Custom Faction Portraits

So hello, I am Pymous, a freelance artist. If you play Dominions or Shadow Empire, maybe you know me as a modder and map maker for my favorite 4X games.

So why am I here? The upcoming Custom Factions update landing July 2 lets you build your own alien race when you start a game. Which, as it turns out, needs a lot of new alien faces.

Zeikko and I have been in contact for a few months now (he even visited me in France! Thankfully before the current dramatic heat wave...), and a few days ago he shared a screenshot preview of his work on the Astro Protocol Custom Factions update. My first reaction was: damn, that's so cool, it's going to add so much replayability. And I immediately said, "I'm so tempted to paint some portraits for the new races!"

Zeikko's response was instant:"We're actually in need of portraits! I just asked Woffello where the hell we were going to get the portraits from!"

So that's how I got into painting a few "alien" portraits for the upcoming Custom Factions update. I hope you'll enjoy them!

The Process

So Zeikko gave me the brief: create 6 new alien characters for the custom factions. My main challenge, and my main concern, was keeping consistency with Woffello's art. There were a few other constraints too, like the square-ratio proportions for the full character heights and portraits.

For character design, I like starting with silhouettes, full black or just playing with a few values. Usually, if a small silhouette already looks interesting and appealing as a design, the final art will be great, whatever the style or level of finish.

First quick silhouettes and checking game background color values.

Once I was happy with a few silhouettes, I just kept painting, adding details, improving the shapes where needed. The main risk at this stage is overdoing it: too many modifications and you can lose the first intention and what made the shape attractive at first glance.

Painting progression examples. The big boy mutated a lot! And rocky dude turned its head.

Then I added some color, texture and other details. But honestly that part matters less, the creature design should be strong and readable even without all the color and detail.

Et voilà! After this, the creatures went into "post-processing" in the hands of Zeikko and Woffello for in-game coherence. They tweaked the in-game "hologram" effect applied on top of all portraits. It was too strong initially, lightened the values too much and broke the creature's readability and contrast. Zeikko also added a slight tint to match the faction's primary color when you design your custom faction.

Last words

I hope you enjoyed this look at the art side of the new Custom Factions! Don't hesitate to tell me if you like the new creatures, and which one you prefer :) Thanks to Zeikko and Woffello for their trust, I had great fun painting these!

• Pymous

[Zeikko taking back the keyboard] Thanks Pymous, these portraits are great! I am happy to announce these little aliens and the whole Custom Factions system will arrive in the next major Astro Protocol update on July 2! And the timing is pretty great: Astro Protocol is 30% off right now in the Steam Summer Sale, and the discount runs straight through the update and beyond!