Paper Mario animations

[puggsoy]

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.

I would agree with keeping him silent, as you said sometimes comedy can come from the simple fact that he doesn't really respond. It's just one of those things I love about Mario, and while it could be interesting to see it experimented with, I think it would change him too much (at least for my taste).

For the back sprites, all I can suggest is perhaps moving his arm down a smidge. It's slightly overlapping his head outline, while that isn't so with the front sprite. Otherwise looking good!

[E-Man]

So, it's settled then! Mario should remain the silent protagonist unless something else comes up that changes my mind.

Anyway, I went ahead and inked the remaining positions of the body. What do you think?



Please excuse the current location of the default body. I was using that for reference and I forgot to place it back where it belongs.

By the way, when I flip the characters of Paper Mario in the opposite direction, what would you think about the idea of making parts that allow weapons and items to be held in the proper hand? That way, a right-handed character will not suddenly become left-handed once he is facing the right.

[Shade]

By the way, when I flip the characters of Paper Mario in the opposite direction, what would you think about the idea of making parts that allow weapons and items to be held in the proper hand? That way, a right-handed character will not suddenly become left-handed once he is facing the right.

Sounds pretty logical to me.

[puggsoy]

If it's not too difficult to do, then I agree that that'd look more logical. I'm sure people would notice it and appreciate the work gone into that

[E-Man]

Sounds good to me! I can't wait to really try it out with characters who wield items with one hand, such as Link.

Anyway, more progress! Tell me what you think.



By the way, the sketch of the head in the center is actually my first version of the head facing forward. I did not like it, so I decided to change it to the head you see on the left.

[E-Man]

Took a while to get ready, but I made enough progress to better show how far I've gotten.



I inked the alternate head angles and I sketched out the head in the damage position. Got any suggestions on what I need to do before I color this up and ink my new head?


By the way, I was wondering if I could submit this to the main site when it's all ready. I don't know if it would be accepted if I were to arrange these parts and rig them up in Maya for submission to the Models Resource (I know this due to the lack of Paper Mario "models" on that section); however, what about the Spriters Resource? I know these aren't exactly sprites, but would it be fine all the same?

[puggsoy]

Any 2D resource that consists of pixels counts as a sprite; whether it's pixel-art or not is irrelevant (even 3D model renders like in Bastion or photos of clay models like in The Neverhood count), as long as the original data is stored as 2D it's fine. So yeah, TSR would be best.

Since these aren't for a game, submitting them as customs would be best.

[E-Man]

Simply great! I'll look into doing that once I finally rig Mario up for animation.

Anyway, more progress!



If anything looks pretty off to you, just let me know. By the way, I wasn't too happy with the position of the eye for the side view of the head. I made an alternate version of it as a test, but you think my original version of it is better? Also, after talking to a few guys on Skype, a guy called Highwyre suggested to change the outline of the head a bit because the eye clashes with it. As a result, I made an alternate version of the head as a test to see if it's what he has in mind. While it looks good and he did say that I can use the reddish outline on other parts of the skin, I don't particularly like it because I want to skin to have the same color throughout.

By the way, I almost forgot to put this in.



It is a rough test on how Mario should shake his head. I don't really want to make the animation frames for it since i can do something similar by moving the parts manually in Maya. I think it's okay, but it could use some additional tweaks when I actually tackle this action (i.e. animate verticies).

[Sevenstitch]

Id keep all outline colors the same, including the skin

I kind of think just having the skin outline different looks strange myself

[E-Man]

Hm, I may as well use a solid color for all the outlines instead. I originally used different colored ones to add uniqueness to my drawings, but after discussing it with Sketchasarus, I think I might do that instead. I'm thinking of going with the dark blue color I used for the eyes previously.



I'll alter the outlines in the next update.

[E-Man]

Now I managed to swap all the outlines with a nice dark blue color. What do you think?

[Struggleton!]

I'm no expert to animating, but I think that looks pretty nice

[E-Man]

You thought I lost interest and gave up on this project, didn't you? Well, I just had to attend to the Secret Santa, a big commission, and the VG Resource Advent Calendar before I resumed full production on this beast of a project!



Besides adding a lot more outlines I intend to color, I also reverted the old outlines back to colored ones. I know it sounds a little bit like backtracking, but there's a good reason and a small (but critical) change applied. Virt told me that using black outlines (like how it is in the official artwork as opposed to that actual game sprites) is not very appealing and my original way is far more interesting. Of course, he also mentioned that some of the original outlines (particularly the ones in the face) are way too saturated. I tried decreasing the saturation for the outlines, but I only managed to make it look good for for a handful of colors. I hope you don't mind that I left the rest the same, Virt.

Any changes you guys would suggest so far?

[Kosheh]

I'm late to the party, but I legitimately thought the video that was originally linked was actual Paper Mario gameplay footage.


It wasn't. )= Boy, was I disappointed.



(koopa bros. episode pls. just an entire animation with the koopa bros and the entire internet will thank you)

[Koopaul]

Thanks for reviving this. I love what you are doing! By the way, as a Mario Expert (Certified) and former fanfiction writer I'd like to help out in any way I can.

Writing and storyboarding.

Also dialogue. I see so many Mario fan comics/videos/fanfiction where the dialogue reads nothing like what any of the characters would say in a Mario RPG. Maybe I'm just fussy...

Ahem. Anyway, yeah just tell me what I can do.