[2020-02] Some novel character portraits

[EmuMusicFan]

I wouldn't go with white, personally. There's one of the source books - I want to say either the Confederation Handbook or Victory Streak, possibly both - that suggests Kilrathi largely use deep reds and browns. (Feel free to correct me, all y'all).

Which is a shame, really - the white looks good, IMHO.

Got it. I will try to change the color set.

I noticed that in CCG they have nearly white / sliver-themed cloaks (e.g. http://ccg.jetlag.us/Kilrathi/pilot/k-p-deathfang.jpg ) , but their clothes are still basically brown as a whole. This reflects the designer's overall color matching skills. It's a bit difficult to achieve this at my current skill level. Ah, what should I do ...

There is also a problem, I think... perhaps... Action Stations has emphasized the differences between / among Kilrathi clans, rather than emphasizing that they are a whole. So how to reflect this difference in color matching is a problem.

BTW: I recently encountered an interesting problem. My laptop has a TN screen. This is OK for line drawing, but it is troublesome for coloring. Looking at the screen from different angles, I see that the colors are quite different. 🥵 In addition, I get used to Night Light mode ON. This caused even more color distortion...

 

[L.I.F.]

I wouldn't go with white, personally. There's one of the source books - I want to say either the Confederation Handbook or Victory Streak, possibly both - that suggests Kilrathi largely use deep reds and browns. (Feel free to correct me, all y'all).

Which is a shame, really - the white looks good, IMHO.

White uniforms might be used for particular occasions or specific ranks, though. We haven't seen all of the possible dress lockers of the Kats, so a bit of creative liberty works IMO, particularly when it does look good.

 

[capi3101]

I'll admit to the possibility. I'm just saying that the only Cat I can recall ever wearing white is the Sivaran priestess...

https://cdn.wcnews.com/shots/ultima/sivar.jpg

 

[EmuMusicFan]

I wouldn't go with white, personally. There's one of the source books - I want to say either the Confederation Handbook or Victory Streak, possibly both - that suggests Kilrathi largely use deep reds and browns. (Feel free to correct me, all y'all).

Which is a shame, really - the white looks good, IMHO.

White uniforms might be used for particular occasions or specific ranks, though. We haven't seen all of the possible dress lockers of the Kats, so a bit of creative liberty works IMO, particularly when it does look good.

I tested two new color schemes, with more red elements in the portrait of Nargth and the portrait of Jukaga. The new files were uploaded with the old attachments retained for comparison.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Harga nar Ki'ra

Coloring Test:

Edit: 2020-04-16 optimization
Edit: 2020-03-06 optimization

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Baron Vakka nar Ki'ra

Coloring test:

Which one is better? Thanks!

Edit: optimization

 

[L.I.F.]

Which one is better? Thanks!

I guess the grey eyes work slightly better, but there's not much of an edge over the blue ones IMO.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

I guess the grey eyes work slightly better, but there's not much of an edge over the blue ones IMO.

Thanks!
Maybe... it is better to combine the two features, a darker blue?

 

[NightBall06]

Coloring test:

View attachment 11133

[...]At first I didn't even know how to start. Then I found an AI-assisted coloring project and used it as the first step. Fortunately, the following works seemed easier...

Which Ai-Assistent coloring project did you use exactly? (Name?)
Nice Images by the way 👍🏻 Great color work ... Although in my humble opinion these Kilrathi look a Bit „too soft“ - Me personally I am missing Something of their ferocity, which made them those fearsome, unrelenting warriors...

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Which Ai-Assistent coloring project did you use exactly? (Name?)
Nice Images by the way 👍🏻 Great color work ... Although in my humble opinion these Kilrathi look a Bit „too soft“ - Me personally I am missing Something of their ferocity, which made them those fearsome, unrelenting warriors...

The coloring project is Style2Paints.

GitHub - lllyasviel/style2paints: sketch + style = paints (TOG2018/SIGGRAPH2018ASIA)

sketch + style = paints :art: (TOG2018/SIGGRAPH2018ASIA) - GitHub - lllyasviel/style2paints: sketch + style = paints (TOG2018/SIGGRAPH2018ASIA)

github.com

The All-in-One pack is really convienent (or else you will have to prepare a very complex environment). A decent NVIDIA GPU is a guarantee of speed, or you may need to endure very long processing time when using CPU.

In addition, you must be familiar with manual intervention, otherwise the default color matching seems to be suitable for Japanese-manga style girls. 😆

OK, thanks so much for your encouragement. Now please let me talk about my thoughts. 😀

When reading certain scenes of Action Stations, I really feel that this book depicts the Kilrathi as a relatively complex civilization, not just a simple fierce brutal race. There are complex relationships and politial issues among the clans. So I am trying to imply different feelings to different characters.

Let's see Gilkarg and his two sons, Ratha and Thrakhath. These three characters are definitely villains. But they are not the same. Gilkarg's actual military ability is not as good as it seems to be. So I portray him with a luxurious but a bit shallow and frivolous look. Ratha is foolhardy and rude. Even Thrakhath was young by that time, he was definitely the most dangerous one among them, so I depict his gaze the same as it is in WC2.

Admiral Nargth, a straight-laced professional military man with outstanding judgement and self-control. I guess we could see him as a respectable opponent, rather than a simple alien boss in the games like DOOM. 😝

Now let's talk about the three characters of Ki'ra. I think in certain scenes of Action Stations, Baron Vakka nar Ki'ra and Jukaga are protagonists, let alone Harga. Baron Vakka not only recognized the problems in Kilrathi civilization, but also feeled distasteful and troubling on the barbaric behaviors of the Empire. I am trying to portray him an old wise bird with a feeling of dignified without anger, gracious but could not be offended. Though juvenile Jukaga was so naive at that time, he realized a lot as soon as he meeted Dr. Abram. Actually I referenced Kion from The Lion Guard Season 3 and Link from The Legend of Zelda 😄. Harga... I think this character gives me a kind of... say, open and clear, "sunny" feeling. So I guess I should portray all of them with the feelings beyond fearsome predators.

Last but not least, Chancellor Melek. A politician who is excellent at emotion control definitely could be able to show cute to friendly Terrans😄.

And.. actually I am drawing these for my visual novel demo. In this visual novel we have Kilrathi characters as main characters. Main characters in a visual novel should be good looking, lol.

I hope I have expressed what I want to say. 😅Sorry for my English writing.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

OK, I have finished the three test color version portraits of Baron Vakka nar Ki'ra, in #26.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Coloring tests of the Crown Prince Family's portraits:

Gilkarg nar Kiranka

Ratha nar Kiranka

Young Thrakhath nar Kiranka

 

[EmuMusicFan]

OK. I have finished the test versions of the Crown Prince Family's portraits.

As you see, the design of Gilkarg's clothes basically come from that of Trakhath's in WC2, with several adjustments. To my surprise, it seems that the AI coloring system "recognized" the armor pattern and colored it with a metallic feel though some manual intervention were there.

 

[capi3101]

You know what would be an interesting pic, in my opinion anyway? An Imperial family portrait: Gilkarg, Ratha and Thrakhath, perhaps with the Emperor himself as well. Maybe with Zu'kara in there too (she shows up in the Academy TV series in a few episodes; I don't recall which one off the top of my head). If you do her maybe make her a little less......well, pink.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

You know what would be an interesting pic, in my opinion anyway? An Imperial family portrait: Gilkarg, Ratha and Thrakhath, perhaps with the Emperor himself as well. Maybe with Zu'kara in there too (she shows up in the Academy TV series in a few episodes; I don't recall which one off the top of my head). If you do her maybe make her a little less......well, pink.

Family portraits, hmm...

Such illustrations require quite high techniques for painting. Maybe I will try more complicated portraits when my painting skill is better.

Actually I did think about painting a portrait of the Vakka family and Harga, characters spanning half a century are concentrated in one picture.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

OK. The screenshots of the Visual Novel demo is here.

After all, I am not a native English speaker. The words that are different from the original and the new ones may be jerky. Please give me criticism and suggestions.

If you would like to try it out (only prologue) online, click the link below:

WCFan

Firefox is recommended for smoother performance.

Edit: 03-27 Now part of Chapter 1 is available as a draft with something interesting. The names of some characters have not yet been determined, and may only be codenames for the time being. Enjoy it!

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Sorry, it might be a bit abrupt, but is anyone willing to try to record dubbing for this scene?

 

[capi3101]

I'd be up for it. I've got some experience with Audacity if you want to go with something more akin to, say, the way the Kilrathi sound in WC3.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

I'd be up for it. I've got some experience with Audacity if you want to go with something more akin to, say, the way the Kilrathi sound in WC3.

Oh, that's cool, thanks!

When it comes to WC3 style Klirathi speech, could we make the growls a little lower? After all, we know the voices in this scene is translated and too strong growls might cause players hearing fatigue.

And, have you seen the original part at the end of this demo? Unfinished morning news, I mean. According to my design, there will be the human protagonist and two Kilrathi protagonists meeting for the first time after the news and a telephone call, and they might greet each other in Kilrah. Here we could use the original WC3 style sound (of course, not the human, but the kats 😅 ), and it could be expressed directly in Kilrah.

P.S. Excuse me, where can I find the Kilrah pronunciations of "My blood warms at the sight of thee. " , "Your father, his blood flows well? " and "His blood is thick. "? Have the Kilrah versions of these sentences appeared in the novels or the games? Thanks!

 

[EmuMusicFan]

Maybe I should explain why there are original parts...

After all, things in the novels are history. As an interactive visual novel, these parts may not be suitable for interaction. We can use some original characters to recall history and discuss history, and it can be handled more easily as a visual novel.