Paper Mario animations

[E-Man]

Originally, I was going to use the head seen on the Koopas from the first three Paper Mario games; however, Virt convinced me to use the head you see right there. With what's implied, I don't exactly need to be 100% accurate to the original sprite work (especially if I get suggestions that allow my versions to look nicer than the original versions).

EDIT: Now then, I went back to my Goomba for a little bit to review the sizes I have. While my first one was too big for my tastes, I realized that the second one was too small. With that in mind, I resized another sketch that is between the two sizes. Personally, I'm liking this one better, but what do you guys think?

[E-Man]

I had a lot of trouble uploading this image onto Tumblr for some reason, but here it is now!



In my opinion, the back angle turned out fine (but you're free to suggest anything that looks off about it); however, I'm more concerned about the other alternate angles for the head. Even the second versions of the heads (particularly the side angle) look off to me. Got any ideas on how to improve those? Also, before you mention it, I'm aware that the back pattern of the shell is not exactly the best. It was the best I could do for it, but any suggestions to improve it is more or less welcomed. In particular, it's that large area in the center that concerns me the most. Then again, I might be worrying about nothing.

By the way, if you have any feedback you want to share with the previous progress I posted, please let me know.

[Virt]

Don't use the excuse "Virt told me to" and then not change it

You should change it to be more like the actual ones since it looks better

[E-Man]

I'm very sorry if I unintentionally made you my scapegoat, Virt. I was trying to explain and defend your design decisions you made when Fillerthefreak was pointing them out.

Anyway, in regards to drawing these puppets, I'm not exactly aiming for 100% accuracy. While I'll still try to match the style if I can help it and I'll take suggestions and critiques as long as I'm able to reasonably pull them off, I mostly want to do what actually looks good to me. In other words, I want this to be my take on the Paper Mario style and overall avoid getting accused of tracing the existing artwork. You're okay with this decision and you wouldn't mind if some things look a bit "off-model," right?

Speaking of mostly doing what looks good to me, there's actually two changes in total that I want to do for Luigi and the Koopa. For Luigi, I want to shrink his noes down since it looks a bit bulbous compared to Mario's. As for the Koopa, I want to keep the beak as it is, but I want to include the inward curved version as an expression change. The other parts you described (concerning Luigi's eyes and the Koopa nostrils) don't look terribly bad compared to the ones seen on the actual versions, but I might end up changing them if you really want me to.

Before I end this off, I made the first few sketches of another character who will appear in the first short: Kent C. Koopa.



I'll sketch out the glasses once I finalize which sketch to use in case you're wondering about that. I'm cool with both designs, but feel free to choose which one you want. The one on the left is how I would do him (including removing his legs to make him more like how the characters in the Thousand Year Door walk), while the one on the right is more accurate to how he appears in Paper Mario.

[E-Man]

Even though I didn't receive any additional feedback on this, I went against my better judgement and cleaned up the Goomba sketch (I used the medium size).



Also, I know that the Paper Mario Goomba lacks this, but I went ahead with some artistic license and included that little lump between the eyebrows that Goombas for the other Mario games have. How is it?

[Quirby64]

The body looks nice, but the lump between the eyebrows looks a bit like a zit/ lump. Maybe it's just how it's shaded is my guess.

[Filler]

@ E-man

That Goomba reminds me more like the oddly off-model Goomba from Superstar Saga then a Paper Mario Goomba. Then again, my senses of minor nitpicks might be happening again.



You also toned down Kent C Koopa by a great amount. Even with the glasses, he'll look really off-model. The proper design has his eye mask really small, along with a big upwards pointing snout.



Just keep trying 'till you get them right. Since drawing them the way you think will give bad results. Also, I'd suggest you to draw with less sketchy lines, as I think that should be a standard for drawing art that needs to be cleaned up. No need for the clean-up artist to have to guess what lines need to be inked because the main artist was too srcibbly and stiff with their line work.

[SmithyGCN]

Look, I'm not trying to start an argument, but everyone has their own artistic style. Sure, style isn't an excuse for shoddy work, but not everything you make needs to be inline with how Nintendo draws them. That's like complaining about how I draw Sonic simply because it's not how Sega draws him.

I'm pretty sketchy with my linework too, but that's pretty much how animation starts. Since he's also the inker, it shouldn't be that big of a problem.

[Shade]

Look, I'm not trying to start an argument, but everyone has their own artistic style. Sure, style isn't an excuse for shoddy work, but not everything you make needs to be inline with how Nintendo draws them. That's like complaining about how I draw Sonic simply because it's not how Sega draws him.

Keep in mind that it's important to represent a character's design traits properly in the process. You don't necessarily have to draw a character exactly the same way, but be sure you're not losing important qualities doing so.

With that said, I don't think E-Man's recent characters are straying too far from the original designs myself, so the above is more so something to consider.

[E-Man]

I'm pretty sketchy with my linework too, but that's pretty much how animation starts. Since he's also the inker, it shouldn't be that big of a problem.

Not only that, but drawing that way as opposed to something a little "cleaner" (such as broken scratching) allows you to draw curves and forms a bit more naturally. It's very helpful if you want to draw and get the feel of feminine forms.

Now then, I went ahead with inking my Goomba, which I started last night.



I made two sets with and without the lump that shows alternate takes on how the final Goomba should look. I'm up for mixing around the parts (such as using a thicker outline for the stalk on any of the other ones), but I have my eye on the "closer eyes" variation. I'll leave the decision of keeping or removing the lump up to you guys.

Also, I made an alternate edit of Kent C. Koopa's normal head if you'd rather have me use that.



Before I end things off, I started playing with a new nose size for Luigi. If it was up to me, I'd go with the second option, but I think you want it to be bigger or smaller than that, huh? Otherwise, I'll just stick wit the original size, which is on the very left.

[Virt]

The goombas look empty-eyed, as if they're looking off into space. Speaking of which, the eyebrows down variant with the eyebrow crease looks best tome (other than the positions of the pupils).
The original size of Luigi's nose looks best.

[E-Man]

Oh, I was thinking that you wanted me to change Luigi's nose based on something you said previously, Virt. I take it that you were actaully talking about the Koopas, right?

Anyway, the Goomba's pupils are meant to be animated, which means that it is not going to stare blankly all the time. Still, I reckon a good resting position is in order, so I came up with a few ideas. Which one do you like?


As for the eyebrow crease, I take it that you mean the lump between his eyebrows, right?

[Virt]

I think option 1 would be the best if the pupils were lower.
And yes, the "lump" is supposed to symbolize the skin bunching up between the eyebrows due to the fact that they're in an angry expression.

[Kosheh]

Actually, I feel like the feet should be much, much higher up on his "body" as to more closely resemble the character design, like so:

Hell, look at it, this could pass for official art. dang

Keeping the feet away from the body so far kind of just gives him a Rayman look, which...doesn't really bode so well for Goombas
as for animating his walk cycle, check out how

1) the Goombas' walk in Yoshi's Island (odd 1, 2 shuffle)
2) Wario's walking and running animations in Brawl/SSB4

[E-Man]

How about this?


The ones on the bottom are before the pupil move, while the ones are top are after it. I was a little concerned that moving the body down will make him too short, but I'm surprised by how he still looks okay hight-wise. Also, Kosheh wasn't entirely clear with a part of his post regarding the leg spacing. I couldn't tell if he wanted me to space the legs or not (my guess is that he doesn't want that), so I made a separate version with a little wider foot spacing just in case.

EDIT: I forgot to add this into my post. In regards to the animation of the Goomba's walk cycle, I plan to do a couple of tests to see which one will do best.