Potential TF Remaster - Preview (Patreon)

Hello--

You know I've been working on the new style and animations and have promised a progress update and preview. This is not that post.

(Note: The promised animation preview for the new style is ready, I only need to write up a post for it probably next week -- I wanted to throw this idea at you first and get your responses).

A simple character remaster is something that has been on my mind for a while, and I put a little bit of time into experimenting the other night.

I've previously explained in detail the problems with the existing Time Fantasy characters. As I'm working on the new style and preparing for a new set of tilesets with improved colors, I keep thinking about how many existing Time Fantasy characters there already are..

• Goal: Remaster the existing library of Time Fantasy sprites to have updated proportions and colors that will: 1. better match the upcoming new graphics, and: 2. be more versatile for users to 'kitbash' with the styles and assets from other artists.
  
• Goal: Find a relatively-easy way to modify the hundreds of existing sprites in the Time Fantasy collection. Completely automating the process will be impossible, as some level of individual pixel cleanup will be inevitably necessary. But the process needs to be efficient or it isn't worthwhile.

Here's what I've come up with:

The first (and maybe most important) step in this process is to fix the awkward sprite-width that's mentioned in that previous analysis. As a whole, they need to be one-pixel thinner to fit into a 16-wide tile. 

I've discovered that my removing the middle column of pixels, the sprites look OK enough- though certainly many will need small individual edits. So that's step 1: remove the center pixel line. After that, I tried some different things to balance it out.

The initial idea was to make the proportions look more like old Final Fantasy 5 or 6 sprites. My first attempt looks like this:

Note on new colors: The colors in all of these preview images were quickly enhanced with Photoshop contrast sliders. It's an improvement on the original colors, but done in a way to just get a feel for what improved colors might look like-- I imagine that the final result would be similar, but I'd put a little more time into a more consistent overall color palette.

Here are the same sprites from the above image, but on different tilesets. The bottom example uses some new tiles that you've seen in other preview images:

I think that the FF6 influence is evident.

I did one more attempt in this style at a full sprite, to get an idea how it might look for the fully-animated character:

After this one, I decided that it might be too much. There are a few problems:

1. This would take too long; there's too much difference from the originals. The characters are a lot shorter and it leads to a lot more inconsistencies when doing it across an entire batch. To make them this short would require a lot more individual attention to many sprites.

2. They look kinda goofy -- the chibi style is good for a lot of games, but not all. Lacks versatility.

3. They don't match well with the new character style. Originally this wasn't an issue-- the goal for a potential remaster was simply to match the new tilesets. But as I thought more about how they could potentially be used, I wanted them to look more proportionally-comparable.

So... the next attempt:

I used the same basic approach, but they aren't as short. I simply cut out a step-- instead of shrinking them down to look like Final Fantasy sprites, I kept them at the regular height: they're thinner but keep somewhat realistic proportions. Note: if I'm not shrinking them, it will be a lot less work and less room for individual inconsistencies.

There are two variations here: with and without the base shadow:

Ultimate I think that we need to keep the shadows. Remove the shadows from every sprite will be a huge task-- even if I'm able to automate it to some degree with a Photoshop action-- there are enough edge cases and individual sprites where it would be really awkward.

Instead, I thought about keeping the shadow, but making it smaller. It would be fairly easy to clip a few pixels off the shadow-- that is consistent on just about every sprite, so it could be automated and easy. It would also bring them in line stylistically with the new characters.

Here's an example: proposed remastered Time Fantasy characters next to characters from the new style:

Of course it isn't a perfect match-- the two styles won't be able to used alongside each other in a real game without looking out of place. But it's a way to get a lot more mileage out of the existing characters-- especially since there are just so many of them that we have created over the years. 

And as a bonus: while they might not be a perfect stylistic match, the proportions are now similar enough to crop pieces from TF for potential edits -- or even as 'paperdoll pieces' -- with the new style. Something that I've been thinking about...

So-- this is what a proposed Time Fantasy Remastered Character Collection might look like.

They're thinner by 1 pixel on average-- many sprites would have some further manual thinning to fit into a 16px-tile-width. They have a smaller 'footprint' shadow (removing the shadow entirely isn't a realistic option). The colors and contrast would of course be enhanced and brought up to modern standards.

------

Important Note: This does not include extra animations. I'm only looking at the sprites here in the classic JRPG setup: four directions, standing and walking. Additional animations (emotions, poses, weapons, battlers, etc) would not be a part of this remaster. The goal is to make use of the massive existing Time Fantasy character library (hundreds of sprites!) in a straightforward basic versatile collection.

------

As for the time and schedule:

This estimate is really rough: but I can probably use this process to jam through the existing TF sprite collection in a couple of weeks: naturally the part that will take the most time will be any individual details or changes necessary to specific sprites. Still-- we can assume that if I detour to create this remaster-- it would delay progress on the long-awaited new character style for 2-3 weeks.

------

So... The purpose of this thread-- and my questions to you:

• Is this worth it? Is this something you would be interested in?
  
• Would something like this be reasonable as a new paid pack-- maybe a 'complete' collection with remastered characters from every release together -- or maybe not fair to charge for it-- free updates for existing packs? (would be shared for patrons regardless)
  
• Or... should I forget about this and focus first on the new style release?
  
• Alternatively-- maybe this does seem like a worthwhile project-- but should I put it aside and worry about this after the new character release is finished?

------

Thanks for any feedback you can give. As always, I highly value input and ideas from patrons, and I rely on the responses to threads like these to determine the path for the future.

------

Anyways-- I'll still be back this week with the regular two asset releases. I'll be back on Wednesday and then Friday with some more sprite releases.

See you then. Thanks!