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Explaining our Art Direction
🕑 Added 2022-01-28 15:26:14 +0000 UTCHello everyone! It is I, Chloé, bringing you today’s Patreon post! （ΦωΦ）
Paralives has gone through lots of visual changes since 2019 – originally, it was just Alex; but now, we have a dedicated team of artists to work actively on the art direction.
Top: Paralives in 2019. Bottom: Paralives in 2021.
Now that the style has undergone a massive overhaul, people often ask why the environments and characters don't quite have the same art style. While the art style will still go through some changes, the disparity won’t be fully bridged: it is an intentional choice made by the team!
For today’s Patreon post, we will discuss the game’s current art direction—and why the backgrounds won’t be in quite the same style as the characters.
Our Goals with our Art Direction
First and foremost, any art direction begins with design pillars, so that’s what we decided first. You may ask yourself: "But Chloé, what even are those?" I’m glad you asked! Design pillars are one-liners that serve as guidelines during production so we stay in line with our vision. Here are ours for the art direction:
- A unique style that distinguishes us: When seeing our style, we want people to know that it’s from Paralives!
- Serves the gameplay: At the end of the day, our main focus is the gameplay, not the aesthetics.
- Make Parafolks stand out: They have to be easy to spot, even in a big cluttered house, for players’ ease.
- Quick to produce: We are only a few artists unlike big companies where there are hundreds of them, so it’s important to have a style that isn’t too demanding time-wise. We also have tricks to work quickly and efficiently.
- Supports customization: More freedom to the player!
Our Characters' Art Style
With our recent PAM showcase, you all got to see the amazing job Léa and Sonia did for the Parafolks: let’s take a look at the style in a bit more detail!
For the Parafolks, the team wanted to go for a more detailed render compared to previous alterations, specifically with a hand-drawn approach inspired by the talented Lesly Oh’s art. The team drew highlights and defining outlines on the Parafolks to achieve that desired look. For the hair, we instead went for something softer, more akin to watercolour, to ensure nice flowing hair (regardless of hair type). The proportions for the Parafolks are also on the more realistic side.
Can you see the similarities between Lesly’s art (left) and our Parafolks? (right)
Apart from that, there are two other points worth noting: the outlines around the characters, which are generated in our game engine, and the ‘’toon shading’’. Toon shading is a type of rendering in which the shadows are sharp and stylised rather than smooth. These two points are the two areas in which the characters and environments differ.
Our Environments’ Style Exploration
You’ve seen a bit of the new style for the environments in our newest Paramaker video, but I am still hard at work improving it via a test project that we call a Render Target: we talked about it a bit more in this Patreon post if you are curious!
We first defined the goals of the art direction for the environments. We decided that the proportions should be realistic and that the different materials should be accurately depicted. They should also harmonise nicely with the Parafolks, but make it so that the focus stays on them. After all, environments serve to enhance the experience, not to steal the show!
We gathered tons of references to see what could be done to fulfill those requirements. Here are two and their pertinence to the art style:
- A distinct style for characters and backgrounds: A screenshot from the game ‘’Demon Slayer - The Hinokami Chronicles’’ by CyberConnect2. This game, amongst others, has a different style for both so that the characters easily stand out from the backgrounds. This concept is also widely used in animation! We think this principle will work well for Paralives, but we'll do our own take on it.
- Hand-painted textures: An image from the talented Jasmin Habezai-Fekri’s 3D piece, ‘’Sunny Market Entrance’’. Our team quite likes her work in general, but we enjoyed how her textures had this soft hand-painted feel in this one.
We figured a more painterly approach would work well with the Parafolks and allow for more details than before. Alternatively, we decided that we did not want outlines for the environments, not only for performance but also to contrast with the Parafolks. This way, they will still be easy to spot when you are playing!
The Final Result
Broadly speaking, here’s how we could summarise our art style:
- Parafolks with hand-drawn textures that stand out from the backgrounds. Our unique style will allow players to customise their characters at will.
- Hand-painted environments that fit with the characters. There are more details and a painterly touch to the furniture items, and it’s as customisable as ever.
You can say Paralives has a fun, artsy style that is perfectly imperfect!
Sebastian and Sebby-I mean, Eli, in the photo studio.
We will keep tweaking and improving our style over time, no doubt. Every tidbit we share is a work in progress. Still, we think our art direction at the moment is heading in the right direction. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!
I wish you all a lovely weekend! Take care! (´∀｀)♡
Chloé
Edit - March 31, 2022: This post is now public so feel free to share it!
Comments
Missa Snookipuss
Late comment but i love this style so much! I cant imagine how delicious the food is gonna look ingame... I imagine it will look like how they draw food in anime! *Drool*
bewwy
I'm a huge fan of illustration-y video games and this one is really hitting the spot. I like that it's there, but it's not totally in your face. There is still blending and shading, but the style is still present. It's a difficult thing to achieve and you're doing it perfectly. I'd imagine one of the hardest things perhaps is, how do you make that style flow through animations in like character creation? I'm really really excited to see more! <3
Lisa-Marie Berzelius
This is my dream game. This is exactly the art style i have always dreamt of, the cozy and soft background, Threes that move so softly in the wind, the blue soft moving oceans, cozy beaches and everything looks so Beautiful, put together and magical. I got very inspired from the goose game of how the world art style is in the environment, More smooth and cozy. I wished that it would come a simulation game like that. And the art style reminds me of that. i love this so much it fills my heart with joy. This art style is unique and make you calm, more interested in the environment and it really feels like a story and the parafolks feels more unique. i really love the outlines of the parafolks so much, and how the characters and environment differs from each other but still suits very well! I love every artwork of this game, how the water looks, the wavy hairs and dresses that moves, it is something i have always wanted. It makes the environment, the world more alive and the surroundings are a part of everything and it make a impact on the whole story, I could just look at this beautiful world for hours when this game will be released! I love when you see from the window in the game in some of the videos you have released, the threes and bushes and grass moving when a wind comes, it really looks like real wind, It is just so magical to me and it makes everything so real and full of beauty I am in love with this, You are doing such an amazing job I love this so much Thank you ❤️
Cinderelabaiana
i dream with this art style just get a crush on that
eggie
The art style has evolved in a wonderful direction I think :) you've all clearly put in a lot of thought and effort to take it to where it's going and it's in such a good place now. I think it is really unique (but not in a way that's jarring) and definitely identifiable.
I love the art style!
Nina Felwitch
I like it!
Estelle
I love the idea of having hand-drawn textures in games, we need more of that in general. It's so unique! I love it! Very good post, it made me smile :)
