What's up, RMers?

[Kain Nobel]

*Headdesk*

How does the Princess look older than the Queen? I'm not seeing what you're seeing, but I'm willing to go one more round with this in hopes for some improvement. Then I'll have to cut it off and let it be (deadlines :3)

OK, let's see...



Here is the concept art for both princes of the Kingdom of Hera. The 1st one is actually in an advanced state of design now, almost done, but I'm going to purposely sit on it for a bit. Just started the 2nd prince, I'll get to him soon too. Technically, you can say the guy in the reference picture below is who both of their looks are inspired from. In other words, these are supposed to be a couple handsome dudes.

The 1st prince (in my opinion) is starting to turn out good. I'm going to push hard to try and finish him quickly because the "faces of meth" concept art does it absolutely no justice LOL

(I actually had exceptionally good pencil drawings of these guys, but I've spilled Monster energy drink on them :/ Was raging mad about it but, now that Prince#1 is being colored, I don't even care :D)

EDIT: Added brother, some rambling was removed.

EDIT: Finally remembered who the reference was (Akshay Kumar). Keep in mind, this is a loose reference, not a faithful drawing. The hair is the main focus; I'm not sure how I'll be trying to achieve the "look" I'm going for but I'll try. If I don't get it, maybe I'll give him a head scarf :3

Reference

^I actually have NO idea who this guy is, but he looks like he should be the next James Bond. Seems like a cool dude, I wish I was that handsome haha.

[Kain Nobel]

OK, the "faces of meth" concept art for the 1st prince was just too much to stomach, I HAD to hurry and finish the dude.



That. Was. Hell... of a lot of fun! Yeah, it actually was pretty fun drawing this guy, but I won't lie; I was trembling nervous inside.

So the Akshay Kumar reference wound up not being too relevant, but it did help a little bit. I had to zoom in with a microscope and think of how exactly I was going to draw the hair, get the right volume and texture. Also, how do I do that "5 O'Clock" shadow without it turning into a dithering mess of pixels? In the end, I think it turned out phenomenal. Posting the ugly concept art helped get it done faster, I can't stand to leave it up there like that without finishing it.

If only the Pixelation forums weren't in read only "archive" mode. Too bad, so sad. 

Current progress:


I probably won't get to the last one until next weekend.

[Remi-chan]

I think I see what Kyo means, it's likely due to the bags / wrinkles below her cheeks and the way the face feels very compartmented. Like the mouth has its own entire 'surface' seperate from everything, while the queen has a very smooth complexion with no cheek lines and her face feels a lot less compartmentalized, hope that helps. The princess also has very large bags under her eyes compared to the queen.

These do be looking fab, by the way!

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

What Remi-chan said. The eye bags and wrinkles give off the impression the princess is older that she is.

[Kain Nobel]

Between everyone's responses and the PM from DerVVulfman, I'll be putting Princess Catalina on the list to be revised. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to go about "de-aging" her, as I do like how she turned out, but I want her to appear more youthful and naïve. Probably didn't help her reference was the Queen of Jordan, a much older woman, but I was trying to imagine what she might've looked like 20 or so years younger, smirking charmingly and mischievously.

Ah well.

Believe it or not, this guy was NOT on the list until next development cycle, but I went on and started anyway...

Clover



Not the main character of the game, but I know for sure he does join the party. This is the alleged "love interest" of Princess Catalina de Hera, although that's purely speculative and has never been proven or confirmed. Used to work at a casino and was a trainer at the dojo, but now he's constantly spied on and bombarded by press due to the alleged royal affair and his previous service at the castle.

I might change his hair, maybe it's a bit too cliche and boring. Then again, dojos and pony tails go together like peanut butter and jelly. I'd still like to channel my inner Tetsuya Nomura and change him up somehow. No, not with spikes and zippers. Something else...

A page or two back, Kyonides was thinking Rasputin. I was thinking Genji. You were pretty close :D

Prince Vladimir De Hera



OK, so the 2nd Prince of Hera is pretty close to finished. Might clean it up a bit, but I probably won't bother posting the updates because I can't imagine there'd be a major difference. He's supposed to be the younger of the two brothers, meaning he's not the crown prince.

I was going to make a "clean and professional" version of him, but I decided to go with troubled and disheveled to reflect "current events" when he's introduced. Prior to that, you only hear of him in conversations or in media publications and he's generally pretty positively received. Until that one fateful day when...

Current Progress:



I'm gonna stop saying "I won't do X until next weekend" because I'm actually on fire right now; rather, I'll update the post if progress continues.

I should redesign the "Lightning Strikes!" album cover. I feel like I'm starting to "level up". Meh, to-do, to-do...

[kyonides]

Concerning Steel's scripting issue, my only advice will be that he better uses my KEquipSkills XP version 1.1.1 script instead of modern algebra's script made back in 2008. Honestly, the way MA's script works is ridiculous, there was no need to delay the learning of any skills at all.

Yeah, we gotta take in consideration he posted that script only around 3 years after RMXP had been launched internationally. Not blaming him for that. I suppose that he later made other scripts that show people how much he had improved in his knowledge of the engine.

So far, Steel has not found a later edition of the script where he could have optimized the process as much as expected. This makes me believe it's better for him to use an up-to-date script like mine instead.

[Kain Nobel]

I hadn't got as far with this as I wanted due to some silly family drama. Had to take a long pause.

Initial "Flats"

Early Shading

EDIT: Made another shading update. I'll probably change his hair back to brown again.

The character named Clover is already changing significantly; he looks more Johnny Bravo than Genji now. Yeah, it's the same guy that had the pony tail in the sketch above. He is supposed to be handsome for the ladies, yes, but he's not supposed to be a "pretty boy" so I'm going to have to work hard to bring out the man in him, really shade him up to make him look rugged. Maybe not as rough as the 2nd Prince, but rugged.

He went from black hair, to blonde hair to brown hair. I need to actually not channel Tetsuyo Namura because Genji is starting to turn into Zell :/

Also, I need to try to keep him more Japanese looking. The sketch looks like a ninja, but now we're tuned into Saved by the Bell. D'oh!

Hash tag #Whatever #FamilyDrama #DudeLooksLikeAYuppie #IDontCareAnymore LOL

To be fair, I'm open to suggestions, especially since this is still an early design. Should I go back to the pony tail? Got a reference picture for what you'd like to see him turn into?

* Kain runs off to catch some Zzz's...

LAST EDIT: OK, somebody is going to wake up and spit out their coffee. This may be a little wild and a complete 180 from the original concept, but I think I'm going to go off of this picture of Ted Danson as a reference. Also, Genji. Not the Genji from Overwatch, THIS Genji below. Hm....

Ted Danson and Genji

I'd reference the general from Mulan, for he'd "make a man out of you", but he's too cartoony to reference.

Shut up and go to bed Kain. GOOD NIGHT!

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Concerning Steel's scripting issue, my only advice will be that he better uses my KEquipSkills XP version 1.1.1 script instead of modern algebra's script made back in 2008. Honestly, the way MA's script works is ridiculous, there was no need to delay the learning of any skills at all.

Yeah, we gotta take in consideration he posted that script only around 3 years after RMXP had been launched internationally. Not blaming him for that. I suppose that he later made other scripts that show people how much he had improved in his knowledge of the engine.

So far, Steel has not found a later edition of the script where he could have optimized the process as much as expected. This makes me believe it's better for him to use an up-to-date script like mine instead.

Actually I decided to use your script yesterday and it works perfectly. Now I'm searching for a script that allows skill to be bestowed with items as modern algebra's script did that as well (It's the main reason as to why I was using it since it was like killing two birds with one stone). 

I tried game_guy's Skill item script but I couldn't make it work and DerVVulfman's magey mage spell book requires to use the item's "veriance" to tag the learnable skill. "Veriance" only goes to 100 and the ID number of the to-be-learnt skills starts at 401.

[kyonides]

I'm already expanding my script to include items as triggers for learning skills. You would configure them the same way you did with Weapons and Armors.

There's only one question left, a silly one indeed. Should it treat those skills learned via "scrolls" as permanent skills? That would be the easy part indeed.

[Steel Beast 6Beets]

Nice. As for your inquiry... Well yes, the skills learnt by scrolls would be permanent. After all, the equipment skills are for the temporary stuff.