Chill [Beta Updated]

[Baka Chikara]

... which is why I don't go below 75. Paint ALWAYS makes visible artifacts on a JPG, no matter what. Main reason why I stopped using JPG files whenever I was working inside Paint.

That's why I like Infranview. It can make a completely non-lossy JPG file (setting of 100) out of whatever I want. Plus the fact that when you do start lowering the slider, at least you have control over how MUCH is screwed up .

So... I learned to not use the JPG format in Paint anymore. Or basically for anything except a completely finished project.

I don't have anything more sophisticated then the first openCanvas for image manipulation. And I barely know how to use that...

[Baka Chikara]

[edit=moved to first post]

This a sketch I did with pencil a few minutes ago. I plan to use this drawing as my basis for the "Karin" character if I can't get anything else. Yes, it is really faded and stuff. That's because it was scanned while still pure pencil.

[PrettySammy09]

Good luck on this! You sound like you're making great progress!

[chronoluminaire]

If you're still looking for music, I recommend the artists that are linked from the Elven Relations webpage: Olga Scotland, Dream ED, Kangaroo MusiQue, and most especially Celestial Aeon Project. You can listen to their tracks on Jamendo's website, and download any of them as MP3s to be included into your game. They're all released under Creative Commons licenses.

If you ask me, I can give you the precise list of track names I used in Elven Relations, either so that you can use one of the same ones, or so that you can avoid reusing one

Also look on Jamendo for other similar artists. Tags like "background" or "orchestral" can be good ones to search on.

[Baka Chikara]

Thanks PrettySammy09. I hope it turns out ok. With the longest ending... and still reading really fast since I knew what was going to happen (Oh my, lots of spelling errors. Must fix now!), one playthrough is roughly 10 minutes. Is that good?

Ah, that might be just what I am looking for. I guess having public domain stuff isn't bad at all, since that IS what I would probably get from anyone who donated. I'll go ahead and look right now to see if I can find something I can use.
.........
Actually, I'm going to go fix those spelling errors, THEN go check on the music.

[Edit] Thanks chronoluminaire! The first site, C.A.P, had some stuff I think I'll probably use. On dial-up, it's hard going finding music that isn't midi. This cuts down looking time considerably!

[Sailor Kitty]

Please, Please PLEASE finish this! I love the the art so much!

[Baka Chikara]

Errr, well, thank you! I wasn't expecting to get complimented on my art, that's a shocker. I don't know how long it'll take me to finish it on my own. I think I'm going to go on a small holiday (Memorial Day) trip with my dad and brother over the weekend, so the game won't probably be finished until... dare I say end of next week?

Right now, I just finished scanning my marker-trace of 'Karin', and am messing around with converting MP3 format into lower-bitrate OGG files. I found numerous files that would be worth using.

[Edit] Last thing before I go to sleep at 3:23 AM... colored base for 'Karin' character. Spent an hour in Paint messing around. I really wish I had a tablet now...

[edit=moved to first post]

AND, new Lint stats

The game contains 316 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 5083 words.
For an average of 16.1 words per screen.
The game contains 6 menus.

[monele]

If you want darker lines just from this scan, use Enhance Colors in IrfanView and get the Gamma down a lot (down to 0.5 or something I think).

[Baka Chikara]

That's..... interesting. I've never thought about doing that! I'll try that later on in the day after I've gotten sleep and am lucid enough to actually work.

Thanks, I'll try that when I wake up and start working again.

[DaFool]

It's good to be able to draw the characters yourself. There are very few artists who are into visual novels, and among them, even fewer that are willing to take on projects and stick it through to the end.

Your work so far looks like the end result will be decent, and more importantly a project will be completed quite soon.

Oh, and keep the mp3s as mp3s. Oggs should only be downconverted from wavs.

[Baka Chikara]

It's good to be able to draw the characters yourself. There are very few artists who are into visual novels, and among them, even fewer that are willing to take on projects and stick it through to the end.

Your work so far looks like the end result will be decent, and more importantly a project will be completed quite soon.

Oh, and keep the mp3s as mp3s. Oggs should only be downconverted from wavs.

I can kinda draw. It's something I decided to try out not too long ago. I drew a few things, just to see how it was. Decided that my drawing skills weren't worth the effort to improve, so I stopped.

Yeah, and that's all I can hope for, I guess. I hope I continue to work on it.

Is there a really important reason I shouldn't...? Because I changed them from MP3 to Ogg with a variable bitrate from 48-96, and it didn't hurt the quality hardly at all and made the files... I think they were 35-40% of their original size. It really helps the end size if a MP3 that was going to be 2 MB is changed into a 700KB Ogg file.

Sorry, I'm still learning after all. And, I'm still tired. Still not enough sleep. Getting off to get more. Nights...

[monele]

I might be the only one saying this but if the MP3 is of a very high quality to begin with, maybe it's not too bad to put it in a low quality OGG . But bad quality MP3 + convert to OGG = argh.

[Baka Chikara]

All the MP3's converted were already at either 128 or 192 quality. Is that high enough? They sound alright converted, so I assumed it was ok...

[monele]

Mmm... I'd say it's not great. Something to note about music quality is that you might think it sounds the same but people with better equipment will notice the difference. A sad discovery I made when relistening to MP3s I converted down to 56kbps to save some room.... and oh god were they horrible when placed among the newer 128+kbps ^^;...
I'm pretty sure there's a still a debate about what's the "good enough" bitrate. For me, it's 128 for mp3, 96 for ogg. But most people will want 196 or even more.

Of course, we're talking about a game, sent through the web too, so a lower quality is probably acceptable.

Mm... I'm not being helpful here ^^;

[Baka Chikara]

Well, my equipment is simply 2 speakers and a subwoofer, so I guess I don't have the best. To test the quality of the songs, I played the original 192 mp3, then played the variable 98 ogg right after it. Personally, I couldn't hear any difference... I really don't want to keep them any higher, because the sizes got too large.

I know what I could do. When I release the final, if people complain about the audio quality, then I could upload a version that had the original mp3's. That would make them happier .