Niklas Jansson
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Dark Reign 2 - continued
🕑 Added 2023-01-10 22:22:43 +0000 UTCI've continued doodling on this while listening to audiobooks (currently Master of the Hoard). It doesn't really make sense to draw front views when the units are seen more from the top, but I suppose legibility is a thing which can be improved though iteration. Also, I often approach these projects more from a perspective outside of the games, just having fun with the world and its inhabitants. As far as I'm concerned here, these could also be designs for an RPG.
Buldings in RTS games always bother me because they're the wrong scale and rarely look functional or interesting, though I kinda like what Dark Reign 1 was doing I suppose. In an RTS game you really do have to cheat with the scale, shapes and realism for buildings I suppose. Since I'm mostly done with the units I might take a look at the buildings next and see what I can come up with...
Comments
Niklas Jansson
Yeah, it would be kinda weird to start designing characters from a top view with mostly just the shoulders and head showing. Drawing in an isometric perspective might work, but I don't have much patience for perspective views (too slow in some cases). But, matching Front/Side/Top drawing is also difficult so I prefer to make the second drawing a quick isometric shot so I can solve intersections, geometries, coherence, then I go back to the side view and adjust. I suppose tanks and airplanes have a different "main view" than humans... starting with top makes more sense there.
MoonYeah!!
"It doesn't really make sense to draw front views when the units are seen more from the top" Honestly i understand the approach though, from a personal standpoint, it's much more fun and rewarding to draw the characters seen this way instead of purely based on gameplay considerations. Much easier to tell a story and get to know them better, until you have to make bolder design choices in order to communicate their gameplay functions. I know some people consider the opposite approach to be a better one, basically making a difference between : Bottom up : design and function before esthetics and story. VS top down : esthetics and story before design and function. I've got a preference for the second approach, maybe because i came mostly from an illustrator background in my early days as a pro artist. In any case, like always, these look great. Also happy new year! ^^
