Topic: Maniac Mansion characters in DOTT style

[Mats Berglinn]

I drew the hero characters from Maniac Mansion in Day of the Tentacle style both for fun and to test my skills. Bernard is the only one here who is just an original sprite from DOTT because 1. I used him as one of the references for drawing the others, and 2. I wasn't sure how much different Bernard would look in MM (It's about five years between so if he was 18 in MM, which I think he did, he's got to be 23 in DOTT) so didn't try chaning him (at least for now, maybe I'll do it later).





The guys wasn't so hard to draw but the girls was tricky because there's not many nice looking gals in DOTT (Laverne isn't a hot babe, Betsy never showed her face, the lady at the Human Show wasn't a teenager, Wanda never was seen and the Irish cleaner and Nurse Edna wasn't good looking) but I think I did pretty well in my opinion (most proud of Razor and Sandy but little unsure about Wendy).

I know that the faces in DOTT aren't in full profile like MM but about half profile but I'll change that later.

So what do you others think? Do you think the MM characters need improvement? C & C as well as paintovers are welcome.

[Chicky]

Well to be quite honest, i wouldn't say they're in the DOTT style at all. They seem higher res yes, and are great characters but they lack the exaggerated style of dott. Notice how Bernard’s ear is extremely large and how his posture makes a 's' shape. This is very common in cartoons, the artists tend to make shapes flow more and exaggerate certain parts. I think the characters are nice, but quite far off the dott style.

[Mats Berglinn]

Well, for Bernard's part, that's because he's a computer and physic's geek, while the others are a football player/most popular guy in school, a photograph, a musician, a surfer dude, a creative writer, a punk rocker and a cheer leader. You see that I try to make Dave having the nose and the eys in a way that would charm a lot of girls and in Jeff I posed his legs and arms in a way that looks like he surfs a little bit too much.

It's about the personalities of the characters, not just the cartoony style.

[Mr Flibble]

I agree with Chicky (maybe, I didn't read it all  ) they're nice, but they need to have exxagerated features.
Like Bernard's pants or Hoagie's girth.

[Dambuilder]

I also agree with Chicky.
DOTT's characters are designed to make them look like walking talking clishees, that are sent up by exaggerating certain features which are credited to them by prejudice.
This includes both, personality and looks.
That way, the DOTT Bernard looks like your arche-type of a computer nerd.
In other words, they're caricatures.

Your characters are cartoonish, yes, but you're sticking too close to their original look. You should distort them much more, like they did with Bernard. If you compare the MM one to the DOTT one, you'll see that only his main features remained intact, like his clothes (with the pulled up trousers and so on) or the opaque glasses.

Your Razor f.ex. looks pretty tame for a punk singer. Make her hair big and wild. The mouth should be big and aggressive looking with the teeth showing (just think of Billy Idol!  ). Her dress should be shredded and torn at the ends, and put some really big spikes at her collar.
Take those features, punks are widely known for to an extreme.

Or think of the stereotyped image one has in mind for footballers (big, wide shoulders), cheerleaders (blonde, cheery, fashion victim) or rock singers. If you'd stick to the 80's feeling of MM, give Syd a big hairdo as most rock singers had these days. And so on.

[Khris]

I agree with what everyone else said, the characters are caricatures, yours are quite generic.

Here's the non-distorted bigger version:

[aussie]

I think they have a lot of potential.

There's one thing I see: most of them look as if they're going to fall backwards. Their torso should be about one or two pixels forward. Either that or bend their legs back like Bernard's.

[big brother]

Oooh. Perhaps this could be the beginning of an ongoing contest? To DOTT-ize the MM sprites. Hmmmm. I would def be down for throwing my hat in the ring.

[Mats Berglinn]

khrismuc: Thanks! I'll never ever again use the wide and lenght image commando again but stick to the "enlarge your pics and then Print Screen it" technique.

Thanks for the tips, those are really helpful.

Dambuilder: I don't know who Billy Idol is, because I never heard of him. I'll check out Altavista for pics and see if that's right (because maybe seem too aggressive if Razor really shows her teeth but maybe if she give a aggressive smile you something).

I wonder, do you think I should stay with the long hair style for Razor (which I personality prefer) or the mohawk?

[Dambuilder]

khrismuc: Thanks! I'll never ever again use the wide and lenght image commando again but stick to the "enlarge your pics and then Print Screen it" technique.

Thanks for the tips, those are really helpful. I'm not sure about letting Syd having a big hairdo since the style of the late 80's isn't the same as the 90's or 00's fashion (at least not when it comes musicians, football-players, punkers etc., not sure if that was the same with geeks).

As for geeks, I guess they always were out of time. 
For Syd I'd suggest taking a look at those singers and bands that are hot these days. Maybe you'll get some inspiration from them.
Currently I can only think of this scrubby, uncombed look of The Libertines, or, on the other hand, the "60's Beatles style" of Franz Ferdinand or The Hives.

Dambuilder: I don't know who Billy Idol is, because I never heard of him. I'll check out Altavista for pics and see if that's right (because maybe seem too aggressive if Razor really shows her teeth but maybe if she give a aggressive smile you something).

I wonder, do you think I should stay with the long hair style for Razor (which I personality prefer) or the mohawk?

Caricature-wise a mohawk certainly has a lot of potential. 
But I prefer long hair too. I'm thinking of something like, say, that thing Tina Turner had on her head in the 80's.
Kind of like she played with a fork and an outlet.

[Khris]

khrismuc: Thanks! I'll never ever again use the wide and lenght image commando again but stick to the "enlarge your pics and then Print Screen it" technique.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. I just right clicked your small pic and chose "Properties". Then I copied the link and multiplied the displayed width and height by 2.

[code][/code]

[Mats Berglinn]

Here are new versions.





I tried to make exaggerations with your suggestions (and also some of my ideas). It was tricky for me exaggerate Wendy but I decided to make her arms slimmer, her hair bigger and shrink down her breasts (and also enlarged her ear-jewelry).

Also I made two version of Razor's aggressive smile but I didn't knew which one was best so I included both.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that

In Paint, I just using the magnifyer to enlarge the pictures, then I tap the Prt Scr key, paste the pic and edit it so it looks right. Have I made myself clear?

How is it now? Better? Closer to DOTT style? What else can exaggerate or make better?

[Ozwalled]

I do think this last batch is a marked improvement. Making them even more still as caricatures would help, as would changing their postures to better emphasize personality.

[Snarky]

I think these characters are quite good, though there's still room for plenty of improvements.

At this point, I think the biggest problem is that most of your characters are leaning waaay back. Especially number three (the black kid), number six (the girl with the dark hair) and number seven (Razor) look like they're about to fall over, but really all of them could be tilted forward a good deal.

[Ozwalled]

Though it may not exactly be the greatest pose (ugh -- I'm finding that she's looking like a punked out Jane Jeston), and she is a maybe a bit taller than some of your sprites, here's a version I did of mohawk Razor, just to give an idea of dressing her up a touch and posing her non-genericly.

Besides that, I know she's by no means perfect or anything.



And Syd, who I tried to make look sort of cooler and more "new wave" or something.

[Snarky]

I tried to edit a few of them so they look at least somewhat balanced. Dunno if it worked very well.

[Mats Berglinn]

Ozwalled: Woah, those are cool! Razor really looks cool (even if I like long hair better mohawk) but Syd looks about half-wrong because he wears a jacket which he doesn't. It's a yellow tie he wears, not a yellow shirt and black jacket.

Snarky: Thanks for the edit. I see that you don't remember the names to well so I'll tell the names in order from left to right: Bernard, Dave, Micheal, Syd, Jeff, Wendy, Razor and Sandy (plus Razor again).

[Misj']

Ozwalled: Woah, those are cool! Razor really looks cool (even if I like long hair better mohawk) but Syd looks about half-wrong because he wears a jacket which he doesn't. It's a yellow tie he wears, not a yellow shirt and black jacket.

Actually, I think he wasn't all that wrong. When examining the boxart (http://members.fortunecity.com/harang/boxes.html) Syd is actually wearing a black jacket. Although indeed not in combination with a of a yellow, but with a black shirt and a (thin) yellow tie.

Personally, I also think that the mohawk is quite a correct exagaration of the intended look (based upon the boxart)...on the other hand, I agree with you I like long hair over a mohawk any day...question is, would Razor care about my opinion? 

[Scummbuddy]

Over a year ago, I took a shot at updating Jeff Woodie.

His outline is darker here than what I created, but I'm just showing it for fun. When I do more, I would add to his neck, add more hair strands, and somehow I almost got a stoner look out of him without trying, so maybe I would tone that down.

[Ozwalled]

Actually, of the sprites Mats did, I thought thatthe Jeff one was one of the more successful ones (save for his far foot), but yours isn't too bad either, Scummbuddy.

I majoryly goofed on the jacket/ tie thing though -- wasn't thinking, I guess (I'd misinterpreteded your tie, Mats, and forgot about how the original character was done). My, I can be a bonehead sometimes.