October Goals & Progress Thread

[TheGreatEater]

@HawkZombie, most props go to Makehuman. I just added texture, redid the chest [which sadly was all the same color as the rest of the body], added nodes to give a skin that wasn't plastic looking, and some alterations to their base mesh [which is about 90% the same as when it was made]. Still thanks for the compliment ^_^.

 

[Another Ned]

@AceOfAces_Mod: Does this mean that you now have more plot that needs dialogue? In any case, yay!
@TheGreatEater: My thoughts: The skin looks way too uniformly-coloured. Even if it's an alien, if you go for realistic, I'd expect it to follow similar principles as us Earth-humans: Different areas of skin are of different thickness/concentration of pigment, and thus look different in colour. If you're using only one texture file with no UV Map I don't know if you could even achieve a look like that. I'm more the "paint over everything" type so I wouldn't know how it'd work with such a node-based thing, though, but thought I'd mention it. Hope I don't sound rude or something, and with high-level anatomy knowledge you probably know the skin part.
@Marquise*: Yay for $Evilgod! Or something along those lines. : D (and I also always draw the nude version first, though I'm nice enough to give my characters underwear before colouring them. Makes it easier to imply volume in 2D forms when there's clothing drawn over, doesn't it?)
@Hollow: She's looking great! And I really like those subtle colour gradients in the shadow areas. Do you use/plan on using the same linework colour (blue if my eyes are correct) on every other character, too, or change it depending on overall colours? I'm mostly asking because as I myself am currently using the same lineart colour for everything (a dark reddish-brown) I can see the interesting effects it can have on chosen colours (e.g. having blue appear to be more vibrant, or grey look greenish).

Progress, 12th:

• Ashanah back view is done, finally! It is quite sloppy, but not that much sloppier than the others
• work on the story of part A (intro): wrote down a rough outline including the flashbacks, then went through the whole part with the stages of the Hero's Journey in mind (if applicable). Also made a short list of things I want the player to know/be aware of after having played through the intro
• did a more detailed story overview of part A after dinner and solved some things that didn't make that much sense in the initial version

 

[Schlangan]

I've missed too many posts to try to reply to everyone this time, so I'll just say : congrats on your progress !


My update :


I'm now waiting for MV, so only a little new thing for my game; I planned the names and general ideas of all the missions for episode 1 of the game. 40 missions should be the total. (It coincidentally reached that number, I might have more ideas by then or I might remove some, so it won't necessarily be round)


I've been trying to do a XP to VxAce converter to check one things or two, but VXAce's eidtor is grumpy with my edits on the files, so it doesn't work for now. I'll wait for MV, because it'll be easier to directly write json files instead of dealing with Ruby marshal code.


Now the problem will be with the tilesets. I expected to have to deal with a bit of changes, but i didn't know at that moment that VXAce (and hence MV) tilesets were so confusing and complicated compared to XP tilesets. An automatic conversion therefore seems unlikely.


So for now, I'll probably take a break for two weeks, until MV is out. I'll maybe be playing around with my tiles to increase their resolution to 48x48.

 

[Marquise*]

@Marquise*: Yay for $Evilgod! Or something along those lines. : D (and I also always draw the nude version first, though I'm nice enough to give my characters underwear before colouring them. Makes it easier to imply volume in 2D forms when there's clothing drawn over, doesn't it?)

&
@TheGreatEater


I admit having an acrobat to animate in full costume and not be sure if anything is in the way sitting or in certain moves or wishing the best orthopedic undergarments is something I always keep in mind. (Might explain Superman's briefs over his leotard!) LOL

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Chiara, That's true. I'm honestly a little miffed that there is no online video tutorials on SSS three layer scattering. [Where the skin is broken down to several layers, each having different skin pigmentation.] But yeah I agree it is a bit uniform. I'll try unwrapping again, and see if I can add a few more skin differentiations [if you see the nodes, I do have two different colors, but it'd probably look better if I add more different shaders with different colors. I'll post that up later today.] 

So hopefully I'll have something better later XD.

@Marquise*, Actually Superman always wears a leotard because it intimidates his opponents by the sight of his super manly bulged. Or like Lex Luthor drives them to insane amounts of jealousy. [Or in the case of females is strangely hypnotic.] 

 

[Vox Novus]

@Chiara I love the way that Temple is shaping up; I'd love to explore an area in game that's just as imposing and beautiful.

@TheGreatEater that 3d model looks quite well done so far, above my head otherwise so I can't comment too much about it but I want to see more after you start getting into refining the details. It will be neat to see how it transforms from a base into an entire character.

Update, finished my aquatic battlers and put them in my resource thread. Here are screens:

Spoiler

Spoiler

I've been inspired by dragonquest for my battler style so I like to keep things kind of simple and cartoony without losing too much sense of what it is.

 

[bgillisp]

Looks like I missed a lot of posts, and I'm short on time, so I'll just say congrats on the progress everyone!

10.12 - 10.13 Update:

10.12 was a wash, spent the day getting a new refrigerator, seems mine thought 50 degrees (F, about 11 C for those that don't use F) was a nice temp to keep my food at. No thank you. Today I had work most of the day but managed to fine tune a couple maps on the breaks.

Hope is to continue with the polish run on Chapter 1 tomorrow.

 

[Kes]

I'm in the same boat as bgillisp - the whole day taken up with work and RL

- and, btw, I thought that bit in bgillisp's post was a Polish run, not a polish run.  I had to read it twice, because I was bemused about what Poland had to do with anything.

Congrats on all the progress I see from the posts.

My update

Sadly, absolutely zero.  Had no time to do anything.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Vampire Vox, thanks ^_^.

___________________

Here's the newer version [i just learned how to UV wrap about 2 hrs ago]. And the pic uses 2 UV maps and several different shaders. 



[under an ungodly amount of lights.]



[Close up normal - low lighting]

and



[Distance shot. Normal - low lighting.]

The first UV wrap was of skin. Made a weird swirl on the chest, but the rest spread along the body nicely. Giving a good amount of color variations. The second was a UV wrap using muscle tissue. Which was colored pink. Ontop of it's normal red. 

Hopefully that makes it look good. Tried doing Subsurface Scattering since I saw a lot of good with that, but every attempt atm results in the thing looking like a mold creature, and it looses all the nice skin definition.

 

[Marquise*]

@Ksjp17


No worries!


So... this is what I did today... It kinda bugs but I'll fix it with the best side I think!





So much is going on on the ground it kinda is hard to pretend it moves... I think I might play with the shadows too.

 

[Zoltor]

@Ksjp17

No worries!

So... this is what I did today... It kinda bugs but I'll fix it with the best side I think!

$EgTest-Gif.gif

So much is going on on the ground it kinda is hard to pretend it moves... I think I might play with the shadows too.

Wow did you make that sprite from scratch, that's a awesome sprite.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Marquise*, That Sprite is awesome, but I do agree that you should play with shadows. That'd really help sell it. Still rather awesome job ^_^.

 

[Another Ned]

@Schlangan: Yay for planning and such. And have a nice break.
@Marquise*: For some reason, the movement has a weird rhythm to it, or is it just how the browser shows things? Is it the RTP one on a new sheet or are there already edits? I'm really, really bad at spot the difference things as I mentioned once I think. Are you planning on also changing things about the front view walk cycle or rather save time/work and "only" (in "" since it's enough work as it is I imagine) try to adapt it for all the other views? Curiosity, causing a lot of questions. And I'm a bit excited to see what you come up with for side and back view.
@TheGreatEater: I once read that young men in 15th or 16th century (can't remember when this fashion trend started) Italy wore tights for such a reason.
Erm, I mean, yay, the close-up of the new version does look a lot less uniform. And I wouldn't expect any first tries to come out perfectly (that'd be boring, then there wouldn't be anything to work toward. : P). If I think back at my first Unwrap (and the second and third since I always did something wrong)...
Looking at it again, somehow, the nipples seem to glow. I mean, they're extremely pink now. They don't stand out as much as before, but now they... glow. I mean, glowing blood that shows through very thin skin is a nice idea (there's this pretty texture thing called an Incandecence Map in 3ds max, I think it's named differently per application and/or engine), and here my imagination is running around, having fun again.
@Vampire Vox (nice seasonal name change. Alliterations are great): Thanks, I hope I'll be able to translate that feeling to in-game later.
Your battlers are super adorable. Though the Looking-Through-Seaweed-One and the snake-like one next to it (, which I want as a pet – what does it eat?) have an outline around their cast shadows whereas all the others don't. Didn't seem intentional, so I thought I'd mention it.
@bgillisp: Isn't it terrible when household appliances gain a life of their own and think they know better than their humans? D: But yay for the bit of work you managed to squeeze in-between. Hope the new refrigerator does its job properly.
@ksjp17: Maybe the "break" helps with seeing everything with fresher eyes once you get back to working on the game? (yep, that's me, almost always trying to see something positive in things)

Progress, 13th:
Dentist appointment. Seems like my lower wisdom teeth almost sit on the nerve that goes through the lower jaw. I saw the X-rays, I could see them almost touch the nerves. Creepy.

• read something about game balancing. Since I'm bad with numbers (and have a friend I can only bug occasionally about it) it's something I really have to keep in mind for later. I'm also tempted (as usual) to not use MP (or any kind of points) as a resource. So many things to think of. I mean, since Part A will only have two battles, I kind of still have time until I have to come to more practical decisions (and more time to bug my game design-experienced friends about it) but I really have to do something about the swirling mass of ideas in my mind (note to self: do a bit of research if spear+shield was a viable combination in a non-army formation environment. Even if it wasn't and I still go with that idea for a character who will only be in the party for one short fight, I'll at least have gained new knowledge)
• a few sketches of Ashanah's boss version. Didn't work out at all. But at least I got the first few ideas out of my system. In my experience, the first two or three usually end up the least interesting for me (and I never go with my first idea anyways)

I'm typing this as it is the 14th, in the morning. As some of you might know, my mother and me lost our old flat in Spring of last year, weren't able to find a new one in time and now are stuck staying at our relatives' place. Now my stepgrandfather wants to sell the house and my stress levels increase even more. Winter is approaching, finding a flat is as hard as ever, then there's the wisdom teeth thing looming over my head... Today, someone is expected to come and look at the house. I childishly plan to eat something with extra garlic for lunch so that person will leave with a bad impression. " ... I really want to find a place soon, because where I'm at now really brings out the worst in me. Good thing I didn't grow up here. Sorry for venting, but it does affect my progress.

Oh, and I think I haven't mentioned it, but I'm sitting on a comfy chair on the RMMV train. Needed to do something nice for myself, so after I could convince my frugal self (read: epitome of stingy) and my skeptical self and tried a bit of this math thing to see whether this expense affects the near future, I preordered it. Some days ago. It feels good having something nice to look forward to. <3

 

[Marquise*]

@Chiara


Your energy is on fire these days


To answer everyone, I think I will take one side legs movements only (Meaning a lot of tails patching) and Yes there is a rhythm problem usually I make a less longer hold on center pose to avoid tap dancing monsters... (and admit with all those legs )


And NO I didn't made that sprite from scratch! However like all the $BigMonster series of sprites included in the basic package of RPGMaker VX Ace, they were only frontal and having some sort of breathing/swaying rhythm in 3 poses. First time I started was with the $Ogre that is now includes in the Free Community DLC, because I couldn't made him run around and catch/attack my heroes because his 3 frames were in usual butt position (4th sprite row) and apparently no sprites attacks another with their rear no matter how you get them to slide on another! So this one is the one just over the Ogre in the $BigMonsters_2 spritesheet and it is not supposed to do anything but stand. Until now, I know Lunarea is knowing what I am doing, I am officially doing an extension of her spriting. And believe me those sprites are a puzzle to get for a walk... Let say now that the $Dragon was baby food! So I understand already like that that we are blessed by the art resource department in RPGMaker... Because, well it takes just moving around a sprite to know it isn't like sketching them on paper! They took hours and days over those!

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Chiara, Yeah the glowing nipples need a relook at. Although if a character has Rank 3 or higher Blue or Purple Thaumaturgy [Positive / Negative Element Crafting], or becomes an Avatar for a Deity / divine themselves they can get parts of the body / flesh that glow from the raw spiritual energy pumping through them. But normal characters need a bit less [it's odd though, one tweak in either direction either made them look really dark, or really bright. I'll probably need to toss them into a few mixers.]

As for your game. Since it is survival horror, and if they they don't have any magical / special powers. You could probably forgo MP, but tie bullets / weapons into a group of variables. So that they'd need to collect items to do things / stock up. That might work right? 

And the shield. Are you talking about a spiked shield? If so those were viable shields used both as weapons, as well as to break shields / jam into enemy weapons. Here's a good link to shields. If you're talking about using both a spear and a shield ... hmmm. Well it is plausible since there are places that teach it in the modern ages, and while not the most easiest of weapons to handle could be pretty good to know. So yes, it is possible, not all that common but possible.

As for the more personal stuff. I wish you the best of luck, and I think you could use this and some of these. Seriously though hope things work out soon for you, you're an awesome person ^_^. 

______________________


Going to fix nipples, lips, and going to work on giving her eyeballs by the end of today. If I'm lucky I can get her to have a headfull of hair. That's my plan for today at least. 

 

[Schlangan]

@Vampire Vox : You've created a fusion between Shellder and Geodude


@Marquise* : I like the sprite, but it looks like the evilgod is dancing You should slightly shift his body towards the left and right to give the impression it is moving.


@TheGreatEater : Hair can be tricky, be careful ^^


@Chiara : Yes balancing has to be considered soon enough; you don't want to have to redo everything later on.


My progress :


Since I don't like the chibi versions since VX, I've started to draw an increased resolution of the XP characters, for MV. The characters will be 48x72 pixels. Here are the front, left and right pictures for a base male character. I need to do the back view, and work on the female one. I also plan to make taller, smaller, fatter, thinner, younger and older characters. But as they will be edits of the first one, it will be easier.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Schlangan, Thanks for the heads up. I'm hoping the rather nice looking tutorials on youtube can help me make some nice Blender Cycle hair on the first or third go ^_^.

 

[Vox Novus]

@ Chiara Thanks for pointing that out, I noticed it somewhat late. I may go back and adjust them later, its more noticeable due to the fact I run my drawings through a cartoon filter to enhance the cartoon look of it.

Sounds like you got a lot going on and are quite ambitious with that in mind; I hope you find a place soon. Also as a Vampire I should mention this: Blah Garlic, such a foul creation does not belong on this earth (actually I like garlic lol).

Oh-yeah congrats on MV! Got to pamper yourself from time to time.

@TheGreatEater Interesting to see the model under so many different lighting effects the first one seemed a bit much though Idk and maybe looked a little too yellowish (granted I know you said it was under a lot of light). Uh-oh Hair, got to get those locks just right otherwise it will stand out; either that or make a statement with a bald heroine.

@Schlangan Pokemon trainers need to stop leaving their shellders and Geodudes at the pokemon daycare together...

The base looks great so far, wish I could sprite lol.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@Chiara, it needs the dialogue so I can connect the plot points.

Quick Progress Report #4

Haven't done much, since I am studying for Computer Science at TEI of Athens. I have only done some tweaking on the scripts and worked the settings for the Backup and Restore Center.

 

[Sharm]

I've been sick for quite some time now, but I think I'm finally on the mend and can do a little art.  I made a few pumpkins and some pies yesterday, made a cat sprite today.  It's not really for anything, but it's in the Pixel Myth style so it'll be useful at some point.  Right now I'm just doing some daily pixel challenges until I'm really feeling well again, then I'll get back to actual work.