i dont know what to call the art style in doom64.

[memes4lyfe]

I think one word would be "gothic" and maybe a mix of "muscular For the monsters. But i dont know the "patterns" of this art design, if that makes sense. Does this art style have a name? And how can it be replicated?

[Nevander]

I call it gothic, dark or Lovecraftian.

[Szuran]

Check out brutalism - I think it's the closest actual style to Doom and Quake (early ones at least, and including D64).

 

 

 

 

 

[Gerardo194]

H.R. Giger style art.

[memes4lyfe]

H.R Geiger uses distortion, stretching, and smearing. I don't think D64 has that style. Everything looks more "realistic" and "tim burton's batman" in D64. The demons look like clay figures instead of cartoons.

[riderr3]

D64 has limitations on texture sizes and it's looks like that because it optimized being like that. Never been a fan of sprites (except weapon sprites which are cool though shotguns less animated).

[Koko Ricky]

The original concept for Doom 64, supposedly, was to represent different Earth cultures' varying depictions of Hell, including Egyptian and Central American. You can see in some of the textures patterns that evoke those cultures, as a handful of resources had already been made with a "multicultural hell" in mind. I think this would have been fantastic had it stuck, and easily would have made for the most horror-soaked game in the series.

 

As to the monster designs...they're somewhere between semi-realistic and cartoony, kind of like the originals. Proportions are off in order to make details like heads more visible, and at least one enemy, the pinky, was based on a sculpted model by Gregor Punchatz, who did clay/sculpture work on the original games. The big departure from id's style is that, in the end, all enemies were made into 3D models and converted into sprites. They're a bit smeary looking, probably owing to the trend of the time of eliminating pixelation as much as possible if the hardware allows as such. There's a nice anti-aliasing effect on their edges as a result, but I think they could have been a bit overall sharper. Also worth noting at the time that material rendering was extremely primitive, as was 3D modeling in general for smaller scale productions; take one look at any high-res scans of the models, and you'll see they're a bit crude, though very effective.

 

Edited June 20, 2019 by GoatLord

[DooM_RO]

@Szuran

 

I agree. Ugly, dehumanizing, oppressive, claustrophobic, hopeless, utilitarian, a total lack of regard for the individual and utterly soul-crushing. It perfectly fits Doom but Quake 2 even more. In real life I hate brutalism for these reasons but in a virtual environment it is an interesting aesthetic experience to explore. The demons are a force of nature that created hell out of pure base instinct but humans modeled their spaces with intelligence and specific purposes. No other game than Doom 64 has explored this feeling quite like this. 

 

So yeah, I guess you could call it a kind of abstract gothic-brutalism. The irony being that Gothic architecture was created as an evolution of Romanesque architecture to bring in more light but the Romantic concept of Gothic explores its total opposite which has stuck ever since in pop culture.

[memes4lyfe]

bumping this thread. i'm the original author, so i think it's okay. (i THINK!)

i would call the monsters more "muscular and realistic".

[the_dude]

On 9/30/2019 at 10:59 PM, memes4lyfe said:

bumping this thread. i'm the original author, so i think it's okay. (i THINK!)

i would call the monsters more "muscular and realistic".

You hit it on the head, in regards to the pixel type of graphic design back in the 90's.  Pinkies are far more muscular and evil looking, cacodemons definitely more evil looking, although it wasn't until someone pointed out on reddit, they're still one eye'd, and the design of the eye actually makes it look like a 2 cross-eye'd caco.

 

Come to think of it, I guess D64 gfx was definitely a good example of 3 years or so of enhanced gaming design, when compared to Doom 1 I guess. (if I have timeline in mind correct).

 

The art  design though was by far my favorite, and thanks for bumpin the thread, because the posts on here are definitely insightful as to architecture!

[-TDRR-]

I actually really like how Doom 64's bestiary looks. Yeah they're a lil'' bit too blurry, but honestly i think the new designs look pretty good and fit in with every other change D64 brought in.

 

It makes them look beefier and much more menacing, and the sounds are great for them. Except for that overused pain sound, i hate it.

[Immorpher]

1 hour ago, -TDRR- said:

I actually really like how Doom 64's bestiary looks. Yeah they're a lil'' bit too blurry, but honestly i think the new designs look pretty good and fit in with every other change D64 brought in.

 

It makes them look beefier and much more menacing, and the sounds are great for them. Except for that overused pain sound, i hate it.

Ya the pinky is a bit too blurry in a way, especially on an N64 bilinear filtering. Perhaps a bit more grit or noise overlayed on the 3D models with some nearest neighbor shrinking on one step could have done that. I found a good shaped noise filter in filter forge that worked good on upscaled sprites. Perhaps one day I will try on smaller sprites.

[warman2012]

Doom 64 after its redesign from the Myan and other Earth culture concept was made to look more like Quake 1. If you look at the games in detail certain things become apparent. The color palettes are similar for one. The use of satanic imagery, more so than in Doom 1-2, is also apparent.

[MeetyourUnmaker]

On 6/20/2019 at 12:58 PM, DooM_RO said:

@Szuran

 

I agree. Ugly, dehumanizing, oppressive, claustrophobic, hopeless, utilitarian, a total lack of regard for the individual and utterly soul-crushing. It perfectly fits Doom but Quake 2 even more. In real life I hate brutalism for these reasons but in a virtual environment it is an interesting aesthetic experience to explore. The demons are a force of nature that created hell out of pure base instinct but humans modeled their spaces with intelligence and specific purposes. No other game than Doom 64 has explored this feeling quite like this. 

 

So yeah, I guess you could call it a kind of abstract gothic-brutalism. The irony being that Gothic architecture was created as an evolution of Romanesque architecture to bring in more light but the Romantic concept of Gothic explores its total opposite which has stuck ever since in pop culture.

Brutalist architecture is modern from the last century or so, a lot of modern art forms (the mid 1800's from mid 1900's) are about reacting toward the Nietzchen realization of the fact the enlighenment destroyed Important cultural significance metaphysics/God/ in "western" civilization. The thing actually binding all art in this period is the quest for finding a deeper meaning to existence using symbolization.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/t-magazine/design/brutalist-architecture-revival.html

 

On the topic of the contrast between Phobos and Hell there. It is a dualistic binary, the point is to show a contrast of areas in it. Later in the series you actually see Doom 3 also does it. There are other games that also use dualistic binaries like Portal 1. (artificial and naturalistic)

[spineapple tea]

I don't know but its great.