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So 1st and foremost, I am NOT an artist. But as a solo dev, I have to get my art done somehow. So this led me to decide between 2 options. The most obvious and straightforward choice would be to purchase/commission/draw pixel art directly. As I've mentioned, I'm not very good at drawing to begin with, so I've mostly just saved some of the free assets found on this forum as well buying some sprite assets (like the Tokiwa Monster Packs). The other option is one less traveled. Basically it involves rendering and animating something in 3D and then pixellating it afterward. Dead Cells is a good example of a game that utilizes this technique. This can save on many manhours if your game requires a lot of sprites/frames.
For instance, each character in my game will require 132 frames for all their actions, plus its 64x96 pixels per frame. Why so many? Well, I use LTBS (LeCode's Tactical Battle System) so combat takes place on the same map as exploration does, at least with the way I have it setup. In addition to the basic up, down, left, right walking animations, there are also attack, cast, hurt, and idle animations for each direction. Also, non-melee attack animations, such as for bows, also add to that high frame count. This is honestly so much more daunting to me than anything on the gameplay mechanics side of things, at least for an unartistic individual like me. I excel at number crunching, theorycrafting, balancing, combat mechanics, skill/spell creation, and basically all things database, so art is basically the opposite of my strengths.
So my question is this: Would rendering and animating units in 3D and then pixellating them be easier in the grand scheme of things? I understand that would involve its own workload, but it seems to at least be less daunting that drawing sprites frame by frame. I could also easily feature gear-dependent aesthetic changes in the game this way. Has anyone here tried this approach? If so, what are your thoughts/experience on the matter?
For instance, each character in my game will require 132 frames for all their actions, plus its 64x96 pixels per frame. Why so many? Well, I use LTBS (LeCode's Tactical Battle System) so combat takes place on the same map as exploration does, at least with the way I have it setup. In addition to the basic up, down, left, right walking animations, there are also attack, cast, hurt, and idle animations for each direction. Also, non-melee attack animations, such as for bows, also add to that high frame count. This is honestly so much more daunting to me than anything on the gameplay mechanics side of things, at least for an unartistic individual like me. I excel at number crunching, theorycrafting, balancing, combat mechanics, skill/spell creation, and basically all things database, so art is basically the opposite of my strengths.
So my question is this: Would rendering and animating units in 3D and then pixellating them be easier in the grand scheme of things? I understand that would involve its own workload, but it seems to at least be less daunting that drawing sprites frame by frame. I could also easily feature gear-dependent aesthetic changes in the game this way. Has anyone here tried this approach? If so, what are your thoughts/experience on the matter?
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