Wierd Noir

Hajjamujja · Sun 21/05/2006 18:59:52

Whaddaya think?
I'm considering putting all of this into the same game and want some opinions.

How's the Sin City style looking? (The original art was in full color but I thought this looked more unique)
Does the pixelated main character look too crappy?
Is it too wierd to mix more realistic style with cartooned ones? Should I make two separate games instead?
What images do you like best?

citizeneman · Sun 21/05/2006 20:02:25

I thought these 2 were really nice

voh · Mon 22/05/2006 02:00:34

I've seen it many times, and wanted to say something about it even manier times, but finally I'll do it.

Using different resolution graphics together will never, EVER look good. However awesome the graphics are, if some parts are in 320x240 res, and therefore blown up to double-pixel size (as your char in the first screenshot seems to be), it's gonna look crap. Sorry.

And none of your graphics seem to really match any other part of the graphics, except for the 3 images you drew yourself. Style consistency is very important to the end "feel" the visuals have.

Just sayin'.

Hajjamujja · Mon 22/05/2006 13:01:06

All the images are actually the same size.

I just made two of them bigger here since you couldn't see the details otherwise...
So I'll have no probls with the scaling.

Yeah, I know consistency usually is kinda important.
But it also might be fun to twist things around a bit and do the opposite.
I'm considering doing all the cutscenes in the style that citizeneman liked, and then the rest of the game in the other style.

vict0r · Mon 22/05/2006 13:13:28

What i think he meant was that the character looks awfully pixelly compared to the rest of the image. And i agree with him as it look awefull when you dont draw everything in the same resolution.

voh · Mon 22/05/2006 15:46:04

What victor said. is what I meant. I thought it was clear enough, but I'm known to use too many words and still not get my point across

What I meant was that if you use 320x240 or 64x480 or any other resolution, every single pixel should be a single pixel, and not a single pixel blown up to 4 times it's normal size so you get blockiness like your character in the first screenshot.

Simply put - don't combine low-res images with high-res images, it doesn't look good

Hajjamujja · Mon 22/05/2006 16:02:09

Hehe, ok ok I get it.

And I agree. Looks kinda wierd.
The problem is we've tried redrawing the fella a couple of times and he always ends up looking even more crappy than before.Ã,Â

Right, on another note now: How's the black n white looking?
Here's some coloured pics to compare with:

What do ye prefer? B&W or full colour?

(Haha, well I guess it's not very noir if it's in full color...
That's my opinion anyway. But the rest of the team says the black n white is boring.
So we'll leave it up to you to decide)

voh · Mon 22/05/2006 16:49:48

I like it better black and white, to be honest. Even if you go grayscale - noir as a visual style, to me, is one of contrast.

Black, white. Maybe a couple of grays, but very limited in colours. Sin city is a very extreme example (just black and white, and perhaps an additional colour like with "That Yellow Bastard"), and some other noir things are generally black, white, and dark greys.

In general, make it dark, gloomy, and limit colours, as they do detract from the noir style imho.

fred · Tue 23/05/2006 01:14:38

I think the mixing of styles and resolution is cool and interesting to look at - go for it! I actually think it adds a lot of character to that guy that he is so pixely. And I think the grayscale backgrounds are needed - they kinda tie the whole thing together. Use other colors, like you already do, but stay more in the style of the original post than the background in your last post.