Backgrounds & Stuff

Greetings!

This post is going to be long as hell and will also go into some nerdy details about the way I do my art. I'll actually try to keep it concise but In case you only want the gist of it scroll down for a tldr. I'm starting to wonder if I should post more frequently to avoid such lengthy posts. Nonetheless, it was unavoidable this time just like our MC getting ntr'd.

Last time I told you that other than the backgrounds I was done with the art. Well, you see, the beauty of it is that art is never actually done, it's just the artist deciding to call it a day and finally move on. I for one, am not the kind who easily moves on so I did one last mini round of yassifying what I could. Both CG and sprites.

Needless to say this has once again extended the dev time but I have no regrets because everyone just looks much better. I won't include a before and after as it'd be time consuming to crop everything (just like putting everyone together in the title image, *smh*) but feel free to check out the old versions from 2-3 posts ago. Among other stuff, I got rid of some giraffe necks and wonky facial structure. There's still issues but to fix those I'd have to redo from scratch.
Nope.

The fixing up process itself went smooth except that time I got too hung up on Riley's face. That's the one I've redrawn about 5 times overall since the first version. I thought the last one I posted was finally IT but it just didn't look like her. The eyes made her look much more mature than she's supposed to be. The new look is alright and is more in line with the old sprite with bigger eyes.

I did the genitalia for the guys a while ago but when I opened the file yesterday, Gianni's dick was somehow missing. No kidding, I have no clue how it happened, I could've sworn I did it at the same time as his improved face. I also always save my work religiously so it really is a mystery.

Aisha and Perry were the only ones that didn't have nude sprites before and at some point I felt like I can't get away with that so I ended up drawing them. On top of that all the new sprites had only a single outfit. It just seemed pretty restrictive with regards to what type of scenes I can do with them, especially considering how the main cast has a variety of drip.
If you've been around you might know that I'm an average anim teamMM (japanese eroge developer) enjoyer. Shokutarou's artwork anyways. It's pretty much the gold standard for me and it's the level I'm trying to reach since the beginning. For their last two games I've probably spent more time in the sprite viewer than the actual game.
Anyway, his characters are also known for being dripped the fuck out and I enjoy that. It just doesn't work for me when a character only has a single outfit the whole game.

Now onto the main topic. Last time I said I'd decide between redrawing the backgrounds or editing photos by trying out both. Here's the hand drawn BG.
Pretty barren and as you can see my dudes I'm no architect but it doesn't have to make structural sense to look good, does it? Problem is that it takes a lot of time even without adding details to make it seem actually lived in. It's cool because I'm using it for a CG but for an actual background it'd need more time put into it. Time we don't really have so I ended up doing this:

I took a photo of a cinema, killed the contrast, used the cutout filter in photoshop to make it into what you see on the first pic and then used some magic to turn it into the second one. Well, I wish it was magic but it's still faster and less work to do this than making it from scratch. I'd prefer that but (was surprised to find out actually) there's so many backgrounds in the game it'd be impossible to redo all of them in a reasonable time frame. I'll save doing hand drawn backgrounds for my next game where they'll be spread out between updates. Who knows though? It just might be better to keep this up if I can keep improving on this method.

Because let me tell you, the cinema looks friggin great IMO. It's my latest piece so I've been having some practice.
Depending on the photo and my skill there's definitely some discrepancies but overall I'm glad to say I'm able to keep them uniform. There's no jarring differences at least. And finally I don't have to blur them to hide how awful they look like I did with the old ones. 

I'm actually proud how I'm able to turn the initial mess of colours into an actual decent background. Seriously these don't look half bad. I hope it's not just wishful thinking but I also feel like this process helps me better understand what colours need to be picked for different environments/objects. The wood looks amazing, it only falls short regarding the lighting but that was always a huge problem for me. I could draw shadows well but I don't seem to understand how light works. That's why It's always been much easier for me to do night time scenes.

I've tried a different method of making these, without using the cutout filter, which would basically be just the photo with slightly blurred edges. That way I'd only have to spend like 20 mins just making the colours pop more for that anime look. But that just doesn't work for me, since then it's essentially just a photo with different tint. Doing it my way means more work but the roughness that painting over the cutout adds, gives it that painterly feel.
I've found an instance where the method doesn't work though.

Bodies of water don't translate well to this style. There's no way I'd be able to make anything decent out of these pieces of garbage so I did it without the filter. All I needed to do was make the environment more anime.

The tones will be adjusted for the release I just wanted to show you what to expect in general.

No offense to merc fans but yes I made a penis out of the arrows. Fascinating, isn't it? If there's merc employees here I'm ready to join your design team.

Finally, some exciting news: I reached out to long time patron and certified ass connoisseur Infinite Canvas in order to set up a proper gallery. The current one is functional and that's about it for positives. Way back I grabbed the code from the internet and I was happy it worked because I couldn't possibly make a better one. That still is the case, though a few months back I've found a better template, which also has scene replay.
But then I was like why wouldn't I ask for help instead and let someone that knows their shit make a proper gallery. So this is how I ended up making this design.

As you can see there will be CG and scene replay and you'll also be able to sort by character. So by clicking on Mia, you'll see every scene she appears in.

Remember when I said I liked anim's sprite viewer? GF Tapes will have one as well. It'd be way cooler with Live2D sprites with bouncing boobies but we're not there yet. While this is a pretty neat feature it's more than that for me personally. I've spent an incredible amount of time on the sprites and it's great to have a dedicated gallery where you can appreciate them outside of the game and freely cycle between different looks. Granted you're looking at them all the time in-game but still, I just love this feature and it's missing from most visual novels.
Got to point out that I've literally just noticed some flaws with the design so both of these screens will be slightly different upon release. 

Now, when's the update, booty man? Well, all the art stuff set me back a little. I've got some scraps but I still didn't start writing for real. I just can't bring myself to write for the sake of making progress for let's say, even just 20 mins each day after doing the art because at that point my eyes are toast. So I either need to be fully committed to one thing or the other.
The remaining backgrounds should be finished this weekend so I'll be able to focus on the dialogue and wrapping things up. At the moment I'm really doubtful of wrapping it up in the next two weeks until the end of the month. Normally it'd be enough but without putting pressure on myself or jinxing anything let me just say there's a lot more to write than usual.
Just like last time, payments remain active on my end but what you decide to do with your money is your choice. 

TL;DR: BP messed with the art again instead of finishing the game, look at backgrounds, cool, we got proper gallery now, wow, NNN practitioners are most likely safe from GF Tapes:(

Here's some extra stuff.

Last weekend I was doodling to try out a technique I've seen from a Korean artist who draws bunny girls, not literal furries just the bunny suit. His art is amazing sure but it was the technique that made me even more intrigued. It's not some hidden ultimate move but using the lasso tool for shading, which I've already seen from someone else. Back then I just shook my head that it's surely not that accurate and other excuses to not even try it. Turns out it's a pretty useful and most importantly quick method.

It felt quicker anyways doing the shading on Aisha's body. I think her sprite is the best I've drawn yet. Using the lasso stuff helped to make her belly so much more defined than I'm usually able to. Obviously her darker complexion helps too because just like with day and night scenes I'm less able to get the shading values correctly on light skin than dark skin.
Another reason she looks this good is that I'm using a better colour palette for her, while in the case of Mia, Riley and Gianni I've been using the same palette from back when I had even less of an idea about what I'm doing.
I can't wait to move on to the next game where I'll be free from bad colour choices.
Just look at my doodle pic, the colours pop so much more than the art in GF Tapes. Expect something like that going forward. 

Lastly, another welcome surprise for me. I think I figured out how to do body fluids at last. The characters in GF Tapes are supposed to be sweaty as hell during sex, it's a hot summer after all, then there's also the layer of hotness flowing juices add to an art piece. The first release had characters sweating and leaking everywhere but I thought it looked trash so I decided not to draw it altogether.
That doesn't mean I wasn't trying though. I tried for a bit with each update and the rendering of the coom eventually started to look passable. But I could never get the sweat/tears down, not even after watching tutorials, which all show you different methods. I guess it's one of those things you just have to figure out on your own because it's different for every art style.
What finally worked for me is a multiply+screen layer. It probably needs refinement because it significantly looks better on a dark surface but so far so good. Though it's more like a sneak peak for the next game because I won't spend time adding these details to every CG I swear.

If you've made it here cheers and have a great weekend! As always, huge thanks for all the support guys.
BP