Pictomancer's effects need some more work

[Merrigan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgdg...nnel=rendermax

[HermitUK]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgdg...nnel=rendermax

One thing I think this does really well, which is completely missing from the FF job, is the sense that you're actually slopping paint / ink around, and it splashes on the floor before fading out. The FF version at the moment feels very flat, which to an extent is the point (it's supposed to look painted / drawn) but because of the complete lack of shading and splash effects, it just looks like the paint effect has been pasted over the top of the footage rather than being an effect in the game world.

I'm also hoping that some of the 3D effects (especially that ice) are placeholder / WIP. It's so low poly that it doesn't look painted, it looks like an art asset out of a 3DS game. Putting the camera right close to it in the trailer so we could see its incredibly low resolution was certainly a choice.

It's possible that it looks better ingame than it did in the trailer - if you can see it from the player's PoV perhaps the low-poly effects are less noticable and the paint looks more 3d? Hard to say without more footage, I presume we'll get a better sense of that as and when they do the media tour for this expansion.

[Merrigan]

One thing I think this does really well, which is completely missing from the FF job, is the sense that you're actually slopping paint / ink around, and it splashes on the floor before fading out. The FF version at the moment feels very flat, which to an extent is the point (it's supposed to look painted / drawn) but because of the complete lack of shading and splash effects, it just looks like the paint effect has been pasted over the top of the footage rather than being an effect in the game world.

I'm also hoping that some of the 3D effects (especially that ice) are placeholder / WIP. It's so low poly that it doesn't look painted, it looks like an art asset out of a 3DS game. Putting the camera right close to it in the trailer so we could see its incredibly low resolution was certainly a choice.

It's possible that it looks better ingame than it did in the trailer - if you can see it from the player's PoV perhaps the low-poly effects are less noticable and the paint looks more 3d? Hard to say without more footage, I presume we'll get a better sense of that as and when they do the media tour for this expansion.

That, and the fact that everything is far too colorful.

To put it simply: the picto gives me the same effect as one of those kindergarten classroom decorations. Stars, a little mog, little colored balls... all embellished, as you say, with effects that are very limited in terms of rendering.

It's such a pity, because the concept is really nice and original.

[Vainbaal]

I'm also hoping that some of the 3D effects (especially that ice) are placeholder / WIP. It's so low poly that it doesn't look painted, it looks like an art asset out of a 3DS game.

Sadly, that is what I think they want the finished product to look like at this current time (Looking back at Reaper and Sage reveals looks like not much has changed in their animation department). I hope they are at least listening to the feedback about the vfx from the community to at least get them to work on fixing it before the job is officially released. But yeah, I am not a fan of the jpeg of the stone attack and the poorly rendered ice attack. I hope they can provide the bring the image to life aspect a little better. Also, I hope the rework the squelching sounds of the brush when the casting, as I would rather have a more brush on canvas sound rather than goopy ink, as it will get annoying to hear it consistently when spending a few good hours on learning a raid fight, not to mention other raiders might not like the sound.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

Quick and dirty edit of what I mean with the Nickelodeon splatters:



For me that was the first big turn off in the video... idk, doesn't it look better with more traditional shapes?

One thing I think [the Lost Ark Artist gameplay video] does really well, which is completely missing from the FF job, is the sense that you're actually slopping paint / ink around, and it splashes on the floor before fading out. The FF version at the moment feels very flat, which to an extent is the point (it's supposed to look painted / drawn) but because of the complete lack of shading and splash effects, it just looks like the paint effect has been pasted over the top of the footage rather than being an effect in the game world.

Yes, 100% this. I started checking out the Painter class in AION yesterday (because this has been eating at my brain), and in the character creator preview alone I find the big, goofy punch much more paint-like than the moogle, mainly because there are a lot more splashes going on.



Of course it would be cool if the paint covered the enemy target like it does here, but. I don't think we want to see something the size of Sephirot suddenly turn bright orange for a second. So I can at least understand why the devs didn't go in that direction lol

I think someone mentioned this in the nuked thread, but it's also strange that we already have the Paint emotes with their very compelling splashing effects (although the textures themselves might be a little... stringy? I think they've been reused from somewhere else, maybe the Cuchulainn puke), and then Pictomancer's VFX style looks completely different from that.

[Merrigan]

but. I don't think we want to see something the size of Sephirot suddenly turn bright orange for a second.

.

Well now I can't unsee it. Good job. Screw what I said, let me paint Emet-Selch in fushia PLEASE.

(Joke aside : why was the first thread nuked ? I left then couldn't find it after a day, did more drama happened or something ?)

[KageTokage]

Quick and dirty edit of what I mean with the Nickelodeon splatters:



For me that was the first big turn off in the video... idk, doesn't it look better with more traditional shapes?

I think that basically pinned down what bugs me about the visual aesthetic of the job.

Making the paint effects look sloppier and less cartoony would definitely make it more appealing to me.

[Vhana]

Making the paint effects look sloppier.

I know this may seem like the nitpickiest nitpick of all time, but it's the tiny floaty perfect bubble-like circles that are in all the effects that bother me most. Why are they not droplets or splatter?

[Cidel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgdg...nnel=rendermax

Wow. That's from about two years ago too. I'm not saying that XIV deciding to make Splatoon magePictomancer now is a rip-off of that Lost Ark game's Artist class trailer (might certainly be thinking it), but when the reveal trailer is also of a cutesy blond skipping onto the scene being all giggles and smiles before whipping out the brush and splattering paint...

What's really going on here?

(Their Artist class has way better-looking aesthetic effects btw)