Six Ages Blog 01 - Creating Scene Art

This is the first of a couple posts about the game we've been making in the past few years, which is going to be released on the 28th of June 2018. You can preorder it here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/six-ages-ride-like-the-wind/id934012726?mt=8

Each event in "Six Ages", like in "King of Dragon Pass", is accompanied by a handpainted illustration.

This post will take you through the steps necessary to get to that illustration.

The Style

Going into "Six Ages" and out again, trying to paint for other clients were both interesting transitions. 

There were a few general guidelines for the scene art:

- in most of them the "camera" is positioned at human height level, so it feels like we're looking through the eyes of someone in the scene. Tilted camera angles are reserved for the "weird" situations where something is wrong, or magical.

- we're in the Storm Age, a mythical time. So colours are sometimes more vibrant, things might feel a bit "more" than purely realistic.

- for the sake of clarity, both visual and that of storytelling, local colour of some objects was emphasized. (things like clan symbols, specific embroidery and so on, so it's immediately recognizable who's who)

Because the game is also going to be released on mobile phones, every scene's composition had to work on multiple levels.

- the scene needs to work as is, with no dead space and clear storytelling. As balanced a composition as possible.

- the scene also needs to be recognizable and the storytelling has to work with one half of it covered up. (because the phone version displays text over roughly 40% of the screen) This was an interesting challenge and I feel we mostly did quite well.

Other than that, the style we went for was derived from the one in KoDP, moving slightly towards "belgian graphic novels". (the technique is still ink + watercolor)

The Process

The majority of scenes went through 4 stages, each one with possible revisions.

Thumbnail -> Pencil drawing -> Ink drawing -> Colouring

An unofficial fifth step was mostly up to me - postprocessing.

1. Thumbnail

Every scene begins with a text description like this: 

"S359. Description: our warriors come to us to make a demand.
text: <w>, who serves on your clan council, has been stirring your elite warriors up against the <otherClan> clan. Calmer sorts point out that the <otherClan.plural> are already on the brink of a declaring a feud against you. When they point this out, <w> and <his/her> fellow hotbloods say this is exactly why they need to be brought to heel."

Towards the end of development I could continue without a thumbnail, because the example scene I'm going to show was fairly standard.
Here's a thumbnail of another scene:

As you can see, they're very quick drawings to establish where characters are, some basic body language, but which can be quickly rearranged and redrawn if necessary.

2. Pencil Sketch

I knew for this scene I wanted two characters in the front, making demands of our clan elders. Since the complaining warrior can be either male or female, there is one of each.

(as you can see, I placed a vertical line through the centre, to remind myself of the one-half composition guideline)

Now that I was happy with these two, it was time to move further back.

I'm planning a further blog post about inspirations for the Hyaloring culture, and I'll talk more about the clan hall there.

This sketch got some feedback and it wasn't immediately clear what the action to the left meant. I wanted to show that some of the warriors were getting physical with our elders, trying to convince them of something.

David felt that was too much and so we went with a revised figure (below). That way this art is applicable to several different scenes/events and thus more efficient.

At this point I also got feedback on the costuming, the woman to the left's skirt was a bit short. With that in mind, I moved onto the next step - inking.

3. Ink drawing

In some scenes I chose to ink only the foreground and keep the background in pencil (but neater and more detailed), because that allows it to visually recede. Thick ink lines push themselves to the foreground. 

I think inking is my favourite stage, it's just so relaxing. There's still a lot to figure out, but I can relax the more constructive part of my brain and just get into the zone.

The image is already there, I just need to "carve" it out.

4. Colouring

I use a Russian brand of watercolours called "St. Petersburg White Nights", in case you wanted to know. There's honey in them, apparently. (I did not try eating them! :))

I didn't take any in-progress photos, unfortunately. My setup looks like this though:

Notice the very much professional lighting system? (I would only assemble that for long nights of colouring. It was actually quite useful, since it could be taken apart quickly and I didn't have to buy a tall standing lamp.)

Here's the coloured scene "raw" from the scanner:

Some of the feedback was fairly typical - the clan insignia wasn't very clear on the foreground figures. So for clarity I changed the hue of some parts slightly, so that the double red line of embroidery stood out more.

The final scene art after post-processing looked like this: 

And that's it. 

edit: Here's a timelapse: 

Next time I'll write a bit about our research and some of the real world inspirations for our protagonists - the Hyalorings.

"Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind" is up for preorders!

A game I've been working on for the past 4 years, a spiritual successor to the awesome "King of Dragon Pass", will be released on iOS devices on 28th of June 2018!

You can preorder the game now:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/six-ages-ride-like-the-wind/id934012726?mt=8   

Life between myths. Clans, cows, choices.The spiritual successor to King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages combines interactive stories and turn-based strategy. Your small clan’s survival depends on its relations with the warring gods and their followers. Play involves actions such as improving pastures, exploration, trading with your neighbors, and raiding. You can even travel to the Otherworld to visit your gods. You also need to deal with crises ranging from marauding dinosaurs to diplomatic requests to illicit love. Your choices have a politico-economic impact, but some consequences might not be obvious for decades.
It’s set in Glorantha (the world of the games RuneQuest, HeroQuest, and 13th Age), where the laws of physics are subordinate to the whims of the gods and spirits.
Six Ages is immensely replayable, thanks to over 400 interactive scenes with multiple outcomes. Short episodes and automatic saving mean you can play even when you only have a minute or two. The built-in saga writes down the story for you. And advisors with distinctive personalities help you track your cows.

Got My Sword Nicked by a Shark

Update 2017: After some delays, I finally heard the final word from Fat Shark. They completely deny any inspiration, or even similarity between my design and their 3D asset. Apparently, that asset was inspired by "celtic swords".
Well, good to know. Here I was, thinking they just blatantly copied my drawing. 
Yeah, I'm not gonna go to court for 150-ish USD, which they of course know.
Still, I'll leave the blog up, as a reminder of their shameful display.
Shame! Boo! Thieves! 
Sad.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(original post follows below:)
In October I got my friends a game on Steam, which I wanted to play with them.
It's called End Times: Vermintide and it's set in the Warhammer universe.
It's developed by Fatshark.

We had a good time, each playing a different character. After one session, I noticed the elven ranger Kerillian (played by my flatmate) used a dagger with a design which was somehow familiar.

///Edit: The post was edited to focus on the one specific sword design, the rest was confusing.

Eventually I realized it reminded me of a drawing I did in 2009: (2nd from the left)
http://merlkir.deviantart.com/art/Elven-Sword-Evolution-128393180

This is what the weapon looks like in the game:

The thing is nearly identical.  

The way the crossguard is composed of two levels of curls (each curling in the opposite direction), the shape of the blade, even the pommel is heart shaped with inward curled edges.

Here's a comparison (thanks to Hessper), so you can see the designs together :

At first I thought it was funny, a big videogame company using designs from bloody DeviantArt.
Then I thought it was a bit lame. This game is a commercial product, they continue to make money on it, as it's still being sold and played by thousands of people every day.
I thought I should say something, because this should not happen.

It's especially baffling to me, since the game is based in the Warhammer universe, and has loads and loads of existing art under that license, any of which they could've easily use for inspiration.

So I decided to contact them, looking for an explanation rather than big bucks. (don't get me wrong though, I still asked them about a licensing fee)
I wrote them an email through their official contact and waited.
This was in October and I'm still waiting for any kind of reply whatsoever.

To sum up - Fatshark, if someone at the company reads this - I would still love to hear from You and find out how this happened. 

Oh the Banter, Lord!

If you haven't noticed by now, I adore the Mount&Blade series of games. And joy oh joy, yesterday the sequel to MnB was announced - Mount&Blade: Bannerlord

http://www.taleworlds.com/

I was so happy I decided to spend a Friday evening by painting a bit of fanart. We have no idea what the setting of the game will be like, but I took it in a general mix of migration-era way, slightly Germanic/Arthurian and viking vibe. It was also a good exercise for trying to get faster and more efficient at painting.

Sword bashing, again

I really like Game of Thrones. Even though i criticized the designs in the show, I think it's a success and I'm enjoying it greatly.

It was suggested to me that I should write another GoT post, this time about swords and swordfighting, since we've seen a few fights already.

Before I start, here's a tiny bit of quick art I did today for The Last Days' mod screen.

Swords

Swords are an extremely interesting subject, one that I'm never bored with. If I get to talk about swords, it's difficult to stop me. But I'm just a reasonably self-educated layman. (By this I'd like to apologize to any true experts who might stumble upon this and be horrified or angered. Sorry!)

What do I think about the swords on this show? In short - I like them.

It's not Lord of the Rings I must admit, the sword design is much less original, but perhaps that fits better into Westeros.

I recommend watching this short artisan video interview with the show's swordmaker:

You can see quite a few of the swords in there. 

The Swords

The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.

- the arakhs of the Dothraki look interesting. Very cool sickle blades, even if much heavier than I imagined them while reading the book. 

- most of the swords you see on minor characters (Theon, Robb, various soldiers of the great houses, Jorah Mormont, the longsword Ned wears that's not Ice etc.) are very nice. Very historical looking, nothing odd about them, looking "right". A good mix of arming swords and longswords.

- Joffrey's sword isn't on screen much, but it's a good looking prince-sword. Very ornate. It may be Joff's size, but it seems it may be a bit big for him, the pommel is quite large.

- Jaime's sword is quite similar to Joff's. Fits well with the character, the blade has a nice shape, but something about the button-like ends of the guard I find unpleasant.

- The Ice is interesting. I couldn't quite imagine the blade being as wide as Martin describes it in the book - wide as man's palm. But it works, it looks like a sword. The Ice and sword of Gregor Clegane share one detail I find a bit puzzling - the place where the guard meets the handle. I don't think this is a real historical detail, this prolonged tube coming out of the crosspiece. It's not wrong, I can imagine a sword being assembled like this, it's just unusual.

- Sword of The Mountain is a bloody beast. It's definitely much closer to real great swords than to a longsword.

- The Needle is pretty. Quite similar to how I imagined it. Although in context with the other sword styles it's a bit questionable. But hey, it's fantasy.

The effect of swords

All men are made of water. Do you know this? If you pierce them, the water leaks out. And they die.

I like that they use sharp swords in detail shots (when Joff cuts Mycah) - so many films only use "battle ready" swords with edges like ice skates. 

I really liked the little talk between Jorah Mormont and the Dothraki companion cavalryman about different uses of the sword and advantages of armour. What I didn't like though was Jorah's remark that broadswords are better against armour, because they allow you to pierce plate. This is simply not true. If he said "pierce armour", I'd nod, because you can pierce mail. This was a minor detail that only the geeks will catch I guess.

The show sadly didn't avoid this issue in other instances as well - Ned's guardsmen are killed by thrown spears that apparently pierce their mail shirts, padded armour underneath and a leather coat of plates over the mail. Wow, Lannister guards must be strong as bulls.

During the hillmen ambush the old master of arms from Winterfell gets slashed (or sliced rather) across the back, and it somehow hurts him. Do Stark armours have only leather vests with mail sleeves? If yes, that's dumb. If there's mail underneath, that attack would've mildly irritated him at most.

In another case, they managed to handle this well though. (which is puzzling) In the fight with the Lannister guards, ser Jory and Ned Stark both aim at unprotected necks (TOLD YOU, LANNISTERS!  Totally called it in the last blog posts! HA!) and between the breastplates and the plates skirts, which I found very nice.

The use of Swords

That is a grip. You are not holding a battleaxe!

I've read quite harsh criticism of swordfighting in the show, by both casual watchers and fencers.

And while I find it mostly unfair, there are certain points where I agree with the critics.

Firstly, I'll post videos I find relevant:

- interview with Buster Reeves - the fight choreographer:

Essentially he's right. It's difficult to do an original fight, people recognize moves they've seen before even if they're not fighters themselves. Still, I think more realistic fights would look original, because most of what we've been seeing in movies is crap.

He did manage to put a lot of character into each person's fighting style, something film people often talk about, but rarely actually do.

Now for the fights:

Jon "trains" - while not realistic swordfighting, it's effective for the scene. There's too much unnecessary sword clashing and smacking, but we do get the idea Jon is showing off, teaching these peasants a lesson. Showing them how bad and inappropriate their reflexes are, that they cannot counterattack, or do anything past the first strike.

Hill clansmen ambush - a good show of movie fighting. I LOVE that the hillmen use slingers! I'm also going to like Bronn. He's no fancy swordmaster, his fighting skill is obviously gained from battles, streetfights and skirmishes. Anything goes, but he's cocky enough to do that rather unusual artery slice on the first guy. The old master of arms is slightly disappointing, but the editing grants him more mobility and speed than he actually has.

Arya trains with Syrio - I love this scene. I must warn you, what they do can hardly be called swordfighting. Too much swirling and turning and unnecessary movement. But Syrio is showing off and Arya is an untrained kid, so they can be excused. The actor playing Syrio has apparently been training with William Hobbs, a choreographer responsible for the fights in Rob Roy and The Duellists. Sadly, it's not showing yet. I have hopes though.

Still, despite my nitpicks, the scene works almost miraculously well. I like the actors, the music, the pacing, the dialog...it's great.

The Cleganes fight it out - probably my least favourite fight of the show so far. I understand what they wanted to do here, it's obvious Sandor isn't really attacking, he's pushing his sword onto Gregor's close to Gregor's body, thus trying to prevent him swinging it. But Mountain's sword is too heavy, or the armour restrained their movement too much. It's slow, the shots are awkwardly cut together and it doesn't look very good. I like the ending with the kneeling, that's neat.

Starks vs. Lannisters - a great fight in my opinion. I mentioned it before, Jory and Ned slaying those guards are perfect. Jory is confident and capable, it's a great shame he had to go like this. I would've edited the eye stabbing a bit quicker, he seems too helpless.

The duel between Ned and Jaime is also very good. I've read people talk about spinning and pushing, disliking it. I think it's maybe the most realistic fight in the show. 

I like that they don't use rigid edge blocks, most attacks seem to be caught on the flat, deflected, or pushed aside by cutting into the flat. There's a lot of character from both fighters - Jaime is flamboyant and cocky, playing with Ned most of the time. Ned is hunched, almost like a brawler, very intensive.

Yes, the distance is a bit iffy at times, to allow for a lot of movement around each other that looks good on camera. But they thrust, they cut in nice controlled arches - in the end I only wished they started to wrestle, or halfsword instead of separating again.

I'm not sure how much more fighting we're going to get, but I'm not disappointed, not entirely. So far.

Next time, I think I could post a few links for people who'd like to know how swords were really made and used. 

(and leave the explaining to people more fit for the task than I am.)

Armour (nit)picks

A critical post again. Feel free to call me an ass in the comments. I hear blogs are mostly written by arrogant self-obsessed arseholes anyway. ;P


Watching the newest video released as Behind the Scenes of the new HBO series - Game of Thrones, I  was again faced with a couple of issues I have with fantasy armour design.

I'll try to explain them here.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch the video if you haven't already.
What is it I don't like?

1) Mixing of stuff.

There's nothing wrong with it. If it works as a design, if it's visually appealing, if it does what you want it to, ok. The costume designer is proud of how much the mixed and that it's not immediately obvious that some culture is this "Earth" culture and some other culture is another. That's nice, I like that. However, I think if you're doing a realistic tv show based on a book set in a very medieval-Europe-like world, you probably shouldn't go too crazy.

Yes, you want variety and especially with soldiers in armour, you need to be able to tell immediately who's who. It's a pity they chose to make these factions so incredibly different. Yes, it's unbelievable, it doesn't seem likely to happen at a small continent where all these big families fight each other for centuries, to have armour designs this strangely different.

No, nobody's going to notice, only a few armour enthusiasts. But just as boring slow stage fighting, it's going to make them dislike the show.

TL;DR:  If you're mixing stuff, make sure if makes sense for the world's history.

2) A specific example - Lannisters and King's Guard

Most armours are quite the medievalesque/dark ages standard. These two however are a complete fantasy and in my eyes - a close (but disappointing) fail.

Photo from Winter-Is-Coming, click for full view. In the foreground you can see the King's Guard, behind them the Lannister soldiers.

King's Guard:

Like: - the slightly archaic combination of cuirass and scale sleeves is a change from the book, but I quite enjoy it.
Dislike: - the shoulders have a weird shape that would more likely catch a blow rather than let it slide away.
- the ornaments are poorly done, someone has downloaded a set of "tribal" Photoshop brushes and used them all in a horrible mess. Very disappointing.
- the helmets. Oh boy. A case of what I call "the fantasy bucket". Why is it that the barbutta-type helmet is SO popular with fantasy designers? I know it's a simple design, but it takes more to make an attractive helmet, surely! Buckets with cutouts for mouth and eyes, I simply despise them. Anyway, this one is a bit bolder, with the almost dragon-like ridges at the top - I like those. But then it's all ruined by the bottom - why is it soooo very wide? I realize they probably made them without the actors' measurements, but they don't seem to fit them. (notice how the guy to the left can't see through the eyeholes)
The width of the bottom rim doesn't work both for practical and aesthetic reasons - it would wobble terribly on anyone's head, it allows plenty of space for a thrust to the neck or lower face and it would obstruct movement of the head quite a bit. Also it makes the head look way too big thus making the whole figure comical.

Lannisters:

Like: - I quite like the armour itself. I'm not sure why they thought a Japanese influence made sense, but whatevs. It works - it's slick and close fitting. There are gaps in it which I can't quite explain, but it does look ok in general.
- I really like that the visor of the helmet looks a bit like lion's face. (not sure if that's intentional, but it works for Lannisters)

Dislike: - The helmets don't work. The combination of a Japanese bowl shape (wide near the bottom again), yet of dark age construction with the connecting ridge in the middle. A weird horizontal crest (Roman influence?Why?) and a rather anglosaxon/viking visor?
It could pass for a strange sallet, but those usually had a neck guard like this:

- this helmet leaves the neck completely exposed. Again, this is both a practical and visual mistake - both the neck and cheeks/face are endangered and it makes the helm look unbalanced, dangling on a thin neck.

3) The myths about armour and its properties

- the lady argues that the Northerners don't use metal armour, because it's unfit for the cold climate. Why? That it would rust? You just oil the thing. Your tongue would stick to it if you licked it? I don't think the cold climate stopped the Scandinavians from wearing metal armour if they could.
- the actor playing Jaime says that "to imagine people fought in this...it's not that comfortable". I wonder if it's just the spoiled softness of the modern human, or the fact the armour wasn't made to fit. Real armour is actually surprisingly comfortable.
"...*grins* but it looks fantastic!"  yeah, not that great if you ask me.
- metal shields. *sigh* For some reason the Stark guards have full metal round shields. I wonder if they're aluminium. If they were iron, I'd like to see them try and fight with them.

Not to be a complete nitpicky nerd, here's a couple of things I really like about the costumes and designs:

1) The architecture. I like how King's Landing is very southern and different to Winterfell. Well done. Or maybe I don't know as much about architecture as about armour. :)
2) The Dothraki. Nice nomadic look. I only wish they made them ride without stirrups, that'd be so cool!
3) The swords aren't bad. Have a few impractical bits and they're not quite LOTR swords, but still very nice for a TV show.
4) The normal clothes - Jaime's leather coat looks a bit eastern, but great. Rest of the dresses, tunics and all that look nicely worn and simple.

That's all. Feel free to leave hate posts in the comments. ;) I'm ready for you, GoT fans!

Old Cat got a facelift

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about it, but anyways. A certain TV company asked me if they could use a piece of fanart I did on their blog.
While very flattered, I was also horrified, because the piece is 4 years old and just bad.

So I thought - I've got an evening sort of free, I could fix it. And I tried. And it couldn't be done. So I thought I could repaint it. So I did.

Man, colour is HARD! I just realized I spent a year doing almost nothing but black and white (greyscale to be precise). My colour is definitely stunted. I need to exercise more.

Anyways, here's the old picture (I warn you, it's baaad!)
http://merlkir.deviantart.com/art/Catelyn-Stark-47983434

here's the new one. It's all ArtRage, more squishy thick oils than usual, less washes of thinned paint for some reason.