Am I the only one who isnt a fan of cel shading in games?

[girzwald]

It just seems like its an overused and lazy art style. I mean, I'm no artist or graphic designer, but between creating the graphics for a game like borderlands as opposed to something like MW3.... its got to be way easier and cheaper.

I just feel like many of the developers that do "choose" it, because its easier and if someone says "hey, your game graphics look a cartoony piece of crap with everything retraced with a sharpie" they can say "it was a style choice, its art, you don't know what you are talking about, and you have no taste sir"


Anyone else agree?

 

[lacktheknack]

Inb4 Critical Miss.

Anyways, no, I don't agree with you. Prince of Persia 2008 looked spectacular, and I want to see more games on the PC that try an artstyle like that.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Well pretty much every game that is based on a cartoon is cel-shaded to make it look like the cartoon, so those are all fine. It would look kinda creepy if they were more realistic to be honest.

Also I could imagine some games would look pretty horrible if they weren't cel-shaed, such as the Sly Cooper games.

So...I disagree.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I thought it was a great choice for Borderlands, WAY better than the brown shit they were planning on in the beginning of development.

 

[xyrafhoan]

Of course cel shading is cheaper than ultra realism. But if your budget doesn't allow for ultra realism, your game will likely look better if do you take some artistic liberties and apply filters. One of those filters happens to be cel shading. And not EVERY cel shaded game has to have thick, black outlines, though the outline look is meant to invoke a comic-book look.

When I took digital arts, I did use a toon shader on my character because it fit the way I modeled better. I'm fairly minimalistic and am pretty bad at making detailed textures, so the shader just fit the way I worked much better than if I'd aimed for a realistic looking human. You could say I was too lazy to rework the character model and learn to texture better, but with all my time constraints, I didn't want to live at my school.

 

[Puddleknock]

To a certain degree I agree with you, I'm not the biggest fan of cel shaded graphics. But this is just a preference on art style. There is a place for it and the style does have a following, but not everyone can like every art style. There are more than enough other games that don't use cel shaded graphics for me to buy.

 

[damselgaming]

You forget that sometimes it's a technological workaround, Skyward Swords painty art style for instance. And cell shaded games hold up a lot longer than games that try to be realistic. Think of Wind Waker (2002) VS MGS2 (2001).

 

[Joccaren]

In some ways yes, in some no.

Cel shading is good when done in the right games, games that look better cartoony. I think Borderlands did well with its cel shading. At first I found it just odd, but then I grew to love it. It also does not have the problem of Realistic graphics where they get outdated fast. Look at CoD MW3. To me, that looks like crap when compared to BF3, but since BF3 is where realistic graphics are at ATM, I can't help but compare it and find it lacking. Borderlands on the other had still holds up as it is what it tries to be: Cartoony.

 

[Palademon]

How is it overused? Certainly nowhere near overused when compared to games that don't use it, or games that try to look as realistic as possible.

And yes it is an art style. That doesn't mean you can't say it doesn't look nice. It just means THEY DID IT ON PURPOSE TO SUIT THE GAME. Just because someone thinks it looks shit doesn't mean it must be removed.

Also, when did making a game that invites not judging games purely on how real they look a bad thing?

So, put me down for disagree.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

How about games like the original Adventures of Alundra? Those style of simple anime style graphics worked briliantly with the older game systems. I wish the DS did more like that than the dodgy 3D they sometimes come up with!

 

[dimensional]

Not sure why you think its overused. Not all games have to have a `realistic` art style developers just choose whatever style they think is best for their game (excluding outside pressure) as well as something that is feasibly possible.

Look at okami would that have been better with realistic graphics? I think not its art style fitted it perfectly same with borderlands and arguably windwaker, then of course you have games based on anime licences such as Naruto Shippuuden Ultimate Ninja Storm which looked great, imagine how pissed off fans would be if you completely changed the art style.

Then look at fighting games most (all?) are cartoonish because it is easier to create a vibrant character if you dont make them super realistic not to mention making all the stupid stuff they can pull off slightly more believable and I suppose it is easier to create clashed of colour to help with spatial awareness.

I could go on but the point I am trying to make is no I strongly do not agree with you not everything should be realistic looking or cartoony (cel shaded) looking or anything inbetween each is a viable option and can all look and play amazingly well if the game feel and mechanics backs it up, plus anyone who completely dismisses a game because of its looks is a bit of an idiot dont judge a book by its cover as they say.

I am also not sure why you think it is lazy, creating a decent cel shaded look is not something you can just bang out sure a supreme realistic look would be harder (which is why we dont have photo realism yet imo) but it seems artists have more fun with cel shaded looks so you tend to get more fluidity and humour in their designs this is just my speculation though.

 

[willsham45]

Lazy...a lot of effort needs to go into the techs to make it do its stuff right.

Cell shading generally has more staying power, it feels more unreal that allows the game to loosen up somewhat. small glitches like clipping are less likely to break your experience and the like.
They usually hold up better on the graphic front, like 2d games it is hard to date or notice ageing graphics as there is only so far you can take it.

I am not sure about the technique on the resource hardware side, simple textures lead to smaller files, but then again borderlands textures are not exactly detailed the only effect is the outlines.

 

[Freaky Lou]

It got to be a bit of a gimmick for a while there, but cel-shaded games generally do look really stylish and cool imo. I don't think it's a cop-out---games like Okami, Viewtiful Joe, No More Heroes, etc. look a lot better with cel-shaded graphics than they would've any other way. It's just a matter of what art style fits the mood of gameplay, setting and story.

 

[Sixcess]

I'm conflicted. On the one hand my second favourite game series of all time, Fear Effect, used cel shaded characters against rendered backgrounds, which was hugely effective and enabled far better facial animations than would have been possible in 2000 with more conventional graphics.

On the other hand I hated the art style of Champions Online so much that I couldn't even bring myself to finish the tutorial.

So... it depends?

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Not overused, and well-placed in most games.
For instance, i think cell-shading is UNDER used, i think adding it to some franchises would give it more finesse and style.

Also, this is appropriate-

Spoiler: No offence meant of course

And on another note, i love the way you compare effort put in graphics wise with borderlands and MW3, and then say MW3 had more effort put into it's graphics.
Bullshit.
MW3 put minimum effort into EVERYTHING it did, re-hashed gameplay, weapons, perks and graphics.
Hell, they use the same textures from MW2 on most things.
I guarantee you that everything put into borderlands (including graphics) had more thought and effort behind it.

 

[Batou667]

Cel Shading suits some games and can potentially ruin others, simple as that really. I loved Jet Set Radio (and JSRFuture), and they just wouldn't have been the same without the great cel-shaded visuals. Ditto with XIII. Cel shading is also very well-suited to games that are better off bold and iconic rather than detailed and intricate - like Street Fighter 4 or MVC3.

But on the other hand, I remember there was a very annoying trend a few years back to simply use cel-shading as a cheap and lazy alternative to employing texture artists, and it just didn't suit some games at all.