If it's not that technically challenging then the people that understand how to do it should start sharing that knowledge for a community effort to replicate the look, similar to the Uncharted 2 texture blending thread here
Arc System Works has been researching this for YEARS. Ever since they realised that the sprite process for Guilty Gear was just ridiculously painstaking they've been r+d'ing to get 3D in. They did a lot of 3D work for BlazBlue. It shows that they still draw over things, its a perfect marriage of 2D and 3D: More info: Part…
So, interesting note: Valdis story, 2 scroller, did most of it's animations in 3d, then took those renderings to a 2d art format for the final coloring. I think if you look at the dev-blog they have some info, could message kyrus about it.
I worked for CC2 which for example makes the naruto games and the jojo fighting game, which also have this kind of style, Ofcourse there is a lot of technical aspects as well, but most of all it's just pure 2 art, a lot of really talented 2D artist here, compared to technically skilled artists.
Oh right, well then we understand each other. Also it's worth considering what the outline in Borderlands 2 looks like, a game that's refined this thing quite a bit by now: http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/09/17/Borderlands2_2012-09-17_21-52-28-55.bmp That's nowhere as good as what ASW is doing.
Has anyone ever considered using normal maps to remove shading detail as opposed to adding detail? It seems plausible just thinking about it (though would probably make a ton of shading errors). With with star ocean i think they did a far better job on the main 2 characters than the rest, the little girl on the far right…
Has anyone ever considered using normal maps to remove shading detail as opposed to adding detail? It seems plausible just thinking about it (though would probably make a ton of shading errors). With with star ocean i think they did a far better job on the main 2 characters than the rest, the little girl on the far right…
Ah ! Can't wait to read more on this. Thanks for it advance Lamont. And Chev, interesting points !! Loving the fine detailing going on here : http://www.gamespek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1386294916-2.jpg I still wonder how they manage to control the ink so well ... the fingernails are just perfect ! (And stupid as I…
Actually scalability is a problem with the post-effect shader method. The number of texture fetches will be very directly dependent on the maximum line width you want, and selectively hiding or showing outlines or doing art-directable variable width requires tons of checks with the surrounding pixels. Small details will…