2D Characters in 3D Worlds (and how I improved them)

The most overproduced possible way for me to explain why I think little paper guys in video games are neat. Credit for the SDF idea goes to my friend MorganLaK! Their links are below:
ClassyHam recently did a writeup on how they recreated this effect in Material Maker and Unreal Engine, if anyone is interested in implementing this for themselves I highly recommend their writeup: classyham.com/...
CG Cookie’s Normal Map video:
• Deconstructing a Norma...
Valve’s article on distance fields:
steamcdn-a.aka...
Another useful article on distance fields by Joyrok:
joyrok.com/Wha...
My old friend Morgan who figured out the hard stuff:
www.tumblr.com...
/ morganlak
My socials (please don’t follow):
/ jaythedevguy

[@skywolf225-kf5cx]

How do I convert the rgb into steam keys?

[@compilererror2836]

just integrate under the curve

[@timmygilbert4102]

​@@compilererror2836turning heightmap into volume data huh?

[@jc_art_]

Magic

[@xXjuksterXx]

they are in ascii, evident by the 45 triplet in 6/12th columns. 45 in ascii is a dash you can use any half-decent ascii conversion website to get the 15 character string. no point though, they are already used

[@WohaoG]

@@xXjuksterXxgod damn it

[@kirbles2035]

I genuinely really REALLY love the ratatouille game idea. Please work on it when Uncle Dane's wacky adventure is finished.

[@jamassexd4134]

COMPLETELY AGREE

[@jonathanjeremy1729]

Yep

[@connorcclarke]

I fully agree

[@cinnamondum]

same that's awesome

[@JoyceyQueen]

seems like fun

[@Sharkalien10]

When you were describing the low resolution texture problem, I was just thinking of how Ian McConville also used distance fields for the slimes’ faces in Slime Rancher, so I’m glad you found out that was a viable solution on your own

[@xymaryai8283]

the first idea is like Titanfall, but the pilots are rats, and the mechs are string puppets i love it

[@wraith117]

LETS GO SOMEONE KNOWS WHAT TITANFALL IS

[@cooker0rats]

mfw you call in your titan and its just the evaporated corpse of a dude named craig who was dropped from orbit at 7000mph

[@mcbolt1987]

unlike many KZbin channels, The first video ever on this channel is very close to being a masterpiece (in my opinion), Very entertaining and I also learned something, Also love the art style and game ideas especially the Hitman + Octodad game

[@shawneebushatz1963]

Man, I for once gotta thank KZbin for giving channels like yours, I can tell that even with the 2 videos you've released that this will probably be a channel I I'll really enjoy. Also, those game ideas you had at the end of the video sound really fun.

[@number1Gameking]

Man I love the aesthetic you're going for, the little guy on the big desk is so adorable. And the chill tone of your voice mixed with the chill it's so relaxing.

[@bonicle7610]

Awesome video!! Additionally to all of this, you could also use the alpha channel of the normal map for the distance fields instead of having them in a separate texture since it just needs a single channel for it.

[@JayTheDevGuy]

Clever idea, that's exactly what I did, I go over it in a Twitter thread I've linked in a few comments here :]

[@TheCrimsonSeven]

Damn the commitment to no turn-arounds and the distance field tech pulls off fantastically, and your drawings are just plain great! Awesome stuff.

[@neputendo]

The fact that this is your first video makes me aware of how far you're gonna go from this point on. This is an extremely impressive one to have.

[@MegapiemanPHD]

Depressing Super Mario Sunshine immediately made me think of Flood's jetpack but with tears from crying instead of a backpack full of water.

[@shirshobanerjee7751]

Binding of Issac but 3d could work with this

[@Pak-iv5it]

Thank you so much for sharing, I'm starting to develop a game like this and, mate, this just saved my life, awesome first video btw I'm digging the vibe you go for

[@apaskiewicz]

Bro thank you so much. I learned more from this video than I have about Paper2D stuff all week.

[@JayTheDevGuy]

Thanks! If you haven't heard, the PaperZD plugin is an Epic MegaGrant recipient and is basically the official 2D solution in UE these days, so check that out.

[@Edible132]

Learning clever tricks like these are my favorite part of game development

[@Fromdustscratchgames]

Only just discovered this video. I've been looking into this rendering challenge for over a decade, and this summarizes a lot of the issues, and awesome recent examples by indie devs. Some of your tips should help guide and inspire new people (the distance fields trick is quite clever!). Best of luck, hope you keep going!

[@Skeledude1]

This is super awesome stuff! Keep up your game dev work, i'm sure you'll go far!

[@guyinahat8930]

I love this video so much! I'm honestly very surprised that you don't already have a backlog of a couple years of KZbin content with how professional the quality is. But my guy don't make art for the people who can't find the value in it. Don't start making a space for the smug commenters or that will be the only audience you have left. Don't try to preemptively defend yourself to the people who try to devalue your art, since the people who do that probably shouldn't be here to begin with. And coding is hard, and just giving a basic run through of how to make 2d characters look good in 3d, adding in references to other games and how they do it would've been more then enough to make a compelling video. Your project doesn't need to be ground breaking for it to be interesting. So again you went above and beyond and making such an amazing video, but don't keep the smug commenter voice in the back of your head, if they don't want to watch these videos at face value then they shouldn't watch em. (The most vocal portion of an audience is usually also the least representative of the actual audience, most folks never leave a comment)

[@NoahHayes]

Wait…this is your FIRST video? Whoa! Made it all the way to the end assuming I stumbled across a video from someone who’s been creating golden content for years. Outstanding video, so polished, well written, well spoken, and packed with great explanations of concepts. Instantly subscribed

[@Drumede]

holy crap you are so underrated for how much effort you put in these videos

[@liamwittkamp6979]

Pumpkin Panic got me into this style and I have been searching for these types of games ever since.

[@janmagtoast]

I already love this so much. The desk is lovely (including the cable management) and the animations and scripting are really cool too! Ty for making this!

[@centdemeern1]

This is of insanely high quality and effort, props!

[@osklego]

As someone who just found this video and watched it, i'm kinda amazed to learn so much even as a non-game dev. This video is so entertaining by itself with the awesome style. Great job with the video!

[@thor8606]

I cant wait to see where your projects and by extension (hopefully) this channel goes, your style appeals to me and learning the details of how development uhhhhhhh develops is really interesting Your game ideas are super cool too and i want hitmanoctodad so badly now

[@IrrationalMango]

yooo this is sick! definitely gotta be the highest quality first video I've ever seen on any channel, I absolutely love the style please keep making things

[@lemon.cupcake]

I love your vibe. I really like sorta your speaking tone and the way you animate your sona to it. Also the character animation in your mockups is really charming. Hype to see your games.

[@HaHAjax]

Rain World mentions are really rare, glad to see it appear!

[@Wasambi]

Awesome stuff! I had no idea the distance fields could be used like that. I love seeing a seemingly simple setup of something actually have a lot of thought and tech behind it

[@EndVertex]

This was a great video - thank you so much for the breakdown. :) I've never heard of distance fields, so that was really helpful. Gonna see if they can help me with some current issues I have. Looking forward to watching more!

[@voxlvalyx]

This feels like when I found Wendigoon at 2K subs. You'll definitely get far if you keep this up. Great videos so far!

[@GreenDave113]

Games shown at 5:52: - Here Comes Niko! - Born of Bread - Tinykin - Ruffy and the Riverside - The Last Night

[@JayTheDevGuy]

In order of appearance: Born of Bread, Tinykin, Ruffy and the Riverside, and The Last Night :]

[@potatodev4019]

I was thinking "hey this is a good video" and then i saw idea #1. At this moment i realized this video is actually a masterpiece. 10/10

[@littlebiboy4933]

Just wanted to say that I love you art style, and this video, and I can’t wait to see more! 😁

[@nicolotito424]

This is brilliant from starting to end. Really hope to see more!

[@morganlak4337]

Great video! I can't wait to see more

[@benmcreynolds8581]

Lately I have been obsessed with this art style & game design. I've been hoping we start seeing more games that utilize this 2D,2.5D, sprite art style. It would really enhance the kind of video games that would be coming out.

[@UnpluggedProfessor]

Really vibing with your pacing, tone, and fun interludes throughout the video! Easy sub -- no doubt! Cheers and looking forward to your work going forward!

[@Pupuynahu9]

Really liked this lil vid! Your lil avatar moving around the desk looks neat, the little test game you made to explain everything and the character u made for it looks pretty, and man, this kinda made me want to make a game with this style (i know next to nothing about game dev) Also can't wait for Depressing Mario Sunshine, that thing looks GOTY worthy

[@jeremiahrosa1329]

Really nice video, especially for your first. I recently started my own KZbin channel, but if I didn’t take a look at your channel page, I’d have had no idea that this was your first video.

[@R1GBYdev]

Wow, really high quality video man, great work, looking forward to some more content and hopefully some projects :D

[@TanteiRotana]

I really enjoy this art style in games so getting to hear about how it works under the hood was really cool, thanks for the upload!

[@janstachu7744]

Holy smokes dude, amazing first video! I am currently working on my first animation in this very artstyle you are talking about and even though things you cover here aren't really useful outside of gaming, it still is really inspirational. Also, I would love to see the "secret agent" idea expanded upon!

[@SonCosmo]

your video presentation is really cute

[@coucoul38]

Yoo you're really good at 2D animation, even if those characters are very simple, the movements are hella smooth

[@flyingpiggles1034]

this is a really fascinating video! this is a concept im currently playing around with, in part thanks to your engineer video, and I've never considered things like adding normal maps to a 2d character to simulate depth!

[@infinity281]

the beautiful cable management behind your desk ♥♥♥♥

[@karue7581]

The production value is insane. Absolutely loved your work on this!

[@PinoPrime]

WOAHHH THIS IS SO UNDERRATED

[@JayTheDevGuy]

Oh hey fellow growing-overproduced-high-energy-educational-devlogger-with-a-cartoony-avatar-carried-by-a-unique-but-technically-simple-art-style-that-emphasizes-big-expressive-keyframes-with-no-interpolation, fancy seeing you here. Do you have any advice on how to come to terms with the fact that we're technically VTubers? Please let me know so I can sleep at night, thanks in advance.

[@PinoPrime]

@@JayTheDevGuy Uhhhhhhhhhh

[@JayTheDevGuy]

@@PinoPrime But in all seriousness thanks for the kind words, and as a total newbie to the devlog thing it feels good hearing nice things from someone who's pretty successful at it :]

[@a52productions]

your animation is SO CUTE!! oh my gosh! both the little talksprite + environment, and the robot person running around in the game. i love them so much, and i love the billboarded style too! (it's what i'm planning for my own game, but i'm running into my own problems -- as bad as i am at rigging, i'm even worse at traditional art! oops. shouldve thought about that before i committed to this art style)

[@obnoxiousalternative6558]

I'm going with Idea #1 here- it sounds genuinely fun!

[@xymaryai8283]

i've known how normal maps have worked for years now, but you made it click. always worth explaining something in your own way even if people already know.

[@owdoogames]

For a first video, this is very impressive. Hell, it’s better than most game dev videos on KZbin.

[@arcviper27]

an untitled goose game + rain world + over the hedge mashup genuinely sounds fun af

[@themidnightspark9431]

This helped me a lot with my current project. THANK YOU!

[@mikeysaurlol]

this video reminded me of leon massey in nothing but good ways, similarly to his stuff you can sense the effort and passion you put into the video, and i think i might give this style a shot for my next project, just gotta figure out the shader magic in godot

[@SleepyLuigi]

That’s my favorite style- I’ve always wanted to make stuff in it.

[@Razlider]

i was SURPRISED to hear that this was your first video, you did real good!

[@carbonation10317]

Those really are some great ideas for games at the end. Im also really impressed with the 128 x 128 textures. thats an amazing optimization

[@SpaceMin]

No way you only have 61 subs! Honestly very good first video, Love your style definitely subscribing for more! The hype is real for: Super Mario Sunshine But It's Depressing.

[@eleveatorbeat]

Awesome! I cant wait untill next weeks video; and all of the new animations. I bet next week will be even cooler, and better.

[@zarithial5480]

GUH UNEXPECTED RAINNWORLD MENTION

[@LuxrayLloyd]

This is your first video?! Seriously outstanding quality!

[@Derpmind]

This is super impressive for your channel's first video! Aaaand the technique you use for scaling your sprites is really cool too!

[@theaddictofgaming9174]

Doxxing yourself is crazy, but thanks for the video. The implementation is incredibly clever and the video aesthetics are superb (and equally economical? srsly, Using a free camera and setbuilding makes the few poses so dynamic!) Anyway, have a good one and rock on.

[@mumblety]

Subscribed. I'm excited to see where this channel goes!

[@a.person1805]

Oooh, sweet video! Noticed a trend of going on really well thought out tangents, that's one of my favorite things in videos like this, and you do it SOOOO well it's magical. Hitman + Octodad sounds like a great idea, my favorite bit of Hitman WoA was always leg shotting people or muffining people off of ledges (try this on Rangan in Mumbai or the golf coach in Sapienza, there's no actual fall damage so they have to walk all the way back up) or into 1 inch deep water, getting that "unofficial" push that I worked for felt great. Your idea reminded me of that and I really liked being reminded of that! Good format good writing, really looking forward to more :D

[@Oretal]

You telling me that I can make outlines look good at ANY distance with one trick has given me SOOOOO MUCH JOY!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! Awesome video! I love your goofy drawings :D

[@mrrootbeertheobserver]

Oh shoot, first video? This is clean man. Seriously just before you said something I was checking your channel to see what else you had because it just felt like you have been doing this for ages. Nice work, keep it up!

[@Nkanyiso_K]

This video was really helpful. I'd love to make a Paper Mario inspired game once day, once I'm a little more confident in Blender

[@josuetorres8731]

Oh cool i firgure out the code for the steam keys to bad somebody already got to it but that was fun

[@AlexSerranoChavez-mb6ee]

The word “rain world” activated all my neurons

[@tadpolelovehandles]

I really love this video ❤ I found it right when I'm working on a 3d action rpg with sprites and this video inspired me to implement some of these changes into it. I'm really excited to watch more of your videos!

[@blitzu6501]

I love this concept and your artstyle too! Amazing video.

[@demonicdude1328]

It's very simple but really effective bit in "here comes niko" when you walk twords the camera you get a front facing sprite and when you walk away from the camera you get a back facing sprite

[@dortuff]

Good video. I like. Also ratatouille idea I like.

[@josuetorres8731]

Really cool video. This was a great watch. I can't wait to see what else you make!

[@ramshornstudios2807]

You knocked this out of the park for a first video! Holy cow this was super informative and well produced. Instantly subscribed after I was done watching!

[@Ozown]

Didn't realise this was you first video until checking the comments, your video quality is really high. Keep it up!

[@SuperSpikes777]

This was very interesting and I have always love this art style in games. Keep it up dude I hope to see more games with art styles like this in the future. 👍

[@ty_teynium]

I LOVE how the Sprite moves on two frames and not ones! Finally! A 2D character that ACTUALLY moves like a 2D animated character! Yes, Finally! Why don't more game devs/ animators / anime games do this?

[@kanamis]

Now i have an undying want to make a VRChat world with 2D NPCs, many thanks!

[@Kavukamari]

i have always wanted to use SDF's to make dynamic characters, it's such a cool idea to me because it saves so much texture space

[@jacobswanson6876]

Very cool stuff! I’m also working on a ton of limited-but-hand-drawn animation for video games, and it’s been a constant process of rethinking and reiterating what I typically think animation needs to look like. What works in a film does NOT work in the game world, but that problem-solving is a constant joy. I’m especially into that depressing Mario Sunshine idea. Seems like a sweeeeeeeet project.

[@natanmaia3575]

Amazing insight on your approach, dude ❤

[@JamieCracker]

I have fallen in love with your art

[@ecxstasy347]

you are so so sooo underrated. I guarantee that if you upload consistently this channel will be super popular among programmers and even gamers, cool niche. production is insane, im here to stay.

[@DSprich]

I don't know if it's just the floaty animation of the 2-D sprite, but there's something that really reminds me of the first 2 Earthworm Jim games, even though there was almost nothing 3-D about them.

[@eKirbi]

Awesome video! I'm also working on an unreal engine game using 2d characters in a 3d world, and I also came across the blurriness issue. The distance fields are a real eye opener, I'm really glad you covered this since it would have been unlikely for me to find that out myself. Looking forward to what you'll make!

[@pedroscoponi4905]

I know this is a comment on a year old video but I would genuinely pay money for all three of the games you described here, _especially_ the ratatouille one. It would be a CRIME if that didn't exist.

[@HopeeStudios]

Lovely video, man 💚 have a lovely week

[@KinoCineaste]

Yubikey and QNAP spotted yeah, we out here gamedeving

[@JayTheDevGuy]

I'm so glad someone noticed

[@KrispyRodent]

I love the stealth ratatouille idea

[@SoCalledEgg]

i think you should follow through on all of these ideas they seem amazing

[@ondmunk]

This video is so great, I'm loving it so far and your art style is so nice to look at! But you really just had to remind us of The Last Night huh😭 I want that game to happen so bad

[@scotdotwtf]

this was your first video?! this was great holy shit how did i only see this now!!

[@connorcclarke]

Ratatouille hitman sounds awesome and i want it now. I would pay like 30 bucks for a solid game like that

[@HaloAvon777]

Um, actually... you're awesome. This is great. Thanks for the Distance Field info! I'm going to try that myself. :D

[@Wapcvm]

I'm intrigued by this topic too. Anyway, since I've yet found an answer, I tried once making sprites like this billboard on a pivot yet still have its occlusion culled as if from its pivot was an upward facing plane that wasn't being billboarded and was being used for the depth checking. This could achieve the complete look of a 2D isometric game from any angle using any type of 3D geometry without it looking like paper, if I actually figured out how to do it. Because I remember years back playing a Roblox game called "Purple Skittles" that used Billboarding for every sprite, then realized the Billboards were within the bounds of its collision box so it didn't matter. Then I saw games like Cult of the Lamb and realized they don't even bother to do that. Agh. So just like that I gave up on my project over a tiny hurdle...

[@yoppimedia]

sick vid! really good production value and u covered the topic in really interesting ways

[@InteIIo]

I can't wait to be that guy who says "here before 100k!" Because you're going places