Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: LocationNotFoundException at RealLife.Location.find() at line: -1
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 4:13 pm Post subject:
RCs Soviet cameos
Subject description: Insufficient data
So, PillBox20 (and myself, a little bit) worked today on the Soviet cameo style, as it seemed many didn't like the one we got before (the one to the left).
We got the new one (the one to the right), but we (I) can't decide which one works best. We also got a hybrid of the two.
IMO the tank is hard to distinguish because it has much less contrast/detail compared to the background and hammer & sickle.
To create better contrast:
1. Blur background or lessen bg details and make (vehicle/building/so on) details sharper
2. Drop color saturation from background and increase vehicle saturation if possible
3. Make greater brightness contrast between vehicle and background
4. (Optional/experimental) Use different colours for the background and the vehicle, eg. opposing colours (cold vs warm)
The vehicle is the thing you want the player to catch eye on and distinguish, the background and the other details are unnecessary/secondary compared to that. Right now I won't give my vote, but if you follow the above instructions, I will vote. QUICK_EDIT
I wouldn't place the hammer/sickle logo in front and over everything.
The most important part is the unit, not some faction logo that is the same for every unit of that faction.
Such place should be reserved for special tiny icons that show the role of the unit, in case the units cameo isn't clearly showing the role. Thus an icon is added to give the player more info about the unit, like a wrench icon for an engineer, a lightning bolt for a tesla tank, a crosshair for a sniper etc.
This is the way i would go
1. create a plan of the cameo layers
-background
-unit image
-special role icon & veterancy
2. create for each layer an image
-create an empty background which looks good (e.g. put the hammer sickle here, which can be even quite big, since it's most often covered by the unit anyway and only on smaller units you will see it)
-create some clearly visible unit images. maybe even add some kind of dark outline, so you get a nice contrast to the background
-create a set of tiny icons that you're going place in the foreground
then combine them and check the result
\Edit
as the background you could use something like this
just make it a bit nicer and you have your hammer&sickle logo, yet it wouldn't cover the unit. Maybe also make it darker and add some light effects, so the unit in front of it has a nice contrast. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
DonutArnold:
I have added a shadow to the unit, to make it more visible. On Agent Z's wish I have darkened the unit, since it was too bright. The voxel has detail, but when I shrink it to cameo size it gets blurred, sharpening might help out here. With the background I totally agree with you. It outshines the unit. Blurring should solve this problem, maybe easing the contrast on it...
Thanks!
Lin Kuei Ominae (tricky to write it...):
The hammer&sickle is the icon for veterancy. It was an attempt to make unique cameo style. As the Allied Cameos have those gold pixels on the edges, we tought that the Soviets could use a different vet. symbol. The function tip icons sounds useful, will think about it.
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 7:25 pm Post subject:
Do you intend to have all units in the same pose or are you willing to vary them between cameos? Because if the latter, then I think you should only try to get the front of the unit fit to the cameo and not the whole one.
Also brighten the voxel up. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
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Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
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WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Graion Dilach:
So far, Agent Z wishes them all to be in the same angle. What we are trying to make is a template for each and every unit with small adjustments to each cameo. Brightening the voxels sounds like a good idea.
Black silhouettes with catchy icons depicting their roles will be better imo. Honestly, using screenshots from HVA Viewer unmodified make these cameos look stupid and third-class.
And the third one's background is way too bright. It should lose some saturation and get darkened a bit. _________________ Aka DirtyChicken QUICK_EDIT
I think in all 3 previews, the units themselves are less eye-catching than the background, which IMO is bad. The background should be much less important, and therefore should feature less attention-grabbing colors - dampened natural colors would be nice. If it must be Red, let it be a very dark shade of it.
Moreover, the units would need more contrast than this. It needs to have its features distinguishable, and that means using subtle, smart coloring techniques to highlight those features and make the tank overall 'pop'. One suggestion here would be to add an extreme HDR like effect or that effect that Nokia used on its Lumia flagships for sunlight readability -- make the background immediately around the tank darker, while subtly making the rest of the background and the tank brighter. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Nov 2010 Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:26 pm Post subject:
Trans_C wrote:
using screenshots from HVA Viewer unmodified make these cameos look stupid and third-class.
Nah.
All cameos I have are composed of three layers, with the background on the bottom (pretty much the same image I used for the RA2 observer button background darkened and with a color overlay on top), the actual image with the outline (outside on voxels/buildings, center when I work with a modified picture to hide AA issues - infantry cameos) and the chisel layer on top.
I did have a fourth layer during the time I modded RA2 for the veterancy icon, placed inbetween the image layer and the chisel layer but transitioning to OpenRA made that redundant, since OpenRA uses an SHP layer for vet icons and not a complete icon switch. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Sorry for offtopicness, though. _________________ "If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
=======================
Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more... QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: LocationNotFoundException at RealLife.Location.find() at line: -1
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:46 am Post subject:
Hey, thanks for all the responses! I wasn't able to reply as I was away, and had login problems upon return.
Your suggestions are appreciated, we will work more on those cameos when we have the chance, especially on the contrast! QUICK_EDIT
Wouldn't it be better if cameos are released without any text on them?
If you need one, you don't want to rename your already established unit according to the cameo but vice versa. And deleting the cameo text can be annoying. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings
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RCs Soviet cameos
