I am making a side scrolling 2d action game and would like to use blender to render some cg to be used as cut-scenes. However I am interested in having the renderings mimic the look of the game. Think SNES-type pixelation (no anti-alias, 24 bit, low resolution, etc.) Is it possible to achieve this in blender?
Why don’t you just put it at no AA and then on Low resolution?, then once it’s in your game just blow it up to full size on your screen res: 320 X 240
I don’t really understand your question, you kind of answered it already.
Btw, SNES has got 8 bit, not 24 bit & do you like my avatar?
Yeah. Those are the simple things that I can do. Thank you for stating it so bluntly.
But I was wanting more. I guess I was looking for some tips and tricks. Like the toon shader that I recently came across… things of that nature.
For example: the materials always seem to have this shine (or gloss) to them that I can’t seem to get rid of.
Also, I would like to have the scene lit, but with the option of animating without having shadows (basically moving things around on paths like you would in Flash for example) but of course deleting my lights makes everthing dark. I am new to blender so please excuse the lack of knowledge.
And finally, I am wondering if it’s possible to render something with a white background (which I already know how to do). Then convert the animation to black and white, invert all of the greyscale and render it again.
P.S. I am also wondering if blender has a built in option for exporting each frame of an animation as an image file.
Anyway, forgive me for making such a vague post (a violation of proper forum usage). I will try to come up with some very specific questions in the near future.
For example: the materials always seem to have this shine (or gloss) to them that I can’t seem to get rid of.
Try playing with the Spec or Hard slider in the Material settings. If you turn Spec to 0, there won’t be a specular. See if the option “Shadeless” gives want you want too.
Also, I would like to have the scene lit, but with the option of animating without having shadows (basically moving things around on paths like you would in Flash for example) but of course deleting my lights makes everthing dark.
What does the underlined part have to do with shadows :o If you want to have lights without the shadows, just turn off the Buf. Shadow or Ray Shadow option in the Lamp settings.
And finally, I am wondering if it’s possible to render something with a white background (which I already know how to do). Then convert the animation to black and white, invert all of the greyscale and render it again.
Why would you want to render it again? Can’t you just do that in a video editor or image editor?
P.S. I am also wondering if blender has a built in option for exporting each frame of an animation as an image file.
Just set the format to animate to (can be found in the Render settings, in the Format tab), to an image format, like TGA. Specify the folder where to put the image files in the input field that says something like “/tmp/” (in the Render settings, in the Output tab). Then press Anim like you normally would.
Anyway, forgive me for making such a vague post (a violation of proper forum usage). I will try to come up with some very specific questions in the near future.
I think your second post was quite clear 
Thanks a bunch for the speedy and very helpful reply!
Here is another question: can I set the color depth to 24 bits per pixel?
Aren’t bitmaps normally 24 bit?
16 bit… like it’s sega cousin the Genesis, or the lesser known TurboGrafx16
Nintendo and Sega Master = 8 bit
Next was 64 bit systems: Playstation, Nintendo 64, and the Sega Saturn,
sorry. I always thought that Snes was 8 bit
Sega Saturn is 32 bit
PS1 is 32 bit
and Jaguar (you missed this) is 64 bit
Jaguar, the Mythical machine Atari was building during the SNES and Genesis days… but never quite released…
… so off topic