Artwork

[WolfieInu]

Urgh...

http://www.inherittheearth.net/illus/illus.php?id=elacabanne-pals

Eish. I can almost smell Kylas' breath, there. Looks like Rif ain't enjoying it much... or is he just bored to tears? -_-


Also, how come the Mouse is larger than the Fox?  :huh: ^_^

[WyrmMaster]

This Kylas/Rif sketch was before the final relative sizes of the characters had been finalized.

[WolfieInu]

OK, ja... figures...


(extremely mild pun...  :rolleyes: )

[WolfieInu]

Okay, so... the bottom two look highly familiar, sans a rock here and there. But the top one: was that going to be the stream with the catnip? The flower is pretty conspicuous, in fact to me looks like it was intended to be an active object - I may be wrong though.


PS. Sheesh I haven't posted here in ages, and my message is still the most recent? How many people know of this place, anyway? Maybe once I have my gift-art queue out of the way, I should make/draw ItE fan art and put it on dA, try and get a few people interested and so forth. It won't help anyone if only like 3 people would know of/want the sequel to the game, things will never get anywhere at this rate

[AllieFiona]

I think the flower was just the fancy of the artist.

By all means, post some art!  We encourage artistic input from fans.  Always have.  When we created the original game we went looking for interested fan artists to contribute sketch ideas, and we're still doing so.

The sequel has run into some technical difficulties at the moment, and since we have a shoestring budget, they will take some time to iron out.  There is interest out there, though.  More interest when we get the thing rolling, I'm sure.

[cairn destop]

The most recent picture, the fox family, has some interesting things to note. 

Starting with the female, notice how her feet are more "human."  There is a flatness to them other morphs haven't displayed.  There are no fasteners for the footware, which reminds me of slippers.  Nice pierced earings.  The tail pulled to the front seems unnatural, but might have been done because of picture spacing rather than any show of subserviance.

Though the male doesn't display a tail in this picture, it can be assumed to be behind him.  (Yeah, bad joke possible, but I'll avoid.)  If the object in the lower middle, (male's right foot), is a shoe, it has to be the clunkiest shoe I have seen.  It also seems out of proportions with the character itself.  I also found the hat comical and at the same time morph specific.  Comical because it reminded me of something one would find in the 1920's or 1930's, and morph specific as it seems to be fashioned to fit between the ears and not over them.  Practical for a species relying on its sense of hearing and can swivil its ears as a way of focusing on sounds.

As for the young pup, the thing I found the most interesting is his lack of footwear.  Like other morphs pictured, this one balances on the balls of his feet.  I also noted the more basic look to his attire, pants only with a drawstring belting system.  He fits the times of the comic strip best of the three pictured.

Overall, this is a nice picture and possibly one of the best I have seen to date.

[WyrmMaster]

Though the male doesn't display a tail in this picture, it can be assumed to be behind him.  (Yeah, bad joke possible, but I'll avoid.)  If the object in the lower middle, (male's right foot), is a shoe, it has to be the clunkiest shoe I have seen.  It also seems out of proportions with the character itself. 

What you have tentatively identified as the male's foot is actually his tail His feet aren't shown at all.

Ed Lacabanne was one of the earliest, regular concept artists on the project. As such, he drew a lot of pictures on a variety of subjects as inspiration to the designers.

[cairn destop]

The latest picture of Scorry has me thinking the concept artist preferred the "human" look.  Note how the feet are flat.  The expression is excellent.  You can almost see a smug attitude.  Though I liked the pictures of Scorry in the strip, I do believe this artist captured his personality a lot better.

If it were not for the tail, I could almost picture this guy as a beaver.  Even the pencil behind the ear lends that intelligencia air.

And it just hit me.  With all morphs walking on the balls of their feet, either the shoes cover only half the foot, or they would be like high heels.  I can here the female readers yelling vengence on all the male characters forced to wear them.

[cairn destop]

The notes on today's picture had me laughing.  So the character had a sex change between the time of the concept art and the final product.  Reminded me of my NaNoWriMo effort from 2003.  In that story I kept changing the characters species as well as their sexual orientation. 

Glad to see a new picture up there.  Can see the artist made a great effort at retaining as much of the base animal characteristics as possible in the concept art.  Which has me asking a not so simple question: If there are several characters of one species, how did you differentiate between them without making the variences too stark?

[AllieFiona]

Differentiating characters of the same species can be tricky.  The most obvious way to differentiate them is by clothing.  Another way is to boost some secondary characteristics, like a broader shoulders, shorter legs, a fuller ruff.  Coloration can help too, in a subtle way.  Notice that besides Rif and Rhene having gender differences, Rhene has more extended dark points.  Rif has a broader head and smaller eyes.

[cairn destop]

Today's pictures are interesting, but I found two of them would not be viable weapons.  The one on the lower left (as viewed by the reader) has a spike at the top of the handle.  That weapon might be useable, but would require a grip that is designed for whichever hand/paw is dominant.  The weapon on the right is more a danger to its user with that one spike in the middle of the grip.  It wouldn't allow much room for dexterity.

The only one I found practicle is the top middle.  It looks like a modified calvary saber, though I still wonder if those spikes would prove more an irritant. 

Of course zap sticks have little value as a weapon unless there is a large surface area for its use.  If only the tip is charged, it proves useless against a real weapon unless, like Sandy, it is used without the victim knowing or on an unarmed opponent.

[AllieFiona]

A zap stick (or in our world, a stun gun) can be quite an effective weapon against unarmed civilians.  Pain or incapacitation is a great motivator for obedience.  Of course, in a war situation the effectiveness may be diminished by the motivation and numbers of the enemy, as well as presence of their own weapons. 

Joe, do you remember if any of the morph have discovered ballistic weapons?  I don't recall any.  Once they come on the scene, the balance of power becomes skewed very quickly.

[WyrmMaster]

Do you mean bow and arrows? At least the Elks have bow and arrows, although I should note that no Elk in the game has a bow!

Zap-sticks are human artifacts and were designed for non-lethal control of individuals and small crowds. Not necessarily other humans (hint, hint).

[cairn destop]

The bow and arrow would fit the period.  There must be balistic weapons, otherwise a castle makes no sense.  You cannot repel attackers until they actually scaled your walls. 

Liked the hint referring to the zap sticks.

[AllieFiona]

As I recall, medieval castles were effective *until* there were ballistic weapons.  They worked fine against bows and arrows, and could (if well fortified) stand a good long time against catapults, but canon could be fired long distances, and could put holes in the walls.