So, If any of you read through the comments on my previous blog entry, you may have noticed that I’ve thrown caution to the wind and spawned a new forum, for the sake of creating a community for the more serious, more advanced EVN creators out there.
Before digging in to the meat of this post, allow me to provide you with some background information, in the event that you aren’t well acquainted with the various aspects I intend to address.
Well, put simply, Errant Heart is a Visual Novel. It’s being constructed with Ren’Py, which is a very flexible program designed to help creators make their own Visual Novel game. If you’d like to read a synopsis of the story and of character bios, as well as get a chance to glance over some artwork and screen shots, then please continue reading.
Well well well…
After our lead artist suffered a bout of RSI—of which there’s really nothing to be done medically for the condition, save rest—it seems we’re finally back on task. Although, even so, this whole project is just something to be done in our free time.
One of our latest accomplishments is in regards to the game engine that we’re using: Ren’Py. Thanks to the flexibility of the program, we’ve been able to craft a positioning system, a paper doll system and a lighting system for our sprites. In fact, we’ve posted a tech demo for the lighting and paper doll system on Lemmasoft. If you’re interested, I suggest you take a peek.
Some random observations I’ve recently identified in regards to working on a Visual Novel project…
Having worked with 3D modeling and animation in the past, Visual Novels seem very similar in the effort required up front, and the reusability of the art resources. But the most interesting aspect that I’ve found is the Kamehameha Effect.
So I thought you might like to know a little bit about what exactly I do on this project.
Well, my primary focus is the writing. I handle the planning for the branches, the plot/story, the dialog, character development, etc. I’ll be honest when I say that I’ve never taken on such a large writing task before. And I have an unfortunate habit of losing all interest in something once I work out all the details in my mind – which is usually LONG before everything is committed to paper. However, I believe I’ve hit upon a useful strategy for keeping my interest while writing and enhancing the results I end up with.
Anyway, the primary point of making this post was to illustrate my other key contribution to the project: the sprites.
The lead artist does the character design and pencils for the sprites. Below is an example of what I get from the artist:
I swore I wouldn’t put anything in this blog until Errant Heart is officially unveiled. But, I’ve happened across something that I think would make for good blogging fodder so before I forget…
First, you need to know a little about me. I’m an inker and toner. It’s what I’ve been doing, almost exclusively, for years in my quasi-professional artistic career. I probably have somewhere around 800-or-so inked pages under my belt. As such, I’ve used a variety of tools, like Microns, dip pens and tablets. And I’ve used a variety of different paper – card stock, bristol, papers of varying weights, etc. Some artists say that paper doesn’t matter – inking on a cocktail napkin is sufficient. Well, yes, perhaps it is after a certain number of Martinis. But I can tell the difference in papers. Heck, I can spot the difference in different batches of the same brand of paper. As such, I’m pretty finicky about what I use.
Enter the Cintiq.
