*HELP* Sprite-related questions

[OtomeWeekend]

I'm on a mission to make a VN(hope this one goes on...) and while I'm being a half-assed on the story for the while(just waiting for the summer vac. to clear my mind which is currently full of kanjis, and oda nobunaga, akechi, hideyoshi and Ieyasu) I'm doing the sprites...

I've done a sprite before but so far, I was really clueless still on it. Questions ahead.

1. Emotions?
2. Can i possibly limit emotions up to 5 0r 6? (the emotions i'm doing now is 15+ >_<) *please include examples
3. okay, noob question! Usual size for side image and actual sprites?

I'm sorry and thank you for taking your time reading this

[Camille]

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =8&t=10802
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=10696
http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=10653

Loooots of discussions about sprite sizes. As for the emotions, it all depends on how much you think you need. If you have a character who is mostly angry/annoyed, you probably don't need 5 happy emotions that you'll never use for the character. Just consider the characters you're making sprites for and make emotions that you'll actually use/need.

[Melkoshi]

What I learned that works for emotions. split up the files!

make a base, then have a file for eyes, mouth and brows. so you can layer them together in renpy to make the finished sprite. this is amusing you won';t be changing the body any for each facial change.

[Aleema]

Emotions: DON'T overdo it. The more you make, the more you need. The more variety your characters have, the more you and your players will expect a graphic perfectly matching every line of dialogue (thus, the need for more of them). I recommend these: serious/stoic (as default), happy, sad, angry and surprised. These are the primary colors of emotions. You can mix them for just about anything else you want. (sad eyes + smile = touched or embarrassed, for example -- but know that using "sad" will work just as fine for either of those) Of course, I love a good "looking away" emotion that can be mixed with other mouths and eyebrows, for insecure emotions.

So, basically, if you're drawing it yourself you'll be tempted to do 50 expressions (but don't, you'll only hate coding it later), but if you're commissioning them, those cost money so save yourself some dough by just getting the basics and then mix/matching.

I also recommend doing a LiveComposite for building your sprites (separating the expressions from the body), but that's more for Intermediate-Advanced Ren'Py users. Use what's easiest for you right now.

[OtomeWeekend]

Emotions: DON'T overdo it. The more you make, the more you need. The more variety your characters have, the more you and your players will expect a graphic perfectly matching every line of dialogue (thus, the need for more of them). I recommend these: serious/stoic (as default), happy, sad, angry and surprised. These are the primary colors of emotions. You can mix them for just about anything else you want. (sad eyes + smile = touched or embarrassed, for example -- but know that using "sad" will work just as fine for either of those) Of course, I love a good "looking away" emotion that can be mixed with other mouths and eyebrows, for insecure emotions.

So, basically, if you're drawing it yourself you'll be tempted to do 50 expressions (but don't, you'll only hate coding it later), but if you're commissioning them, those cost money so save yourself some dough by just getting the basics and then mix/matching.

I also recommend doing a LiveComposite for building your sprites (separating the expressions from the body), but that's more for Intermediate-Advanced Ren'Py users. Use what's easiest for you right now.

Trivia: I reached 60+ expressions just now, X_X Don't worry, I'm doing them myself so no sweat since whatever crap I do would definitely be free... haha 'cept that I charge myself. XP My skills weren't worth a penny at all.


Your advice was really helpful! X3 but, can anyone give a more distinct description on what emotion can reflect to these emotions primarily? I'm quite a noob at it *runs away*

[Aleema]

More work goes into expressions than just drawing them. You have to export them, code them into Ren'Py, and then script them. Exporting all of those will be mind-numbingly boring, coding them can be very hard if you're not a programmer, scripting them is going to take a lot out of you because you'll be confused and overwhelmed with choices and keep changing them around, and even if you do survive all of that, you've significantly increased the size of your game.

Know when you can use one expression for more than one line. Like I said before, you don't NEED an expression specifically for "that made me feel kinda good, but I'm still sad (touched)" or "I did something stupid, and now I feel sad (embarrassed)". You can use "sad" for both of those, even when the character is outright crying. Players are going to have to visualize many things on their own as it is. Take advantage of that. Since, often, what's in the players head will always be stronger than whatever you could give them.

If there are only slight tweaks in your expressions, then you don't need them. If the only thing separating your "upset" emotion from your "pout" emotion is just slightly tighter lips, then the player doesn't need one or the other. They both just look mad. If you use them both in the same scene and transition from one to the other, then that means you think there is enough difference in them. But if you use one once in the first half and the other one twice in the second half, the player is only going to see "now she's mad" rather than "she's pouting, rather than just being upset." So just use the same damn expression!! xD That's the best advice I can give.

I like to have the follow sets of eyes and mouths to make the variety of emotions:

Eyes: default, opened wide, angry, sad, looking in another direction, slightly lowered eyelids
Mouth: default, smile, (smirk / half-smile), an open smile, a frown, open mouth

smile + sad eyes = humble, embarrassed
Angry eyes + any smile = playful, cruel
Open smile + wide eyes = excited
frown + looking away = pouting
slightly lowered eyes = pissed off or tired
slightly lowered eyes + smile = teasing or drunk
wide eyes + angry eyebrows + frown = seriously pissed off
sad eyebrows + lowered eyelids + frown = seriously depressed

There's more, but there you go.

You don't even need all of those, and I only recommend them to LONG games. Short games need like five expressions, tops.

[OtomeWeekend]

thank you very much!! *_*

very helpful.

[Tsundere Lightning]

http://www.paulekman.com/

This man is the single most important person you can learn from. It's because of him that I ask for the six "basic emotions" and neutral: Happy, Shocked, Frightened, Angry, Disgusted and Sad.