Paper Mario animations

[E-Man]

Edit:I'm sorry E-Man... This is your project and you can do whatever you want. Its just that I hear the same arguments made over Daisy and Waluigi all the time and it always bugs me. This has nothing to do with your project.

Hey, dude, it's cool. We're all touchy about some things in our lives and I do appreciate the apology.

For the record, though, I don't think I ever said that I don't count the spin-off titles. I just said that they'll be difficult to include in the current version of the map I made. Besides, if it helps with the story and world building, then I'm more than willing to include areas from the sports games.

Also, who said that I won't include Waluigi? That guy is too good not to place in my stories since I have plenty of plans relating to him that'll make him very interesting! I was only concerned that you guys might not like the idea of why Daisy looks very similar to Peach (among other things). Since I don't think that's going to be a problem, then I'll see what I can do about including Luigi's love interest (unless you believe what Game Theory says) in the story.

[Koopaul]

You include who you want. Just remember if you put too many characters in, it might be too hard to handle.

I was merely defending these characters for the sake of defending them. I do not want to pressure you into putting them in. But if you are that's great news.

[E-Man]

As I more or less promised, I switched image hosts once I completed this bad boy right here.

Paper Mario

For now, the link leads to nothing. I just want to show you guys what the icon will look like. Got any additional suggestions? If not, then I'll fancy my chances of getting this on the main site.

Of course, since I have a new image host, I'll gladly swap out the map in this previous reply.

http://www.vg-resource.com/thread-26049-...#pid589846

EDIT: SWEET CHRISTMAS! I just submitted the sheet today and it was actually accepted! Honestly, I didn't think it would turn out that well, so I'm very pleased! As expected, the icon now works as link to the sheet in question.

[E-Man]

Just a quick update to show what I'm working on.



Luigi's going along just fine (at least in my opinion). I do have two questions, though. For my first one, do you think I should move one or both the eyes to the right a bit? I'm only wondering because I think it might bother some people to have one of eyes so close to the outline for the head. As for my second question, should I go with the hat on the left? That hat contains highlights of a more saturated green and I was wondering if it appeals to you a bit better. If it doesn't make a huge difference, then I'll just use the less saturated green.

[E-Man]

So, I finished the front pose of Luigi just now. It's a major help that I can simply reuse Mario's parts for this.



Again, I'm still uncertain about the green, so I also made versions of the parts that has that saturated green highlight. Also, I created two versions of Luigi's head that have the eyes shifted a bit. The one on the left has both eyes in a different spot, while the one on the right has Luigi's right eye shifted away from the outline a bit. What do you think?

[E-Man]

Took me a while but here it is!



I wanted to complete another sheet of Paper Mario parts or two before the next site update, but that couldn't have been helped, sadly… Aw well! I'm glad I took care of the first few parts for both my Koopa and Koopa Bro. Also, considering the lack of feedback on Luigi, I think that I don't actually need to change him, right? Besides, I couldn't see any obvious differences between the different saturations of the green highlight anyway, which is why I didn't make multiple green parts for the Koopa.

Anyway, Much like Luigi, I made multiple red parts in case you guys wanted me to use the more saturated red highlight. Of course, like the green parts I made before, I can't tell much of a difference between the two… By the way, I made a version of the Koopa with his head a bit closer to his body, so you do not see a bit of the darkness peeking from the bottom of the shell that easily. Also, I made a version of the head with slightly better looking eyes. Should I use either, both, or just stick with the original?

[E-Man]

No major important update this time, but I'd like to show you a portion of the Luigi sketches. Particularly, I wanted to show something new I'm giving a try.



A fair number of you guys are not pleased with the broken scratching that I depend on so much, so I decided to try making more complete strokes in spite of how messy and uncontrolled they are (the front head sketches are these first attempts). How well did I pull it off?

[Neweegee]

The broken scratching you used on the side head looks much more clear and seems easier to work from.

[Sketchasaurus]

You should try drawing multiple versions of a head so that there's more to go off of, in addition to getting more practice. Sketching is about getting the general feel for the shapes hashed out as opposed to making a final drawing.
the "clarity" of the broken scratch is a red herring, meaning that even though it may be "cleaner" it doesn't mean that it's inherently better. for instance, on the side view, how do we know that the curvature of the forehead sloping down to the chin are part of one coherent curve? also notice how angular the side view of the hat is. the broad strokes are advantageous for feeling out the form of a shape, but you're never gonna get something "perfect" on the first try, which is why you draw multiple versions.

While it may seem "unnecessary" or "superfluous" to do this sort of thing, it's important to get into this habit to be able to survive as an artist. Also, art directors and the people that look at portfolio are going to look for people who are confident in their drawing and able to consistently draw something multiple times in animation (even in 3D animation) So while I may come across as harsh, it's because I want to push you out of that comfort zone to help you learn more and grow.

As far as the drawings themselves go, the left half (his right) of his face seems fine, though the other side looks a bit squashed in a way (perhaps a bit less confident? but that's alright) Though I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the hair.

[E-Man]

I got your word on drawing things multiple times and I tried a bit of that with the front head. Admittedly, I wanted to show my sketchng progress when I sketched all the parts out…



Currently, I'm a bit worried if I'm not doing a good job adopting your sketching style and what I'm allowed to do to make it look better. Is it okay for me to occasionally break the line in a few parts as long as it is long enough and the curve is good? Also, I'd like to use an eraser to clean up some of these sketches to fix wonky areas and make it a bit cleaner for the inking process, but I don't know if that's acceptable.

[Sketchasaurus]

Oh, it's totally fine to erase lines as you clean them up. the broad stroke method is supposed to encourage you to loosen up a bit and draw using more of your shoulder as opposed to your wrist. Also, different stroke styles can be used throughout a drawing, but for broad curves, broader strokes are a lot more useful. It may be more helpful, too, if you drew bigger to get a better feel for it.

[E-Man]

That's a relief to know! What I'm trying to find is a good compromise between what I'm comfortable doing and what you guys consider as acceptable art skills, so knowing that I can use an eraser and different stroke styles certainly are two big steps in that kind of direction.

Now then, here's what I scratched out based on those realizations. The one on the far left is another sketch I drew today, while the central one is that same sketch altered in a way that looks a heck of a lot better. Are you guys pleased with this style for sketching Paper Mario parts?



By the way, I tend to zoom in on these parts to give myself plenty of room to make broad strokes. It's a little hard to do that without making a mess, so I was thinking of maybe doing unrelated images on the fly to practice bigger strokes. Since they tend to be very messy at this point, you're mostly going to see a bunch of unconnected lines and sketchy circles and ovals instead of any specific images. Is that fine?

[Silversea]

Is the koopa mouth line intended to be reversed like that? As far as I'm familiar with it should be down curved which ends with a bit of a point at the end of the upper jaw. If it is just a style choice you've gone for don't worry.

[E-Man]

Is this what you're more familiar with?



Originally, I intended to have the head look like that, but Virt suggested to go with the head you see now.

[E-Man]

Progress with the sketches was pretty much on and off since I had to practice Sketchasaurus' drawing style to the best of my ability (as well as relieve some stress by playing Nintendo's video games). In the end, I think I did a good job.



I think I have a pretty good system worked out as long as Sketchasarus is cool with it. Basically, I'll start off with a relatively tight sketch to get the basic idea and proportions down. Then, I'll make a sloppy, loose sketch and make a copy of that sketch to refine. What do you think?

Anyway, the sketches with checks on them are the ones I'll definitely end up inking. I understand that some of the ones I plan on using are the broken sketch ones, but I honestly don't think that's too much of a problem as long as I ink in a way that allows for more complete curves. Besides, the rest of the sketches are done in the new style, so it more or less evens out in my opinion. Please forgive me if this upsets you guys in any way. By the way, I'm thinking of giving Luigi a Poltergust 3000 or 5000 to use. Of course, I only want to start on this once I'm not so sick since I need to think clearly to figure out how I'm going to make it work out properly.



Now then, like I promised in another thread, allow me to touch upon my original crossover idea with the Mario & Luigi games. See, the idea was going to be a one-shot short (whether or not it is in parts was something I could not decide) where Professor E. Gadd (or another scientist character) opens a portal to the existence where Mario & Luigi live. It's a little similar to what it's like in Paper Jam, but it's more like the other way around because the M&L characters are visiting the paper world first. The big difference is that unlike the game, the paper counterparts don't exactly team up with their M&L versions. Instead, the M&L characters have a lot more energy and have a tendency to goof around and annoy the main paper characters. It's even worse for the main paper characters when their M&L counterparts win over pretty much everyone in the paper world. Overall, the short shows off the strengths and weaknesses of each version of the characters and they do team up in the end to take out some kind of problem. Unlike the Koopa Bros. short, though, I never put a large amount of thought into it because I consider this a project I'll tackle much later down the road. The biggest hurdle is to make the Mario & Luigi part of the short work effectively. Since I'm honestly not up for using the sprites that already exist (not only does it go against my policy of doing everything from the ground up, but also I don't want it to seem like a typical Mario fan project at first glance considering that ripped Mario & Luigi sprites are used in pretty much everything), my thought is to attempt to make sprites in my "reimagining" of the style. With that said, I want to eventually develop that style by creating a simple Goomba sheet to test it on. Since I'm in no rush to do that project, I'll focus on putting together Luigi and the Koopa characters first.