Restored Toroko

Hello fellow cave dwellers.
I'm new here. I don't know if sprite work goes in modding, if it doesn't, then sorry
Well, I never liked Toroko's redesign in CS+ the mugshots sprite sheet. I waited for years for somebody skilled who saved the day but it never happened. Today I got some free time on my hands and I decided to step in and just do it myself. I hope you like it.

 

Nicalis probably decided to change Toroko's design in the CS+ sprites because her original facepic made her head look like a block,

 

Which is totally appropriate because the sprites are block-headed, IMO. But that's not the only thing they changed about her. Let me explain a bit how I see this one: Imagine there is a camera at specific ground level and the camera mimiga instructs all the cast in the game to step in front of the camera at specific distance, then the smaller characters would fit the frame and they'd look a bit from above (like Toroko), the big guys would not fit the frame and just get barely a part of their faces pictured and also would appear like seen from below (Igor, Balrog, etc). Nicalis broke that rule and "moved the camera" with Toroko which created an inconsistency.

 

Nicalis probably decided to change Toroko's design in the CS+ sprites because her original facepic made her head look like a block,

Which is totally appropriate because the sprites are block-headed, IMO.

I don't think that's very good logic. There's only so much detail you can have in a sprite that isn't up close, so a lot of things are going to look blocky in their sprite form. Quote and Curly's heads look blocky in their sprites, but not so in the credit art illustrations.

But that's not the only thing they changed about her. Let me explain a bit how I see this one: Imagine there is a camera at specific ground level and the camera mimiga instructs all the cast in the game to step in front of the camera at specific distance, then the smaller characters would fit the frame and they'd look a bit from above (like Toroko), the big guys would not fit the frame and just get barely a part of their faces pictured and also would appear like seen from below (Igor, Balrog, etc). Nicalis broke that rule and "moved the camera" with Toroko which created an inconsistency.

I read through this paragraph a few times and I'm still a little bit confused about what point you're trying to make. It sounds like you're pointing out Pixel's convention of having bigger characters like Balrog and Igor have part of their faces cut off in the facepics because of how they'd look at a certain camera position, and that smaller characters like Toroko, Sue, and King have their full faces shown because of how they'd look in the same camera position. Am I correct in believing that that's what you're saying?

Looking at your up-scaled Toroko pictures vs the NICALiS ones, it looks like the frame view of her is pretty much the same, except that just a tiny bit of her left ear (our right side) is cut off in the NICALiS pictures. I don't consider that a very big deal, though.

I kind of agree with Extra Life that the original facepic looked kind of blocky, so if they were going to scale it up, it made sense to change it up a bit. I will admit, though, there was something about the NICALiS scale up of Toroko that I never quite liked. There was a certain innocence and tenderness that was conveyed in the original Toroko pics that the NICALiS up-scale pictures didn't quite capture as well as they could have, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. I especially am not a fan of the "You jerk!" facepic for Toroko in NICALiS up-scale.

 

I mean, if you'd look at a small child you'd normally see the top of their head; but if they were as tall as you are then you wouldn't (because of view angles).
About NICALiS "scaling up" Toroko, what I meant was that "upscaling" her is akin to "zooming" or "moving the camera closer" or "having Toroko stand closer to the camera" than for the rest of the cast (or maybe they turned Toroko into an adult?).
About the "blocky" look, I'd say, they didn't bother with Jack, so why bother with Toroko?
Now, you talked about a key point, Hayden, they changed her expression for the worst, you pretty much nailed it with mentioning her lost innocence, they also got rid of that anxious look, her anguish and fear is not represented as good in the redesign. And let's be honest, original Toroko is the cutest thing ever :3, she's my favorite character because she's SO cute <3.

 

About NICALiS "scaling up" Toroko, what I meant was that "upscaling" her is akin to "zooming" or "moving the camera closer" or "having Toroko stand closer to the camera" than for the rest of the cast (or maybe they turned Toroko into an adult?).

Comparing the original graphics with the NICALiS up-scale side-by-side, it really doesn't look like there's a significant difference between the camera angles. Maybe her face is a little bit wider in the new graphics, but that's really not very significant.

About the "blocky" look, I'd say, they didn't bother with Jack, so why bother with Toroko?

In my opinion, the original Jack facepic doesn't look anywhere near as blocky as the original Toroko facepic.

Now, you talked about a key point, Hayden, they changed her expression for the worst, you pretty much nailed it with mentioning her lost innocence, they also got rid of that anxious look, her anguish and fear is not represented as good in the redesign. And let's be honest, original Toroko is the cutest thing ever :3

Yeah, I think we pretty much agree on this point.

 

Comparing the original graphics with the NICALiS up-scale side-by-side, it really doesn't look like there's a significant difference between the camera angles. Maybe her face is a little bit wider in the new graphics, but that's really not very significant.

The "zoom" is a bit subtle, I agree, but she looks like she has the height of the camera, maybe I fail to explain it well, let's see, try to look to somebody of your height in their eyes and then ask them to crouch a little bit until you can see the top of their head is the best example I can come up, I suck at explaining things, ha, ha, ha.

EDIT: Oh, I didn't clarify, Pixel set a fixed "height" and "distance from the photographed". "Fixed" is the key here, he could just move the camera away or closer and up or down so everybody fitted the frame and had their eyes one third of the frame, but he didn't do it for his own reasons (style?).

 

these are some pretty nice upscales, I'd say you did a good job on these
personally, I kind of prefer the nicalis toroko facepics over the original despite me having more nostalgia for the 1x res sprites, I agree that the original looked weirdly blocky and almost like it was trying to be 3Dish as well as Jack's facepic, which looks kind of odd to me. I still like both versions of her face images but her nicalis facepics look less strange to me in that way