darkSpyro

For all quadrupedal animals (like Spyro, your dog, cats, etc), the weight of the upper body is put on the wrist and toes. The upper part of the foreleg or arm controls movement and connection to the torso (ribcage, shoulders, and neck) but does not support the weight of the body.

I also forgot to mention that Spyro's back legs are pretty much broken. His ankle is at such an odd angle from his lower leg that the only way it could exist is if someone had kicked it outward from the inside of the leg, snapping it away from the bones and out of socket. His hips and knees are really disjointed as well.

Oh well, I can still like the design.
Heh, ya learn somethin' new everyday on DS!

Yeah, you can still like it.

It pains a number of artsy folks like me and biology nerds, but if it weren't so anatomically monstrous, I'd probably be okay with it, too.

EL was rushed through the dragon anatomy. I kept wondering why Spyro was angled kind of strange..

What still throws me off is the mangling of the 3D models. The concept art looks just fine, but how on earth did it get translated into something so horrible? o.O

I hope they keep the teen look but improve it.

Yeeg, just took another look at the first picture and noticed that Spyro's left hind leg isn't even attached to his body. D:

lol! In Sonic Unleashed, sometimes normal Sonic's legs go REALLY deformed!

boring

Can't be that dull, Robo-Spyro, if you took time out to leave a comment.

Both Spyro's and Cynder's designs are quite odd in this game.

I mean, Spyro's chest is bigger than Cynder's.. but he's a bit chubbier throughout the rest of his body, so it's a little less noticable. I never really actually minded the designs though, really. I rather like them, actually, but they're easy to critisize.

I love them. DotD Cynder is my favourite design for her (but I love the others). As for Spyro, I love all the designs, except ETD.

Quote: Darby

Both Spyro's and Cynder's designs are quite odd in this game.

I mean, Spyro's chest is bigger than Cynder's.. but he's a bit chubbier throughout the rest of his body, so it's a little less noticable. I never really actually minded the designs though, really. I rather like them, actually, but they're easy to critisize.

EL almost made look like lethal weapons..

But they ARE lethal weapons! Remember the trailer?

Jeeze! Their spines are broken! D: Seriously! And Spyro has a second shoulder joint on his wings that isn't connected at all to his body. The biology nerd in me is dying all over again seeing these. D:

Cynder looks like a spider or ant...You know, how they have the top and bottom parts real big connected by a skinny middle part. Forgot what they were called...

And I have to agree with Razz, since I now know some basic anatomy/biology...They just, don't look like dragons to me anymore. Plus add the fact that I've been playing my old Spyro games again.

Plus the shine on their scales seems off. It's smooth over the whole body, giving them an exoskeleton look. Where each individual scale should be shaded, or at least the ones closest to the 'viewer'.

Quote: SpyroxCynder

Cynder looks like a spider or ant...You know, how they have the top and bottom parts real big connected by a skinny middle part. Forgot what they were called...

And I have to agree with Razz, since I now know some basic anatomy/biology...They just, don't look like dragons to me anymore. Plus add the fact that I've been playing my old Spyro games again.

Plus the shine on their scales seems off. It's smooth over the whole body, giving them an exoskeleton look. Where each individual scale should be shaded, or at least the ones closest to the 'viewer'.

yea,it just seems like they are wrapped in plastic or something...
and Spyro looks like he has some sort of skin disease...

If you're going to texture your dragon with a full body of scales, you need to texture every scale. This is where Krome had the right of it when they just made the characters look like they had skin. It's a game; players can fill in the specifics of the characters as needed. Don't include unnecessary details in the art if you're not going to finish using them right.

You know what, Activision should TOTALLY let Insomniac make the next game. They DID say they were making a PS3/360 game...

But that doesn't mean Insomniac will be making the next game. If you hadn't heard, SpyroxCynder, the next game Spyro's Kingdom has been confirmed to be on the Wii and DS. And Activision's trying to hide evidence of it.

As far as I know, Insomniac have stated they will not be taking Spyro back, ever.

Quote: SpyroxCynder

Cynder looks like a spider or ant...You know, how they have the top and bottom parts real big connected by a skinny middle part. Forgot what they were called...

And I have to agree with Razz, since I now know some basic anatomy/biology...They just, don't look like dragons to me anymore. Plus add the fact that I've been playing my old Spyro games again.

Plus the shine on their scales seems off. It's smooth over the whole body, giving them an exoskeleton look. Where each individual scale should be shaded, or at least the ones closest to the 'viewer'.

Abdomen and thorax? Yeah, I always thought she looked bug-like in that picture....

Maybe that's why she's the only dragon female. They breed like ants and she will be their queen. o.O ...Actually, that would make LoS kind of cool. I don't think it could handle that much originality.

Quote:

Should not be able to walk with chest that far forward, let alone crouch.

Boy, I'll say:

EDIT:I just realized that this pic was already posted once but my computer wouldn't show any pics not even anyones avatar so I couldn't see it

Quote: Thunderdragon14

^ are u saying dotd ten and anb spyro is bad?

You are a total idiot........... GREW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HE'S 11 NOW!HE WAS 8!

What the heck are you talking about DarkCynder X? His (closest to) official age in LoS is listed as 12 and the game makers themselves said he didn't age.

Quote: Darby

Both Spyro's and Cynder's designs are quite odd in this game.

I mean, Spyro's chest is bigger than Cynder's.. but he's a bit chubbier throughout the rest of his body, so it's a little less noticable. I never really actually minded the designs though, really. I rather like them, actually, but they're easy to critisize.

Spyro shouldn't be so curvy. he should be flatter than Cynder/.

Yeah, he has a lot of curves where he shouldn't. In cartoon style language, that translates to female or baby.

Also, how can either of them walk with their hind legs so out of proportion and disjointed? They'll be kicking themselves in the knees with every step and banging their kneecaps on the ground when they move forward.

I don't even know where Cynder's knees are alls I see are thighs then shins...

You can kind of see Cynder's right knee. Oddly, as much as I hate to say it, for as horrible and twisted as her character design is, she's slightly more anatomically viable than Spyro (she'd still suffocate from lack of proper lung space, though).

Waugh, just noticed that Spyro's right toes are broken. Why did you guys make this topic?! It's so painful to have my attention drawn to this!

how're they broken?

If you look at a dog's back legs, you'll note that the knees are up high and the dog is standing on his toes (with the ankle being a little close to the body). The toes of the back paws stay flat on the ground. Spyro's back toes on the right foot aren't flat (though he is standing still, so they should be). He's standing in such a way that it looks like his toes have either snapped almost in half or he has a fourth joint in his leg/foot that no living quadruped (or Cynder) has.

I don't like a lot of the promotional art for DotD to be honest, but they definitly look better in-game(on Xbox 360 anyway). I know Spyro wasn't THAT curvy in my game!

I have a vague recollection of their game models being decent, but they looked every bit as anatomically inaccurate in the cutscenes.

I don't mind them being anatomically inaccurate. IMO, they can do what they want with the design, they're making it.(Not sayin' I don't have preferences though.....) There are tons of different types of weird and zany dragon designs out there anyway. I mean, Chinese dragons are huge yet they fly without wings. Heck, even dragons with wings shouldn't be able to fly(Spyro and Cynder included) seeing as they are heavy.

This topic has gone past the initial picture posted!

Like I said before, there's a big difference between being whimsical (Chinese dragons who fly sans wings, dragons in general, etc.) and doing something lazy or wrong in terms of artistic working (all of the above posted images). It doesn't matter if Spyro's wings are technically too small for him to fly, but it does matter that his wings aren't connected to his body by anything but skin at the shoulder joint when the aim is for something more realistic. It doesn't matter that Spyro's got big feet and skinny forearms, but it does matter that his feet aren't connected to his body and that his toes are clearly bent such that they are broken or have a fourth, inexplicable joint.

There's a difference between being stylistic and just being lazy. I'll give you three guesses what the modelers were being when they made Spyro's model for DotD, and it wasn't stylish.

Oh, I wasn't saying I liked the pictures, and I wasn't standing up for the developers. I was actually going a bit off topic now that I think of it!

TBH, it's promotional art, and I don't care what it looks like, as long as I enjoy the actual game it "promotes"(which I did, in this case). And they look much better in the actual game(again, at least on Xbox 360. I don't have it on PS2, so I can't tell you there).

The developers weren't being stylish, or even lazy.......they were trying to make their art look like Mario's promo art.....and failed. Wait, that makes them lazy!

Fair enough.

As a lifelong artist, nothing makes me angrier than lazy art, especially lazy character design, so this has been one of my (many) things to hate DotD for. They do look modestly better in game and if you skip the cutscenes, you can pretend those models aren't all screwy, too.

They look better in the Xbox 360 cutscenes too. However, although I liked the animation most of the time, there were some dodgy parts. Look at how Spyro and Cynder walk at 0:10. I laughed so much when I first seen this!:


Oh, and don't get yourself frustrated over other artists flaws! Just worry about yourself! (And on that note, MAYBE you shouldn't look at my DA gallery!)

LOL, so messed up.

Wow, I was right: they do hit their knees with their feet at every step.

Sometimes they do, but I notice things like that all the time in some extremly revered games anyway!

The thing I was pointing out was the way they walked like four-legged penguins at 0:10! Could they not of just used the normal walking animation?!

There are a lot of cheap cuts, glitches, and rushed animations throughout LoS (ANB had the classic moment where a jump cut makes it look like Ignitus pushed Spyro off a cliff; TEN has...a lot of things; etc). DotD animations are no exception. There's a terrifying animation glitch with Sparx in one of PS2 cutscenes.

I seen that Sparx thing! Oh my god, it's just hilarious!

Quote: Razz

There are a lot of cheap cuts, glitches, and rushed animations throughout LoS (ANB had the classic moment where a jump cut makes it look like Ignitus pushed Spyro off a cliff; TEN has...a lot of things; etc). DotD animations are no exception. There's a terrifying animation glitch with Sparx in one of PS2 cutscenes.

The one with Sparx was wierd xD
but yea...same goes for all other dragons having barney teeth,Hunter's jaw moving all over the place when he talks,shooting an arrow at the golem in catacombs was just wierd and unnatural-looking,facial expressions on all the chars (except for Sparx),etc,etc...

Oh, yeah, the arrow thing! When I seen that, I said to myself:
"This isn't good..."

Quote: GamingMaster_76

Looks much better.

A bit, but his wing bones are still too thin, his wing memebranes don't touch the body. he has too little wing muscle, his mouth is really big (just realized) and his back legs are too skinny

A lot of what you mentioned can be excused for style. What can't be, however, is things like his mouth nearly splitting his head in half, his obviously broken left ankle, the wing arms appearing to be just pasted on his back instead of being solidly attached to his body, extra joints in the wing that make no sense, and the back of his head is apparently part of his shoulders. D:

I think his jaw is about to drop in a comical fassion! []=============-:

Quote: Razz

A lot of what you mentioned can be excused for style. What can't be, however, is things like his mouth nearly splitting his head in half, his obviously broken left ankle, the wing arms appearing to be just pasted on his back instead of being solidly attached to his body, extra joints in the wing that make no sense, and the back of his head is apparently part of his shoulders. D:

omg I just noticed that
*cringe* I just felt something in my leg after seeing that lol >_0