Ahiggy's Mad Moors'n'Milanese - Recoloring/texture-work Critiquing

[Ahiga]

I've started to try and bury myself in skinning, though right now it's just baby steps with altering the hue and saturation of vanilla texture's coloring before I try and introduce new textures. It's helping me learn the ins and outs of texturing, but I'd like to have some critiquing on these recolorings, as I'd like to release them to the Community like the Mango has done with the Byzantines. I probably should work on a group that seriously needs it, like Milan, and possibly will. The Moors are just my stomping ground because it seems like the richer colors might be given to the Muslim factions (And to later units of Europe. Just have that view of the early medieval era retaining the dark ages, then the high era being all about flamboyant and vivid chivalry), even though personally their colors are far more acceptable than say, Milan's, or perhaps France.

For all edits following the last update on the 31st, I'll provide in a single image the before and after. I apologize for the clunkiness prior to those.

Edited:
Unedited:

Edited:
Unedited:

What I am wondering about is mostly aesthetic - How are the color combinations? Is the Dark red scarf around the helmet good, or would it be better as white, or blue? Should I change the white pants and arm sleeves? Should I be ambitious and try to change the brown vests (I don't know what color they'd be though) Are they too bold, too weak, too 'neon' like the old ones in RTW? Do you see any flaws related to pixels or errors in the coloring?

Most of all, would you want to use em?

[Skaven]

Well they do look really great, but it would be easier to compare your work next to the original one so we can see if it looks better.

This way since you've only played with effects and filters it's hard to tell looking at the units with nothing to compare them with

Try putting old ones and new ones side by side

[Ahiga]

Good point! I'll do that when I wake up.

[DefenderOfTheCrown]

Really nice job here...

Just a little thing, didn't notice really the dragon in the beginning, because of dark dragon on dark green... white would've been cool since the other side is also white.

But that's really cool work!

[Ahiga]

I was suprised to see that the Dragon actually exists on a lot of Milanese Units, but I can't say I'd ever noticed it before.

I'll give white a try. I think the human in his jaws will become black, since it'd be hard to tell otherwise.

Thanks for the feedback you two. I'm wondering - Would you want a general theme to be held to each faction, where particular colors are primarily used, or would you want it to simply be what colors fit the unit, so you might have blue and red Milanese and green and white French?


A slight update, I did what you suggested and it does turn out far better. I've thought about imposing the dragon on the front, but at the moment I think I'd rather have it on the back (it can be larger on the back).

Latest Version of Milanese Heavy Mail

Heavy Mail
Edited-1:
[The embroidery is the white and black above the bottom of their long-armored tunic. I don't know how that red line got in with the black in that other unit's lower kilt!]
Edited-2:
Unedited:
Dragon Backside:

Light Mail




I like how the embroidery with the deep blue shows up more, but it is kind of a shocking color. It is acceptable for heavy mail (Those who can afford a heavy hauberk of mail can surely afford some dye), but I might want to change it to a duller color, or a different color.

I also gave a shot at imposing new textures on the existing texture, and took the embroidery from Here. I didn't really like how it turned out, but I think if I go with a finer embroidery, make it smaller and more narrow as well as more colorful, it'll show up better.

For Skaven, I'll be taking pics of the original vanilla skins in a moment. I can't get them in the game along with the edits (Until the battle_Model file is a lot more streamlined), so You'll have to bear with me.

[Kscott]

The moors look significantly better id say.

[Ahiga]

Thanks Kscott. I think I'm doing best with them, and I'm really hesitant to get into European armies, because I'll feel like I'll just be trading one monotonous color for another, as a lot of their stuff is dominated by a single large span of color. I'm canning work on the Milanese (Burreck is doing a phenominal job on Europe and I can't be any sort of competition ) and focusing now on the Moors. Once the battle_model file is made more streamlined, I'd like to try and introduce some more units for them and the Egyptians if I am experienced enough in texturing and can get a modeler to model it (In particular, a pavise Grenadine crossbowmen, and dismounted Mamelukes with maces).

An Update with the light and heavy mail for the Moors: Colored Scarves, and additions to lower garments. I'm curious about the look of the color, as I used blur to mask some of the leftover pixels of their grey or white state, and am thinking it might give it an unblemished, fake look. Of course, that might just be the hue/saturation in lieu of new textures.

I might not do this sort of 'side by side' thing next time, and just take two screenshots and host them side by side. Laughably, it was an absolute monster to try and get something as simple as this to work in photoshop, so I might just use paint (Although it dampens the quality if you save it to jpeg, Im told).



Unless there's a major issue (Such as the blue lining on the heavy mail's dress, or the colored 'scarves'), these will be the final product unless my whim leads me back to them. I think I'm going to try my hand at the nomadic moors next.

I did have a random thought about pursuing taking some Timurid skins for the Turks (I love lamellar and the Turks lack in it, and it stinks to have Sipahi Lancers and ottoman infantry with the same skin.), but it depends on if it requires the model or not.



Edit: And I -just- notice a major issue with the middle strip of leather on the Heavy mail guy with the blue lining. It seems bent to the side strangely. Fixing it now, if I can. You know? That might be an issue with the skin itself. If you look at the unedited version, you can see that same 'bend'.

[DefenderOfTheCrown]

Looking great!

I like the patterns you put on the clothes and shields, really nice job!

[Kscott]

I like this stuff, please continue your work

[SmokeGSU]

How are you getting these reskins to show up in game without getting a CTD? I've tried adding one reskin for test purposes to my game using the io switch and bat file, however the game doesn't read the data files first and crashes my game on start up. If I go back to using the normal start up without a bat file or whatnot, the game starts up fine, but it won't show the skins in game :/. What are you doing to get the game to recognize your bat and io file settings?