Training

I will be taking a short break from all serious blogging operations and heading to the metaphoric mountains to train my art skills. Results of the training will be put up every now and then. Let’s hope that I gain a couple of levels from this experience…

Art and Visual Novels, Part 2 (Not)

Except I forgot what the hell I was going to write about. I vaguely remember planning to write something about Japanese visual novels, but that doesn’t sound that interesting any more.

Anyways, what’s more important is that I’m loosely wondering about making some changes to the blog.

First thing, I’m starting to dislike the overall look of the blog. It’s way too dark and difficult to read. Maybe it’s time for a new layout…

Second, I’m loosely pondering about changing my overall review strategy. In the past, I’ve reviewed only visual novels that I liked. I may change that and start reviewing all the visual novels that I play instead. Even though it won’t be that enjoyable to me to spend time writing 1000+ word reviews of games that I don’t even like, we’ll at least have some more reviews up here if I do that.

Third, I’m wondering whether if I should forget all that and go all in on turning this into a strictly art related blog. It would be nice for me to spend some more time improving my skills, and since I already work as a writer, if I manage to boast my art abilities, I’ll have the two most important aspects of visual novels covered.

Fourth, we need some more fun things here. The previous couple of text intensive essays have bored and depressed me, so no more of that for awhile. Maybe I should take up Tohou… I heard it improves your art skills.

Visual Novels and Art, Intermission (Old School Style)

A visitor apparently challenged me to show off a couple of non-anime pictures. Actually, I kind of wondered if I should include some other pictures in the last post myself. In the end though, I kind of got tired of hunting down all the pictures, so I just decided to stick to the theme of this blog and just have anime-styled images. Even if it doesn’t really have much to do with this blog itself, there are still a bunch of other works of art that have awed me. Of course, most of these works are by internationally celebrated artisans who are known as nothing other than artistic geniuses, so that’s kind of a obvious conclusion, right?

I’m sure most of you must know The Gates of Hell by Rodin. This is an absolutely incredible sculpture. First, you need to understand the absolute size of this thing. It stands nearly four-five times higher than the viewer and if you were to actually stand against it, your head would come up only just a bit above the very lowest of the human sculptures. Also, the horrific details of the hundred+ condemned souls engraved into the gate is nothing short of amazing.

This is actually my favorite painting of all time. This is the master piece The Coronation of Napoleon by David. The craziest thing about this painting is its size. It is in fact 10 meters wide and six meters tall… That’s bigger than the floor plans of some French houses! All the people that you see in the picture are in fact, virtually life sized images and the entire picture is detailed enough to actually feel like you can step right into it. I’ll just let the picture speak for itself and move on now…

This is the Galerie des Batailles from the Palace of Versailles. Can you tell that that I have a weak spot for bombastic French paintings? And it does not get more vainglorious or bombastic than this, folks. This is an entire gallery dedicated every single French military victory from 495 to 1809. I kid you not, the French actually built this entire crazy, extravagantly decorated gallery just to stroke their own military egoism. It is the epitome of vanity and absolute crazy ass shit architecture and the most baroque of all paintings. Here are some highlights:

Battle of Orleans – Joan of Arc is actually my favorite historical figure, so this one jumped out on me.

Battle of Taillebourg, by Delacroix.

L’Impératrice Eugénie parmi ses dames d’honneur by Winterhalter.
YOU WANT GOTHIC LOLITA? YOU GOT GOTHIC LOLITA!

I guess this entire gallery did turn out to be too pro-French. I’m a bit biased here I guess, since I’m most likely to pick works of art that I have seen personally over other paintings that I’ve just seen through the computer. I think if I went to Italy, then I’d definitely put the Sistine Temple paintings here, or if I had ever been in Spain, I’d put in more Picasso. I’m not a pretty big fan or most American or Russian art though, so I don’t think I’d put any of that stuff on my list, although if I were to make a list of influential or novel paintings rather than paintings I like personally, then the abstract artists from either countries might make an appearance. Bombastic and vainglorious as it is, I think when it comes down to making impressive and aesthetically intricate and complex pictures, the French definitely aren’t that shabby at all.

Art and Visual Novels, Intermission

One of the best ways to learn how to draw is to study off of expert artists. I guess a perk of my job is that I can glance over the shoulders of the artists as they work. They also have a lot of incredibly cool art books that I can read through too. It’s too bad that I’m not that great at drawing, but I guess it couldn’t be helped since I decided awhile back that the life of an artist was not for me. Here are some examples of experts in the field. Their work really is level SSS stuff and completely slaughter what I could ever make.

(Warning: Image intensive post – click to continue)

Art and Visual Novels, Part 1

The word “art” is a pretty loose term when applied to visual novels. For example, whenever I am working on fixing Paulette’s dress, I say that I am “updating the art.” If somebody happens to see it and decides to be mean spirited, he would say something along the lines of, “your art sucks!” or if somebody for some reason thought that was great, he would say something like, “your art is great!”

At the same time though, there’s been quite a controversy lately on defining just what is and what is not art. For example, there’s one argument that goes along the lines of “if it’s anime styled, then it’s obviously not ART.” Another common argument that gets thrown around quite frequently is that “if something’s rendered in 3D, then it’s not ART.”

Unfortunately, many of these arguments are argued on the basis of personal opinion and common sensical arguments like “Well, I’ve never seen a 3D model/anime in a museum display before, so it obviously isn’t art.” While personal opinion is the basis of all arguments, it generally happens to be the fact that the average internet dweller doesn’t have the artistic or historical knowledge to know that these arguments have actually been occurring in the art world for the greater part of the past century. At least a brief investigation of some of the issues relevant to visual novel creators is needed if the various controversies surrounding visual novel creation is to become more than just empty shouting. Unfortunately, very few people have actually provided in-depth investigations of the matter – probably an end result of conflict aversion and a lack of motivation – so hopefully this series of posts that I’m going to make about art will at least inspire other people to go out and do their own research.

An issue that raised particular controversy in the visual novel making community concerned the issue that I term very loosely as “effort.” To be more precise than that, in a rather strange turn of events, Kikered, an on and off member of the Lemmasoft community (now one of the people who work on Baka-Trio’s Webzine) wrote, “Don’t let the lack of original material prevent you from making a game!” Originally, this was written in the context of NaNoReNo, a festival that the Lemmasoft community has every month of March to make a game in one month. The comment was most likely taken out of its context and taken to mean something that its writer didn’t intend it to, but that’s not entirely the point here. What’s important is that it eventually started a debate in the community about the nature of visual novels. To simplify a more complex situation, two opposing view points were formed. The first of the view points argued that the Lemmasoft community was an insular group of creators who were basking in their own mediocrity by applauding their own works without accepting any sort of criticism (“circle jerking”), while the other view point argued that the first group were basically invaders from Chan who had nothing constructive to offer and were only trolling for attention. The entire controversy apparently led Four Leaf Studios (the people making Katawa Shoujo) to create pXt, a game designed to ridicule most of the Lemmasoft community by creating a game with absolutely no original content.

At first glance, it does appear somewhat ridiculous for anyone to claim that something does not need to be original in order to qualify as being something as sacred as “Art.” Certainly, a creator who takes a bunch of pre-made stock character sprites, gets a couple of backgrounds from Flickr, and puts it together into a game is less worthy of praise than a second creator who creates all of his assets from scratch using his own skills. The theoretical issue at hand here is that making a creation using assets that were made by something else is artistically lazy and is not as worthy as laboring to create everything using one’s own hands. Unfortunately, the debate in the visual novel community didn’t proceed from this clear theoretical question, and thanks to poor debating skills and much mud slinging, had little more than the effect of just making everyone involved in the debate angry and causing most of those people who weren’t interested in debating go underground while the interested parties battled it out.

Once reduced down to this elegant theoretical question, I personally think that the creator who labors with his own hands to create all of his assets is more worthy of praise than the creator who merely assembles together some pre-made assets. As an artist, I expect myself to partake as much as possible in the act of creating, so it seems like I am robbing myself of an opportunity to practice my abilities if I just appropriate someone else’s work. However, I guess I am willing to make some concessions if the situation necessitates it – for example, if it becomes clear that I will not be able to ever complete my game without using some stock photographic backgrounds, then I’d rather use the photographs than kill my game.

However, I am afraid that the majority of the art community would disagree with me on this one. Whoever said, “Don’t let the lack of original content prevent you from creating” was actually correct. Creative objects that has absolutely no original content quite frequently qualify as “art” and some of them in fact have more international esteem than every single visual novel ever produced by mankind combined and frequently sell at art exhibitions in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In our first exhibit, I present Andy Warhol’s 100 Cans. The work of art, is in fact, 100 prints of Cambell’s Soup cans. If my information is correct, it is being displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a single one of these pictures goes for as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Warhol is widely acknowledged by the art world as an artistic genius and is an internationally celebrated artist.

But it does not stop there. I present you with Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. In this exhibit, the work of art is in fact, a cheap urinal that the artist purchased from a local catalogue. Released with literally 5000 times more scandal and controversy than Four Leaf Studio could have ever hoped for when they released qXt, the work and the artist was considered so obnoxious for the art establishment that for the next century, he inspired virtually every single rebellious artist that ever existed. He is now regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a simple replica of the Fountain sold for as much as $1.7 million.

What then really is “art?” The answer lies in the creative goal of the creator. Warhol, with his 100 Cans wished to express the mass produced consumerism of his era, while Duchamp’s Fountain wished to present his visceral hatred for the establishment that led the world into complete devastation in World War I. It is then entirely possible for a visual novel with no original content to qualify as “art” – if there is creative intent behind the artist’s work. It is then ironic that Four Leaf Studios, in their ridiculing of the Lemmasoft Community by creating a game with absolutely no original content, indeed did create a piece of art – the entire project was charged with the creative aim of paradoxically discrediting a group of other artists. What they believed to be a completely uncreative, uninspired work created chiefly to ridicule a group of other artists by exaggerating their claims to its logical conclusion, was actually a classical example of artistry in its most fundamental sense. Unfortunately however, I don’t think their work will reach quite the international status or financial value as a Warhol painting.

Whether you actually believe personally as an artist whether a lack of original content disqualifies something from the realm of respectability is probably up to you. That’s a personal work philosophy that one follows in his own creative process. In the end though, an artist is free to create in whatever method he choses to, and nobody else should force him to do otherwise.

Trapped in a Haunted Monastery

Being trapped in a haunted monastery can be a tricky affair, as the cast of Symphony will soon learn. Not only do a steady stream of bodies tend to appear with each toll of the bell tower, but you never know for certain if they were the unfortunate targets of a earthly murderer, or the victims of dark magic. Fortunately, there is good news. Fear not my dear amateur detectives, because this is the realm of anime, and even if you will probably get murdered (perhaps even multiple times… Thanks Rika.), you will most likely die at the hands of these lovely maidens. Some of them might go into emo facial contortion mode and kill you while laughing maniacally – others might kill you softly while singing you a lullaby – while others might go silent zombie mode and kill you quickly and emotionlessly. But have no fear! Even if you will die, you will not be killed by an ugly monster thingy like most Western horror flicks.

(Notice: Pantsu inside. Click to continue.)

Stitching a New Dress

I couldn’t get over how bad Paulette’s dress looked, so I spent the day making her a new one. I think it looks a tad bit better now.

I just hope I can move on and get working on the other characters soon…

Paulette (Sneaking a Few Hours In…)

Eh-heh… I worked a bit on Symphony today. Just don’t tell my boss about it…

After having finished the sprite for Marie, the next task was to design a friend for her. To compensate for Marie’s quiet, sullen demeanor, I thought that there needed to be a person who was more cheerful and energetic in the cast. Since I already had a fully developed genki girl already for Sunrider, I decided to create a character expy of Asaga and transfer her over to this project.

By Sixten

Why create new characters when you’ve already got a cast of fully developed characters already?

Unfortunately, since I had already designed Marie with a different artistic style than the one we had in Sunrider, Asaga was still going to need a lot of modifications before she could become a cast member of Symphony. Here’s how the first design sketch came out.

I made her look a older than her original design, since she was supposed to be two years older than Marie, who is 16 years old. Obviously, considering what Marie looks like, making her a loli along the lines of Sixten’s Asaga design would not be acceptable. I also made her hair longer and changed the hair style. I guess she kind of looks like Shirley from Code Geass now.

By Kimura Takahiro

And then I realized that I picked a pretty stupid pose to put her in. Considering that she was supposed to be a genki girl, she looked too demure and shy in the picture. With this considered, I traced over the old sketch a drawing of a new pair of arms. Once I had both sketches completed, I scanned both and then used Photoshop to replace her old arms with her new ones. Like plastic surgery for anime characters…

First, I drew a new set of arms by tracing over the first sketch…

…and then used Photoshop to merge the two sketches together!

Now that her pose looked more direct and straightforward, I could begin to line art and colour the sketch. Half way through the process, I realized how ugly her dress was and decided to upgrade her wardrobe. And here’s how the final product turned out.

There are still problems with the shading on her dress, but I think that I’m going to have to crop most of the bottom out once I put it in a 800×600 window anyways, so there’s not much point in fixing something that’s probably not going to be in the game.

I name her Paulette. Now, to get working on the next characters…

Ten Free Original Soundtracks You Should Know

By Horiguchi Yukiko

These light music club members are not the only independent musicians in the universe.

Music can be a very big part of visual novels. Unfortunately, not many of us have either the training or the equipment to make our own. Luckily, thousands of talented musicians have made their works freely available on the Internet for people like us. All you have to do is just search deep enough to find the songs that you need. Here’s a list of ten original soundtracks that I’ve found to be of impressive quality that’s great to use in visual novels or just to listen to while you’re working.

Disclaimer: Most of these sound tracks are licensed under the Creative Commons license. None of them are available for use in commercial games, and various other restrictions apply.

1. Celestial Aeon 1, 2, 3, Mind’s Eye
Aeon 1
Aeon 2
Aeon 3
Aeon Mind’s Eye

This is actually a collection of four great sound tracks best used for fantasy and sci-fi settings. The synthesizer emulates a real orchestra very well, but the songs aren’t as memorable as they could be. Regardless of that though, Celestial Aeon guarantees hours of quality music for free.

2. Butterfly Tea Collection
Action and Adventure
Magical and Fantasy
Drama and Emotion
Electro Synthe
Ethnic Flavor
Heavenz Butterflies
The Source
Butterfly Odyssey

This is a massive collection of some of the best free music you will find in the Internet. The songs are suited the best for epic space operas and Middle Earth fantasy realms and have a very cinematic feel to them. Hours of great music!

3. Tilia’s Flower

This is a sound track of 10 beautiful piano tracks. They’re all very stirring and great for emotional scenes.

4. Tebe Poem

A collection of 6 Gothic choral pieces. They’re all religious chants and are hauntingly beautiful.

5. 3 Metallophone Solos

A collection of three very Key-esque metallophone songs. Great for flash backs to childhood promises!

6. La Voz de los Angeles Rotos

Some beautiful, slow songs using assorted instruments. (Generally the piano and strings) Great for slow paced ren’ai games.

7. Klassik – Album 2008

Three great classical songs. Some of them are useful for military settings, while there’s one with a humorous, light hearted feel as well.

8. SAM Free Music
Instrumental songs
Hatsune Miku songs

Well, you’ve pretty much got to be living under a rock not to already know SAM Free Music. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s a collection songs very typical of Japanese dating sims. They’re all very charming and cute. There’s also a collection of great Hatsune Miku songs that might be useful for OPs and EDs.

9. Teslaskite Free Mp3s

This is a collection of various songs by Japanese composer Susumu Hirasawa. The standout tracks are the two vocal pieces that are great for OPs and EDs.

10. Secrets

A collection of various high quality songs on the synthesizer, piano, strings, and guitar. Some of the piano pieces are outstanding. There are other more amazing sound tracks by this artist – unfortunately, none of them are authorized for derivative works, so looks like we’re limited to just this sound track. A shame, since all the songs are amazing.

Anime Fall 09 (And Friends)

Overall, I think this season’s pretty decent. It’s not a season of master pieces, but most of the shows are of either watchable quality or better.

TIER 1

A Certain Scientific Railgun
JC Staff

Pizza hut supports the Rebellion! NIPPON BANZAI!

A vast improvement over the first season, A Certain Scientific Railgun has solved all the serious pacing issues of the original and turned into one of the standout shows of the season. I leave it to H.C. Staff to say the rest.

Needless
Madhouse
Continuation from Summer 09

I’m telling ya, you don’t need the “pretty” part…

One of the most glorious stupid show ever made, Needless is idiotic when it needs to be, clever when it needs to be, and perverted just about all the time. Needless to say, it’s a blast to watch.

TIER 2

Kampfer
Nomad

It’s a trap!

Imagine that you wake up one day and find yourself a girl. And then imagine that the girl that you’ve had a crush on your entire life comes out of the closet for she-you, and somehow thinks that he-you trying to take she-you away from her. Does this make your head hurt yet? Kampfer is the gender bender anime to beat all other gender bender animes. It’s part scary, it’s part hysterically funny, and it’s all stupidly enjoyable.

The Sacred Black Smith
Manglobe

Don’t you think you need more armor than that?

Let’s say that you want to make a fantasy anime. First, you would gather up your default fantasy characters (DFCs – not to be confused with pittans or delightful female crew mates), then create your obligatory mysterious hooded villain, then import the necessary fantasy world – and voila! Instant fantasy success! But The Sacred Black Smith goes one step further: the sword is actually a living, scantily-clad bishojo. Is this a master piece in the making? I don’t know, but I do know that it looks like something I’d make!

Asura Cryin’
Seven Arcs
Continuation from Spring 09

Trainwreck? I’m there!

I can’t make much of a judgement here, since I’m still watching the first season, but from what I’ve seen so far, Asura Cryin’ is turning up to be a great mecha anime. We have multiple factions, great mecha action sequences, and a character expy of Takamachi Nanoha. What more can you ask for?

TIER 3
Nyan-Koi
AIC

Mewmew

A by the numbers example of an unwanted harem anime, the show features everyday man Junpei, who’s feelings towards the destined end girl, Mizuno, are thwarted every episode by an unwanted harem of a childhood friend, the tomgirl, an oneesama figure, and an unfortunate curse. Fun for now, but probably going to be one of those shows that I can’t remember that I ever watched a year from now.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Studio DEEN
Continuation from Summer 09

Adoptation trip up

A lackluster show redeemed by the fact that it is the heir to the master piece known as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Unfortunately, something happened between Higurashi and Umineko and DEEN can’t reproduce any of the things that made Higurashi good. Fun to watch only to reminisce about Higurashi.

Seitokai no Ichizon
Studio DEEN

A show where four cute girls sit in a room all day and act cute. Sound familiar?

An attempt by Studio DEEN to match the master piece that was K-On that only serves to highlight the massive gap in production quality between DEEN and KyoAni. A valiant effort to be sure, but compared against the other similar shows to have come before it, winds up being just a modestly watchable series.

TIER 4
Sora no Otoshimono
AIC

As train wreckky as they come

Ouch. Just one episode of Sora no Otoshimono was enough to prove that this was going to be the train wreck of the season. Imagine the plot of Ah! My Goddess, except instead of a Yamato Nadeshiko, the female protagonist is a nymphomaniac love slave, and the main protagonist is a pervert matching Ito Makoto of Nice Boat fame. With a premise like that, this can only go southward, so unless this ends with the note of Kanashimi Mukou he, I’m going to be very disappointed.