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I think the cutscenes in Grim Fandango were pre-rendered by whatever 3d graphic program the makers used. They weren't done by the in-game realtime 3d engine as far as I understand it.

Nevertheless, as The Kork says, RAD video tools are really useful, for compiling, compressing, scaling and adding sounds to video sequences. Their technology was used in both Toonstruck and Broken Sword.

Here's the link to some of their free software:

http://www.radgametools.com/smkdown.htm

An extreme game of cricket:


Wow, that was pretty wild huh?

Next: An invading alien army being defeated in an unexpected way...

He's got a great stance, he looks dynamic even though he's standing still.

The third Bruce looks like he's saying: "Dammit that's my shirt! Can't you wear your own stuff Dad?"

I also hope at some point he says: "That belongs in a museum!".

What are Brawny paper towels?

She looks like she's been hanging out with some nazi dudes I saw a few threads south of here...

Dislcaimer: Idea not terrifying...

You know that game where someone draws a head on a piece of paper and passes it round and other people draw the rest of the body one part at a time?

I thought it would be interesting if there was an activity (a variation on a Sprite Jam) where someone would draw a sprite's head (plus maybe a character name) and other people would add torsos, arms, legs and feet.
The person with the funniest or most creative addition would draw another head and the grand cycle would begin again.

What do you all think? I just think it would be cool to see a character with an MS paint camel's heads and a 3DS Max dragon's tail.

Just a quick note about outdoor lighting which might help, sunlight in addition to being very bright is ever so slightly blue, while artificial light is often quite yellow. I think the most realistic of those scenes (while they're all great) is the 2nd. Because it's so yellow though, it looks like a sunset, but the sky is still day blue.

The shadows are excellent on the last 2 though!

Those are all great ben I love what you've done with the heads.

They're definitely more sinister. The way they're all standing in line kind of makes them look like a freaky army of young professional women. With poisonous clipboards.

How about this? I haven't seen a psychologist sexy, sinister or otherwise, but I though Evil's looked a bit dressy. Mine doesn't look very sinister though.The hands are a bit odd, but the dress is respectable.

I gave the second one a clipboard (she has a job to do) and tried to make the face a little more feminine: Smaller nose and lips. I'm sure you could tweak her expression to make her look more sinister, or give her darker hair (like evil Willow).

I think the trick to drawing women low-res is to give them hips and a feminine stance - it's tricky but important, I'm afraid her legs look a bit too skinny.  It is very difficult to draw breasts, so just shade underneath them rather than draw them in.

This is a very pleasant image, I think all you need is a little more consistency with shadows- the walls cast shadows over your curb, but the curb didn't cast any shadow.

I hope you don't mind, but I had a go at tweaking the white sheet and the box. Unless the sheet was meant to be caught in the wind, I think it looks more natural like this, though I'm not sure about the shadow from the box. The light's at a very tricky angle, you might have been right not to give it a shadow.:





I love the way there is a devil with a top-hat and cane standing by him, but the bald guy seems more annoyed that someone left a box in the street!

Why not add a couple of objects and inventory items too. It'd be difficult to make a game without them. I just modelled a skull If that's the kind of thing anyone would be interested in...

Congratulations Boyd! Keep on a-rockin'.

Is this a screenshot from a cut-scene sequence?

If it is approach it like you were making a film, you don't need to get everything (houses, monsters, and hero) in the frame at once. It could be more dramtic to cut back and forth between the creatures and the girl.

If this is a room backdrop it might benefit from a higher camera - It's nicer to see a large patch of sky at the top than a large patch of tarmac at the bottom.

Nice and frightening though - the creatures take suburbia.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic! Just painfully good.

Remember that a professional sprite needn't look like Broken Sword (as good as they are). Broken sword's characters are very realistic in an early-disney-hero kind of way.
Don't forget that Parker and Stone are professional animators who make a living out of South Park.
A good sprite is one which looks good and works well, not necessarily one which is drawn painstakingly carefully and smoothly animated (though that's nice too).

Look at Neole's figures. Sometimes they are very elegant and realistic and other times very cartoonish. It depends on what suits.

"Glottis? Is that you, hefe?
Did you get the number of that fancy dress donkey cart?
Man, those guys wanna drive more carefully."

I think this looks great, it's so well drawn!

The only thing is: if I wasn't told she was a Voodoo affiliate, I'd have thought she was a Romany. In spite of her dark skin, her features are quite caucasian. That's fine, because it gives the character a style (like manga) but she could be made to look more negroid by widening the nostrils and darkening her eyes.
This is what I mean:


I really hope you don't mind me playing with the image. It's not very good, I'm just trying to show what I mean.

Absotively Posilutely number 4. Number 7's nice but the fog will look odd with objects/characters superimposed.

This is a great shot, I love the branch, but there is what looks like a glitch on the bottom left 'corner' of the meteorite. Does a leaf hit it?

Wow, that's the tallest, smartest 10 year old I ever did see...

Normal Lovett (The male Holly) chose to leave. I think he wanted to prove he had legs or something.