Using blender to create sprites, some questions

[hardcore_gamer]

33 minutes ago, Lore said:

This is great subject. I made this silly picture today to tell you some of the "quiet information" about 3d rendering. It doesn't answer a lot and may burst out even more questions about 3d-based spriting in your mind, but maybe it is a short entertainment at least. :D

I cant read any of that.

[scifista42]

I guess the picture was automatically downsized during upload to DW. This feature has been requested before by people who couldn't upload large files for technical reasons.

Edited July 29, 2017 by scifista42

[Lore]

21 minutes ago, hardcore_gamer said:

I cant read any of that.

I see, there is the image:

[hardcore_gamer]

I tried out a program that cartoonizes an image. The results were pretty cool actually. I am actually considering using this, as the result is similar to a comic book, and I would rather have high-res comic book style sprites rather than crappy low res pixelated ones.

 

 

Oh, and I have decided to use Unity instead of the Doom engine so that I will be able to release my game on steam. Yup, I'm actually going to create my own full game! I had already sort of entertained the idea of it before, but discovering that unity had this thing is what sealed the deal:

 

 

With Zbrush (I am upgrading to the full thing), Blender and Unity there is nothing stopping me from making and releasing my own full Doom style game. I am super psyched!

 

EDIT: Oh, I forgot I also use gimp every now and then. I guess you can add that to the list of programs I use :/

Edited July 31, 2017 by hardcore_gamer

[Guest Unregistered account]

One problem I see is that your models look rather goofy. This is definitely not a bad thing for a beginner, as it makes more sense to try everything out rather than rushing straight to trying to make the most ultra-spooky badass monster in the world (something I have a habit of doing ;)).

 

However, even though a lot of people may regard the Doom monsters as funny or unscary, they definitely don't make you think "lol" when you see most of them, and if you saw them in real life, you'd definitely shriek.

 

Your current monsters, on the other hand, just have little tropes reminiscent of young childrens' drawings of monsters - perfectly round, coloured eyes, bright colours (I assume the textures will get more detailed as you go along), and so on.

 

Your bug, for instance, certainly looks the part, with an unsettling permanent, stretched mouth in an endless scream. However, your shot of it from below reveals that it has a far less interesting and unsettling round hole for a mouth.

Likewise, it looks kind of un-threatening because of its short, rounded legs.

 

When taking inspiration from real life objects, you should try and focus on your most primal instincts and fears, and accentuate them in your design - for instance, your insect design could really become terrifying with overly elongated limbs and sharp joints. With some careful animation, you can creep out your players just by making your monster move onscreen (which is certainly something you should try to do if you want your players to be cautious around your monsters).

 

You should definitely look up how the various shapes characters are made of affect its appearance to the player's mind.

Also I recommend making colours more washed-out/greyed than you originally think they should be.

 

Also, as you're going to use the actual models in your game, you should be aware of how your monsters appear in the game.

You'll need to ensure they don't look as plasticky/shiny in-engine, and this can be achieved with darker textures and a different lighting method. It'll probably show up differently in Unity anyway.

 

I wish you luck!

[Maes]

Using 3D models as a base for 2D sprites is definitively a viable idea. Actually, it has been an industry standard for many years. The limiting factors are of course the quality of the models themselves, the talent of the modeler/poser, and how much post-processing one puts (or doesn't put) into them.

 

If you think about it, many of Doom's largest and more complex sprites were obtained by precisely this method, only using real film cameras, scanners, a Lazy Susan, and hand-sculpted clay models instead of doing everything in computer land. However, they all required extensive post-processing and knowledge of pixel-art, to look their best in the limited environment of the game.

 

At the end of the day, these methods are nothing but means/tools to a purpose. They are no shortcuts or workarounds for the lack of talent or unwillingness to put in the necessary work, if that's what you were hoping for.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Maes

[hardcore_gamer]

2 hours ago, Kapanyo said:

One problem I see is that your models look rather goofy.

 

Well duh. These "models" were just scribble I quickly threw together while learning how to use zbrush. They won't actually be in the game. I just posted them here for fun. Though I still sort of like the basic idea behind the 2 monsters I made though, so I might re-create them later in a more proper way. 

 

2 hours ago, Kapanyo said:

 

I wish you luck!

 

Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, Maes said:

At the end of the day, these methods are nothing but means/tools to a purpose. They are no shortcuts or workarounds for the lack of talent or unwillingness to put in the necessary work, if that's what you were hoping for.

 

No I'm very well aware of this.

 

My current plan is to spend some time learning the tools (zbrush, blender, unity etc) better. Then once I am fairly comfortable with them I will start work on a simple alpha consisting of a few short sample levels with perhaps 2-3 enemies and a couple of weapons. Once that is done and I have crafted all the resources/content construction of the full game will begin. 

 

The game will be similar to Doom but different in a few ways:

 

-It will include 5 episodes each with it's own theme. So far my goal for each theme is:

1. Demons

2. Robots

3. Aliens

4. Lovecraftian

5. Undead

 

-It will have randomized weapons, so each time you play a level you won't pick up the exact same guns. Weapons still belong to certain catagories that serve specific roles however so that things stay balanced.

 

-And this is the one that exites me the most: It will have partially random level design and encounters. I say partial because all encounters and level design will still be designed by hand, but which ones the player will be able to access each time is random. So let's say for example that there are 2 doors leading to different areas, in one playthrough one of them might open but in another one it won't so the player will have to go another route instead leading to a different experience that time. Same with monster encounters, each room will have different kinds of fights but only one of them will actually happen that time. There will still be some fights/encounters that will always happen however like in normal Doom.

 

-Different enemey variants. This will work similar to the randomized weapons, in that monsters are grouped into roles and during each playthrough a random monster from the selected group will spawn/appear instead of it being the same monster every time.

 

I Hope this will make the game very replayable :D

Edited August 1, 2017 by hardcore_gamer

[hardcore_gamer]

 

Interdasting. Doubt I will favor this over ProBuilder though.