Paper Mario animations

[E-Man]

Now that the spoiler tags are working in full order again, it's safe for me to resume posting videos onto here, including this one!

Paper Mario Animation

By the way, this animation is uploaded to a YouTube account I intend to use for professional, original animations. I plan to only keep this on here temporarily and then delete it once i create my fan animation channel. Does that idea sound good?

A while back, I made a few Paper Mario styled animations on a YouTube account that I have since abandoned. I don't consider it a big loss because those ones were fairly rubbish compared to what I can do now. Now that I have some fairly decent Maya skills under my belt, I created this recent attempt to replicate the style of the Paper Mario games. How did I do?

Anyway, the big plan is that I want to make this a fan series. Of course, instead of using graphical assets used in the actual games, I intend to create them all from scratch (by the way, big thanks goes to Retriever II for ripping the sprites and textures used for this test). That just leaves the matter of audio to attend to, however. I'm not very good at creating music (especially with the software I have installed), so unless you guys don't mind me reusing music from the games, I would like a little assistance with that and probably the sound effects. As for voice acting, I'm leaning towards that as opposed to the text boxes used in the actual games, so if you want to audition for voicing a few characters alongside my own voice talents, I'd appreciate that. Also, even though I've got the graphics and animation under control, I wouldn't mind if I'd get some help in those departments to speed up the process.

Feel free to give suggestions for those aspects and story ideas.

[Sketchasaurus]

Oh man, this is a nice reproduction of the animation style! I might have to ask for some help with some of this kind of stuff if I can come up with a script/storyboard with this kind of aesthetic in mind!

I think it'd be awesome if you were to try making your own world/story/characters but with this artstyle, that way you could totally market it without having to worry about pesky intellectual property suits since you'd own all of the rights to the content.

[E-Man]

I like the way you think! The thing is that I want to achieve something similar to what Alvin Earthworm did with Super Mario Bros. Z (only with 95% less Dragon Ball Z influences). Basically, it'll be this ambitious fan series featuring these already existing characters that Mario fans and myself could enjoy. I don't plan on making any direct income and since some ambitious fan series have yet to be removed (BitF is a good example), I don't see where any obvious problems would lie at the moment. Of course, this doesn't rule out the possibility of also making an original series with the style. Besides possibly creating a fresh idea, I'm always up for reviving my old Artster concept since that animation also emulated the Paper Mario style a while back.

Anyway, if you want tips on how to animate like in Paper Mario, I'm your guy! Just keep in mind that I use Maya, so I might not be the best help if you use a completely different application.

[Sketchasaurus]

Aha, gotcha gotcha.

I dabble in most applications that I can get my mitts on, and I have Maya installed on my computer, though I prefer 3Ds Max's interface and way of handling things more, but I'm always willing to be adaptable. it'd be pretty sweet to have a collab thing going on for sure!

[puggsoy]

I love the fact that you've got the original pipe animation, not the disappointing one they put in Sticker Star. In any case it looks really really good, looking forward to see what you come up with!

[E-Man]

Thank you kindly! I'm very proud of how the pipe animation turned out. It was one of the things I always wanted to try with this style.

Anyway, SmithyGNC and I decided on the style the other day. I'm going to mostly emulate Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, but I'll include some elements from Sticker Star, such as cardboard. The only big factor that needs to be sorted out is how to approach the story. For starters, I can't decide if Mario is the star or someone else is. Also, the idea of using more than one game series is extremely tempting. What do you guys think?

By the way…



Here is the basic structure for Paper Mario. He's still not ready yet, but I want to run it by you guys to see if I'm on the right track. While I am using a sprite sheet for reference, I want to avoid directly tracing over it, which is why some proportions look off. Got any tips on what to change before I refine the sketch and make new parts?

Also, I included a concept for how the other characters should walk. Considering what style I'm using, I can't decide between Fig. A or Fig B. While the former is more true to the style, the latter allows for better movement and emotion.

As for the bug I drew, that was during a Skype session I had with Sketchasaurus. He gave me some valuable advice and insight on the project overall. While he did say that the way I drew Paper Mario is fine and I simply need to experiment with the walking animation, I was wondering what you guys think.

[puggsoy]

I would say Fig A to keep true to the style. Thinking of Mario himself, while walking his feet just sort of spasm without any rotation, and his arms don't even move. Keeping the style like that is probably best, I'd say. You can switch between arm/leg textures during the animations to give more emotion if needed.

[E-Man]

There! I spent a good while on this, but now I created the colored and inked version of Paper Mario. He needs more parts before he's finally complete enough to rig in Maya, but here's a preview to give you a good idea of what I am aiming for.



Beisdes the one on the left showing Mario without his hat on, I am using the hatless Mario to show the limbs without any shadow on them. While I have no complaints about using shadows to distinguish the front limbs from the back ones, I just want to see if you guys are cool with me not using shadows at all.

By the way, this is something that will affect not only the story, but also Mario's character. Do you think I should have him talk, or just use grunts to communicate? That way, I will know if I need to get cracking with any pieces to show how Mario talks.


Also, I talked to both Sketchasaurus and Puggsoy about this. They said that while Fig A is true to the style of walking found in the games, the primary reason is that not all the characters have defined limbs. The closest one would be Peach, but her dress and gloves conceal the parts of her body that would bend naturally. On top of that, a lot of the characters from Super Paper Mario have defined limbs that actually bend. As a result, I'll experiment with characters that move with like they do in Fig B. If I like the results, I'll include that type of walk cycle in addition to the Fig A one.

[puggsoy]

Wow, looks very nice! I think it looks fine with or without the shadows. If anything, the shadow version should maybe be a tad lighter.

I am wondering whether the shading on his head, hands, torso etc fits. I mean, it looks very nice, but being Paper Mario I would think he should look fairly flat. This makes him look a bit more 3D or "popping out". It might look different in action though, I'm not sure.

[E-Man]

I hope this doesn't upset you, but I like having the shading in there. As much as having flat colors in there makes a lot of sense for the paper theme, I consider not having shading is a bit lazy. As much as I want to emulate the style as best as I can, I also want to try my own thing and attempt something that almost no Mario fan could easily do. As a result, I'm fine with going the extra mile to make my images look better than the actual Paper Mario sprites.

By the way, I was talking with Virt about my progress. He mentioned that the outline for the skin could be more yellow/orange. I'm personally not up for that because it would mean I need to decrease the amount of hue shifting employed. Despite the fact that he did mention that there is a thing as too much hue shifting, I'm not comfortable with lowering my amount of hue shifting after I was told time and time again that my sprites and drawings need greater amounts of contrast.

Also, we talked about the possibility of Mario having a voice. Virt said that since Mario is the positive, passive protagonist, he should only use grunts; however, he also mentioned that I can go ahead with an actual voice if his characterization is interesting enough. My version of Mario is pretty nice, but he is also cocky, gets frustrated on occasion, and tends to wisecrack at any good opportunity. You can hear this sort of characterization through this.

https://soundcloud.com/e-man276/star-rod-first

With that said, I'm leaning towards giving him a voice.

As for the shadows on the limbs behind his body, Virt mentioned that I should keep them. They provide an additional bit of depth and I see them as pretty interesting.


Anyway, I will go ahead and make more parts for Paper Mario. A new post shall be made once I reach a good milestone with the progress. If you have any other suggestions, I'm willing to listen.

Before I go, there are two things on my mind. The first thing is that I when I flip and rotate the sprites, do I need to give those parts different shading layouts? My general idea is to just keep the shading the same no mater the orientation, but what do you guys think? As for my second question, what do you reckon the name of the series should be? My idea is the Paper Mario Chronicles, but I think you guys might have better ideas.

[puggsoy]

The shading can work if you prefer that, it's not a huge deal for me; it is your project after all.

In terms of voices, I am personally very fond of Mario's lack of dialogue. Little words or phrases are fine ("let's-a-go!", "mama-mia!", etc) and give him character, but actual conversations seem a bit weird. I liked how he tends to have picture bubbles in the M&L series. But again, if you prefer giving him a voice that's OK, I'm sure it can work.

As for shading, they should probably stay the same. First off because it's paper; I assume that this is still flat paper, and that shading is more of a drawing on it rather than an actual 3D feature of the object. Second, having to re-shade him for every kind of rotation and mirroring would be way too much work.

Maybe the name could make a nice connection between the fact that it's a story, and that books are made out of paper. Perhaps "Paper Mario: The Lost Pages".

[E-Man]

In all honesty, I am torn between giving Mario dialog or not. There's a lot of potential if I actually give Mario a voice, but a lot of his comic moments come from his lack of any actual lines. On top of that, there are some parts that just dialog alone won't do any justice. I might end up just keeping him a silent protagonist, but just speak up if you want me to change my mind.

As for the name you suggested, Puggsoy, I'm not sure if it fits the series to a T. See, I had another series in mind called Paper Mario: The Lost Chapters that actually has a completely different premise from the kind of story I have in mind. Basically, the idea is to tell the stories that happen before and during the main story lines of the Paper Mario games (a bit like how the Lion King 1 1/2 does it) and it would use graphics that are practically identical to how they appear in the game. Since I'm not up to creating a series based solely on that concept (especially since I can intertwine it with my actual Paper Mario series anyway), using a name that suggests that I'll be looking into the untold stories of the existing Paper Mario games doesn't make sense for a series that not only does that. I'm still open for more suggestions, although I am more partial the Paper Mario Chronicles. Of course, I'm also open to two other titles I've come up with, which are Paper Mario Forever and Paper Mario World.

Speaking of alternate series, though, I actually have plans to create an additional Paper Mario style series. I won't go into full depth about it on this post since I talked a lot already, but basically it's an interview show of sorts. If you're from Lemmy's Land, you'd probably have a picture of what I have in mind.

By the way, I would have made these replies sooner, but I didn't want to say anything unless I had something else to show.



How goes the back sprite (for lack of a better word)? Got any suggestions?

[Virt]

The nose should be bigger/go out farther to the left.

[E-Man]

You mean like this?



Anything else before I color up this batch?

[E-Man]

Well, I didn't get anymore feedback, so I finished coloring the back "sprites."



Chances are that some parts need to be nudged a bit. I don't know about the head, but both arms would likely use it. In fact, the arm covered by the body looks better with it lined up with the hand better (you can see it on the right), while the arm on top of the body looks good when it is shifted to the left a little bit. What do you think? Also, got any other changes to suggest?