Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Few things I have been working on for your gaming pleasure!

M13d5lh.jpg

JcsNike.jpg

Still have work to do for the full RT mod but this was a nice change of pace and theater. It's the early stages but I have been itching to get moving on all the other titles.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, SchnelleMeyer said:

Very sharp results Mord!

Thanks!

 

7 hours ago, SchnelleMeyer said:

Only on thing that looks a little off to me is the helmet eagles - on the fallschirmjagers in particular. 

The helmet flash/badges etc. are there for added flavor and flair, they are not meant to be an accurate display of location/size etc. You'll see this if you have used my old BN/FI mods. For instance, I use SS runes without the shield on some Waffen SS units, or have CW flash off to the side of a helmet. I am working in a 51x57 pixel window so artistic liberties are taken in the place of realism when needed. In other words the eagle is there to represent that this guy is in the Luftwaffe and differentiate him from say a Heer soldier but not to historically represent where the eagle should be, it's size, coloring, etc. just a little detail for spice. To put it into perspective, within the 51x57 pixels I am trying to convey a combination of the unit type, its military branch, the season/location, the country, the division, and in some cases the division plus its battalion/regiment structure. The average non-hires helmet texture in CM is 512x512 pixels, and a uniform is 1024x1024, so I am trying to squeeze all that info into a space 10 to 20 times smaller than that which a single helmet (10x smaller) or uniform (20x smaller) uses.

Overblown explanation? All that for an LW eagle? LOL. Maybe. But I wanted to take this opportunity to explain a bit of the intricacies of the design, why I make the decisions I do and just how little space there is to do it all in. This is micro modding in the extreme. The only thing more extreme would be the work of guy's like @JuJu who have tackled even smaller stuff in the UI.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, IICptMillerII said:

These are exceptional! I especially like the British portrait in the upper left. Looking forward to seeing US units! 

Thanks, man. Yeah, I can't wait to get to them as well. I just happened to get lucky and cracked the CW tanker enigma that has been perplexing me for months and ended up going on a binge. You would not believe how many individual pieces make up just one of their portraits. I think for the NZ guy it was seven! It's gonna be a real PIA when I get to the infantry.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Mord said:

Thanks, man. Yeah, I can't wait to get to them as well. I just happened to get lucky and cracked the CW tanker enigma that has been perplexing me for months and ended up going on a binge. You would not believe how many individual pieces make up just one of their portraits. I think for the NZ guy it was seven! It's gonna be a real PIA when I get to the infantry.

 

Mord.

I can only imagine all the little pieces that come together to create these. I've started to save all photoshop templates along with the finished BMP files to keep track of everything, and to have as a reference if I need to go back to it to tweak something, or for a future creation. I've also taken to making quick notes in a word document on how to do certain things in photoshop. I'm very much an amateur and basically figure things out as I go. It's never fun to forget a newfound technique only to need it a few days later!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, IICptMillerII said:

I can only imagine all the little pieces that come together to create these. I've started to save all photoshop templates along with the finished BMP files to keep track of everything, and to have as a reference if I need to go back to it to tweak something, or for a future creation.

I've probably said this many times before but if I had one piece of advice for anyone that just started modding, THAT would be my number one, most important. Nothing hurts more than starting from scratch after you forgot to save a template! I can't count how many hundreds of hours that cost me way back when. LOL. Now I have a couple hundred pngs and PSD files. Anything from a single beret, to a Luftwaffe helmet eagle, to a headless body, to all the crap you see in one of my portraits (soldier/background/helmet flash/shield) in a multi-layered file.

25 minutes ago, IICptMillerII said:

I've also taken to making quick notes in a word document on how to do certain things in photoshop.

LOL. Good idea, it's definitely a perishable skill. I've had to brush up on a few things this year when making my splash screen for RT because of forgetting how I did something. Thankfully Youtube rescued me.

 Speaking of notes you should see all my yellow note pads on divisions and stuff, they look like a drunk had a seizure all over them. I finally started creating Word documents to keep better track and make them neater. More lessons learned, eh?

 

26 minutes ago, IICptMillerII said:

I'm very much an amateur and basically figure things out as I go. It's never fun to forget a newfound technique only to need it a few days later!

If you can figure out the right question to ask, search Youtube some time when you are having difficulties you may pick up some tips that will speed things up. The hard part is figuring out how to express the problem you are having so the search engine will lead you to the right spot.

29 minutes ago, sburke said:

One thing I think we learned from Mord earlier. Store all that somewhere in the cloud just so you never lose it. 

Yeah, back up your stuff! I have multiple copies of on my HD alone.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mord said:

The helmet flash/badges etc. are there for added flavor and flair, they are not meant to be an accurate display of location/size etc. You'll see this if you have used my old BN/FI mods. For instance, I use SS runes without the shield on some Waffen SS units, or have CW flash off to the side of a helmet. I am working in a 51x57 pixel window so artistic liberties are taken in the place of realism when needed. In other words the eagle is there to represent that this guy is in the Luftwaffe and differentiate him from say a Heer soldier but not to historically represent where the eagle should be, it's size, coloring, etc. just a little detail for spice. To put it into perspective, within the 51x57 pixels I am trying to convey a combination of the unit type, its military branch, the season/location, the country, the division, and in some cases the division plus its battalion/regiment structure. The average non-hires helmet texture in CM is 512x512 pixels, and a uniform is 1024x1024, so I am trying to squeeze all that info into a space 10 to 20 times smaller than that which a single helmet (10x smaller) or uniform (20x smaller) uses.

Overblown explanation? All that for an LW eagle? LOL. Maybe. But I wanted to take this opportunity to explain a bit of the intricacies of the design, why I make the decisions I do and just how little space there is to do it all in. This is micro modding in the extreme. The only thing more extreme would be the work of guy's like @JuJu who have tackled even smaller stuff in the UI

 

Mord.

Excellent explanation for your design decisions Mord. You really do put a lot of effort and skill into these pieces of (pixel) art. Its quite interesting work, but I know how hours can fly by in front of PS when moving pixels. I did a few of these weapon and rank icons for the Close combat series of games. - They are 41x12 pixels 

M1938 DshK.bmp

And rank insignia icons measuring 33x28 - This an 1.lt from the communist army of DRA.

09 1.Lt.bmp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, SchnelleMeyer said:

Excellent explanation for your design decisions Mord. You really do put a lot of effort and skill into these pieces of (pixel) art. Its quite interesting work, but I know how hours can fly by in front of PS when moving pixels. I did a few of these weapon and rank icons for the Close combat series of games. - They are 41x12 pixels 

Thanks, glad you appreciated my long winded post. I was hoping it didn't come off as defensive as it's hard to infer tone when typing.

Now THAT is micro modding! CM's weapon slots are 99x46. The really small stuff I think occurs when you get into special equipment and ranks.

Did you do work with Dreaded 88? I dabbled in playing with the Vietnam mod way back in like 99 or 98 and I remember his name being associated with maps, I think?  I was never a big fan of CC but I tinkered with it because there wasn't much else going at the time besides SP.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, guys.

@Erwin, that would be Canada. Yeah, I like him a lot too.  I was very, very, very happy with how the tank crews came out. It was a break through that was a long time coming. I've been messing with these guys off and on since before I announced the RT mod.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Ironsturm.

 

Managed to get the British armoured infantry designed along with a special guy.  Worked on these dude for ten hours today. LOL. I am beat.

Hope you like them.

 

sFAfHYp.jpg

 

nYIkIBC.jpg

 

Mord.

Edited by Mord
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad you like them. The Queens Own Hussars and 1st KRRC is armoured Infantry and that particular formation (KRRC) wore a brown beret (I may need to lighten it a bit it's hard to tell unless it is side by side with a black beret portrait). I added the helmet version in case people prefer that. From what I remember from DC and his notes, I believe these guys operated AFVs and always wore the brown beret,  and were not traditional CM armoured infantry. I'll have to double check the notes, I may have them confused with the QOH.

I had a helluva a lot of fun designing that Gurkha, btw.

 

Mord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
On 1/31/2019 at 2:46 PM, ironsturm said:

Hello Mord,

Any news about your amazing mod ?

Regards,
Thomas

 

Hey, Thomas. I haven't done any work on it recently because I'd switched gears to work on CMSF2 portraits. But I do have more done than when this thread was last updated. I am a bit burned out right now so I haven't been modding at all lately. I needed a break. Just got Battle Brothers and all the FoG II DLC for my birthday so I am gonna be doing some non-CM gaming for a bit. Hopefully I will have it done before the module comes out. Don't worry though, I will finish it. I am not one of those guys that abandons my mods once I announce them because I don't want to disappoint people. I just need to recharge my creativity and relax for a while.

 

Mord.

Edited by Mord
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Erwin    

It's fun to do but it can get mentally exhausting after a while, especially when the art isn't working out the way you want it to. I'll be good after some time away (it's always like this).

I got some cool games at Christmas (thanks MJ!) and for my B-day (belated) so I am excited to have some new genres/styles to play. They are a nice change of pace. I have a few games now that are right up there with CM on my love-o-meter. Field of Glory II is the biggest surprise so far, though it shouldn't have been considering I like Pike & Shot and Sengoku Jidai. That whole rules system is like a more relaxing version of Total War. I have completely fallen for it. They could make DLC for the next ten years and I'd get every bit. And HOLY CRAP, my brother got me Battle Brothers on Steam and it is just KILLER! I LOVE the art style and the game play is really deep. So, I'll be chopping but it'll be heads instead of wood!

 

Mord.

Edited by Mord
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...