New recruit reporting! o7

Development of artwork, requests, suggestions, samples, or if you have artwork to offer. Primarily for the artists.
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Kedammre
Space Krill
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:21 am

New recruit reporting! o7

#1 Post by Kedammre »

Hi all, I was looking for a new space empire / 4x game the other day and I stumbled across your project on wikipedia. After reading your DD and seeing some of the great work that's been done, I'd like to offer to help out.

I've not had a very thorough look at the current build yet but I will do before I post any suggestions. For now, I'd just say that I'm an all-round 2D and 3D artist/animator, comfortable with max, photoshop, aftereffects, premiere etc. I'm happy to turn my hand to anything that needs doing but my strengths, such as they are, probably include effects work (pew pew) and my weaknesses certainly include character concepts :D

I've read all the FAQ and read-this-first type threads I could find and I thought to ease myself in, learn the ropes and get to know everyone, I could make a start on the various context sensitive cursors that were mentioned. Is there an exhaustive list of what's needed (pointer, horizontal/diagonal window resize, fleet move order were mentioned) or any direction as to the pallete? Bright and simple / sleek and gunmetal / spartan and windows-ey? Also, can the engine handle (or indeed, does the design call for) animated cursors?

Additionally, and I guess crucially, .png would be the format and they'd be a typical right-handed windows layout - 16x16, top left corrner being the 'business end' ?

Lots of questions, sorry about that, but somehow it's become four in the morning and I'm rambling a little :) Glad to make your collective acquaintances in any case and I look forward to contributing, off to bed for now.

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pd
Graphics Lead Emeritus
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Re: New recruit reporting! o7

#2 Post by pd »

Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself. I think it's always nice to see some of the previously created work of new contributing artists. If you don't mind of course and if you have something to share, don't hold it back :)

Based on your own estimation(effects), it seems like the 0.4 combat assets could be of interest to you(the bottom part starting with "Art asset needs").

Regarding mouse cursors:
There are a couple of basic mouse cursors in the repository, although except for the arrow, they are not part of the game yet:
Image Image Image Image Image

Currently the mouse cursor is always a basic arrow. To improve UI interaction(mainly galaxy map related), the cursor could change depending on what kind of object is shown below. For example, if a fleet is selected and the cursor is moved on top of a star system, it could change to something like a cross(as this is common for assigning a target destination on maps; it's widely used in games for the same purpose). Similarly, if the cursor is on top of empty space, it could change to the grabbing hand, suggesting a left click will pan the map. Hovering over a star system(with no fleet selected) or fleet icon, something else might be shown. That's all I can think of for know, but Geoff has probably something to say about this too. The idea is, that the cursor previews what a left click will do and right clicks consistently cancel an action or even close a window.

I think you should keep it simple in terms of style and design, keep it clean and efficient. Color could be used to support an idea, but it should not be relied on exclusively to communicate something.
Additionally, and I guess crucially, .png would be the format and they'd be a typical right-handed windows layout - 16x16, top left corner being the 'business end' ?
Exactly.
Lots of questions, sorry about that
Questions are welcome, don't hesitate or shy away if something is not clear and you need to know.

edit:
I just realized that the arrow cursor is 24x24, so this is probably the size that should be used for the other ones as well.

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