Backgrounds Limited, TM

Creating backgrounds(BGs) is definitely different on how you create sprites or cutscenes. Furthermore, you can reuse them on your future projects or at least render them. There's a lot in the internet that you can possibly use (remember to credit the one who made it) though sometimes it just doesn't fit the style of the overall theme of your visual novel. The following are great sites to rummage through:

• deviantART
• pixiv
• zerochan

Below is an outline from a real picture and given base colors:

Principal's Office in Animus Rush

Now off to giving it shade and lighting! (Look forward to seeing the final image in my devArt page soon.)

Free Comic Book Day 2013 - Setting the Record

Big thanks to Castle Geek, National Bookstore and Neutral Grounds for throwing it at this year's Worldwide Free Comic Book Day. There were actually three other stores that participated in the Philippines but I decided to go here since my favorite indie artists are here.


Below are the comic books I'm itching to read: 

 

(Yes, I couldn't get my hands on them in Summer Komikon but now they're mine!)

Couldn't get a signature from either Budjette Tan or KaJo Baldisimo of Trese since they were only scheduled to appear in the afternoon. Sigh, it had to be the same day as Ragnarok Online Regionals.

Sketchy Business

Just figured to post at least some of my sketches here before they were colored digitally. The whole concept of the image changes as it turns into digital media. 
(Sorry for the lame pun.)

Ryse - Fanart of an OC

Alice - Animus Rush Protagonist

Han - Animus Rush Romanceable

Jiro - Animus Rush Romanceable

Kaoru - Animus Rush Romanceable

Rita - Animus Rush Best friend

As you can see, the above images also show the character designs of the cast of our VN, Animus Rush. Their respective character descriptions would be at a later date though but I'll keep you posted.

Summer Komikon 2013

Yes, it is pretty late but I just have to post it somewhere lest I might forget the awesome titles I've encountered there. Something to keep me fueled up until the next Komikon!

Animus Rush

Here's the much awaited synopsis of our first VN project, Animus Rush:

Alice is the ace of Ogure Highschool's Volleyball Club that goes to the Nationals every year. She usually stays in the court to practice and stays there to be out of everyone's way. But this year it's different. The school decided to hold a campaign to advertise its standing and chose Alice and two others to be the representatives. The active and cheerful Alice turned into something fearful when she discovered that one of the two is her ex-boyfriend. Will she be able to just focus on her goal to win the Championship or will she finally exact revenge? 

deviantART

deviantART [dee·vee·un'nt·ART] is the world's largest online art community where artists and art enthusiasts can share their work.

I decided to just post my progress in digital arts here in my deviantART page. Feel free to check it out and if you liked something, don't forget to add it to your favorites. Oh, here's one I haven't submitted yet: 

Miss Universe 2007 - Philippines costume

This sketch was a request from a friend of mine. I may try to outline it in the future.

Not Another Hair Technique on Gimp for Beginners by a Beginner

Okay, so basically I just started learning digital arts and encountered a lot of different tutorials on howto's and whatnot's. I did learn their techniques, but it just isn't working for me. I do get confused and sometimes even irritable when it's taking me too long to get the shades right. I was never really fond of a lot of layers. With my blood, sweat, and tears on the line, I'm going to post it here so that I won't forget.

The most common technique (and easiest to understand) is probably the two-layer technique where there is the base color then the shadow or light color. I choose shadow. 

And here's what's confusing: What is the best shade to use? I don't think that there is a best shade, since it really depends on your preference. There are a lot of techniques on the net, you can just search it right now. But I prefer the fewer clicks the better, so I suggest using the burn tool... clicking on the base color 3-4 times then use the color picker tool and get the darker shade. Undo the burn and fill the shadow layer with the shade that you just got.

I place the shadow layer on top and from here on it's basically the same thing. With the shadow layer, use the path tool or pen tool and run through the hair. Always remember the Selection from path and hit delete. Do this for all the layers you'd want your hair to have. 

When you're done, duplicate the base layer. Then go to Colors > Hue-Saturation and go for a higher level of Lightness. Use the color picker to get the lighter shade. Delete the duplicate layer. Use the spray tool to draw a curve throughout the base layer. The output is as shown below:

Note: 
1. Do remember that this shading may or may not be the best option for your coloring scheme.
2. Base layer > Shadow layer may be interchangeable to Light layer > Base layer. 
3. There is a total of 2 techniques used in choosing shades used, either one may be favored.

Once I get a new coloring technique that works for me, I'll post it here.

SFX

The sounds of games is an important criteria in making a making a game especially in visual novels. It's the small things that matter, as I always have in mind. From the small squeaks of the shoes to the grand musical themes of VNs like a2, sound effects (SFX) make the game realistic and even more enjoyable.

 a2 ~a due~

I've been scavenging here and there for SFX in the internet. I know, it's a little early for the stage of our project, but a huge database for sound effects isn't so bad. Here are some sources that I actually find helpful:

• free SFX
• Freesound
• Freeplay Music

A Visual Novel Project

I'm having too much fun with Ren'Py lately. And with Project B going slow, a friend of mine decided to create a visual novel on the side. It was actually debated whether to just use Novelty or just Ren'Py. Since it's our first attempt at a visual novel, Novelty would've been easy to use. It is more user-friendly for those with no background to programming but at the cost of less features, not that we'll be using all the features of Ren'Py anytime soon.

Well, aside from the wiki of Ren'Py, I have been stalking the Lemmasoft Forums for a while. There are a lot of nice people there and their works. I am pretty excited since the NanoRenai has just ended. 

New Visual Novels galore~!

Happy gaming, everyone!

Time to practice!

I got hooked up in coloring. I do need more practice in cleaning the outline and, of course, the shading. There are just too many layers. The image above was drawn by my good friend. You can check out her blog here.

Digital Arts

I love drawing. But I never had the time to learn digital arts.

GIMP and Inkscape are freeware programs that would help just right. I'm basically just crawling on how to use a tablet but couldn't stop myself from experimenting with my new found programs. So I basically just breezed through the lineart and experimented with the oh so popular burn tool.

I know, I know... I need more practice in lighting

Project B - Pixel Sprites

And our RPG still lives! Let's call the RPG that we're brainstorming for Project B and we've decided that I'm in charge of the designs. I'm not that good in digital arts to be honest but, hey, I enjoy a good challenge. 

RPG Makers make use of pixelated sprites like the one shown below:

A female sprite template

As you can see, it is aligned 3 x 4 which totals to 12 icons per sprite, 12 possible animation frames and that's just the minimum. Icons are usually 24 x 24 pixels but could be 32 x 32 and many more, it all depends on one's personal preference and the item you're going to make (e.g. tools, tiles, etc.).


RPG Maker VX Ace does have a sprite generator and it does have a lot of options as seen below:

But it can only go as far as the limitations of the package though you can always edit the generated sprite here and there. As far as pixels are concerned, Graphics Gale is known for creating or editing sprites.

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Yes, I'm a little late on trying this out but, well, better late than never. I was itching to try Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward on my 3DS then I read an article somewhere in the internet (probably from Siliconera, but I’m not sure) that Zero Escape answers questions left hanging from 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons,Nine Doors.

wait for me... I'll finish 999 first ;)

 999 is a virtual novel with, what I thought, a battle royale theme: a game to the death, where the last one standing gets to leave. Much to my surprise: the plot needs all of them alive by the last door. Well, at least it is a survival game.

Here, you play as Junpei - your run-off-the-mill college student where you dictate his actions and choices that influences not just the ending but the story itself. 

999 has 6 possible endings, and I got the worst possible ending in my first play through: the coffin ending. The coffin ending has the same flags as the true ending except for one, you must have seen the safe ending to get the true ending else you'll get the dummy ending: the coffin ending.

Introducing Ren'Py

Most, if not all, indie VNs that are scattered through out the world wide web are programmed through a software called Ren'Py (you can download it here) . As a novice programmer, Ren'Py is pretty easy to understand. Sure it's a little confusing on loops but aren't all programming languages like that at first? The more complex you want your game, the more complicated it gets but it will be all worth it in the end.

Now let's start! 

Depending on which version you get, the downloaded package already has a tutorial included. It pretty much didn't help me when I launched the project, so I just went to see the scripts and started from there. (Note: if you have zero background in programming, here's a good site to get you started.)

Hierofania is a really good first attempt of a visual novel by Ludeshka.

Hierofania by Ludeshka

DS Love - Girlish Love Revo

With the standards of Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side Series, I was hesitant to try other DS otome games for a while until the 3rd Story's english patch is done but I just had to try Girlish Love Revolution.

Girlish Love Revolution

Girlish Love Revolution is about a girl living with the most popular guys and whatnot. Sounds too cliche`? Wait for it. Here, you play as Hitomi an obese high school student and will be working out to lower her weight and the usual raise her parameters for the rest of the duration of the game. The story is really hilarious and the characters are all quirky. I enjoyed it so much that I couldn't help myself and ask for more: now currently reading its manga.

RPG Making

RPG Maker piqued my interest when I was playing the game called Castle Chase. I was well aware of its existence before but it wasn't that intriguing to play given that we already could have better looking sprites/avatars. Yes, I'm one of those: "Smoother graphics = better games". But right now, I'm eager to try these kind of games and play a game for the whole play experience and not just because a game has awesome graphics. Ah, the changes an otome game can make you.

Since we were bored, my friends and I decided to develop a game using the RPG Maker. I, for one, don't even know the basics in creating a game. I guess a little research and practice is in order.

From RPGs to Otome

As an avid gamer myself, I'd rather play a game than post in forums or blogs (although, I do stalk some topics that I find interesting). Recently, I find myself leaning to games like Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Series,  Avalon Code, Harvest Moon, and even Fire Emblem: Awakening. So I thought to myself "All these games have one thing in common: otome elements". 

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning

 

I got hooked up on these kinds of games, I found myself playing Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom and My Candy Love. Then and there I welcomed myself to the world of Virtual Novels (VNs).