What next?

[berg]

There was a question on fb:
> What race you would you see next time? (The modern female and male will be released soon :))
> You want see more modern, or more fantasy? Or even a realistic manga style?

Here are my suggestions:
Instead of adding new races it might be more usefull to improve the existing races further:

1. The clothing for all races is very “civilized”. All races could use torn/ragged/bloody/filthy clothing. All races could use a pair of short pants made from animal fur/leather (the ‘torn’ nomad style – not clothing made by tailors). Most of all the orc. I tried to create a barbarian and a devil/demon and I think they are quite good but their pants are just too nice 🙂 Check out the attached images.

2. There could a little more of none-weapon items for all races. There are already some like the beer and the guitar but I think all races could use more of them. And the dwarfs lantern is great! I’d like to see that for all races! Other examples could be for example torches (with and without fire), bottles of wine, a few “magic potions”, a few simple wooden sticks/staffs, a scroll, a small bag (for gold coins?), a larger bag, a flower, a dead rabbit/deer etc. for the hunters/barbarians/orcs, etc.

3. Helmets – I think there are far to few of them: All races could use a variety of helments like chain coifs ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=chain+coif ) or iron caps ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=medieval+iron+cap ) or iron helmets ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=iron+helmet ). Also some simple leather caps would be nice too ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=medieval+leather+cap ). Also a few other “normal” hats would be nice. Feathered hat for hunters, a black pirate-hat for pirates etc.

4. Robes, tunicas etc. for the sorcerers/mages/priests/druids/necromancers. There could be a a couple of robes for all races ranging from ornamented robes to dark robes which partly hide the face a’la nazguls. For examples something like https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=nazgul and here https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=robed-druid .

5. Human male/female is lagging behind the other races. I find myself going to the elf male/female even though I am creating humen characters because they have more options in clothing. Human females have a lot of long pants but are lacking smaller skirts and ‘shorts’. Attached is a wood nymph that I tried to create using the human female base – I had to use the brown ‘base underwear’ since there were only trousers and long dresses. I really think she needs some bikinis in her wardrobe! Maybe one of them made from chains in order to create red sonja lookalikes: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=red+sonja

The character generator is great! I’m really enjoying it and I’m planning to use the characters in a game. You just notice small missing things here and there when you start to create specific characters.

[sade]

thank you for the feedback.
good ideas
my options (more feedback would be welcome)
now i should make:
– totally new human race with different pose/body (because my hdd was crashed, and i lost everything related to human, what i need)
– totally new other race + a little update for other races
– no new races, big update to elf, orc, catfolk, dwarf male races

what do you think?
thank you
sade
ps: im ready the modern humans, they will be released soon

[berg]

Oh, I didn’t know about the hdd problem. Sorry to hear that.

My vote is to extend the current races first because that would make them a lot more usefull with only small changes. My suggestion:
– Orc: Add a few human-like faces (maybe narrower mouth) and they can be used as muscular humans. Everything else (clothing, weapons etc.) already exists.
– Cats: Add a few skins with scales (like lizards and snakes) and they will make great lizard-men ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=lizardmen ). They just need small nostrils instead of the nose – and a long lizard-tail.
– Elfs: Add the option for vampire fangs so that they can be used as vampires. This should be possible even with a closed mouth. There should be be a pale dracula-skin too. Maybe some blood dripping from the corner of mouth. Another quick ‘subrace’ could be mermaid: Add a mermaid lower-body. Like the snake-lower-body.
– Dwarfs? Maybe they could get a more human & child-like face options and hairy feet so that they could be used as halflings/hobbits? The dwarf male also needs some hair-styles (without beards) which hide the ears to use them as human.

This way all races would have some extra-usages. I think that would be very useful. Additionally if you add the dirty clothing, animal fur/leather clothing, mage/druid/priest robes and cloaks and some more none-weapons the existing characters will be extended a lot!

I think it would be less work (tell me if I’m wrong?) to extend the existing races compared to creating a completely new human race (or other race)? Human is the most important race but at the moment you can use other races to create humans: there is the demo-race, the elf race (hide the ears), orc race (to create a body-builder) and even the dwarfs (hide the ears). This is in addition to the human-package!

I think in the long run I think you could create fantasy and scifi packages separately on top of a race. At the moment each race is a different package. I think it would make more sense to use the same base. After all the basics (body, skin, hair, clothing, beard, scars, tattoos etc) could be the same for fantasy and scifi! I think fantasy packages have a lot of items that would be interesting for scifi-characters as well. Orc could have something like a chewbacca-skin and the other races would also easily fit into the scifi-theme. All races could have various borg or cyborg-versions. If you buy both scifi & fantasy packages you could be able to mix them. And you could sell two packages for a single race 🙂

[sade]

thank you for the answer!

– a don’t want put into proram what is change the “anatomy”, because it’s hurt the mix and matchable.. however i’m gladly add a png pack, if you find it useful. (the ork’s anatomy same, just the skin changed)

-vampire fang: i tried, as i tried to add cigar to modern, but it’s looks like unnatural. later i will show it. (if you like it, i’m gladly add some for everybody)

-cat: it have some already (i attach some example), of course i can add more, but the lizards have different anatomy, i attach my old painting’s wip.. but still, anatomy, texture (sorry for my english, i try tell the problem: i want make a portrait generator too, but i cant solva the different face shapes change with skin. it could be good, if everythiing would be grayscale, and after recolor, but it would be..simply ugly :() same problem with adding something to the body ) (i hope i was understandable, sorry for my bad english)

-elf: as i wrote. i show, you will judge it, if you like, we add to the next free update 🙂

-dwarf: for male i cant change his nose, and face anatomy because of the facial hair 🙁 hairy feet is great idea, i will add! but i think a different anatomy for halfling would be much better (im try to make a race what is same great for hobbit-gnomes.

-my other idea is a free minipack: creature creator: satyr-legs, devil legs, mermaid tails, etc and the upper body would be human, and the hair part also horns, fire-hair, etc, and wings, and more. i need polish the idea and execution.

[color=#ff4400]sorry, i make notice for myself:
——————————–
– try to vampire fangs
– dirty outfit, even ragged (the zombies would be more useful with it too)
– animal/dragon tails
– hair to feet to the dwarf
– robes, mage robes (mage hat)
– to elf drakula skin, perhaps some animalistic skin
– for ork bear/chewbakka skin as full set[/color]

mixing scifi and fantasy i need a focus a little bit, but i also work on it, the random would be simply bad (now the modern male is able to make weird outcome because of the too much type possibilies), but i will make a try (with an half ork like guy,perhaps)

now its more easy (for now and for long term) making a new human race, as patching this. for more reason:
* i dont have the source files
* that was the first race, and i found many little mistakes, i _know_ i could make now 1000x better.

[sade]

as i promised, here is some fang. if you like it, it will be added to the next free update 🙂

[berg]

[quote=”sade” post=337]as i promised, here is some fang. if you like it, it will be added to the next free update 🙂

[/quote]

They are not bad but I think it would be better if only the tip of the fangs was visible.. now most of the teeth are visible even with a closed mouth which makes it somewhat unrealistic. See the attached pic to see what I mean..

[sade]

thank you. my problem is about the sizes.
(i make the characters much bigger, and after resizing its just.. bad.

i throught the 639x986px size should be enough .. for the next generation characters (with many new features) i will (i hope the coder also will say yes) raise the image resolution.
the fang what you suggested example see exactly this way (i copy pasted the fang)

[berg]

I understand that the changing the anatomy of the character can’t be done if they will break other features. I’m not sure how the generator works – if there is an actual 3d model during runtime. With a 3d-model it’s obvious that the dwarf nose for example can’t be changed. If it uses images in different layers there should be a little bit more possibilities: Tails like cat tail, a lions tail, a lizards tail, a devils tail, etc. What about a wooden leg, missing limbs, skeleton-body, semi-transparent “ghost characters” which fade into the background? Longer (sharp) fingernails maybe (the dwarf has great wolverine-claws but I wouldn’t want to use them in fantasy)?

Of course you will know best what is possible but I think that you can get the most out of the generator if you can stretch each race so that you can actually create a few new creatures too. For example the androcat-salamander doesn’t look like a cat anymore because it’s so far “away” from a regular cat. I think it’s great that there is a ‘zombie’ variation for all races. The elf female das the blueish-skin that could be used to create merfolk etc. Those are great! And all the scaled skins and horns too! I think mermaids, vampires and hairy ape-men could be possible too for most of the races. Every semi-race just need at least 1-2 pieces of suitable clothing in the wardrope to make them really useful. Current orcs make great demons too but you will need to use leather pants with a girdle or boxer shorts which isn’t good 🙂

The other major thing I think is that each race should have more options so that they can be used to represent many classes and roles:

– Wizards and sorcerers
– Beggars
– Slaves
– Scholars
– Angels
– Kings and queens
– Princesses
– Knights
– Soldiers
– Priests
– Monks
– Ninjas
– Merchants
– Blacksmiths
– Amazon warrioress
– Tavern wenches
– Drunks

I think most of the races have very good options for fighters, rangers, lords, nobles, knights etc but they are lacking in the wizard/beggar/nomad.

The creature creator minipack sounds very, very interesting! I think that the primary order should be to extend existing races to “semi-creatures” when possible and use a separate mini-pack only if extending isn’t possible. It it might be possible to leave some options to the creature creator (weapons and items in the hands?) even though clothing will probably not work.

[berg]

Ok, I see. The top-right might be somewhat usable but there the size is somewhat of a problem.

A larger image resolution is always good – it can always be scaled down but you can’t scale images up. It would be especially usefull for the character-badges since they are pretty small now. Nowadays even mobile phones are coming with FullHD (1920×1080) resolution so you could double the height and width and it would almost fit on a portait screen. But of course – at the moment I think it’s more important to extend all available characters… before working on new resolutions for the images.

[sade]

its strange mix with 3d and 2d 🙂
i rendering the bases in 3d, and i usually overpaint it more or less, plus have some 100% painted, and 100% rendered things. (lately the hair is fully painted, the tattoo, the scars, eyes, etc is also painted).

the new race’s born (or adding new stuff) in the following was:
– i make a biiiiig psd files (the original filesize is 3000×3000 px at least), and put every content to different layers
– crop and resize the psd
– export the layers
– make the layers in the folders (ie hair, top, etc)
– the coder adding the pngs into the program, and makes the icons, setting the orders, etc

i made some tails already, just didnt cropped yet 🙂 (and ears too :))

the missing limb is cant.. be solved 🙁 because the base is still base.. do you remember the old paper dolls, like this? this is quite similar system 🙂

i plan to make a micro pack (still polish the idea), but i think i wrote about it, where the base will be just the upper body, and the lower body can be mertail, octopus, paw, etc..
im not sure the fingernails will be visible, i have to check it.

i saw a similar wolverine hand in fantasy, its not from his body, but separated weapon. i dont remember what was the name, but i pretty loved the idea (but now i see would be better with an animal claw)

the human male (modern and fantasy) have 50 different skins (and still growing!!), so i think i made the scale wider 🙂 i learned alot and got better compared to the first races, im working on the “generation 2”, what will be evolved in every point of view. bigger wardrobe, more content, options, etc.
(still will have some free update the old races, and who bought the old races can be the new ones not for money but for points. example the next free update will be ork “centered”, the ork will recive more than 50 new clothes/accesory from wizard robe to tribal stuff)

thank you again 🙂 i copied your suggessions, these are great! (and i used some already!!)

[Zsoficica]

Hi Sade 🙂
i’m not sure if this is the right topic, but i couldn’t find more appropriate for my questions.
(i did not buy the program yet, and i dont know what the capabilities are…is there a trial version where i can see what i could do with the full license???)
we are running a L5R campaign, and for that we need oriental-look portraits, with oriental clothes. Can i create such portrait with the existing modules? Are there any clothes close to a kimono look, or an oriental armor? Are there weapons like katana, wakizashi, naginata etc.?
How much can i alter the height-weight of the body, or the features of the face? i mean eye shape, nose shape, face width etc.?
if none from the above can be altered, are there more basic faces for each race and gender, or just one face, and i can only change the color, the skin and the hair, and add some paint or tattoo?
thx

[sade]

Welcome Zsofi 🙂
Great to hear you still play L5R 🙂
I have asian character (hair, character outfits) in my plan, but im afraid not in this year. 🙁 This is the bad news. The good: it’s on the list 🙂
The asian face and body as you know have different anatomy, so you can’t use the program right now. But if i begin working on the asian base model, i will tell you, and ask a comment/suggession, if you dont mind 🙂
(i plan the asian wardrobe not exactly historical, but a little bit fantasy touched, the l5r left influence on me too :))
(and yes, will have many samurai and non samurai weapons (kama))

you cant change the shapre, since the image came from various layers.. and you can’t change, because it would be ugly 🙁 so my solution was i make different body shaped characters.. it’s more work, but i enjoy and learn alot from it.

And i know, its not same, but i gladly make a character to you (under custom illustration you will find the details :))

have a wonderful day
sade

[sade]

ah, and about the trial: the base program is free. it have a demo character, what’s show the program how works (very limited content, and option), and you can buy the characters separately.

[Kelemelan]

Right, I spent some time digging up a 26 month old topic 😉 😛

Anyway, I was just wondering, I’m very happy with the new improvement and they are all very fine but I’m just wondering, as far as new packs are involved, any whispers about something ? anything ?

Pretty please ? 😛 🙂

[sade]

🙂
i made lot of experience about boy types, did not find a resolution what im satisfhied with it.
on summer otherwise i was inactive, because my kids was at home.
so i am back just right now 😀
the warrior pack should out soon, as the barbarian too, after the scifi or adventurer or modern, will see.
and of course we getting closer about android/ios version too 🙂 with a bit

[Author]

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