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Anyone else love good, low poly art?

Danneee

Member
Sky Rogue is something everyone should be up on:

tumblr_mxq24nbDio1qbsvzto1_400.gif

tumblr_mxmejboOae1qbsvzto2_400.gif

tumblr_mxiuosuaWJ1qbsvzto2_r1_400.gif

tumblr_mxiqp3BtzA1qbsvzto3_r1_400.gif

tumblr_mw14xgO9qF1qbsvzto2_r1_400.gif

Damn that looks nice, bought!
 

Elvick

Banned
Does Final Fantasy IX count?

I've always loved FFIX's graphics and to this day it still looks good to me. I'd love more indies to tackle graphics like that, instead of sticking with 8-16bit all the time. I think that's been overdone to death. So much more to do.

Good art design can always do wonders.

Low poly Laura was best Laura
Who is Laura?
It's Lara.

I do love low poly art, even in games, but only if it's coupled with clean textures. Megaman Legends is a good example.

IPbDEa5.jpg
ZHO5unp.jpg
Love MM Legends graphics to this day.
 

saska

Member
I noticed, a lot of good low-poly art looks cell shaded, without actually being cell shaded.

I think the trick to many of these is that they are not shaded at all. Only shades are the ones drawn in the textures. Looks great but isn't very flexible.
 
I love the stuff in OP and some other examples in this thread, but the moment you put realistic looking textures on those low poly models (like the screenshots from GoldenEye) things get disgusting. The first group looks like that because of an artistic choice (or because it's very early polygonal stuff such as Interstate 76), the other group looks like that because of technical limitations.
 

missile

Member
In the future we will draw a lot more lines and simple polygons again.

I like low-poly art a lot, but I want to go back much further in bringing the
shades and colors down as well.


27991861.gif


A software rasterizer I wrote a couple of month ago for Notch's DCPU using a
1-bit framebuffer on a 64x64 character video mode. Fully programmed in
assembly. There will be more. It's part of a video game.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
In the future we will draw a lot more lines and simple polygons again.

I like low-poly art a lot, but I want to go back much further in bringing the
shades and colors down as well.


27991861.gif


A software rasterizer I wrote a couple of month ago for Notch's DCPU using a
1-bit framebuffer on a 64x64 character video mode. Fully programmed in
assembly. There will be more. It's part of a video game.

That's gorgeous. Almost like a GBA attempting 3D :D
 

BulletTheory

Neo Member
Absolutely love this stuff. There is something incredibly satisfying about models that use as little as possible and every single polygon has its place and NEEDS to be there - kinda like pixel art. With all the pixel pushing power we have in consoles and PC's these days, people seem to have lost sight of the beauty in simplicity and clever design. I really think chasing realism has made most modern video games all look the same and lose a lot of what attracted me to video games in the first place.

Man, I need to buy a Nintendo console again!

Anyway my contribution, not sure if this technically falls under low-poly, but its amazing anyway:

Screen%20Shot%202014-01-02%20at%2012.37.21.png

https://vimeo.com/63528500
 

CMDBob

Member
I absolutely love this art style, just love the look of clean, simple models and textures. Plus, reminds me of all the old games I love, like Wing Commander 3, Descent, Quake, Starfox (on the SNES) and such. So good.
 

beril

Member
That stuff in the OP doesn't really count, some of them are high poly as fuck, just that they're flat-shaded and untextured
 

Log4Girlz

Member
That stuff in the OP doesn't really count, some of them are high poly as fuck, just that they're flat-shaded and untextured

Yeah, the animals actually have higher poly counts than a lot of games lol. I wanted to keep the title simple. But yeah, its not only "low poly art", but just polygonal art in general. Instead of hiding polygons with textures or generating them small enough to be undiscernible, they are prominent.
 

asa

Member
I did this little scene with Unity last spring. Everything is unlit and unfiltered :p

nes.jpg


You can play around with it here: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14109231/NESMUSICBOX.html

I've been thinking about this kind of pseudo-low poly/flat colors look lately, I think we will see a lot of it in near future, It's quite simple and fast to create and it doesn't require lots of modeling experience. It probably will be next step for a lot of indies when they transfer from 2D to 3D. I love the style personally so I wouldn't mind.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
I did this little scene with Unity last spring. Everything is unlit and unfiltered :p

[IMG="http://www.kaipaamo.fi/make3d/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/nes.jpg"]http://www.kaipaamo.fi/make3d/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/nes.jpg[/IMG]

You can play around with it here: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14109231/NESMUSICBOX.html

I've been thinking about this kind of pseudo-low poly/flat colors look lately, I think we will see a lot of it in near future, It's quite simple and fast to create and it doesn't require lots of modeling experience. It probably will be next step for a lot of indies when they transfer from 2D to 3D. I love the style personally so I wouldn't mind.

That's awesome.
 

McHuj

Member
Only at high res with really good levels of AA like in the OP.

I have no desire to see low poly, low res, highly aliased PS1/2 era games make a return.
 
Only at high res with really good levels of AA like in the OP.

I have no desire to see low poly, low res, highly aliased PS1/2 era games make a return.

This. Exactly this. OP's pictures are great but some of these pictures being posted here are really not fun to watch imo.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
Metal Gear Solid 1 and Vagrant Story come to mind. I love the look of those games even today. Theres a vagueness to the models and backgrounds - this lended you to use your imagination in some ways.

This is another topic altogether but - I miss the times of having to semi imagine what was being displayed in games.. The 2 games I listed are halfway between modern game graphics and the graphics of old systems. Kids have it all displayed for them these days. On NES you used the box art and then your imagination to make up what was happening and what you were seeing on the screen. This is nearly extinct in modern gaming.
 
Subbed in hopes that this thread will become a lively place full of this stuff. Downloaded Skyrogue and went back to check out some more LA Game Space stuff as well.

Perfect Stride should interest you all.
 
I did this little scene with Unity last spring. Everything is unlit and unfiltered :p

You can play around with it here: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14109231/NESMUSICBOX.html

I've been thinking about this kind of pseudo-low poly/flat colors look lately, I think we will see a lot of it in near future, It's quite simple and fast to create and it doesn't require lots of modeling experience. It probably will be next step for a lot of indies when they transfer from 2D to 3D. I love the style personally so I wouldn't mind.


This is really great. Awesome stuff!

Man this whole thread is full of incredible images and links I've been really looking for. Totally subscribing. I gotta see more of this kind of thing.
 

Jacobi

Banned
I have a couple of videos for you:

picks-09.jpg

https://vimeo.com/36343749

haneaKR.png

And this is my absolute favorite one, just a perfect look:
https://vimeo.com/37234722

I think the low poly love is restricted to the kids of the 90s though... And that's sad...
I never had a DS, but I absolutely loved looking at the shitty (but good) 3D graphics it produced with its limited hardware (pretty much PSX like)
 

Khaz

Member
Low poly is good poly, but not enough poly is not enough. I think Starfox is an example of that, with its 12 triangles per fighter. 32X is more like it, though Virtua Racing/Fighter are on the lower limit.

Never forget.

fadetoblack-02.jpg

I don't think it works well because of the difference in pixel size of the textures. Ground, walls and characters should have similar pixel density, but it would mean a much higher texture size for some elements. This is a limitation we don't have anymore.

This always brings me back:

Mario64.jpg

The model is cool but the texturing and/or lighting makes it somewhat off. I think it would look better with flat lightning instead of the shadows on some faces. And the eyes and the M would look much better without the blurriness.



My point is, although they are all low poly with low res textures, you can easily identify between old art and recreated art. And I like the recreated oldschool much better for some reason.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Loving the thread. I think some DS games have art similar to what's posted here. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2:

There's something about Toriyama's art that manages to look good on low-end 3D hardware like the original DS. All the DS Dragon Quest games and the DS Dragon Ball games look great.
 

missile

Member
Only at high res with really good levels of AA like in the OP.

I have no desire to see low poly, low res, highly aliased PS1/2 era games make a return.
I think the low-poly models will make up some room to render very good
anti-aliased pictures. ;)

That's gorgeous. Almost like a GBA attempting 3D :D
Glad you like it. Am interested in (re-)creating the 3d rendering look and
feel of very limited systems of the past. Unfortunately most of the old and
tricky rendering techniques aren't documented and as such I have do derive
them myself. At times this requires to program on a given limited system for
real since working on such restricted environments (compared to today's
systems) forces one to think differently leading one to different techniques
and solutions.
 
Seems like the perfect thread for a bit of receiver.

BnBkJ4z.jpg


Love love love the untextured look of this game. Reminds me of the robocop 3 game on the Amiga back in the day

jWfZYBl.jpg
 
Mega Man Legends was definitely the first thing to come to mind, and it warms my heart that so many others tossed it up before I could.

<3
 

atbigelow

Member
I love low-poly 3D. What I don't like, are the constraints the systems had. PS1 had pretty ugly polygons (no Z-buffer, lack of floating point). N64 had too little memory for textures so they were a blurry mess most of the time.

Super clean shaded polygons with AA looks fantastic.
 
That stuff in the OP doesn't really count, some of them are high poly as fuck, just that they're flat-shaded and untextured

They are pretty low poly. They are faceted (edges set to hard or no smoothing groups if you prefer) and they are fully lit with AO and indirect lighting.
 

Log4Girlz

Member
Oh, nice Model 2 shots. You know what game I used to marvel at due to modeling? Tekken 3 arcade. I fell in love with the character models.
 

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
In their heyday they were pretty rough. The low and fluctuating framerates, poor anti-aliasing, flickering, and low resolutions that came with the territory of 3D at the time didn't do them any favors.

Now that that stuff's no longer an issue, though, low-poly styles wielded well could really deliver some amazing results. I hope to see indies experimenting with it a lot in the coming years.
 

charsace

Member
In their heyday they were pretty rough. The low and fluctuating framerates, poor anti-aliasing, flickering, and low resolutions that came with the territory of 3D at the time didn't do them any favors.

Now that that stuff's no longer an issue, though, low-poly styles wielded well could really deliver some amazing results. I hope to see indies experimenting with it a lot in the coming years.
Not all 3d though. Tobal for instance was silky smooth and featured great animation.
 

Koozek

Member
I absolutely adore it, its so effective when its done well. My favorite is when the textures are chunky, poppy, and pixely like old toony capcom games (Megaman Legends, Battle N Chase, and Rival Schools)
Heres a few of my favorite modern lowpoly stuff (aside from the obvious like kenneth fejer):
tumblr_lolh6n7LEz1qejutxo1_500.jpg

tumblr_lolhj1gzDv1qejutxo1_500.jpg

6045161552_d51ae98105_o.png

f3257.gif

b216d.gif

tumblr_lutj95KTOo1qbmvm3.gif

p66jQzd.gif

tumblr_mm5el2y0811qexcnlo2_r5_250.gif

tumblr_ltso90hdKB1qgqlwso1_500.jpg

tumblr_m0tq7sLbDP1qzv1seo1_250.gif

tumblr_lg248yfGC41qejutxo1_400.gif


i actually dabble in it myself but i dont model as often as id like, heres a few model turnarounds ive done:
tumblr_ltdcxzaUEb1qejutxo1_1280.gif

tumblr_mijd7x6YrC1recvcco2_r1_400.gif

tumblr_mimce1rMDV1recvcco1_400.gif


fake edit- i spent so long trying to find that last gif of the two people walking in unison i got beaten on the SotC ones. The artist made a third one at some point too but i cant remember where it is

Aw, love this stuff. Charming as hell :)
 
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