Dear Internet,
Where
was I in my last letter? Let me see… Ah,
the differences between writing linear text stories and kinetic visual novels
with a stressing upon the balance between visual art and the displayed
text. I think I will continue off of
that, but not for very long today. I am
a bit pressed for time.
Previously,
I told about how the art that is displayed needs to line up with the nature of
the text. Otherwise, you will have a very
confused audience. What is being talked
about needs to be what is being shown. If
the characters are commenting on a work of art while being at a museum, there
is not much sense in showing a pizza hanging from a nail in a warehouse. Well, you might, but that would be one
amazing explanation. At the same time,
if two people are visiting various stores along a strip mall, it is not very
smart to keep showing the image of a pet shop while they have moved to two
other types of stores since the scene started.
Another example is if those two people are in the same store but begin to look at
at a different item then what they were looking at at the beginning of the
scene. This can lead to a situation
where the character comments on the fur of the rabbit while at the same time
shown to be looking at a ferret. This mistake
can be a sign of laziness, lack of a budget, or poor planning that can lead to
such mishaps.
But
what about the character sprites? Visual
novels are not just static backgrounds and odd special images that include the cast
as well. Quite a number of the art assets
are just characters by themselves that are positioned on top of the
background. Each character that is going
to be displayed gets an image. But that
is only the starting point. Each
character that gets displayed has to most likely get an image that displays
them in a range of emotions. So, let's
say you get a standard character with a standard array of emotions. Quickly off the top of my head, you have
happy, sad, excited, unsure, hesitant, mad, and worried. That is seven easily, and that's just for a standard
non-existent character. Truth be told, a
well developed character is going to have much more emotions than just seven
and is most likely not going to have these seven. And that is not even counting a default or
normal face. A well made character is
going to have emotional representations that correspond to that character. The military leader that has to put on a
brave face before an overwhelming enemy might not have a face of worry. If he does, he will no doubt express it very differently
than the lowly private who is in his first real battle.
So, the
character sprites have to rely on the characters that are developed by the
writer, character manager, or whoever has to do it. It would be silly to have a staff member
create a character sprite that does not line up with the character's
personality. But the limit of possible and
needed character sprites can go further down once the script is examined. In actuality, the amount of character sprites
that are needed are the ones that the game or story calls for. The story may only explore a very limited
amount of emotions for that character.
If the script calls for an image of a store clerk that only makes one
appearance for the whole story, and she keeps a deadpan demeanor, then only one
single image needs to be created. The workload
of the art assets is dependent primarily, and in many cases solely, on the
script, which calls forth exactly what is needed.
Now,
there is of course a middle road that often gets taken due to real life
restrictions. If the visual novel has a
strict deadline and a concrete budget, then the issue of getting it done on
time with change to spare becomes a thought at the front of the mind of the
directors and managers. The easiest
thing to do at the starting point is to examine the script and alter it in a
way that would allow certain elements to be cut. This is could be thought as the pre-production
cutting room floor. It is not as bad as
the post-production cutting room floor since the blood, sweat, and tears have
yet to be shed. However, it is a realistic
and prudent practice to examine what can be done within real world limits against
what one wants to be done. Like an architect
planning out a building down to the cost of the wires, it is better to see what
is feasible than to start laying the foundation and learn the budget is already
tapped out. This situation is not as
rare as one might think. In a similar
way even for a small visual novel, I have to examine what I can do against what
I want to do. The project that I am
undertaking now was not my first choice, but I realized that the story that I
wanted to tell would have been too extensive to jump right into with little to
no experience in making a visual novel.
I may still yet be biting off more than I can chew, right now, but I
cannot back down now that I have started.
There
are about one or two more things that can cause the character art assets to explode
extensively, specifically something that I plan on doing. It is something that I am hesitant to mention
just yet, especially considering that I have yet to finish the script, and I am going at a snail's pace. I may be shooting myself in the foot by
choosing this specific art direction, but I would not have it any other way. That is a topic for another month.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
Current Assets
Writing: ~450 lines
Coding: ~35 lines
Art: 0%
Audio: 0%
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