Rockford looks really weird sideways

[Eizzoux]

I'm not sure if it fits this topic, but... Remember I drew a sort of my own interpretation of player with a bit more clean style a while ago? Well, now for some reason I decided to try instead to modify the original despite to see just how much can I "fix" it. And by "fixing" I mean that if you look closely at player sideways, his anatomy even for a toon look like complete nonsense, especially with that weird neck supporting the head by it's chin. So, in the end, here's how it turned out. Personally, I feel like how he looks much closer to what he looks like from the front and back, and also it now starts looking very close to the older sprite I mentioned at the start.

plr_redesign.png (22.75 KiB) Viewed 1598 times

Obviously, player's original look is pretty much iconic, but I think the idea has it's place.

[ncrecc]

a bit misfitting in this topic i think; rockford looking odd from a sideview is different than some sprites being visually misaligned. nice sprite though. i like how you got rid of the "banding" on his pant legs

[amirnatsheh7]

a bit misfitting in this topic i think; rockford looking odd from a sideview is different than some sprites being visually misaligned. nice sprite though. i like how you got rid of the "banding" on his pant legs

very nice eizzoux, your graphics animated is cool and good,

and hey ncrecc check my message in PM

[Holger]

I agree with ncrecc here and think that your post deserves its own topic! So I have split it, to not reactivate an old thread with a different topic.

Eizzoux, your improved version of the classic R'n'D player looks really good!

Some very careful, but convincing changes and adjustments!

I honestly think about replacing the classic player graphics with your improved version -- is this only a "design study" using one single frame, or do you already have a complete set available?

[Eizzoux]

I honestly think about replacing the classic player graphics with your improved version -- is this only a "design study" using one single frame, or do you already have a complete set available?

Not a complete set yet, I'll do that in the meantime.

One thing I want to point out that nobody noticed yet (which also convinces me that this change won't affect much) is eye color. Initially it was just slightly brightened black (and a while ago rockford's eyes were just completely black, which looked pretty funny whenever player walked on a key door). In this updated version, rockford's eye color is instead replaced by one of dark colors of his clothing, which, honestly, I think actually looks quite fitting.

Eye color comparison

plr_eye.png (45.5 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

Here's also the entire cast of all four players with the updated look (fixed anatomy, colored eyes)

All four players in old and new look

plr_justthefourofus.png (59.15 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

By the way, can I also point out that on the OG sprites these pixels for all four players are commonly not recolored, so I don't know if that is supposed to be shadow of the right hand projected on the clothing or just darker part of hand... It looks really strange.

Weird pixels in old sprites

plr_hand_shd_maybe.png (4.13 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

It does look like shadow of hand for the first player because of pretty similar colors, but for other three... not so much.

[Eizzoux]

Alrighty, here's how he looks for now. I think it works pretty well.

rcfd.gif (41.83 KiB) Viewed 1261 times

[Holger]

It really does! Well done!

[Eizzoux]

Also did the front and back, although I feel like I somewhat rushed the back sprite, so I'll probably modify it a bit more...

pu.gif (110.67 KiB) Viewed 1043 times

[ncrecc]

the way the shadows on his back in the "walking up" animation wriggle around so much is a bit distracting, methinks. also the lighting on his neck changes for 1 frame

[Eizzoux]

Pretty much, yeah. I already changed that.

Also, although this is slightly off-topic, I don't think this specifically deserves it's own topic, but... It's a thing that sort of messed with me several times years ago... For some reason, despite R'n'D's palette, despite being "consistent", isn't that consistent. Let me explain.

Let's open few texture files of R'n'D in any image editing software, which is PaintDotNet in my case (it can be even just MS Paint, whatever). I opened RocksElements and RocksSP. Now what we need is the color pick tool to... well, pick colors. Basically, the idea is picking same colors from every file. My first choice was on the bright yellow.

a1.png (138.82 KiB) Viewed 865 times

a2.png (161.54 KiB) Viewed 865 times

Picking one as primary and other as secondary colors, here's the result:

b1.png (113.13 KiB) Viewed 865 times

Yeah, for some reason seemingly same color is just slightly different in different files. Here they are side by side:

b2.png (9.88 KiB) Viewed 865 times

And that's just one of few examples.


Besides that, some sprites, especially explosions and acid, contain several colors that are not really used anywhere else, mostly weird shades of brown and... greenish orange or something? I don't really get it...

c1.png (265.52 KiB) Viewed 865 times

Even weirder, the RocksCollect is the strangest of all because it is the only texture file in the game (aside from the app icon) that is translucent and that uses actual blurry sprites unlike usual black '#000000' background.

c2.png (72.01 KiB) Viewed 865 times

Around two months ago, I got an idea on trying to collect all sprites, remove most of the duplicates and just gather all of them into one huge 2048x2048 atlas and also modify all of them to have them share one solid palette. In the end, aside from RocksCollect, I managed to not just fit all of them, but also have a lot of free space to spare, possibly for the fixed collecting animations and probably even more.

d1.png (1.32 MiB) Viewed 865 times

I mean, this is just for a proof of concept, but practically, this is obviously useless nowadays for the game (aside from fixing the palette).

[ncrecc]

i wonder if the palette once was consistent in much older versions of RnD for older systems that couldn't display as many colors

[Eizzoux]

Alright, I went a little bit over the board and not only modified all of the existing sprites, but added top view sprites for some reason. Although I think it would work pretty well for Sokoban engine if it ever gets implemented, maybe...

meingott.gif (373.68 KiB) Viewed 672 times

[ncrecc]

perhaps you could add pushing up/pushing down animations to normal side-view rockford as well; you've already done pushing down: viewtopic.php?p=14770

[Eizzoux]

Maybe, although I was mostly just refining original sprites, top view one is just a separate thing. But yeah, maybe I'll do additional pushing animations in the meantime