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Dragon Mage's character mods (WIP)


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Ok, so as you may or may not know, I've been thinking about making a character mod for quite some time now. This isn't a thread for me asking for a sprite! Just one to share my ideas I've been developing over the past few days (and the only other reason I'm starting this thread is because I may not get a response on my art threads about it so yeah).

Ok first off, pictures of a hand drawn sprite (I was planning on digitally tracing) and a character "meme":

Spoiler

dragon_mage_don_t_starve_sprite_by_drago

me_in_don_t_starve_by_dragonmage156-d9rs

(The perks, title, art and quote may differ in the future).

Now if you know me/my persona well enough, you'll know she had fire powers. Not sure how that'll work for DS and DST but I recently thought of a solution. Obviously, the way DS works, she can't shoot fire directly from her hand so instead, how about a magical staff? I know what what your thinking, Dragon Mage doesn't have a staff or magical hand held item, right? Well earlier (like last year some time I think it was) she did actually have a staff but... I guess it just became obscure cos I never drew her with it. Plus it seemed kinda medieval-like as opposed to her modern look which did seem kinda weird. I guess she didn't really need it back then BUT anyway, back to the mod ideas. I thought in DS (much like Willow) it could be unlimited (however, having an unlimited fire staff does seem kinda OP don't you think? Well I'm still working out the details for that). As for DST, she could be nerfed a little, again like Willow with a limited source, except instead of lighter fluid how about mana? I was thinking about certain characters and how they have gauges for something like Woodie and his curse or a recent character mod I saw. Something to stop the mod users to go nuts. It does recharge slowly over time but there will be faster methods (not sure what yet. Maybe an item or actions like sleeping could help?) Idk, this idea still needs some development.

Now, as for the sprites, I might be fine for the most part since I can trace over the Extended Character mod sprite. However, since the mod is a cat character, the head shape is a bit odd. Also Idk how I'm gonna do DM's hair. I could use a pony tail but... ugh, her hair has always been the downy, long flowing kinda hair. Idk.

Anyway that's all I have for now. Feel free to leave suggestions! Or tell me to shut up, hide the thread and... keep to myself...  ._. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's done this.

Edited by DragonMage156
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9 hours ago, minespatch said:

Keep doing sketches in this thread. It'll help round out your character. That's how I've grown so comfortable with my skeledork persona.

Oh I have no problem with my own persona

Spoiler

dragon_mage__proportion_edit__by_dragonm

looking_up_by_dragonmage156-da1gp74.jpg

It's just modding her into DS/DST that's the problem.

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Ok so I was starting my spriting and since I have such a hard time with the head and such I decided to start off with the tail, thinking it was easier. With each piece I completed I check it in spriter and noticed things were getting a bit... off. After I finished the 4th piece, I came to the conclusion that I'm no good at this:

this_is_why_i_need_a_pro_artist_by_drago

What am I doing wrong? I mean heck, I've even moved some of these pieces (which I'm not sure was a good idea) to match up but each piece get increasingly annoying.

This is why I need a professional artist/spriter to do this or better yet, not make the mod at all and safe everyone a lot of time and money -_-

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1 hour ago, DragonMage156 said:

I came to the conclusion that I'm no good at this

Lies! It's looking pretty good. After all, you can (and probably have to) stylize

1 hour ago, DragonMage156 said:

I've even moved some of these pieces (which I'm not sure was a good idea) to match up but each piece get increasingly annoying.

you cannot move them. Sure, it seems like they change position in the spriter file, but that's only a friendly preview. The actual player animations don't care about the textures' "in-project" position, the actual animations just replace the placeholders with your PNG files. So if you want to move or spin the tail pieces, you need to do it in the PNG images, not in the spriter project.

It is probably easiest if you make a layer for guidelines first, using the sample and/or willow textures. You can then lower opacity and change hue, so you can focus on the actual Weah lines.

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1 hour ago, Mobbstar said:

It is probably easiest if you make a layer for guidelines first

I thought that's what I was doing. I opened the original file in Paint Tool Sai, lightened the opacity and made a layer over it and then traced it. I probably shouldn't try so hard to perfect it cos I probably won't even notice it in-game anyway :/

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So I've recently completed the tail and the shoes:

new_shoes_by_dragonmage156-daexkhc.png

Looking good right? Well it appeared the tail is not doing so well.

tail_1__needs_work__by_dragonmage156-dae

tail_2__needs_work__by_dragonmage156-dae

I can do most of the work myself but can I ask for someone to help with editing? I'm very new to this spriter thing and I don't wanna mess it up :/

Also the tail is not supposed to be that pinkish. I think a recolour is in order once I finish the main stuff... or should I do that first? Y'know what? The colour isn't important right now.

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So I just started attempting the headbases and boy let me tell you all about it!

So I started with the front first:

headbase-0.png

Seems promising right? Well I went to try the second one and that's where I realized I was right from the beginning.

head pic 1.png

I didn't even finish cos... what am I even supposed to do with the hair. It's supposed to be mid back length but that's impossible for DS. And even if I did it as shoulder length...

These may not even be in alignment with each other or even the character mod for that matter so y'know what? I'm just gonna put the arting on hold till someone can offer to do atleast the head bases. I can do the faces, emotes, coding and even the hat head bases but these things are a big nope in my department -_-

I know the current community artists are busy (like the ones working on WaW for instance) therefore I will not ask them or rush them with their current projects but I hope someone can offer some help in the future/whenever they are free.

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Well, I think if you raise the headbase/hair by X pixels, you can lower it by rougly 18,2% of X and it will look just fine in-game. I'll try in a bit.

There's a problem: Those are in front of the torso... At most you could try to make the hair "rest on the shoulders" when front is seen, if you know what I mean...

Edited by Mobbstar
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8 hours ago, Mobbstar said:

There's a problem: Those are in front of the torso... At most you could try to make the hair "rest on the shoulders" when front is seen, if you know what I mean...

Well the two hair pieces on the side kinda already do that (example) but I just don't know to to replicate that style in a way that would work for DS. Obviously Weah's gonna have to have a hair cut unless I wanted to give her a pony tail instead.

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Just now, minespatch said:

You could try following Wendy's example and focus the bang in front of the ear and touching to the edge of the cheek?

Actually, that is very smart: use pig tails for the frontal view, but make the side view's hair be part of the head sprite. The back view would be difficult because it uses the pigtails too, but if you do it cleverly, you can apply a combination of pigtail and headbase sprites.

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I've decided to discontinue the Weah character mod until I figure out how to draw her head and hair.

However, I've been wanting to do another character mod for quite some time. I think it'll be way easier than Weah. However I may need a master coder to discuss some things ;)

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