Alright folks,
Today we got a first look at the next batch of v17 teasers. These focus specifically on a new environment that we haven't seen in the Revamp yet: the gymnasium. Lot to talk about here with these 3 pictures and the theme here will be making the gymnasium look much more busy and cluttered than what we saw in the original.
As always, if you want the expanded version of this in audio format: it's available here.
Alright, enough intro: let's jump in.
Pic 1
This first pic is from the original game and gives us a good launching point to start the discussion. While the poses are obviously boring, the big thing that I really felt drawn to was how friggen empty this looks. Sure gyms are supposed to be empty to allow people to actually play games, train, etc in them but if you've read the original story, you'll already know that's not what the narrative sets up here.
Pic 2
Alright, so ... as you can tell... i added a bunch of shit. While it's not really spoilery, the gym is just a temporary location for the wrestling team and while the original narrative said this, it didn't really show it and that's something that just really resonated with me for the revamp. What I really wanted here was the outcome of a large room where a bunch of adolescent wrestling jocks had to quickly move everything associated with a sport. In my head, I saw a bunch of guys just quickly unloading stuff and dropping it on the floor, stacking it, some stuff spilling out or falling over-- that kinda thing. This shot here is pretty much a direct replacement for the previous shot. I wanted more interesting camera angles and I wanted the room to feel cluttered and dropping the camera on top of one of the boxes just gave it a more claustrophobic entrance that's overall more interesting and I felt myself having the same odd reaction that Zack is showing here.
Pic 3
This shot from the original, shows more of the empty gym that I was referencing before but specifically focuses on a showdown between Braden and a very specific cameo appearance character. Ok... overall, this shot isn't bad although I can't look at it and not hear "grrrr" in my head. it honestly just felt more juvenile to me than I really wanted. Plus, to be honest: everything we're looking at here was using a stock pose and I've just really found myself moving entirely away from those the more I work. But, overall, I didn't hate the camera angle itself and it way better than most of the shots I was doing at the time.
Pic 4
Here's our direct replacement shot. In general, we get to see another angle of the more populated gymnasium here. I think with the addition of the clutter and stuff, it gives the room a lot more depth and despite it being technically fuller than before, it somehow looks bigger to me. Braden's pose here is way less grrr and if you're the kind that likes behind-the-scenes stuff, I've recently started posting a few random pics on social media of the shots I use for inspiration for some of the CGs. In this shot, I used the Darth Maul pacing scene from Phantom Menace. Braden is a beast but I wanted him calculated-- not angry. Maul's pacing in Phantom Menace just really felt appropriate here. Braden is serious but also relaxed and concentrated at the same time-- like he couldn't wait for the whistle. In contrast, his opponent here-- yeah, I know... i sorta went off the rails on the pose here-- looks much more cocky and I think it was a really easy opportunity to actually show differences between these two characters without actually having to tell you what they were. I also took a much more aggressive anime interpretation here and went pretty stylized and exaggerated for the opponent's pose. This pose just sorta lingers and I just liked the contrast.
Pic 5
Aight, last set. This is from the original and is just a generally boring picture of Braden talking with the other characters. This shot shows the typical centered-character shot that I overused in the original game.
Pic 6
I like showing these shots because here is the direct replacement for the original shot. Much more interesting camera angle. In the back, we can see a wider shot of the populated gym using depth-of-field and it it just generally looks more realistic and natural. It goes without saying that the singlet in the Revamp is much... tighter here and in my head canon, it helps metaphorically show how exposed Braden is in this particular scene.
Ok, that's all for today. Our next teaser will take a look at the next new environment (which I'm still gonna have to figure out ways to safely show it because it's got a lot more skin). Buuuuut, if you're not following me over on social media, I do plan to share one more public teasers over on bsky and IG soon so be sure to follow over there for another free teaser.
Hope you enjoy the first look at the gym and stay tuned for the next scene-- it's just really detailed and taking foooooorever so bare with me.