How do you decide emotions?

[SakiPai]

Here's something I'm kind of wondering: when preparing the various emotions/poses for you characters, how do you begin? Are there basic emotions that you draw everyone in, then add others later? Or do you write your game's script first and draw the needed emotions later?

On that note, how many different reactions do you think an average character needs?

[mikiwing]

Hi ^^
Well i dont know how others decide the emotions for VN but i make them while making the sprites.
I always use diffrent layers for body outlines (with clothes etc.) and i make special ones for eyes (mouth, to make it short the face). After i do that i make diffrent expressions. Like a sad expresson or a surprised one (diffrent layers again)
And in the end i make again new layers with blush, tears and so on. Like that you can make diffrent combinations. while making the script you can decide which ones you actually use.
If you dont understand what i mean i can make picture examples.
Stil, i hope i could help.

[Armee]

Doing another pose is like redraw the sprites, you don't need to know much. Just simply put things on different layers. Usually five emotions and up, some people only three. Emotions change include
mouth, eyes, and brows. You don't need to do a lot of poses, one casual
pose work fine, if you want more, it's better. People tend to have the
sprites after they know how many emotioms they need, you can do it
beforehand if you want but remember to save the drawing file.

[Destiny]

Well, for cards of Destiny, all main characters have the same emotion set, being:
Blushing, Horrified, Laughing, Neutral, Surprised, Sad and Angry.
The main character has four additional expressions, being Sad-Blush (I call it nervous) and three chibi expressions, being Confused, Irritated and Super-Happy.

So yeah, I usually make a standart set for all characters and then add special ones, if needed.
For a scary game, I - for example - would probably have a standart set with various scared, horrified, angry or even insane expressions. In a romance game, I maybe have different kinds of blushing, from embaressed to "totally in love".

Side Characters only get 1 up to four expressions. Exception: they are comical relief characters, then they of course get some funny expressions.

[Green Glasses Girl]

There's a recent thread that had a good discussion on the matter: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=22202

There are six basic emotions, but there are thousands that branch from that. You should consider your character's personality and how they react to particular things (how they say hello, how they take bad news, etc). Even from that, there are dozens of reactions based on personal experiences and interactions.

[Destiny]

There's a recent thread that had a good discussion on the matter: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=22202

There are six basic emotions, but there are thousands that branch from that. You should consider your character's personality and how they react to particular things (how they say hello, how they take bad news, etc). Even from that, there are dozens of reactions based on personal experiences and interactions.

Of course, there are more emotions then the basics.
The thing is, will she (or her artists) seriously draw 20 different emotions per character, just because the smirk in greeting would look different from the chuckling one?
She of course can do that, but I haven't even seen a japanese, commercial game from high-class makers that actually has a bigger range then 11 (if it has more, then often only to make the same set of emotions with a different set of clothes).

So I think, the basics are more important. If there is a special thing about that character, then it of course can get it's own emotion, but actually drawing out all the branches of emotions might take a life time. Especially in a game with three or more characters.

[SakiPai]

Thank you all for your advice!

I'll check out that discussion thread and see what it gives me. Yeah, I started out drawing the basics (happy, sad, angry, surprised), but then I realized I'd probably need variations and wasn't sure how to plan for them. XP

[Green Glasses Girl]

The thing is, will she (or her artists) seriously draw 20 different emotions per character, just because the smirk in greeting would look different from the chuckling one?

I never said she had to, I said to consider what emotions to use depending on the situations. There are many to choose from, but it's picking what emotion is right for the event + the character's personality.

Also, there is sprite posing/body language to consider. Again, quantity and variation depend on what the team's constraints and preferences are.

[Kagehide]

I usualy start off with the sprite base and then i spend some time thinking of how my character will react in the situations that will happen throughout the story.
You also have to keep in mind how expresive the character is because just like humans, every character is different and acts different.
Sadly some of my characters are a bit more expressive than some of my other characters which makes me end up with drawing up to 20 different emotions + poses for one character while the other character barely has 7 emotions and only one pose.
I also have a bad habbit of multitasking so im doing both drawing the sprites and writing the script at the same time.
Its also realy handy to have a rough version of the story written down somewhere or like me just in the back of your head.
It realy helps with knowing what expressions you need and what you dont need.
And in my opinion there isnt an average of expressions.
It realy differs per character so just go with what feels right.

[Fungii]

I tend to default to folded arms when it comes to poses just because it's a pretty universal body language pose. I always want to give multiple poses but obviously that's more work so it always comes down to "Can I be bothered to be more expressive"
Emotions are just changing the face and take about 2 seconds so I tend to get a bit...excessive with it. Would a raised eyebrow work better? 20 MORE EXPRESSIONS!

[Sugar-Junkie]

I usually draw a set of eyebrows (frowning, raised, neutral, sarcastic), a set of eyes (looking in front of them, looking away, looking up), a set of lids (open, half-closed, closed) and a set of mouths (neutral, angry, smiling, surprised). Then it's a game of mix'n'match. I can throw in a few "special" expressions for the characters that need one but overall that's it.

[angeliza]

Um, in the information thread, it said to have half of the cript done before working on he art so thatyou know what you'll need.

[ppppantsu]

I imagine first what would my characters default emotion would be like considering their personalities. After that I add more emotions, which are the common ones.

as for poses, I stick to one pose only because doing different ones are more work.
And I'm just working on my own. ;w;