Caveman Cartoon Shading!

stitchshift

Hello Everyone,


I have some tech talk I would like to throw out there.


Me and my business partner are fellow Indies and are trying to get our little launch title off the ground... A bit of background I know you didn’t ask for it but there it is...


Anyway we are setting out to make a flash game using quirky colours and what not – the typical flash standard. Our visual motivation is “Rayman Origins” - a very cell shaded style with a minimalist colour palette.


We wish to save ourselves a lot of time by avoiding the classical – hand drawn animation sets frame by frame and losing sleep for the foreseeable future.


I suggested the 3D model route (using rigged 3D models to render out animation sets) so my business partner has sent me away to create some 3D examples using our chief character “Cogman”.


I am basically aiming to create a near identical visual look for our flash drawn counterpart...


Because I speak mostly garbage I will simplify my request...


Basically I need the 3D model below to look like the 2D flash drawn image below. I have investigated toon shaders briefly but having never used them I was hoping a veteran could point me to some half decent advice or recommendations to achieving this style on our 3D model.


Thank you in advance!
Regards,


xXStItChXx

Eric Chadwick

I guess you are rendering them out of Maya, to use as 2D sprites? Or do you intend to render them in realtime in 3D?

It is difficult to make 3d look as good as hand-drawn 2d.

Doing it in realtime is difficult, at least to get a good result: Convincing 3d that looks like 2d.... Wow

Doing it in Maya and rendering sprites is a bit easier, but still difficult to get truly 2d-looking results.
Non Photo Realistic Shading in Maya

stitchshift

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

I guess you are rendering them out of Maya, to use as 2D sprites? Or do you intend to render them in realtime in 3D?

It is difficult to make 3d look as good as hand-drawn 2d.

Doing it in realtime is difficult, at least to get a good result: Convincing 3d that looks like 2d.... Wow

Doing it in Maya and rendering sprites is a bit easier, but still difficult to get truly 2d-looking results.
Non Photo Realistic Shading in Maya

Well best I can explain this is through an example...

Say for example I wanted my caveman to run/walk/jump. Instead of sitting down and drawing out the individual frames that make those motions work Id rather rig and animate a mesh to do them. Then batch render out each action on a side on orthographic view.

Then I could use these renders as actions in the game without having to draw everything from scratch.

P.s. Saw the cartoon shading in one of your links above... that's nice. This game is not going to be full 3D its essentially a platformer.

stitchshift

I think the sprites method is the way im going...

Eric Chadwick

OK, so you are rendering sprites. So, take a look at the last link I posted.

How large in pixels are the rendered sprites going to be? You may need to paint on the rendered frames to make them look good.

ShoeBox Game Tools might be helpful for you.

stitchshift

Wow, Thank you Eric once I get this dood rigged and animated I will post my progress on here. Never heard of shoebox before looks like a flash dream

Thank you so much for the advice should I hit any more walls I will be back to beg of more wisdom! lol

Thanks again!!

stitchshift

Eric Chadwick wrote: »

How large in pixels are the rendered sprites going to be? You may need to paint on the rendered frames to make them look good.

This was my thinking... Use the base render to get the form down with some hopefully half decent colour and touch up the areas that dont look as good.

I'm not sure about sizes... I mean I dont want a tiny sprite... would be nice to see some of the items on him... Have you seen Rayman Origins?

Eric Chadwick

You should rip the sprite sheet to see how big they are.

stitchshift

might also go in my favour to make the sprites bigger just incase there is a reason... You can always shrink things down... making them bigger is risky...