Dink Shadows for Blender
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- Author(s): iplaydink
- Categories: Development, Graphics
- Downloads: 462
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Description
This is a start-file to use when making new 3d graphics for Dink.
It includes a nice camera and light set-up but most importantly uses the node system with shadow and material index pass to change the shadows rendered against the floor plane into the "dinkshadows"(black and white checkerboard).
This means you don't have to do any horrible post-processing for hours drawing graphics for your animations, instead you get perfect shadows with no work at all!
Please not: blender can't render in 24-bit bmp so you need to convert them after render..
It includes a nice camera and light set-up but most importantly uses the node system with shadow and material index pass to change the shadows rendered against the floor plane into the "dinkshadows"(black and white checkerboard).
This means you don't have to do any horrible post-processing for hours drawing graphics for your animations, instead you get perfect shadows with no work at all!
Please not: blender can't render in 24-bit bmp so you need to convert them after render..
| Released: | August 27th, 2022 |
|---|---|
| File Size: | 2.17 MB |
| Downloads: | 55 |
| Release Notes: | Community update by Drone1400: - You can now adjust object light source independently from shadow checkerboard light source. (Default orientation is opposite to shadow light source) |
 | |
Description
I don't know much coding (or any coding at all), so I can't speak about the dark magic that iplaydink used to create this file. I can, however, speak about my experience with it. This file came at a perfect time when I was learning 3D modeling, so it's only natural that I took the skills I had to create new content for Dink. The result is Shudinko. And no, it's not Shujinko from Mortal Kombat Deception with a lazy recolor!
It's a 100% original character thought up by me. Neat! And what's neater still is that I made a short romp to showcase the character (with help from another dark magician, RobJ). But enough about my incredible character which has yet to be included in a DMOD, let's talk about the file!
Accessibility
The file is extremely easy to use, even for an idiot (like me). You fire up the file through Blender and on the left side of the screen you'll be presented with handy, easy-to-follow instructions that walk you through the whole process of generating dink-styled sprites using your very own models! And if you want to make an animation and know a little bit about Blender's export functionality (namely setting a template for the name of the frames being exported as BMP files), you'll be able to export an entire sprite set ready to be copy and pasted into your dmod folder! This makes it extremely easy to test your animations and quickly go back and fix whatever might be wrong.
There's not much else I can say about the functionality of this file. It does what it says on the tin and I highly encourage anyone who wants to use Blender to make dink graphics to use it.
Quality
There is something that all graphics ever created for a DMOD (regardless of software used) have in common. Simply put, all of them, whether made in Blender, Photoshop or even MS Paint, look off. Some graphics don't even try to fit in with the Dink style, but we're not talking about those. We're talking about new, custom sprites created with the sole purpose of fitting in seamlessly with the vanilla dink graphics. But they never hit the mark. Whatever combination of software, filters, modeling techniques or what-else-have-you used by Seth back in the 90's cannot be emulated with the software of today. This is still a subject of research in the field of dmodding, so we might reach that point, but we haven't yet. And we haven't reached it with this file either. Now, obviously, if you read the title of the file, you'll know it's strictly trying to emulate the dink shadows. And it does an almost tremendous job. It does such a good job that you could make custom sprites with this file and 99% of players would be none the wiser. But for people like me who have developed a larvae in their brain whose only function is to point out small differences in things, it's painfully visible. The shadows are slightly longer, and the angle is not quite right!! THE HORROR
Sorry...
As I said, the file does a more than fine job and you have no reason not to use it. I guess I'm just letting off some steam. Writing about this file reminded me of all the times I tried to emulate the dink graphics in blender, using shaders, nodes, filters, textures, materials, ANYTHING and always falling short. And with the original dink models now released after years of painstakingly pestering Seth through emails, they seem to simply lie dormant, unable to be used. So close, yet so very far.
Conclusion
It's a great file. It's not perfect, but it's good enough and a solid base to be built upon. If you encounter any issues with this file (courtesy of recent Blender updates), Drone made a new version with some new features which is currently only available on my Discord server (although if he ever decides to upload it to the Dink Network I'll update my review).
I don't know much coding (or any coding at all), so I can't speak about the dark magic that iplaydink used to create this file. I can, however, speak about my experience with it. This file came at a perfect time when I was learning 3D modeling, so it's only natural that I took the skills I had to create new content for Dink. The result is Shudinko. And no, it's not Shujinko from Mortal Kombat Deception with a lazy recolor!
It's a 100% original character thought up by me. Neat! And what's neater still is that I made a short romp to showcase the character (with help from another dark magician, RobJ). But enough about my incredible character which has yet to be included in a DMOD, let's talk about the file!Accessibility
The file is extremely easy to use, even for an idiot (like me). You fire up the file through Blender and on the left side of the screen you'll be presented with handy, easy-to-follow instructions that walk you through the whole process of generating dink-styled sprites using your very own models! And if you want to make an animation and know a little bit about Blender's export functionality (namely setting a template for the name of the frames being exported as BMP files), you'll be able to export an entire sprite set ready to be copy and pasted into your dmod folder! This makes it extremely easy to test your animations and quickly go back and fix whatever might be wrong.
There's not much else I can say about the functionality of this file. It does what it says on the tin and I highly encourage anyone who wants to use Blender to make dink graphics to use it.
Quality
There is something that all graphics ever created for a DMOD (regardless of software used) have in common. Simply put, all of them, whether made in Blender, Photoshop or even MS Paint, look off. Some graphics don't even try to fit in with the Dink style, but we're not talking about those. We're talking about new, custom sprites created with the sole purpose of fitting in seamlessly with the vanilla dink graphics. But they never hit the mark. Whatever combination of software, filters, modeling techniques or what-else-have-you used by Seth back in the 90's cannot be emulated with the software of today. This is still a subject of research in the field of dmodding, so we might reach that point, but we haven't yet. And we haven't reached it with this file either. Now, obviously, if you read the title of the file, you'll know it's strictly trying to emulate the dink shadows. And it does an almost tremendous job. It does such a good job that you could make custom sprites with this file and 99% of players would be none the wiser. But for people like me who have developed a larvae in their brain whose only function is to point out small differences in things, it's painfully visible. The shadows are slightly longer, and the angle is not quite right!! THE HORROR
Sorry...
As I said, the file does a more than fine job and you have no reason not to use it. I guess I'm just letting off some steam. Writing about this file reminded me of all the times I tried to emulate the dink graphics in blender, using shaders, nodes, filters, textures, materials, ANYTHING and always falling short. And with the original dink models now released after years of painstakingly pestering Seth through emails, they seem to simply lie dormant, unable to be used. So close, yet so very far.
Conclusion
It's a great file. It's not perfect, but it's good enough and a solid base to be built upon. If you encounter any issues with this file (courtesy of recent Blender updates), Drone made a new version with some new features which is currently only available on my Discord server (although if he ever decides to upload it to the Dink Network I'll update my review).
