Centaur Armor Upgrades
Icon Crafting
These icons were created for @Galendor an'Kreil and will be shared with public with his generous permission!
Start
I drew icons, one is a little better than the other, and that's it, one can think, but I will show you that there is much more thought behind the process and that these little UI pictures can be deep and complex. (You can also read my very nerdy
pastebin about the important things to consider when creating upgrade icons.)
I created a workspace and put a lot of icons around the main reference from WoW I was given by the commissioner:
I usually surround the main reference with icons which I consider to be style standards, good examples of visualization of objects (like Samwise's Hood of Cunning or Chaos Grunt) that can be inspired by and from which some details can be adopted. These icons have fitting colors, tilt and perspective.
Tier 1
As you can see, I slightly increased the reference size so that the detail was approximately at the level of game icons:
I also highlighted the points that told me how to better position the pauldron: the beginning and end of the pauldron are visible as in Elven, making the shape easier to read; there are gaps that will provide space for glowing in the future; the indentations on the right and bottom next to the ring will allow us to increase the shape in volume without hiding the elements we will require in the future.
Next, I detailed the icon, constantly comparing it with the game ones:
Here you can look at the finished work from afar among the other icons:
Well! Looks fine, like a good example of plated leather armor. But there is one huge thing: if we start improving this armor, then we will just have to rack our brains, thinking about the details that will allow us to reach this icon to Tier 3. So I decided to use one technique that you can call
simplification. So we simply
downgrade the icon:
Poof! and there is no ring, no plates and no hardened edge (replaced with fur), however, it still looks aesthetically true to leather armor. Of course, I didn't thoughtlessly draw such skin patches, but turned to the real armor of centaurs from WoW for the idea:
Do you see cracks, scuffs and two more rings? It is these details, together with strengthening the edges of the shoulder pad, that we will add as the icon improves.
Tier 2
Let's move on to the next icon and see how the above works:
Our "medium" armor now closely resembles real Сentaur armor: thick leather plates with rivets, a ring and fortified edges came into play.
Let's take a look at both icons at once for a better comparison:
Looks like we now have a decent transitional version between T1 and T3, which visually
ties the whole concept together without letting it stray too far from the original. I also added khaki color that blends softly with the brown skin, applied to the references, and makes the T2 stand out from the T1.
Tier 3
This armor is clearly of a higher rank, because an ordinary Centaur Warrior is unlikely to wear gold-plated shoulder pads:
What have we done? We went with the "gold plating" principle, another technique I developed (just kidding). Thus, the armor began to look more expensive, and therefore began to be perceived as more luxurious and more status. We can always observe similar transitions in other upgrades:
We also increased the massiveness of the parts and added a few new details like a ring and big gilded rivets with leather plates. Increasing the number of details and the size of the main object is also not a rare technique:
And finally, we added a richer and brighter color that goes well with gilding:
We made the colors more muted and darker to make it more reminiscent of dyed tanned leather, and also to prevent the glow from blending into the main object in the future.
Conclusion
We created 3 upgrade icons from one and took a comprehensive approach to it.
First, we chose references with classic tilt, size, perspective and detail as examples to follow. Secondly, we worked on the composition so that in the future the main objects can be transformed and a glow can be added to it. We then came up with ranking armor based on details, size and color based on native media. Of course, we added our love for art and gaming to make the process smooth and enjoyable, to please both us and the commissioner.
The above can make us believe that every player will no doubt say - these are upgrade icons:
At the end, we'll run a few visual tests and see how well the icons fit into the ambiance of high-quality gaming content:
Of course, you need to look at them longer, especially play with them, in order to get used to the new one a little. The style of the icons still fluctuates back and forth, so achieving a perfect hit is almost impossible. But we will always try.
In the future, we will reinforce our result by adding a glow - blue and red-orange. And maybe we'll flip the icons horizontally so that the upgrade "square" doesn't hide some of the details.
Thanks for reading, guys, and have a nice day!
P.S. If you like my work and find it worthy, feel free to contact me in private messages or via Discord to order icons.
