Looks amazing! Really sad that the PS1 era "pixel sprites in a 3D world" didn't take off as an aesthetic much. Many of my absolute favourite games of all time are made with that style.
yeah that's because most game studios of the time never thought of employing real artists and animators, it was all about the shortcuts and bottom-line (still is tbh)... The ones that did though, created some of the most visually innovative and greatest games of that decade.
Chrono Cross is something truly special and unique. Especially because of the music, art direction and the story imo. But they use 3d models in 2d prerendered backgrounds no ? Like in final fantasy 7-9, legend of dragoons, etc. And Now with deep learning AI, Games with prerendered background are getting decent graphical overhauls which is great!
Thanks Scoop I appreciate your feedback! Its not shown here but the idea is that the player as a stamina limit that is spend when double jumping and while hanging. So the player cannot hang indefinitely and has to plan his path/parkour. This is to create possibilities of "jumping puzzles" in the exploration gameplay.
Nice proof of concept! I’ve been thinking of graphics for a game I’m creating. I wanted to use 2D sprites on a 3D environment. I’m going to make my environment with magicavoxel so hopefully the pixelated look will blend in nicely! Thanks for this demonstration, it’s made my decision to cut out 3D character modelling and animation out of my game… I still want that but by myself, I’ll probably die before I finish a project that big!
Hey ! You're welcome! Would love to see the result as I never tried magicavoxel. I as well thought I would die of old age if I stuck to 3D only haha. For the past 6-7 months I have been hard at work coding the gameplay systems and Im looking foward getting back to creating visual assets. The environment will be done with Sprytile in Blender. To get that octopath traveller environment style. But Im curious to look into magicavoxel. Good luck with your project! Let me know when theres a build to try!
@@Soyaa a lot of what I’ve done so far is off the back of TH-cam tutorials, started out in game maker studio 2 but coding collision in a fake z axis was starting to turn into a nightmare (besides, sprite stacking so much give me a lot of slow down). I’m very much new to unity and C# in general but I’ll get there with some dedication! As for magicavoxel; I’d recommend having a mess around with it, I believe you can open .vox (voxel image files) into blender and from that; into unity. There’s something almost therapeutic about creating voxel art in magicavoxel. Another cool thing about it is; you can open standard sprite art made in programs like asprite or even MS paint and make them look 3D. I hope I’ll have a working build of… something, within a year 😅. I’m currently just working on music, story and set piece ideas to strive towards but I’m also learning the ins and outs of unity with a hefty collection of books I’ve bought 😅
@@Soyaa gonna subscribe now, looking forward to seeing the progress you’ve made and good luck!! Making a game is extremely overwhelming by yourself or even in a small team!
Thanks for the sub I appreciate it 😁 I will definitely give magicavoxel a try this weekend! Man I started the same, by following youtube unity tutorials and read about C# on my spare time. It takes time but its a lot of fun. Good luck with your projects and keep me posted! I'll beta test it if you need
@@Soyaa I’d love that! I’d love to try out your projects also! I’ve got a few friends who are helping with… well, judging 😂. Currently reading the “unity from zero to proficiency (beginner/part 2)” book, that’s teaching me the syntax of c#. Compared to GML (game maker language) it follows the same fundamentals (which is good, the things I’ve learnt so far will ease me into this) just with a few terminology changes (functions = methods; but not quite {I suppose I’ll get round to that soon enough} 😅) and having to initiate variable type. That’s new to me but seems simple enough. There’s a few books in this series, I’ve read through the (fundamental/part 1) book. Still yet to install unity, but I’ll be doing that after I’ve read through these books. Seeing others create games is pretty inspiring for me. TH-cam is so vast in content! It’s also an amazing distraction 😂
Thanks !! I am planning to release a break down video of the process as soon as I have time to record and edit. But basically I made the character with Blender and I clean it in Aseprite. I detail the process here : th-cam.com/video/eSqb6II3WMM/w-d-xo.html Whats new is I am using normal maps on the 2d character to interract with lighting and give it some 3d depth. Since the character is made in blender, creating a Spritesheet of the normal map to go with it takes only a few clicks. The scene was made in Unity and I coded the character and camera control logic. Its very basic and experimental for now as we are trying to settle on a style and a gameplay feel!
@@Soyaa let me level with you for a second, electrical engineering? pretty smart. general relativity? pretty fuckin' smart. Using a Normal map on a 2D sprite in a 3D environment to give it a better feeling of depth?? FUCKINNGG GEENIUSS!!!!
Only thing I would change is adding a couple more angles of sprites, other than that, amazing! Great aesthetic. Also, 100% want a legit Hunter x Hunter game 8D
Thx!! Would love to add more angles. Maybe when the project is more complete Ill be able to evaluate if the scope with the sprites could be expended. It is already possible in the code to add more angles. The limit is about the time required to render and polish every single sprites. A walking animation is 8 frames x 8 angles = 64 sprites to polish per character. Same for running, a little bit less for jumping, etc. So time required would increase exponentially.
@@Soyaa Try this: th-cam.com/video/vIKJ1AqfI0Q/w-d-xo.html I'm doing a similar thing, although with a 2D game, but pre-rendering my sprites for all the different frames/moves/etc. You would NOT BELIEVE HOW FAST AND EASY...
cool proof of concept i like how the grass obscures your legs. I'm wondering how a game like this would do with more complex game landscapes/elevated terrain i think a fps game should tackle making a realistic stalker like game but with 2d sprites. I think many people could handle the style if you could draw them with interesting gameplay mechanics that gel in a stylized way.
Is it a transparent3D model, and the head angle is being measured to the camera angle and based on passing certain thresholds, it activates a different 2D sprite pattern to appear? I’m working on a similar project, but from IRL videos -> motion tracking (openpose) -> 2D sprite conversion. Any help would be amazing!! As a beginner in coding, being able to take a look at the code itself would very super duper amazing. Thx for the great demo! You are every brilliant.❤
Wow this looks super good I've been trying to capture this type of style for a while now but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I wanted to ask you 3 questions: 1. How did you make the sprite change based on camera location did you use a shader or use a plugin? 2. How did you make the normal maps? 3. How did you make the grass is it just a bunch of sprites that re billboarded or are they sprites that are placed together to create that 3d feel? Sorry for asking so many questions
Hey thank you! :) To answer your questions : 1 : Scripted at first, but now I am using a plugin. Im not good enough with shaders so I was using a script that compares the character controller orientation with the camera orientation and return the difference in degrees of the angle (between 0 and 359). The sprite renderer is on a child gameobject of the character controller and is always facing the camera through script. This difference in angle degrees is used in blend trees in the animator of the sprite renderer so it shows the right animation. Lets say your character is looking north with a rotation Y of zero, and the camera is behind him, also looking north with a rotation Y of 0, the difference of degrees between the two is 0 and it means we should see the back of the character. If the character is looking east, with a rotation Y of 90 and the camera is stil looking north with a rotation Y of 0. It means the difference is 90 degree and with should see the right side of the character. In the animator I use blend tree to change between the different animation of every side depending of this difference of angle. So because this is an 8 direction sprites (360/8 = 45), the blend tree will show the back of the character if the angle differences is between 337.5 and 22.5 degrees, then change the orientation when the difference is between 22.5 and 67.5, and so on. I used my own code during the early prototyping but now I am using an asset from the asset store called "SpriteMan 3D" which does all this but better. Its a plug an play plugin in the asset store that does all this and is very user friendly with great documentation. There is a free version which let you use 4 directions sprite if you want to try it out : assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/spriteman-3d-47367 Question 2 : I intend to make a video about this as soon as I have some free time. but in summary I make and animate the character in Blender. Its pixelized in Blender and I use Aseprite to clean it up, polish de details and create the sprite sheet. So its only a few clicks to render the same animation but with the normal maps shader on. Then I make a 1:1 sprite sheet of the character normal maps matching the original character sprite sheet and but both on a material that is used by the sprite renderer in Unity. My process of creating a sprite character with blender is well detailed here if you are interested : th-cam.com/video/eSqb6II3WMM/w-d-xo.html Question 3 : In Unity, for the grass I use this shader. I modified the included prefabs alphas with my own. assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/stylized-grass-shader-14383 Then I use Vegetation Studio for the scattering! assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/vegetation-studio-103389 Hope this help! Let me know if you have any further questions!
@@Soyaa thank for such a fast and detailed reply you pretty much answered my questions that I ask and probably were gonna ask I appreciate the help and I can’t wait to see more of your work!
Are you talking about the character? I cheated. I made the rigging/animation but the model was downloaded here www.models-resource.com/psp/hunterxhunterwonderadventure/ As for the building and the scene, I made a timelapse : th-cam.com/video/3bjA0IrooCM/w-d-xo.html
An online pc game like this would be a complete hit, anyone would play because i would take low resources, not even installation would be necessary, it could be played directly theough a browser.
Hey someday I might do a tutorial about this but in the meantime you should go take a look at this asset : assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/spriteman-3d-47367 This is the plugin I use paired with a regular 3rd person character controller and an standard orbiting camera.
Hey thanks! Its placeholder arts unfortunately It was going to be a hxh fan game for fun and learning but one of my video got taken down so.. for copyright reasons, its gonna be a game in which the player is on an island where he/she needs to explore, fight and collect cards. But with an original story and characters.
dude this video is having me want to change to this style right now I'm doing something similar with 2d character 3d world but my camera is stationary rn but after seeing this its making me want to make a similar control system. also are the grass and sky assets custom or downloaded because dang they are clean.
Do you post any update about your project ? I would love to see what you make :) For this project the idea is to emulate old school games like Xenogears or Grandia, Trails in the sky, etc but with a more modern free camera. Also the plan is to use some platforming elements in the exploration, jumping puzzle, etc so that kind of camera controls makes sense gameplay wise. The battle and scenematics will be in a 2.5D format to recreate those epic sprite battle animation we used to see on Newgrounds (and youtube of course). A Stationary camera is very good to emulate even more old school games. I guess it would depend on what kind of gameplay you are planning to do ? As for the assets : This skybox is a pixelated version of the one found in this asset assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/fantasy/fantasy-adventure-environment-70354 For the grass I use this shader. I modified the included prefabs alphas with my own. assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/stylized-grass-shader-14383 Then I use Vegetation Studio for the scattering! assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/vegetation-studio-103389 Hope this help!
@@Soyaa rn I don't but if I do I will let you know its still in the really early stages but I'm hoping to make an rpg that has a combat system thats a 3 by 3 grid and some other elements but after seeing your 3d model to pixel art I feel a whole lot better about the animation side just need to get the rest made and story down
Quite the endeavor! the walking animation is 8 frames in this case. So you would have to draw 360 x 8 = 2880 frames just for the walking motion alone. Tho I would be curious to see the result!
@@Soyaa Thank you. 😊 and as for drawing 2880 frames, if I had the staff and money, it would be 2880 pictures of a cel shaded 3d animated model. Man that just sounds so awesome to me. One day, man. One day I hope I could get into something like that.
Basically you compare the character object's orientation versus the camera's to return the angle the animator is supposed to show. If you dont want to code it youself there is an asset in the asset store called SpriteMan3D that does the job well. Hope this help, let me know if you want to have more details on the process!
I have no idea! I love this old school style. Some of my favorite rpg of all time was made like this and I think it ages well. Better than the games using prerendered backgrounds.
@@Soyaa Yah... Im the ones that like sprites Mixed with 3d enviroments. I generaly like pixel art, part becouse that let People imagine the details that pixel Art most of times dont have it detailed.
Tho the snapping is intentional, this is using an 8 directions sprite. It is totally possible to make a 16 directions or even a 32 directions sprite but the problem is the time commitment this would represent. Especially in a game in which there would be multiple character. I am too lazy to draw that many sprites haha
is it possible if 4 directional instead of 8d? maybe even 2d? does doing these improves performance? like nowadays games is 3D and burns your computer, would def play games that run smooth like doom
Theres good examples of Procedurally pixelated environments : This guy is doing it in 2.5D : th-cam.com/users/aarthificial And this one is doing it top down :th-cam.com/users/t3ssel8r
It looks wrong. Because the sprite is always facing the camera it'll be like the character is laying in the grass. Thats why the camera vertical position has a max limit. The other solution would be to render/ draw the characters from a top view and change the sprites based on camera vertical angle.
Hey :) well in unity you can pass a "float" variable into the animator and change the animation playing in a blend tree based on that float. So the idea is to create a script that compares your character orientation to the camera oriention and return the angle degree difference. This difference is the float used to tell the animator what animation should be shown on the sprite renderer. So for example, if your character rotation.Z is 90° and your camera is also 90°. It means the difference is 0° and the camera is supposed to look at the back of your character. If your character is facing north bit your camera is looking south, it means the difference is 180° and the sprite renderer should show the front of your character.
@@Soyaa Doing some research on implementing a similar system. Thank you for going into a little detail on how to achieve this. It looks great and I am going to try and replicate. Subscribed!
You might want to take a look at a plugin named "Spriteman 3D" in the Unity Asset Store. Theres a free version to try it out but its so easy to use that ive stopped using my own code for the 2d sprites in 3d environnement
this is soo similar to what I am trying to go for, specifically the 2D sprite being able to move in a 3D world! There are just NO good tutorials for it though. So you think I could contact you about how you achieved this? It would be such a breakthrough for me, I've been stuck on this for what seems like ages now.
Sure! You can come ask your question on our discord here, I'll give you details how the multi-angled sprite works. Tho I used to code it myself, now I am using a very efficient plugin. discord.gg/wZN8wNjH
Good question, its retro in the way that its using 2D sprites in 3D environment. The gameplay in this video is like a 3D platformer I would say. The game will have 3D exploration with platforming elements and turn based/physics based battles using this retro style!
Hey! Unfortunatly I don't have the free time necessary to do a detailed tutorial at the moment but I can answer any of your questions and guide you to ressources or tutorials I used depending on your current knowledge. Let me know if I can help.
@@Soyaa That would be awesome, Can you point me in the direction of where you learned. The main questions I have are scaling sizes and terrain, textures. I'm using Pixel art as well and I'm torn between using unity terrain or something like Sprytile for Bforartists.
I like working with Sprytile in Blender but never heard of bforartist. I will look it up. As for your question. Personnaly I use plugins called Gaia2 to create the terrain and Vegetation Studio texture it with rules based on altitude and slopes, and spawn the vegetation. I use unity terrain for small correction.
This is amateur level of Unity and C#. Maybe between 1-2 hundred hours of tutorials and having fun with smaller projects. So assuming you just started gamedev you'll get there pretty fast.
@@Soyaa I've been messing with unity for a while now, it's just my first time trying to do a 2.5D game of this type (and kinda my second time doing genuine 3D haha), so I'm figuring some stuff out I originally had made the enemies follow/aim at you by looking at you and such but making the sprites face the camera conflicts with that, so I'm trying to figure out a workarround kinda a similar issue for the character having to face the camera (it's like, 45° topdown) but also stuff having to happen paralel to the plane and not the character
Hey maybe take a look at this asset called "Spriteman3D" in the Unity asset store. Theres a free version if you want to try it out. Its not exactly plug and play but the documentation is very easy to follow. This might help with your issues.
I cannot share the source code because it is using some paid assets that I am not allowed to share freely. But I can guide you if you have any questions!
Looks amazing! Really sad that the PS1 era "pixel sprites in a 3D world" didn't take off as an aesthetic much. Many of my absolute favourite games of all time are made with that style.
I agree, for me its Xenogears that hold the first place in my nostalgia. I might replay it once every 2 years haha what are yours?
@@Soyaa Xenogears also! Then later Trails In The Sky for PSP. Grandia was pretty good too.
Dagerfall
yeah that's because most game studios of the time never thought of employing real artists and animators, it was all about the shortcuts and bottom-line (still is tbh)... The ones that did though, created some of the most visually innovative and greatest games of that decade.
Minecraft is the only major modern example I can think of that gets close to that
YOOO this is rad! I also -love- 2d characters in 3d environments and I don't see nearly enough of that, and this is done so well too!
Glad you like it! imo this style is aging better compared to 3d models in 2d prerendered backgrounds, or maybe its the nostalgia
Yes! the devs of Sonic Robo Blast has done this really well imo
@@Soyaa I was just thinking about it, is there any good discussion about this? When I think of Chrono Cross and how well they utilized it.
Chrono Cross is something truly special and unique. Especially because of the music, art direction and the story imo. But they use 3d models in 2d prerendered backgrounds no ? Like in final fantasy 7-9, legend of dragoons, etc. And Now with deep learning AI, Games with prerendered background are getting decent graphical overhauls which is great!
Holy shit, when you started jumping and grabbing onto ledges... that looks very satisfying
Thanks Scoop I appreciate your feedback! Its not shown here but the idea is that the player as a stamina limit that is spend when double jumping and while hanging. So the player cannot hang indefinitely and has to plan his path/parkour. This is to create possibilities of "jumping puzzles" in the exploration gameplay.
@@Soyaa Dude, that sounds awesome. What engine are you building the game in?
@@arknark This is made in Unity!
god a greed island game in this style would be so freaking cool
This looks awesome. I loved your previous video on blender pixel art characters!
I missed your comment, sorry about that :p thank you so much :)
Nice proof of concept! I’ve been thinking of graphics for a game I’m creating. I wanted to use 2D sprites on a 3D environment. I’m going to make my environment with magicavoxel so hopefully the pixelated look will blend in nicely!
Thanks for this demonstration, it’s made my decision to cut out 3D character modelling and animation out of my game… I still want that but by myself, I’ll probably die before I finish a project that big!
Hey ! You're welcome! Would love to see the result as I never tried magicavoxel.
I as well thought I would die of old age if I stuck to 3D only haha.
For the past 6-7 months I have been hard at work coding the gameplay systems and Im looking foward getting back to creating visual assets. The environment will be done with Sprytile in Blender. To get that octopath traveller environment style. But Im curious to look into magicavoxel.
Good luck with your project! Let me know when theres a build to try!
@@Soyaa a lot of what I’ve done so far is off the back of TH-cam tutorials, started out in game maker studio 2 but coding collision in a fake z axis was starting to turn into a nightmare (besides, sprite stacking so much give me a lot of slow down). I’m very much new to unity and C# in general but I’ll get there with some dedication!
As for magicavoxel; I’d recommend having a mess around with it, I believe you can open .vox (voxel image files) into blender and from that; into unity. There’s something almost therapeutic about creating voxel art in magicavoxel. Another cool thing about it is; you can open standard sprite art made in programs like asprite or even MS paint and make them look 3D.
I hope I’ll have a working build of… something, within a year 😅. I’m currently just working on music, story and set piece ideas to strive towards but I’m also learning the ins and outs of unity with a hefty collection of books I’ve bought 😅
@@Soyaa gonna subscribe now, looking forward to seeing the progress you’ve made and good luck!! Making a game is extremely overwhelming by yourself or even in a small team!
Thanks for the sub I appreciate it 😁
I will definitely give magicavoxel a try this weekend!
Man I started the same, by following youtube unity tutorials and read about C# on my spare time. It takes time but its a lot of fun. Good luck with your projects and keep me posted! I'll beta test it if you need
@@Soyaa I’d love that! I’d love to try out your projects also!
I’ve got a few friends who are helping with… well, judging 😂. Currently reading the “unity from zero to proficiency (beginner/part 2)” book, that’s teaching me the syntax of c#. Compared to GML (game maker language) it follows the same fundamentals (which is good, the things I’ve learnt so far will ease me into this) just with a few terminology changes (functions = methods; but not quite {I suppose I’ll get round to that soon enough} 😅) and having to initiate variable type. That’s new to me but seems simple enough. There’s a few books in this series, I’ve read through the (fundamental/part 1) book. Still yet to install unity, but I’ll be doing that after I’ve read through these books.
Seeing others create games is pretty inspiring for me. TH-cam is so vast in content! It’s also an amazing distraction 😂
Yooooo this looks so pretty, the map is looking absolutely beautiful. And your sprite thecniques are slick, I'm looking forward this proyect.
Thanks man! :)
Woah! This looks so cool! I've wanted to make a game in this style too but I didn't realize third person climbing could look so cool with 2D sprites!
I was like “yeah that kind of basic but cool” THEN IT STARTED MOVING AND THE SPRITE CHANGED AND I LOST IT
Hahaha best comment in a while xD glad you like this!
Wow! This looks amazing!
Thanks :)
Reminds me of Ragnarok. Congratulations! It looks amazing.
This is so cool :0
How did you do it?! It looks absolutely incredible dude
i agree dude
Thanks !! I am planning to release a break down video of the process as soon as I have time to record and edit. But basically I made the character with Blender and I clean it in Aseprite. I detail the process here : th-cam.com/video/eSqb6II3WMM/w-d-xo.html
Whats new is I am using normal maps on the 2d character to interract with lighting and give it some 3d depth. Since the character is made in blender, creating a Spritesheet of the normal map to go with it takes only a few clicks.
The scene was made in Unity and I coded the character and camera control logic. Its very basic and experimental for now as we are trying to settle on a style and a gameplay feel!
@@xolzu5643 DUDE I WAS GONNA DO THIS! This idea is so cool
@@Soyaa let me level with you for a second,
electrical engineering? pretty smart. general relativity? pretty fuckin' smart.
Using a Normal map on a 2D sprite in a 3D environment to give it a better feeling of depth??
FUCKINNGG GEENIUSS!!!!
@@Soyaa can we have a tutorial about that? I mean the coding in unity. That's look too good!
that's amazing, good work!
Thanks :D
Yooo a Greed Island game? That's pretty rad.
Legend of a game: Breath of the sprite
Amazing, you are on to something great!
Thanks! Happy you think so too :D
Just stumbled upon this. Very cool concept
Thanks man :)
THE CLIMBING MACANIC IS SO COOL-
WHAT A GREAT IDEA!! Looks good and I like the fact that it is HunterxHunter greed isle!!
Thanks a lot 😁 im working on this project slowly but surely!
@@Soyaa that's great and cool :D
looks great! i love the style
Thanks 😁
Ah, the "Asterix & Obelix XXL GBA / SRB2" look, but with more modern "Octopath Traveler"-esque lighting. Nice!
It's looks like Ragnorok Online. What a wonderful game!
Nice and creative artstyle, would love a Pokemon or Megaman game like this
Absolutely fantastic work, well done.
very similar to ragnarok. cool work bro
Gives me Megaman Legends vibes.
Only thing I would change is adding a couple more angles of sprites, other than that, amazing! Great aesthetic. Also, 100% want a legit Hunter x Hunter game 8D
Thx!! Would love to add more angles. Maybe when the project is more complete Ill be able to evaluate if the scope with the sprites could be expended. It is already possible in the code to add more angles. The limit is about the time required to render and polish every single sprites.
A walking animation is 8 frames x 8 angles = 64 sprites to polish per character. Same for running, a little bit less for jumping, etc. So time required would increase exponentially.
@@Soyaa Try this:
th-cam.com/video/vIKJ1AqfI0Q/w-d-xo.html
I'm doing a similar thing, although with a 2D game, but pre-rendering my sprites for all the different frames/moves/etc. You would NOT BELIEVE HOW FAST AND EASY...
This is just fancy to look at! :)
I want to see more of this
How did you do that? did you make a turorial?
cool proof of concept i like how the grass obscures your legs. I'm wondering how a game like this would do with more complex game landscapes/elevated terrain i think a fps game should tackle making a realistic stalker like game but with 2d sprites. I think many people could handle the style if you could draw them with interesting gameplay mechanics that gel in a stylized way.
Nice minecraft gameplay
incredible, keep it up!
Thanks :)
This is very cool!
Isso tá muito foda! (BR)
Obrigado!
Nice! Like a ragnarok online.
Yes ! But with more movement freedom
greeeeeedo island hahah this is aaaawesome!
Looks great
Beautiful
Thank you
I like this idea.
Thanks man! :)
This is exactly what im looking for. Brief advices on resources to look into to achieve this?
Is it a transparent3D model, and the head angle is being measured to the camera angle and based on passing certain thresholds, it activates a different 2D sprite pattern to appear?
I’m working on a similar project, but from IRL videos -> motion tracking (openpose) -> 2D sprite conversion.
Any help would be amazing!! As a beginner in coding, being able to take a look at the code itself would very super duper amazing.
Thx for the great demo! You are every brilliant.❤
Wow this looks super good I've been trying to capture this type of style for a while now but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I wanted to ask you 3 questions: 1. How did you make the sprite change based on camera location did you use a shader or use a plugin? 2. How did you make the normal maps? 3. How did you make the grass is it just a bunch of sprites that re billboarded or are they sprites that are placed together to create that 3d feel? Sorry for asking so many questions
Hey thank you! :) To answer your questions :
1 : Scripted at first, but now I am using a plugin. Im not good enough with shaders so I was using a script that compares the character controller orientation with the camera orientation and return the difference in degrees of the angle (between 0 and 359). The sprite renderer is on a child gameobject of the character controller and is always facing the camera through script. This difference in angle degrees is used in blend trees in the animator of the sprite renderer so it shows the right animation. Lets say your character is looking north with a rotation Y of zero, and the camera is behind him, also looking north with a rotation Y of 0, the difference of degrees between the two is 0 and it means we should see the back of the character. If the character is looking east, with a rotation Y of 90 and the camera is stil looking north with a rotation Y of 0. It means the difference is 90 degree and with should see the right side of the character. In the animator I use blend tree to change between the different animation of every side depending of this difference of angle. So because this is an 8 direction sprites (360/8 = 45), the blend tree will show the back of the character if the angle differences is between 337.5 and 22.5 degrees, then change the orientation when the difference is between 22.5 and 67.5, and so on. I used my own code during the early prototyping but now I am using an asset from the asset store called "SpriteMan 3D" which does all this but better. Its a plug an play plugin in the asset store that does all this and is very user friendly with great documentation. There is a free version which let you use 4 directions sprite if you want to try it out : assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/spriteman-3d-47367
Question 2 :
I intend to make a video about this as soon as I have some free time. but in summary I make and animate the character in Blender. Its pixelized in Blender and I use Aseprite to clean it up, polish de details and create the sprite sheet. So its only a few clicks to render the same animation but with the normal maps shader on. Then I make a 1:1 sprite sheet of the character normal maps matching the original character sprite sheet and but both on a material that is used by the sprite renderer in Unity.
My process of creating a sprite character with blender is well detailed here if you are interested : th-cam.com/video/eSqb6II3WMM/w-d-xo.html
Question 3 :
In Unity, for the grass I use this shader. I modified the included prefabs alphas with my own. assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/stylized-grass-shader-14383
Then I use Vegetation Studio for the scattering! assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/vegetation-studio-103389
Hope this help! Let me know if you have any further questions!
@@Soyaa thank for such a fast and detailed reply you pretty much answered my questions that I ask and probably were gonna ask I appreciate the help and I can’t wait to see more of your work!
Hey!
You’re absolutely amazing. I want to become a Game Developer too!
However, I can’t make art. Can’t even draw a hand…
Can you please make a tutorial on how to make 3d models because I love how yours look
Are you talking about the character? I cheated. I made the rigging/animation but the model was downloaded here www.models-resource.com/psp/hunterxhunterwonderadventure/
As for the building and the scene, I made a timelapse : th-cam.com/video/3bjA0IrooCM/w-d-xo.html
Reminds me of Ragnarok online. Looks great :)
Thanks ! I love this old school style 😁
An online pc game like this would be a complete hit, anyone would play because i would take low resources, not even installation would be necessary, it could be played directly theough a browser.
Is it a similar concept to Doom? Is the character actually an image that changes angles?
TH-cam: is this Minecraft?
Can you please do a tutorial on how you get the character to switch idle angles when the camera rotates a certain amount ??!!
Hey someday I might do a tutorial about this but in the meantime you should go take a look at this asset : assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/sprite-management/spriteman-3d-47367
This is the plugin I use paired with a regular 3rd person character controller and an standard orbiting camera.
@@Soyaa this is excellent. thank you!
AYOOOOOO, imagine you could actually play greed island
HxH is in desperate need of a game like this
I agree 1000%. I still dont understand why it hasnt been done yet.
is the game gonna be a hunter x hunter fan game or is it placeholder art looks amazing btw
Hey thanks! Its placeholder arts unfortunately It was going to be a hxh fan game for fun and learning but one of my video got taken down so.. for copyright reasons, its gonna be a game in which the player is on an island where he/she needs to explore, fight and collect cards. But with an original story and characters.
dude this video is having me want to change to this style right now I'm doing something similar with 2d character 3d world but my camera is stationary rn but after seeing this its making me want to make a similar control system. also are the grass and sky assets custom or downloaded because dang they are clean.
Do you post any update about your project ? I would love to see what you make :)
For this project the idea is to emulate old school games like Xenogears or Grandia, Trails in the sky, etc but with a more modern free camera. Also the plan is to use some platforming elements in the exploration, jumping puzzle, etc so that kind of camera controls makes sense gameplay wise. The battle and scenematics will be in a 2.5D format to recreate those epic sprite battle animation we used to see on Newgrounds (and youtube of course). A Stationary camera is very good to emulate even more old school games. I guess it would depend on what kind of gameplay you are planning to do ?
As for the assets : This skybox is a pixelated version of the one found in this asset assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/fantasy/fantasy-adventure-environment-70354
For the grass I use this shader. I modified the included prefabs alphas with my own. assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/stylized-grass-shader-14383
Then I use Vegetation Studio for the scattering! assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/vegetation-studio-103389
Hope this help!
@@Soyaa rn I don't but if I do I will let you know its still in the really early stages but I'm hoping to make an rpg that has a combat system thats a 3 by 3 grid and some other elements but after seeing your 3d model to pixel art I feel a whole lot better about the animation side just need to get the rest made and story down
I'd be nice if there was a game with 360 rotation sprites. I hope one day that I'll be able to make that game.
Quite the endeavor! the walking animation is 8 frames in this case. So you would have to draw 360 x 8 = 2880 frames just for the walking motion alone. Tho I would be curious to see the result!
@@Soyaa Thank you. 😊 and as for drawing 2880 frames, if I had the staff and money, it would be 2880 pictures of a cel shaded 3d animated model. Man that just sounds so awesome to me. One day, man. One day I hope I could get into something like that.
@@spider13593 well could you please name 1
I know this is almost a year old, but please tell me how you were able to rotate the sprites on camera rotation
Basically you compare the character object's orientation versus the camera's to return the angle the animator is supposed to show.
If you dont want to code it youself there is an asset in the asset store called SpriteMan3D that does the job well.
Hope this help, let me know if you want to have more details on the process!
Looks do Awesome... Why we dont see to mutch games in this style?
I have no idea! I love this old school style. Some of my favorite rpg of all time was made like this and I think it ages well. Better than the games using prerendered backgrounds.
@@Soyaa Yah... Im the ones that like sprites Mixed with 3d enviroments. I generaly like pixel art, part becouse that let People imagine the details that pixel Art most of times dont have it detailed.
This makes sense, it leaves the details to the imagination.
Great video :) is there a way to make the transition between angles smoother?
Tho the snapping is intentional, this is using an 8 directions sprite. It is totally possible to make a 16 directions or even a 32 directions sprite but the problem is the time commitment this would represent. Especially in a game in which there would be multiple character. I am too lazy to draw that many sprites haha
@@Soyaa Thanks a lot for the response 😊 glad to hear it's possible albeit time consuming
No problem! thanks for asking :)
How do you get your camera to interact with the character like that? Can you make a tutorial?
When will we get to see the Hunter Vocabulary english dub with translations (Episodes 1-26)
That would be a lot of dubbed noises haha as soon I as I have some time to do some video edit Ill send you a link!
@@Soyaa Ok, that sounds good.
I'm curious as to how you got the sprite to turn to another angle when the camera moved to his side. How did you do that?
By any chance you could share a tutorial? This is awesome
Unfortunatly for the momemt I don't have enough freetime to make a decent tutorial about this but I may answer any questions you might have!
How can I do something like this? 😅
What software do you know how to use ?
@@Soyaa Hey, sorry I already figured it out 😅
I have another question tho..
How can u change ur sprite in Pixelman 3d.. ?
@@vinjustig4291 you mean like how I animate it ?
@@Soyaa..
No how u Import the Gon Sprite and use it instead of the basic knight..
I really don’t know how to change it.. 😅
I’d be glad if u could help 😅
Men this is beautiful, I love it so much !
Do you have any instagram or social media where we can follow your work ? ;)
Sure! Happy to have you on board :) I post updates on Twitter and Reddit mostly :
www.reddit.com/user/Soyafire
twitter.com/Soyaa_Studio
How can i put a 2D character in 3D environments? i've wached some Billboarding tutorials but i couldn't understand very well
this is very cool.
Glad you like it!
is it possible if 4 directional instead of 8d? maybe even 2d? does doing these improves performance? like nowadays games is 3D and burns your computer, would def play games that run smooth like doom
Cool!
dope
Can We Make Environment Pixelate So And Make 2D Game How It Would Look Like ?
Theres good examples of Procedurally pixelated environments :
This guy is doing it in 2.5D : th-cam.com/users/aarthificial
And this one is doing it top down :th-cam.com/users/t3ssel8r
What happen if you look from top of the player?
It looks wrong. Because the sprite is always facing the camera it'll be like the character is laying in the grass.
Thats why the camera vertical position has a max limit.
The other solution would be to render/ draw the characters from a top view and change the sprites based on camera vertical angle.
Could you explain this in a detailed and technical way? Please (I don't speak English, I'm using the translator, please use simple words)
I did a tutorial on how I make the characters, if you want to know how I work
I'd love to know how you got the sprite to change based on the camera angle -- I'm new to coding but this style is so gorgeous to me :)
Hey :) well in unity you can pass a "float" variable into the animator and change the animation playing in a blend tree based on that float.
So the idea is to create a script that compares your character orientation to the camera oriention and return the angle degree difference. This difference is the float used to tell the animator what animation should be shown on the sprite renderer.
So for example, if your character rotation.Z is 90° and your camera is also 90°. It means the difference is 0° and the camera is supposed to look at the back of your character.
If your character is facing north bit your camera is looking south, it means the difference is 180° and the sprite renderer should show the front of your character.
@@Soyaa took me forever to get a notification for this comment (thanks TH-cam) but thank you so much! I'm gonna give this a go in unity
You're welcome ^^ good luck and let me know if you need anything else!
@@Soyaa Doing some research on implementing a similar system. Thank you for going into a little detail on how to achieve this. It looks great and I am going to try and replicate. Subscribed!
You might want to take a look at a plugin named "Spriteman 3D" in the Unity Asset Store. Theres a free version to try it out but its so easy to use that ive stopped using my own code for the 2d sprites in 3d environnement
It's greed Island!!!!!!
Haha it is! Working hard on this game atm.
This looks so good. But I suppose this is very much time demanding, way more than just model and animate a 3d character.
cool
Thanks!
this is soo similar to what I am trying to go for, specifically the 2D sprite being able to move in a 3D world! There are just NO good tutorials for it though. So you think I could contact you about how you achieved this? It would be such a breakthrough for me, I've been stuck on this for what seems like ages now.
Sure! You can come ask your question on our discord here, I'll give you details how the multi-angled sprite works. Tho I used to code it myself, now I am using a very efficient plugin.
discord.gg/wZN8wNjH
awesome..
What is called to this type of Game/Genre?
Good question, its retro in the way that its using 2D sprites in 3D environment. The gameplay in this video is like a 3D platformer I would say. The game will have 3D exploration with platforming elements and turn based/physics based battles using this retro style!
awesomeeee
Amazing
O.O Greed Island
It is!
how i make this on Unity? you make tutorial pls?
How to do that in unreal engine 4? Help who knows
No idea personnaly I've only work on unity but it should be totally doable.
How did you do it?
Do you have any discord channel?
I have discord but no server for this project specifically. I could make one tho if some are interested.
Gosh This Thing Gives Me Paper Mario Vibes,How You make A Tutorial Video On it 😌😌😌
I will as soon as I find the time !
@@Soyaa greattt,Im Excited For it !!!!!
Can you do a tutorial for this please, I really would love to know how to make a landscape like yours.
Hey! Unfortunatly I don't have the free time necessary to do a detailed tutorial at the moment but I can answer any of your questions and guide you to ressources or tutorials I used depending on your current knowledge. Let me know if I can help.
@@Soyaa That would be awesome, Can you point me in the direction of where you learned. The main questions I have are scaling sizes and terrain, textures. I'm using Pixel art as well and I'm torn between using unity terrain or something like Sprytile for Bforartists.
I like working with Sprytile in Blender but never heard of bforartist. I will look it up.
As for your question. Personnaly I use plugins called Gaia2 to create the terrain and Vegetation Studio texture it with rules based on altitude and slopes, and spawn the vegetation.
I use unity terrain for small correction.
@@Soyaa I appreciate your feedback, I love your style and I wish you great success with your project. Bless you!
Is there anywhere i can dm u at, i have alot of questions haha
Sure ! Find me on discord
SOYA#8403 and ask away
Im getting Xenogears vibes
Exactly what I am going for, its my favorite game of all time
How is this coming along?
Slowly, my free time evaporated lately, but I should get back to it at the beginning of summer.
Gon?
Yes!
I really really wanna know how to do this lol
This is amateur level of Unity and C#. Maybe between 1-2 hundred hours of tutorials and having fun with smaller projects. So assuming you just started gamedev you'll get there pretty fast.
@@Soyaa I've been messing with unity for a while now, it's just my first time trying to do a 2.5D game of this type (and kinda my second time doing genuine 3D haha), so I'm figuring some stuff out
I originally had made the enemies follow/aim at you by looking at you and such but making the sprites face the camera conflicts with that, so I'm trying to figure out a workarround
kinda a similar issue for the character having to face the camera (it's like, 45° topdown) but also stuff having to happen paralel to the plane and not the character
Hey maybe take a look at this asset called "Spriteman3D" in the Unity asset store. Theres a free version if you want to try it out.
Its not exactly plug and play but the documentation is very easy to follow.
This might help with your issues.
@@Soyaa oooh oki
I'll check it out thank u
NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
getting xenogears vibes
A man of culture. My absolute best favorite game of all time.
Damn shawty where'd you get 8.9 billion Jenny for a copy of greed island??
Been beating a lot of floors at the heaven's arena !
s---source code?
I cannot share the source code because it is using some paid assets that I am not allowed to share freely. But I can guide you if you have any questions!
Link fore mobil stp
Anybody wanna help me make a game with a similar style to this?
To masadura
The characters voice screaming this is stuck in my head forever
jadi pun
mimpi dah jadi kenyataan tinggal masuk dungeon wa takut