Levels & Items Art

Very well, I have updated the project summary thread:

Due credit will be given to any contributor whose work has been used. All contributed artwork must be vector rather than raster. Manual shading ought to be used rather than set gradients. The art style for all assets is remastered 2d rather than CG. Please see the various forum threads for examples of this art style.

 

Backgrounds have always tried to be CG-like, with the main characters looking cartoony. So to make badniks consistent it looks like you can go either direction...

 

It's the image host I used that converts it to a jpg. I'm making the image in Illustrator and did a convert for web which produces a png. I can try another image host when I upload the next revision. What image hosting is everyone else using?

 

Image shack is Ok
http://imageshack.us/

 

Athelstone, I think this statement is a bit premature. Clearly the character art and level art is working best as remastered 2D, but we may find that the Special Stage should be entirely CG, as it was intended to look in the original game. I would limit that statement to include anything not part of the Special Stage and perhaps keep the door open for CG backgrounds until we've actually seen what one looks like. I just don't want to toss those options out until we have something like the Buzzbomber where we can directly compare the two formats. Feel free to disagree and we can debate it further.

 

I agree; we should see examples of both. I know it is time consuming but it allows us to judge which is a better representation of the original game afterwards. We can't dismiss CG entirely because somebody may be able to reproduce the original graphics very accurately in CG

 

I agree with both of you. I'm trying to implement the community's feedback into the project but I was too hasty there, my apologies. I have updated the summary as follows:

All contributed artwork must be vector rather than raster. Manual shading ought to generally be used rather than set gradients. The art style for characters and badniks is remastered 2d. Please see the various forum threads for examples of this art style. We are still discussing whether to use CG for the backgrounds and level art. Please feel free to post your examples of this.

Edit: I would like to see a CG example of Hill Top's background with the moving clouds, similar to the Death Egg concept background
http://alchemistdefined.wiredotaku.com/ima...HD-BBs-wall.jpg

 

Things such as the 3D tube would be easier by using GC, but it should be either be drawn over, or cell shaded, simply to keep things consistent. Also for the backgrounds, I don't see how GC would enhance it. 3D is really getting over used for things and its nice just to see good old hand drawn sprites instead of pre rendered sprites.

 

As was mentioned, using CG makes background scrolling a lot easier -- what was a pseudo-3D parallax effect in the Genesis games is now actual 3D.

 

Do you think the Death Egg concept background would look better remastered in 2d?

 

...




Ta-da?

Probably needs a tweaked angle, but I don't have the time right now... Not exactly at home at the moment. :P

 

Yes, it keeps it simple to go with everything else, its 2D in the actual game which this is a HD remake not a 3D remake. I think it will just give us the wrong effect we are going for. It will stand out too much, which is not the background's job.

 

seems this conversation is happening in two threads at once.....

I don't think the normal stage background should be Cg, but they should be less flatshaded then the characters.

a while ago there was a image floatinga round of a enhanced green hill zone which seems to have now disapeared. The level artwork was neither cg nor flatshaded and had the look that I feel the level backgrounds should have.

if anyone can find it, please post it!

 

Those who don't want CG backgrounds should try to make the corkscrew thingies and Metropolis tubes by hand.

 

Smash Bros. Brawl would like to have a word with you (at least in terms of flashy backgrounds).

 

I was meaning it would stand out more than it should do. Also normal sprites have a rule of never mixing style and I don't see why it should be different here.

And also I did say:
Things such as the 3D tube would be easier by using GC, but it should be either be drawn over, or cell shaded, simply to keep things consistent.

Like how they do some animation where they trace over recorded film.

 

Thing is, those things were intended to look "realistic" to begin with, not hand-drawn.

EDIT: Not "realistic" as in the real world... I hope you get what I mean. =|

 

But the 3D doesn't blend with the hand drawn stuff, the bee for example, you could tell it wasn't made in the same way so it stood out for the wrong reason.

 

Sonic himself as also intended to look 3D in the same respect. Thing is, that's not the way this project is going. The art style as a whole is changing to a hand drawn look... similarly to the changes made with Street Fighter 2 Turbo!

 

I liked the CG bee, and it wouldn't look out of place with 3D backgrounds.

And no way, Sonic wasn't intended to look 3D in the original games... Not any more than Mickey Mouse in the old cartoons.