Campaign art by Malessa

KnidVermicious · Jan 2, 2003

I love how you manage to make all the weapons look so...painful.

One thing I noticed about the axe: You're right, it doesn't really seem that sharp. Maybe it needs an additional outer edge that appears flatter and distinct from the skull part. I think the roundness of the skull part is making the axe edge look sorta lumpy and therefore not very sharp. Still very cool, though.

So, I'm guessing that's probably not a paladin's axe, is it?

Malessa · Jan 2, 2003

KnidVermicious said:
I love how you manage to make all the weapons look so...painful.

One thing I noticed about the axe: You're right, it doesn't really seem that sharp. Maybe it needs an additional outer edge that appears flatter and distinct from the skull part. I think the roundness of the skull part is making the axe edge look sorta lumpy and therefore not very sharp. Still very cool, though.

So, I'm guessing that's probably not a paladin's axe, is it?

Painful?..........Roflmao

I hope thats a good thing, lol..was going for realistic look, but with a twist of fantasy. If it looks painful though, guess I'm doing something right, lol.......course then again, I did name it "schitzurpantz", lol...

I doubt it's for a paladin, lol, you'll have to get with alsih2o to see what he's going to do with it.

Malessa · Jan 2, 2003

"Druid's Breath"

Here is another sword from our book. I play a druid in our campaigns and it makes me mad that we are limited to certain weapons. So *chuckles* I created this sword so that druids wouldn't be left out on all the fun.

brak1 · Jan 3, 2003

Dang! That druid's sword is gorgeous! I know you've probably already mentioned how you do these, but I'll ask again - how do you do these? I know you're probably using PSP or Photoshop for the finishing work, but how do you start out?

I find myself wishing I could see these without the drop shadow and the background. Mostly just to see more of the detail, I guess.

Great work!

cthuluftaghn · Jan 3, 2003

brak1,

Malessa's in bed, but I can speak for some of your comments. First, thanks!

Working on weapons was Malessa's self lesson in working purely in Paint Shop Pro. All of the swords (and the single axe so far) are done from scratch, all in PSP... no pencil and paper, and no other programs.

I'm afraid for all of her weapons images, she merged the drop shadow in with the actual sword, but here's one without the background...

[shameless sales pitch]
p.s. -- Don't forget, you can see all of these swords in full size in Weapons: Book of Swords, which has 24 of 'em with full D20 stats and background for just $0.99
[/shameless sales pitch]

brak1 · Jan 3, 2003

Wow, I now find these even more impressive. I can't imagine starting something from scratch like that - a purely digital image - without some help. I dabble in Bryce, but I need those building blocks to start from.

Thanks for the image without the background. The amount of detail is pretty stunning. Guess I will have to swing by the RGPNow site and pick the book up.

cthuluftaghn · Jan 3, 2003

brak1 said:
Guess I will have to swing by the RGPNow site and pick the book up.

Shoot.... Score! Cha-ching!

Thank you, kind sir. Really, we'd be willing to give them away for free. We only charge the nominal $0.99 to help fund our web site. For us, it's a labor of love, and enjoyment of the game and genre.

HellHound · Jan 3, 2003

The trick to avoid the artifacting (which is indeed the graininess and distortion found aroudn the letters) is to never save to JPG or GIF format. GIF strips down the colour palette too much, and JPG is designed for smooth-tone graphics instead of the strong-edge graphics we use in illustrating (that's why jpeg is good for porn, but bad for book covers).

In your case, it is obvious you have been saving to jpeg, or at least to TIF with jpeg compression. Instead, once you have crafted your cover art in your paint program (I use Adobe Photoshop for mine), save it both in the program's native format as well as saving it as a 150 dpi TIF file.

cthuluftaghn · Jan 3, 2003

What does that do to end-product file size? Not the single TIF, but say a 32 page PDF?

Frostbitten · Jan 3, 2003

My first attempt on a cg blade, will color it soon,I think its k, whatd ya think?

Campaign art by Malessa

KnidVermicious

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Malessa

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Malessa

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brak1

Amateur Fortean

cthuluftaghn

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brak1

Amateur Fortean

cthuluftaghn

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HellHound

ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo

cthuluftaghn

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Frostbitten

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