The Raven [Poem][Visual Novel] - beginner help

[scriptor]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post here and my first attempt at creating anything in Ren'py. In fact, this is my first time creating anything with Python. I'm attempting to put the poem 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe into a visual novel format using Ren'py. I do not want to make this too complex of a project and I want to stay as 'true' as possible to the the spirit of the original intention Poe had when he wrote his poem.

I am using the illustrations of the Raven by Gustave Doré as the background to fade in and out as the poem progresses.

example:


I'm using James Earl Jones' voice (YouTube) for the audio as well as some royalty free music and sound.



I've attached the pc and mac versions of my progress so far. (Hopefully they work.)

TheRaven-1.0-pc.zip

(63.63 MiB) Downloaded 27 times

TheRaven-1.0-mac.zip

(46.66 MiB) Downloaded 24 times

I suggest putting it on 'auto' for the 'reading' experience.

(Note: Some of the images are reused because Dore didn't have enough illustrations to cover my whole project)


What I am trying to get here:

Technical questions:
- How to move/pan over the background images as the poem is read instead of just having a static picture so the if I reuse images, I can use them in different and creative ways.
- Fade the images over several of the poem lines instead of having transitions so rigid.
- Work with the background images better in general
- I'm thinking of changing the text box, it seems bulking and out of place, but I don't know how to do that.
- General improvements and suggestions (while keeping it simple )
- Things I know need fixing: Menu screen looks bad, ending seems abrupt, no credits

Legal:
- I am not sure if I am allowed to use the sound from the YouTube clip may, but I don't know how to find out. How do I go about doing this?

Conversation:
It is somewhat difficult to know what to ask since I feel as if there is so much that I don't know, but a few questions spring to mind:

- Is this something that is interesting enough to pursue with this and other works? Not just from from Poe, but from other authors?
- Is this format interesting in general?
- What are your thoughts on this? (in general)

Thank you

[Imperf3kt]

I think its a good idea to play around with.
I myself have a work in progress of the same poem, except I'm not using any pictures, the whole thing is done in NVL mode - currently on hold like everything of mine xD

[scriptor]

I think its a good idea to play around with.
I myself have a work in progress of the same poem, except I'm not using any pictures, the whole thing is done in NVL mode - currently on hold like everything of mine xD

Thanks for the quick reply!

Do you know where/what I should search [for] to get answers to the technical questions?
I searched online and here, but I don't think I understand exactly what to query in order to get my answer.

I think this type of project would be awesome to get people interested in great stories and classic poems that no one reads any more. I first got this idea because I would like to translate the book 1984 into a format like this.
The ultimate idea would be to translate whole books into a format like this to make them more interesting for people in general.

[Imperf3kt]

For your first two questions, you can use ATL
https://www.renpy.org/doc/html/atl.html
The textbox is a png file found in the gui directory. If you want to reposition text within it, edit gui.rpy. - look for the lines on text positioning.

I have no suggestions for general improvements just yet.

The game can either fade back to the main menu, or use some credits etc. The cookbook section of this forum has a few examples for adding some nice credits.

[arosia]

Wow, this looks really, really cool. I think it's where written media is headed, actually. I'm really excited to check this out when you're all done.

As far as copyright material goes, I would suggest looking mostly for stuff that is in the public domain. The voice recording by James Earl Jones, for example, is probably not something you could legally do. You "could" use it, and you might never have any trouble (especially if it's fan-made and flies under the radar), but it's probably not something that's technically legal.

Have you considered reading the poem yourself? I know it can be scary to use your own voice, but since this is a learning experience for you, you might be able to learn some new skills. You have access to your own voice for free, which is a pretty awesome deal, if you ask me!

Good luck and I'll check back to see how this turns out! *many supportive hugs*

[philip]

@scriptor-

I downloaded the file to my mac, from the link that you provided . . . and it would not open. I tried it TWICE, with the same result.

philip

[scriptor]

@scriptor-

I downloaded the file to my mac, from the link that you provided . . . and it would not open. I tried it TWICE, with the same result.

philip

I apologize for the late reply...
I don't use a mac, so I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this. I'll see if I can get my friend to download it and investigate so I can see what's going on.

I exported it from windows, but Ren'py gave the distribution options for both Mac and Windows.

[scriptor]

Wow, this looks really, really cool. I think it's where written media is headed, actually. I'm really excited to check this out when you're all done.

As far as copyright material goes, I would suggest looking mostly for stuff that is in the public domain. The voice recording by James Earl Jones, for example, is probably not something you could legally do. You "could" use it, and you might never have any trouble (especially if it's fan-made and flies under the radar), but it's probably not something that's technically legal.

Have you considered reading the poem yourself? I know it can be scary to use your own voice, but since this is a learning experience for you, you might be able to learn some new skills. You have access to your own voice for free, which is a pretty awesome deal, if you ask me!

Good luck and I'll check back to see how this turns out! *many supportive hugs*

Thank you! I am trying to learn as I do this so the process may be a little slower, but I am determined to see it through.

I knew that using that clip probably wouldn't be 'legal'... I guess I'm wondering how to make it cited enough so that it is legal.
Like, would I have to contact the creating company and get their permission? It's on YouTube and I don't think a company uploaded it so why can't I use it?

I'm not afraid of recording my own voice for this, but the issue I have is the quality. I don't have a studio or a nice microphone like the ones used to record poems and stories that you see on YouTube and other places. There will be echoes, background noise, and other things I don't want in the recording that may break immersion. There may be a couple of places that offer royalty free recordings of professional-grade readings like this... I will investigate this more.

Thanks again for your kind words (it really helps)!

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I knew that using that clip probably wouldn't be 'legal'... I guess I'm wondering how to make it cited enough so that it is legal.
Like, would I have to contact the creating company and get their permission? It's on YouTube and I don't think a company uploaded it so why can't I use it?

The clip isn't legal to use because it is copywritten. There is no citation you can make that would allow it to be legally used. That's a myth, and all those messages you see on Youtube like "No Copyright Infringement Intended" or "No Copyright Claimed" or "All Copyrights Belong to Original Holder" all mean absolutely nothing from a legal standpoint.

Yes, you would have to contact the recording company / James Earl Jones and get their written permission to use the recording legally.

Just because something is on Youtube doesn't mean it is on there legally. Anyone can upload anything to Youtube, and just because one person broke copyright by uploading it doesn't mean you should also break copyright by using it. It is sort of the same thing as accepting stolen goods - just because you didn't commit the robbery, it is still against the law to receive stolen goods.

There are lots of people that release stuff under a Creative Commons license that you can use for free.

In America, copyright protection is granted the moment a work of art is created. Nothing else needs to be done.

TLDR;
Don't use other people's stuff without their permission. It's kind of that simple.

[scriptor]

The clip isn't legal to use because it is copywritten. There is no citation you can make that would allow it to be legally used. That's a myth, and all those messages you see on Youtube like "No Copyright Infringement Intended" or "No Copyright Claimed" or "All Copyrights Belong to Original Holder" all mean absolutely nothing from a legal standpoint.

Yes, you would have to contact the recording company / James Earl Jones and get their written permission to use the recording legally.

Just because something is on Youtube doesn't mean it is on there legally. Anyone can upload anything to Youtube, and just because one person broke copyright by uploading it doesn't mean you should also break copyright by using it. It is sort of the same thing as accepting stolen goods - just because you didn't commit the robbery, it is still against the law to receive stolen goods.

There are lots of people that release stuff under a Creative Commons license that you can use for free.

In America, copyright protection is granted the moment a work of art is created. Nothing else needs to be done.

TLDR;
Don't use other people's stuff without their permission. It's kind of that simple.

Understood, I will see if I can find what company owns this.