-2007 12:23 AM]

noma
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Love it. It says "city", it says "world", it says "galloping fun! (Or are those people running for their lives? Which, hey, can also be fun.) All that's missing is a giant roach climbing an office tower.

Briareos
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Note that all of the images I post will be secreted because they are all kind of large.

Note that both Firefox and IE load them anyway, even if they're not visible yet...

(Just in case you meant this as a way of saving bandwidth...)

Also, as far as the actual images are concerned: Whoa...

np: Autechre - Chatter (Artificial Intelligence II)

____________________________
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R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

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[Last edited by Briareos at 02-26-2007 12:34 AM]

ErikH2000
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File: PaintOverSketch.jpg (105.6 KB)
Downloaded 840 times.
License: Creative Commons
Noncommercial 3.0

Being reasonably satisfied with the layout and the Beethro-within-Beethro idea, I set out to make another sketch that would be slightly more refined. This sketch will be used for painting over in Photoshop. If the sketch is wrong, it doesn't really matter much because it won't be part of the final image. It will serve as a guide to how I should paint.

-Erik



____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 02-26-2007 12:34 AM]

NiroZ
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Hmmm, the design seems a bit odd. I mean, its the city beneath right?

And where's Beethro's sword?

Briareos
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NiroZ wrote:
And where's Beethro's sword?

Wasn't there a hint that Beethro would be able to, you know, sheathe his sword?

np: Autechre - Chatter (Artificial Intelligence II)

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

ErikH2000
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Briareos wrote:
Note that both Firefox and IE load them anyway, even if they're not visible yet...

Understood. I admit this is not a bandwidth-friendly topic. I put the images in secret tags for the sake of an easier interface. On the bright side, once the images are cached locally, they don't take more time to download.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

NiroZ
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Briareos wrote:

NiroZ wrote:
And where's Beethro's sword?

Wasn't there a hint that Beethro would be able to, you know, sheathe his sword?

np: Autechre - Chatter (Artificial Intelligence II)

But it's a Really Big Sword(tm)! Besides, it would fit in with the threatening look and people running away.

ErikH2000
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I'm not going to answer questions about the story, but it is definitely intentional that Beethro is without a sword in this picture.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

noma
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NiroZ wrote:
Hmmm, the design seems a bit odd. I mean, its the city beneath right?

Has anything ever been said about what the city was beneath? It could be beneath a curse, beneath a horde of monsters (darn, there's a city under here somewhere), beneath Beethro's attention, etc... Besides, even if it is beneath the ground, the cavern roof might just be very very high.

NiroZ
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noma wrote:

NiroZ wrote:
Hmmm, the design seems a bit odd. I mean, its the city beneath right?

Has anything ever been said about what the city was beneath? It could be beneath a curse, beneath a horde of monsters (darn, there's a city under here somewhere), beneath Beethro's attention, etc... Besides, even if it is beneath the ground, the cavern roof might just be very very high.

Its underground.

Hmmm, actually, that might be indicating that it's on the bottom the the eighth, but that still doesn't explain the roundness.

noma
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It's art, baby! Art!

ErikH2000
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File: Tone.jpg (113.3 KB)
Downloaded 757 times.
License: Creative Commons
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Noma's explanation is best. Artistic license is being taken. If everything had to be a literal representation of something that could physically exist, that would be pretty limiting. In this case, I want to show a lot of the city in a dramatic way. Imagine you are looking at the scene through a fish-eye lense.

I painted greys over the image in Photoshop with a tablet pen. Next I'll lay down some color.

-Erik



____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 02-26-2007 02:18 AM]

ErikH2000
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File: BaseColor.jpg (117.6 KB)
Downloaded 732 times.
License: Creative Commons
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I added base colors to the image. This is just quickly slapping down some colors over large areas to define the colors broadly. Next I'll start a more detailed coloring.

-Erik





____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 02-26-2007 02:56 AM]

Beef Row
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ErikH2000 wrote:
I added base colors to the image. This is just quickly slapping down some colors over large areas to define the colors broadly. Next I'll start a more detailed coloring.

The top part seems to be too strongly put into a side view to go with the more overhead view in the bottom. I'm not trying too be too literal or anything, just aesthetically the jump in direction seems a little too sudden, enough of a breach of perspective that it seems to split the piece in half. So from my view it would look better if the top were somewhat top down as well, instead of looking like you're seeing the rest of the city from above, but that part from the side.

Other than that mismatch, I think both parts look great though. Its just when they come together, it feels off to me.


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noma
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Beef Row wrote:
The top part seems to be too strongly put into a side view to go with the more overhead view in the bottom.

Hmm... the perspective seems fine to me. It's more that I think Beethro may need to be placed farther back on the street. Since his 'angle' is straight on, his being so close to the foreground may be what's giving you that mismatched feeling.

Beef Row
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noma wrote:

Beef Row wrote:
The top part seems to be too strongly put into a side view to go with the more overhead view in the bottom.

Hmm... the perspective seems fine to me. It's more that I think Beethro may need to be placed farther back on the street. Since his 'angle' is straight on, his being so close to the foreground may be what's giving you that mismatched feeling.

Good call there! I just tried covering up Beethro, and it after I do that, the buildings look fine. If I cover up the buildings, but leave Beethro uncovered, it still looks strange.

So yeah, Beethro might need to move back, or might need to be shown from more overhead.

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stigant
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I always enjoy your artwork. I'm always blown away by how someone who enjoys the same sort of logical puzzles as I do can also have such a non-mathematical and creative side like you do. These pictures remind me of Commander Mark and the Lost City mural that he used to draw at the end of his show.

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mrimer
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stigant wrote:
I always enjoy your artwork. I'm always blown away by how someone who enjoys the same sort of logical puzzles as I do can also have such a non-mathematical and creative side like you do. These pictures remind me of Commander Mark and the Lost City mural that he used to draw at the end of his show.

The Secret City is the best!

____________________________
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Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

Briareos
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ErikH2000 wrote:
Understood. I admit this is not a bandwidth-friendly topic.

Well, that's not really a problem for me, as I have a 8Mbit/sec connection at home, but...

I put the images in secret tags for the sake of an easier interface. On the bright side, once the images are cached locally, they don't take more time to download.

...since the getattachment.php script doesn't do anything to make the browser's cache algorithm work (like sending an etag or expiration header) it'll get downloaded each time regardless.

I was more thinking about your server needlessly using bandwidth, not just in this topic...

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Briareos
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noma wrote:
Hmm... the perspective seems fine to me. It's more that I think Beethro may need to be placed farther back on the street. Since his 'angle' is straight on, his being so close to the foreground may be what's giving you that mismatched feeling.

Looks to me like he's bending over backwards to look up to the tallest buildings...

____________________________
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
R.I.P. Robert Feldhoff (1962-2009)

Maurog
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Umm, Erik, I hope you don't mind me using the latest image for the Wikipedia TCB article. I know the license permits it, but if you don't want to distribute the cover before TCB comes out, I'll remove it.

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Bombadil
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Wow!

I love that artwork (as much as I love *most* of everything you do).

Maybe you should change the buildings on the "north" to make them look a little bit more like Beethro's head.

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[Last edited by Bombadil at 02-26-2007 01:59 PM]

tokyokid
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Wow, cool! But what is that machine with the spikes coming out of it, southeast of Beethro?

Edit: it looks like a building...

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[Last edited by tokyokid at 02-26-2007 12:46 PM]

Elfstone
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I have been an admirer of DROD art since I got the CD for JtRH and I remember the last time you posted a "work in progress" thread being quite fascinated by watching the build up.

Having now dipped my toe in the waters of using pixels I have more insight into the process and I am amazed as well as fascinated. I find it hard just to draw a straight line with the mouse and anything more complex takes an inordinate amount of time. Working one pixel at a time drives me cross-eyed and can, if I go on at it too long, become headache inducing. I am full of admiration for your work and I'm grateful that you share it with us like this.

____________________________
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ErikH2000
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tokyokid wrote:
Wow, cool! But what is that machine with the spikes coming out of it, southeast of Beethro?

Edit: it looks like a building...

Hopefully it will look more like a building once I add a shingle-like texture to the cones.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

ErikH2000
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File: HalfPainted.jpg (108.8 KB)
Downloaded 356 times.
License: Creative Commons
Noncommercial 3.0

All the pressing e-mails are answered, and I can begin another lovely painting session. No sarcasm intended--I really am enjoying the artwork right now. However, the problem with enjoying the work is that a lot of times I'll do something inefficiently just because I'm having too much fun to worry about working fast. In this case, I've painted over about half the image in about 6 hours using a slow method of producing a gradient. I was picking one color of the gradient, painting with it, then changing to another color and painting some more.

But I don't want to be slow. There's lots to do besides this cover art. So I'm going to switch my painting method to laying down one solid color over a given area and then following up with shading and highlighting. It should go a lot quicker and produce similar results. It remains to be seen if the new painting method will look so much different that I have to redo the first half. We'll see.

When I get to painting Beethro, I will correct his position to align with the expected angle. Criticism noted.

Below you see the half-painted image using one-gradient-color-at-a-time method...

-Erik




____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 03-03-2007 09:28 PM]

Jatopian
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Heh, poor Beethro. He looks all lost and confused.
I'm surprised no one around him is reacting to the presence of this incongruous Abovegrounder, especially after that announcement on JtRH level 23.

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