Darkness_Falls

I think its fairly safe to say the way the hood lies flat on the forehead, the fabric wouldn't poke out very far. From the side you may not be able to see his profile, but judging from the picture, I think his nose would actually be somewhat visible... possibly more. It just doesn't look very dark or manacing to me to have the hood be like that. My main concern isn't the profile. Mysterious and dramatic shadows from the front just aren't as possible with the hood like that. I've Photoshopped a quick side-by-side to kind've show what I'm talking about.

I think the hood should poke out over his face a bit more, to allow a shadow to more easily cast over his forehead/face. Part of the plan was to make him mysterious by always casting some shadow over his face, in conjunction with the cloth scarf thing over his nose/mouth. Garrett lacked a lot of mystique in TDS because they kept showing his whole face in the light in cutscenes, etc. By having a hood that pokes out more, this would help create more dramatic shadow effects over his face. There might be some cloak-wearing StarWars Jedi or Sith we could look at for reference. This is the only example I have to somewhat show what I'm talking about, though I don't think this fully captures the ideal. I think it should jut out a bit more and fall vertically lower than what is shown here:

Oh cool! Yeah, after reading some of the benefits of a tablet, and their integration with PhotoShop, I'm wondering how I've lived without one!?? Nice examples! I'll definitely look more into getting a tablet. Thanks!!

Springheel - Do you use a tablet? If so, is it 4x5 and do you find that to be sufficient area to draw in?

:lol:!!!! Renzatic ~ You sound like a seasoned veteran at this. Is there something we should all know?? PS: Fingernail - It might be worth a shot, eh? More seriously, of course. We could put links up in this forum and the DarkMod home page. And not just to go toward digital tablets or whatever, but the project in general. I'm sure we could all use a something, whether it be a video card, RAM, speakers, art books, digital camera, or whatever. No matter how big or small the donations, if any were to come, it'd be helpful for the project, I'm sure. Don't expect anything to come, though -- these things usually don't work. Do you think it would alienate our fans?

That'd be cool! We could be like, "Please help a fellow Thief game lover. Our starving DarkMod artists need your support to not get carpal tunnel syndrome whilst making this mod for you." j/k

I unfortunately found out the digital pen/tablet I want is like $450. LAME!!! That won't be happening for a while. Unless we could make it a 'DarkMod business expense' LOL. Just kidding. EDIT: FYI, my concept sketches will sometimes show 3 or 4 different things on one image. For instance, the 3rd pic down from the top -- with the guard walking, a window on a wooden wall and a street lamp -- shows 3 different unrelated things that I drew on one page. It's not supposed to be one continuous scene Just thought I'd clarify before someone accuses me of 'lack of continuity' or asks 'why does it go from stone to wood.'

Thanks Domarius! I've revamped some of my earlier drawings. See above.

There we go! I can see the pics now Must've been the other computer I was on that was having troubles. I like the colorized guard! Looks good

I miss thwacking down tapestries with my sword to reveal hidden passages, secret switches and secret loot! Not to mention fireplaces, too. I miss the hidden pleasures they once offered us in T1/T2. (Sorry for the fireplace tangent.)

None of your images seem to be showing up...

All in favor of Kyo say "Aye!" I think it's a given ;o)

Good job on the builder concept, Springheel -- and thanks for posting the historic reference material, Alexius. Hey Springheel - I added a new folder to the DarkMod FTP area called "Art-ConceptDrawings," and within that folder added a "Springheel" folder and a "Darkness_Falls" folder. This gives us our own separate playgrounds to keep track of stuff in without getting confused. Alexius, if you'll be doing concept drawings and need webspace, feel free to add a folder there. We could add other folders, too, if other artists come on board. I wanted to keep only drawings in there, but realistically we may want to re-title the folder and morph into more of a Art-ConceptArtwork area. You guys may already have webspace and don't care, but I needed the webspace.

Right on, yeah I agree with all that was said. I'll try to get them to be smaller images later tonight or tomorrow, and have the images show up in the post instead of as links. Good idea! Not a problem. [uPDATE: Done.] I agree that the room is bland and I actually, honestly, kind've hate it. It looks better in-person, when standing way far away (LOL) -- actually kind've looks real. BUT (and this is a big BUT) it does lack A LOT of the dynamicism and moodiness we all know and love about Thief. Fortunately, I already realized this and won't be doing another room like that I think I did that room as almost a "study," if you will. I was using Thief 2 as a reference and was seeing how they did the panels on the wall, etc., though I know I erred on a couple things. When i look at that room though, I'm like 'borrrrring' I have a feeling the drawings will get better over time. I'm actually working on a different room scene right now that I think you might appreciate more when I'm done. There's more life and moodiness, in general, to it -- and it feels more Thief to me. I'm using PhotoShop and the coloring will be much better. Once I get a digital pen, I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot more cooler things, too. Thanks for the feedback guys. Let's rock this thing!

Thanks for the feedback, Oofnish! I'm glad you could listen to them. I think it's important to point out to everyone, though, that these were just quick samples I put toegether to find out if people thought my keyboard had the potential to help out with this project or not. The sounds were by no means supposed to be "songs," since I was just trying different sounds out on my keyboard and throwing them all together. I only spent maybe an hour or so creating all three of these files. I could've put them all in one big 10MB file, but I wanted to section it up for lower-bandwidth users. If anything, I'd classify these files as a hodge-podge of a bunch of random sounds thrown together. I did not aim to have any bit of continuity whatsoever. Aside from just general "ambience," I may also be creating stuff for menus, in-game melodies, very specific in-game situations, player movement sounds, player interaction sounds, weapon use sounds, steam-punk machinery, etc. So, by me putting these files together, it was meant to give you a simple taste of different sounds my keyboard is capable of. When the melody or sounds in my files all the sudden shift from one thing to another, it's meant to showcase the wide variety of capabilities my keyboard has. Or when a sound in file #2 all the sudden goes from runblyness to weirdness (juxtaposed) -- for example -- I was just trying different effects. This is necessary, because as a sound person, you're listening for everything 'in-between' as a possible resource to re-create and use in some way. Every little second of sound in those files could be used for something. For example, if you take 1/2 a second of a bell sound and stretch it out to 3 seconds and lower the pitch two octaves, you might be able to cut a part of that resulting sound out to create a footstep-across-grass sound or an arrow launching sound or something. (I actually don't know what sound it would make, but this is just a theoretical example to show you what I listen for when I'm listening to the above files.) I wasn't suggesting these files be used for the DarkMod either. It's simply way too early to tell, and the sounds would need to be way more polished. For sounds, in general, I think it's best to hold off creating anything final for a long time. We need to get a lot more concept artwork done and possibly create some in-game scenes before we get on the track of what ambience or loops will be used. For ambience and music, it will likely be imperative to actually play through a rough draft of the DarkMod game before deciding on which sounds/music to use. I know a lot of my inspiration will actually come when I'm walking through a level and seeing what I encounter. My imagination will run wild at that point. In the end, the clock bells you're referring to (if they're to be used) would likely be used for the game menu or an in-game scene near a clocktower or something, but it wouldn't repeat forever in a neverending looped sequence. It would maybe strike 12 times for a clocktower sequence... or maybe just a couple times for a game opening sequence or splash screen. Hopefully you won't have to worry too much -- I think I'll be pretty good at avoiding repitious sounds that shouldn't be indefinitely repetitious, or that stand out as being repitious. Oh yeah, and the piano in file #1? LOL. I threw that 'piece' together in 2 minutes. The rhythms are off and everything. I was just trying to make a somewhat coherent 'melody' that was 'vaguely' reminiscent of a piano piece that was used in Thief: Deadly Shadows. If I were to actually create a piece for DarkMod, I'd actually spend a lot more time on it than 2 minutes ... and I probably wouldn't use a piano piece from T:DS as my inspiration. Or any piano sound for that matter

Well, I finally got my scanner to work so I thought I'd upload some concept artwork I've been working on the past week or so! Woot! Mainly just rough sketches, but hopefully helpful...? PS: Any feedback on the above is appreciated. Also, there's going to be a lot more time spent in creating lamps, lights, candles, candleholders, chairs, tables, wall patterns, stained glass windows, etc., then what was barely touched on here. Just didn't want anybody worrying. Side Note: I look at 'concept artwork' as general guidelines to help create the game. The museum sculpture stand image above, for instance, has a big magnet over it (to slowly lift the glass box when activated). This may or may not be something we want to include in the game -- it was just an idea. For example, our thief could have a goal that says "Figure out how to steal the Bafford Scultpure" or something, and our thief would then have to find a secret switch that lifts the glass enclosure up, revealing the sculpture. We may or may not want to do something like this. As well, in the concept artwork, the magnet looks like hell. I envision more care and detail going into the actual magnet if it were implemented, perhaps even hiding the fact that it's a magnet by making it look like a beautiful, ornate hood above the sculpture that provides light to the sculpture or something. So, you see, please just take my concept artwork as brainstorming sessions and possible ideas rather than an edict saying "We need to do it THIS way" or "I feel this way is the best." So, as more and more drawings come, take what you will from them for use in DarkMod. I just want them to be helpful! Cool?? Cool. PPS: The 'miscellaneous room' one was done with colored pencils. I know it's not the best clarity. Just wanted to do a rough room. I need to get myself a "digital pen" for my PC! Drawing with a mouse is kind've challenging, otherwise I'd do stuff more often on the PC.

Thanks guys! I think it has potential also!! I need to play through Thief 1 and 2 again soon to try and re-capture the feel of some of the aural delights they had. I'm sure you already did this, but while listening to my tracks, close your eyes and try to envision differen't scenes/moods/situations that could be happening. There are a few bits of sounds in there I've noticed, for example, that might work well for machinery -- especially when looped. The piano & strings music sound used in the 'Darkness_Falls-1.mp3' file (about :45 seconds into it) is very similar to the one used in the mansion level of TDS (the level where you could see lightning flashes from inside.) That's the only reason I did that. And, no! Honestly, I've never played Silent Hill. Does it use similar ambience? I watched a friend play a little bit of SH2 on the PlayStation2 many years ago, but I seriously don't remember what the music/ambience was like. I love working with audio, so I'd love to try and help out with the audio portion of things. PS: I've edited my original post to now have the revised URLs. Thanks Renzatic!!!!

I'll have to check Google to find out what Cubase SX + VST instruments are... (tomorrow after I've gotten some sleep) Goldwave rocks. Ahh, thanks for the info regarding DarkMod FTP. I hadn't seen that before. Regarding the samples -- you should get better speakers, m'friend!! There's some rumbling bass in parts, and other subtleties, that might not be audible on cheaper speakers. Perhaps you already do and are just using a different PC than you normall do...? PS: If someone with DSL or Broadband can do me a HUGE favor and move the above MP3s to that DarkMod FTP area, I'd really appreciate it! I'm on 56K and it'd take me a while If you're able, let me know what the new URLs are and I'll edit the above links.

I placed a few sound samples from my keyboard over in the Art > Sound > Sound Effects/Music > "Sound Effects, Ambience, Music" thread. Please check out that post: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=S...=findpost&p=779

Here are a few quick sample files I just created to give you a small feel for what my Roland keyboard is capable of. Nothing polished or final here, just a quick sampling of different effects and atmospheres. There are hundreds of sounds in this keyboard and considering each can be manipulated (slowed down, sped up, layered, pitch altered, fade ins/outs, etc.) through software, I thought it might provide some help to this DarkMod endeavor. Each of these files are around 3 to 5 MB in size. Let me know if anything here makes it sound like my keyboard has potential: Probably best just to 'right-click/save as' to your hard drive... http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/audio/unf...ess_Falls-1.mp3 http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/audio/unf...ess_Falls-2.mp3 http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/audio/unf...ess_Falls-3.mp3 Edited URLs because file locations were moved...

These are nice! Thanks for posting the link. I think having these will help us in the long run.

True, true. It's not my focus right now; please, have at it!!

I'll be trying to crank out some sketches for this and some other stuff this weekend, too. Not to do double-work, SpringHeel, but to try and get different brainstormed ideas on it. I've already got one sketch on it, just need to clean it up and scan it in. TGIF!!!!

Excellent, NH! In comparing my Microsoft Word to the J.D. font on your screenshot, though, the spacing between characters seems to be closer in Word for some reason. Was this because of some of the issues you were having with character spacing that they're farther apart in your example? Regardless, good job on the minimalist project. I'll be sure to use it whenever I play TDS again. PS: I tried to download that Charleton zip file, but I get an error. ("Server returned an invalid or unrecognized response.")

Yep, incredible! I wish I had those 3D rendering skillllllz. Good job!!