Ziltama's Stage & Screenpack W.I.P. Thread (formerly known as Sexy Thread)

[ziltama]

Sexy Parodius - Last Boss

I decided to try another stage like my SMB stages: take the original low-res graphics and redo them in higher res.

Of course, it's missing a lot of layers, but the Kaori graphic is finally done.  I am not going to go crazy like the SMB stages and have the entire stage there.  The stage will just feature the boss area.

WIP "Sexy Stage":

[Cybaster]

Wow, making a high-res version of this kind of stage is insane.
Very nice job overall here.

Her fingers look a bit short, but I suppose this comes from the original art.
Also, if the background behind the girl is separated from her, you may want to cut it in even more pieces to make the gradient a bit better (we can see lines for now).

Good luck with your spriting.

[The Zorc]

WoW sexy stage like look stage of sagat XDDD.Good job.

[Lobo]

lol I can see where you put the moon on this stage. Yes I know, everyone wants to kill me for saying it but hell I had to.

[Dr. Mask The 3rd]

I knew someone would put something like this in Mugen 

Looks, good at this time

[ziltama]

For some reason, when I put the gradients into Mugen, it came out like that.  The 256-color pcx files appear smooth (I split the gradient into 4 parts), so I don't understand why it appears with such color loss and dithering.  Oh well, I'll figure something out.

The Kaori sprite is 1230 pixels wide.  The fingers are like that in the original.

[PotS]

For some reason, when I put the gradients into Mugen, it came out like that.  The 256-color pcx files appear smooth (I split the gradient into 4 parts), so I don't understand why it appears with such color loss and dithering.  Oh well, I'll figure something out.

Same thing happened to me before, have no clue why it happens either...
I know, that wasn't any help at all, just wanted to say it's not just your problem.

Just have two suggestions so far: the shadows could be a bit darker, and the zoffset could be changed because having the chars closer to the bottom of that sprite than to the top makes it look dull and out of perspective IMO. Or just put the top yellow line a bit lower, same effect.

P.S.: I actually always pictured this as a char, and would've made it myself if I didn't have a little sister using the same PC as I.

[ziltama]

Just have two suggestions so far: the shadows could be a bit darker, and the zoffset could be changed because having the chars closer to the bottom of that sprite than to the top makes it look dull and out of perspective IMO. Or just put the top yellow line a bit lower, same effect.

I'm confused, so pull the zoffset line higher than?  (Or drop yellow border lower?)

I'll take a look at shading after all the layers are put together.  The original color scheme is bright to begin with.  I only used the colors from the original sprite.  I had an idea earlier where I could make the stage darker, and have the penguins operate spotlights.

Here's a 2x reference shot from the Saturn version:

(As a side note, MAME still cannot emulate the game properly and most stages have missing layers.)

I'm working on the cloud background at the moment.

I would like to put in all of Kaori's animation frames, but there's a big problem with that: only the right half is animated, so I wouldn't know what to do with the rest of the legs.  It also took me 2 weeks just to finish Kaori's main frame.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do with the music.  The proper BGM is a remix of Gradius 3 boss music, so, not that exciting.

Click here to hear what the BGM sounds like.  Choose track 36, "I Am Kaori".  Track 35 is the main stage BGM; I may end up using that.

[PotS]

I'm confused, so pull the zoffset line higher than?  (Or drop yellow border lower?)

Right.

[Renzo F]

About the color loss:
Do you use 16Bit color depth when running mugen? The PCX pal has R8G8B8 colors, but when showed in 16Bits we lose some bits (R5G5B6 or other combinations) so that should explain it.

[ziltama]

No, I don't use 16bit color depth either.  I don't think mugen likes certain gradients very much.

[PotS]

How about making her look at the chars? Animating it so she alternately looks left and right.

[ziltama]

No matter what I do, the gradients won't come out right.  I guess Mugen does downgrade the final output picture to 16-bit color.  I even tried the RGB split trick with the same result.  Maybe it won't be as noticeable after I add all the other layers.  I could change it to something else afterwards if I don't like it.  I was going to make the gradient transparent and put a starfield behind it.

I am going to try at least animating the eyes after I'm done with all the other layers, in addition to adding Takosuke and the Sexy Parodius ships.

[Bastard Mami]

that must be a very annoying mugen bug >.<

[ziltama]

No luck on the gradients.  I also just noticed it on my Mario stages as well.  Ah well.

Took me like a week to just to re-sprite the cloud layer.  I decided to separate the clouds from the gradient and the buildings, make it scroll, and give it parallax.  (looks much nicer in motion)



Now I'm working on the pillars and transparent curtains.  Currently, I have a remix of "Fire Tripper" from Salamander 2 playing as the bgm.

Just realized the clouds are too low and the layers are off (relative to original layout x2 zoom).



Readjusted the gradient and cloud layers positions.  As I add more stuff, the gradient should be less noticeable.

I suppose nonsexy characters may be used on the stage.

[Cybaster]

Looks fuckin' nice, as usual.
Clouds are indeed better on the 2nd screenshot.

I suppose nonsexy characters may be used on the stage.

* Demitri Maximoff starts thinking about which character could fit into this wonderful stage.

[Renzo F]

Looks terrific, but you know Ziltama, JPG screenshots screw the quality. Use PNG instead.

[PotS]

Took me like a week to just to re-sprite the cloud layer.  I decided to separate the clouds from the gradient and the buildings, make it scroll, and give it parallax.  (looks much nicer in motion)

I think parallax may make them look flat, you could "just" split the clouds into several layers and make each of them move with a different velocity (typical method used in 2D games). Of course I put "just" between quotes because I guess you're pretty tired of working on that sprite already.

[BigBoss]

Zilt i think you just completed every 10 year olds fantasy thousands of kids will be fapping to this stage mainly leechers.

[titytity]

wonderfull ! I like Hi-hres!
Mugen is forever