For this project I came up with the idea of making a “Mock Visual Novel,” a visual novel is a video game that focuses on story more than game play, it’s not uncommon for these to have a lot of stills and 2D character sprites with high quality art. I was really excited for this project since I loved the idea but the production part was a lot harder and tedious than I predicted.
I first drew the characters traditionally which was easy since I originally learned traditional art only, mostly due to lack of technology growing up, but I’ve been pushing myself to do more digital art now that I have the funds. I bought myself a drawing tablet that lets you trace your traditional art, but the strokes were very messy because I have shaky hands. I tried fixing the strokes in Illustrator but it didn’t help, one of my other teachers recommended Photoshop so I did some research and it fixed them a little. The same teacher recommended coloring on Photoshop as well, so I taught myself how to do basic coloring on that program. I wasn’t happy with the coloring but I started running out of time before I could learn more advanced techniques. I did all my animation and exporting of my video on Adobe After Effects, I’m still a novice with this program as well but I think I did very well considering.
If I had more time, I would’ve added voice and sound effects, since I ran out of time and wasn’t able to add any, I also would’ve tried drawing different face expressions for the characters, and my own custom text box and Title screen. I really enjoyed this project like all the other ones before, and would like to continue working on this one outside of class and try to improve it. Thank you for checking out my video!
Credits:
Sakura Tree image by Annalise Batista “Annalise1988”
https://pixabay.com/en/sakura-blossoms-japanese-sakura-3774153/
School Campus Image by unknown, original image was removed from web
Text Box by CandyCaneEditor
https://www.deviantart.com/candycaneeditor/art/Pink-Glowing-Frame-333989488
Music “Hopscotch” by Purple Planet
https://www.purple-planet.com/upbeat
Original blue Polka Dots image by Karen Arnold “Kaz”
https://pixabay.com/en/polka-dots-aqua-blue-white-spots-937612/
-by Monica B
Monica,
Great job on your video! Your drawings are really good! I remember seeing you in class with your drawing tablet and I couldn’t wait to see what you came up with. One thing I was wondering during the video, every time “KABOOM!” happened, was that when the boy met a girl he liked or is it because the girl ran into him? I got the message of maybe it was “Kaboom! I have a crush on that girl!” I felt a little sorry for the boy, it is always awkward first day of college, but maybe not trying to find a girlfriend the very first day would be a good idea. Good luck on the rest of the term!
This was amazing and your so talented to be able to create all that. I am a horrible drawer! I love dhow to took an embarrassing time in your life and made it cool! Great Job!
great job! your art work is outstanding and well put put together. your stories are always interesting. I think you did the best you could have done with in your limitations. I could see you developing this into a full episode with more time.
I know how time-consuming these can be to make with digital drawing, But i think it turned out really great, and with a little bit more time and effort you could have a really well made rough draft visual novel on your hands! I really look forward to seeing what else you can do with your creativity.