CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

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Obscura
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CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#1 Post by Obscura »

I'm having some problems incorporating CGs into my demo without them seeming incredibly jarring. Does anybody have a suggestion on an OELVN that successfully uses intermittent (though not constant) CGs (sorry, at this moment it's gotta be something free :roll: ) or some tips on how to bring them in without disrupting the flow of the story?

I've never worked with CGs before except as ending scenes...so I think my approach might be too heavyhanded right now.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#2 Post by wakagana »

Iconic parts of a storyline. (IMPORTANT PARTS)

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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#3 Post by junna »

empty backgrounds work just as well as CGs to set a scene.

so think it as...
How big is the impact? Is it character related? Or can I describe it with just a BG?

well technically that's the questions I ask so far to make sure in my VN is not gonna have a lot of CGs. Not too sure of my CGing skills yet.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#4 Post by Deji »

My theory (only theory because I always get told what to draw when working with others) is that on key moments of the story you should have CGs, so they become memorable.

Now, you may have several Key moments, so you can sort them according to two factors:
1. Importance of the moment.
2. Ability to portray said moment with just BG and/or sprites.

Again, that's only my theory ^^; People with more experience in the subject could give you better input.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#5 Post by LVUER »

For me, it's either when:
1. It's a major point/scene in the story. Kinda like when Aeris being stabbed to death by Sephiroth or when Cecilia cut her hair short. So readers will instantly realize this is a major event.
2. It's can't be described better without a CG. You can still do it with text, obviously, but it will be better with a CG, like an action scene or something.
3. When you need to convey the coolness of the scene. Like fanservice, where you have a slow transformation of Optimus Prime or that awesome but useless Jehuty's Vector Cannon firing.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#6 Post by saguaro »

I'd try fading in with slow panning, and maybe use NVL to sort of "ease" the player into the different style.

I'm assuming the CGs are probably love scenes? I remember in the old demo Mark thought about what was happening, and I think you could still incorporate that type of NVL text with the image.

Depending on the image size I might try slicing it up and having the layers pan in from different sides--that might be jarring for a love scene, I guess it just depends what the feel of the CG is and if it's more of an action scene.

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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#7 Post by Greeny »

CG's, I feel, are there to convey more complex emotions. As they say, a picture says more than a thousand words.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#8 Post by Taosym »

Moments where the action being described needs a visual representation for emotional impact. Usually these are just used for sex scenes. But if there is a moment of high emotion, like anger or sadness. They are sometimes best captured in a CG. Like someone crying, being slapped across the face. An entire group chilling together and laughing.

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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#9 Post by Auro-Cyanide »

I'm faaaaaaaar from being an expert on CGs, but I think transitions are important. Sometimes jumping straight to the CG works if you are trying to surprise the viewer, but if you want something more subtle effects like panning, fading, zooming or panels might work better to 'ease' the viewer into a scene. For example you might want to start with a black screen, have a few lines of dialogue and then fade in the CG for the rest of the scene.

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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#10 Post by Greeny »

Why do we call them CGs anyways? I mean, really. This is relevant.
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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#11 Post by Taosym »

Greeny wrote:Why do we call them CGs anyways? I mean, really. This is relevant.
This is the japanese term for what type of image a CG is in a VN. It refers to special (computer graphics) rather than normal.

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Re: CGs and How they Work In The Story: Tips?

#12 Post by Deji »

You could call them "Event illusts" if you wanted (like I do with the illusts I'm doing for the watercolor VN I'm working on because... we'll... they're not Computer Graphics x'D; ), but "CGs" is shorter:P
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