Background, go to page 2, C&C?

[Fronzel]

I am trying to decide which bg style would be better.  I can do the 3d models fairly quickly, so I would be able to get more out of them, but I'm not sure my sprites will go well (they will be kind of low res sprites)

the modeled one

hand drawn without improvements

and yes, the little robot is supposed to be little.

[..]

I prefer the 3d Version, couldnt you make the sprites in 3d?

I would liek to see the same background though in two different styles so i can really see

[Pessi]

This is a pretty tough one. The disadvantage I see in using 3D is that the scene will look too clean. You can make more lively backgrounds with 2D. It will take lots of work to get the same result with 3D.

I see you've only used primitives in this scene. They might become an issue with more complex scenes. But then again, you've used primitives in the 2D scene as well... I suppose it's just hard to judge by one background from each style. Though I'm not suggesting making more just for that.

Heh, as I said it's a tough one. But I'd probably go with the 3D style. The professional and solid look convince me. Still I recommend working on the liveliness issue. Lighting might help it. Try and get more saturation and warm colors in there. Especially on the lit parts.

I think the sprite fits in surprisingly well. It might help it if you left out the black outlines.

[Fronzel]

Thanks guys!
I was impressed when I tested the screen and the robot looked fine also.
I was going to do a trace over of cg screen to post and show what it would look like if I drew it, but I just didn't have the time.  
I agree that the cg doesn't have much life to it, I was thinking of trying to add that with photoshop touch ups.  Warm colors and color saturation eh? I could attempt. I'm using Bryce 3d so it has the capability I think.

[Penguinx]

If 3D backgrounds and 2D sprites are your style and forte, I say embrace it. Sometimes, a 2D sprite on 3D can look really stylized. I'd done some testing with 2D, super cartoony sprites and photographed backgrounds and the results were pretty cool.

Much the same could be achieved here, I think. If I find some of my old tests, I'll post them here for you to take a look at.

[Ozwalled]

I thinkk thatthe 3D background style could work very well with your 2D sprites, especially if you make the effort  to give them a touch of depth through shading. Of course, it may be just fine without, too.

[Opo Terser]

the 2-d

[James Kay]

I'm sorry - I don't like that 3D scene. 2 cubes for a building (I presume), a sliced pillar and, for some reason, half a stone doughnut.

3D scenes need to be failry complex before they start to look like "real" scenes (and I don't mean realistic). I refer, for example, to the excellent castle scenes of another thread (sorry - forgot the thread name).

The only thing I like about it is the little character with the "3D"-esque shadow. That works nice.

I do suggest building a general layout of the scene in 3D using primitives, then using that as a guide to draw or trace your scene in 2D.

[Domino]

I prefer 2-D graphics in Adventure Games.

So, i choose the second one.

[shbaz]

I would choose the first if you could make 3d sprites.. I don't think many people can make 2d sprites work well with 3d backgrounds, unless the 2d sprites have exceptional shading, so that they look 3d.

[Babar]

You could do the scene in 3D and then and little details to kind of 2Dify the the scene. Something like James Kay said

[Fronzel(nlg)]

See, thats what I had originally been planning to do, was use simple 3d's to trace and get the shadows right and consistent. I just got a little carried away,and liked what I saw.  I have the feeling thought that not all of my sprites will work with the backgrounds in 3d, I will try to put an edit up tonight to show what it would look like, but no promises have tests to get ready for and lab reports to write.

[Fronzel]

Thats about 30 minutes to an hour of work on it, but I think it improves it, question is, do you think it still looks to clean and rendered?

[Penguinx]

In places, yes, it still looks like a rendered drawing if that is what you are asking.

Most notably, it's the highlights that give it away. The blue control panel on the left, and the 3/4 donut on the right are the two most obvious points, to me.  I think you either need to commit to 3D or 2D. Making one into the other confuses things a bit; it's hard to believe that the sky in the background belongs in the same universe as the donut and control panel. The juxtaposition of two different styles in the background itself looks to a bit much.

I wholeheartedly think that you can make 2D characters work on a 3D background, though. It's in the objects the character interacts with where that could get tricky.

I still like it, though, and think you should keep up with it. It's getting better each post.

[kaaZ]

could be an interresting style you're heading to here...I like the idea of hand drawn combined with rendered parts...but as penquinX stated...it's not very convicing yet...I'd suggest using at least an antialiased brush for the objects you draw in yourself...For example those cracks look to pixelated to go along well with the crisp rendered look...Also be sure to add some light/shade to those handrawn parts...and maybe try to avoid common 3d objects such as the half donut that don't seem to represent anything significant (I could be wrong here)...

Cheers!

kaaZ

[stuh505]

You're not making sense.

1 - if you can render the background, you can render the sprites too...

2 - if you're going to model the scene, why don't you texture it instead of hand-drawing over it?

3 - if you're not going to get into detail, and you're considering cartoony simple graphics, why not model it in 3d and then just render it with an ink-n-paint cartoon effect? (it's like having the computer draw a cartoon for you)

[Fronzel]

Stuh505: Well, again, I'm using Bryce 3d, which is a very powerful landscape generator (which I am not taking full advantage of) and a so-so object editor.  I am not a skilled modeler, by any stretch. Therefore, my 3d rendered sprites would look like crap, even more so then my hand drawn ones.  What do you mean by ink and paint effect (like Futurama appears to be? It looks computer rendered but still a cartoon)

Everyone else, the half donut is supposed to be "hmm, strange abstract art" but if you mess up, it will shoot lightning from the prongs and kill you.  I know it looks odd there, its kind of supposed to.

I think my main problem is that I really liked Who Framed Roger Rabbit, so sometimes I see nothing wrong with this stuff.  Main question, would seeing screens like this turn you off from a game, or would it turn you off more to see a simply drawn pixel art room?

[James Kay]

Yeah, there is some nice cartoon rendering about, like, indeed, Futurama and the recent Zelda: Wind Waker (Gamecube). It's a way of rendering 3D so it looks cartoony, by ramping colours and often adding a black outline. I doubt very much Bryce is capable of doing that though.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with mixing 2D and 3D and it has been done very well many times (I recommend the anime Metropolis for some nice examples).. The problem is that you need to be very good at both to be able to do it well.

Seeing as you're saying you're not good at 3D and that Bryce is a rubbish object modelling program, I'd strongly suggest you focus on your 2D and maybe use 3D renders as guides to trace.

[Fronzel]

So... would this (after coloring, etc) probably be more appealing?


This is kind of the same scene, but with a little more interesting stuff.

[BerserkerTails]

That latest pic, with the proper colouring would look AWESOME. Definatley my favorite out of the ones I've seen so far.