Advice needed on graphics (UPDATE : Walkcycle .GIFs added)

[poc301]

Hello everyone.Ã, 

The game I am making is almost ready for a demo to be released.Ã,  In the meantime I have one question I was hoping to get some advice on.

The game itself is 640x480 and uses nothing but digitized photographs and rendered backgrounds, so its "realistic".Ã,  The main character I am using was rendered and painted in Blender.Ã,  However, I'm not too happy with him.Ã,  I honestly feel I could do a better job drawing a character for the animations and so forth.Ã,  And I don't really want to re-animate and render this guy.

The question is do you think it would look odd or funny to have a photo-realistic game-environment, objects, characters, etc, but have the EGO character be hand-drawn?Ã,  I could make him look as nice as I possibly can, but it'd still be obvious he wasn't rendered and/or photographed like the other stuff in the game.Ã,  I think it would be a big contrast, what do you think?

Keep in mind the game is a serious sci-fi/fantasy genre game based on my series of books that I wrote/am still writing (so it has lots of depth, background, and character development). I.E: I am not trying to go for a humorous feel here

UPDATE

I decided to keep the rendered look, and spent a few hours re-animating and re-rendering the model in Blender.Ã,  Instead of using plain colors for everything, I downloaded and used some texutres for the sweater material, the jeans, the skin, the eyeballs, the lips, the leather shoes and the hair.Ã,  I think it looks a lot better now.Ã,  Still not 100% sure of the walk animation, but I think its getting there.Ã,  Keep in mind I need the character to be shiny for a lot of lighting effects I am incorporating into the game.

Criticism welcome.







Thanks much,

Bill

[Babar]

It would look odd to have a hand drawn character in photorealistic backgrounds, unless you put A LOT of work into them (or make it photorealistically blurry ).

[Ash*n]

I seem to remember this being asked before, by a few different people actaully. I think the general view was: It could work, in theory, but it depends on your drawing style.

Any chance of seeing an example of your drawn character, against the background if possible? And the current, rendered version would be nice, for comparision.

[poc301]

I don't have a drawn version yet, I'm just unsatisfied with the rendered version I have...

Here are 2 screenshots.  This particular one is unfinished as of yet, as I still need to smooth out the textures and get rid of the forward-facing white blur around the edges.  But this is basically what he looks like. 

I am also not liking the walking animations much.  But I think it has something to do with how I animated him...

[Scummbuddy]

it looks to me like the character is trudging through thick snow.

I think it would help to not have the char lean to far forward during the walk.

[guest]

You might want to smooth your normals and re-render the whole thing.
(select your model in blender, press F9 and click on the set smooth button)

[poc301]

I will re-do it and keep from leaning forward as much.Ã,  I thought it looked kinda funny.

As for the rounding, I tried that and it made him look like a beanpole :)Ã,  I'll try that again.

EDIT : WOW!  That F9/Smooth thing made him look GREAT!  I don't know what the difference was between what I did before, and this, but it looks great!  Thanks for the advice!


Bill

[guest]

Havent done any animation in blender myself but this might help you a bit:

http://www.blending-online.co.uk/8501/8528.html

[viktor]

Is it just me or does his kne bend in the wrong direction when he pulls his left leg back. I don't think that the charactar would work in a photograph background. Why not make your own?

[Candle]

Photos done in MN ? sure looks like around here

[poc301]

Hahah, I noticed the leg did bend in the wrong direction.  Oops!  

I re-did the EGO animations for walking, and re-did all the other goodies like hair and some various other stuff.  I think it looks better/more natural now.  I also think it'll fit into the game a lot better.  I'm getting fairly proficient at Blender now.  Its a heck of a program.  I'm going to be using it to make some cutscenes and so forth too.  Hopefully it won't be too novice-looking:)

Thanks again

Bill