Archive: 11 posts

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Im trying my hand at making my own characters for my levels and they just plane suck! Do any of you artists have any simple tips to help me out!

2009-10-13 23:40:00 Author: DAMAGE_INC91 Posts: 29

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Well son, making a "new person" takes commitment and...oh sorry, misunderstood the title there for a second. There are many levels that contain pre-made characters that they allow you to use, but if you are looking to make your own characters, look at the Character Design contest threads in the Contest Sub-forum. Take cues from some of the contestant's entries. Note their styles and how they combine shapes, materials, stickers, and colors. You can learn a lot from simply observing others.

2009-10-13 23:44:00 Author: BSprague Posts: 2325

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^ I lol'd at the first part And what I do is to take a picture of the person, or you that you want to make the character of. (Make sure there are no obstructions, [preferably a blank background] before you take the pic) Then take out a block of cardboard, paste the picture onto the front, and cut the edges off the picture using glass or another material (but glass is better as you can see, whatever works for you :-P) Then you can use corner editor if you're a perfectionist. But that's how I do it :L

2009-10-13 23:56:00 Author: Ricano Posts: 434

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Listen to ricano4life, he has the right idea. Oh and by the way, you don't suck at making people.... unless you are me

2009-10-13 23:58:00 Author: iGotFancyPants Posts: 1355

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^ I lol'd at the first part And what I do is to take a picture of the person, or you that you want to make the character of. (Make sure there are no obstructions, [preferably a blank background] before you take the pic) Then take out a block of cardboard, paste the picture onto the front, and cut the edges off the picture using glass or another material (but glass is better as you can see, whatever works for you :-P) Then you can use corner editor if you're a perfectionist. But that's how I do it :L I wasn't sure if he was talking about making cutouts or full-fledged characters, we'll have to see what he thinks. Also, if he just wants to make cardboard cutouts, there are plenty of levels with the stock ones pre-cut.

2009-10-14 00:00:00 Author: BSprague Posts: 2325

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I wasn't sure if he was talking about making cutouts or full-fledged characters, we'll have to see what he thinks. Also, if he just wants to make cardboard cutouts, there are plenty of levels with the stock ones pre-cut. Ohh, well then I posted all that for nothing :L

2009-10-14 00:09:00 Author: Ricano Posts: 434

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I wasn't sure if he was talking about making cutouts or full-fledged characters, we'll have to see what he thinks. Also, if he just wants to make cardboard cutouts, there are plenty of levels with the stock ones pre-cut. Cut outs. As in taking the block of marble and chiseling out something beautiful lol. I think that the picture thing would work pretty well... if i had a concept in mind. I just have a problem making the shapes look good

2009-10-14 02:03:00 Author: DAMAGE_INC91 Posts: 29

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There are also tons of great stickers you can use to cut out things and layer them to composite faces and features. The corner editor is good but sometimes cutting out with shapes can save some work, for example if you need a well defined curve it can help to use the round shapes. to cut out exactly what you want though you might want to remove some of the round shape and then L3 to make it a copy and you can use that new shape to do the deleting.

2009-10-14 02:57:00 Author: Foofles Posts: 2278

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Keep in mind that if you're going to be making a pretty full level, that it pays to be stingy with your corners. Ultimately, the fewer corners you use in your shapes, the more stuff you'll be able to squeeze into the level. I found you can get a pretty decent "round" edge with only a few corners, and if you use materials like fabrics and sponge, all of the corners are rounded anyway, so that's a good "cheat" to get rounder objects with fewer corners. I approach characters in two ways. One is sack-people - I've made myself a "photos studio" level which is just a black background, invisible dark matter, and a bunch of lights. I'll play this level and dress up my sack-person, pose them, and then take a photo. I'll then go into my level, sticker this on a flat piece of cardboard, and then cut out the basic shape. The other way is more in-depth unique characters. Google image search is my best friend. I'll give you an example from a recent level I've been working on. http://imgur.com/rpdDm.jpg I needed a bunch of rich, pompous characters. Here's a screenshot of two sitting down to dinner. I'll concentrate on the man for now, because he was the trickier of the two. First I did a bunch of google image searches until I found "the one". This one was found with the search "pompous". http://imgur.com/PTCoO.jpg So I cut out a basic shape for his profile, and then set about using the various stickers to try to fill in the facial features, trying to match the image as closely as possible. Obviously, you can't match it perfectly because your stickers aren't like pencils. But I was able to use a number of shapes to try and approximate my reference. You end up with something that looks pretty different from the original image, and you can fool yourself that you're an original artist (when really you're just a failed thief). While trying to find this old image, I came across a few that would actually make perfect characters in LBP, and I wish I had seen them when I was making my characters in this level! Check this one out though, this guy looks like he'd be pretty easy to make in LBP, and he's FULL of character! You know who this guy is right at a glance. http://imgur.com/CSLPC.jpg So, to recap: ? corner edit like the dickens! ? use stickers in unique ways ? Cheat like CRAZY using reference images!

2009-10-14 05:40:00 Author: Teebonesy Posts: 1937

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I usually draw my characters on paper first and lay out how they will move. I've got tons of stuff and artwork for all my projects and for my Halloween level that might be coming out...well, it will come out but perhaps not in time for halloween I'll upload a few pics later when I've got time to scan them.

2009-10-14 05:57:00 Author: Zwollie Posts: 2173

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very cool thank you!

2009-10-14 22:25:00 Author: DAMAGE_INC91 Posts: 29

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