Cel-Shading is it good or bad?

Palademon

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It's perfect for showing cartoonish qualities and exhibiting lovely art styles. e.g Okami
 

blankedboy

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Well, it depends on how strongly you shade. It looked great in X-Men Legends and many other lighter-celshaded games, but in Borderlands and Ballocks it looked like shit and just got in the way.
 

TheSeventhLoneWolf

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The less realistic it looks, the more I'll be attracted to it.

If I like it or not is a different question though. Borderlands didn't really tickle my fancy.
 

OliveraFox

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Done right, the style and art of the game will last much longer than games trying to go for a fully realistic approach.

Valkyria Chronicles and GTA4 come to mind, both released around the same time but VC still looks as if it came out this year, while GTA4 looks a bit dated by today's standards (which is still looking pretty polished)
 

RhombusHatesYou

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TheRocketeer said:
RhomCo said:
Quite possible. Feasible? Dunno. Most people would just ***** about having to stand 10 feet away to get an idea of what's going on.
I was kind of thinking that, too. Understanding the world in front of you is kind of a big deal when ant men are shooting rockets at you. I think any experimental art style has a better chance (and a better testing area) in a slower-paced genre first, like the puzzle genre, or maybe an easier platformer like the newest Prince of Persia
Puzzlers would probably be the go. Although point'n'click adventures could also be worth a go, depending on the art style. Surrealism would work in a lot of cases but I can't really see abstract expressionism working.

Besides, point'n'click fans are usually pretty forgiving of a lot of things because it's not exactly an overserviced genre.


TheRocketeer said:
RhomCo said:
TheRocketeer said:
I'd suggest an Impressionist-styled game, myself, but one of the qualities of that style is that it looks like ass close-up, so the style itself might be it's own biggest problem if the developer isn't able to find some sort of workaround.
Well they'd have to get a really good grip on the fundamentals of Impressionism and what it was trying to achieve. I'd love to see a game use a visual style similar to Franz Marc... but I think his bold use of colour and line might be a bit much for most people.
I can't really claim to know enough about art OR programming to speculate, aside from enjoying their products. Again, most of these experimental or highly-stylized art choices would fit best in slower-paced, more cerebral types of games first, which is fortunate, because these games' audiences are most likely to enjoy visual homages to centuries-old painters- or, failing that, just enjoying something they haven't seen before in a game.
Franz Marc isn't 'centuries old'... He died in WW1. An artillery shell landed pretty much right on top of him, with hilarious consequences (assuming you consider 'being blown the fuck up and killed' to be hilarious).

However, you do have a point that any game that isn't anime style or 8-shades-of-shit-gritty-realism is going to be a hard sell in the mainstream. You'd have to hit a niche market and niche markets are often very demanding that the game be good as well... the bastards. No all-brown generic shooters for those smug pricks.
 

Slick Samurai

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I believe that cell-shading (if done correctly) has the potential to look astonishing while requiring little in the way of processing power to function. Turn your attention to games like World of Warcraft, for instance, and you'll see that this 5 year old game still looks quite good after a few tweaks with little system requirements.

The trick is optical illusions and remarkable use of colour pallets. However, low system requirements are not the only antic cell-shading is capable of. Cell-shading can also be used to render beautiful art and games. In my opinion, cell-shading should only be restricted to the most proficient of hands.

Plus we all know that TF2's engine shows that gore looks frackin' sweet in cell-shade.
 

Xyphon

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I prefer cell shaded nowadays because of all the brown games on the market. With so many games trying to look real, it gets very boring very fast. Games like Borderlands, Wind Waker, Okami and the Jet Set Radio series add a colorful flare to gaming because of cell shading.(Although Borderlands isn't exactly as bright as the others. Still has a bit of brown in it.)
 

StarStruckStrumpets

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LeonLethality said:
I love cel shading. It's a look that never ages. Wind Waker looks magnificent to this day

And so does Dark Cloud 2

Though it does have to be done right.
This, this, a thousand times this. Prince of Persia '08 was a very pretty game, shame everything else sucked.
 

Insomniactk

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PayJ567 said:
blurredplacebo said:
TF2 is probably the best looking cel-shaded game I play on any regular basis
I hear that. An excellent game and the graphics really suit it.

Also welcome to The Escapist Forums.
As previously stated in this thread: TF2 isn't cell-shaded.
 

Doug

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Veldt Falsetto said:
Gorgeous if done right, see Tales of Vesperia or Wind Waker.

Hella ugly if not...no examples in mind
Agreed - I actually preferred Wind Waker's cel-shaded graphics to the grey/brown dull graphics of the Wii Zelda, and I actually completed Wind Waker, whereas I gave up on the Wii Zelda pretty fast.

I do truly think that cel-shading can be awesome for displaying a stylisted view of reality, and when your presenting an unreal setting, it can help paper over thinks that your brain would naturally rebel over as its not pretending to be reality. And this doesn't mean 'Realism is bad', I just means realism is over used... and overly grey/brown for some reason - seriously, I see blues, greens, and reds in the real world too developers; especially you, Bioware, who should know better; you should have added more colour to the deep roads beyond red and brown.
 

mikecoulter

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I love the Borderlands art style. I think it makes that game look rather timeless. Instead of trying to be realistic, then becoming outdated within a year.
 

reg42

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Are you sure Rage is cel-shaded?

I love it, it's just got this artistic feel to it, which I find some other games lack.
 

Jennacide

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Rauten said:
Jennacide said:
Rauten said:
You want cel shading done right, you have to play JSR and JSRF. Hell, I think JSR may have been the first game to use it? And it looked AMAZING. Simply gorgeous.
Nope, the first game to use the style and pioneer it's use was Fear Effect. It also was the first game to use looping FMVs as the backgrounds instead of CGI stills, something that was quickly adopted by other games in the PSX era. And on a side note, was a downright amazing game.
It's well worth playing. The second one is alright, but tried for too much publicity with it's cheap antics at times, and the story isn't nearly as good. What made the first one great is it's still the closest you'll ever get to playing a good anime story. Not only visually but how the story unfolds in a very morbid and well told way.
Hm, true, I had forgotten about Fear Effect. Never played it, but read interesting and good things about it. May have to hunt it down someday. If my brother ever returns me my freaking PS2, that is ¬_¬
 

MrNickster

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I think cel shading is a good graphical style-it kicks realism out the window and that is not a bad thing. Plus, it helps games look really good on the Wii without having to try too hard, like Red Steel 2, MadWorld and No More Heroes 1 & 2
 

BubbaJeff

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I know this is the Gaming section, but i think this is relevent...

Anyone see the film 'A Scanner Darkly' a few years back? Its a film about druggies, essentially, and it's cell shaded from start to finish - and it looks great (even if it is Keanu Reeves). It also becomes evident that the quality of rendering changes depending on how blasted the characters are at the time; sometimes its near impossible to decide if its cell shaded at all, others it looks like its all been drawn rather than imposed over the top during post production.

I liked the art style in XIII and Borderlands. Was cool. Just a shame the games weren't so, they could have done with a little bit more diversity in both cases. ALSO cell shaded guns look a bit poo.
 

ImprovizoR

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I love cell-shading. Sure I also love games with amazing textures but some games are just better with cell-shading.
 

RhombusHatesYou

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BubbaJeff said:
Anyone see the film 'A Scanner Darkly' a few years back? Its a film about druggies, essentially, and it's cell shaded from start to finish
'A Scanner Darkly' was rotoscoped not cel-shaded. Similar processes but still different enough to warrant comment.