I decided to draw a self insert of me (Uncle Mugen) with one of the strongest Touhou character out there… Cirno…

Not much to say but…

“POOF” (Disappears)

In a visual novel… there are two very important things that stand out… the NOVEL part and the VISUAL part… unfortunately I Uncle Mugen is not a very talented writer so we concentrate, refine and master what we are good at and that is Backgrounds… In a typical Visual Novel you got at least a set of WHAT HAVE’s like the protagonist room, school corridor, the classroom and so forth… it is very understandable why there are so few people who are even willing to do BG’s especially for Visual Novels… it’s not gratifying enough… in case of a character sprite or let’s say an event scene… all you need to do is to draw something decent… not good but decent in order for your work to sell (in case you’re into commercial VN) or get recognition, fame and bragging rights (if you’re doing it for free) but that’s not the case for people who do backgrounds for OELVN’s (Visual Novels)… Nope!… In order for you to be EVEN slightly recognized, you’ve got to be really good as in godly good like Makoto Shinkai or that other Guy who based his backgrounds on real photos and paint them post apocalyptic style or this other guy who draw very large, very detailed BG’s where you can see the tiniest minute detail but for the rest of us mere mortals… our works will be no different from the next guy… OK so there are still various shades of gray in between regarding detail and skill level but still…

Here is a typical example of Godlike background is… very detailed, very beautiful as if you wanted to get inside the game and simply stroll there…

Anyway, another thing to consider besides the fact that people who draw BG’s don’t receive much love ( ;_; ) unlike people who draw characters or sprites or event CG… is that… you’ve got to draw several variations of the same BG’s like Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Rain, Lights off and so forth… so. While I agree that in the typical VN… sprite still outnumbers BG’s… BG’s are by far much more harder to make… yes… hard to make and extremely boring and more so if you’re doing several variations of it…

Here is a rather extreme example of what I mentioned earlier about having several variations of the same BG… unlike sprites where you can use the same body base and simply change the facial expression, in BG’s… you actually have to edit quite a lot… simply turning off the lights also means you have to adjust each and every single component of the BG to make it look appropriately 

That’s why I UNCLE MUGEN is searching, developing and streamlining techniques that will speed up and make it less stressful to create BG’s and if possible, recycle it for future use that looked Good Enough to be paired with the typical hand drawn BG and of course share it with everyone here… CLICK HERE TO SEE TUTORIAL ON HOW TO CREATE EXTERNAL BACKGROUND USING SKETCHUP AND PHOTOSHOP … In all seriosuness, who wants to draw manually all those BG’s for free… certainly not me… but you can’t have a visual novel without visuals and that means you’ll have to deal with BG’s sooner or later…

So here we are again asking myself the question… what is THE most difficult BG to do for OELVN’s? (Visual Novels)

Classroom?… Nope
Protagonist Room?… Nope
Bathroom?… Nope

The answer is… The City/Town Commercial District… and for obvious reasons… unlike the previous backgrounds mentioned… everyone who plays a VN definitely knows what a typical City/Town Commercial District looks like… it’s this place filled with commercial buildings big and small with lot’s of details like signages, ads, electrical distribution systems and such… and you’ll have to draw it… manually… which kinda sucked considering that most people will look at the character sprites anyway without even giving a single thought about the gargantuan amount of effort taken to get that BG out… so let’s see how the professionals deal with this difficult subject

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Fog of War approach
OK so this isn’t exactly a City/Town Commercial District scene but let’s use this for now and focus on how this artist used fog to obscure the details in the far away parts saving time and effort, perfectly suited for large and wide scenes. Probably took about maybe a few hours to make and maybe a day or two if variations of time are included.

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The I cover the Horizon and Vanishing point approach
In this example, the artist visibly put quite some effort into detailing and such but obstructed the horizon with we’ll some structures. This technique makes it possible to save time and effort by preventing the need to draw objects farther out into the horizon since well… we can’t see the horizon… I too use this approach very VERY often. same as the previous method mentioned… Probably took about maybe a few hours to make and maybe a day or two if variations of time are included.

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The I cover it with Trees and Plants approach
Instead of using structures you use trees to obscure and hide the horizon… this is actually a very common tactic used by BG artists to save time and effort and still convey some sense of depth if arranged correctly like in this example, the trees are arranged in a way that suggests the street goes farther down… even though we actually can’t see what’s beyond… or perhaps show a bit of the farthest parts but no longer draw them in detail

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The Why even bother drawing beautiful backgrounds when you have the best elite artist drawing sprites for you approach
OK… now this is… how should I say it… I certainly wanted to bash whoever made this especially considering that this is a COMMERCIAL GAME but then again we don’t know the circumstances the person who did this BG was under when he made this… perhaps he was tired or underpaid… maybe this was outsourced from China (like what happened to Nobilis when they outsourced it to China… it was a… disaster) but if he/she is indeed underpaid and being paid per piece then I can fully understand and forgive why this BG turned out like this… you get what you pay for…

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The I won’t compromise anything and will make the most epic background to blow away the competition approach
Beautiful fit the sprite uncompromising perfect BG that may or may not use a mixture of the previous methods (sans the previous method mentioned) at the expense of time and effort…

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Use 3D Pig Disgusting approach
Well uh… what can I say…  :)

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So now that we’ve seen what common methods the BG artists resort to… let’s now move on to how I will approach and tackle this problem… question is… is there a way to create a detailed City/Town Commercial District scenery without exerting too much effort? The answer is both YES and NO…

YES WE CAN!
You may want to view this tutorial HERE… Just fire up Google Sketchup, Download components, place them here and there and BAM!!!… quick cheap and easy way to create the typical city scene. It’s quick, dirty, cheap and very much frown upon but who cares… as long as we got our BG… right?

and

NO CAN DO
While there are several models available that fit’s the description of commercial district… most of them are either very low detail and pretty much unusable or unsuitable for OELVN use which leaves us with one viable option in case you don’t want to draw them manually… you have to create the model yourself…

Which is exactly the case for DarkSpartan’s (KageSpartan) background (see above)… while this already defeats my main objective to create cheap and quick bg’s (this one took almost 4 hours to model… from scratch to finish) and another 10 to 15 minutes or so for the render and at least 30 minutes more if the night version is included… So OK for something that isn’t hand drawn this kinda looked good… except there is one problem… this particular BG is specifically tailored for DarkSpartan’s use meaning I can’t recycle it… actually I can but it will still look pretty much the same… just different angle… and there are 6 other people in my query list requesting City/Town Commercial District scene… and we obviously cannot use this background which now belongs to DarkSpartan…

Now I won’t mention names but let’s make clear a few things… I am not getting paid, nor am I getting “much” bragging rights for these since I’m just a collaborator/contributor and it should be understandable that I won’t draw them manually nor will I model new scenes to cater to specific needs… so you ask, what IS your solution?…

To create a recyclable City/Town Commercial District scene… uh what?…

OK let’s repeat it again this time in a much more clearer easy to understand fashion… I Uncle Mugen will create a large 4 block detailed City/Town Commercial District scene where you can simply use and re-use the same scenery for different requests and needs… the buildings can repeat to save effort but they have to be spaced in a way that the duplicate building is not within the view of the other…

What you see here is a very early WIP scene consisting of only three (3) building types and cloned to create a scene… while it is certainly repetitious… it kinda looked good. I calculated that I need at least 28 different buildings to create a mega 4 block City/Town Commercial District scene without repetition where I can simply move the camera anywhere point, shoot and repeat the process for a different requester while still making it entirely different from the previous BG… so as of writing, I have three buildings all uploaded to Google 3D warehouse… 25 building to go…

Of course knowing me… there will guaranteed double intendres and things here and there that I might insert… this is my way of having fun and as a sort of compensation by me having a few quick lulz…

I mean, if I don’t enjoy it then why do it? but don’t worry, the models are available in 3D warehouse so you can change them anytime…

More to come… now… let me have some fun…

Whew!… So what do you think?… Any comments and suggestions… I dunno… maybe I missed something?

To the people who requested BG’s… please rest assure I’m doing your BG’s… just a lot slower than the usual are since this is peak season / Christmas season…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Old Kitchen BG for Sepia Tears

So let’s see… I got a chance to skim back to the previous BG’s I’ve made before I’ve used those renderers and Jeepers!… they actually look uh… horrible…

New and Improved Kitchen BG for Sepia Tears

I now feel bad for making them… I shall now do corrective measures and remake them starting with this kitchen…

Also, I’ve noticed that lately… I’ve been putting too much emphasis on speed, speed and more speed to get BG’s done that I’ve overlooked quality like in this example below I made for DarkSpartan (aka KageSpartan)

While it certainly looked kinda good you for something done so quickly… it pales in comparison when put together with the remake using the same model but this time using a different renderer and spent an additional hour or two to fine tune things and add some additional detailing…

I don’t know… what do you think?…

Finally! An updated tutorial on how to create beautiful background graphics for use in Visual Novels or OELVN using Sketchup and Photoshop! Perfect for people like me who are untalented in drawing backgrounds. I finally managed to streamline the process enough to create a tutorial so I can share my technique. With this, it is now one step closer to that quick, cheap and beautiful background graphics that are inaccessible for us mere mortals…

Or you can view the video tutorial [HERE] in fullscreen. I recommend viewing it in 720p for maximum clarity.

With this now all of our backgrounds will look the same… Lol!

Note:

• This tutorial is perfect for outdoor shots but not applicable for inside shots especially rooms with limited light. I’ll do a tutorial on that soon…
• While I used SU Podium Renderer on this tutorial… it is expensive and can be replaced by any other renderer ( there are several freeware renderers available) as long as it has the option to render in clay mode (textureless). One good example is Kerkythea [ www.kerkythea.net/joomla/ ] and IDX Renditioner Free Edition [ www.imsidesign.com/Products/Renditioner/RenditionerExpressv2/tabid/1904/Default.aspx ]
• Sketchup is a 32 bit application (Seriously why?) so even if you have monster memory you’ll still hit the ceiling sooner or later so be careful and not to put too much load on the scene.

Thanks to Sake-Chan (Sake Bento) for lending her beautiful voice and little_misere for the Lucy sprite…

“POOF” (Disappears)

A long time ago, I was having a conversation with a Lemmasoft forum member named LordcloudX. During that conversation I am hell bent on winning my argument that CDR-King products are CRAP!… In case you didn’t know… CDR-King is one of the largest retailer of Computer parts and accessories in the Philippines. Their products had some of the LOWEST prices in the market made possible by cheap re-branded Chinese imports… and they also break easily… I know very well for I have tried their routers… none of them lasted longer than 6 months.

Earlier today, I visited a long time friend from when I was still working as a freehand illustrator since his house happened to be along my planned route. So we chat a bit and learned that like me… he too retired from being a graphic artist. He is now working for Telus as a Callcenter agent to support his now growing family. Of course, once an artist, always an artist and the same can be said for both of us. I still draw during my spare time and so is he… but the real highlight of this visit is that GOD DAMN CDR-KING TABLET sitting in front of his computer… so I looked at him dead straight and asked him… why CDR-King?… Those things are cheap crap and breaks easily… He answered “It’s Cheap”

Now it’s one of those unwritten rule that when it comes to tablets you’ve got to have WACOM. Wacom is simply the best and in my case, I made effort to acquire a refurbished Cintiq and like every Cintiq user has to say… you’ll never EVER wanna use another tablet other than CINTIQ… so here is a cheap Php1380.00 (US$31.56) tablet with it’s large CDR-King logo staring at me, mocking me, challenging me, enticing me to try it. Modesty tossed aside, I am quite confident in my drawing skills and my curiosity got the better of me… I’m so curious how this crap will perform in the hands of someone like me. So I asked my good old friend to fire up his PC so I can test drive his CDR-King Tablet.

While I was drawing, I found out that the pen needed a battery to properly operate…pfft… but as I started my first stroke I was surprised at how accurate CDR-King tablet is. It’s so accurate, it’s so smooth, it performs just like an Intuos… probably even better… Now before I sing CDR-King praises… I have to tell that maybe I was in a rather good mood for drawing that day and may be a factor but damn… if you removed this ugly CDR-King Logo… I probably won’t be able to tell the difference between this and a Wacom. About 10 minutes I was happy at the results of the initial sketch that I proceeded to ink it and eventually color it. The end result is so nice I copied it into my USB drive to brag about it here and in my blog…

So there you have it… I still don’t trust CDR-King too much especially every time I recall my routers but damn… maybe if they sell more products like this who knows… maybe I too will start coming back to their stores and maybe even get myself one of these.

OK Cloud… you can go ahead and sing that “I was right and you were wrong song…” time to give CDR-King some Thumbs Up…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Edit: Wow!… I didn’t know those things are selling like hotcakes… the two CDR-Kings I went to were all sold out…

PHILIPPINE BUREAU OF CUSTOMS… WHY ARE YOU GUYS SUCH A BUNCH OF FUCKING CORRUPT TO THE BONE CROOKS! GO TO HELL AND BURN! PLEASE DIE IN THE MOST EXCRUCIATING MANNER!!! I HOPE YOUR DEATHS ARE PROLONG AND PAINFUL!!!

Long story short… They expect me to pay about Php40,000 (US$925.50) for a shipment that is itself just worth Php6521.50 (US$150). For fucks sake guys!… it’s just slabs of rocks… LITERALLY SLABS OF ROCKS!!!…

Fine here’s the breakup…

Benchmark / Tariff / Duties & Taxes – Php 18,700.00
Storage Fee – Php   8,000.00
Entry Form – Php   1,500.00
Locator – Php       300.00
Document Processing – Php   4,870.00
Broker’s Fee  - Php   5,200.00
Miscellaneous – Php #%@&$!!! (at this point, I’m already foaming in the mouth)

And you know what… this is the second time I received the same shipment and the previous one I paid for far FAR less… this breakup not only doesn’t make any sense… it’s pure BULLSHIT!!! And even more rage inducing is the fact that if I didn’t pay and claim it today (September 16)… it will be declared abandoned… YOU FUCKING MOTHER FUCKERS!!! FINE!!! GO AHEAD AND SHOVE THOSE SLABS UP YOUR ASSES!!!

So there you have it… I finally got to experience Philippine Corruption via Bureau of Customs first hand. I’m truly ashamed to be a Filipino right now. This is corruption. Really BLATANT corruption…

I… I need to get out for a bit and… forget about everything… I don’t know if my heart can take this stress… must breath in and breath out… relax… relax…

I’m… I’m going back to sleep… and when I wake up…

“POOF” (#%^&@%$!!!)

Nakakahiya kayo mga putang ina nyong taga Bureau of Customs! Ang kakapal at sobrang garapal ang kasakiman nyo! Masahol pa kayo sa kriminal!!! Mahiya naman kayo… nung ni re-compute ko yung mga dapat kong bayaran hindi naman dapat umabot ng ganyan kalaki! Mga sindikato kayo ng magnanakaw!

All of that resulted in this… thing…

OK so it all started when I was really REALLY bored and decided to surf the internet for my weekly dose of porn from my favorite streaming site when I stumbled upon this rather lame looking Hentai thumbnail accompanied by a very VERY low rating. Curious, I clicked on it and realized why it got so many thumbs / vote down… it’s actually softcore… even more softcore than the other anime where you got these white haired twins doing the macarena but that’s another story…

So simple yet so beautiful

So this Koe de Oshigoto! is about a 16 year-old girl who was asked to become an eroge voice actress on her 16th birthday by her 28 year-old sister. She disagreed at first, but after she thought about all of the things her sister did for her when she was growing up, she finally agreed. But being a high school student and knowing nothing about eroge… lets leave it at that…

This image is literally screaming AUTOCAD!!!

So the art is decent but the BG’s are some of the most simplest I’ve seen in an OVA while it does blend with the rest of the character art… it’s the colors that got my attention. It’s so simple yet so… sweet almost diabetic… It also has traces of 3D…

I wish I could say this one is hand drawn but then again…

3D wut?… OK so there are several parts in the anime where you can see traces of 3D work like the curtains in the classroom and their house which even has this AutoCad cell shading lines and feel… of course being someone who is specialized in BG’s for OELVN’s and always striving to acquire new techniques and methods… I’VE GOT TO KNOW WHAT AND HOW THEY DID IT!!!…

Fast forward to modeling and render… I’ve been scratching my head as to why can’t I get the results I wanted and it always turns out way too dark…

Agh! The horror! Those trees are actually components that always face the camera thus facing away from the lightsource made them… dark and rather ugly…

What’s even more odd is that I used the same renderer and the same settings to get this result…

Seriously, why is it that this pool turned out OK while the building above is just horrible…

Anyway, after a few more attempts I give up and instead resorted to a previous somewhat obsolete technique I used a while back that doesn’t rely on renderers (click here to view tutorial)… it’s basically just sketchup and export these images (see below) and edit them in photochop (see the topmost image in this post)….

Oh well… I guess I’ve been relying on renderers too much… Lol!

“POOF” (Until next time… Disappears)

“POOF’ (Disappears)

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After submitting to Sake-Chan the final BG graphic for Hanami X2… I now have some breathing room for a little bit of… creativity (LOL! Parody tiem!… yes it was intentionally misspelled)… seriously, it’s been a long ride… can’t wait for the final release…

So uh… I’ve been very very busy behind the scenes… most of the work I did were either polishing my GUI (again) or trying to steal err… I mean learn from other people’s Ren’py code and figure out how it works  and a few collaborations here and there (Dammit Greeny… even with a guide, I still end up being stuck most of the time… Lol!)

Godly character sprites by Misteen

Well… gotta go for now… BTW! Unrelated… Beavis and Butthead will be back! YES!!!… CORNHOLIO!!!

“POOF” (Disappears)

(You were right DaFool… too bad Motion Portrait doesn’t seem to be available anywhere other than being on user end products for… “BARF!” Apple… don’t get me wrong… I was coerced on owning an IPhone… only to be disappointed by it… I’m just waiting for the 2 year subscription contract to expire)

Anyway, where was I?…. Ah!… I’m planning on using this and apply it to individual sprites and animate them in Renpy for my upcoming OELVN projects (Aka English Visual Novels) Now to solve the problem of finding a decent frame-rate that can play on all systems high and low spec. Right now, I’m aiming at 12FPS….

OK I go for now…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Edit: I just realized, the breathing animation makes it look like Lucy the Second had some chest material which is not the case… she’s supposed to be as flat as a board and………..