Nintendo 64DD Longplay: Mario Artist: Paint Studio
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Mario Artist is an interoperable suite of three games and one internet application for Nintendo 64: Paint Studio, Talent Studio, Polygon Studio, and Communication Kit. These flagship disks for the 64DD peripheral were developed to turn the game console into an Internet multimedia workstation. A bundle of the 64DD unit, software disks, hardware accessories, and the Randnet online service subscription package was released in Japan starting in December 1999.
Development was managed by Nintendo EAD and Nintendo of America, in conjunction with two other independent development companies: Polygon Studio was developed by the professional 3D graphics software developer, Nichimen Graphics; and Paint Studio was developed by Software Creations of the UK.
Titled Mario Paint 64 in development, Paint Studio was conceived as the sequel to Mario Paint (1992) for the Super NES. IGN called Talent Studio the 64DD's "killer app".
Mario Artist: Paint Studio, released on December 11, 1999, is a Mario-themed paint program. The user has a variety of brush sizes, textures, and stamps, with which to paint, draw, spray, sketch, and animate. The stock Nintendo-themed graphics include all 151 Red- and Blue-era Pokémon, Banjo-Kazooie, and Diddy Kong Racing characters. Previously titled Mario Paint 64 in development, Paint Studio has been described as the "direct follow-up" and "spiritual successor" to the SNES's Mario Paint, and as akin to an Adobe Photoshop for kids.
On June 1, 1995, Nintendo of America commissioned the independent UK game studio Software Creations, soliciting a single design concept for "a sequel to Mario Paint in 3D for the N64". John Pickford initially pitched a 3D "living playground", where the user edits the attributes of premade models such as dinosaurs, playing with their sizes, behaviors, aggression, speed, and texture design. The project's working title was Creator, then Mario Paint 64, then Picture Maker as demonstrated at Nintendo's Space World 1997 trade show in November 1997, and then Mario Artist & Camera. Software Creations reflected on political infighting between Nintendo's two sites: "eventually the Japanese took control and rejected many of the ideas which had been accepted enthusiastically by Americans, steering the project in a different direction after John left Software Creations to form Zed Two, and throwing away loads of work."
The audio functionality was split out into Sound Studio, also known as Sound Maker at Nintendo Space World 1997, where it was mentioned but not shown. By 2000, development reportedly included music producer Tetsuya Komuro. Ultimately, Sound Studio was canceled.
Published as a bundle with the Nintendo 64 Mouse, it is one of the two 64DD launch games on December 11, 1999 along with Doshin the Giant. Using the Nintendo 64 Capture Cassette cartridge (released later in a bundle with Talent Studio), the user can import images and movies from any NTSC video source such as video tape or a video camera. The Japanese version of the Game Boy Camera can import grayscale photographs via the Transfer Pak. The studio features a unique four player drawing mode. A minigame is included, and is reminiscent of Pokémon Snap, but a player can also take photos and change the textures of the creatures therein.