Exploring Delores IIII
Jul 02, 2015
Ok, so we're getting into the home stretch of designing the Delores Edmund character development process. If you haven't read the previous installments on the blog you might want to check them out before proceeding. We started with a text description for the character, then went through the process of gathering reference material, our thanks to everyone who participated, then went on to the character sketching stage.
Now we've proceeded to take three of the most likely sketches to the current in-game character style pixel render stage. These three were chosen through a combination of backer feedback, friend and team preference and because Ron and I said so.
When I was originally designing the characters for Maniac Mansion I went through this same basic process, sketching the characters as felt pen renders and then trying to take those over to pixelcentric game characters. In those days, a lot of technical issues drove how I'd render them on the C64. They could only be a limited width and palette. The main thing that drove their big-headed-ness was Ron and I really wanted unique/recognizable characters, trying to make a unique looking face 5 or 6 pixels wide using 3 colors (one of which needed to be black) really drove their now iconic appearance. Today, basing Thimbleweed Park's characters on this approach is definitely a choice. We still want to evoke that iconic feel, however updated with additional palette and a broader range of animations.
Conversely, adapting Thimbleweed Park characters into big headed pixel versions at this stage is now fairly straight forward for me, as I'm pretty familiar with how most of the characters need to look in that style, it's mainly an exercise in taking one stereotypical set of parameters and shoehorning them into the next. What I mean by that is having simplified a set of characters into felt pen sketches- it's relatively straight forward to adapt those characteristics into a similar set of pixel constraints. Additionally, there's a simplicity and iconic nature to this step. The characters need to be mainly composed of basic color components with some rendering and be easy to tell apart and identify.
One of the things about these pixel rendered characters that's deceptive at this stage, is we're still looking at them in a very stiff cardboard cutout style stance. This is so we can see what they look like from purely an almost graphic design perspective, are the colors and shapes of a character aesthetically pleasing, does it mesh with the others? Once a character is actually in the game and animating, you're never really going to (hopefully) see them in this boring of a stance, there will be a ponderation and attitude to they way they stand and balance their non-existent weight (even for this style of character) which should make them seem much more interesting and alive.
The next and pretty much final step will be to take our selected pixel version and do a little bit of additional fine tuning of colors, skin tone, shading, and a few other details. Once we've decided on a final we'll create a number of reference angles (front, side, back, three-quarters) and a variety of poses. This will be the guide we'll use to create her final animations in the game bringing her to life as yet another memorable Thimbleweed character.
- Gary
I think a pony tail would be interesting moving about in this pixelated style.
Gary, just for the three of us, could you try tendering Delores no. 2 with avpony tail? Pretty please with sugar on top? :-D
The other two ones appear a little bit strictly. In addition the left one seems a little bit too girlish to me and the right one a bit too well-behaved (because of the smooth haircut and the bulky eyebrows).
I like the leftmost one very much, but although very "geeky" she does not seem like one who likes nerdy-and-geeky stuff such as Star Trek.
Perhaps the most realistic is the rightmost one. With a bit of different hair-styling.
Nice work!
-dZ.
http://it.tinypic.com/r/2e0pqa0/8
Anyways what really gets me is your typo: "...Thimblewed characters..."
Now who is a couple or getting married in this game? :)
http://tinyurl.com/p5upjlp
The girl in the middle has dark hair, which could be a problem with the background colors, the right one has dark trousers, which also can be a problem with the background. I don't like the hair of the right one, the middle is ok. The most "nerdy" girl is probably the left one, which could fit very well to thimbleweed, because it is some kind of a "nerdy" game. Compare:
https://youtu.be/YCpr_QHAqks
That would be my personal favourite.
What ever you choose though, I think mixing and matching is going to be the best choice.
Can you shed some light on the process/pipeline back then? Which machines were coders using? Was it the same for the art dept.? Did you use C64 "native" tools to draw your stuff, or something else? Did you use more powerful workstations to prepare stuff before loading it into the C64?
vax server- In the case of maniac I believe I worked locally on a C64, utilizing software that
both Ron and Charlie Kellner wrote specifically for development- Ron wrote the background
and character set editor, and Charlie wrote the animation program. After we went over to IBM
development we started using dpaint
Sorry if this has been answered before but I was wondering what tool you use to create the pixel versions of the characters? An old copy of deluxe paint lying around perhaps?
Is Photoshop really a sufficient replacement for Deluxe Paint in terms of retro artwork? Or would you still prefer D-Paint since Photoshop is designed for too modern purposes?
Anyway, when I scrolled down to the pixel art they took life and I really like all three of them, with some tuning in tones and tiny details you will certainly polish. They are awesome, although the one on the right is a bit too plain, not that memorable.