Revamping character graphics for G!MB?

[Alessio]

I'm planning to put out a new minor release of G!MB to fix some typos and to include the new Ren'Py logo as soon as it is ready, and was wondering if I should take the chance to re-work the character graphics' outlines in colour. Currently, all characters are outlined with black lines. I noticed most CG artists use coloured lines instead, and it does make their drawings look very smooth. Question: Would it improve anything if I included new graphics as shown below, or should I rather let it be and keep the "Art Nouveau" style? :) Thanks for your comments!

[monele]

Works on the girl, but the guy looks blurry now ô_o... Strange, the colored lines usually work ^^;. I think it's the lines of the orange parts that don't work so well... maybe with a darker color ?

[Alessio]

That's probably it, the orange parts need a much darker outline. And maybe the guy's hair should have darker outlines too.

[Jake]

Question: Would it improve anything if I included new graphics as shown below, or should I rather let it be and keep the "Art Nouveau" style?

Well, if it's not too much trouble to change them all, myself I prefer the versions with coloured lines... I think the problem with the guy (whose name I'm afraid I've forgotten, which is terrible, I was just playing that last week...) is that coloured lines, to me, look good when they contrast against both sides of the line still; the outline for the orange on the shirt should thus be the dark brown of the shirt rather than the dark orange, or it doesn't show up against the background and looks odd.

The hair, on the other hand, doesn't look bad to me at all.

[Watercolorheart]

Well, there's a special way to do colored lines. I can describe it accurately, but it works best with the paintbrush tool not the pen tool like what you're using. Also, style varies.

I think, in this, black lines would look better, IMHO.

[mikey]

Maybe you could show us how it would look against the backgrounds? Will you be refiltering them as well? With some BGs (or some filter combinations), the black lines could work better, while the colored may work better with something else (great relativistic answer, huh? )

[DaFool]

I'm with monele on this.

But your characters originally looked pretty good and pretty professional already. Black lines are used lots in animation. But you can also find a compromise with using darker outline colors.

[RedSlash]

I think coloured lines work better when you use smooth shading, where in you case I think black is better.

[Alessio]

Thanks a lot everybody for your feedback so far, I'm surprised to see how opinions differ! I want to be sure on this one, to not waste time for changes that achieve nothing. :)

it works best with the paintbrush tool not the pen tool like what you're using.

Actually the lines are not drawn on the PC, they are the original inked/scanned ones. When the scan is resized to a smaller size, the lines become transparent on the outside and dark in the middle, very much like as if painted with a paintbrush tool. This transparency is kept when coloring the lines, since I only change the lines' color, not their Alpha channel values.

Maybe you could show us how it would look against the backgrounds? Will you be refiltering them as well?

Very good proposal, I'll make some fake screenshots for comparison when I have a few minutes. No, the backgrounds would remain as they are, I didn't find any reason so far to re-do them.

[Alessio]

Okay, so I've redone Matt's orange shirt and pasted my two guinea pigs onto different backgrounds. Sorry if it's a bit crammed, Aina was elbowing Matt away. ^_^;;; What do you think...? (Hm... I'm starting to believe that black outlines look really better in this case... odd.)

[PyTom]

I think I like the black borders better... It may have something to do with the relatively flat shading style.

[mikey]

Honestly, I can't decide - both have something to them. And crucially, I don't see one concept being substantially better than the other. If I had to be shot, I'd say go with the colored borders, but if I had to re-release a game just to change that, I'd probably say that the change is just cosmetic. But if you had a major thing that you need to repair in the game and make the switch to colored outlines as a bonus to that update, I'd say it's a good idea.

[monele]

I might lean towards black borders on this one too... even though I thought it was universally better with colored lines ^^;. Basically, I don't think this change would warrant a new release in itself. If there is something else though, it's a bonus....... *calls himself mikey-bis now*

[papillon]

Strangely I like the colored borders much more in the outdoor shot than the indoor one. I suppose the contrast plays with my eyes differently.

I've always found that colored borders, for me, didn't work out in the end. I've never been able to make them look right and tend to give up and go back to black.

[mikey]

...to give up and go back to black.

The fear of every man...