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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.

if you say the pic "a portrait" is a all hand worked picture id say you got just the right talent. if it is "just" a over-worked photo, you still get the idea of "fakin" drawings. especially for the drawings we need id say it would be right. lets see what fingernail says

Yeah, that would be a great idea. We could get 5 or 6 different looks from one model. Saves one heck of a lot of work.

http://www.webskyline.de/attachment.php?at...entid=2438&sid= this is a truck, a try of makin something high poly, well unfinished an untextured, as you can see i already made the mirrios and windscreen wipers its about 1000 polys and far from finished. it was just to learn max. my cashregister, hast 152 polys, the texture is not final but you get the idea. the model is for an iso perspectiv game i am developing with friends, thats why it is so low-poly something bout me: im a game developer as a profession. especially for additional level design, modelling, balancing, testing. you can call me teh "glue" between the big important parts that make up a game. the invisible data, the balancing. im experienced in photoshop, max, soundforge, several level editors (unrealEd my favourite), mass editing game entities, balancing. i got a special skill in finding bugs, my collegues hate me for it. the company i work for is named Sixteen Tons wich just released the not so pretty Gotcha! and is currently working on Emergency 3. I work(ed) for both games as said the graphical and leveldesign support, physic balancing´, testing in my spare time i write, design some games (no kidding), build levels if i got the time, and of course play a lot. no special genre, i love to kill in rage as i love to sneak, build up citys, think about puzzles or try to kick someones ass with my car. i love thief from the first hour, and i am disappointed about the fact, that there is no level editor for thief: deadly shadows. pictures from a level i made with unrealEd 3 for ut2k3 can be found here

In all seriousness I don't think it'd be a good idea. It doesn't seem right to ask a fanbase for a free mod to fork over cash to provide equipment for the team, and it could potentially piss alot of people off. Like Fingernail said it seems unprofessional, we already have everything we absolutely need to produce the mod, anything more will seem self indulgent.

I don't think it's a wise idea. Not only does it get tricky handing out the money (if any), it also seems a little unprofessional. At the very least I would wait until we have some serious stuff to display.

I don't really use the ftp, DF, but thanks. Alexius, I disagree about the Hammerites having Roman influence. In the concept art the armour is decidedly late medieval, with full breastplates on both figures, and metal greaves and skirt on the other. Other than the colour and the presence of a tunic, I see nothing Roman about them. Since the Builders are metal workers, and technologically the most advanced group, it seems to make sense to me that their armour should be both advanced and full of heavy metal plates, rivets and the like. I was wavering back and forth about the shoulder plates. I thought adding them might be a little TOO much armour for basic temple guards. I will probably do a more heavily armoured version for the elite guards, however. This concept isn't set in stone. The logos are very helpful, thanks. I particularly like the idea of a hammer with a flame background, like the middle one. Fire would be right up there in Builder symbolism.

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!

MMM....facial. :lol: I was wondering if we should be uber-political correct and make our Thief Afro-Carribbean...but then I thought we'd probably be criticized for trying to be PC.... It's probably a bad idea...

I say go for it and send us some stuff to show us what you can do I like the idea of "colliding with a tree object and playing a leaf rustling sound effect". Makes you beleive the environment is more real. I know 'cause this same thing happens in Ghost Recon. Good thinking.

I agree, and I wasn't suggesting that look. He would have a normal hood covering the top of his face, but a piece of cloth covering his mouth and nose. I'll be able to post a drawing by the weekend. I also like the idea of having his face always in shadow. Preserve the mystique, definitely.

It's a great idea, simple to implement yet stylish as all get out.

I REALLY like that mask idea. A LOT. And not just from a holy-shit-easier-to-model standpoint, either. It looks excellent indeed, and it makes sense, right? Harder to see him. As for the indent issue - I tried that first, but it didn't smooth very well, so I'm actually gonna do a combination. Right now I'm going through all of the edges of armor and adding a bit of a curve to the outside edges of the armor, so it's a bit raised. Just about every sharp edge is gonna get chamfered to a nice curve, as well.

It's not too late to start. If you wanna go ahead and help BT and I out I can tell you everything you need to know to get a basic working texture in place. I had never done any texturework before I started this mod, so it's not really a hard thing to get into. All it takes is patience, trial and error work (I went through 7 specular maps before I got one I was happy with for instance), and a good idea of how to apply depth with heightmaps and you're ready to go. And another test using the new trim is up. Still looks a little plain, need more detailing textures.

Keep in mind that high-rez textures are better in the long-run. While we may not have a rig that can run on ultra-high video quality, others may, and planning for The Future is always a good idea. And 512x512 is not high-rez. Go for 1024x1024 wherever possible.

What happened to the idea of a rectangular light gem with a little compass nob on it that said either N,E,W,S?

Ok, here's one version I've been working on. This is about twenty minutes of work, so I wouldn't call it highly polished. The smaller one especially could use some more work. Enough to give you the idea though. I've downloaded some official Thief fonts to use. Regular banner size: And larger size version with Ren's tagline:

We need the following boards: A general discussion board Design issues Development related discussions (not programing but in general) Programming (general) AI Sound (programming) Soundeffects (for the soundengineers) Special Effects (Water, particle etc.) Art (Textures, images, etc.) Level creation/Plot/Objectives (for the level designers) Modelling (Characters) We DON't need a seperate Lightgem board. It's either art or programming. What would be a good idea is to have a read-only report board. This should contain: Design decisions (no discussions only the conclusions from the design discussions when we agree on something), Allowed tools (or list of tools so we know what is available), A list of available services (like FTP, Webpage, IRC information, CVS server information, etc.). This board can also get links to concept Art for easy reference as soon as we agreed on something and we don't want to change it anymore. So for example, if we agree on a final image for the lightgem, we should post it there so everybody can see it and can easily find it. Another read-only board would be good as announcment board: This should include who is working on what, if a new release has been released, weekly(?) project progress, new members and other stuff which is not open for discussion.

Hey, thanks for the texture. I think I might try and tackle your stained glass windows next and see what I can come up with. Pretty soon, counting both your textures and the ones I've done so far, I might have enough to make a good sized mockup map. But if you can, see if you can make some bumpmaps to help me out with. Photosourced textures usually need to be tweaked alot more than the Blade textures do, so it'd be alot faster if I had an extra hand doing em. Edit: Actually, it'd be a good idea if everyone making textures (which I think is just Blackthief, possibly Alexius, and I) were to get together and started organizing everything. It'll mean alot less work on down the road if we keep everything in order and pack the textures the same way and whatnot.

A level design board would be great. Even though we've still got a bit to do before we reach the point where we start mapping hardcore, it'd still be good to throw around some ideas and have everyone comment on what's cool or not. I've already got a great idea for a map, and it'd be cool to have a good place to talk about it at.

So any idea of when we'll switch here?