Custom 3D Animated Renders

[ToastyWriter]

Who said it's over?

There's not a lot of people who are able and willing to do these 3D renders, so a lot of it falls on the shoulders of just a couple people, including mine. As a result, this project is always at the mercy how much free time we have in any given moment, and if we are willing to dedicate the free time to work on this. This means that there will always end up being some dead time for projects like this since it's mostly just me and one other person able to dedicate time to this.

Anyway, the fact that there's been not much activity lately doesn't mean it's over. I want to get back into this, but I am spread quite thin with some other projects, as well as my job that is also in a similar field. Time will tell when I will find the time, but acting defeatist over inactivity doesn't help motivation, so stop.

Hey by any chance is there a tutorial on how to go about making these? I am quite interested in helping.

 

[Runo]

Hey by any chance is there a tutorial on how to go about making these? I am quite interested in helping.

This video by DJTHED himself does a nice job at showing how to do the shaders

managed to make this with it, but that's all I can do so far since idk how to rip the proper animations atm

Edit: For people using this video to make independent renders, please know that this video is dated and project has a more complex but more accurate render process now. They are also using Home models instead of the SV models since their geometry is a lot simpler. As DJTHED already mentioned, they have a private discord channel where you can better contribute, please contact them if you're willing to join. Esp since I'm pretty sure unapproved renders are getting deleted.

 

[0tneb]

This video by DJTHED himself does a nice job at showing how to do the shaders

managed to make this with it, but that's all I can do so far since idk how to rip the proper animations atm
View attachment 524278

I might have the correct models and rigs for all models up till 1008, not sure about 1009 and 1010.

Edit: I have found the videos that could help, I saw someone else post one of them here before I don't know where the post went but I'll post them all here so you guys can help.
Note: These are for the models only, for shading you can watch DJTHED's video and if you need any further assistance ask him for help.

 

[DJTHED]

Tbh I probably wouldn't mind seeing if anyone else here (or multiple people) can help carry on doing renders. I'd still want to make sure I oversee the renders to make sure it meets my quality standards, but otherwise it'd help keep this project's progress less reliant on me and allows other people in the community to contribute.

So if anyone here is already familiar enough with Blender and is willing to spend some time getting some renders done, please let me know! I'll make sure to give all the information needed to get the ScVl renders made and in general help guide the renders to the same quality standards I expect from myself. I might just put together a standalone private Discord server for this for those who are able to help!

We also recently got Home models and textures for the new Pokemon, so we'll be swapping workflows a bit to use those since their simpler style suits the 3DS shading a lot more (and may be worth revisiting some previous ScVl renders that have issues with too much texture detail).

 

[Jiro7]

Hello everyone. I've found this place because I was really looking for information on why there are still many 3D models missing in Pokémon Showdown. I read most of the comments and I have to say: thank you so much for all the hard work. I could have never realized something like this took that much effort.

That being said, I really wanted to ask a couple of questions.

First, did anything change between previous gens and Gen 9, in the technical side? I'm just curious about why it's taking so much longer with this generation compared to previous ones.

My second question is the most important one though. I've seen these sprites posted some pages before. I understand they are not fully polished yet, and I guess that takes a lot of effort. But, to my presumably inexperienced eye, they look good enough and definitely way better than having an inconsistent sprite style between different mons, specially between 2d and 3d.

So why didn't Showdown just implement these while we wait for the better ones? :

Fixed sprites speed, Sprigatito line, Fuecoco Line and Quaxly credit to DJTHED and Flicks

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Thank you for your answers and the hard work!

 

[uppa]

Hello everyone. I've found this place because I was really looking for information on why there are still many 3D models missing in Pokémon Showdown. I read most of the comments and I have to say: thank you so much for all the hard work. I could have never realized something like this took that much effort.

That being said, I really wanted to ask a couple of questions.

First, did anything change between previous gens and Gen 9, in the technical side? I'm just curious about why it's taking so much longer with this generation compared to previous ones.

My second question is the most important one though. I've seen these sprites posted some pages before. I understand they are not fully polished yet, and I guess that takes a lot of effort. But, to my presumably inexperienced eye, they look good enough and definitely way better than having an inconsistent sprite style between different mons, specially between 2d and 3d.

So why didn't Showdown just implement these while we wait for the better ones? :



Thank you for your answers and the hard work!

There’s an element of integrity to not accepting submissions from outside any given project’s proven contributors. Hence why we don’t use placeholder sprites, animations, or renders.

 

[Ivy]

There’s an element of integrity to not accepting submissions from outside any given project’s proven contributors. Hence why we don’t use placeholder sprites, animations, or renders.

correct me if i'm wrong but didn't we at one point use renders from some Brazilian site while waiting for our in-house ones to cook up?

 

[Cheryl.]

There’s an element of integrity to not accepting submissions from outside any given project’s proven contributors. Hence why we don’t use placeholder sprites, animations, or renders.

Also that, and a lot of these models aren't using the battle models. For example, Quaquaval's battle sprite in Showdown has it dancing while this model has it just standing around. It takes extra work to get the specific battle models but they do look a lot better than the regular standing ones.

 

[DJTHED]

Hello everyone. I've found this place because I was really looking for information on why there are still many 3D models missing in Pokémon Showdown. I read most of the comments and I have to say: thank you so much for all the hard work. I could have never realized something like this took that much effort.

That being said, I really wanted to ask a couple of questions.

First, did anything change between previous gens and Gen 9, in the technical side? I'm just curious about why it's taking so much longer with this generation compared to previous ones.

My second question is the most important one though. I've seen these sprites posted some pages before. I understand they are not fully polished yet, and I guess that takes a lot of effort. But, to my presumably inexperienced eye, they look good enough and definitely way better than having an inconsistent sprite style between different mons, specially between 2d and 3d.

So why didn't Showdown just implement these while we wait for the better ones? :



Thank you for your answers and the hard work!

To answer the first question, there are a couple extra steps needed than the previous gen to get a model fully imported and ready to render, but it's not really a deal breaker. What actually changed is the amount of spare time I have to work on these, and not having enough people to fill my role when I can't do it, halting progress.

Second question is not something I can really answer, I hold no real authority on what gets uploaded to Showdown. I just supply the renders to someone who can. I wouldn't recommend them using renders or screencaps without prior approval from those who did it, though. It'd be up to the showdown folks to decide if they want to ask around other places to get permission to do so to use as placeholders (though I'd argue that direct screen cap animations of the Pokemon on Switch fit in even less than the custom sprite work talented community members create for these Pokemon, or even just the standard tiny sprite icon ripped from the games).

Ultimately, in order for renders to reasonably make progress, I'll need to get a group of volunteers educated on the process of how to make these renders to the quality standard I expect from myself. That, too, will also take some time, but it's a better long term solution I probably should've done a while ago. I already have quite a few people who reached out to me to help out, but it'll take some time before you guys will be seeing output from the extra assistance while I try to find time to help teach the process.

 

[Jiro7]

There’s an element of integrity to not accepting submissions from outside any given project’s proven contributors. Hence why we don’t use placeholder sprites, animations, or renders.

I understand, but if someone went out of their way to make them and post them in the Smogon forums, doesn't that mean they are fine with them being used? If we were talking about something complex like, a piece of code or software, I understand not trusting it. But we can see the art moving and working perfectly fine.

Either way I really appreciate the hard work and I don't mean to question Pokémon Showdown's principles, I was just curious about it. Thank you for the answer!

 

[uppa]

I understand, but if someone went out of their way to make them and post them in the Smogon forums, doesn't that mean they are fine with them being used? If we were talking about something complex like, a piece of code or software, I understand not trusting it. But we can see the art moving and working perfectly fine.

Either way I really appreciate the hard work and I don't mean to question Pokémon Showdown's principles, I was just curious about it. Thank you for the answer!

I don't want to have come off as having actual authority on the matter. What I described is how the sprite/icon/animation teams generally handle cases like this. Not sure how it translates to this project or how DJTHED feels about having outsiders' work being used in place of their own.

 

[DJTHED]

I don't want to have come off as having actual authority on the matter. What I described is how the sprite/icon/animation teams generally handle cases like this. Not sure how it translates to this project or how DJTHED feels about having outsiders' work being used in place of their own.

It's worth noting that technically speaking, this project is not associated with Smogon or Showdown, this is my project. If Showdown wanted to change how Pokemon are visually presented on what is their platform, that's something they can choose to do if they find someone else, that's not up to me. I'm just the Blender guy. I can still have my opinions on what they should do, but like I said, not up to me. The renders I make here I've always given permission to be used on Showdown should they choose to, and for anyone else who wants to use them too, but it's still technically my project.

I understand, but if someone went out of their way to make them and post them in the Smogon forums, doesn't that mean they are fine with them being used? If we were talking about something complex like, a piece of code or software, I understand not trusting it. But we can see the art moving and working perfectly fine.

Either way I really appreciate the hard work and I don't mean to question Pokémon Showdown's principles, I was just curious about it. Thank you for the answer!

As for them not using certain sprites/renders posted here, at least on the 3D side of things, I don't recall anyone stepping up to do them from someone who didn't turn out to be super sketchy with plagiarism or stealing someone elses work and not giving appropriate credit or permission. They may have claimed to have cleaned up their act and claimed to have started providing their own work, but this particular person most likely lost the trust of not just me, but those involved in making such decisions. If this was the contributor you saw and was referring to, that'd probably be why they were ignored, not because of if it was unsafe, just the lack of trust. As far as I am aware, there has been no other case where someone has contributed their own work and given permission, so I feel this is probably who you were referring to unless I'm missing something.

 

[Negative Charge]

honest question, to piggyback off Jiro7, can we ask this deviantart user for his GIFs in the meantime? https://www.deviantart.com/senso88/gallery

seems like these would be a fantastic stop gap while we wait for battle animations. See this also

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603164319453167625

Is there some overriding intellectual property concern?

 

[InfraredGod_YT]

honest question, to piggyback off Jiro7, can we ask this deviantart user for his GIFs in the meantime? https://www.deviantart.com/senso88/gallery

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seems like these would be a fantastic stop gap while we wait for battle animations. See this also

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1603164319453167625

Is there some overriding intellectual property concern?

I tried sending the zip folder of those a while back, and it was rejected because they said that the images were too large and had cropping errors.

 

[uppa]

I tried sending the zip folder of those a while back, and it was rejected because they said that the images were too large and had cropping errors.

The renders that are used in showdown have a style and size consistent with 3ds era renders. It’s what’s most practical for the site and for the people making the renders, not having to redo every pokemon for each new gen. I’d say it’s best to just be patient until the renders are complete.

 

[Commander F]

The renders that are used in showdown have a style and size consistent with 3ds era renders. It’s what’s most practical for the site and for the people making the renders, not having to redo every pokemon for each new gen. I’d say it’s best to just be patient until the renders are complete.

Honestly they could just upload new models and add toggle like the did for gen 5 style sprites. Ppl who are ok with inconsistent model styles in Nat.Dex and have stronger computers would use them. Others would wait. But may be there is another difficulty of implementing those I'm not aware of.

 

[InfraredGod_YT]

The renders that are used in showdown have a style and size consistent with 3ds era renders. It’s what’s most practical for the site and for the people making the renders, not having to redo every pokemon for each new gen. I’d say it’s best to just be patient until the renders are complete.

That too. However, I can see why people are frustrated since the project has basically been on hiatus for several months.

 

[Zappy-N]

it's never been more over than it is right now

 

[Marty]

it's never been more over than it is right now

You're right, because you're threadbanned now.

Everyone else: if you have nothing constructive to contribute then don't post here. We're lucky to have literally anyone at all willing to put effort into this project and provide guidance for others to do the same.

 

[El Papu]

Hi! i'm new here and first of all, i don't speak English so i may have some mistakes. I'm interested on this project, but i've been reading about it's having some problems to advance, so i'm here to ask how to learn so i can help too. What tools are used to make 3d sprites with that nice outline? As i said, i'm not rushing anyone, i want to help so any advice is very welcome.

 

[registeal]

hi faithful

W

 

[DevToolBot956]

I have diamond block

 

[Negative Charge]

The renders that are used in showdown have a style and size consistent with 3ds era renders. It’s what’s most practical for the site and for the people making the renders, not having to redo every pokemon for each new gen. I’d say it’s best to just be patient until the renders are complete.

why not just use these in the interim though? I fail to see the harm in using inconsistent 3D models for the time being.

 

[InfraredGod_YT]

I might have the correct models and rigs for all models up till 1008, not sure about 1009 and 1010.

Edit: I have found the videos that could help, I saw someone else post one of them here before I don't know where the post went but I'll post them all here so you guys can help.
Note: These are for the models only, for shading you can watch DJTHED's video and if you need any further assistance ask him for help.

You can skip the whole noesis process if the models are already on models-resource, but if not you have to go through the whole model process with quickbms and noesis.

I wish someone already had all of the converted models and animations though.

 

[Vainness]

Wouldn't it be easier to fix the size/coding issues from external artists like senso88 so they would be compatible with the website rather than having to make them yourself from scratch? At least in the meantime.

I'm sure 99% of the community would rather have suboptimal animations (to your own standards) than still models.