✓ Breaking Down The Creative Process - Claire

I'm back! As Shahnoor said in her previous post, I was recently out of town in London (touring the campus and dorms of the college I'll be attending in the fall--I swear I don't normally go on holiday during the school week!) with the weakest WiFi connection on the planet. Thankfully, Shahnoor decided to be a pal and help me out by posting on my normally scheduled day, which was the Monday/Tuesday before last.

BACK TO BUSINESS!

For today's post, I thought I'd write about my plans for the creation of the character sprites and backgrounds that will be presented in Sonder (the official title of our visual novel, which we'll go into at another time). In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene just a fancy word for "character." Sprites play an integral part in visual novels, as they're either a visual representation of the protagonist that the player is playing as (that's not redundant at all) or the other characters in the story that help move the plot forward. When I first began entertaining the idea of making a visual novel, I was convinced that I would draw every single sprite -- including their minute changes in expression -- from scratch. Having experimented with digital art for the past month, however, it has quickly became evident that hand-drawing everything will not only prove to be ridiculously inefficient, but will also substantially increase the likelihood of me wanting to bang my head against the nearest available surface out of immense frustration by at least 98.4%. And I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a very fun time.

Ever since Shahnoor and I agreed that it isn't feasible for me to hand-draw every aspect of every character from scratch--at least, not if we want to release a demo or at least a chapter of our visual novel by the end of this school year--I went on the hunt for a program that would give me a leg up on the whole creative process. I've used Photoshop in the past to digitally edit and illustrate; however, as I mentioned, the process is very time-intensive considering the fact that I'll be learning how to program an entire game at the same time. But fortunately for us, a few weeks ago, I found my solution.

When I was younger, I used to play this game called the Sims 2. It's a strategic life simulation game from 2004 that allows you to build families (comprised of people called "sims"), houses, and objects from the in-game features provided. Although it was an enjoyable game, I was more fascinated by the program that came with it: Body Shop. Body Shop has a variety of "sliders" that you move around with your computer mouse to adjust your sim's physical traits. In Create-A-Sim (CAS) mode, you can pick and choose how you want your sim to look. Options range from adjusting chin and jaw width to even determining how deep-set a sim's eyes are. I installed a few modifications to the program and switched up some of the script to enable more custom functions. I'll be using Body Shop to generate the bare bones of our character sprites, while toying around with Photoshop to customize their features from scratch.

The following might be confusing, but I thought I'd include it anyway in case you're curious what the heck I've been working on. To make our sprites, I've been using the following key programs:

• The Sims 2/BodyShop - described above. (Partial screenshot below:)
  
• Fraps - a screen capture/recording utility for Windows (to show visual progress and record cut-scenes):
  
• Milkshape 3D - a "low-polygon modeler" that allows you to create or edit your own meshes. I'm tearing out my hair here trying to find a way to explain it So in the simplest terms, I'd best describe it as a program necessary to design your own custom animations and change the meshes, or "skeletons," of characters and objects. Let's say I want to make a dress into a skirt. Using Milkshape 3D, I can adjust the polygon count and fiddle with the mesh, or structure of the dress, in order for it to be tailored into a skirt. Then I can go into Photoshop and import or paint my own textures onto the clothing until it suits my taste. As for custom animations, I'm also using Milkshape 3D as a platform for manipulating how our character sprites move and interact. 
  
• Photoshop CS6 - the latest version of Photoshop (for all I know). I'm using it as stated above (for clothes), but also for re-coloring/re-texturing hair, making unique skin features like freckles or beauty marks, blending skintones, creating eyelids and eyes, etc. (way too many to name). Photoshop is also absolutely necessary for me to create/alter backgrounds and static scenes (called CGs--short for "Computer Graphic"), green-screen sprites into different backgrounds, tamper with lighting and other visual effects, and more. 
  
• SimPE - an editor specifically designed for modifying the Sims 2. It's great for organizing packaged files and even creating new objects from scratch. Plugins like ObjectWorkshop by Numenor and RGiles aid in the creation of new objects. 
  

There you have it! I'm currently finalizing sprites and preparing to create CGs and cut-scene video clips for the introduction of our visual novel. I'll keep you posted.

- Claire S.