Photorealistic remake of D2 Monster sprites!?

Expressing Doom Monsters through sprites,  gives a very definitive & artistically beautiful Style of Presentation & Animation to them!

This form of animation gives on the other hand many limitation for resolution upscaling & true-lighting interaction, but the key benefit is, 

that it enables lower processing cost for the CPU, as also has no strange collision behavior in movement depiction, providing a flawless Animations portray.

Watching PRODEUS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzHOq42B7LU gameplay & seeing that it also like Doom uses Sprites for Enemy animation, Mind Blown.

& after some deeper thoughts on sprites I realized so strong how much potential this form of Animation can have for Shooting games! 

 

So Looking on some art-design for Doom Monsters as also on the core sprites came up the idea,

WHY NOT REMAKE THE MONSTER SPRITES of classic Doom, in a photorealistic way!  

& the best about it is, that this possibility could be executed in a very good & fast way!

But to do so, it would require a lot of Manpower & Teamwork!

 

So it all goes with motion caption of real humans in costumes & with today camera-tech it is so very nicely possible to make!

& its not a 3d motion-capturing of movement, that is then transitioned onto 3D-models, like here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDbMwxs6w9A, 

but just a specific photo-set /sequence that present an specific movement unit/action, so more like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZsQQIRJIA,

but now it can be done in a more easy & effective way. In specific I think best way would be to use a video capture with a high frame rate.

& then in the postproduction analyze & select the needed frames. Capturing of the movement  would get tricky,

because the walk-animation would  have to be captured in one fix spot, so a kind of treadmill mechanic for the ground would have to be used.

Then to make it more easy for getting all the necessary perspectives, the use of multiple cameras at once with  the diverse angledirections could be arranged!

This is the technical Set-up, that would be maybe little bit expensive but not to crazy, so very makable!

But now comes the hardest Part finding the right cosplayer (Look,build..), with the right costumes (design, paint..); but there are so many cosplayers out,

as also actor students or even Doomplayers, that maybe have a similar build to an enemy type, because its here only about the movement acting,

& the costumes could provide other, it don't have to be done by one person.

So to make this work, it needs just a good teamwork of people that bring the right skill for every required layer of this project !

 

But now how to handle the not humanoid like Monsters, beginning with pinky & going all way to Mastermind,

I think this gives a good answer for the problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6BJxALLqsg, but here comes also the most difficult part,

because here is the use of hardcore special effect from Fields of mechatronic, Puppets (Painelemental) & make up needed,

& that stuff would require much technical knowledge & some Money! For Zombie man you find a Dude with a right build, & give him some good costume,

& let the Makeup artist polish his style, but  Mastermind or Arachnoid, or even Hellknight, & Cacodemon. . 

 

Then after getting the right set of pictures you apply some right filtering & so, the only hard stuff would be to make Death animation,

because this frames you would have to make self drawn, but still some movements could be captured & only the blood & guts drawn in.

In context, to give a greater polish & satisfaction for this visual aspect of the gameplay

a variation for the death animation, that depends on your weapon use, would be nice to have.

Here is a great example for this https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/105672-sprites-alternative-deaths/

 

So the last Big  internal Problem or challenge that remains for this Project to overcome is, 

if such photorealistic sprites would visually be to much in conflict with the classic doom surroundings-textures?

I think through use of filters & smoothing of the edges of the Monster frames it could be established some harmonic connection

between the the new animation sprites and the environment of classic Doom, but sure, it would need some figuring out for the right design.

 

So I think this is a super possibility for a Big-renovation in graphics for vanilla Doom1-2 that wouldn't break its alluring Art style like the 3D attempts,  

and also could be done relatively fast & provide a very beautiful outcome, but what you think?

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by sualocin

Sounds great! Tell us when you are finished and don‘t forget to post your first results! 

A relatively fast realization of this project would require

in items:

- wide enough Room/Studio (high cost, maybe not if one knows a friend with the right location)

- propper lighting (low-medium cost, depends on lights)

- green/blue screen hangings for clear background (not sure how expansive, but not to high I hope)

- set of 8 cameras of the same type for the 8 viewangles (expensive, but affordable)

- fitting hardware power with the right software, like photoshop & some other programs (medium cost nowadays)

- costumes, puppets, mechatronic stuff.. (not money, dedication)

in people:

- the cosplayers/actors  (plz see for nice example of this possibilities here: in doomworld /forum/topic/105558-classic-doomguy-cosplay/

- costume designers & concept designers)

- mechatronic & puppet effects

- make up artists

- choreography expert-coordinator

- lighting specialist

- hardware & Software experts, making set up of all 8 cameras simultan connecting & the photoshop postproduction pros

 

So like said, to do this would require Teamwork!

I just liked to advertise this possibility,

because maybe so, some Doom players who have the "necessary" desire, dedication & skill for this,

get aware of it & come together to do this!

Hope very much this could happen ;D 

5 hours ago, sualocin said:

- set of 8 cameras of the same type for the 8 viewangles (expensive, but affordable)

This is unnecessary.  The method that game developers use for digitizing actors and models is to use a single camera but have the actor/model stand on a turntable. 

 

See the Rise of the Triad capture session videos for an example:

 

 

@TheUltimateDoomer666

 

Thank you very much for showing this example! 

But this Approach of captioning & digitizing the actors is surly very time consuming, and would also produce very artificial & not very naturalistic motions.

This way was sure good for the days before, where the hardware power was very limited & also the camera & such things were very expensive.

 

But now with a treadmill mechanic, without a turntable, you can just have the actor, making naturalistically, as usual in real life fluent motion,

that you  video capture & then in postproduction  select & pick the necessary frames for the Sprite-animation.

So no stop motion through a frame by frame captioning process, as also no turning, with the 8 cameras at once. Some general inspiration here

 

In this way you could get relatively fast & easy all the need frames, as also the motions & poses of the portrayed characters would be 100% realistic.

So its really a big WIN situation, to produce this photorealistic sprites with such method!

 

Ah + also for the fallings in death animation or even some flying, you could use some thin ropes/wires - the honk kong method

to ensure a realistic way of motion for this kind of movement, but this would require more space & cameras with a bigger field of view & Focus,

because the source material has to be crispy sharp & then maybe in photoshop smoothen through application of some filters & so :) 

Edited June 1, 2019 by sualocin

10 hours ago, TheUltimateDoomer666 said:

See the Rise of the Triad capture session videos for an example:

 

 

 

Is that Tom Hall turning the table?

Yes, it is.

While it requires great skill, I think the best results would be with photorealistic 3D models, which can be modified, turned and posed in any way you want. Also saves you from cheaply designed costumes.

Edited June 2, 2019 by DANZA

@DANZA

Yeah it requires much more work & this way is already nicely handled with the new Doom (2016-Eternal),

but here its more about a modification for the existing id1 engine/code! 

Its about the exchange of the base animation sprites. I don’t know how it exactly works & if there are some cache limitations,

but there are many possibilities for the sprite manipulation & adding, like we see in diverse mods.

 

& no no, that’s the point, it about very, VERY good  costumes! This is what would make the magic so great.

So its about an very defined & dedicated attempt to bring the Doom2 Monster-cast in great looking realistic sprites to live, 

with all the necessary Skill Power & Dedication of the Fans.

 

Also the sprites give you a very interesting advantage, because there are captured from real space objects with real light behavior,

so you get real textures & Look! In contrast every 3D graphic model is a simulation, even with a very tech advanced complex  graphic engine,

its remains a program, that's designed to simulate & recreate the visual effect of reality through principles, but a photo  is a capture of the reality itself! 

Also the use of good materials & textures with good lighting, would give incredible visual appearance, that even 3D models couldn’t compete with!

In this Sequence of photorealistic frames, you only don’t have the option of dynamic lighting,

but the feel of textures, colors, its taken directly from visual-light-reality itself, no simulation, true colors! ;)

So it remains a very fascinating animation style for the character depiction, but sure it has to be done right!

But with so many talented & passionate people  & the more affordable high-tech (cameras, computers, programs) 

the possibility for a good realization of this project stands very good, I would boldly say ;)