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Wormwood in Animations


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Wormwood's been drawn quite a few different times by the different artists at Klei in different styles, Lunar Roots being in a significantly different style to the rest of Don't Starve animations. Given he's shaped quite oddly and Klei is known for their "loose" sort of art style his appearance has a lot of variety in these. It seems though that in the art style they've been sticking with for recent animations he's significantly different from his in game sprites, and I'm curious as to others feel about this!

Here we have a (bad) "side by side" of how he looks in Lunar Roots, The 2021 Gameplay Trailer, and Reap What you Sow
(Lunar roots came first and the 2021 trailer is most recent)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/970992665955012708/1085084251130691614/image.png

He's still the same character with the same features, but some seem a bit off when compared to how he looks in game. I am not saying at all that the art used in the Trailer and RWYS animations is worse in any way. Just that Wormwood's appearance could be tweaked a bit in these to better resemble his in game sprites. Lunar Roots was his animation and the artists on it were given more time to study his appearance specifically; In the others he was drawn alongside nearly all other characters in the DST roster, that's way less room to fine tune the looks of everyone present.

What alls up with him? Big thing is his dumpling shaped body. In his in game sprite and in Lunar Roots don't starve is "bottom heavy" giving him a more balanced look in the bighead style DST has. In the others his body is much more top heavy and upside-down "raindrop" shaped. His gem and head-stem are notably smaller and less prominent in his design.  The edges on his face and head protrude much more and are generally more exaggerated and sharp. His eyes are much cleaner circles than the uneven ones he has in his sprites (he looks so hollow). His leaves are also lacking their blue-ish hue to them.

RWYS - In Game
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/970992665955012708/1085084251411726356/image.png

rough trace for how he appears but it's so different!

In Lunar Roots he breaks his model a lot but it's done to contort him in a way that lends to his whole "amalgam of vines" look. All of these still keep the same sort of look he's known for while being different. Most of it is in his eyes, torso, and "face" shape for me. He's more lumpy than he is sharp.
image.thumb.png.d121bb1b91fc6d9d93edd40f2696fa75.png

Another example of Wormwood with the teardrop torso and sharper facial features, mainly his "cheekbones" and brow / crest are way more pronounced. from the Klei 2022 Labor of Love Nomination Request.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/970992665955012708/1085084729277161512/image.png

I only really feel the need to say something about this since it looks like these are the models Klei will be using in all animations for the foreseeable future so they all mesh together better. If that's the case I hope they tweak with Wormwood's look a bit more before they get too far along so he's more consistent. There seems to be a claim made by people in the community that Wormwood is ignored / overlooked by the developers as a DLC character, it's generally a downer to hear and I'd love if the DLC / "Minor" characters were given more attention, even if it's just the small things.

That's pretty much all, I'd like to know if anyone else has really noted anything about how he looks or if you have any feelings on it! Please be respectful to the artists!

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A lot of the characters look off in the animations, especially if they are not the focus of the animated short and are more of a background character. This is simply because it would take too much time to draw all of the characters in such a detailed manor for only a few frames of animation.

And like you said, he looks the best in his Lunar Roots short because he is the only character that appears and is the main focus.

As for his model, i think it captures his design from the Lunar Roots short. You do have to take into consideration though that because of the way characters are drawn in game they usually have bigger heads and their bodies are not as slender or tall as they could be so they will never have 1:1 proportions with their animated short counterparts (see Maxwell).  Plus all of those screenshots you have provided are drawn in 3/4 profile so you are seeing Wormwoods facial features and body shape at an angle so their would be more jaggedness and angularity and cant really be compared to his ingame model which is drawn straight on. 

I honestly prefer the Lunar Roots design, mostly because of his head. I'm not a big fan of the angler look to him in the newer shorts. However, I understand that the process of keeping every single character exactly on the model is a waste of time. Especially if they're only there for a few frames.

Either art style though, he's adorable. A lot of the time I can't even notice. 

On 3/14/2023 at 8:43 AM, sudoku said:

A lot of the characters look off in the animations, especially if they are not the focus of the animated short and are more of a background character.

Or sometimes if they are the full focal point of the animation.... That Woodie animation is non canon to me. They're not brothers, not cousins, not even related. And this doesn't even have to be about details, I get what makes these character sprites so beloved is the gritty lines and texture of hair for Woodie (and similar lines of details in Wormwood's bark), but the animations aren't proportionally correct to the forehead, the nose is in the wrong direction, and the skin is a different color?? 

Screen Shot 2023-03-16 at 12.12.52 AM.png

Screen Shot 2023-03-16 at 12.14.05 AM.png

I agree, it throws me off whenever Wormwood is left in the margins for the Klei animations. I know I'm biased as a Wormwood main and also an artist who pays close attention to details, but I really wish Klei included him more in promo visuals and really worked it closer to the ingame sprite.

I'm pretty sure he's one of the most popular characters in terms of design amongst players based on merch based polls taken on the forum.

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