Paradroids

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Judging from the birthday stats there's a lot of people that are 20-35 here, so perhaps you're familiar with Paradroid for the C64 or the Amiga/Atari.
I've had a couple of paradroid redesign/fanart thumbnails I never got around to color, until now. Here's the first or last four, depending on my lazyness... I wanna do the paradroid 90 ones too, I got plenty of thumbnails.

Crits always welcome. Pardon if they look a bit sloppy. I should probably work a bit on the poses.


711
I normaly don't use this kinda yellow but I think it turned out ok. It's primary weapon is mounted in the head, so I gave it a visor. Perhaps I should skip the organic feel and go for a more retro primary shape design.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/711a.jpg

742
Purple is really hard to render. I decided to use pink as a highlight color. With mono colored things such as these I have to grey some parts. If it's saturated all over it looks annoying. Using less contrast and saturation on the legs/feet is usually a good idea.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/742a.jpg

598
Too simple to be interesting. I'm thinking of adding more decor colors to the droids to spice them up some and break the mono coloring.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/598a.jpg

751
Perhaps a bit too detailed to match the other, plus the shapes are a bit different. I hueshifted it from cyan-green to green. I just can't stand some colors, like cyan and magenta. I used highlights on the concave surface on the chest and an experiment. I rarely render like that for some reason.
I thought it would be cool with long arms like on the pic, and a quite boxy chest (although I didn't render it very boxy). I changed the head.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/751a3.jpg

---

Some original sprites I got with the VICE C64 emulator. I think the game is abandonware by now. Jester Interactive currently holds the licence for paradroid and other Graftgold games. I hope they make a paradroid 'advance' for the GBA, it would be perfect on that platform.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/p64sprites.png

Some paradroid sites.
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/mafioso/games/droidwp.htm
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/paradroid90/paradroid90/frames.html

[3bleadpencil]

That's cool.....looks like you had a lot of fun with it...I can see!
3B

[StephenC]

sweet ccol, prom's bots are great for the whole family

[StephenC]

i'm inspired once more

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Thanks.

This one is probably a bit more true to the original in terms of design (751).
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/751b.jpg

[Fozzybar]

Yeehaaa!

One of my fav games ever!!! Andrew Spencer forever!

Wasn't 711 the one with this flashes...with no laser...? It was my fav bot...and not to forget the 8 series with the fat double laser...wow...i love this game...

The sounds were unique...

How about implementing one of this regenerator fields? Must look cool with your bots...

This overtaking parts in the circuits were so simple but fun...aaah....nostalgia overcomes me...:rolleyes:

[Redmond]

I enjoyed this. :]

[nardfrog]

Yeah, ofcourse these are cool caus eyou did them. I love your art ans style. I dont regognize these cause i had an atari. very cool.

[Famboozled]

Im so curious as to how you did this drawings...did you do this all on computer, if so what did you use to create these totally awesome drawings?

[R_M]

hi prom,
it is rather hard for me to give you advices, so I'll just praise you and your lovely colors.

:chug:

[Tedsuo]

Totally sweet man! Didn't play it much when I was a kid; spent my atari time mostly playing Combat, and for the Commodore it was mostly King's Quest (though I owned neither, and mostly played with the mac after it came out). I think you handled the designs and colors really well. Only possible crit would be maybe too much greying out on the blocky green ones. But minor! It would be cool to see the influence device attempting a takeover of one of these. Zot! :electric:

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Thanks peeps. I'll see if I can do another one soon. I'd love to make a Paradroid mod/tc for say HL2 or something.

Fozzy> You mean Andrew Braybrook? I was more of a Paradroid 90 guy actually. I loved 821 from that game. It had a neat shotgun like weapon. It seems your right about 711, it has a disruptor. In P90 it was 852 that had the disruptor.
What do you mean with implementing regenerator fields? Have them standing on one to suggest the ground plane?

Fam> I drew pencil thumbnails about 1 inch big and then scanned and colored in Photoshop. It's the fastest way fro me to work. Each painting takes about one to two hours.

[Fozzybar]

oh my...:emb:

Of course Braybrook...Spencer was the guy who made the famous soccer game on the c64...

With implementing regenerator fields i meant not to suggest the ground plane, just to show more of the game action...to add another paradroid typicall element for better recognition...besides it would look cool because of the effects :)

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Ack I'm too lazy to add in enviroments.

90-614
This one was particulary nasty in Paradroid 90. It had a machinegun that was fun to dodge. You could sneak up on it from behind.
I should spend longer on the shapes and design. I'm getting way to sloppy. I forgot to draw the arm in behind the gun. Oh well.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/90-614a.jpg

I'm thinking of designing each part on it's own, like chopping it up into torso, arms, legs, head etc. That way no parts will obscure the others and I wouldn't neglect rendering details as much. Then I could draw another version with a more dynamic pose and an enviroment.

[tayete]

I am curious about your techinque ANJ: do you first create a big black shilouette of the character, and then start to add the colour tones?

[Prometheus|ANJ]

I start with a small (1-3 inches) pencil line art thumbnail which I enlarge to 1400 pix high, so it fits on my screen at 50%. Then I put the airbrush on multiply, pick a color that is darker than midtone and a bit cold and lay down some base color without bothering about the edges too much. I clean up the edges as I go. I work in one layer cuz my brain can't keep track of several. I keep drawing in the wrong layer and only notice after 10 minutes of work. Photoshop tends to swap layer when you undo too, very annoying.


This is not a paradroid, just some doodle i did. I thought the legs were interesting. I went for a more retro funtional design with some joints and stuff.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/r2.jpg

[sparth]

yummie bots. i love the last greeny one, with the straight legs.

prom i see what you mean. get annoying, as you sometimes do not realise you went backwards too much, and you continue drawing.
what i have been doing for the last year is, work with two layers. i always create a new layer when i begin an new "session". when i'm done and happy with it, i flatten the whole thing, save under a new name, and create a new layer for the next session. i sometimes go backwards on older layers, but it's pretty rare, as most of the time i flatten asap.

at the end, i often have huge folders with 20 versions of a single painting in it, all flattened. it takes disk space, but at least i lose nothing.
however, if you removed the methods of layer blending from photoshop, i'd be ruined!

[bengal]

these are just awesome, as always. great work, great good old inspiration too as i can see!!

[brokencow]

These are great Prom. I always love seeing your quick paintings. But when are you going to finish something!!! It's been awhile since you have. Or maybe you have and i just haven't seen it. Bleh, i think the sketches are better cause i can see how you think!

[MER]

I really like the paintings...they kind of remind me of a (used to be??) Star Wars illustrator's stuff (can't remember his name). ^-^

[Prometheus|ANJ]

:D

Sparth> For more complex pics I accumulate about 5 saved versions. I save right before I'm about to do a radical change, often two times with the old filename and a new one, so I won't save the old one over. On rare occasions I make a new layer and draw the changes into that. However, when I do lineart stuff (like my mechas) with clean colors I use layers more, like multiply and screen or overlay for decor.

Tedsuo> Yeah, I was worrying that my attempts to fog the unimportant parts to make depth and break the monotous saturation would make them look dirty. I'm not very good with fogging I guess.

Broken> I wish I could actually finish stuff, or atleast spend some more time on it, but it's so hard with my level of lazyness.


476
I'm quite fond of the 476 from P90 (old pic) (http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/para/spider_p.jpg). The P64 design is neat too though.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/476a.jpg


Here's an older page with a paradroid project I started coding some years ago.
http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/para/paradiary.htm

[Prometheus|ANJ]

296
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/296a.jpg


Here's my Photoshop 5.5 setup with some Paradroid thumbnails.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/screen.jpg

[Fozzybar]

...insane sketches...:eek:

[Deth Jester]

These are great! I think you are right about how monochromatic they are... maybe add a second light source to give them some flair... I dunno! they look great though..

peace
-mike

[Loga4]

Totally awesome!

[I.was.ink]

I love these little bots. :)

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Prom,

these are too sweet. I love artist being nostalgic, and taking a new approach on things they liked in childhood. Your interpretations of your childhood heroes are remarkable.
Wonderful!
Marko

[xdisciplex]

Prom, I really like your style all your sketches look awesome, do you think you could explain your work flow a little, ever post some process shots?

[LiL QoH]

sooo when are you gunna put up that tutorial in your sig? ey ey ey? *poke*

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Thanks!

The sketches are rather plain I'm afraid, but fun to paint up non the less.
I'm gonna have to make that brush FAQ sig soon, cuz I get a couple of questions for each thread I make...
I'm sorry but I have no WIP's saved for these, I use one savefile for most of them.


296
Made another one. I used Q3 Radiant to make a quick box model to help me with perspective.
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/para/296b2.jpg


Edit: Here's the 3d ref. http://w1.485.telia.com/~u48508900/296rad.jpg

[ShawnYe]

I love your bots and these are very fun to look at.