I want to make creepy, primitive-looking characters. Not monsters that are scary on purpose, just weirdly unpleasant things. My theory is if I design a bunch of characters with this look but have a much nicer, friendlier-looking player character in comparison, the game will stand out.What's the secret to this delicate balance?
The secret is to start working on it and to figure it out along the way
>>998803>Not monsters that are scary on purpose, just weirdly unpleasant things.I think you might be referring to dramatic irony. So the reason Freddy is scary is because it's supposed to be an innocent attraction for children but those chucke-cheese anamatronics were always kind of creepy and uncanny. Having them be cursed evil creatures out to murder you makes them more terrifying. Scott originally made some games with cartoon characters but people made fun of his animation and modeling style and said his characters were creepy so he decided to roll with it and made Freddy.
>>998923>I think you might be referring to dramatic irony.I respect the effortpost but that's not really what I'm referring to. Freddy's as a franchise exists because Scott's old designs were seen as unpleasant. There are likely a lot of 3D models from this era that are similarly repulsive to look at.
>>998931>Scott's old designs were seen as unpleasant.Yeah but thematically they are creepy because of what I said; Something innoccent flipped on it's head and made to be malicuous. If we are only talking about design then I am assuming you don't want something that looks ugly but do want it to be offputting. Something can be "unpleasant" as you say without being ugly at all. Be more specific as to what you want. Is it a particular style or-? What do you mean when you say "unpleasant"?
Take cute thing for kids (subvert expectation that it's safe for kids)Make sure it's stylized (hyper realism is boring and defeats the purpose of juxtaposing friendly with creepy)Make the textures dirty and worn out (optional)Add human teeth and/or eyes (uncanny valley)[Bonus: don't use PBR to render, it's soulles. Use plain old phong for that 90s limited factor]
