Jumping Spider and Shark Tiles:Feedback

[dolphin]

I just made 2 tiles today for the first time (woot!), but I would like feedback on them, if you don't mind.

The reason for asking here is that a lot more people seem to read or reply to forum stuff than mantis stuff. That said, 'Contributions' gets a fairly low number of views/replies, which brings me to my second request: Can we divide 'Contributions' into subfolders, such as 'Art' or 'Vaults'. I know that the flow of incoming art and vaults is pretty minimal right now, but I think that 'if you build it, they will come,' may apply here. See the Wesnoth forums.


The shark is still a WIP, since I'm not sure if the tail should be partially submerged, but the jumping spider is on Mantis.

[co]

Both of them are very good!
They need more shading though, both look a little flat.

Good job!

[jpeg]

The shark is still a WIP, since I'm not sure if the tail should be partially submerged, but the jumping spider is on Mantis.

Note that you'll never see the shark out of water, so it's lower half will always be covered by a transparent water tile, anyway.

[dpeg]

jpeg: You might see a shark in full glory when using Fedhas' sunlight!

[dolphin]

I see that the shark is flat, but how would you shade the jumper? Posteriorally darker? Ventrally darker? Darker between the legs? If you have time, could you show me?

dpeg, would you say that I need to redraw the shark to include the lower half of the tail?

[Daydreamer]

The shark is still a WIP, since I'm not sure if the tail should be partially submerged, but the jumping spider is on Mantis.

Note that you'll never see the shark out of water, so it's lower half will always be covered by a transparent water tile, anyway.

Actually, I did see a shark out of water once. Came downstairs in the Shoals and it was on the beach. There was text associated with it too, something about flopping about on dry land, IIRC. I think this was in 0.7 so perhaps it's been removed but it could still be possible.

[co]

That was trickier than I thought, Its not easy to get the legs right.
When I was shading the spider I found a few more things I could improve, so I made those changes too. This is what I did:

• Made the legs thinner.
• Made the back slightly larger.
• Cleaned edges of the outlines.
• Shaded everything except the head.

The head could still use some shading, as it is now it's a little hard to make out what shape it has.

However I did more than you asked for. If you feel like I've stepped on your toes, I'm sorry.

[dolphin]

Thanks for the demo, that's really helpful. Shading to the back of the legs, and between the head and abdomen, cleaner contrastier colors. You're not stepping on my toes at all.

However, I will probably make the forelegs thicker again (Jumpers, on average, tend to have thick, fuzzy forelegs) and add some contrast to the shape of the head. Did you add an indentation to the posterior of the abdomen? Spiders don't have pincers back there. At most the spinnerets tend to protrude a little from the rest of the abdomen.

edit: I might also probably change the legs so that they aren't in a line, but that will depend on when I get a round-to-it. Also see Mexican Brown JS, Google Images for JS, and Tree Of Life:Courtship Vids

[co]

Glad you found it helpful.
Ah, I didn't look up how jumpers look, but now I see that you are right about the legs and the abdomen.

Good luck!

[dolphin]

Here is the edited version of the first, with thanks to co. (I kept the legs more or less the same) Submitting again to mantis.

[dolphin]

I'm going ahead with the 'submerged tail' version of the shark. If this won't work let me know. Again, critiques are welcome.

[co]

Awesome!
Huge improvements on both tiles.
I really like the shark tile.

[Curio]

Awesome spider guys! I wish I had access to editing tools myself right now. Want to make new tiles so much

[omndra]

@OP Whenever I make new tiles i put them up on Mantis and they are normally implemented a whole lot faster than using the forum.
However the forum is a much better place to discuss things.

Both of those tiles are pretty neat, but i just have one problem with the spider tile.
His head looked like a giant W, and i had to download and enlarge it, then It turned out that the W were its fangs.
Maybe if the fang outlines were darkened it would be a bit easier to understand.

[pratamawirya]

I like the new shark tile

[dolphin]

...but i just have one problem with the spider tile.
His head looked like a giant W, and i had to download and enlarge it, then It turned out that the W were its fangs.
Maybe if the fang outlines were darkened it would be a bit easier to understand.

I appreciate the criticism, Omndra. I do realize that there is the tendency the for 'artist' (gosh, I feel all pretentious now) to see what he/she intended to be seen rather than what is actually there on the media. Case-in-point: a 5-year-old doodles something and mommy exclaims that it is a wonderful drawing of a house, whereupon the offended five-year-old replies,"It's you, Mommy!", much to mommy's chagrin.

However, the tile does have the representation of jumping spider anatomy that I would like it to, so unless there is other feedback that the tile is confusing, I'm not particularly inclined to substantially change it.

Also, those aren't supposed to be 'fangs' but pedipalps, which are the fingers/noses/tongues/(for males) sex organs of spiders. The actual fangs are housed behind the pedipalps in the chelicerae. See this Flickr image for pedipalps, chelicerae, and fangs on a Daring Jumping Spider.