On Banners and the magical makings
Since there seems to be some interest in banner makings... I thought I would share some of my experience and thumbnails of the entries.
An obviously "violation" of what a banner is... but it was done on a whimsy and reminded me of a hatchling stealing away GnomeKindle.
This was created with a 3D modeling tool... added 'hair' for the hat fur and Photoshop to compose the image.
http://cid-a0882c77dc0fd9e6.skydrive...lingBanner.jpg
The motivation, hopefully obvious, was the kindle spark that inspired the Gnome's tinkering.
This banner was the second one I made. For some strange reason I did the gears as a 3D model. I was not sure if I was going to use a perspective or 2D view of the gears. I chose Gold and Green mostly because what they represented from a heraldic view.
The kindle flame was kind of lucky... started out as a simple clip art. I really did not like it and pretty much re-did it, via paths for the Photoshop folks. The flame colors was easy - I used a fireplace flame as a reference.
My third banner is a variant - the Kindle Flame which can be found in detail here:
http://cid-a0882c77dc0fd9e6.skydrive...-Banner-03.jpg
My last banner... was inspired by the "Mother". Snow was falling one late night so I thought it very much appropriate for GnomeKindle. The Snowflake banner can be found in detail:
http://cid-a0882c77dc0fd9e6.skydrive...-Banner-02.jpg
Some of the techniques used for the banner are designed to give it "character". For example... the overall ripple effect is a "cloud" layer over the entire image to make it wavey.
As with most cloth in real-life... the edges tend to dirty the fastest...so these were either burned or brushed darker.
I also added stitching and "puffiness" to give it a cloth look.
Seeing the artwork in-game, I realize two important facts...
1) Colors are drab by default - I suspect default saturations are too low.
2) Even at the highest graphic quality... small detail gets lost.
Well... I hope this was as much fun as it was for me creating the banners. Please feel free to post any constructive comments.
~< Gengel >~
