Forum:The future of Keyblade (and other weapon) renders
Okay, this topic might not interest that many people and the time to create it should have probably spent elsewhere but since it's coming up again regularly I think I might do a short Q&A before going into the discussion what should be done about these images in the future. --ShardofTruth 17:35, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
Q&A
1. Why don't we use official images for the weapons anyway?
For some games SE simply didn't provide official images (KH0.2 and non-equip-able weapons in general) but for most of them the image quality were really low (scans, photos etc.).
2. How do the official renders look like?
Here you can see all official Kingdom Key (and equivalents) renders of each game. It's a rather large image but there a few points to note: the angle of the hilt lies between 30°-50° degrees, the teeth can lock up or down, the Keychains are all over the place. For COM, KHII, BBS, KHREC, DDD and KHX the source of the images are the games. The renders for KH and KHD can only be found in the Ultimanias and other guide books, their quality ranges from bad to worse that's why I included a second render (Kingdom Key D) for Days. There aren't official renders for KH0.2 and KHIII is the only game where SE released the renders of some Keyblades officially.
3. From which games are we currently displaying official renders if they exist?
Spellbinder from KH, Re:CoM, Re:coded, BBS, KHX and KH3.
4. What's up with the weapon images of 358/2 Days?
KHD doesn't contain a single preview images for any of its weapons, the KHD Ultimania has the tiniest images imaginable and since the game is low-res all around it was simply easier to just use the game's textures whenever available. On top some of the weapons are still very hard to display, like Xigbar's arrowguns. It's still possible for the Keyblade to look more like their official renders like this.
5. Why are the unofficial renders mostly facing left and not right?
There is no reason. The first renders were simply made this way and now most unofficial images face the same way.
6. Why are the Keychains in unofficial renders simply a straight line?
Rigging and posing models is a time consuming task most of the time, so you could say the reasons are laziness and incapability. When converting the models the bone structure of the original file is often lost or not there to begin with, so you would have to re-create it to pose the Keychain. The models in every game also have a different level of detail. The Keyblades in KH/KHII possess 8 bones, in BBS 5 (apart from often being completely separate from the Keyblade itself), in DDD 3, in KHD/KHREC probably only 1 and in KH0.2/KHIII 7 again. This makes it difficult to pose these models exactly the same and is most likely the reasons why the official renders are also different in the first place.
7. So what does the future hold for unofficial Keyblade renders?
Personally, I'd like to re-create the KH, KHII, KHDDD and the rest of the BBS renders to match their official images (if they exist), similar to the KH & KHII shield and staff weapons images. This would mean Keyblades of one game would be posed similar but a bit different when compared to Keyblades of another game. This might not look excellent on pages like List of Keyblade wielders but would be closer to what's actually possible and the original game's appearance in my opinion.
Discussion
What are your thought on this topic? --ShardofTruth 17:35, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
- That you're freaking awesome."We're werewolves, not swearwolves." (KrytenKoro) 17:42, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
