Zako Project: BZ Idol ̷P̷a̷r̷a̷d̷i̷s̷e̷ Nightmare (1 Viewer)

[Watt Khan]

Zako No. 01: Cupcake Sheryl

I've been tinkering with the art of character rigging animation recently and thought it'd be a good Idea to create a Zako Project based on what I've learned. This project centers around a fictional Beat em' up game; the basic plot is that the music entertainment industry known as BZ is secretly kidnapping people for unknown reasons. Like any sane man, the hero of this game decides to infiltrate BZ's headquarters and beat up everyone along the way. BZ mostly trains and contracts female idols who are blindly loyal to their secret agenda. One of the first enemy idol you'll face is Cupcake Sheryl:

The above is obviously an AI image generated with very specific prompts. Using this image as a base, I've digitally made the following sprites/animations of her stance and walk:

A pretty basic and weak enemy, but she will become more resilient in later stages. Her main move is a front kick that does very little damage:

Once her HP is close to 0, she will beg for you to spare her. But this is just a rouse as she will attack you once the opportunity presents itself. So just finish her off:

This is actually the first time I've ever attempted anything like this so the process was far from optimized and I did a few beginner mistakes. Things like not having the foresight to create more assets other than in the 3/4 view. I have several more AI generated that follows the idol theme that I use as a basis for more character sprites/animations. If/how I will continue with this project is the question though. Just to give you guys an idea of this animation process, here's the "spritesheet" for this zako:

 

[Tsukachan]

Zako No. 01: Cupcake Sheryl

I've been tinkering with the art of character rigging animation recently and thought it'd be a good Idea to create a Zako Project based on what I've learned. This project centers around a fictional Beat em' up game; the basic plot is that the music entertainment industry known as BZ is secretly kidnapping people for unknown reasons. Like any sane man, the hero of this game decides to infiltrate BZ's headquarters and beat up everyone along the way. BZ mostly trains and contracts female idols who are blindly loyal to their secret agenda. One of the first enemy idol you'll face is Cupcake Sheryl:

View attachment 149838

The above is obviously an AI image generated with very specific prompts. Using this image as a base, I've digitally made the following sprites/animations of her stance and walk:

View attachment 149841View attachment 149850View attachment 149851

A pretty basic and weak enemy, but she will become more resilient in later stages. Her main move is a front kick that does very little damage:

View attachment 149846

Once her HP is close to 0, she will beg for you to spare her. But this is just a rouse as she will attack you once the opportunity presents itself. So just finish her off:

View attachment 149852View attachment 149853

This is actually the first time I've ever attempted anything like this so the process was far from optimized and I did a few beginner mistakes. Things like not having the foresight to create more assets other than in the 3/4 view. I have several more AI generated that follows the idol theme that I use as a basis for more character sprites/animations. If/how I will continue with this project is the question though. Just to give you guys an idea of this animation process, here's the "spritesheet" for this zako:

View attachment 149854

Pretty well done!
Maybe you could help out making custom sprites for R ran 's project too?

 

[osw]

Looks professionally made!

 

[Watt Khan]

Pretty well done!
Maybe you could help out making custom sprites for R ran 's project too?

Dunno man, sounds like a lot of hard work. Free time is rarely ever on my side unfortunately. But I'll ponder over it.

 

[Watt Khan]

Looks professionally made!

Thanks! That means a lot considering that this my first ever attempt at this thing. Definitely learmed a few things about doing character rigging "correctly".

 

[Tsukachan]

Dunno man, sounds like a lot of hard work. Free time is rarely ever on my side unfortunately. But I'll ponder over it.

That's fine, it's up to you. No forcing!

 

[Weoooo]

Yo this is super good, especially for your first time. She's got a real cute and flirty feel to her, I adore the little wink and her mean face during the kick. How hard are kneeling poses, though? The implied power dynamics and evocative nature of enemies on their knees before a player is honestly surprisingly powerful, I've found; if you want to really activate some almonds that's a shortcut. See: this thing I quickly threw together from sprites from two dude's old openbor project:


I also would say that it doesn't NEED to be a project at all. Character art and animations are worth doing in and of themselves, especially if you like doing it and like the result. I can understand the want to make it a game(oh my god can I), but 1: the most labor intensive part is the art of a game for a simple 2d brawler and 2: don't put the cart before the horse, especially if you like horses. If this was fun, just go absolutely buck wild doing more of it, let that dopamine flow each time you make something. Then, maybe, after a while, you'll have such a library of good stuff that putting it all together just seems like the logical conclusion.

That may not sound like a good way to make a game, and it isn't. But it is a good way to keep making things you like without getting caught up in how to use them. And people could, can, and probably will come along and go 'hey... those are good, I can I do a thing with them'

 

[Watt Khan]

Yo this is super good, especially for your first time. She's got a real cute and flirty feel to her, I adore the little wink and her mean face during the kick. How hard are kneeling poses, though? The implied power dynamics and evocative nature of enemies on their knees before a player is honestly surprisingly powerful, I've found; if you want to really activate some almonds that's a shortcut. See: this thing I quickly threw together from sprites from two dude's old openbor project:
View attachment 149860

I also would say that it doesn't NEED to be a project at all. Character art and animations are worth doing in and of themselves, especially if you like doing it and like the result. I can understand the want to make it a game(oh my god can I), but 1: the most labor intensive part is the art of a game for a simple 2d brawler and 2: don't put the cart before the horse, especially if you like horses. If this was fun, just go absolutely buck wild doing more of it, let that dopamine flow each time you make something. Then, maybe, after a while, you'll have such a library of good stuff that putting it all together just seems like the logical conclusion.

That may not sound like a good way to make a game, and it isn't. But it is a good way to keep making things you like without getting caught up in how to use them. And people could, can, and probably will come along and go 'hey... those are good, I can I do a thing with them'

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I don't really envision this as a full-fledged game. I see it as more in the vein of the "Streets of Girls" thread but with greater emphasis on custom zako art and puppet-style animation. Right now for this set, I have seven more ai generated idol-based images that will serve as the basis for further sprite work. The pace of this "project" will be somewhat inconsistent, but I guess you guys should all be familiar with my MO by now. Also to answer your question, getting a kneeling pose is not hard at all provided you've got the rigging all figured out:

I could send the AI-generated images now, but I guess that'll ruin the surprise. So, please just bear with me and my slow ass

 

[slayer]

If I can be of any help, just ask. It's nice being able to give a hand to othe projects as well. :)

 

[Tsukachan]

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I don't really envision this as a full-fledged game. I see it as more in the vein of the "Streets of Girls" thread but with greater emphasis on custom zako art and puppet-style animation. Right now for this set, I have seven more ai generated idol-based images that will serve as the basis for further sprite work. The pace of this "project" will be somewhat inconsistent, but I guess you guys should all be familiar with my MO by now. Also to answer your question, getting a kneeling pose is not hard at all provided you've got the rigging all figured out:

View attachment 149884

I could send the AI-generated images now, but I guess that'll ruin the surprise. So, please just bear with me and my slow ass

Send me via DMs

 

[osw]

Send me via DMs

Please don't push, don't pressure Watt, good pictures take time

 

[Tsukachan]

Please don't push, don't pressure Watt, good pictures take time

Okeyy

 

[Weoooo]

Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I don't really envision this as a full-fledged game. I see it as more in the vein of the "Streets of Girls" thread but with greater emphasis on custom zako art and puppet-style animation.

Excellent, this is exactly what I would've recommended doing! I'm looking forward to it, I've liked your whole style since I first saw it.

 

[slayer]

It's an honour to be used as a reference. Keep up the good work, I believe the results will be great! :)

 

[Watt Khan]

If I can be of any help, just ask. It's nice being able to give a hand to othe projects as well. :)

Thanks for the offer! I usually go at it alone, but I'll ask for help if I need to.

Please don't push, don't pressure Watt, good pictures take time

It's alright, I don't really feel pressured to do Zako Art like I did before. It's all chill on this side.

Send me via DMs

I'll send 'em to you once I'm done with the next zako, which is still in the drawing/designing phase. Unlike the Sheryl sprites, I think this next one needs a bit more work with angles other than the 3/4 one (oh! the horror!)

 

[Watt Khan]

Zako No. 01: Blueberry Eunha

A close friend of Cupcake and her primary stage partner, Eunha or Blueberry is another one of the idol mooks under BZ's employ. She is a pretty basic Zako who is far more poised compared to the flirty Cupcake:

What makes her unique is her ability to produce a knife and annoy you with it:

You can use her knife against her and if her health is low, you'll get the following death animation:

Edit: couldn't upload the death animation in it's original size. Reducing it to 70% size seemed to have work.

 

[Watt Khan]

Another feature of this fictional game is that you can get a unique cutscene depending on how you defeat the different zakos in a given stage. In the following cutscene, our hero (represented as a creepy mannequin creature) is presented with the following scenario:

You as the player have three options here - A) act chivalrously, spare her life. B) use the knife on Blueberry to kill Cupcake. C) In a Hentai-y twist, the hero decides to "have a taste" of Cupcake:

I imagine that your choices here affect the ending of the game and also give your character perks that would be carried over to the later levels. I suppose a unique cutscene scenario involving Blueberry should also be in order. I'll think about this one much much later.

 

[snakesonaplane]

I've never really looked into character rigs. What are you using to make these? Is it quite time consuming?

 

[Watt Khan]

I've never really looked into character rigs. What are you using to make these? Is it quite time consuming?

For the characters themselves, I draw them using paint tool sai with my mouse (yes a mouse, 10+ years of digital art experience and I've yet to invest in a drawing tab). As for the rigging software, I use Spriter pro. It's not a perfect software due to its annoying idiosyncrasies, but I make it work somehow. Though I am thinking of trying some other software. The process itself is not that hard IMO, but the work involved in drawing the assets and making sure that they make sense in a rigging format can be quite time consuming.

 

[Weoooo]

Poor Blueberry. She's cute too.

Also, hold the fuck up, you're using a mouse? This whole time? With everything? That's... amazing. I've never heard of anything like that before.