Stephanius
Neophyte
Seeing the first shield covers introduced had me exited. I now have three, but two of three look crooked on the character both at rest and fighting, with the third ok when fighting.
The shields are placed on the character in an unfortunate position that makes the character look dejected and doesn't show off the beautiful shield design.
The legacy shields are
- shown with their top close to the shoulder, with an imaginary center spike pointing slightly above horizontal.
- when fighting: shown held vertical, with an imaginary center spike pointed horizontally, straight at a threat.
- that looks like the character is ready to fight an opponent of human or bigger size.
The new shield designs are
- shown with the top away from the shoulder and the bottom resting on hips or knees. An imaginary center spike is below horizontal, pointing down.
- when fighting: shown held angled down slightly, with an imaginary center spike pointed down below horizontal.
- that looks like the character is exhausted and weary of a knee- or waist-high opponent.
With the isometric view, it also means the shields are angled away from the player view, which reduces the amount of pixels available to show the beautiful new designs on the characters.
I don't know if the animations are hand painted pixel by pixel or if there is a digital tool-chain that allows positioning a mesh with a texture to get the pixels needed.
I'm hoping it's the later, so that this could be fixed without an excessive amount of rework. In any case, I wanted to drop this in for consideration.
To show the difference in posture between the old and new shields, I compiled four sets of comparisons between old and new shields.
The shields are placed on the character in an unfortunate position that makes the character look dejected and doesn't show off the beautiful shield design.
The legacy shields are
- shown with their top close to the shoulder, with an imaginary center spike pointing slightly above horizontal.
- when fighting: shown held vertical, with an imaginary center spike pointed horizontally, straight at a threat.
- that looks like the character is ready to fight an opponent of human or bigger size.
The new shield designs are
- shown with the top away from the shoulder and the bottom resting on hips or knees. An imaginary center spike is below horizontal, pointing down.
- when fighting: shown held angled down slightly, with an imaginary center spike pointed down below horizontal.
- that looks like the character is exhausted and weary of a knee- or waist-high opponent.
With the isometric view, it also means the shields are angled away from the player view, which reduces the amount of pixels available to show the beautiful new designs on the characters.
I don't know if the animations are hand painted pixel by pixel or if there is a digital tool-chain that allows positioning a mesh with a texture to get the pixels needed.
I'm hoping it's the later, so that this could be fixed without an excessive amount of rework. In any case, I wanted to drop this in for consideration.
To show the difference in posture between the old and new shields, I compiled four sets of comparisons between old and new shields.
