Castlevania: The Adventure papercraft diorama

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

Wow really nice looking! Do you have plans to do others in the same style/manor?

Wow.....just WOW!

Wow - great idea and work

M, you've made a lot of cool shit, but this is by far the coolest

Wow. Nice!

Impressive

Thanks everybody!

Here's one more shot I took, with natural light, to create more shadows, as all the other photos are with flash:




@Jashin000:

Yup, I plan on doing some more, this is the next one I'm going to try:





I plan on doing the snake and platforms in 3D (the robotic serpent is mostly comprised of cylinders/discs, so it shouldn't be too hard), but Megaman will still be 2D.

I've been thinking about some other ones I might want to do, and right now, I'm contemplating something from Operation C, Nemesis (Moai stage maybe?), Gargoyle's Quest, or Kirby's Dreamland. One of SNK's/Takara's Nettou Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters, World Heroes 2: Jet, or Fatal Fury games might be worth trying too.

Damn that is way too fucking cool! Good luck with the Mega Man. Nakoruru's stage with all the animals would be boss.

Nice job man, that is a really cool idea and I look forward to seeing the next one.

@ballzdeepx: Thanks!

@K-2: I haven't played the Gameboy version of Samurai Shodown in a bit (I'm just doing B&W games at the moment, as I mentioned), but I seem to recall that most, if not all, of Nakoruru's animals, and her grandparents, are missing from her stage, as they edited out all the people in everyone else's stages (Galford's dockside scene looks particularly weird without the crowd), probably because the Gameboy's backgrounds are static, so without animation, people/animals just standing around would probably look cluttered (they edited out background people in most Gameboy fighting games if memory serves, even Street Fighter II). If I did a Samurai Shodown one, I'd probably be leaning towards Jubei's stage, as I think the house nestled in all that bamboo would look neat (although making a bunch of 3D bamboo sticks would probably drive me batty, lol). Speaking of which, if I did do that project, I was thinking of making Jubei Yagyu's opponent Jubei Yamada from Fatal Fury, so he could settle that "No, I'm not that guy from Fatal Fury" thing once and for all with his swords, lol. There's a Fatal Fury II Takara Nettou Gameboy game, so I could steal the Jubei Yamada sprite from that so that the art styles would more-or-less match up.

Anyhoo, I got cracking on the Mega Man 3 one last night and almost finished the Big Snakey:




As Big Snakey is the most important, and complex, aspect of the diorama, that's what I elected to begin with (like many things in life, things go more smoothly if you tackle the hardest part first). The first thing I did was construct the discs that make up the length of the serpent's body. This was accomplished by wrapping a 7.0 cm x 20.0 cm strip of newsprint around a marker cap, glueing the scale-pattern game graphics around that, and sealing the ends with cardboard circles. They were pretty easy to make, but tedious, as I had to do so many.



Here's the ten finished discs (the final two neck segments, underneath the head, require a slightly different design, which is why I left them for later) and the pattern for the box-like elbow joint in the snake's anatomy. I made said box out of 3-ply newsprint, instead of cardboard, because I want the finished serpent to be as light as possible, as it will have to support its own weight without any internal support.



This is the lower length of the snake fully assembled. It was a little bit tricky to get the eight undulating discs lined up and glued properly.



Here's the top portion of Big Snakey's head, without the eyes and other embellishments attached. I meant to take a picture of the pattern for this, but, I got so involved with what I was doing that I completely forgot until it was too late.



Big Snakey fully assembled, except for the lower jaw, which I hadn't made yet at this point. It was getting late, so, I decided that was enough work for one day.



Test shot on the jungle background. Things are looking good so far!

That is pretty amazing, wow.

so when will you start accepting commission work?

Very nifty. The top platform in the castlevania diorama is sagging a fair bit though, I guess some extra support would be a good idea. Keep it up though, the mega man one should be awesome too!

this is friggin sick M, nice work man

M, you never cease to amaze! Can't wait to see a scene from Nemesis!

Fun idea.
Nice job man.

Awesome! Very impressed.

Kid Panda said:

M, you never cease to amaze! Can't wait to see a scene from Nemesis!

Click to expand...

Good suggestion. In particular, level 4. So much shit going on in that level. It's all about the beginning with the triceratops skull!

Also, couple more I should suggest...Battletoads (first one) and Gargoyle's Quest.

Jon

Snake is looking great!

Didn't see the B&W only piece, I just look at pictures mostly on this forum If you did do a color piece I still think having all the animals would be insanely cool. Makes me want to play through some old GB carts and go scene prospecting. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing the updates. Seriously cool M!

Amazing work! Great scene you chose as well... do some more!

Amazing quality and workmanship

Thanks for the continued comments, everyone! I find it interesting that so many people seem so enthused about papercraft dioramas (I got a bunch of favs on the Castlevania piece at DeviantArt as well).

@K-2: I checked, and it turns out that I was wrong; Nakoruru's stage in the Gameboy port of Samurai Shodown does have (some) of her animals (a bear, rabbits, and monkeys) and her Grandparents:



And, just for giggles, here's an edited screenshot of the Gameboy Nettou Jubei Yagyu vs. Jubei Yamada nonsense I was babbling about, so that the idea can live on, in sprite form, if nothing else:



Note that both screenshots were shot in an emulator's Super Gameboy mode (the ol' SNES hook-up for playing Gameboy games on a TV), which is why they're in color, but both games also work on the original black and white Gameboy.

@Jon/Kid Panda: Nemesis is up there on the list, but I still haven't made up my mind on what I'm doing next yet. I agree that the necropolis-like Stage 4 is very cool looking (a 3-D triceratops skull and ribcage would look neat), but I think I'd still be leaning towards the Moais of Stage 3.

The first Battletoads is also a good suggestion (they also made the NES one, albeit with fewer levels, and Battletoads vs. Double Dragon on the Gameboy), although I'm not sure what particular location/stage I'd go for in that one.

Gargoyle's Quest is up there too--maybe the interior of the Big Tower Monster stage, but I like the trees with faces and arms from the introductory stage too.

@fluxcore: Yeah, I agree that the top of the platform is off, but it's unlikely to be a weight issue at this smaller scale, rather it's probably some combination of my measurements/folds being off and/or the cardboard/paper warping a bit from when the glue was still wet (paper/cardboard likes to curl when you apply white glue to the surface). The Mega Man 3 one is a little off as well.

@skinny503: I'm not doing commissions for any of these (they're just for fun/practice), but I thank you for the interest.

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Here are the ladder and blocks/pipes, from up in the lefthand corner, in various states of completion. The blocks and cylinder are constructed exactly like the components of Big Snakey's body, just on a smaller scale. The ladder was the easiest thing to make, because all I had to do was glue four pieces of cardboard together, to achieve the proper thickness, and apply the game graphics.



Pictured are all the top left elements glued together into one continuous piece and the pattern for the small pipe segment that goes down in the right-hand bottom corner.



Here's the teensy Mega Man sprite figure. I actually glued two of him onto cardboard, cut out one, and then removed the head, underwear, and boots off the other copy and glued them on top of the first one to give him a little bit of depth.



Capcom USA rejected my proposal for a new, sexier background (Snake Man was totally for it, but since Keiji Inafune left the company, nobody at Capcom gives a damn what Snake Man thinks about anything).



Okay, here's the real test shot. I dare say things are nearly perfect at this stage of the proceedings.



I chose to break the background up into several different layers in order to convey depth to the jungle motif. Cutting all of those little holes between the vines and trunks was not fun at all--it took a very long time to do. I also briefly considered modeling 3-dimensional tree trunks and vines instead, but, ultimately decided to keep them as flat 2D planes.



The finished base/background--all I needed to do now was add Big Snakey, Mega Man, and the platforms/ladder up in the lefthand corner. Big Snakey I just glued into place, by its two bottom-most discs, but Mega Man and the platforms/ladder were trickier, as they're floating elements, so I mounted them on bendable wire. If you're wondering, I decided not to do any projectiles because that would involve even more wire/clutter, which I felt would detract from the overall look. If I had made the diorama shallower, and inside a box-shaped structure, I'd have been more inclined to do an exchange of bullets, as it's a lot easier to hide how floating objects are mounted if the display is completely enclosed on the sides and doesn't have much depth.

Here's the finished product:

/\ Awesome.

I think the Mega Man vs. Snake tops your Castlevania. I love the quasi 3d aspect of these scenes.

Im not sure the how that Nakoruru stage would play out. Tamara wasn't really known for putting a lot of elbow grease into their ports. I do like the bear thing on the roof making the snowman lol.

M awesome work! The snake is way cool.