What is your opinion about using 3D art?

[ImmortalDreams]

Is this any better?

[LateWhiteRabbit]

The dining room scene looks fine now, except something I meant to bring up earlier - the floor and wall textures in both your scenes, the wood grain, is much too large. It makes everything look like it's in a dollhouse.

The character scene is better, but the impression I am getting from the shot angle is still that all 3 characters are equally important. Remember that the camera is the audience's point of view - where the director (that's you) is telling them WHERE they are right now, and what they should be focusing on. The shot is impersonal because we are above the characters. If your camera lens was the eyes of a person, that person would be much taller than everyone else in the room.


Here we are sitting at a table watching the two characters. Our table is the same height as theirs. We are just a third person, listening in at a table identical to their own.


Here we are sitting on another couch, an observer of the conversation, at the same level and in the same scene as the characters.


Here we are ON the couch. An active participant in the action.


Here we as the audience are kneeling down close to the ground, again on the same level as our characters. This makes us part of the conversation, if only a third wheel observing from the edge of the group.


This is a low shot. Our eyeline is beneath the other characters' making us, as the audience, feel like we are on the floor or kneeling with the characters towering over us. Again, we are in the action and can feel intimidated by the characters towering over us. This kind of shot emphasizes the power of the characters in the frame.


Again, a low angle shot. Notice again how it emphasizes the fact that Superman is powerful. He is ABOVE us, both literally and figuratively. Imposing.

A high angle shot CAN work for what you're trying to do in this scene, but it would need to be from the point of view (POV) of the ominous man and woman, with the audience looking at our protagonist through their eyes, and making her look weak or afraid or vulnerable due looking down on her.


Every other time a high angle shot is used it makes us, as the audience appear to be literally, located somewhere higher than the characters. Like on a second floor, a balcony, or looking through the skylight. This puts distance between the audience and the characters, both physically and emotionally. And you rarely want that.

I'm doing the best I can, but there is only so much I can convey and teach in forum postings. After all, I went to school and studied this stuff for years and learned even more when I started working in actual production teams. I've worked with crew from Amazing Spider-man, and, uh, Smurfs. (Just got done working on digital FX for Titanic 3D.) It takes a lot of practice and research. Getting and reading a book on cinematography would help you a lot with creating effective scenes in both 2D and 3D.

[ImmortalDreams]

I think all three characters are important in this shot, and it's one of the establishing shots. I'm trying to get the big picture presented, then the shots will become more focused on individual characters.

The man is a vampire that took the blond's memories away. When the blond had a memory in her sleep(dreamy picture) she told the brunette. In her amnesic state the blond didn't know that the brunette wasn't to be trusted. The brunette lied to the blond saying it was just a silly dream, then the brunette went to the west wing(creepy room) to tell the man. The blond eavesdropped on them and got caught. I want the audience to confirm that the brunette is there(recognizably). The man being there is suspenseful because he hadn't shown up since the intro(dark street and sword pics)

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Separate establishing shots would probably be called for then, instead of trying to establish everything at once.

And you can easily establish that three characters are in the same room without showing them all at the same time.

[ImmortalDreams]

If I do that much coverage then that's a lot of images for a VN of this length.

(Even though each image is only about 67kb each, it adds up.)

[LateWhiteRabbit]

If I do that much coverage then that's a lot of images for a VN of this length.

(Even though each image is only about 67kb each, it adds up.)

I would think telling a good story in the best way possible would be the goal, regardless of the length of the VN.

Some may disagree or have different ideas on the size of a VN, but unless you have hundreds of additional images it really wouldn't matter to me, especially if each image was good and helped tell the story better. I'm on a high-speed connection, so I could pull down nearly 30 of your images a second.

It's up to you though.

[ImmortalDreams]

I can't help writing long stuff. It's in my nature. Anyways, thanks for all your help. I will try to use your advice(and the tutorials) for my other images.

[curry nochi rice]

I'm completely biased with this... because I firmly believe that anything in virtual reality, should be 2D, why? because I think 3D is more on real-life... live-action and such.

[bunny-gypsy]

Just wondering, are you going to have 3D character "sprites" pop up on the left/right sides of the screen (and these scenes are
just the "background")?
Or are these scenes you are showing us the "CG"/cutscenes for the story?

Just a suggestion, but it's your story (and your first VN), so do what you feel is good for you.

Maybe for the first shot, have the behind and over-the-shoulder (of both the man and woman) looking towards the
heroine (similar to what you have now, but perhaps more close up to see the heroine more up close, looking scared/startled that she got caught, and more closer), and then have a "sprite" of the heroine show up with her dialogue/thoughts (ex: "Oh [expletive], I'm caught!").

And then, maybe have the next screen can have a) the camera looking up (from the heroine's POV) at the man and woman/"bad guys" and the "sprite" of the heroine shows up when she converses with the man and woman ("Er, I was just looking for something!")
or b) have the camera still behind and over the shoulders of the man and woman (but you can only see the profiles of their cheeks/chins) looking down at the protagonist (like LateWhiteRabbit suggests), but you can include shadowy/obscured "sprites" for them as they converse with the heroine, who will also have her own sprite.

Whatever you choose, I think you will probably need to have more than one "shot" of this scene.

But, I don't know how your story will go, and since it's only your first VN, you should learn as much as you can, and then just go from your guts from there.
Work on the script/story first, then just do the best you can with the graphics, and finish the VN. After that, you can look back and take what you've learned from the experience. Good luck!