modernize the champions

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modernize the champions

Post by zoom »

1)
I was wondering whether it would be good or needless to update the champions' looks.
I mean modernise the haircut, probably "style" also.
A different perspective/viewing angle also comes to mind . not from front anymore but from below or having only a quarter or so means: part of the face visible, rest cut off to make this ninja seem more menacing(camera below) or more secretive(show only parts).
do you think it would be inconsistent but worth a try or just look out of whack somehow?
2)
animated portraits! I imagine for "conversations" or comments it would be good to have different faces (depicting emotions). I would like to see a pop up screen where champions comment on things encountered in the dungeon..
3)
I think it would really be especially cool to have portraits like lands of lore/doom, where you can see the damage done to the heroes (in a step by step worsening way). Poison would colour the face greenish. The problem here is, that you do not see the faces at all, when not in inv mode, so it would have to be totally changed in order to have this effect be worthwhile to have. Then again, could be a cool surprise to open up inventory and see: omg, this guy is in no good condition! Cheeez!

I am convinced there is room for "innovations" if you may call it that and why not? W#ould be good to hear some voices on this one, or should I have posted on the general forums?
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Gambit37
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Post by Gambit37 »

Ages ago when I was working on a hi-res version of Dungeon Master, I collected some other artists work and made portraits out of them for "improved" versions of the DM champions. I'll post them up somewhere if you want to see them -- see if you can guess who they are! :-) (I never finished them all though, there are three missing.)
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Post by zoom »

I would like to see them in hi res if it's not too much trouble. ;)
Totally forgot to mention resolution...
And 21 out of 24 is- apart from the "unfinished" bit quite good actually. 87.5%!
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Gambit37
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Post by Gambit37 »

Image
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Post by beowuuf »

wow, they all look very suitable! The odd facial tick or ornament here or there could be removed, otherwise amazing what you can find! or did you tweak them with their dm apparel?
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Post by linflas »

great ones but mophus is not that fun :(
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Post by zoom »

this is cool. You still feel a connection to some of these portraits.. nice !! originals showed more body, you chose "head shots" for some reason.


With the names below the pictures guessing is impossible.
But you can count on the missed ones: Boris Gando Daroou ;)
Is hawk familiar? He looks a bit (skull) like a certain monk character ;)
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Gambit37
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Post by Gambit37 »

To be honest, I don't recall where they came from; all over the place, and I never really finished them off properly. I did modify some of them extensively, others are pretty much as they were found.

I deliberately made Mophus without a grin. :-)
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beowuuf
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Post by beowuuf »

That's the look mophus gives after everyone has run away from him. The next panel would be a single solitary tear rolling down his face! :D
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Post by Mon Ful Ir »

Okay, those completely rock.
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Rasmus
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Rasmus »

I would like to say thank you all for excepting me into the developer / designer forum :)

Those pictures are really good gambit! A guess that you are using them in your own projects. But if you are not, I really would like to borrow them and use them in DMT. But this is only if it is posible to get the last three heropictures.. I understand if this isn't posible but as long as we are in this thread I would like to ask if there are any other modernized champion / item pictures in high res that I can have some use off?

It's not that I am to laze to create them myself, It's just that I'm really bad at it ;)
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Bit
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Bit »

very nice, indeed!
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Trantor
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Trantor »

Mophus not looking completely wrong just looks completely wrong. Apart from that, I really like them! And I prefer Iaido1 and Nabi2.
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Gambit37
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Gambit37 »

I'll finish these at some point and post them up, along with the original source pics so you can see what I changed :)
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by PaulH »

Superb!
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Gambit37
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Gambit37 »

Here's an example of one champion who needed a fair bit of work, Elija:

Image

Technically, Elija should be a black African but I couldn't find a suitable face that worked with the white hair. I'll revisit this when I can find a better source!

Here's a few other comparisons with their sources:

Image Image Image Image Image Image
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Zyx
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Zyx »

Amazing quality.
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Bit
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Bit »

I couldn't resist and patched Syra,Alex and WuTse into the heroe's pic of my latest DM-version.
(Link see DM reloaded-thread - the walk-toggle effect is fixed too then, csb not done yet).
They look just lovely. Made a silly mistake working out WuTsu, that's immediately visible in the wallpicture - but that's for testing only anyways.

@Gambit:
I know I didn't ask you. Couldn't wait for a reply.
And we haven't used our battle arena for a long time :mrgreen:
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Hajo »

Very good work. Also the results are very consistent in style, despite the different sources. I like these portraits a lot :)
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Gambit37
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Gambit37 »

I'll eventually finish the whole pack and post up a zip with the alpha transparent PNGs. I wouldn't recommend using anything from the screen grabs here.

@Zyx: Thanks. Though I can't take credit; I just push things around over the top of the brilliant work done by genius artists.
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Hajo
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Hajo »

If I want to use these in a project, what kind of license or attribution would be required?
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Gambit37
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Gambit37 »

Since I 'borrowed' other artists work without attribution (I don't even know who half the original artists are), I guess you shouldn't provide any kind of licence... this stuff is just for fun and kept within this community.
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Bit
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Bit »

Gambit37 wrote:I'll eventually finish the whole pack and post up a zip with the alpha transparent PNGs. I wouldn't recommend using anything from the screen grabs here. [snip]
I just couldn't resist and wait because I also wanted to finish those routines that write/load the extra-savegame-files.
I just hope Sophia has another example how to grab the mask out of the PNG (maybe even with Allegro). The whole documentation just leaves me lost.
And I have to find out why good old Picture Publisher makes that large PNGs.
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Roquen »

I've been using these for ages in my hack version of DMJ...which I will release an alpha version of at some point!
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beowuuf
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by beowuuf »

I can host the files btw!
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Sophia
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Sophia »

Bit wrote:I just hope Sophia has another example how to grab the mask out of the PNG (maybe even with Allegro).
This is a function from DSB to copy the alpha channel from one BITMAP to another, which must be the same size. It grabs the source pixel, masks it to get the alpha channel, applies that alpha to the destination pixel, and re-writes the destination. I think that it's a good example and should show you how to do what you need to do.

Code: Select all

void copy_alpha_channel(BITMAP *src, BITMAP *dest) {
    int x, y;
    
    for(y=0;y<src->h;++y) {
        for (x=0;x<src->w;++x) {
            int a_pix = _getpixel32(src, x, y);
            int d_pix = _getpixel32(dest, x, y);
            a_pix = a_pix & 0xFF000000;
            d_pix = (d_pix & 0x00FFFFFF) | a_pix;
            _putpixel32(dest, x, y, d_pix);
        }
    }
}
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Bit
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Bit »

*Falls cryin' on Sophia shoulder* ... just the 8 high bits
*whispers a silent: 'thank you' and then ... runs to the corner with the donkey's hat on*.
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Crash.
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Crash. »

Hi,

Has the complete champion set ever been posted? I would like to ask if I might be able to get permission to include these with my graphics upgrade set.

Thanks!
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Lord_BoNes
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Re: modernize the champions

Post by Lord_BoNes »

@Gambit: Just been cruising around on Google Image search, looking for images you could edit for the remaining 3 characters...

Gando:
Image

Daroou:
Image

I couldn't find even a 1/2 decent one to fit Boris though :(
I hope these help.
 
Image

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