AuthorTopic: [C+C] [WIP] Exodus (Espiritus iudicium/ Espiritus botanica)  (Read 14716 times)

Offline lolzolaura

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #20 on: January 16, 2015, 10:38:33 pm
Sorry for the long absence. School and stuff...

Finally adding color. Revising palette, more texture and starting on the armour.

Offline HarveyDentMustDie

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #21 on: January 17, 2015, 01:28:05 am
Your bark texture is not bad but that's the only indication that this is a tree. Problem here is mostly because you have some very thick branches that are very short and they become very thin very fast, like tentacles. As I know you wont find any tree like that in the nature. Try to find some nice photo reference and fix this, it will help you make this better.  :)

Offline lolzolaura

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #22 on: January 17, 2015, 02:16:35 pm
It will be covered by leaves in the future. I'm working on it in parts, so for now it's only the armor and the tree trunk.

For reference, I have trees all around me in the area. It is a walking tree, so yeah.

Offline lolzolaura

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #23 on: January 23, 2015, 12:20:47 am
Update:

Working on the armor even more.
I took some inspiration from 16th century gothic plate armor, mainly for the chestplate.

Offline yaomon17

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #24 on: January 23, 2015, 01:47:40 am
The art and technique seems fine, but the composition feels extremely restricted by the canvas size (as it has been mentioned before.. The branches are all curving around the outside and all of the branches on the left are cut off and much shorter than their right side counterpart, resulting in an overall sort of semi-invisible "box" around the piece akin to the old sort of optical illusion
. It feels as if there was a fully fledged tree and it got stuffed into a transparent box. Again the bark texture seems great, but maybe scale the piece down or enlarge the canvas a bit and give the branches some room.

Offline lolzolaura

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #25 on: January 25, 2015, 10:42:01 pm
Trying to break the 256px box a bit, and adding more armor. Also, more branches!

Offline Vagrant

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #26 on: January 25, 2015, 11:27:51 pm
Would you mind me having my take on this?

It's a good concept, but it's execution could benefit from more perspectives, like what I have in mind at the moment. I'd be pointless to describe, however. A sketch would be much more effective.

When I think 'trees', I quickly imagine solidity, firmness, deeply ingrained and anchored in the ground. Libra then brings to mind aspects of balance and justice. I imagine this massive tree statue just standing as a bastion, preventing entry, keeping the peace (Balance) with it's massive armoured guardian of the forest, in ways similar to the ents. This thing is (Or should be, given the elements present), in every possible conceptual core, a stout defensive wall.

Your work on the other hand looks flimsy, and if I may... Squishy and slippery. Like an octopus. It doesn't have any solidity and the armour feels as if it was left there rusting. It bends in many odd ways and it completely lacks firmness to the ground; it feels as if it could crawl and move at will, easily, like a scaled animal. There's little gesture of it being defensive -and- offensive. It's just not accomplishing much of any. Neither the defensive wall or the forth-lunging defender of justice. It's also 'small', without any qualities of grandness or epic. Like another one of those strange throned things in the forest, who could serve as normal enemies in a game. 
I'm not saying you'd have to follow my vision, but this is how I observe what's before me.

Was this 'your' original intention? The pencil drawing on the first page communicates something entirely different.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2015, 11:33:00 pm by Vagrant »

Offline Decroded

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #27 on: January 26, 2015, 01:04:14 am
Personally I think the character has too many elements in that it walks around AND operates a full plate armour.
If the tree was stationary then it makes sense have some roots that grow up out of the ground into the armour.

I've been thinking the roots should be for walking only and the branches make arms that grow into the armour.

Have you considered a design where the tree has adapted the armour onto itself?
So it has the front of the breastplate on its trunk and there are separate branches for the sword and shield.
And there are bits of arm plates and pauldrons etc. adapted around it.

I also agree that the hard wooden texture doesn't lend itself to bendy tentacle-shaped roots.
That texture would make sense if there were straight lines with defined joint areas (put leaves and moss around them).
Notice f00l's design here along the same lines as yours suggests a texture that's halfway between wood and skin to make it appear more flexible.

Offline lolzolaura

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #28 on: January 26, 2015, 04:45:53 pm
The game this guy is for was originally going to be an FF fan game and thus took quite some inspiration from these two guys:


Better known as Exodus, The Judge-Sal from FFXII, the non-elemental Esper.

and of course, good ol' Exdeath himself, from FFV



However, this was my own take on it. As for Exodus and Exdeath having origins as a tree, Exdeath also being a guy wearing full plate armor and Exodus being Libra personified, I wanted those two combined. Then I got some inspiration from Lady Justice, by giving him a sword and scales. Also, his helmet does not have eye slits, effectively blindfolding him. Wearing full plate armor also references the Judges in FFXII.

So that became a tree or treant, "wearing" armor and holding a sword and scales, who thinks he IS the law.

Originally, he had a slab of earth to sit on, but given his transformation sequence from just a "man" in a suit of armor, that would not make sense. Where did he get his slab of earth from? Why is the palace floor not destroyed? Think of it more like a tree that is growing out of the armor, hence it is walking around on its roots.

And yes, he looks kind of flimsy. Maybe I could make him more broad.

And Decroded, you may be right if putting the armor on the tree itself may make more sense. I'll see what I can do with that.

Offline Vagrant

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Re: [C+C] [WIP] Tree-judge-armour-thingy

Reply #29 on: January 27, 2015, 01:57:18 am
That's awesome, since, I myself love the concept art of FFXII, probably one of my favourite games out there.
Noteworthy is the fact that I've also attempted once to make a FFT fan game, before being persuaded to go full-on original project.

Anyway, this here's my take on the interesting Tree-judge-armor-thingy concept, inspired in FFXII Judge armor, and some Shadow of the Colossus on the side.







May this rough sketch sit in my hard drive until I decide to revive it someday... Hmm.
It could be worth it if it's covered in moss... Though it looks like it came out of Ivalice.

Feel free to take any elements you like about it. It's all yours.
Except the lady. Please, don't take the lady. :y:
« Last Edit: January 27, 2015, 02:40:26 am by Vagrant »