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finally trying out picocad 2 with tsumemon! I wanted to animate it too but I learned how to change pivots too late

it's a great program for beginners, if a bit deceptively tricky if you already know 3d modelling for a few things. the manual is currently missing a few things too. otherwise I'd love to play with it more!

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anatomy of a one very special hyena

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and so the serpent devours its own tail

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once that chunk of meat becomes garbage, the soul alone would remain and live on. what do you think? can you picture it?

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a collection of crownslayer doodles roughly in order from portatori's en release to ch16 cn release

[spellfist-3d]

Guide to that elusive “PS1-pixelated-lowpoly”(but not really)

With the videogame playing population growing up we’ve finally broke from pixel-art nostalgia into the broadly called “low-poly” nostalgia. On closer look this broad categorization gets further described as “PS1 pixelated textures low-poly”, which is a bit better, but still is a really broad and a pretty wrong description of this style that’s so dear to a plenty of game-playing and game making individuals these days. I’ll try to dive into some of the technicalities and examples of this style in the attempt to find it’s characteristics and some actual technical requirements to meet this style.

Let’s start with the obvious, calling it PS1 low-poly is wrong, mostly because the same games were release on Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and PC. More so, games released later can be put into the same category, plenty of NDS or PSP games fit into the same style and adhere to the same economy principles. The only real surface level thing unifying these games is the game size, that is, the games came on CDs. The advent of a DVD format really changed up how the games look, so the graphical style we’re talking about here is called CD-3D in smaller circles.

First let’s look at the games that fit the criteria would give you some information to describe the style, textures are obviously small enough to have visible pixelation (hidden by texture filtering) and models are obviously low-poly (that is around or less than 500 triangles for a character), but let’s see what doesn’t seem so obvious. Here’s Spyro and Crash, fan favorites

Both games check both points we’ve noted before, but what’s not obvious to an untrained eye is that these games both extensively use Vertex Color, the thing you’ll notice more and more in other games we’ll talk about. Vertex Color is absolutely simple, each vertex of a mesh can be assigned a RGBA value and they’re then linearly blended with other vertex colors. Notice how in Spyro the yellow and purple light is placed on places where texture is repeated, following that you can eyeball where the wireframe is and then you’ll see that the vertex color is used to simulate lighting. Crash himself is filled with Vertex Color, it’s a cheap way to avoid using textures, while having some control over the color of the thing, instead of it being a solid chunk. If you search-engine around you can also find some really fascinating notes on the development of the original Crash and the tricks they’ve pulled! The more ingenious way to use Vertex Color is to take a look at Spyro skyboxes:

Notice how the clouds are diamond-like in shape and are linearly gradiented to the next point in the wireframe.

Vertex color was used extensively and fell off with the increasing complexity of the meshes, delegated mostly to technical masking of stuff like foliage, it’s still a powerful tool for lower triangle counts.

Textures

Now, let’s talk about the textures. Pixelated textures look nice and crisp these days, at the age of 1080p being the norm, turning texture filtering really makes the games look crisp and feel right

Quake 1 is a perfect example of CD-3D style, often undeservingly forgot in discussions about this style.

But this makes us forget that the textures were often authored with texture filtering in mind. Careful step gradienting to make textures seem smoother after being filtered is a craft in itself.

Texture filtering is not bad in itself, some games look better without it these days, because of the display resolutions, but it’s still a valid tool to apply, it can help push low-res texture a bit higher and produce a softening effect make those 4 pixels into a round circle or improve a visual effect.

Of course, some games took a deliberate approach of avoiding smudged look, like Megaman Legends, for example.

Via a very deliberate texture economy and unwrapping the developers were able to produce very crisp and pixel perfect textures (slightly warped by the infamous PS1 rendering), that look absolutely astounding when you render the game in a modern resolution. Pixel-aware UV Unwrapping, is being used in most games that are considered the pinnacle of CD-3D style, this technique is so powerful, that it was used to great effect in PS2 era games, PSP games and even modern games like Guilty Gear (for a different effect though). Let’s take a closer look,

As you can see, our character is unwrapped in square pieces in such a way that a straight line on a texture will produce a straight line on a model. While Vagrant Story is an absolutely perfect in execution of this technique, it’s also used in a same way in Megaman Legends

While I couldn’t find a reliable tool that works with modern 3D modeling software to allow pixel perfect alignment, just using a UV Checker will produce great results. This method also requires some thought put into your topology before unwrapping, but it’s strong point is that you can make changes into your unwrapping and geometry easily, making little tugs won’t break the whole thing.

As you can also note, Vagrant Story textures are authored in a single atlas, while Metal Gear Solid separates this atlas into smaller chunks like this:

Allowing for easier unwrapping, since you can unwrap into the full UV space and then change the size of the texture to scale your results. The other important thing is that you probably want your characters in a T-pose when you’re unwrapping, since this allows for easier use of normal based unwrapping, considering your model would be authored with 4 to 8 sides for limbs and torso it could be box unwrapped and then tweaked for optimal results.

Silent Hill 1 used the same technique, and is also regarded as one of the best looking PS1 games.

While this is the best practice for this kind of look, it’s absolutely not required, Quake 1 used a really loose flat unwrap:

But it’s still looks bloody amazing in the end.

While the topic of using UV Unwrapping for crisper result is endless I’d also love to bring your attention to a certain Jet Set game

It also uses the same technique as Megaman Legends, but it tops it off with some cel-shading, producing crisp, stylish and iconic look.

Here’s some technicalities: Character textures are usually 256x256 for main characters, 128x128 for other characters, character usually have ~100-120 colors per full atlas. MGS breaks down the atlas into chunks so each chunks is usually 8 colors. So when authoring textures, make us of Indexed Color image mode or Save for Web.

 Now let’s move from character textures to

World textures

Universally regarded as best looking CD-3D games share the same trait, not only the characters look amazing, but the environments too. Despite hard limitations, the environments look very much affected by lighting. A lot of the times this is achieved with this one simple trick that was only improved with modern technology. That is, a lot of the lighting is baked into the textures

While this limits you on the amount of lighting scenarios or makes you produce more same-ish assets this certainly elevates the look. While nowadays baked lighting is not something that exciting, it’s also being done on a separate “layer”, so there’s no need to make a separate texture for every lighting scenario, however the resolution of a lightmap should not be higher than your texture, to not produce a cheap and uncanny effect. You still want to bake some fake lighting into your texture, which contradicts the rules of PBR, but since you’re not using normal maps, rules of PBR should not apply in the same way.

The other important tool to use, is the one we’ve talked about, that is, Vertex Color. Vagrant Story uses to great effect, while it’s environment textures don’t have lights baked, they use vertex color extensively to create a variety of moods and lighting scenarios.

Using best texturing practice, Vertex Color and making sure your lightmaps are matching resolution to your textures will produce the best results.

Now let’s talk why I don’t advise using a lot of normal maps for this style. The simple answer, it’s somewhat difficult to produce a normal map that will work with an unfiltered look, but it’s somewhat manageable to do it if you’re using texture filtering. The issue arises when you try make your normal maps unfiltered, this will make your result either a mess or a bunch of visual noise. If you’re trying to make sharp pixel-perfect textures and then will try to make normal maps to match you’ll get very harsh results. The only way I can see it working somewhat nice is to make a normal map that’s less detailed and then use it texture filtered to give some volume to your objects, while not trying to chase pixel details.

The suggested method is to do a rough sculpt -> bake it down -> use ambient occlusion and other masks to author a texture map with more details. Then use a detailed texture and less detailed normal map for optimal result.

 As a closing thought, let’s talk about the

Meshes

A lot of the time you can visually trace the wireframe of things, this makes it easy to pin the style as “low-poly”, but how lowpoly it really is?

Characters in Vagrant story average 500 triangles per character. Characters in MGS go from ~450 for minor characters to ~650 for major characters. So 500-600 triangles is a solid baseline for a main character in a third person game.

This limit brings out some great restriction for every aspiring 3D artist. You have to know your limb deformation techniques (search-engine “Limb Topology” and browse around the polycount wiki to find some great examples and deformation ready examples), but as you might’ve noticed, some games decided to not wrestle with skinning and deformation and straight up detached the limbs or even made their characters out of chunks. This is perfectly noticebla if you compare the OG Grim Fandango and the remaster, where they botched the shading and you can see the bits in all of their glory.

Another easy example is Metal Gear Solid. Characters arms are separate from their torse, but this is covered with other geometry or they’re of the same color and shaded closely.

This way of doing it was used in a number of other games and allows for unlimited range of motion, while not looking weird.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of adding more triangles and loops, but if you’ll follow the rule of “if it doesn’t add to the silhouette, you don’t need it”, you’ll keep to the style. Zoom out often and if an edge doesn’t add anything from the distance and is not critical to the deformation in a character, you really don’t need it.

These principles are so solid they’ve been alive for decades, in fact, one of the best looking PSP games “Peace Walker” sticks to these principles very closely, for example this soldier is just around 1500 triangles

Spilling out of the “low-poly” territory it’s still made with the same economy principles used in CD-3D style, making use of every bit of texture and every triangle available.

Here’s another game of Metal Gear variety, Metal Gear Solid 2 is a direct heir to the design philosophy of MGS1, perfectly pixel-aligned unwraps allow for crisp detailing:

Another honorable mention goes to Animal Crossing on Nintendo 64

Animal Crossing combines meshes and sprites masterfully, uses pixel-aligned UV unwraps and makes up their own trick when creating landscape.

By unwrapping the repeating texture on each triangle of a hexagon they create these smooth patches of sand without the need for big or unique textures. It’s only 64x64 and 9 colors, but the mileage you can get out of it is insane!

And this honestly sums up the CD-3D style perfectly, it’s the style governed by economy. There’s no need for insane textures for sharp lines, and millions of colors for smooth gradients. Now of course all of these are not rules, but recommendations, you can certainly bend the rules and improve on some aspects. Before we go, here’s some more pictures to get you inspired.

[glitchplight]

so, this post is really good and like I said I wanted to add some of my own tips as someone that has been trying to emulate the style. my own advice is mostly from someone that is trying to emulate from PSX/Saturn games in particular, as N64 and Dreamcast games are way different imho

I use Crocotile3D. this software is actually made for emulating PSX/Saturn models and textures in particular, and most importantly, it actually has pixel-perfect UV unwrapping and flattening. there are tutorials online, and it might even be EASIER to use for beginners that haven't gotten used to another 3D software.

take your time to study actual models. people are getting even better at being able to extract models and textures from PSX games in particular. look at the topology. look at how they use their polygons efficiently. look at how they use their textures. this will be far more valuable when initially getting into making anything for the style. models resource kind of doesn't know how to handle these older models and how they are built so I wouldn't recommend them at the moment though. but I will happily link people to resources for the digimon PSX models if asked

decide on a style you want to aim for. CD-3D is not JUST a style on its own, but in a way, a medium. there are already vast differences between PSX, Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, like I said, but there are also a lot of differences between games on the same platform! crash bandicoot is not the same style as mega man legends is not the same style as vagrant story! this is important because it is the foundation to how you will build your model. spyro and crash bandicoot came much later in the PSX's lifetime. their models are continuous and are animated with limb deformation, but in order to do that they had to use very simple textures that wouldn't have noticeable warped pixels when animated however, many of the older PSX games had very detailed pixel textures. they would have looked much worse with limb deformation BECAUSE of those pixels and low texture resolution. which is why making the model "in chunks" as OP says, or rather, having the geometry itself be each separate bone, is better for the integrity of the model. think of it as building your model from the ground up like a ball-jointed mannequin doll. this does mean you want an idea of how you want your model to move and how much you want it to move beforehand

4. economy of polygons and reducing them where more isn't necessary is important for the model but it is ALSO great because less triangles means less pain when organizing your UV unwraps! and believe me you want to avoid that pain whenever possible

5. being efficient and economic with your textures and polygons is a skill to build to. you may not be able to get the exact restrictions of the platform you want, and thats alright! I am still awful at organizing my textures and still can't quite get them to fit into the 256x256 limitation, but I am getting closer (though digimon PSX textures are actually 256x128...). you will get an eye for it with practice. better to just jump into it first and learn as you go!

[glitchplight]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYUDMILA 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

let's see that beautiful smile for many years to come ❤️

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I've actually been drawing crownslayer for months but only now happy with how I draw her, so expect even more of her from me soon!

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wooooahhh hyenas

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finally, a new digimon world style model! its dinobeemon!

I wanted to make an idle animation that is a lot more dynamic this time around, and I am pretty happy with the result

made in crocotile3d and animated in blender3d

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you are an imitation of an imitation

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a little late but happy digimon game announcement!! you can bet I have been SO excited

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the blowjob bozos

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wwhat is project synechiae why is it so beautiful ogmygosh

I am so happy you are interested in it!

project synechiae is an original story idea that I eventually want to actually release into something real, though thats a pretty far-off dream for now and I am still pretty early in figuring out the logistics of it and developing it as a story. it takes some conceptual inspiration from shin megami tensei games, specifically nocturne, and others like resident evil 4.

the basic premise involve these sort of interdimensional parasite creatures. I actually drew a little conceptual doodle of them but its still so early and thats prone to changing

they are mindless parasites; unlike other media there is no mind control or really any manipulation of personhood whatsoever, because instead they rely on natural human behavior and socialization and community to proliferate and advance their life stages and species goal

if anything, they actually help their hosts by making them stronger and giving them powers (extremely vague at this stage) to defend themselves with. These sorts of "powers" are actually possible because the parasite amplifies the host's "self" into something tangible and usable, I guess you can see it kind of similar to "spiritual" power but its not exactly that. A shallow argument can be made that they are actually more mutualistic symbiotes than parasites. but they re not thought of that way by the characters for several reasons, one being that their existence is felt as inherently violating, especially for those more affected by these changes. a second reason is because, while they aren't typical mind controlling parasites, they do influence and nudge their hosts behavior based on the kinds of things they give or do to a person. a third and very big reason is because they are probably responsible for the world "ending" and becoming a sort of strange in-between surreal space that operates on different rules but I can't get too into that yet.

as for the second point there, these parasites are vaguely eusocial in a way, they just again rely on human behavior instead of doing any of that stuff themselves. there are these "queen" versions of these parasites, choosing their hosts pretty arbitrarily, and rely on airborne proliferation. people that naturally start gathering together for protection and support will naturally become parasitized, especially as other parasitized people start getting stronger and more capable of protecting people

about those people with those "queen" parasites though: they have more access to power than other people, and their bodies are also in a constant state of mutating, with the parasites increased amplification overwhelming their bodies. these people are stuck in a strange position where people are incentivized to gather around them for support and protection and possibly pedestalize them, or alienate them (part of the parasite species's goal really, the point is to let people themselves weed out anyone unfit), and the story I want to make focuses on these particular characters and everything they never asked for and how the world is shaped because of it.

whew thats a lot of me explaining the premise. lets talk about the characters, starting with sinclaire, who has had the monopoly on my mind

I haven't actually gotten around to posting these drawings of her yet but it bothers me to use the older stuff because she's not drawn fat enough.... oh well

anyway, there is a lot lot LOT I could say about her because I think about her most of the time but I will try to keep it brief. sinclaire (she/her) is actually more an antagonist in the role of the story, though will probably be the deuteragonist to isaac and their story who I will talk about later. I am talking about her first since frankly a lot of the premise and structure as well as the aesthetic of all I am going for comes from her

she is a 38 year old american-born vietnamese woman, who got parasitized and had the mutation center around her spine. she is actually not very far along in that mutation though since she has found a way to repress it... at the cost of some side effects. she is actively resentful of what has been put on her and wants no part in it beyond destroying the conclusion its hurtling towards, but that doesn't mean she isn't exempt from influencing others though it or can really fully resist the things it gives her. disdainful even before everything went down, and highly neurotic in a way that spurs a lot of her meddling.

one little but maybe important personal fact about her is that she is left-handed, but she wasn't naturally so from the beginning.

other than her, we have the second most focused on character in my mind, isaac, who is an actual protagonist

I have also never posted this because I have never gotten around to drawing a lot of them on their own but so it goes

Isaac (they/she, you see me use "they" a lot because I talk about them too much wrt sinclaire though). 33 years old or so, egyptian, born in america as well, and raised jewish. Isaac is rather nihilistic, secretive, laid back, and is shown to be a notorious shit-stirrer and enabler as things go down. they are not content just sitting around and trying to survive, and at the end of the world as people know it, isaac would much rather get involved in the things they want to stick their nose in and find out the things they want to know, even at the cost of backstabbing or abandoning those that have helped them they aren't a particularly moralistic person

in particular, they end up quite fixated on sinclaire and everything she starts messing with and a lot of their story focuses on that and how that develops.

to isaac, relationships are often like a game to them, and social conventions as well as people with power are meant to be maneuvered around for their own personal gain. in a way, thats meant to foil sinclaire's own disdain, taken on a different form. the way these two characters react to their alienation and diaspora as well as their views on power and who has it is an important part to their relationship.

those two are who I have most developed both as characters and visually. I do have one other character with a conceptual design so far, but mostly because I was throwing things together in a collage style to get a feel for where I want to go with her. so her actual design is far from concrete but, here's joaquina

50-60+ year old mexican-american woman (she/her). a widow who is strict and demands respect. the ability to repress the parasite was actually developed mostly for her sake, though she uses a lot less of that than sinclaire in the end as she comes to terms with making use of how things are now being a necessity

because of where the mutation is for her (her head and everything there), I am particularly excited in her story's focus in what its exploring in what it means to stay human, as well as breaking down the identity of a person who is older and more established in what they were, and what the world was. I don't have too much else to say about her yet.

other than these, there is another pretty important doctor character named gemma, who is connected to joaquina and sinclaire. and there are some other concepts for other characters but they are pretty vague for where I am at so thats most of what I can say for now.

the last thing I can talk about though is my dream presentation format for project synechiae. if I somehow manage to wrangle a coherent plot out of all of this and manage to put it on paper, I would love it to be as a visual novel similar to the silver case, which is also a huge inspiration to me

maybe not the same detached surrealism in the writing, but the presentation for sure.

thats all very very far off thinking for an idea only in its infancy. but anyway thanks for reading this far if you have! I hope any of this makes sense and thank you again for anyone that has any interest in it all

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hello there 🪰

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oh, miss pestilence

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various old ooooold sinclaire drawings (featuring a few guest appearances by isaac) dating alllll the way back from may of 2023 to early this year. you'll be seeing a lot more of her