Topic: Castlevania: The Adventure papercraft diorama

[Patraw]

I've been wanting to make a papercraft diorama of a video game screen for a long time, utilizing two-dimensional sprites and background tiles, and, at long last, I finally scrounged up the ambition to actually get it done.

I don't own a printer for my computer, and it costs a dollar a page for color printouts at the library in the neighboring city (our local library only has a black and white printer), thus, because I'm a miser, and I'm not always in the mood to travel to said municipality anyway, I decided to focus my efforts on a game for the original Nintendo Gameboy, which only had 4-color, gray-scale graphics (perfect for a black and white printer).

Here's the reference screenshot, from the first level of Konami's 1989 Castlevania: The Adventure video game (original Japanese title: ドラキュラ 伝説, which, romanized, is "Dorakyura Densetsu", and that translates to "Legend of Dracula"), that I chose as the subject matter for my papercraft diorama:



I took separate screenshots of the background tiles and sprite layers, using an emulator, and then further separated and edited the individual graphical components utilizing various art programs (Microsoft Paint, IrfanView, and GIMP).  I also doubled the resolution of everything (i.e., anything that was 16 pixels tall on the game screen, is 32 pixels tall in my diorama). This is the final PNG sheet, containing all the graphics that I needed, or felt I might need, to construct my papercraft diorama (feel free to save/print it and use it yourself if you like):



My plan from the beginning was to make the diorama's geometry separate, out of cardboard, and then apply the game's artwork, like decals, to those finished objects, which is why I didn't orientate all the images so that they could simply be cut out and folded up as-is. That approach has the benefit of allowing me to squeeze more stuff onto a sheet (remember: miser), because objects that will touch one another in the finished product don't have to be physically connected to one another on the printout.

Please note that I didn't actually use everything printed on the sheet. Some of the stuff is just there as extras in case I made mistakes or had accidents (which I did, and I always do).









The figures are Christopher Belmont, the whip-wielding protagonist, and a Ji・Zi- (that's what their titled, ジ・ズィー, in the original Japanese instruction manual, but, hell if I know what that means), which are small, vulture-like humanoid enemies only found on the first stage.


Materials:
Cardboard, game graphics printed out on white paper, white glue, newsprint, and permanent marker.

Dimensions:
9.9 cm (3.9") x 8.4 cm (3.3") [widest point x highest point]

Time:
Two days: May 31 and June 1, 2014.



If you'd like to see a bunch of photos of how I built this diorama, visit the page on my site:

http://www.angelfire.com/ult/ace/papercraft_diorama.html

[darkmanx_429]

This is fantastic.

[Aridale]

oh its you! I was like damn this is awesome who made this? *scroll up scroll up* oh its him! The mini figure guy! Awesome work as usual man

[Dark Nemesis]

I love your work, keep it up man!!

[Inccubus]

That's pretty damn awesome.

[Dracula9]

That's fucking boss.

[X]

Have you thought about doing a Super Gameboy color version? You can pick any 4 colors you want    I like the way you imaged that stop-go animation. I think it's pretty classy.

[uzo]

Damn, that's really good. I like the depths you chose to use for the elements of the scene. Very well done.

[Belmontoya]

I would pay money for one of those.

[Shiroi Koumori]

NICE~! Thanks for the printable sheet.
I might make one when I have more time. I'm too busy with my 3rd cross stitch project.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

This is pretty splendid. Kudos to you!

[Intersection]

Bravo. That's pretty damn impressive for a 3D stage print.
In fact, I don't think I've ever seen CVA look so appealing -- this might even convince me to give it another spin.

Regardless, I'd love to see more.

[Patraw]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

It's not Castlevania, but here's a Mega Man 3 one I finished yesterday:

This time I selected a scene from the Snake Man stage in Capcom's 1992 Mega Man 3 Gameboy video game (original Japanese title: Rokku Man Wa-rudo 3, which translates to Rock Man World 3 in English--Rock Man is Mega Man's original name in Japan, if you didn't already know).

Here's the reference screenshot I worked from:





Mega Man vs. Big Snakey:







More photos/information:
http://www.angelfire.com/ult/ace/MM3_papercraft_diorama.html


Materials:
Cardboard, game graphics printed out on white paper, white glue, newsprint, permanent marker, and a wire twist tie (mounts for floating elements only).


Dimensions:
8.4 cm (3.3") x 7.5 cm (3.0") [widest point x highest point]

Time:
Three days: June 3-5, 2014.

[Gunlord]

Whoah, really cool!

[Lashen]

Both of those are amazing, you know I'm really fond of your work.

One of these days you're going to make another Angel Mummy and I'll, uh, accidentally drop money adjacent to you...