samspriteart

[samspriteart]

Final Blog post

At this current moment, this will be the final blog post for this project. The Course due date is on May 13th 2022 so I do not have any more time to work on the game, above is the preview of the final product that I will be handing in.

Since this is my final post for the project I just want to say it has been very fun working on this and I am happy that I did it as it helped me discover a new passion for something I never knew I had.

I do plan on continuing this project into the future even though I won't be at university anymore because I would like to finish what I originally planned and have the full story playable, I don't know if I will make any new blog posts however so that's why I am saying this will currently be my last one, If don't make any more blog posts in the future and you are curious on the stat of the game please use this link to my socials to keep updated.

Thank you for reading.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Lightning Effect Added

Added a lightning effect to the phone section of the game as suggested by my teacher in order to make that section more visually stimulating.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Extended Ending

As discussed with my teacher I have extended the ending of the game a little so that ends on a more mysterious note which should hopefully make people interested in what's going to happen next.

What I added in more detail is:

New animation for Lilith

The extra dialogue

New knocking sounds

Zoom in effect on the door.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Talk with teacher 28.04.2022

For Learning Agreement - remove teachers' comments - separate this LA into two, one being for last semester which will have no changes and one for this semester which will have the new changes.

Showreel is good.

Blurb Book is good just add a screenshot of the code I did to make it.

finish the extra conclusion part of the Visual Novel.

Get started on the CV.

Rember to provide the resources for the animation alley The two points above will be talked about next week and I have already done everything else including stuff mentioned in the last post so everything that is left is mentioned above, which will show in the video above.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Talk With Teacher 21.04.2022

I have done everything discussed in the last post (updated the poster and adjusted the shadow man moving animation) besides getting started on the blurb book, and I have shown everything to the teacher and this is what they had to say:

Make sound effects louder or turn down the music since the music drowns out the sound effects making them hard to hear.

Add lightning to the phone scene to make it more visually interesting.

extended the ending of the VN making it end instead with the characters going to the door with Lilith looking worried and it ends with the scene hanging on the door with knocking in the background.

Do a 1-minute showreel showing off yourself as an animator.

Make an animation alley page.

Make the Blurb book.

Make a CV.

Put videos on Vimeo.

Update and upload the Learning agreement.

Upload Everything by the 13th of May to the submit folder for marking.

I have three weeks to do all this so I will try my best to get it all done.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Talk With Teacher 19.04.2022

Had a Talk with my teacher and showed them all the work I have done since the last time we talked, these include The VN poster, business card, trailer and website. Here is what they said:

The business card is good.

The writing on the poster saying "Zoom 100%" needs to be changed to look more mechanical

Get some real phone icons to add to the interface to make it look more genuine.

Make the rain smaller and make it be at an angle and don't have it cover the phone screen.

Add "A Visual Novel By SamSprite" at the bottom of the poster.

Move on to making the Blurb Book once everything else is done.

Also fix the VN shadow moving if I have not already done that.

I will get started on all this and continue to post updates on my progress.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Poster Improvements

Showed the work to the teacher and after some talking, the poster had some changes. The lighting and glow effects were changed starting off very dark with heavy glow effects but then changing to be brighter with no glow effects.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Improved VN Poster

Improved the poster for the VN using the suggestions that the tutor said which were:

The phone should be bigger in the frame but in silhouette.

Do a Dutch camera angle so that everything does not line up perfectly straight.

Do some subtle lighting on the phone.

Make the building darkness and phone darkness different.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Trailer for VN

Just a simple trailer for the VN that I have made to use during the degree show, I used the trailer that the VN One Night Stand uses as a reference: https://store.steampowered.com/app/549860/One_Night_Stand/

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Business Cards and Game Poster

Made some sketches for the business cards and poster for the degree show and after showing these to my tutor they said to go for the business cards on the far top right and for the poster "the phone should be bigger in frame...but like her in silhouette" and to do a "dutch the camera so it doesn't line up so neatly with the vertical house outline"

I have done these corrections and refined the new business card. (shown below)

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Simple Website

Got a linktr.ee set up so it's easier to link all my accounts to one place.

https://linktr.ee/samsprite

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

VN on Pause

Just writing this quickly to say I am pausing work on my VN in order to now work on the poster, the trailer and other things that will be needed for the degree show. My progress on these things will be posted on this blog and once everything is done I will go back to the VN if I have any time left which I most likely will.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Wave Animation Improvement

As the teacher requested I have gone back to the wave animation and tried to make it more natural by giving it some more inbetweens. Originally this new animation had more inbetweens than what is shown, however when I tried to implement that animation into Renpy it caused it to lag and play the animation too slowly so I had to cut frames out resulting in the final product you see above.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Lilith Walking Through Door

Added a new animation of Lilith walking through the front door then closing it behind her. Will show this to my teachers once I get the chance to see what they think.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Talk with Teacher - 22/03/2022

Had another talk with my teacher and showed off the new work I have done since the last time we talked (shown above), in this case, I have gone and implemented an improvement suggested to me by one of my teachers which were to add more animation to the start of the VN involving Lilith being outside at the start and then walks through the door into the room when invited in, also the door being animated and not just two frames. I have now animated most of it and am currently working on the walk cycle.

After showing this to my teacher this is what they had to say:

Was a little unsure about Lilith's right arm going behind her back, however, I explained it was needed in order to sync up with the other animations, but I will look into this since as my teacher further explained the animation of the hand going behind the back is a little abrupt, after I have done the walk cycle I will go back and address this.

Have her hand wave when it's up instead of just going up then back down.

The door animation looks good.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Improvments From Yesterday

Just continuing from yesterday's post, talked with the same teacher again and showed what I have done since yesterday which are:

I improved the NO Name animation making the vampire's teeth bigger and making him blink which triggers the quick popping out of the fangs.

I also made the music during the phone scene of the VN cut out to give the scene a better atmosphere since you don't know who's on the phone (and it's the villain who is watching you) so I wanted to use the lack of music to give the player a feeling something is wrong and this is not just a normal phone call.

After talking with my teacher and showing everything here is what was said:

Show my other teachers everything and how it all flows then get the feedback they will do the same.

Make a Vimeo account and Professional email which I have done called [email protected] with the Vimeo account called SamSpriteArt not going to do anything with it right now but it is ready for when I do.

#AX3001Mario

[samspriteart]

Talk with Teacher - 14.03.2022

Had another talk with my teacher and showed the new work I have done since I had last seen them, these things consisted of new sound effects being added, The DVD With No Name now has an animation to go with it (shown above) and I have animated the phone and hand giving them a line boil during the phone call scene.

Here is what they had to say about everything shown:

For the DVD animation make the character blink and have his teeth grow when he does since they don't change at all during the animation also make the animation longer.

I could not show off the sound effects because of how our call was set up but I said an example is on the blog so they can check it out when they have the time.

With the animated phone that looks good.

I told my teacher about what the other teacher said about the degree show like they requested and they are happy with what's going to happen, I just need to make a good poster and my graphic images are very strong so I should look into printing off some cards for people to take away.

#AX3001Mario