Topic

avatar versus environment

on certain levels, like rainbow road, the background is rendered in a radically different style than the avatar.

this is not at all unusual. through the history of video games, cartoon animation and manga comics simple/iconic/cartoony characters have been placed atop much more realistically rendered backgrounds. this is so commonplace that it is an aspect of our cultural visual vocabulary many of us take for granted. sometimes the detailed background / simple character contrast is done for technical reasons, like sprite based characters against more detailed backgrounds in side scrolling video games, or flat colour cel animation against highly detailed static painted backdrops in disney animated films. sometimes this is done for stylistic reasons, like in japanese manga.

glitch is unusual, however, in that that the avatar is often more more realistically rendered than the background. this reverses the traditional relationship.

this can be a little jarring. to me at least. i might be alone, and am interested in other people's thoughts about this because the art is such an important aspect of the game. should the avatars be more cartoon like so as to better interact with a variety of different level background styles? is it simply a question of getting used to the inversion? are there ways that the game could make these extreme differences in style seem "glitchier", playing up a seeming weakness into a stylistic strength?

*provoke, provoke, provoke*

[for an interesting analysis of this phenomena, check out Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" comic book, page 43. it's worth reading for a lot of other reasons too, even if you're not that into comics.]

Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • maybe there's some kind of uncanny valley like type effect with the inversion. it could explain why putting cartoon characters in photorealistic settings can work in even the most extreme examples, like Teeny Little Super Guy:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLW...

    can't tell a hero by his size!
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I was unjarred.
    Posted 3 years ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Why -- No, strike that, rewind -- *One reason* why I love striatic: reference to Understanding Comics AND Teeny Little Super Guy!
    Posted 3 years ago by Peter Verona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • it is probably a good thing i edited out my reference to the infamous Gabriel Byrne / Kim Basinger / Brad Pitt dud "Cool World" as an example of how realistic characters in cartoon worlds are perceptually unsettling.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • maybe the avatar could change style while moving into different worlds, or is it too messy ?
    Posted 3 years ago by .gatto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • one way to do different avatar styles in a scalable way is to make two versions of everything related to the avatar... hats, pants, mittens, clothing etc. etc. and of course the avatar itself. one version would be the "shaded" version, and the other would be the "cartoon" version.

    the only difference between the two versions would be that one would have a shadow layer and the other wouldn't. this would allow level artists to choose between two versions of how the avatar might look while inhabiting the space they've created, and potentially allow them a little more versatility.

    that would require that every avatar element have a shadow mask, tho.

    maybe the best plan is to just not care about it, make no effort to make anything match stylistically, and have glitch just look really glitchy. maybe one artist might make really cartoony pants and another might photograph fabric to make a shirt and another might hand paint all the ladders and houses in a level and another might use crayons and chalk and the whole point is that your avatar looks totally unlike anything in its environment.

    even if the result is a bit ugly sometimes, it will at least be in the spirit of glitchiness.
    Posted 3 years ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink