[Gnoblins] Splash Screen

Ashaman73

Hi,

I want to create a splash screen for my game. This is quite a challenge for a coder . Lacking the skill to draw and paint it all by hand, I've started to compose a screen in 3d, using the game models to render a basic scene as base. Here's the basic scene, mostly AO and some basic 3 point lightning. For the painting I've although used the game textures for the plants and background, but not for the characters.



And here is my wip for today. Hope to get some comments and critiques:

Ashaman73

For those who are interested, here are some wip milestones:

Snader

I think your biggest problem is posing. They all feel very unnatural in how they stand, and they feel a bit dopey.

Ashaman73

Snader wrote: »

I think your biggest problem is posing. They all feel very unnatural in how they stand...

I see, to be honest, posing and animation are my nemesis. Hoped it wasn't too obviously, but this is in fact programmer art :poly141:. Though I will not have the time to remake this scene now, what would be a good starting point on improving posing ? :poly136:

Snader wrote: »

... and they feel a bit dopey.

At least this was my intention. They are only your minions, not the heroes, the player himself (represented by the @, it is a kind of roguelike game) needs to get along with a group of more or less dumbheads. :poly142:

So, even knowing that I will not get an artist over night, what would be good starting point to improve this splash screen without remaking it ? I want to create a splash screen or title screen based on the stylized art of the game, a game with a tongue in cheek feeling. Here's a screenshot representing some of the ingame characters to get an impression of the look'n'feel of the game:

Snader

Yeah it's obviously not the best art in the world, but for a coder it's fine. Heck, I've seen people with worse stuff proclaim themselves character artists.

Anyway, if I feel unsure about a pose, I generally go out and try to stand like it myself - then I adjust myself to what feels natural IRL and try to memorize where the differences are. Of course this doesn't work with everything, but these guys are pretty humanoid.

Another thing to keep in mind is lines/curves. You currently have a lot of different directions in each pose, and you want to unify them a bit more. Search for terms like 'character line of action' to find some articles and images.
http://scrawnycartoons.blogspot.nl/2012/08/line-of-action-5.html
http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.nl/2008/09/how-to-draw-lively-poses-spongebob-tip.html

Aside from that, though, I 'd like to ask... Are you sure you want this type of art? Having 3D rendered images contrasts very very much with ASCII art - wouldn't you be better off with some simple 2D drawings?

Ashaman73

Snader wrote: »

Yeah it's obviously not the best art in the world, but Anyway, if I feel unsure about a pose, I generally go out and try to stand like it myself - then I adjust myself to what feels natural IRL and try to memorize where the differences are. Of course this doesn't work with everything, but these guys are pretty humanoid.

Another thing to keep in mind is lines/curves. You currently have a lot of different directions in each pose, and you want to unify them a bit more. Search for terms like 'character line of action' to find some articles and images.
http://scrawnycartoons.blogspot.nl/2012/08/line-of-action-5.html
http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.nl/2008/09/how-to-draw-lively-poses-spongebob-tip.html

Thanks again, that are the starting points I'm looking for. You should see my art attempts several years ago to see that I have improved a lot, even it makes it not good, I hope to get it on a (lower) decent level .

Snader wrote: »

Yeah it's obviously not the best art in the world, but Aside from that, though, I 'd like to ask... Are you sure you want this type of art? Having 3D rendered images contrasts very very much with ASCII art - wouldn't you be better off with some simple 2D drawings?

Sorry, I didn't express myself very well - I actually meant a roguelike-like game, not a pure ASCII roguelike. Roguelike-like games like diablo, torchlight etc. which are based on the idea of roguelike games, but often use an other perspective and visual approach.

Here's a ingame screenshot: