How to make your own Backgrounds for VN's

[TwilightSummer]

Happy Holidays everyone

I just wanted to know how to make my own backgrounds for a visual novel I'm making. The backgrounds for VN's seemed vectored but if you have any suggestions for me on how to make them, they are much appreciated . I use photoshop by the way.


Please and Thankyou !

[SusanTheCat]

Hey! I was just about to ask the exact same question!

I was thinking of going the watercolour route and scanning -- but that might make the files too big.

Susan

[Auro-Cyanide]

Painfully.

In order of difficultly:

Use photos.
Manipulate photos.
Use photos as bases and paint over them.
Creating 3D Models.
Draw the damn things from scratch.

If you are using photos, well that is easy.

You can manipulate photos in photoshop with the filters to get a variation of effects.

You can use the photos to create lineart and paint over them.

You can use a 3D program to create the backgrounds and then use photoshop to texture and paint them. I'm not sure how difficult this is since I have never done it.

And if you want to do your backgrounds from scratch you will want to start with a floor plan, then work your way up to the sketch using perspective. You can create the lineart however you want. You then paint it however you, add textures if you want and do the lighting effects over the top. That is it in a nutshell.

@Susan. As long as you properly resize the artwork, change the resolution and save in a appropriate file format, the file should be no bigger then any other kind of background. I think that kind of background would be really nice.

[TwilightSummer]

Thankyou so much !!

[IceD]

As for the more advanced cg backgrounds, Mugenjohncel is propably the one who mastered this process to the best. He posted a couple of good tutorials some time ago. You can take a look at them, if you want.

Here's the link:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =26&t=5547

Another more advanced tutorial can be found here:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 809#p90809

There's also a tutorial on making such backgrounds using 3d software:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... d+tutorial

Learning those techniques is basically what you would need to create professional backgrounds you've propably seen in most commercial japanese visual novels. Generally, artists use photos as references and the process usually involves mixed media (vector drawing + photoshop texturing + effects/filters + digital drawing and re-touch). Some of the backgrounds are created through various photomanipulations, and some of them use 3d graphics to some extent (renderings and assets are created on applications such as 3ds max or Maya and used in the process; this usually includes buildings, and various objects from small things to large objects and machines; Saya no Uta used fully rendered 3d backgrounds for some of the cg's). While those are good, Large number of artists feels more comfortable drawing everything from skratch, using only various photos as a reference. You can tell, if a background was made through mixed media, or was drawn digitally - the first have usually that 'clear and shiny' look and you can spot the texturing, while the others have a more natural, artistic feel. For example, F/SN, Hanihani and Clannad were made using the first method, while Sekien no Inganock, Girlish Grimoire and Utawarerumono were drawn by hand (they differ a bit, because the artist's drawing styles are different - some of them have more clean and simple approach, such as cellshading while others draw more freely and mimic traditional art techniques). While the first method is more complicated and requires proper knowledge about various programs, you don't have to be a skilled artist to create such backgrounds as for the second one needs them, because you will be drawing everything by yourself.

BTW, Some time ago while I was surfing through the japanese sites I found an interesting site, that has a big collection of background cg's from various visual novels and anime, including their actual counterparts. You can find it HERE. You can even clearly see, that some of the sceneries were just precisely traced from photos! (which isn't a bad thing, especially when your work will have a clear relation to real world). Hope this will be of use to everyone

[GabeCastro]

As for the more advanced cg backgrounds, Mugenjohncel is propably the one who mastered this process to the best. He posted a couple of good tutorials some time ago. You can take a look at them, if you want.

Here's the link:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =26&t=5547

Another more advanced tutorial can be found here:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 809#p90809

There's also a tutorial on making such backgrounds using 3d software:
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... d+tutorial

Learning those techniques is basically what you would need to create professional backgrounds you've propably seen in most commercial japanese visual novels. Generally, artists use photos as references and the process usually involves mixed media (vector drawing + photoshop texturing + effects/filters + digital drawing and re-touch). Some of the backgrounds are created through various photomanipulations, and some of them use 3d graphics to some extent (renderings and assets are created on applications such as 3ds max or Maya and used in the process; this usually includes buildings, and various objects from small things to large objects and machines; Saya no Uta used fully rendered 3d backgrounds for some of the cg's). While those are good, Large number of artists feels more comfortable drawing everything from skratch, using only various photos as a reference. You can tell, if a background was made through mixed media, or was drawn digitally - the first have usually that 'clear and shiny' look and you can spot the texturing, while the others have a more natural, artistic feel. For example, F/SN, Hanihani and Clannad were made using the first method, while Sekien no Inganock, Girlish Grimoire and Utawarerumono were drawn by hand (they differ a bit, because the artist's drawing styles are different - some of them have more clean and simple approach, such as cellshading while others draw more freely and mimic traditional art techniques). While the first method is more complicated and requires proper knowledge about various programs, you don't have to be a skilled artist to create such backgrounds as for the second one needs them, because you will be drawing everything by yourself.

BTW, Some time ago while I was surfing through the japanese sites I found an interesting site, that has a big collection of background cg's from various visual novels and anime, including their actual counterparts. You can find it HERE. You can even clearly see, that some of the sceneries were just precisely traced from photos! (which isn't a bad thing, especially when your work will have a clear relation to real world). Hope this will be of use to everyone

I know this post is incredibly old, but does anyone know if that website link still exists somewhere?

[Donmai]

If I understood it correctly that site was only a collection of background CGs from visual novel games, and examples of original images which were used as a starting point to create them (mostly photographs). Most background art, these days, is made over 3D models as you can see in this video:

Contrary to popular belief, 3D Software alone can't do "magic", it still takes some artist wizardry to achieve better results.

[4nh]

If I understood it correctly that site was only a collection of background CGs from visual novel games, and examples of original images which were used as a starting point to create them (mostly photographs). Most background art, these days, is made over 3D models as you can see in this video...

Thank you for sharing, Donmai. ^.^ These BGs are so beautiful they seem to tell a story of their own.

I think Blender (an open-source 3D software) is also a great choice to create your own BGs. There are a lot of great courses on Blender, on YouTube, or Udemy, for paid courses as well. I'm learning it, very slowly hi hi.