Comic Book Format
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:02 pm
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Edit: Monday, February 24, 2014, 2:17 pm (Pacific)
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After a lot of playing around with Ren'Py, I've found that, at this point in time, the easiest way for me to get the look and feel of a comic book is to simply draw in the word balloons and caption boxes on one layer, in Photoshop (the image-editing program I use), then use one or more additional layers, for the text. This way, I can display the panel or series of panels, first without the caption boxes/word balloons, so the player can take in the action/scene/event, then overlay the panel with the word balloons, then overlay all of that with the text I want to display. The pause statement will be used, liberally, so as to give the player all the time she needs to read through the text.
This is likely not the most elegant or time-efficient solution, but it's the solution that fits my current skill--or lack thereof--with Ren'Py. While I plan to actually learn even more, I'm eager to begin making some games, just to get used to what I've already learned from making my version of "The Question" from the Quick Start tutorial, and from making "Summer Vacation," a game made with the tutorial posted by rinrin (http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=13539). Hey, at least I'll get the results I want!
Anyhow, thanks to everyone for trying to help out!
TheKeeper
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Edit: Thursday, February 6, 2014, 9:11 pm (Pacific)
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I realized my original question was based on the assumption that I would need to create word balloon (a.k.a. text bubble) displayables, place them on the screen, then figure out a way for text to properly display itself onto those displayables, in order to create a comic book page layout with Ren'Py. But the link that Donmai gave me shows that I may actually have more options than I originally thought. While I saw, in the tutorial, that text can actually be placed anywhere on the screen, does this also hold true for the dialogue box? Can the dialogue box be placed anywhere on the screen, and can it also be made to look like word balloons? And I think a more general question, now, is what options do I have for presenting a story with a comic book appearance?
While the easiest solution would be to simply draw the panels with the text already in them, the biggest reason why I liked the idea of using Ren'Py for this is that I like to use a lot of narration. Drawing comics in the traditional way, I would often have to create new panels and layout, to make up for a lot of extra text that needed to go somewhere. Or I had to cut out parts of the narration that I really didn't want to cut out. While it worked, I wasn't a big fan of these workaround methods. Ren'Py offered the solution of being able to fit all the text I want in a particular panel, and layout, the way I originally had it in my head, as the word balloons would essentially be playing the roles of the dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen. So the easiest solution is not quite what I wanted to accomplish, with Ren'Py. I suppose I could create multiple images of the same panel, with the continuing text, but that seems like a lot of unnecessary image files, if there are other ways of achieving the effect I'm after.
At this point, I'm thinking that another solution would be to forgo the use of actual word balloons, and instead place text within the panels, colored differently to indicate what kind of text it is (speech, though, etc.), with a line pointing to whoever happens to be involved in the dialogue displayed. This would probably be a lot easier to do, as I wouldn't have to concern myself with keeping the text perfectly positioned within a word balloon or caption box. But if there are other options, such as making the dialogue boxes look like word balloons, etc., I'd love to be made aware of them!
Thanks, again, for the help!
Much appreciated!
TheKeeper
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Original Post
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Heyla and well met!
I would like to make visual novels that look like dynamic and interactive comic books. After playing with the tutorial that comes with Ren'Py, I am thinking that panel placement and layout is no different than placing a character anywhere on the screen. However, I am unsure of how to place text in captions and word balloons. If I made the caption boxes and word balloons into separate sprite images (or is the proper term "displayable?") to be placed over the panel artwork, is there code to specifically display text within those sprite/displayable word balloon and caption images, so the lettering doesn't spill over into the rest of the artwork? (I recall seeing something in the tutorial that lets you place text at specific points on the screen, but I don't think it mentioned keeping text within a particular displayable. I apologize, if I misremembered that.)
Thank you for your help,
TheKeeper
Edit: Monday, February 24, 2014, 2:17 pm (Pacific)
=====
After a lot of playing around with Ren'Py, I've found that, at this point in time, the easiest way for me to get the look and feel of a comic book is to simply draw in the word balloons and caption boxes on one layer, in Photoshop (the image-editing program I use), then use one or more additional layers, for the text. This way, I can display the panel or series of panels, first without the caption boxes/word balloons, so the player can take in the action/scene/event, then overlay the panel with the word balloons, then overlay all of that with the text I want to display. The pause statement will be used, liberally, so as to give the player all the time she needs to read through the text.
This is likely not the most elegant or time-efficient solution, but it's the solution that fits my current skill--or lack thereof--with Ren'Py. While I plan to actually learn even more, I'm eager to begin making some games, just to get used to what I've already learned from making my version of "The Question" from the Quick Start tutorial, and from making "Summer Vacation," a game made with the tutorial posted by rinrin (http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=13539). Hey, at least I'll get the results I want!
Anyhow, thanks to everyone for trying to help out!
TheKeeper
=====
Edit: Thursday, February 6, 2014, 9:11 pm (Pacific)
=====
I realized my original question was based on the assumption that I would need to create word balloon (a.k.a. text bubble) displayables, place them on the screen, then figure out a way for text to properly display itself onto those displayables, in order to create a comic book page layout with Ren'Py. But the link that Donmai gave me shows that I may actually have more options than I originally thought. While I saw, in the tutorial, that text can actually be placed anywhere on the screen, does this also hold true for the dialogue box? Can the dialogue box be placed anywhere on the screen, and can it also be made to look like word balloons? And I think a more general question, now, is what options do I have for presenting a story with a comic book appearance?
While the easiest solution would be to simply draw the panels with the text already in them, the biggest reason why I liked the idea of using Ren'Py for this is that I like to use a lot of narration. Drawing comics in the traditional way, I would often have to create new panels and layout, to make up for a lot of extra text that needed to go somewhere. Or I had to cut out parts of the narration that I really didn't want to cut out. While it worked, I wasn't a big fan of these workaround methods. Ren'Py offered the solution of being able to fit all the text I want in a particular panel, and layout, the way I originally had it in my head, as the word balloons would essentially be playing the roles of the dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen. So the easiest solution is not quite what I wanted to accomplish, with Ren'Py. I suppose I could create multiple images of the same panel, with the continuing text, but that seems like a lot of unnecessary image files, if there are other ways of achieving the effect I'm after.
At this point, I'm thinking that another solution would be to forgo the use of actual word balloons, and instead place text within the panels, colored differently to indicate what kind of text it is (speech, though, etc.), with a line pointing to whoever happens to be involved in the dialogue displayed. This would probably be a lot easier to do, as I wouldn't have to concern myself with keeping the text perfectly positioned within a word balloon or caption box. But if there are other options, such as making the dialogue boxes look like word balloons, etc., I'd love to be made aware of them!
Thanks, again, for the help!
Much appreciated!
TheKeeper
=====
Original Post
=====
Heyla and well met!
I would like to make visual novels that look like dynamic and interactive comic books. After playing with the tutorial that comes with Ren'Py, I am thinking that panel placement and layout is no different than placing a character anywhere on the screen. However, I am unsure of how to place text in captions and word balloons. If I made the caption boxes and word balloons into separate sprite images (or is the proper term "displayable?") to be placed over the panel artwork, is there code to specifically display text within those sprite/displayable word balloon and caption images, so the lettering doesn't spill over into the rest of the artwork? (I recall seeing something in the tutorial that lets you place text at specific points on the screen, but I don't think it mentioned keeping text within a particular displayable. I apologize, if I misremembered that.)
Thank you for your help,
TheKeeper