#30669 - Tetsuo - Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:17 am
I am working out an idea for a GBA game on paper and I was wondering what the pros and cons are between using pre-rendered sprite/character graphics vs. drawing them from scratch.
For instance the Star Wars Apprentice of the force game uses pre-rendered 3d models in a cel shaded style. The animations are very nice and really smooth. I am sure that you can obtain the same graphics and animations by drawing it by hand but I was wondering if you know any pros and cons for either way.
Ofcourse you need to be skilled in either method and pre-rendered models might involve some cleaning up of the rendered images but I couldn't get further than that.
#30670 - keldon - Fri Dec 03, 2004 12:43 pm
If they are pre-rendered then you never have to spend time drawing it again to create an animation with them. There's another method that is easier than creating a 3d model; and that is to create sprites representing a moving part of a body, rotating and scaling it to create movements. There's a website that my brother and sister go on that has games like that; and once I find it I will tell you so that you can see it in action.
#30681 - Wriggler - Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:54 pm
I prerendered some of the sprites in my last game, but they didn't look as nice as handdrawn. In the end, I drew over the top of the render, adding "handdrawn" effects that made it look a helluva lot better...
So, ermm, do both :)
Ben
#30711 - sgeos - Fri Dec 03, 2004 8:02 pm
| Tetsuo wrote: |
| Ofcourse you need to be skilled in either method and pre-rendered models might involve some cleaning up of the rendered images but I couldn't get further than that. |
Classical animation requires clean up of hand drawn images.
-Brendan
#30712 - Tetsuo - Fri Dec 03, 2004 8:09 pm
Thanks for the feedback folks!
#30806 - J-Rod - Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:33 am
Yeah, I have found that getting a clean image from the render is what is hardest to do. I keep my eye out for Maya plugins that will help render a clean smallish sprite image. I remember seeing something like that for lightwave but I'll be damned if I can remember the name of it.
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#30831 - keldon - Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:38 am
Here's that game I was talking about that uses sprite scaling and rotation to create a character. This way you only draw the character in 2d once.
http://www.actionflash.com/bloody_rage.php
#30835 - Wriggler - Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:35 am
That wouldn't work on the GBA though. It's too low res I think... Besides, you'd spend just as long rotating and scaling the thing as you would actually drawing it!
Ben
#30852 - keldon - Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:45 pm
Well it shouldn't take you too long to develop animations. You simply develop first an animation creation tool, most likely for the GBA, and then save it to a save file and read that and feed it back into your game.
#30855 - Nessie - Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:38 pm
It works on the GBA and has been used by quite a few GBA games.
Metroid Fusion has some characters that 'animate' via moving static sprite blocks around to create animations.
Castlevania: Aria & Dissonance both use this approach for characters, especially bosses.
#30951 - Johna - Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:43 pm
I guess it's what type of game your making. Some games (ex: Broken Sword) need to be HD, or it wouldn't look right at all.
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#30993 - steve343 - Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:32 pm
if your going to prerender the objects in 3d then when you render them turn off anti analising! or if you want a smooth look render them bigger and shrik them down in photoshop or the gimp (whatever you use for 2d). also play close attention to the way you light the model if your looking fo a lazy way to just draw a 2d looking sprite then gi would give a good result.
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