Progress log #17

Hey everyone,

At this point, I think we can all agree that it's better I dispose of the "weekly" prefix for now. Nevertheless, work on the next episode is still underway and the only thing that's left to draw are two major "scenes", each consisting of several pictures, and then a little story segment that will also consist of several pieces. In this progress log, I'll talk about the story segment a bit and then show you a few sketches. Though they are only WIP (with the exception of the very last picture which closely resembles the final version), I would advise you not to read past the story segment bit if you are one of the players who prefer their experience unspoiled by previews.

So, when it comes to the story segment, it was meant to be something to break the monotony of endless dialogue by making the outcome depend on the player interacting with the environment - but in a more sandbox way than the typical dialogue option. The reason why I refer to it as a "story segment" is because the consequences were to be strictly related to story - so there would be no sex scene you would miss out on. 

More specifically, it was going to be a bit of an investigative little minigame; a relatively short segment where you get to move between different areas, inspect different things and talk to various characters, all in the pursuit of a specific goal. Alas, given the time pressure of finalizing this episode not only because of the extensively long development time but because of my other obligations, I will have to tone my plans down. It might be better to make things somewhat straightforward, but I'd still like to experiment with sandbox, non-linear segments like that regardless - even if it is very brief, and the areas you can go to are limited, I think it would be fun to have a chance to interact with the world, learn more about it and so on, all the while being able to opt out and "fail" if you can't figure it out or just can't be bothered going through the whole thing.

Regardless, I am going to draw the two major scenes first and then we shall see how much time I commit to the special "story segment". 

As for the sketches... I am finished with most of the pieces I am presenting, but let me repeat that none of what I show are the final versions - it might be obvious in some cases, but even the pieces that look "done" received more attention afterwards. I feel a bit iffy about showing you these previews at all (why play the game when you see most of the pictures, right) - but given the long development time and the fact that there are still many more pictures unseen... I think it is fine. Nevertheless, if you would prefer not to see previews and get the full experience in the game itself, I advise you not to read any further!

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Starting with the weakest entry - a sketch with a pair of human baldies looking at... something. Of course, in the final version both have hair and pointed ears, but I always start sketches with human ears because they provide a landmark for the rest of the features (and building up from human ears makes it less likely I'll make the elves look like scamps from Morrowind).

I feel like pointing out that the faces were a real struggle in this piece, but... the faces are a struggle in every piece. Almost! There's rare exceptions where I am fairly content with the face without struggling with it for hours. Usually it's when the angle and/or the lighting is very simple, leaving little room for below.

I think that below you can see one such example.

First, the basic sketch.

Then the basic lighting setup

And then more detail. I still did a bunch of extra work on the piece after this and then applied a few "artistic" filters. It was not strictly necessary here but I did it to make it more stylistically consistent with previous art in the scene (where I used a filter to cover up a lack of detail).

A little something to horrify you; I will explain no further.

This is just a trio of screencaps of the head to demonstrate my struggles with faces - severe struggles, in this case. It took about 20 iterations to get from the first "sketch" to the version you see in the third screencap - which is pretty close to the final version of the piece. I am fairly content with the face, although you yourselves have to judge whether it resembles the character it is supposed to be. God forbid Sunny ever decides to dye her hair...

Onto the next....

Basic sketch

Sort of a color setup

And more detail. With this piece, the faces weren't that big of a problem (which comes as no surprise when one is a flat profile pic and the other is buried in a chest), but muddy colors were a huge issue. I think I managed to resolve it for the most part in the final version (as well as Sunny's weird crane neck)

And the last piece...

Basic sketch, color setup and...

... the nearly finished piece. I only made a few adjustments and changed the background to be a little cooler in color, so from all the pieces I've shown, this one most closely resembles the final version. I think it's also one of the best ones I've made this episode (despite the very bad perspective), so the rest of the artwork might not live up to the same quality - in other words, don't expect all of the artwork to be this good in the next episode. Or if you are the critical sort, expect the others to be even worse!

But that's my own opinion, anyway. If the public feedback survey showed me one thing, it is how vastly tastes can differ; artwork someone loved is hated by someone else, and so on.

Anyway, that's it for this progress log. Come September, all of my academic obligations will be finished (with the exception of state exams in January next year), and I am honestly looking forward to not having to "wear too many hats at once".

Thank you if you have managed to read all this way and I hope you are doing well!

Love you all,

Worlaix