While doing this technique is a fool-proof way to get your anatomy "right" it is ultimately a crutch that won't teach the artist in the long term if you just use it as training wheels.
Yeah, one of the first things that was drilled into me when I learned art was how to do anatomy right. It makes a huge difference and improves your art dramatically. While references are nice, over reliance on them can become crutch. (Speaking from experience)
It's a bit lazy, honestly. Oni's been in the Erotic Art business a long, long time (at least since 2007 so certainly before that) but his quality of images hasn't progressed all that much.
I can understand that. It can be a blessing too though. Imagine if, in 8 years, the first character for a game looks substantially different in style and mannerism compared to the first. Like, if you look at mangas that ran for multiple years, the art between the first volume and the last volume looks dramatically different. Not saying that either is good or bad, just that, in this game, it kinda works out.
Of course there are artists that managed to find and stabilize their style through their entire life. Not gonna lie. I always find that impressive. Not saying Oni is or isn't one of those, but like Rumiko Takahashi? Or CLAMP? I think their works lasts generations because of this.
Comics and cartoons are all about knowing when to exaggerate for effect. If you copy poses from a photograph, it shows, and tends to take the viewer out of the experience.
The problem with that is, when they do it well, you'll never know. Like all the disney animated films? They had live models. From snow white to Aladdin. I even learned recently that the opener for FFVIII had motion capture but they chose to hand animate instead of using what was captured.
His color renderings and backgrounds have all the dynamism of an episode of Peppa Pig.
Hey, that's
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according to China!
LOL. In all seriousness though. Yeah, they really do need some improvement. I once worked with someone that did American comics (yes, published by a major comic book publisher) and what he started doing was taking a pre modeled (either himself or he'd just buy assets) CG backgrounds, angled the camera in... I think he used 3d studio max at the time, rendered that still as a wire frame and drew over it. Another short cut would be to just render it with a cell-shading filter and blur it to make it fuzzy out detail and make people not focus on the BG. Maybe someone that's a patron of his can throw that his way as an idea/shortcut. It's especially good if the locations are limited since you just need a single model. Like, I'm willing to bet someone somewhere has made a model for the high school in X-Men: Evolution.
Not to just take a huge steamy dump on Oni, I'll give him credit where credit is due. His models and poses for Rogue, Kitty, and Laura are excellent, and some of the greatest examples of his work. Oni can produce outstanding erotic art if he puts his mind to it. No one can take away the original girls from Oni, and without them, Rouge Like wouldn't be the success story that it is. Another thing that Oni has going for him is his writing. His dialog trees are pretty damn funny.
Yeah. Like I was telling someone else in private conversations. I wasn't trying to defend the guy, but credit where credit is due. Something doesn't have to be perfect to be fun and enjoyable. Something done perfectly isn't always fun. If people are enjoying it, that's all that really matters. That's what art is, ultimately.