What I think about them...

[Saint Zomb-E]

Heres what I think about the character portraits in rm3...
They don't have to look like the characters to make sense.I mean after all,
the begining part of Castlevania:SotN has Richter Belmont wearing a bandana and when he confronts Dracula, Richter's portrait appears and, guess what? NO BANDANA! However, it was still Richter. So even though it doesen't look like the controlling character, the character portrait is still the character of the game.

How many of you guys agree with me?

[Misty]

Re: What I think about them...

I like how there are different art styles for the character portraits--the set where it looks like they were painted by Renaissance artists are the closest to the character models.

It still bothers me a little that I can't make any definitive matches between the ingame models and the portraits because a lot of them are so vastly different, it sort of compromises the integrity of the character. But hey, what can you do about it? Limitations notwithstanding, people here in the Pavilion have worked around this problem before--with outstanding results.

Whether or not you try to get the portrait as close to the model as possible, the game can still be good.

Sooooo, I guess I agree with you here.

[Valkysas]

Re: What I think about them...

disagree completely. some of the portrait images are really nice, but look nothing like any in-game models, which renders most completely useless.

[Vonwert]

Re: What I think about them...

I use exclusively Drawn 4 portraits, since they to me are the best looking.

[Perversion]

Re: What I think about them...

You certainly seem to like polls, don't you, Saint Zomb-E?

[DYRE]

Re: What I think about them...

I disagree! I think. I'm not completely sure what you were asking. Also, Perversion is right. You do make a lot of polls.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: What I think about them...

I prefer that the portraits and models at least come close to a match. This is hard to do if I restrict myself to just one style, so I figure using Drawn 2, 4, and 5 together works well enough. I actually went through all characters and the Drawn portraits to figure out which ones would work in a Storyteller. A little disappointing that some models, especially some of the cooler onces, don't have a matching portrait. I rather wonder why there's such a mismatch in the first place. The people working on the 3D models must've been in a disjointed studio from the ones making the portraits.

[Excelryu]

Re: What I think about them...

I also utilize the number 4. If I'm not mistaken the art style used on the 4 is a anime look. It always looks good because anime and manga style rocks!

[Ωbright]

Re: What I think about them...

I said 'I agree', because I do...but I really didn't have much of a problem finding character models to go well with the 2D portraits in my first game (with the exception of the 'Guardian' character, who I'm still a little bit disapoined with), and even in 'Tree of Life' I've managed to find models that at least worked ok with the 2D pictures. Some are a bit sketch, but not too bad. On the other hand, there are AWESOME 2D portraits that I've never used, simply because I never could find a model to use with it. Personally, in the next RPGM I'd like to see a return of a pixel editor...or at least the ability to 'build' your character portraits using a library of premade parts. Come to think of it, it would be nice to be able to 'dress' character models in a similar way. Why is it that wrestling games have the best character customisation?

[JPS]

Re: What I think about them...

I personally disagree with it, nothing against you but if you try to put a regular 3d model and a 2d model that looks nothing like the 3d model, it kind of looks "wrong" in-game(personal opinion), however, when they made the system they should have matched models up, for this reason I don't use 2d models in my games.

Thanks DYRE for disagreeing, now I dont feel like an outcast as much

[Wavelength]

Re: What I think about them...

The results tell me I'm in the minority, but I COMPLETELY disagree here. It really annoys me that the 2D and 3D models look nothing alike; I see the 2D models as the "canon," at least when I play the games... but when I'm running around or in battle, I almost feel like I'm playing with a whole different character. For my money it's one of the five most annoying elements in 3.

I appreciate the wide range of 2D models and art styles that we were allowed to choose from. However, I would have much preferred if they simplified the details on the 3D models (to lessen incongruities) and added a few more, and simply matched the 2D models one-to-one with the 3D models, with maybe two art styles. A wide range of emotions (7-10 per model) you could choose from for different dialogue and storytellers would just be sweet, sweet icing on the cake. While I'm at it, being able to change the color scheme for each part of 2D and 3D models (akin to RM2), or being able to choose to "show" or "don't show" certain details (such as the bow on the archers' backs) would have been simply incredible.

[Valkysas]

Re: What I think about them...

I just noticed I accidentally put "agree". I disagree.

[Ωbright]

Re: What I think about them...

Well like I said, I had really good luck matching portraits with models...so it was hard to be objective. I must say, though...games that I've played where the match was AWFUL really bugged me, if it were me I wouldn't even use that portrait if there was not a better model to go with it. What REALLY bugs me though, is when I feel like people didn't even TRY to match them...when I know for a fact that there's a much better match in the editor.

[Libby]

Re: What I think about them...

I need to upload it, but I've actually made a chart that matches up the best portraits with the models and colors. There are actually more then one might think, and the only models that are fairly hard to match with the extra colors are the animals. But I'll get it up.

I don't think that it matters if the models match too much or not. I've tried to match my models as much as I can, but as long as you represent your character well, I don't think it matters too much.

I still dig on Drawn 5 though, Anime is nice, but I like the manga/realistic feel of it.

[Wavelength]

Re: What I think about them...

Well like I said, I had really good luck matching portraits with models...so it was hard to be objective. I must say, though...games that I've played where the match was AWFUL really bugged me, if it were me I wouldn't even use that portrait if there was not a better model to go with it. What REALLY bugs me though, is when I feel like people didn't even TRY to match them...when I know for a fact that there's a much better match in the editor.

I think the culprit there could be the fact that the person chose whatever 2D model and whatever 3D model were the closest to what they were hoping for, even if those weren't the closest matches to each other (to ridiculously simplify it to a number line, it would be like choosing +2 (3D model) and -3 (2D model) to go with zero (what you were hoping for), even when there's a +3 (2D model) or a -4 (3D model) that are closer to the other model you used.

The problem would be resolved if the 2D and 3D models matched each other more closely in general.