Update: 35 - IGA's Got A Brand New Background (New Shaders!)

Do so many people really prefer background 3?! It completely messes up the warm lighting, adds too much contrast and has a negative effect on Miriams colours. Just look at how her hair and skin change! Background 1 looks like a beliveably lit environment with nice, consistent colours, background 3 looks like a theater stage that's been over-photoshopped! It's like one of those overdone ENB-mods. (All in my personal opinion, yada yada...)

Instantly voted for background 3 character 3 as soon as I seen it. This is definitely going to turn out to be one sexy game.

The extent to which that is true is going to vary depending on the art style both of the character and the environments.  With realistic or semi-realistic lighting and shading, that should definitely be the case.  But with a cel shaded look such as Shader 3, lighting should have a more limited effect.  Primarily I'd say that it would be used to calculate the direction of the shading itself.  

The problem with letting the light overly influence the coloring of the character is evident in the most common criticism that people have had with Shader 3:  that when zoomed out, she becomes less distinct from the background itself.  That's why I've been harping on increased contrast from the first shader preview.   Miriam needs a distinct appearance at gameplay scale as well as looking good up close.  One suggestion I made earlier is to have the shading contrast increase as you zoom out and the line thickness decrease as you zoom in(and isshi's line re-coloration helps as well). 

No. Character 1 isn't gonna make it. Look at poll.

I actually think this should be suggested to the team, it looks better like this because it's still illustration looking but far less cartoony due to the more subdued colors.

Yours is a little dark for my eyes - I'm not sure trying to match the concept art (which doesn't have to worry about being in context or visibility for the sake of gameplay) is necessarily ideal. As such I feel I prefer isshi's take on this.

Drink the Cool Aid, Redogan. Drink it! DRINK IT!!!

Seriously though, drink it.

Shader 2 had merit but the votes spoke heavily in favor of shader 1. Like you said, the video with transitions was to focus on background. Making videos isn't extremely hard, but it takes time I don't have and I don't think a transition video just for character over background comparison would be any more useful than opening the images on separate tabs and switching back and forth. No video transition required.

From what was in the update newsletter, it sounded as though the dev team is about evenly split in their opinions about these shaders. If the community's opinions hold any weight, then it seems that Character 3 is the popular choice, but perhaps we'll see a final shader that's somewhere between nos. 1 and 3 instead, or something akin to the hybridized examples posted above. Personally, I dig no. 3; it follows what I had suggested in the first survey.

For those who adamantly prefer something else, one solution could be to allow players to pick between shaders in-game. Take Super Smash Bros., for example. On the Wii U, characters are rendered in a style like shader 1. On the 3DS, the characters have thicker outlines, similar to shader 3, to improve their visibility on the smaller screen, but it's possible to adjust the outline effect if you don't like it. Considering there will be a Vita release, perhaps this option could be available. Even if not, surely the dev team is considering how to keep the game's look consistent across platforms.

This is what I was just saying in the Shoutbox.  Smash on 3DS had to have a different visual style because the 3DS couldn't handle the HD look of the Wii U version.  The illustrated look of character 3 would send the message that Bloodstained isn't next-gen and isn't making good use of the resources available.  This would in turn hurt the sales of the game.

Hopefully, the team will blend the shaders enough that the illustrated look will appear stunning and unique.