You are a nice guy, Firebrand. I admire your effort, so I'll skip the small talk and go directly to the point: when I said there's two ways of making or mod a sprite, I meant lots of diffrent aspects that can differ and some are easier than others. Lets see this example: when I began in the project , I used to make the sprites in a Paint-like program, coloring pixel by pixel, close to what you do when painting in real life (you select a colour, paint everything that should have that colour, and then clean the brush and pick another colour, to paint another area). Now, I do it differently. I paint everything with a base colour, and either I paint it with the Airbrush, making the color darker each time (to get shadows etc), or I use directly the Retouch tool and its suboptions, like Darken, Lighten (to get the same effect (shadows) easier) , and Smudge to smooth some areas. The problem in using the Retouch is that the colour tend to be too different from the ones in Hexen's pallete, so they may look a bit odd when in the game. You can see the difference in techiniques by looking close the Ettin's Hurt Skin and the Centaur's, side by side. If you want more on this matter, just ask.
As for the new sprites from scratch: well, I admit it's kinda difficult to make sprites from scratch, specially when moving. Good thing RambOrc didn't ask us for totally new monsters (yet!). Anyway, I was making some pictures before I left on vacation, that were supposed to be used as guide/base for new NPCs, characters or monsters. I think I sent them to RambOrc, and I'll send them to you anyway, as soon as possible. They aren't completed as sequence, but should help out at least when making the "standing" NPC's (that should only have the standing position, all around). You could always use a toy to help you out. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->
As for mods that are needed: well, from what I remember, the list is something like this:
- First, make all the Hurt Skins, for all monsters (including and specially the Heresiarch), less the Wendigo (Ice guy), the Swamp things (forgot the name), and the Afrits, because they are too fragile. At this point we have the Ettin, the Brown and Green Serpents and the Centaur/Slaughter. We still need the Dark Bishops and the Heresiarch (later, MAYBE the bosses/players).
- There should also be some mods for the existing monsters, like an Etiin with horns, or a body armor (difficult), other weapons (like axes or swords, easier), and for the othe monsters too, the same thing. They wanted a blue Serpent too (I prefer a red one), but since I don't know exactly how to change colours automaticly, it would be not difficult, but very work and time demainding. Of course, we NEED to make a UberHeresiarch, which would be the boss of SE. I'll make some sketches by hand and send them to RambOrc before we make him, to make sure the look is alright, and I ask you to do the same thing!:) Not a paiting or something, just some fast sketches, so we could discuss about something that we can see. The Uber H should come before the others mods, since it's really needed.
- There HAS to be NPCs in SE!!! It's a dream of mine, I'm sure lots of people wants to see them in Hexen's world too (it's some of the few apects that were missing in the game). If not the allround, full featured npcs, at least the one sprite, just standing ones, like seen in Antara. At least we could have a chat during the game. Every fantasy game should have npcs! <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> Anyway, I was thinking about making 3 kinds of npcs, if possible. The standing ones, to be placed around to serve almost as scenery, or inside buildings as sellers or merchants, tavern keepers, guards, etc. ; the walking ones, that would walk around the city (there will be only one city in SE), and luckily talk to you ; and the full featured ones, that would be placed inside the mission's maps, and could walk around, talk to you, fight for his life and even follow you and help you out (lots of possibilities, like a person that needs to be rescued in a dark swamp, a forgotten city or something like that..., a mage who lives in a secret area inside the map that in exchange of money could heal you, sell info or magic items, etc,etc,etc). Of course, the last ones should be really hard to make, and to make things worse, it's not yet clear if there will actually be npcs in the mission's maps... <!-- s:( --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" /><!-- s:( -->
In this area, I've "made" just two complete npcs, a city mage and a cleric without his helmet. There's a woman in progress, but that should take a while. And of course, the merchant in the Shop. You should ask Janis and take a look at his map, where you can see the mage waking around and you can even talk to him! The programmer is a wonder. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->
- As secondary goals, there are some other ideas:
I talked about it with the others a while ago, and we agreed (more or less) <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> that a 3rd point of view would also be good, as an extra feature (like Tomb Raider or Heretic 2). Since the player's sprites don't have all the actions very detailed, we would have to add some frames to the sequences, focusing the 3 back positions (back-left, back and back-right). We would need to add the different weapons (kinda easy, since they are very small in the sprites), the jumping and crouching sequences (2 frames for jumping and 4 for crouching), add the armor pieces (only the mailcoat for the warrior, since the warrior and cleric already have the helmet), and if possible, add some more frames to the attacking series, to make it more detailed.
Of course, this can wait, but would be great, and Janis says it can be done (the 3rd pov, I mean). We only need the graphics.
We don't need to make textures, which is cool, but different patches could come in handy. I've already made some changes, like 3 different kinds of doors (to be used in the city- one large without the deamon sculpture, and two smalls, one without the deamon sculpture at the top, and another equal, but a stainless one, which looks newer), and a book shelf without the deamon sculpture, the skulls and spider net, so it looks like a normal shelf. This kind of quick and easy to make mods. Nothing too radical.
And the last one I can remember are the ingame graphics, like new weapons for the players, and specially, new magics animations for the Mage, and if possible, for the cleric. I've made just some studies on this, but there is a frame for a mage's magic around my stuff in the FTP. I can send it if you want to see.
Well, that's it, I guess. Any question about something, just ask and I'll be more detailed.
Of course, you can always count on RambOrc for his support, he is really nice and will help you out anytime. And Janis has a deep knowledge about programming, so any question on that matter, you should try his patience. <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) --> ( Not to mention Moose, whose work I don't know yet, but I'm sure he is also very good and talented).
I gotta go for now, alright people? See you later fellows.