Can we please make Spark quit steroids?

[Skutarth]

I know it's not the Exult Team's fault that spark is muscle-bound. But hopefully, that can be fixed. I've been very productive today, and one of the things I've done is gotten rid of Spark's muscles. I have an image with a before and after view of Spark as I removed his muscles using high tech laser equipment (and MSPaint). I plead the Exult Team that if this is an acceptable rendition of him (minus the steroids), that they add it to future releases. The image can be found here.

Please consider it!

[Green Bamboo Mystery Peanut]

I think the biggest problem with Spark, really, is that he's too tall. Unfortunately, I don't know if that be fixed within the scope of what's available in terms of art editing...it's sort of the same reason why Cedric Diggory (<3) is four feet tall in Quidditch World Cup, or why you can't have tall/short sims in The Sims- that would require new sets of just about everything, or else some animations would look really weird-- if Cedric's body was taller than the other seekers and he tried to grab the snitch, he'd probably miss by a foot or two! I guess you could make more animations, but that would require more memory, right? The difference would be staggering, especially in a game with lots of animations like The Sims...

Anyway, to get back on topic- in Ultima, clothes wouldn't fit right unless you had two unisex bodies- one tall and one short, perhaps? I suppose you can make more frames per shape, ie- a tall female, a short female, a tall male, a short male, etc- I'm not sure if they would even show up on the body though. I dunno, now I'm just rambling on...

I too, made a slimmer male body, for the Fashionable Avatar. I think mine looks a bit poncey, though...XD But really, the original body looks way too buff. o_O

[MV]

Well, when you can end up with a strength of 60, then I think you'd better look buff.

[dino]

What I'd really like someone to fix is Sentri's face.

[Tristan de Inés]

On the other hand, by the end of BG, Spark is the most ass-kicking NPC to have around.

[Colourless]

Why are people so obsessed with spark and asses..... Always it's Spark and something to do with asses....

[Skutarth]

I don't want to muck with faces. I suck with those! Actually, the body I made also sucks. But at least it's still better than having him lifting weights daily!

[ZBert]

Howdy, what a coincidence.

My girlfriend's been seriously getting into Black Gate (hence, Exult!) and always insists on having Sentri Join, on account of (she says) my strong resemblance to him Don't really see it myself, and I wouldn't mind ordinarily -- lately though, I've noticed this steady exposure having a peculiar effect on her affectionate pet name usage during, err, intimate moments.... 'Shroomhead' and 'Mr. Lumpy' weren't too bad (if a little puzzling), but 'Melted Puppy Face' was a little too much for my fragile ego to bear, if y'know what I mean.

Persuading her to hit the Ultima less often, is at this point, out of the question .... so I figured the best way to reinforce more positively was to go to the source of the trouble and give my counterpart's wasted skull a bit of a makeover ! Pixelling isn't my forte (certainly not in Oblivious' league, judging from the lovely job on Jaana's status portrait) but I seem to have the patience necessary for this sort of fiddly work, and after much fiddling, came up with
| in both bucketed and hat-hair versions; it's somewhat smeary and Paganish-looking but otherwise... not bad for a first try!

Encouraged by GF, and much inspired after scrolling through S Knox's Fashionable Avatar site (amazing stuff -- is your KiSS work available through Otakuworld or privately distributed? I'd love to see more) I went on to lightly tweak P Gottschalk's adaptations of Julia and Tseramed to blend in with the others better
(I did not think it possible, but he's even more molestery now)
and made new faces for Katrina, Spark, Geoffrey (just a resize really), and Cantra | | |

All right, so the last two aren't playable characters, but I got a little carried away :-] ... or even a lot, I actually mustered the gumption to tackle the Jr. Size paperdoll body!!!1!1 Ahem. Here's what I've sketched out so far:

The idea is that as little redrawing as possible will be needed to fill the wardrobe out, so I put the hands/waist in more or less the same positions to save on weaponry at least. The rather awkward 'Floating Frankenhunchback' pose resulting can't be helped, except perhaps by someone better versed in anatomy If the musculature's dodgy, it's because I basically ripped it from the Adult doll with less contrast. The lighting and clothing folds are the best I could seem to manage.

....Anyway. What do you all think, is it still too Bomba the Jungle Boy? I was hoping the frame would be generic enough to act as a unisex base (ie, for Cantra as well) but I might've overdone it :-Z


P.S. I don't know if you'd want it, but I've also made an alternative 'SD Ankh' websafe 16x16 favicon ; GF was complaining about how the current big-assed one messed up her pretty Opera panel, yeesh.

[wjp]

Looks like I'll have something to do this weekend

I'll take a closer look then and try to integrate them into Exult. They look good at first glance.

I'll hopefully have more to say about the feasibility of replacing Spark in a few days as well.

Thanks

[Green Bamboo Mystery Peanut]

Hello Berty-

Spark looks fabulous! He brings a tear to my eye. I can't wait to see him in the game, see how that all works out. Then I can make some children's clothing!

BTW, kids at home- the next update is a quickie (it'll be posted as soon as I get one more screenshot- tonight, unless it screws up again) that has no actual art- it's a special about Rankin, who's become something of an official running joke. It's wordy, but hilarious- I discovered a very strange bug with his story (another one, not the USECODE cock-up).

Anyway, back with Spark- putting the arms in the same position as the adult model was classic- ahh, no messing with the weapons! I guess he'll need his own disco suit...then perhaps, Britannia can FINALLY be a viable contestant in the Eurovision song contest, now that everyone has matching sparkly disco costumes. Oh man, I just got a great idea for the next segment in the Fashionable Avatar...XD

(PS- Thanks for the comments- my KiSS sets aren't available anywhere, simply because I have not finished a single one. Rouge's set is mostly finished- there are some outfits and coding, but it's playable. I'd imagine it'll be on Otakuworld when it's done.)

[artaxerxes]

Berty, you did a fabulous job.

Which got me thinking: wouldn't it be possible to set a flag in Exult for Spark, so that his paperdoll is reduced in size by, say, a factor of 0.8?
Dress him up like a normal guy, but at rendering time, zoom out the picture.
Seems easier than to do kid's clothes.

Artaxerxes

[Skutarth]

You forgot the ammo pouch on his leg. I win!

[wjp]

Julia's face has a small problem: her arms overlap her hair. Arms are drawn after hair is drawn, so part of the hair is clipped away.

[Belial]

i have just made a copy of both skutarth's and Berty Zhang's Spark images.. i have added an ammo puch to Berty Zhangs's and have made a middle stage of Skutarths not so buff spark, and Buff Spark. Looks good to me the pics can be found at...
http://www.freewebs.com/belialsfetus/
hopefully the it all works and you can see my pics

[Berty]

Sorry for the delay in replying ... got frustrated after trying fruitlessly to log in; Phorum hates me

wjp, I noticed that before with Philip's art but assumed that I'd just 'compiled funny'; switched the pigtails and it seems to look all right
http://img25.exs.cx/img25/371/juliarface.png

.....and the latest on Spark a la Berty, a melange of all extant approaches ref'd heavily from Belial's handy comparison chart.

Don't know how successful it was, but I'll wait until I can get some clothes mockups done (anyone interested in pitching in?) before tossing him to the sharks at Pixelation for heavy-duty C&C.

Which got me thinking: wouldn't it be possible to set a flag in Exult for Spark, so that his paperdoll is reduced in size by, say, a factor of 0.8?

Or 0.85? Ingenious idea wjp, but unless his face is seperately rendered it'll look stove in. Redrawing by hand, though painstaking, would have considerably handsomer results... it'll just take time , during which interval you'd hopefully be able to come up with an Exult implentation? If not, well, there's always KiSS/GS conversion!

(Har har -- as if I didn't already have too many unfinished projects :-Z That you've gotten so far with your Rouge set at least Sissy, is a testament to not only your artistic bootstraps, but tenacity and verve -- I fear I'm too lazy and mild-mannered )

You forgot the ammo pouch on his leg. I win!

Yes... Yes, you do

[Berty]

Ingenious idea....

Artaxerxes of course, my apologies.

Inlined Julia for those who prefer immediate gratification

[wjp]

Resurrecting old topics seems to be popular these days, so I'll have a go myself:

faces for Sentri and Julia are in CVS now.

[Crysta the Elf]

woot! you go dude!

and.. for the record, im going to use that spark paperdoll and try to do some of the clothes and armor soon.. i warn you all i can be a bit unreliable at times, so no promises, but i wanna see it done too