Visual Novel support group

3Diva

Tirick said:

I don't know how the mods are with thread necros, but as there is already a thread for VN support I did not really want to create a new one. This way it keeps the topic contained (as it does not appear to be a widely used purpose, at least in the forums).

I arrived here months ago as the reason I started looking into Daz was to review its feasibility (for me) in creating art assets for a VN. While I'm satisfied (more than so, really) that it can create great art, I only just stumbled onto a method I can reliably use it to create backgrounds and characters that were somewhat seamless. As a bonus, this method lets me use emissives from the set and avoid lighting replication issues. As an added bonus, it it very easily applied:

Iray Matte. The advanced Iray parameter lets you turn any surface into a shadow and reflection catcher. These are stil preliminary test renders but it shows the basic premise. Setup the scene and cameras and render (without the figure). 

Then duplicate all the emissive set surfaces and visible set surfaces (at least the ones that will potentially get shadows) and set them all to a Matte surface in the parameters. Remove any visible dome/ground (in this example I also removed the dome as it was not providing scene light). Then render your figure.

In your VN maker of choice, use the character image as your character.

 

Overal render time is quite diminished. As well, iterations of expression/poses can be saved as separate frames and rendered as a batch.

Depending on your lighting, this will add a small amount of extra shadow. This can be edited out later (or left as desired).

This is a fantastic idea! And yeah, I can totally see this being use as a shadow overlay for like Filament renders! Doing the character and the Iray Matte in Iray and rendering the background in Filament then combining them in PS or Gimp.

I think an easy way to duplicate the surfaces is just to create a Group of the environment elements then create an instance of the group (Create >> New Node Instance). Then you can size the original group up slightly larger and "over" the instance, apply the Iray Matte to the original group and render it - that should create the shadows layer.

I tried it out and it seemed to work pretty well!

Here's the Iray Matte pass (layer duplicated 3 times and combined in Photoshop to make the shadows darker):

Here's the Filament pass:

Here's the combination plus a minor tweak to color and contrast:

The whole thing, including compositing in PS, took maybe five minutes. Rendering it in Iray would have taken much longer on my machine. So this seems like it would be a great way to create fast backgrounds by combining Iray shadows with Filament renders.

3Diva

Oh and there's also a fantastic thread for Comic Creators in the Art Studio part of the forum if you're interested: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/228061/3d-comic-book-tips-and-pictures

Uthgard

This is an outstanding technique, Tirick, and the solution to something that had bothered me for quite some time. Thank you for sharing. Also, thanks, 3Diva, the trick to add realistic shadows to Filament could also significantly speed things up.

Tirick

Wicked Whomp said:

If I were you, I'd create a new topic in the new users subforum for just this. What you described here is a very interesting way about getting around correcting lights for spot rendering characters into scenes. Of course there are ways which others will argue are easier to set up, such as using iray canvases, but your method will benefit other renderers like filament too.

 

3Diva said:

The whole thing, including compositing in PS, took maybe five minutes. Rendering it in Iray would have taken much longer on my machine. So this seems like it would be a great way to create fast backgrounds by combining Iray shadows with Filament renders.

I had not even considered the potential opportunity with Filament renders. I'd honestly ignored Filament for now as I ue a lot of emissives in my renders, but this is a great workaround!

nicstt

Mollytabby said:

Wow @Gigi-FenixPhoenix that’s amazing! I had no idea how different a scene or outfit could look through the careful selection of shaders. Thank you for showing me how to do this. I’m going to look at older models in a whole new way because your example going from Eastern European to Stone Monastry is an eye opener. It looks like a totally different set.

Also the tip about picking up the Iray shader from another object is inspired. All this time l’ve so many ready made shaders in my catalogue without realising it.

A model made 20 years ago, geometry-wise is no different than a model made yesterday. It may have more (or less) geometry, but what will be different is the shader or material (depending on platform).

... Updating old models with new shaders, and sometimes new models with better(?) shaders can make a huge different.

Render engines too, have evolved in the last 20 years, so expect them to be able to do more - hence the new material settings.

I use V4 textures on G8, and a significant number are as good or better than what is available now... And some are not so good. :)

plasma_ring

3Diva said:

Tirick said:

I don't know how the mods are with thread necros, but as there is already a thread for VN support I did not really want to create a new one. This way it keeps the topic contained (as it does not appear to be a widely used purpose, at least in the forums).

I arrived here months ago as the reason I started looking into Daz was to review its feasibility (for me) in creating art assets for a VN. While I'm satisfied (more than so, really) that it can create great art, I only just stumbled onto a method I can reliably use it to create backgrounds and characters that were somewhat seamless. As a bonus, this method lets me use emissives from the set and avoid lighting replication issues. As an added bonus, it it very easily applied:

Iray Matte. The advanced Iray parameter lets you turn any surface into a shadow and reflection catcher. These are stil preliminary test renders but it shows the basic premise. Setup the scene and cameras and render (without the figure). 

Then duplicate all the emissive set surfaces and visible set surfaces (at least the ones that will potentially get shadows) and set them all to a Matte surface in the parameters. Remove any visible dome/ground (in this example I also removed the dome as it was not providing scene light). Then render your figure.

In your VN maker of choice, use the character image as your character.

 

Overal render time is quite diminished. As well, iterations of expression/poses can be saved as separate frames and rendered as a batch.

Depending on your lighting, this will add a small amount of extra shadow. This can be edited out later (or left as desired).

This is a fantastic idea! And yeah, I can totally see this being use as a shadow overlay for like Filament renders! Doing the character and the Iray Matte in Iray and rendering the background in Filament then combining them in PS or Gimp.

I think an easy way to duplicate the surfaces is just to create a Group of the environment elements then create an instance of the group (Create >> New Node Instance). Then you can size the original group up slightly larger and "over" the instance, apply the Iray Matte to the original group and render it - that should create the shadows layer.

I tried it out and it seemed to work pretty well!

Here's the Iray Matte pass (layer duplicated 3 times and combined in Photoshop to make the shadows darker):

Here's the Filament pass:

Here's the combination plus a minor tweak to color and contrast:

The whole thing, including compositing in PS, took maybe five minutes. Rendering it in Iray would have taken much longer on my machine. So this seems like it would be a great way to create fast backgrounds by combining Iray shadows with Filament renders.

Oh this is awesome. I've been playing with Iray/Filament composites and I do a lot of compositing in general, so I'm going to have to play around with this for sure. 

Hatsune Miku

This is a work in progress a visual novel manga style called Phantasy Star Novella

link: https://www.animecafeclub.com/games/phantasy_star_novella/

Loading time 4 min black screen in the beginning just click screen once the image load.

It is a work in progress the demo ends after they team speak with the principal.

 

I used Tyrano Builder and the visual novel engine and carrara as the render engine.

Hatsune Miku

In continuation of this visual novel series I have added a few more frames, it is a big story slowly I am building it, please enjoy .  Link is here https://www.animecafeclub.com/games/phantasy_star_novella/

dirkbaeten

That Phantasy Star Novella brings back some sweet and sad memories :)  I never got over the death of Alys ... It had great music also. 

Some update about my own visual novel. I rewrote the script about six times and finally I decided to keep this unfinished and unpublished story as a prequel for a new story, which is set 200 years later. This brought me back into the mood again. Hopefully I am now finally going to be able to actually finish something. The story setting is that of a world where all women have gained superpowers as a result of the events in the prequel (and men are just ordinary people). The protagonist is a man who at first seems to be just an ordinary man, but ***spoiler alert*** he becomes the link with the events from 200 years ago.

One important change I made with regards to the graphics is that I am using a cartoonizer filter from befunky to the renders from DAZ. This gives it a more unique style and makes it perhaps a bit less obvious that they are not hand drawn. I am attaching some pictures here. In case someone is interested, the effect I am using is cartoonizer 1 at 40% amount.

 

dirkbaeten

(double post, please delete if possible)

TheNathanParable

If I may make one suggestion, I think you should reconsider the school uniforms. It doesn't really make sense for all the guys to be wearing business suits with their sleeves rolled up, and all the women to be wearing Japanese schoolgirl uniforms. They kinda clash.

dirkbaeten

Thank you for the comment. I really like the japanese costumes for women. On the other hand, I don't want to give the impression that this is about japanese culture, or any other existing culture, because it's an alternate earth setting which doesn't make any references to real world religions, politics, ideology, countries etc. For men, I picked something I thought would look cool and kind of formal enough for a school setting. I remember that when I looked for school uniforms for boys and girls in the DAZ store, there wasn't a lot to choose from that included boys. So that's also how this happened. I then went with the idea that in this world/culture it's seen as a good idea to give men and women clearly different looks when wearing a uniform in school. I know that it's totally not realistic compared to real world habits, but this is an alternate setting with magic, so ...  (?)

Leo Lee

I haven't post here for a long time, but I keep working on my VN. I also have upgraded the main characters.

These are the main characters of my Burning Babes Gang's VN. There are more characters, but the main are ready. On this Holiday I'll have more time to dedicate to the VN and more will come up in 2024.

Now there's a Dev. Blog showing the game's progress. 

Hope you enjoy it!
Happy New Year for all!

 

FirstBastion

Leo Lee said:

I haven't post here for a long time, but I keep working on my VN. I also have upgraded the main characters.

These are the main characters of my Burning Babes Gang's VN. There are more characters, but the main are ready. On this Holiday I'll have more time to dedicate to the VN and more will come up in 2024.

Now there's a Dev. Blog showing the game's progress. 

Hope you enjoy it!
Happy New Year for all!

 Burning Babes Gang  looks really good.

NylonGirl

Leo Lee said:

I haven't post here for a long time, but I keep working on my VN. I also have upgraded the main characters.

These are the main characters of my Burning Babes Gang's VN. There are more characters, but the main are ready. On this Holiday I'll have more time to dedicate to the VN and more will come up in 2024.

Now there's a Dev. Blog showing the game's progress. 

Hope you enjoy it!
Happy New Year for all!

 

I like them all. But this one with the people in the car is definitely my favorite. 

Leo Lee

@FirstBastion Thank you!

@NylonGirl Thanks! They are the main characters.

Leo Lee

New uptdate!

A sneak peak of the first free roam of the visual novel.

The girls gang stop at the Wow Mart store for a "shopping". You can grab itens to your inventory.

 

David R

I don't know if you'd call it a visual novel, graphic novel, or webcomic, or whatever, but for my project, I have been using the off-the-shelf DAZ look with sometimes a little tweaking and I'd like to move to something a little different.  I've tried a few filters but have found they often obscure character expressions.  This is something I'm looking at now as a possible new look for the art.

 

 

FirstBastion

There are frames,  but they are empty.