Style C&C

Penguinx · Sun 13/02/2005 09:24:06

Submitted below are two pictures done in a pen and marker style. One is a concept sketch for a game, the second is just practice in the style. I'd like to do the backgrounds for an upcoming game in a concept sketch style. See this site for examples.

Whattya think? It's a departure from traditional adventure game graphics, but I'm kinda getting tired of pixelart.

HillBilly · Sun 13/02/2005 09:45:52

I love them! Not much to complain about here. Except the flame looks a bit un-detailed compared to the rest of the drawing.

Al_Ninio · Sun 13/02/2005 10:12:52

Not much to crit about the rooster, but some of the inking on the robot appears a tad bit too loose for a mechanical drawing.
Other than that it's awesome.

About the style, I have to admit that even before seeing the links, I immediately thought "Feng Zhu".

Whether this is good or not is up to you.

Ozwalled · Sun 13/02/2005 10:48:54

The thing taht bugs me about the top one is that I'd assume the detail would run along the middle of the front armor bubble. It looks uncentered to me (which is fine, I suppose, if it's supposed to be).

Otherwise, they're beautiful. The chicken scares me a bit, though. I swear it's about to peck my eyes out... ARGH!! :

Darth Mandarb · Sun 13/02/2005 12:58:29

Quote from: Penguinx on Sun 13/02/2005 09:24:06Whattya think? It's a departure from traditional adventure game graphics, but I'm kinda getting tired of pixelart.

Say it isn't so Mr. Penguinx!!!

Fantastic work ... it would be neat to see some more 'non pixely' AGS games.

DoorKnobHandle · Sun 13/02/2005 13:02:46

I'd really be looking forward to see a game using this kind of "sketch" graphic, but the animation would be really really hard to realize, since you'd have to draw out every single frame... I mean you can't do the animation digitally by using software like Photoshop because it is high-res... If you are really good and quick in drawing those things you should really give it a try but it is going to take a long time to just create a walkcycle animation for one character.

Great work, though.

Penguinx · Sun 13/02/2005 18:24:41

Thanks for the crits. The robot-character was really my second attempt at drawing something using prisma-color art markers; the rooster was the third.

For the game I'm working on, the backgrounds will definitely be done in this style. I'm not 100% on whether or not the characters will be rendered this way. My partner swears up and down that he'd like to cut the lineart apart in moho after I drag it through adobe streamline, but I'm more keen on hand animating the lot of it.

I purchased a bunch of animation tools several months back; the onion skin paper with that locks into a lighted 'flipping' board, etc. I used to hand draw all the animations, scan them in, and then pixel them, so this method of hand drawing, scanning, and cleaning up the edges would probably be faster for me, I think.

About being derivitave of Fang, that's a comparison I can live with. I'd like to eventually grow into my own style more. For the time being, he's not a bad person to remind someone of when they see your work.

He has a wicked sense of focal point/perspective in his backgrounds and they're the next thing I want to try and hammer out. The adventure I'm working on has some pretty unique settings, and I need to get some reference pics on some hardware before I can put those together.

And, yes, I was getting bored with pixelart; it's nice to do something different for a change.

Evil · Sun 13/02/2005 20:47:43

Wow! I really love the background you did. I browsed your gallery and you have some amazing three-points.

The rooster is nice, but I'm not a big fan of the robot. The coloring is great but it mixes too much cartoonism and realism IMO.

Penguinx · Mon 14/02/2005 01:43:38

Sorry if the structure of my first post was confusing; I didn't draw the stuff at the site I linked. The two posted images, however, are mine.

The site is the homepage of conceptual artist Feng Zhu. He's done work for the new Star Wars films as well as a lot of other cool projects.

theyak · Mon 14/02/2005 02:09:29

Yep. We've got some of his concept paintings up at work. Very amazing stuff. It's almost enough to make you think SW: Ep I-II were cool... almost.

I like the idea quite a bit. The game I was mucking with was going to be all two-color using AGS for gray midtones [RGB 128,128,128] for shadows, etc. Unfortunately, I realised I suck at character art and can't seem to get animating down so I haven't touched it recently.

Penguinx · Mon 14/02/2005 04:04:12

I've been working on animation for the better part of two years, which is why I've been posting to this board for awhile without any games under my belt. I'm getting there, slowly.

I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend the Animator's Survival Kit. Best. Animation. Book. Ever.

Kinoko · Tue 15/02/2005 00:14:55

Personally, I adore the robot. The flame struck me as being obvious because it was less detailed than the rest, but that's the only crit I can give. The robot is gooooooooooooood. What's wrong with a slightly cartoonish look mixed with reality? I think it's -fantastic-. It's like my exact favourite kind of drawing, you go girl! ^_- er, person.

Style C&C

theyak