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Making Something Cute

polycounter lvl 8
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gannonroader polycounter lvl 8
I've recently been tasked with making some buildings for a 3D facebook game with some friends, and as a guideline for architecture syle I was told "cute terran architecture from starcraft 2". At first I said simple enough, but when I sat here trying to come up with something, I realized I don't know where to begin! How do you make something cute?

I should point out in case it wasn't clear, I'm not making cute versions of starcraft 2 buildings, it was just his way of expressing the style he was looking for.

And please, no shitting on facebook games. Working on any game is fun no matter what it's for.

That being said, any ideas on how I should approach this?

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  • MikeF
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    MikeF polycounter lvl 20
    i'd prolly start out with looking through pretty much anything put out on the wii... Lots of soft colors, round edges, and for good measure, anything from ani http://annekatran.blogspot.com/ heheheh
  • gannonroader
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    gannonroader polycounter lvl 8
    Awesome man, thanks a bunch. This is a pretty good starting point.
  • ericdigital
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    ericdigital polycounter lvl 13
    I work at a facebook game studio and this is something we juggle all the time. MikeF's advice is great. Some other things are to avoid long straight lines, thinking of things like "short and squat" or "tall and skinny" can help give a cute personality. Exaggerate shapes, choose certain elements to emphasize, and ways to give each thing its own personality and like Mike said, color palette of course
  • gannonroader
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    gannonroader polycounter lvl 8
    Thanks a million guys, i'm on the right track now I think. Cute "anything else" I can grasp, but making weapons facilities look cute is a task hahahaha. Thanks again.
  • crazyfingers
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    crazyfingers polycounter lvl 10
    Doing some work right now and they want the same thing, though not sci-fi.

    Solution I found was to just throw on some twists, tapers (taper at the top) and bends. Make sure the model is sufficiently tessellated. Spherify might work well too, just experiment, see what modifiers work well for the buildings you're making, you'd be surprised how fast something can be made "cute" at the very end.

    Oh and lighting is important too, use a soft baby blue for your ambient, maybe a peach for your highlight.
  • ericdigital
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    ericdigital polycounter lvl 13
    Thanks a million guys, i'm on the right track now I think. Cute "anything else" I can grasp, but making weapons facilities look cute is a task hahahaha. Thanks again.


    haha I bet, sounds like a fun challenge though!
  • Purplepaint
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    Purplepaint polycounter lvl 8
    Definitely a lot of soft edges, I know there are some anime that accomplish this sort of style, however i enjoy animes such as Death Note, and Code Geass, not so much cuteness there :P

    Definately brighter colours too, that tend to flow together.

    Also maybe check out hello kitty's style?
  • Mark Dygert
    Check out Advance Wars and Battalion Wars

    The guy that did the concept art for Battalion Wars has a metric ton of awesome "cute" sci-fi stuff. I can't remember his name off the top of my head but he also worked on Moon as a head VFX guy... with a little hunting you can probably find his site.

    Don't get caught up in the details, try to work at a minimum level of detail. Don't make bolts that are smaller than XX units, things should look like they've had a push modifier run on them bla bla bla, just dig into some ref and start whacking away at it, but don't blatantly rip anyone off...
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