[Done] Pixel Art Manga in Visual Novels: Need Your Opinions!

[Ekamu]

Hi I'm making a devil girl VN (<_<)

In Game ScreenShot

I have no experience with Photoshop or adobe illustrator or any fancy art software but I am good with pixels and pixels are what I'm used to.
So I made my main character and colored her in, I also tested it in RenPy. What do you think of this kind of art style in a Visual Novel?

Main Character Finished Work

itzel_pray1.png (10.21 KiB) Viewed 2989 times

Any criticism or encouragement is appreciated, please try and be expressive and don't just say one sentence. Thanks (^_^)

[Camille]

I think it would be interesting! I love pixel art. *_* However, the textbox, font, BGs, and CGs would all need to have that same pixel style otherwise it all kind of clashes.

[Kato]

I've not seen art like this used in a visual novel before but by no means is it to say you shouldn't go ahead with it. She looks amazing and if the other characters are done in such good detail too, I think I would love the change of pace. Will be keeping an eye out for any updates for sure!

[Ekamu]

Thanks, I'm relieved (^m^)/. Sometimes I get intimidated with the standard Photoshop style but I think its better to stay with something I'm more comfortable with.
How do I change the User Interface graphics in Renpy, could you point me out to some tutorials that could teach me how to do this, would I need to learn Python for that? I don't really mind.
I agree with your points. If I'm going to make it pixel art it should be consistent with the same style and detail throughout the entire project. I guess that means no blur effects (<_<).

[Kami]

here you will find indepth explanation of GUI edditing: http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/ref ... _Interface

[Kato]

How do I change the User Interface graphics in Renpy, could you point me out to some tutorials that could teach me how to do this, would I need to learn Python for that? I don't really mind.

The more python you learn the more you can customize in Ren'Py, so if you have the time, it won't be a bad idea to look into it. There's also different ways to customize the GUI, let it be changing graphics or completely revamping the gui using image maps. Probably to start with, looking into making a custom text box would be a good stepping stone. A nice tutorial can be found here.

After you play around with that for a bit you'll at least have had ample amounts of time to get used to padding and anchors which comes in handy for when you get into hot spots which you'll need to know if you want to go changing menus around to any great extent.

[fleet]

Go for it. Some people will like it, some won't.

[Pyonkotchi]

some older games and vns use art like that iirc. it kinda reminds me of my old DOS games.
the art itself is pretty nice i dont see why you shouldnt use it.

[trooper6]

I generally think people shouldn't be bound by what has already been done. If we did that, then we would always have the exact same thing with only minor variations over and over. I also think people should start first with their own inner inspiration. So you want to do pixel art? Go for it! And your pixel art looks pretty cool if you ask me.

I support the idea that you should change the text box...and perhaps even find an old school sort of digital font and use that as your font for the game? I did a search for "pixel font" and "video game font" and found some pretty neat looking things.

About your backgrounds...I think the one your have in the example photo is pretty cool and wouldn't been to be changed too much.

Does anyone know if GIMP (which is free) has some sort of pixellate filter? That might make it easy to so backgrounds.

Anyway, good luck!

[Itwasneveradream]

I absolutely love pixel art. Yours reminds me of those old vns back before I was even born. ^.^ It's pleasant enough, so by all means I think you should use it :3

[Ekamu]

Thanks guys, you're right I'm going to go for it "some may like it or hate it" but its important to create something you personally like and worry about others later. I also think cult-hit media in the end is more worth it than mainstream but that's a discussion for another topic.

I re-did the line art because I wanted to change her outfit and face a little.
I'm thinking of her having horns only when she transforms into a demon so they have more of an effect story-wise. Her appearance might change a little with the horns/in demon form.

Hard Black and White Line Art. No Shading.

itzepx2.png (5.43 KiB) Viewed 3598 times

Here is what I've done so far, I think the shading for the hair and skin is OK but the clothes are a bit "pillow-shaded" maybe I should dither the clothes like before. Not too sure if the texturing fits well enough with the pixels but I need a coloring technique that's efficient and quick otherwise I might be forced to make the entire game in hard contrast black and white Dithering is fine but doing this over and over is too tedious.

WIP - Color with Brush

WIP.png (22.5 KiB) Viewed 3598 times

I'm using Paint.net but I'm starting to consider downloading GIMP and searching for a tutorial on simple brush-coloring.

The other alternative is to use 8-bit color but on large images it looses its edge. I'll experiment and see what I can do maybe that might work out.

[trooper6]

I doubt anyone will ever be a mainstream hit making English Language Visual Novels, so might as well do what you love! Maybe if you do what you love you might end up being the one who creates the Halo of ELVNs! If you don't, you'll still have done something you are proud of.

[Ekamu]

(^m^)/ The NES Pallet saved the day

NES Pallet

NES_palette.png (1.48 KiB) Viewed 3586 times

Here is a mock-up with fake scan lines. I had to bend the color restriction rules a little but rules where meant to be broken anyway.

Final Style
8-Bit Color with Fake Scan Lines

I think its safe to say this is the style I should stick to. What do you think?

[CheeryMoya]

I like it! Makes me nostalgic and it's a unique look. I look forward to hearing more about your project :3

[Sapphi]

I approve of this style and agree with everyone else who said it is nostalgic.

On the most recent screenshot, though, I feel like the eyes in the background are still a bit clash-y. They're pixelly-looking, but only in the sense that they look like you scaled up a small image in Photoshop, not sprited them out by hand. I would personally change them to be more consistent, but that's just me.