This is mostly a series of information and trivia related to Doom, along with basically subjective takes and opinions from some other people, but can also put into prespective about the look and feel of the classic Doom games.

  • I remember hearing that the classic Zombieman green hair came from some color palette conversion error but id kept that because it looked cool and help them visually stand out.
  • A lot of Doom sprites were meant to stand out in gameplay but unlike Eternal, they don't have that particular arcade style of pick ups/floating letters or making them glow harder, probably because of some visual simplicity. I also think that even enemy attacks show this visual feedback, so if for example, the Arachnotron always had grenades, they would come off as sprites for the grenades themselves instead of a glowy orange color covering the projectiles.
  • Maybe the resolution/pixel limitations at the time and what details we could make out of the characters outside of stuff like Mancubi nipples and Archvile's face.
  • Some elements that probably wouldn't work with some animations or models, like the backward knees of Barons and Cyberdemons.
  • Doomguy and classic BJ having "flat tops" on their hair/heads might be because of military style hair cuts and how Adrian Carmack drew his characters. This thread also involves a bit of investigation about Doomguy's hair https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/69767-doomguys-haircut/
  • The classic Archvile not only looks like an alien (With mouth tubes, like a little HR Giger tribute thingy), but you can also portray his shape as that of a dead/starven-to-death humanoid. Like a corrupted human corpse being used to bring back life to demonic corpses, that probably doesn't remember its past life and only knows "must help demon partners" (Sandy did say that one of his sounds was a modified sound of a child asking "why", because Archviles just wanted to help their partners).
  • Similarly, the Imp looks like a muscular naked guy and the Lost Soul is but a simple human skull with horns and fire, like how some traditional demons were seen as "mimics" or "parodies" of humans.
  • When you look at the Spider Mastermind's Gremlin face, Imp's body, face textures (Like that Satyr one and the bearded old man), you could see that demons have some "human" aspects besides just animalistic ones. Probably because they were made to disturb humans with a familiar-yet-outlandish look, maybe. Like a parody or insult of Earth based life forms. A saying is that if God creates, Satan imitates, like a spitting image.
  • If the new Doom games are like Hollywood blockbusters, the old Doom's are like low budget/B movies when you consider the production behind them. The digitized textures, hand drawn stuff, stuff that used real photos for sprites, toys, clay figures, more professional latex figures, some Frankenstein-ish reuse of elements and parts of different sprites etc.
  • Some hanged corpse textures were rumored to be based off real hanging bodies and Mussolini, but it seems it was just some GI Joe figures used, according to this discovery by Doomkid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xjkl7UVwg even Decino and MarphyBlack are corrected here.
  • The Used Future aesthetic: As if even though it's the future, some stuff already feels old or outdated and sometimes, things that seem much older are still being used, so an old double barrel shotgun and ammo backpack (Quake 1 had the same model for some ammo items) don't seem that out of place next to the Plasma rifle and UAC armors. Some stuff looks "plastic" at times.
  • TNT: Evilution played even harder in that Used Future/industrial style.
  • When Doom 1 was meant to take place in Tei Tenga, it had this typical moon background with a black sky that was later replaced with the Phobos skybox we know today (An image that took place in China), so because of this, it's assumed that Phobos might have been terraformed.
  • Both UAC bases and Hell had unique aesthetics and elements, some of which aren't exactly carried over in later games, whether it's the Phobos UAC bases with blue carpeted floors or that FIREBLUy-metalic-marble-fleshy Hell. So much that can be done with this aesthetic, it's Doom's equivalent to the iconic level props you'd see out of Mario or Sonic games (So FIREBLU and STARTAN are more than just memes).
  • How the levels/textures/sprites/props of Hell can be linked to enemies and even stuff like power ups. Maybe the same could apply to UAC bases and items or weapons.
  • The classic DOOM logo (And even some art work like in box cover art) can be compared to 80's comic books with "industrial" or "labyrinthic" hellscapes. Maybe "brutalism" could be applied too?
  • The overall sillyness but also creepyness in the old games, i guess.
  • The intestines textures were based off a drawing of either tentacles or snakes.
  • A take i remember hearing is that old Doom tried to be 80's, while the new games aim to be 90's.
  • Was Richard Corben an inspiriation?
  • Inspirations obviously included Dungeons and Dragons, Aliens, Evil Dead, metal music at the time and in Sandy Peterson's case, HP Lovecraft.
  • Just because, i might as well add Decino's videos about Doom sprites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ1fJbYhbVQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L7v3vRA65E
  • And this image describing Doom's "mixed" aesthetic https://static.doomworld.com/monthly_2020_05/1503619390194.png.d109278b690ca6f49360cec8896d4be6.png
  • This also describes some stuff about Doom's aesthetic and production behind it https://i.imgur.com/D1gYPfe.png
  • Mancubus inspiration source https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/111853-inspiration-for-the-mancubus-finally-tracked-down-on-film/?tab=comments#comment-2077410
  • Romero once released a series of cut/unused sprites, so they could also give you ideas of Doom's art style and setting (I believe some may or may not be on The Cutting Room Floor).
  • I feel like more could be added here, so suggestions or ideas welcome of course.

The point of this thread was to get a better understanding of Doom's visual identity and if this thread could be used for reference for something, whether it's discussion or even content.

Doom always seemed like a specific mix of different ideas and things, which could be why people have different takes on "what is Doom", specially with source ports and the later games in the series.

Some could argue that 3, 2016 and Eternal focus on specific parts of Doom and build upon, whether it's the bigger focus on horror or the run-and-gun action or even the "cartoonyness" and "videogameyness" (Or stuff like taking cover, avoiding projectiles, sci-fi/fantasy elements, whether you're doomed or the doom etc).

Some could argue that the later games are more "aware" of certain elements compared to classic Doom.

They also of course have different sources of inspiration and it's not a bad thing if it means a shoulder canon that plays like a classic FPS inventory system of the Summoners and Maykr Angels resembling the Angel of Death from Hellboy 2.

What's also interesting is seeing these NEW ideas and imagining them if they were in different versions of Doom, like what if Heaven in Doom looked more like a typical Heaven with new/odd elements to parallel Hell or a Cybermancubus that instead of shooting toxic liquid, shoots toxic gas clouds like something out of Hexen.

Exploring new art styles is still good sometimes, as i always thought Wayne Barlowe could work as inspiration until it turns out he did concept for the cancelled Doom 4 https://imgur.com/a/cPD4Fwn i know he made more but i only found these.

I thought some noticeable fanart like that from Deimos-Remus could have some cool ideas, even if offering a different tone.

This can also show how fans managed to "expand" the classic Doom universe in fan content form: Not just a matter of making something directly for Doom but also in the case of fans trying to study the art style.

Maybe the scale of the games and that of the production behind some fan sprites or wads could also fit in an area where you'd put the production behind the actual classic games, while since 3, Doom has become a bit bigger in the industry (For better or worse, depending on how you see it).

You could also consider Wolfenstein 3D (Specially some versions with HD art like the Mac version) and Catacombs 3-D, alongside the iOS/HD version of Doom 2 RPG to further study Doom's art style.

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Pub: 24 Sep 2021 18:47 UTC
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