Oldschool Digitized Weapon Sprite!

[Tragos]

Here is a weapon test I tried over 5 years ago, basically I was studying how to come up with the wonky weapon angles as seen in Doom. I achieved only limited success, I've greatly improved on the technique in most recent years. My next attempt will be with a replica Pulse Rifle. I thought I'd post this for good laugh.

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[Xaser]

This sure is good, quality photography.

Actually, that's a pretty neat gun you've got there -- it's not too dissimilar to the Dakota that id used, and might be an interesting photo-edit to try if you still have it and can take some pictures with slightly better lighting.

[Tragos]

Yeah the quality of the pictures are garbage. It was only meant as a test, if I can find that gun again I might make a proper sprite out of it. I think it was a shotgun, how it broke in half to reload I thought was kinda cool. I learned a lot from that simple test years ago.... Now 10,000 pennies later I have a decent camera and chroma key screen.

[wildweasel]

I should try thumbtacking a bedsheet to my wall again and try faux-chroma-keying some of my plastic guns. Most of them are Nerf, but some of them could just be recolored in Photoshop. I've got some nice ones, including a Konami Justifier lightgun (actually just a blue Colt Python!), a toy MP5K, and two that seem based on the Colt M1911.

[bgraybr]

I used to have an airsoft AK-47, Uzi, 3 Pistols, and a Revolver. Sadly, the only one I have left is one of the pistols, a Desert Eagle, and its missing the clip. I wish I had kept all that stuff :/ I actually thought about taking some pictures of it and using it as a weapon sprite, but I don't think I would bother unless I was able to make a complete set of weapons.

[Tragos]

It's good to know I'm not the only one who tried that bed sheet method... My girlfriend at the time what like "What the F@CK are you doing!"... I had the whole room turned upside down to make room for the tripod.

After attempting this you have a new appreciation for all those guys who worked on Doom. One day I hope to get a working Next cube.

[Apothem]

Cool to see someone else try this. The thing I found out while attempting to do this is that lighting is the biggest problem. I've had more trouble making sure the background color contrasts enough with the objects you're taking pics of and getting the shadows to cancel out and consistent enough to keep the glare out.

That gun looks really awesome too, I'd love to see some better shots of it.

I've got an entire set up for doing this, but photoshopping everything to look right is a bit tedious and I dont exactly have the skills to do so. I could make a couple test shots if someone is willing to give it a try. I'm still working on saving up for some betting lighting equipment but the way I've got it set up I could still get a decent shot.

I can show you guys shots of my setup if you guys need better ideas. I can post all the info I've managed to pull together on how to do this if anyone is interested.

edit:

Now 10,000 pennies later I have a decent camera and chroma key screen.

:O
Wow, you seriously spent 10g's on a camera and a screen? Damn that is some commitment

What kind of Chroma key screen did you grab?

[Tragos]

Well I didn't actually spend that much, but after all the mistakes I made buying material/equipment that either didn't work or perform as expected the final investment grew dramatically from my original set $500 budget. I'll attach a picture of my grandiose studio setup soon. The list below also estimates cost of shipping for certain items. Most of the costs also are related to my project Aliens vs. Marines.

Costs:
1.) Multiple 1/12 scale Dragoon figures both new and used. Estimated $250
2.) Aliens material including comics, books, figures etc... I went a bit overboard back when I had a job and could afford all this neat stuff. $1000+
3.) Studio Tent including Lights $130
4.) 2 JVC Camcorders $80
5.) Tripod $40
6.) Camera mount $45
7.) Panasonic Digital Camcorder $400
8.) Optical Decay viewing system (For studying texture patterns on materials) $50
9.) CRT Monitor's and LCD monitors used. $115
10.) Warehouse racks for storage $500
11.) Graphic editing Software. $300+ I bought a lot because I'm unhappy with any single program to do the entire job.
12.) 3 different Lazy Susan's one being a custom piece $250
13.) A dozen different Chroma key screens. $200+
14.) Custom ART for title screen. $500
15.) Custom WALL Panels by Reverend. $300+
16.) Custom CAD designed wall panels. (cost to be still determined)
17.) Wacom Tablet $80
18.) Various books on game design, texturing, and painting. $400+

Need to still order:
1. Rare Earth magnet $50+
2. Chromakey paint $100+

Yeah little did I know what I was getting myself into before I started all this. It's been an active work in progress for years, it took quite some time for me to save up the money and make all this work how I envisioned. I'm still learning how to do things right, if I ever finished the tutorial I'm writing a cost conscious person could have the same setup for half the price. The conclusion I've drawn from all this is that it takes someone who's clever, smart, slightly crazy and a bit obsessed to undertake such a goal and succeed. Basically what I've done is re-create a miniature id software production studio in my garage. Except I'm the only employee besides my main Mapper which lives in Spain. Absorbing myself in this hobby is the only sure way to succeed. The only other thing to consider is "time", because it can be hard to balance things such as going to school, exercising and keeping the girlfriend happy all while trying to develop a serious successor to an almost forgotten computer game. (Aliens Online) However I love what I do, so I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Apothem]

Be wary of chromakey paint. especially the green stuff. With improper lighting, it bleeds on to the subject BADLY.

[Tragos]

I've heard of this, hopefully I'll have good luck with it. What I'm doing is painting the lazy susan, one green and one blue. It was impossible to rotate the lazy susan correctly with the chroma key material laying atop it, all while trying keeping the figure standing correctly. I'm thinking about selling my custom Lazy susans but they will be pricey. With the chorma key paint applied I will have better control over the rotations, also I will no longer have the problem of clipping of my characters feet as in the early tests.

[Tragos]

Here is a quick mockup sprite I created with images supplied by Apothem. Not too bad for only 10 minutes of work, it still could benefit from additional coloring and shading. The final version will most likely also have the image resolution doubled or tripled. For some reason I can't help but think of Rise of the Triad when looking at this gun.

[NeuralStunner]

That's pretty awesome.

For some reason I can't help but think of Rise of the Triad when looking at this gun.

[Ryan Cordell]

It's definitely the hand and the angle.

[Apothem]

Now that's some epic bad assery right there

I'm pretty sure some of the detail and other issues are related to exposure, and I will be fixing that here shortly. If I can find my filters I might be able to cancel out some of the orange in the picture and give it some more blue. Hopefully I can solve this problem. Worst case scenario all I need to do is get different bulbs for the light fixtures I have.

I was considering using a LED array wired to a microcontroller and mount them to the box somehow. The light from a white LED would be IDEAL for this kind of stuff. I'm gonna be doing more research and development on this so hopefully there will be more and better looking pictures.

[Tragos]

http://www.stopmotionworks.com/howtostopmofilm.htm
http://www.giantbomb.com/digitized-sprites/92-2288/

This is where I started 2 years ago. I actually have a book somewhere that actually shows a diagram of a sprite studio. It takes so much trial and error but the results make it worthwhile. Very few people seem interested in resurrecting this old style art, since 3d rips seem to be all the rage these days. I'm generally happy with the image above, but I'd like to make it more pixely.