Visual Style - Need Opinions

[Section8]

Over the last little while, I've finished mocking up a bit of a game environment to illustrate the kind of cel-shaded-ish look I'm after, and I'm reasonably satisfied with the general style. But it's time to throw it to the raving dogs and see what people prefer (if any).

Basically, the game itself is presented like a graphic novel/comic book - a panel at a time, with some animation as well - but I also want something that steers clear of trying to emulate hand-drawn cel animation. I want something that looks like a computer graphic novel, taking the grand stylistic exaggeration of pose and action from traditional comic book art and bundling it up in a digital wrapper.

Also quite important is the notion that the world shouldn't look right, particularly to the character in it. But it's a fine line, because I don't want it to look unintentionally wrong - I just want something subtly alien and noticeably artificial.

So with that in mind, on with the options, split into four sets of pairs - a darker version with muted colours and a brighter version with higher contrast. Click to get a 1024x768 version for better effect:

First - Neutral Grey: 25% Opacity


Second - Neutral Grey: 50% Opacity


Third - Black: 25% Opacity


Fourth - Black: 50% Opacity


...and of course, if none of them appeals (they are fairly similar, after all) feel free to offer your own suggestions. Also, for gags:

Pipboy style:

 

[Relien]

Personally I would order them as follows (from the most artificial to the most "normal"):

Second
Fourth
First
Third

I guess I'd prefer the first pair (Neutral Grey: 25% Opacity) - the lines are noticable enough but they still blend into the world graphics quite well.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

The first one.

 

[cardtrick]

Taken as a whole, I prefer the first pair, and that's what I voted for. I think my favorite individual image, however, is the last one (the bright version of the 50% opacity black). That's the one that looks most "graphic novel"-ish to me, and I think it's also the most visually striking overall.

This is a really cool experiment. I think they all look quite good and I'm interested to see where you're going with this.

 

[Hory]

Is it good that I don't really understand the scene? Why is everything the same shade of brown, and shiny? If the decor is supposed to look like wood - it doesn't.

 

[Bluebottle]

Definately the black. It works much better than the grey in both versions. Of the two black sets the third (25%) seem the best, though both of the lighter versions are the better choice, I think.

 

[cardtrick]

Is it good that I don't really understand the scene? Why is everything the same shade of brown, and shiny? If the decor is supposed to look like wood - it doesn't.

This is a fairly good point. I mean, I understand most of the scene. But there's that weird area at the left that's kind of hard to understand. It's like one of those cube optical illusions, where you can unfocus your vision and either see it projecting into or out of the page. I have circled what I mean:

 

[NiM82]

I think it would help to know what kind of tone the game/setting has - sinister, cheesy, light hearted, etc?

 

[Section8]

Is it good that I don't really understand the scene? Why is everything the same shade of brown, and shiny? If the decor is supposed to look like wood - it doesn't.

The scene is the lobby of a Victorian era mansion, so yes it's supposed to be wood, highly polished and lots of it. Something along the lines of:

I think the biggest thing that's lacking is reflections - you buff wood to that sort of shine and it's like a mirror. I haven't done much with reflections (beyond actual mirrors) because I'm not sure they have a significant enough effect to warrant the step up in graphical requirements. For the curious - a quick and dirty reflective floor.

This is a fairly good point. I mean, I understand most of the scene. But there's that weird area at the left that's kind of hard to understand. It's like one of those cube optical illusions, where you can unfocus your vision and either see it projecting into or out of the page. I have circled what I mean

That's something I'm kind of aiming for, though I don't want the whole scene to be filled with Impossible Objects. David Bowie is likely to move in and use the place to torment a 16 year old Jennifer Connelly. Preferably it should be subtle enough that the player doesn't consciously notice it, it just offends and unnerves them on some level.

That specific example is the result of the bastardised normals I'm using to get odd shading on a flat surface. As far as the renderer is concerned, the green parts of the wall are a very gentle convex curve, so the bottom part of the walls in question don't catch the single light in the scene. That in itself is likely to change when I do some more complex lighting, but it serves as a pretty decent example.

Just so you can see how the scene looks without the "cel shaded" colour divisions - a smooth shaded render, which I personally think hasn't got the same charm.

I think it would help to know what kind of tone the game/setting has - sinister, cheesy, light hearted, etc?

Okay, to summarise and attempt to put it in context - imagine you've just woken up in an unfamiliar place that more or less looks like a perverted replica of a turn of the century world. There's nothing to suggest this world has any history prior to your arrival - everything is clean, shiny and brand new - and the whole thing has a kind of theme park insincerity to it. It passes for what it tries to imitate, but gets a lot of details wrong and to that extent is sinister and uncomfortable to be an inhabitant of.

So the overall tone is firmly within "stranger in a strange land" territory, with liberal lashings of "survival horror". Visually, I wanted to steer well clear of cliched horror art direction, where you add a crusty film grain filter over scenes partly desaturated of colour and biased toward greens. I'm also trying to avoid the tragically overused dark gothic imagery and the creeping black stuff Japanese horror is built upon.

It's a premise that's asking for trouble, since that's basically the impression I get from games like Oblivion - a squeaky clean, Disneyland fantasy world with props straight out of Mattel. But I'm hoping that the conscious intent of the art style and the narrative themes revolving around the apparent falsehood of the world will bring it around.

 

[cardtrick]

Okay, to summarise and attempt to put it in context - imagine you've just woken up in an unfamiliar place that more or less looks like a perverted replica of a turn of the century world. There's nothing to suggest this world has any history prior to your arrival - everything is clean, shiny and brand new - and the whole thing has a kind of theme park insincerity to it. It passes for what it tries to imitate, but gets a lot of details wrong and to that extent is sinister and uncomfortable to be an inhabitant of.

So the overall tone is firmly within "stranger in a strange land" territory, with liberal lashings of "survival horror". Visually, I wanted to steer well clear of cliched horror art direction, where you add a crusty film grain filter over scenes partly desaturated of colour and biased toward greens. I'm also trying to avoid the tragically overused dark gothic imagery and the creeping black stuff Japanese horror is built upon.

This sounds awesome. Stop posting in forums and get back to work.

 

[Xi]

The side by side comparisons look similar from each one.(I probably lack an artistic interpretation though.) I think the overall feel of your cell shaded banister is interesting. It reminds me of the original Resident Evil look, which has some promise to it. The horror-RPG has yet to achieve an accurate portrayal anyway. If you could achieve this, you would be a God among men. Or is it too late? ;P

 

[wjw]

Just based on your renders. What you lack is good light (and shadow). And some improved textures. If you add those two, your 3D work will look like the images you posted.

A little bit of reflection on the floor might be nice yes.

 

[Section8]

Just based on your renders. What you lack is good light (and shadow). And some improved textures. If you add those two, your 3D work will look like the images you posted.

Okay, just to clarify here, textures are henceforth prohibited by order of the department of artistic direction. I should have made mention of that previously. In that scene there are no textures used, and only a simple procedural map for the three-step colour fill.

It seems a little unusual, given the nature of Victorian interiors and the decadent wood carvings, wallpapers and whatnot, but it is an intentional push toward minimalism. It makes content creation very simple, so instead of focusing so much on art content, I can put more work into writing and design.

But the art content also has to be effective, and so that's why I'm trying to get a bead on what people think.

A little bit of reflection on the floor might be nice yes.

It's something I'll consider when it comes time to choose an engine and start bringing the monster to life. Maybe I should go with the first generation Unreal engine. I think it was mandatory to have reflective floors if you licensed it. :D

 

[eth]

Basically, the game itself is presented like a graphic novel/comic book [...] I want something that looks like a computer graphic novel, taking the grand stylistic exaggeration of pose and action from traditional comic book art and bundling it up in a digital wrapper.

With this in mind i think its the 3rd one that wins

 

[Hory]

This image looks great. There may be a lot of wood, but the colors are chosen wisely. You definately have to make the floor more in contrast with the walls in your version.

 

[Section8]

This image looks great. There may be a lot of wood, but the colors are chosen wisely. You definately have to make the floor more in contrast with the walls in your version.

Yep, a bit lazy on that front - had one material for all wood in the scene, which did trigger a bit of a Quake-style brown overload. It's not a dramatic reworking of the contrast, but the reddish mahogany tones definitely help the floor/wall division:



Also, a bit of experimentation - the fully coloured versions I've been showing off are the way the gameworld "really looks", but I have plenty of scope for changing the dynamics accordingly to altered perceptions and dynamic interface elements. For instance, I can replace the black wireframe on a door tile with a red wireframe to indicate that it's locked and so forth - but more interestingly, because I'm not tied to using textures, I can make dramatic shifts to the colour fill:



...and get a kind of sexy pastels-on-off-white-paper look. It's not the sort of thing I'd use extensively for this project, but it would look pretty fucking cool in a blood opera type situation where you render the blood vividly overly the faded environment - look at how well the red comes up against that background:



But I digress, a more pragmatic use for that sort of thing would be as a "secondary" fog of war to obscure bits you've seen, but aren't currently seeing:



...and to digress again, what good what that dynamism be if I couldn't animate it? Simple, but you get the idea:



Lastly, roguelikery is not something I consider within the scope of this project, but the foundations are there.

 

[eth]

Lastly, roguelikery is not something I consider within the scope of this project, but the foundations are there.

Roguelikery? If you really want to impress that kind of people you should consider rendering the whole scene into something like... "@"

 

[slipgate_angel]

manga style...just kidding.

Seriously I voted second.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

This has to be one of the best visual styles I've ever seen. Any chance of more screenshots?

And while the blacks and greys looks similar, I have to say I prefer the higher contrast. It just looks much more surreal.