Paper Mario animations

[E-Man]

You mean make the foot shorter? While I can do this, it also means that I have to affect the height of the other foot since they need to be practically the same scale. Before I do something like that, though, may I suggest that I try to partially cover the foot to the right with the sheet instead? That way, the foot will look smaller without it actually being smaller.



Neweegee told me that the arm I made recently needed top be a bit more round. Hopefully, I got that right. Also, I made the other arm a little round just in case I need to make them match.

Neweegee also said that Kent C. Koopa was a bit too wide, so...

[iyenal]

I mean the other foot:
   

[E-Man]

Oh! That's what you mean.

When you said "in the user view," I was assuming that you meant from the perspective of the viewer instead of the perspective of the Big Lantern Ghost. As for the Y-Axis, that's typically a vertical axis, so my first thought was to make it shorter. If you wanted the foot to be a bit more narrow, then you should have told me to scale it down on the X-Axis instead. Now do you see how I gotten confused?

Now, regarding the change in question, I don't mind scaling the foot down a bit; however, the amount you suggested makes me think that you want both feet to be exactly the same size. The current scale is deliberate to make it look like the longer foot is at a different angle. I even included a rough diagram to demonstrate what I mean. It's not perfect, but the idea is clear enough, right?

   

[iyenal]

Ok I have understand. Your schema is very clear. Excuse me for the confusion, I confused the axis.
Do you have started to animate the characters ?

[E-Man]

No, I have yet to actually animate these current puppets. Considering that I'm basically starting over from scratch, I don't expect to animate anything until late summer. As a result, I'll probably be done with the first short by early winter at the latest.



By the way, do you remember this image?



I plan to use the feet arrangements on the right since they make sense to me. Your thoughts?

[E-Man]

Here's an update before I got to bed.




I'm thinking that the new hand could use a little rescaling and a bit of reshaping, while the eyeballs could stand to be a bit bigger. Then again, that's just me.

If there's not much else I can do with Kent's base pose, then I'll get to texturing and work on some additional parts for him (including those T-Rex arms).

[E-Man]

Now for something new regarding the Big Lantern Ghost.



If most of the mouths look alright (especially the frown), then I'll make the remaining ones.

So, once I make a few more parts, then this big guy is ready to be made into a sheet. I do have an interesting question, though. Originally, I was going to not create any parts that would display this guy from alternate angles (which is the case for most Paper Mario character puppets in the actual games); however, if you want me to create those parts anyway regardless of how often I'll use him, then I'm willing to do that.

[E-Man]

I finished Princess Flora's model over on my Quest 64 ripping project, so now I'm back to working on new Paper Mario parts.

By the way, I'm not sure that you've seen this yet, but I made a Tumblr post on the current state of Paper Mario that got a healthy amount of likes and reblogs. I realize that this comes off as self-promotion, so you don't have to look at it if you don't want to.



I made an alternate straight arm on the right to have it move around a little better. If you like the shape, then I'll move onto the base outline and fill. Also, I made some curved arms.

Now, in addition to an alternate trail for the head, the outlines on the bottoms of the sheet are meant to be used when only one foot is touching the ground. If you like that idea, then I'll work on those additional parts for you. As for the sprite on the image, I'm pointing to the area where you can see the sheet inside the Big Lantert Ghost. Would you like me to employ something similar?

By the way, there's a front-facing foot by Mario over there. I was originally going to make something like this for the sheet since my old sheets had feet like this; however, with the slightly angled foot, I'm wondering if a foot like this is even necessary anymore. If it's useful for the sheet, I'll gladly refine the foot and make all the feet for the puppets that need them now. Otherwise, I'm just not going to bother. If you can give me your feedback on this, please do it as soon as possible.

[E-Man]

'K! The overall shape of Kent C. Koopa is ready! Just let me know if anything's off. By the way, I removed the glasses, so you can see his eyes better.

[E-Man]

Looking at Kent C. Koopa's eyeballs again, they look a little off to me. Maybe they should be bigger and a little further apart?

Anyway, when listening to a few opinions of the guys over on MFGG, a couple of them mentioned how they like the choppy animation style seen in the the recent Paper Mario games since they better fit the paper-like art direction. Do I really have to do something like that? I'm not all that keen on the idea of purposely lowering the animation quality like that.

So, here is the Koopa with all the textures applied and the beginnings of the open mouth and eyelids. Since shading doesn't exist for this current art direction, the idea of using an outline to seperate the eyelids popped into my head. If it looks good to you, then I'll keep it for the final result. What do you think?

[11th]

Anyway, when listening to a few opinions of the guys over on MFGG, a couple of them mentioned how they like the choppy animation style seen in the the recent Paper Mario games since they better fit the paper-like art direction. Do I really have to do something like that? I'm not all that keen on the idea of purposely lowering the animation quality like that.

Paper animation can come in many forms. The first game doesn't quite count because it used sprites, but The Thousand Year Door and Super use a basic cutout-replacement style, Sticker Star and Paper Jam used a more limited cutout style, and Color Splash relies more on making the characters move like sheets of paper, only using key poses for the drawings.

I don't think the animation in Color Splash is completely terrible, but I don't like it as much. To me it's sorta' like watching Lotte Reiniger's works versus watching someone wiggle or crush pieces of paper with drawings on them.

Ultimately, it's up to you, though. It's your project, and if you'd feel better doing a certain type of animation then go for it.

[iyenal]

outline to seperate the eyelids

Yes it's a good idea. But I think that the head is too big compared with the body,Especially the nose.

[E-Man]

Thanks, 11th! That makes me feel a bit better about working on this project.

Anyway, Iyenal, I can see what you mean about the size of the head. Still, I want to hear what everyone else thinks of it before I go through with a change like that.

[DarkGrievous7145]

The scale seems fine, considering Mario characters tend to break with accurate proportions, anyways. you could maybe experiment with making it a tad smaller, but it seems fine to me as-is.

[E-Man]

Alright then. I'll try creating a size comparison the next time I work on my Koopa.

Anyway, I made more parts for Peach after some time putting her off.



I went with the darker crown base since that made a bit of sense for me and nobody else mentioned which one to use. I also created a neck with bending capabilities (as demonstrated on the image). As for the mouth, I created three possible styles for it. I'd like to use the one on the far left, but I'm willing to use the one on the far right instead because it is a compromise of the one I want and the actual one seen in the games. Speaking of that example, that one has the eyes behind the hair instead of in front of it. What do you think?

By the way, I went ahead and created lines to divide the legs from the torso. Once you guys share your thoughts on the legs, I see about creating them along with the arms.