Art Style Revamp

Yes it’s the same game, just 3D…. And looks nothing like the drafts…

I haven’t posted any of these changes so… Long post! I put subheaders just for you, so you won’t get lost. Or just skip my wall of text completely and look at the pics.

I went from 2D to 3D due to problems with resolutions and and details. I think that was a good decision as making good quality pixel art takes more time for me than 3D modelling (You need to be mindful of perspective and shading in pixel art, making everything in 2D is… *shudders*). For that to happen I obviously needed to learn basic 3D modelling. I went for the software I downloaded when I was little (I wanted to make animations, but I deleted it right away because of scary complicated toolbars), Blender.

Models

I learned Blender, and a bit about normal maps, UV maps etc. I think the simplistic style I wanted was achieved using only my noobish modelling skills. Glad that worked out. Though the models you see below are far from their final look. Closest would be the blonde one in blue over there. I’m not good with clothing and I don’t know if it’s obvious or not but I only have JRPG style influences in my head, thus the outfits. I’ll need to put more detail in them, I just have no idea what would look neat so I’ll just add as I go.

They look really plain, I don’t know if that’s good for simplicity’s sake or not but I wanna change that. Also the proportions are close to Persona Q models. I initially tried to make them based on the models, but then I just made it up as I went again. The faces are based on Bravely Default ones though.

I went crazy over patterns but those are just placeholders until I design the final clothing.

Btw that red one was the 2D sprite from my other post. And that blonde one in blue was the black haired sprite in another.

I screw up noses. No noses.

Animations

Animations were surprisingly easier to do than I thought (I thought they were another death bed). Though it’s just a pic, 3 of them actually have idle animations (green, red and purple colored ones). The animations and posture are still kinda stiff so I’ll need to improve them.

Also I made as single blink script they all reference, so yeah they blink but again it’s just a pic. I learned Masks for that, pretty proud of that script, small and efficient too (I feel proud when scripts are small!).

They blink, woah.

Lighting and Shader

Lighting was hard since the models don’t use the Standard materials in Unity to achieve the look. Since I know nothing about Shaders at the moment but wanna visualize the look, I’m using the Unity Chan Skin Shader I read to achieve outlines for the skin and the Taichi Character Pack Toon Shader for the clothes. The skin becomes too white when the light hits it though since I’m using my own UV map.

I will learn to make my own Shaders to fit my needs someday, and that’s gonna be hell since it’s way different from writing If, Then scripts. For now this is kinda how it would look, though.

Unity Chan: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18705

Taichi Character Pack: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15667

Background

I don’t know if the character art style and background art style fit at all. I’ll fiddle around with it a bit more. I’m trying to make the character art style contrast with the background though, in a neat way.

Is that a brick wall or the basic bitch cube, just more radiant?

Camera

Yes the camera is a mess. I have no idea where to place it. Either fixed like Silent Hill, or behind the character like Fallout/Skyrim(Character not quite centered).

Now I can place the camera anywhere without obvious 2D pixel bleeding.

Text Box and UI

I tried a lot of ways to insert texts. Still not sure whether it should be above the head, in the middle of the screen, Persona 5 placements, or movable by the user like in MMOs. The style is also a placeholder but I’m biased when it comes to white on black text boxes. I think I can make a script to make it efficient but for now it’s just shapes and text combined.

The animation for this style current style of boxes is to have a small bubble come out of a person speaking, becoming that name box over there that says “Text Box”. That line next to it then comes out from its right side. The black box then comes out at the bottom of that line and reveals the text. The text would be displayed there and standard text box stuff happens until a new person speaks.  The cycle continues. (I know it’s confusing in text form, but I’m still not sure about this style so I’m not scripting it for now).

I don’t know what color the UI would look good in, so I’m testing stuff out.

Hopefully text boxes don’t block anything when close like this.

Story

Still in progress. ;(

I try not to rush it so it won’t be asspulls left and right. I need to also make it work gameplay-wise. It’s not that I don’t have ideas, it’s the other way around. I have too much inspiration from wherever that I might make a replica of something accidentally, making the thing not so genuine. The focus is to make them all characters playable but retain a social link style aspect to it.

Characters

They have names, personality and roles but without much of the story it won’t mean much so I’ll wait until a big chunk of the story is done. I might do separate posts about each, though. Also need to make NPCs. I think NPCs will be fun to make.

Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are appreciated!