Guild Wars 2

Ahoy, I’ll take you up on this offer for a few.

When starting, and finishing the escort for raid wing 2, Glenna will disconnect all players from the server when she attempts to open the door.

Do you perhaps have a list of weapon skins / armor skins that you would be interested in?

! Thanks so much!
It’s rather nice to see a familiar face again.
Good luck with the practice!

Hello again!

I have an Asura for you, if you’re so tempted.
Face pic
Feel free to take as many liberties as you’d like (Especially with armor / outfit, no satisfactory options I’ve found)

Cheers!

I love this red theme. Do keep us posted with more!

I’ve updated the main post with Keres’s gallery of Snugs as an example of an all-in-one character gallery.

Thanks for the go-ahead, Keres!

Setius, glad to be of service!

That’s pretty neat

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

The idea is for only a few people to test them instead of it being like a open beta.

To piggy back off of this, recall how during each of the beta tests, the content was restricted so as to leave quite a bit to the imagination. In this case, only the beta testers will have seen what the raid content has in store.

Assuming the NDA they testers are under restricts them from talking about what they’re doing, then all of us will still get the chance to duke it out with these raid bosses and figure out the tactics on our own. And in that respect, should count as a meaningful first kill.

A few quick observations about the final boss:

The mechanics seem like they’re in a fairly decent place, and damage dealt to the party seems pretty acceptable. The major criticism I have is with the health pool. It drains almost obnoxiously slowly relative to the repetitious nature of the his mechanics. Paired with the enrage timer, this is still pretty heavily favoring berserker tactics.

I think a trade off of ~25-33% health reduction, with the addition of more environmentally aware attacks (seeker orbs) would suffice to make this a more appropriately challenging encounter.

Thanks for the feedback, Hahnchen! I’ve tweaked the post for both formatting and to throw in those improvements (Keres’s Album pending her approval).

I often hear a number of complaints from artists working from game screenshot references, especially for games like GW2 where the lighting and environment are so rich. The most common are:

• The image is too dark
• The character / resolution is too small to discern details
• There aren’t enough angles of the character to make out features
• There are too many pictures to sort through

Fortunately, we have the tools to deal with these problems, especially with the advent of the adjustable FoV. So let’s have a look at each of these problems one at a time.

The image is too dark
This is probably the most common, and fairly easy to avoid. The common trend is to take pictures in Lion’s Arch at night. Problem is, it’s more challenging to make out character details. My easiest advice to get around this is take advantage of places where there’s fixed lighting, such as Honor of the Waves (Always day time), Ascalon Catacombs (Always night), or the character selection menu (Always day), and make small adjustments to brighten the fullscreen gamma. I’ve selected these locations in particular because the color temperature of the lighting is relatively neutral, not changing the looks of your character such as Heart of the Mists might. Let’s have a look at each of those options:

• Honor of the Waves
  This one is ideal for daylight character shots. The location is well lit, and with the right settings, you can get shots of your character that show all their details best in daylight. There’s a good spot right at the start of story mode to take pictures:
  Honor of the Waves location example

• Ascalon Catacombs
  I mention AC because for some characters (especially Sylvari), they have details that only show at night. The dungeon is both well lit, and night, so you can get the best of both worlds. I’d recommend taking pictures right beneath the stairs at the start:
  Ascalon Catacombs location example

• Character Selection Menu
  This is the cut and dry option. Especially easy to set up character references from here, but with a few drawbacks, such as lacking the character’s feet, and only being able to get so close for details.

The character / resolution is too small to discern details
This one can be a bit tricky, depending on whether or not you’re trying to get a full body shot of your character, or just the bust. Fortunately, thanks to the adjustable FoV settings, we can fix this with a little careful positioning.

• First, you’ll want to tweak your FoV settings in your options (F11). Minimum FoV will produce best results, and depending on if you’re getting full body or head shots, adjusting the camera to character height can also improve your shots.
  FoV slider example

• Secondly, it goes without saying, but you’ll want your graphics options to be as high as you can manage. Also worth noting, especially in Honor of the Waves, the “Light Adaptation” setting will drown out your character, so for that, you’ll want it turned off.
  Graphics Settings example

• For full body shots, make sure your character is on flat ground. Adjust the camera so the bottom of the window is just below the character’s feet, maximizing the amount of character in the image.
  Full body example

• For head shots, position your character next to a wall / pillar / whatever you can find that’s head height, and rotate your camera between your character and that wall. Get as close as possible, while adjusting your character’s position so you’re not clipping through your face. For those with full makeover or hairstyle kits, you can shortcut this by using the kit to get detailed close up shots.
  Head shot example

There aren’t enough angles of the character to make out features
This one’s easy. Whenever you’re setting your character up for shots, try 6 different angles to give a better impression of character features (like nose shape, or hair style).
I recommend using a shot from front, back, left, right, and 45 degrees between front-left, and front-right.
6 angle character view example

There are too many pictures to sort through
This one is an amusing consequence of having a good number of references. To spare your artist keeping 6 tabs / images of your character, utilize image editing software to crop your images down to just the character, and set them all up in a single image. Ideally, you’ll want to keep your crops at a consistent size so your image is uniform, and choose a crop resolution that does not shrink your character down.
GNU Image Manupulation Program or Paint.net are two free programs you can use to do this.

Similarly, you can compile all of the above into an album, such as those made available by Imgur, allowing a concise highlight of your character’s distinct features all in one location.
Compiled Character Gallery*
*Thanks Keres!

Cheers comrades! If there’s anything I’ve missed or can improve upon, let me know and I’ll make revisions.

I might have something of the sorts to offer:

Armor reference, Face

This is great! I hope you work with more landscapes in the future.

The amount of glowing Sylvari in this picture almost hurts my heart.

May you never stop this magic.

This is really good work

latte.7619:

cos yay more examples.

The best reason. Keep ’em coming.

Style Type: Semi-Colored Sketch Portrait
Reference: Bust, Armor
Profession: Ranger
Any other important info about your character?: Nyir is a bit of a live wire, with a history of an incredibly low tolerance to bullkitten.
Armor wise, I’d appreciate if you could use the armor shown in the second reference.
Favorite color(s)?: Emerald Green / Teal
Payment method (gold/PayPal): Gold (15g)

Fantastic, I’ll have some info sent your way a bit later today then, and perhaps clean out that private message box too (lo, 100/100 is a real problem).

Wee bit of a challenge to determine a price check on your works, as your style has a bit of variation in just what you’ve got available, but if I had to say, I’d guess about:

Sketch:
Portrait: 15g
Half: 25g
Full: 40g

Color (averaging the levels of detail:
Portrait: 40g
Half: 70g
Full: 110g

With particular emphasis on these pieces as examples / references:
Color Portrait, Color Half, Color Full, Greyscale Half, Greyscale Full

Two major pieces of advice:
If the prices are unsatisfactory, it’s not uncommon to use an approximate hourly rate of ~10g/hour, and tweaking the numbers a bit depending on what you are willing to offer more and less.
Additionally, I must highly impress the use of a fixed queue / waitlist, lest ye be overwhelmed by the masses.

I love the color! Good stuff.

^ And if your second slot is still available, I’ll also throw in for a colored bust (references to follow, if confirmed)

If you don’t mind me staking a spot, I’d be glad to send you a Forum PM tomorrow with references.

I have no idea what to request, but this excites me enough to need to request a spot (I’ll take the last of however many you’re hosting), and I’ll have a request with full details in proper for you as soon as possible.

I absolutely love the soft shading and strong contrasts. Do keep us posted!

Having perused your DA gallery, I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of your artwork here.

Hahnchen.5420:

Also, I’ve decided to hold a bit of a contest.

I’m going to take a stab in the dark and say Animation?

Darn it Hahnchen, stop producing magnificent artings. You’re making me want to commission you again.

Definitely Tuesday then.

Definitely do keep us posted with more.

I love your color pallete and blending. Definitely going to be looking forward to more updates.

Cheers and welcome to the community!

As far as I know, GW2’s forums doesn’t support the insert image BBCode. I’m wagering this is more of a precaution against absurdly large images and bandwidth hogs, but that’s all hypothetical. Most other BBCode functionality works.

As you wish (which is a fine way of hiding excitement):

Minaus Eilus
Armor
Face
Glow Pattern

’tis nothing less than excellent.

I’ll bite!

I have Riisa to offer to you:
Bust
Bust
Fullbody Armor
Fullbody Armor

Just a small request here—that the lanterns be included, but not the pauldrons. The mask is entirely up to you, I like it both ways.

Alas, to have missed this first one. I’ll definitely be looking forward to the next.

Definitely keep us posted like you did for GW1. I’ve been awestruck by your work, every time, so I’ll be looking forward to this round just as much.

Hurrah! Looking forward to it.

I’m quite convinced that colds are essentially a pandemic. Everyone gets hit at the same time.

I’m loving your new prices, Hahnchen

’twould be my pleasure.

If she is to your liking, I have Minaus Eilus to offer:
Armor Ref
Face Ref
Glow Pattern

Out of the interests of curiosity, what is your inclination towards Sylvari (or similarly designed characters)? Methinks that might make for an adequate challenge beyond what human designs offer, for sake of the less typical skin patterns and textures.

C’est la vie. At least keep us posted, one way or another.

Don’t give up on drawing again! I humbly entreat ye: keep on arting on, as there are a number of us who enjoy watching the process, be it only practice or not.

And I should say, given the work you’ve shown, I don’t think you’ll need much more practice to tackle commissions.

I love the bold contrasts of your color pallet and the acuity of details.

Obligatory post-more-as-you-make-it post.

As a necessary evil for the way conditions are designed, they’re capped at 25 to reduce the overall bandwidth load. Reasonable enough, but that also challenges individual and group mechanics that seek to utilize stacks of conditions beyond that, especially in the case of large scale events.

I propose a remedy to this by adding a condition that parallels each of the intensity-stacking conditions (Bleeding, Confusion, Torment, Vulnerability), wherein once the current cap of 25 stacks of x condition is met, the condition then becomes a new, duration based condition that acts similarly, but compounds the effect of 25 stacks into a single duration-based condition.

In a case like bleeding, 25 stacks would equate to, ideally, the damage of the 25 stacks of bleeding under a single condition that would have the same damage potential under a much shorter duration—something around 5 or so seconds. This would both utilize the efficiency of the stack of damage, while allowing players to continue to add on more of the same condition, until that as well hit 25 stacks, and adds to any remaining duration of the ‘overflow’ condition.

The same idea could be applied to vulnerability—allowing up to a 50% armor penetration when the time based condition is combined with the intensity based stack. Confusion would work comparably to bleed: massive damage (equal to 25 stacks) upon attack, and likewise for torment.

Lastly, any condition removal would remove both the intensity stack, and the duration stack of the given condition.

That said, have at the idea, ye masses. What’s wrong with the idea, how might it be improved, etc?

I rally for a crimson on brown, and echo for stripes.

^ I love the comic-esque feel your style gives off, and especially so for the dynamic posing. It has this distinct familiarity that I can’t quite put my finger on.

As for commissions, I’d be all for it (given a week or two to recover from gem store investments). I’d suggest assembling a wider range of options (bust/waist up or the likes) and opening that for the public to jump on mercilessly.

I would/will take a commission for that style.

Criticisms ho! (And my apologies in advance)

You’ve got pretty good line art and proportions, but the one detail that’s sticking out the most to me is your use of what appears to be dodge/burn to build in value, which gives a somewhat ‘dirty’ look to a character. I would instead recommend using values of a different hue to build in lights and darks, and blend those into the values for the character’s features. Arbitrarily googled example of what I mean.

As a second recommendation, I think you can make a few improvements in building texture. As per your last piece with Natsu’s guardian, you could enhance the composition by adding some strong contrasts in lighting, particularly among the chest and shoulder pieces, akin to the lighting you see on metal. Additional arbitrarily googled example.

Those two changes, as a primary, should give your color work a bit more realistic feel.

Midget.6150:

But seeing that community here is interested in my art maybe I should consider regular commissions. However as I already thought and the recent “pricing” topics confirmed, it’s quite difficult to set the right price. And I am quite the newbie in GW2 and have no idea how much is gold really worth.

By no means should ‘the right price’ deter you. You’ve got the demand, and I’d wager the tips you’re receiving would make a fairly good indicator of what sort of price range you could garner. I’d say lay caution to the wind and just go with what you feel is appropriate if you really want to.