Soldier face - helmet / mask

[WHAM]

A new piece of graphics, this time it's a talk view.
I won't animate it, but I'd like some opinions on it.



I guess it's no secret that it's for my MAGS project. Seeing that deadline is 6 days away and I'm only starting work on the talk views, I might be a bit late.  

[Khris]

Here's my take:



I mostly widened the helmet considerably and also his shoulders.
Tried to make the breather look more like metal and changed the shape to a more military look.
Set back the goggles in relation to the front of the helmet.

And of course: upped the contrast.

[WHAM]

Really like what you've done with the mask, and I agree the helmet could have been bigger. I'll try to do a re-draw based on your version tomorrow if I can just find the time.

I think that the vest needs the most work at the moment, and I'll have to modify the goggles a bit to better fit them with the smaller sprites.

In any case, I think this will be a great help! Thanks Khris!

[WHAM]

I reworked the vest, did a few small changes to the goggles and the mask, and reverted the (still too high, in my books) contrast a little.

[Khris]

I wish somebody would chime in on the contrast issue

Seriously though, with as few colors as this, you need high contrast to convey the volumes.

Here's a BW version where I upped the contrast on the right even further:



As you can see, your original version looks really flat, the spherical shape isn't conveyed by the values, it's just our brain telling us it's supposed to be a round head.
My version is far from perfect, it's not nearly as flat though.

To see how well contrast can convey form, look at this: B&W Architecture.

[WHAM]

I can understand what you are trying to do, but the contrast issue is something I will not be easily swayed in.
The reson for the dark low-contrast colours on these characters is due to design. Dark colours, red "eyes", overall intimidating look for the military, brighter colours and higher contrasts for civilians and rebels, to convey how one are basically mass produced troopers, and the others are individuals.

This issue exists more visibly with this specific type of character in this game, and I will try to take your advise on the matter with my future characters. 

[CoffeeBob]

You could try to convey the mass-produced feel by using a lot more pale colours for the military, while using more vivid shades for civilians. That way you won't have to sacrifice the use of contrast in enhancing the impression of the shapes of the portraits. Just a suggestion, though.

[Khris]

I can understand what you are trying to do, but the contrast issue is something I will not be easily swayed in.
The reson for the dark low-contrast colours on these characters is due to design.

Well... no. That's not how it works. Cardboard cutouts aren't intimidating.
I understand that you're going for a Black Knight/glowing eyes look, but hellhounds in a dark forest aren't terrifying because of low contrast, they are terrifying because they're almost invisible. In a dark forest.
Mass-produced military drones though are terrifying because of their impenetrable armor, sheer power and advanced weaponry.
It's for the current MAGS though, so I'd rather see you finish it than enter a moot discussion

[WHAM]

Actually you just created the new face mask for the soldiers of Infection 2 as well as all my other games that might be situated in the Infection universe in the future. You have done me a great service, Khris! =)

In any case, I based the dark blue / purple colour on some police uniforms and combat gear I found on the internet and created colour schemes for everything the military uses. There are certain colours for troopers, officers, technical staff, medical staff and so forth. This colour variation of the uniform is the "basic" colour scheme of the military, which was used in the early days for practicality and remains in the future as an icon, although other colour schemes are used for better camouflage in different environments.

Since most of the environments this uniform are used in are fairly low-light (a smoky battlefield with little actual sunlight in this game, or a dimly lit space station in Infection 2) I decided to keep the low contrast. Khris' edit seemed to me like the trooper would be quite brightly lit, and as such didn't seem to fit in the current game.

I will fool around with the colours a bit for my next games and try out your ideas, but no promises, since I sort of like the dark look better myself.