Final revision -- Feedback request on my first cutscene ...

[VoxPopuli]

Update: the final revised cutscene incorporating suggestions is in my 07Apr2014 post below.
 
Hi, I'm working on my first cutscene as a first time user of RPG Maker.  I've been working with VX Ace for a few weeks now and did a mock-up of a cutscene following some of the tutorials I could find on this site and watching a few youtube videos.  I have a few specific questions which I've put in a "spoiler", but if anyone could view the cutscene first at the youtube link to see it fresh without being potentially influenced by my concerns, that would be great.  All feedback and suggestions to my first effort are welcome.
 
Link to "Noyou Quest" cutscene on YouTube
 
Revised version of "Noyou Quest" cutscene per suggestions (uploaded 07Apr2014)
 

 
Spoiler with my original questions:
 

Spoiler

1. During the dungeon sequence, since I wanted the characters to continue walking backwards to bottom of the screen, I moved the dialogue to midscreen so that the action was more visible at the bottom. Was that too disruptive? Should they have moved off to the right or left and dialogue remaining at bottom?  Other possible approaches?

2. Were the dialogue boxes timed so that you could read everything comfortably. Should some be longer, shorter?

3. What are some custcene tutorials, forum posts or viewable cutscenes (youtube, downloadable examples, etc.) you might recommend in order to best learn the how-to's ... also some good "cinematic" examples for inspiration would be good too.

 
Spoiler with a description of what was changed (updated 07Apr2014):
 

Spoiler

1. edited out generic RTP title screen where "New Game" was hit.

2. changed the Introduction to a scrolling message text and elimated the colors.

3. changed the party's approach movement to be more fluid (less "bumpy"). I did this by tying in the movement events / all timings with the individuals characters' events and put all characters and monster dialogues in an invisible event off to the side.

4. message timings lengthened to give more time to read content

5. note: all visible characters are events, while the "player" character is invisible with database "transparent ON" setting checked

 
Thanks much, Vox

 

[Venka]

to concern1 , I didn't notice the position change, but it could be because of concern 2. I found myself pausing the video often to try to catch everything. Some were timed fine to my speed of reading, some were just too fast. I expected it to be slow since the first 7 seconds of the video was the title screen. Unless there was an audio reason for it taking that long on the start up (I rarely turn sounds on my laptop).

The only other thing I took notice of was the bumpy movement of the characters as they approached the boss. I assume it was for the message pop ups, but you might be able to parallax the messages and set the hero party's movement to a slower rate so they move as they talk.

As for tutorials, I can't think of any.. I think the last tutorial looked at for cutscenes was for RPG Maker XP. But it looks like you've played with a lot of the elements already

 

[Mouser]

The splash screens were great. The next screen had waaaaaay too many words.

The different colors didn't help either, that will make it harder to read for a lot of people. IIRC there's a way to have a message scroll automatically - a la intro to star wars, only without the 3D effect. You may want to play around with that. You could keep the 'splash screen' thing going and just add a few lines at a time that way, as well.

The movement of the characters was fine. It was like they were tripping over each other to get away.

The very last text message needs to be up longer - didn't have time to read that. Remember, when you're using all the 'prithees' and whatnots, it's going to take most people longer to read the message boxes than it normally would. You can't use yourself as a guide because you know what they say already. Read the lines out loud, slowly - that should help you with the timing.

 

[Zevia]

The only other thing I took notice of was the bumpy movement of the characters as they approached the boss. I assume it was for the message pop ups, but you might be able to parallax the messages and set the hero party's movement to a slower rate so they move as they talk.

Another option, though it will take some trial and error, would be to do their move routes in one command, and just untick the box that says "wait for completion." If you want them to pause at some point, you can just throw in wait commands in the middle of their move route. For example, if you do:

Set move route (player) (wait for complete is unchecked)Move upMove upWait: 60 framesMove leftMove upMove upMove upWait: 30 framesMove left Set move route (EV01) (wait for complete is unchecked)Move upMove upWait: 60 framesMove leftMove upMove upMove upWait: 30 framesMove left Show messageWe are talking and walking.\|\|\^ Show messageYes. Yes we are.\|\|\^Then the player and event 1 will walk around, pause, keep walking, etc. while the two show messages are being automatically run through, with no pause in the movement.

 

[Dymdez]

yes -- fix movement.. also the dialogue could use some work, valiant sir

edit: nvmd dialogue is hilarious

 

[VoxPopuli]

Greetings:

Thanks much to Venka, Mouser, Zevia and Dymdez (so far the respondants as I am writing this).  Your observations collectively have been most helpful!

@ Venka, especially interested in your ideas of parallaxing messages, I will do a search on how that is done, but if you have any links/pointers that would be great too.  Yes the opening RPG Maker generic title screen is up too long, that will be trimmed down.  Character movement and dialogue timing will be addressed in the following points.

@ All, movement seems to be a mixed bag ... I kind of liked how the movement turned out, but it was more by accident than design (since I did not think of "wait for completion" check).  I will probably do some tests (at least off-screen) to make sure the movement is by design and not due to chance (and that I understand what I am doing as I am doing it). 

@ Zevia, thanks for detailed info on movement and the inputs!

@ Mouser, I tend to agree with you on length and colors of the verbose Intro screen, like the scrolling idea ... I will play around with this.

@ All, yes some of the dialogue needs to be timed longer ... that's on my "To Fix" list too.

@ Dymdez, glad you thought the dialogue funny

I will wait a little while longer in case their are more suggestions to incorporate in cutscene, then I will revise it.

Thanks again to everyone!

 

[Venka]

I so misspoke. I didn't mean parallax the message... meant a parallel process event so the movement could go with the messages showing at set time intervals but Zevia's example is probably a much better way to go.

I also thought the dialog was funny, made me chuckle a few times and I like their fleeing movement

 

[mlogan]

Overall, I thought it was pretty funny. The title of the game became quickly apparent. As others said, the bumpy movement was distracting. I didn't even notice the dialog box change, I would expect it to change based on the actors' position.

 

[VoxPopuli]

Overall, I thought it was pretty funny. The title of the game became quickly apparent. As others said, the bumpy movement was distracting. I didn't even notice the dialog box change, I would expect it to change based on the actors' position.

Thanks much for your feedback, mlogan.  Yep, the consensus seems to be to address the characters movement -- at least on the approach to boss (the latter part seems to work), so I will experiment with a few of the good suggestions received so far.

I'm glad you thought it was funny and that the position shift of dialogue boxes worked.

BTW: congratulations on your win in the farm mapping contest.  Your map was among my favorites and stood out for its uniqueness!

 

[VoxPopuli]

Update 07Apr2014: Here is the revised cutscene -- new link below first version link -- that (attempts!) to incorporate some of the great suggestions from members in this post. It's still rough around the edges and perhaps the changes are incomplete or fall short of their goal.  However since this is just an experiment I will probably leave this as-is, and continue on to learning other aspects of RPG Maker (such as the Wonderful World of Switches and Variables).  I am sure I will have many more questions the deeper I get into the app!


Revised version of "Noyou Quest" cutscene per suggestions (uploaded 07Apr2014)


Please see spoiler below for a description of the changes and how I approached them.


Spoiler with a description of what was changed:

Spoiler

1. edited out generic RTP title screen where "New Game" was hit.
2. changed the Introduction to a scrolling message text and elimated the colors.


3. changed the party's approach movement to be more fluid (less "bumpy"). I did this by tying in the movement events / all timings with the individuals characters' events and put all characters and monster dialogues in an invisible event off to the side.


4.  message timings lengthened to give more time to read content


5. note: all visible characters are events, while the "player" character is invisible with database "transparent ON" setting checked

To Moderator: questions answered and this post can now be closed.


Thanks again!


Vox

 

[Tommy Gun]

I like it! One sentence was weird, though: "I must needs depart..." If that was intentional, then never mind.

Also, these videos are a great example of how you can improve cutscenes with a little tweaking, so I hope you leave them up for other people to learn from!

 

[mlogan]

I like it a lot! Much smoother!

 

[VoxPopuli]

I like it! One sentence was weird, though: "I must needs depart..." If that was intentional, then never mind.

Also, these videos are a great example of how you can improve cutscenes with a little tweaking, so I hope you leave them up for other people to learn from!

Thanks much, Tommy Gun!  Yep, "I must needs depart" was intentional (but yes, it IS weird since it was a deliberate play on pseudo-Old English RPG-speak ).

I believe the post and video links should be available.  I won't take down the videos on my side so as long as the post is up with the links they will be there. 

If my trial-and-errors help others, that is great.  Plus this post is a great example on how comments from other forum members can help improve work (I think they sure helped me).

Happy RPG-ing!

 

[VoxPopuli]

I like it a lot! Much smoother!

Thank you!