Alright, I don't actually know how to really start this off so I'll simply begin with rambling a bit as always.
I will post somewhat of an abbreviated version over on Discord.
I will try marking everything important over here too, but if you're not into these kind of rants I'd recommend checking out the Dream Molder News Channel over there!
Upcoming Dream Molder Animation Release
Let's start this by going ahead and saying that I definitely won't be able to upload the animations/h-scene before end of the month as I planned to.
This was probably pretty obvious by now since progress kept getting slower over the last few days but I wanted to make it clear for everyone that isn't following the blog 24/7.
Not only does this mean that I have to push back animation releases but that also means that the first DM Episode will take a bit longer to release again aswell.
Now I know that there simply isn't much I can do, if it's too much work to get done in that amount of time that's pretty much how it is. I need the time that I need after all.
However since I've pretty much got no content for this month to upload AGAIN, I kind of got into thinking if I should change how I handle the whole Patreon situation...
Patreon Situation (rant)
I set up the patreon so that people that might want to help & support me with what I do have the option/ability to do so.
Not only is this a way of giving something back to or showing me that you've liked my work and I should keep going but it also helps me taking my mind of some things that I usually have to deal with, making it easier for me to focus on work/art for you guys.
However as the support increased I also increasingly worried about being unable to actually give back the amount of effort you guys deserve for it.
It's a bit stupid in a sense since everyone of you obviously knows for themselves if what I put out is worth supporting as you wouldn't support me if that wasn't the case.
But still.
I can't help but think someone might feel cheated on which I simply can't deal with it seems.
The split in support about some people being here for the animations and some for DM doesn't help either since I feel bad posting either without the other.
It's an easy thing to post an animation that I'm working on over a month or two as I have a finished "product" to post in the end, but with DM it isn't as easy.
It's gotten to the point that I avoid activity or posting on Patreon altogether, and that simply wasn't what I set it up for.
It's not the first time I'm ranting about this and a lot of the people following me for a while probably anway.
Me trying to avoid posting definitely has to stop and it's about time thatI change things up to make it work again though.
So for everyone having to deal with this, sorry for the chaotic mess and I hope it's not too much of a bother.
Patreon / Update Changes
But let's get to the important part of this rant, how I'm actually planning to change stuff up for now:
1. Random Patreon Animations will have to wait, Dream Molder releases come first
First off I need to make clear that I'm focusing work on DM right now and until I've finished Episode 1 there won't be any random animations.
This was probably clear from the get-go as I mentioned it a couple of times by now. I'm still planning on releasing the Lopunny Animation at some point, but not in April as planned in the roadmap since the Dream Molder Episode isn't out either.
2. Returning to Patreon
2nd, I will start posting on Patreon again to enable support for the few that want to do so or were actually waiting for it.
I won't change anything up about the way I did it before.
It's still going to be per post, and 1 post per month at most, but instead of forcing myself to get a certain patch out and posting every few months while having rushed through it the whole time I will post summaries/collections of what I actually got done without rushing/crunching.
This way quality stays up and I'm not burning myself out either.
These collections will pretty much contain everything I've got done in that time and will be shown off as progress gifs of colorations, different texture layers for animations, clips of finished scenes or features, etc, etc..
I even thought about some speed draw to show what I did in detail and have something like a tutorial for coloring at the same time.
(This would need a bit upgrading from my side though and that's only gonna be a thing if enough people want it since I'm way too messy.)
Since I'm unable to finish the animation till the end of the month anyway I would take the next couple days to collect everything I did over the last few months from Fia's model, the Braixen Creator, WIP-CG Art and Animation textures
and upload all of it to patreon instead.
I thought taking the model and making a small demo-clip of sorts to show how the model would be used in DM/dialogues.
Next month will include the animations that I weren't able to finish, a demo of the h-scene itself and hopefully some bigger DM stuff also...
But that will depend on the 3rd change in this list which is regular Dream Molder polls on Patreon.
3. Dream Molder Polls
There's is lot's of decisions and changes to make on Dream Molders progress and I feel like putting up polls on them would not only give more insight on what and how I'm working at the moment, but also make me feel more at ease, showing me that what I'm working on is actually what you guys are looking forward to.
Something I thought about already was that instead of releasing DM as an Episode, I could release the whole game without h-scenes and CG's, then add them one after the other.
This would get the full game out a lot faster, especially the censored version and give me the option to pull in other artists to help out creating the CG's making full release faster than ever.
However, this would also mean that spoilerfree gameplay with 100% of the content won't be possible as early since episodes might take longer but will be released as is.
This is just one of the thoughts and definitely independent of the work on the h-scene I'm doing right now, that's still going to be prority for now.
If people would like to see the full story/gameplay rather than the h-scenes+CG-art I would rather focus on that one next than finishing a short part of the game instead.
But that's the kind of opinion I will try getting from you guys with every release to be sure that where I'm heading is actually the right way to go.
A few more words...
There's probably more that I wanted to talk about but it's getting quite late over here and I still have to post the shorter version on discord as well.
This post probably isn't exactly what people were looking forward too for the end of the month but I will try collecting everything to show and share with you guys on patreon in a couple of days.
If this actually get's positiv feedback that is.
If this is a bad idea after all just let me know. I can always change stuff up and I do want you guys to be part of this after all.
Just something I thought was worth mentioning at the end-
I'm not good with this kind of stuff but I hope that all of you are doing fine in consideration of the ongoing virus situation.
Most people are probably not personally affected healthwise, but I guess we all have to deal with it in some way or form be it quarantine, lockdowns or forced vacations.
Let's hope this all grows over quickly and that everyone here stay's safe and healthy!
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Braixen Creator & Info to "Upcoming" Dream Molder Episode/Release
Yay, new blogpost! (For real this time)
I've already said this when I was posting this last night, but it's been a while since I've posted an update over here.
I've been quite busy getting everything done that I wanted and although it took a lot longer than I expected too it was still in the timeframe that I planned it to be finished.
The whole thing turned out to be a lot harder to make then expected, mostly because of software/engine limitations that I didn't expect and will have to think about when working on stuff in the future.
The result wasn't quite what I wanted to relase, but it's the best I could do in the time frame at least.
For everyone wondering what I'm even talking about/worked on over the weeks I mean the
Braixen Creator
A small tool I made to test out the capabilities of the model/animation technique I wanted to use in Dream Molder.
While I always planned on using it from the beginning I never actually tried it before, which is why I had to play around with a lot of different details until I knew what I'm actually going for.
The side product of this was the Braixen Creator.
Pretty much a tool to test and improve my ability to implement Fia's model + customization in the game.
Used to not only test the needed scripts and methods to implement the model and animations into the game but also show that I'm actually working on stuff, even if it takes a while. :,D
It's definitely not perfect, there's a lot of customizations and animations that need a fair bit of work.
But I now know what is possible for me to do and I can move on knowing that what I have will actually be usable since everything that doesn't got filtered out until now.
The tool was actually meant to be somewhat fancier.
I wanted to make it patreon only and have it paid for since I've worked quite some time on all of this and I was a bit split here. I didn't feel like it was worth all the wait.
I know that everyone supporting can/would decide for themselfs if they want to keep going after whatever I updoad/want payment for, I also don't want to make anyone feel scammed though.
Even more so since a lot of people are supporting me for my animations, not for the DM work/stuff I do.That's why I ended up releasing it for everyone instead.
So even though it's not much, have some fun playing and creating whatever you want with it. :D
Downloads
Download Censored Version:
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Windows (>32Bit Version here<)
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Linux
Braixen Creator a0.2 Censored - Mac
Download Uncensored Version:
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Windows (>32Bit Version here<)
Braixen Creator Light a0.2 - Windows
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Linux
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Mac
Browser Version Light:
(Does not work for everyone, but doesn't need download and works on portable devices)
Braixen Creator a0.2 - Browser
Known Bugs:
-Quite a bit of loading time at start up in Default Versions (only loads when in focus, need to wait through the black screen :c)
-Lucario Style Shoulders might have layer Problems?
-There's still a few styles that weren't animated/properly modeled yet. (Only in there for fun/screenshots [1 Hairstyle, 2 Makeup, 1 Outfit/Hair accessory?])
-Animations/Model need work and improvements in general, please keep in mind that this is really just for fun and not a serious release
Custom Textures / Color Palettes
For everyone that was hoping for a certain color palette or texture that didn't make it into the creator I've actually got some good news, the textures are open to edit and use by anyone and it's fairly easy to do so too!
I'm gonna write/upload somewhat of an tutorial with pictures after posting this, so if you need help just take a look over here:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/braixen-creator-custom-palette-tutorial.html
But now on to the more important stuff...
First Dream Molder Episode / Release
I've just spend 30 minutes writing some emotional, kinda cringy rant about what I've done and learned up to this day, only to scrap it all because it didn't really say anything about whats actually coming up (and was probably more embarassing than anything).
So let's keep things short instead. :D
While I released lot's of demos and other random information/stuff for Dream Molder I've never once released an actual presentation of what I imagined Dream Molder to be.
This month, I will start building the first half of exactly that though.
The first actual release, so to say.
I know it took me a while to get to this point and honestly I'm not sure if it was worth putting all this work into it myself. We're only going to know once it's out though.
So let's start and finally release something proper that everyone can enjoy!
Episode?
Since there's still quite some work needed to actually finish the game I'm planning on releasing it in multiple parts or "Episodes" that I will put together to a full game in the end.
I've actually planned on making a smaller episode (1/3 -1/4 of the game) and releasing them in 1-2 months each, starting this month.
After going through everything planned one more time however I changed my mind and will instead do a bigger Episode that covers around half of the game.
This means I will have to do a bit more work and probably push back release by another month (april instead of march), but the work of this episode will cover most of what's needed for the whole game and all things left will be H-Scenes (which the first episode won't have a lot of) and CG's (Which are actually the most time consuming part of all of this).
What will Episode 1 cover?
While I'm saying that it's the first half it's definitely not half the content yet, but rather half the story,
the calm part before actual stuff happens I guess.
It's going to include 20~ish scenes (of 40~), 2 H-Scenes (of 9~) and the first half of 3 game paths (of 5).
I know that most people are probably waiting for the H-Scenes, so releasing the tame stuff first isn't the best option for everyone.
Having only the H-Scene stuff left after that though will make things a lot easier for me and also give a lot of new animations and content for the months that follow after that.
There's probably more to say to this but I will put out an list of what's needed exactly and what steps need to be taken in order to finish everything on the progress page as always.
Having only the H-Scene stuff left after that though will make things a lot easier for me and also give a lot of new animations and content for the months that follow after that.
There's probably more to say to this but I will put out an list of what's needed exactly and what steps need to be taken in order to finish everything on the progress page as always.
So if you're interested in any of the details take a look over there!
I feel like I kinda forgot about what I actually wanted to say, but I'm just going to end this here so I can move on with working on everything needed for the first release as fast as possible! :D
But before I go...
I know I told this a couple of times but I'm thankful to everyone out there who's supporting me and looking forward to the stuff I do.
You guys keep me going and I hope that I can soon release the game you were waiting for. :>
Have a nice weekend everyone and I'll update you whenever something important happens!
I hope to see you around when Episode 1 releases, stay healthy until then! :D
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Dream Molder progress, technical difficulties and some other stuff...
Hey everyone, I took quite some time since my last post, as always.
Sorry about that.
I've been quite busy with a couple of things since the release of the last Braixen (Fauna) Animation.
Mainly focusing on coloring and animating Fia's Model for Dream Molder but also reworking and properly animating the old Lucario model which people where asking for.
I actually wanted to release the first proper Dream Molder version or at least something similiar to a Braixen "Character Creator" that will go along with the game, but after hitting some roadblocks along the way I had to put in a lot of extra work which isn't quite finished yet.
I'll use this post to go into detail of what was planned and why it failed, but also to show some of the stuff to can expect.
But let's start with Fia's Model...
Work on Fia's Model
Shortly after finishing Fauna's animation I started working on Fia's model to use in the final versions of Dream Molder.For everyone wondering what the whole model thing is about it's pretty much the main graphic file used to display Fia throughout the game, build in/with Live2D and gives me the ability to animate her sprites.
Since Fia has a bit over 100 expressions and poses there's quite a lot to consider until the model is 100% finished, but once the it's done there's not much left towards the proper releases, with CG-Art being the only thing left to do.
Work on the model was going well and I was expecting to be done with it around now as animations, the ability to change her colors, style, etc was all working fine already.
Technical Difficulties
Knowing that there's not much more to be done to finish it I put it aside to work on the Lucario animations for the month.
When I came back to implement the model into the game however it didn't work out as much as I was hoping for...
The model appeared much lower quality from it should actually be like.
Outlines were fuzzy and some things were missing completely.
Experimenting with the model a bit made it obvious that the problem wasn't the model itself but the engine messing up some of the color layers which made the model appear fuzzy.
You can see how the model in itself is actually quite clear when I dye her fur white which removes all the color layers.
Not really knowing what causes this I had to look into the engines code, rework parts of the model and try to figure out what the problem was in general.
I actually went so far as to rebuild the whole model from scratch but to no avail.
The latest build did improve the quality somewhat to not make it obvious as quickly, that definitely wasn't enough to use it for the game though.
You can see how the model in itself is actually quite clear when I dye her fur white which removes all the color layers.
Not really knowing what causes this I had to look into the engines code, rework parts of the model and try to figure out what the problem was in general.
I actually went so far as to rebuild the whole model from scratch but to no avail.
The latest build did improve the quality somewhat to not make it obvious as quickly, that definitely wasn't enough to use it for the game though.
The mode actually looks fine when viewed in preview or with any other software, putting it in the game though somehow messes up the colors.
The time it took to come to this conclusion however took way too long and I've wasted a lot of time trying to rework the model to make it work and right now I've got about 3 ways to move forward.
1.: Find whatever causes this in the engines code, change it and use the same model
2.: Rework the model to not dye it in real time and have a limited amount of colors to choose from instead
3.: Use another engine or write one from scratch and transfer everything made so far over time.
The first one I go for will definitely be 1. as this one has the highest chances of keeping everything done so far. The engine seems to mess with clipping layers for some reason, most likely scaling them weirdly?
3.: Use another engine or write one from scratch and transfer everything made so far over time.
The first one I go for will definitely be 1. as this one has the highest chances of keeping everything done so far. The engine seems to mess with clipping layers for some reason, most likely scaling them weirdly?
Fixing this is the best scenario, there will always be some kind of quality issue though which is definitely caused by the overuse of clipping and the engine not being able to keep up.
So I might need to do something else if I can't get it to model viewer quality.
The other two options are suboptimal, giving me a lot more to do to implement this than what it's worth.
I'll wait for some feedback and option 1. to fail before making any choice here though.
But yeah, long story short:
Whatever option I'm going with I will have to do some extra work which is why I most likely won't be able to release anything before end of the year.
That doesn't mean I'm not going to try, I'm definitely taking it slow and put quality first though.
It's not the first problem I bumped into and I've always found/had a solution in the end.
However, it's been a while since I've given an proper update for DM's progress and I think it was really needed. Even if it was about something trivial as this.
So I might need to do something else if I can't get it to model viewer quality.
The other two options are suboptimal, giving me a lot more to do to implement this than what it's worth.
I'll wait for some feedback and option 1. to fail before making any choice here though.
But yeah, long story short:
Whatever option I'm going with I will have to do some extra work which is why I most likely won't be able to release anything before end of the year.
That doesn't mean I'm not going to try, I'm definitely taking it slow and put quality first though.
Sidenote
I know this isn't much of an update and more of just me talking about minor problems.It's not the first problem I bumped into and I've always found/had a solution in the end.
However, it's been a while since I've given an proper update for DM's progress and I think it was really needed. Even if it was about something trivial as this.
I felt like I needed to involve everyone to keep up excitement and interest in the game for everyone.
That's what made me work on it until now after all...
So if you have any thoughts on the whole problem (Do you think it's worth using another engine to keep live coloring or would a few colors to choose from be enough for you?) or are excited about any of the features feel free to share/discuss it here or on our discord.
I need the feedback to keep me going and all thoughts/comments on this are appreciated!
Next update will most likely be with the release of either the first proper Dream Molder Scenes or the Braixen Character Maker, (hopefully) next month.
But for now happy holidays to all of you and I hope to see you around next year!~Dark
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Upcoming Braixen Animation
Hey everyone, it's been a while.
Last month was quite stressful for me and as a few of you probably noticed I wasn't able to release all of the remaining H-Scenes until the end of the month as I planned to.
Worrying that quality of the scenes/game would keep declining if I kept going I decided to take a break from Dream Molder to take a break from dream molder to work on random art/animations instead.
I will continue working on DM as usual at the end of the month, but until then I will work on the Braixen animation that my Patrons voted for a while back.
The base idea for the animation plus it's still image are already done and will be downloadable on patreon in high res and different variations, including NSFW ones as always.
I already started putting together the model for the animation and am experimenting with some new things to add to it when it releases at the end of the month.
For anyone that's interested and doesn't follow me on Patreon here's a preview of what the animation is going to look like:
Last month was quite stressful for me and as a few of you probably noticed I wasn't able to release all of the remaining H-Scenes until the end of the month as I planned to.
Worrying that quality of the scenes/game would keep declining if I kept going I decided to take a break from Dream Molder to take a break from dream molder to work on random art/animations instead.
I will continue working on DM as usual at the end of the month, but until then I will work on the Braixen animation that my Patrons voted for a while back.
The base idea for the animation plus it's still image are already done and will be downloadable on patreon in high res and different variations, including NSFW ones as always.
I already started putting together the model for the animation and am experimenting with some new things to add to it when it releases at the end of the month.
For anyone that's interested and doesn't follow me on Patreon here's a preview of what the animation is going to look like:
I wanted to make sure that the animation stands out from what we have in Dream Molder as we will already have enough Fia art once the game releases.
It's not exactly what I sketched/planned at first but I hope you like it anyway!
I normally come up with a bit of backstory to have a better picture of how the character in the animation moves and behaves.
I thought it would be interesting/fun to share it with you so if you're interested take a look over here:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/fauna-braixen.html
Depending on how fast I get everything done the animation will be released around end of the month.
Let's hope everything goes well and I see you guys then.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
It's not exactly what I sketched/planned at first but I hope you like it anyway!
I normally come up with a bit of backstory to have a better picture of how the character in the animation moves and behaves.
I thought it would be interesting/fun to share it with you so if you're interested take a look over here:
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/fauna-braixen.html
Depending on how fast I get everything done the animation will be released around end of the month.
Let's hope everything goes well and I see you guys then.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Monday, July 15, 2019
Release of the first few DM H-Scenes and some technalities to why full release is taking longer
Hey everyone!
I was hoping to release DM v0.2 today but sadly didn't get to finish it in time.
At this point, I'm actually still only halfway done with what I wanted to have.
There are multiple reasons for that, all listed down below with some additional details and
explanations since I want to be open with this.
Since I didn't want to not have anything for you at all, I took 3 of the h-scenes that I think are playable enough to already share them with you guys and put them in small, standalone demos.
This way you can take a look at what you can expect for the other h-scenes and have something new to read/play in the meantime. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
There is a another 2 Scenes that are quite far into release, both rather large/important for the story. I will upload those aswell once I think their quality is high enough to be released.
>> Download links will be over here <<
(Keep in mind these are Hentai Scenes, so NSFW material! Only download them if you know what you're doing. xD)
The quality of the scenes (art/writing) wasn't what I imagined/wanted because I'm still lacking the skill and I had to rework/refine them bit by bit.
Long Version:
I've been working on those scenes in different steps.
1. - Writing a loose script about what happens in the scene, what kind of poses will be used
2. - Actually writing the scene, adding dialogues and making notes for what art appears at which moment
3. - Sketching the art needed for the scene and it's different variations needed
4. - Putting everything together in the game
5. - Add in some more details into the writing to spice things up and bring some harmony into writing and sketches
I did notice that sketches weren't as good as I wanted them to be, and normally that wouldn't have been a problem since I would try around until it works.
I didn't have the time to keep trying for 40 different CG and animation sketches though.
I had to draw poses and perspectives that look as different from another as possible to not make it repetitive and at the same time make sure that it will work with the game and later on animating as well.
Trying out so many new while also trying to keep it fresh was definitely too much for me still and I ended up with 2nd choice sketches to still make it in time.
When I started putting everything together though I realized that quality was lacking.
The scenes felt short and unimpressive, were missing the little something that made them feel alive.
Sketches I thought would look good in the game didn't quite fit in or would have looked stupid animated because I've been missing simple rules you need to make the scene feel good.
All in all it simply didn't look good.
So now I had to decide:
Lowering quality to get it done in time or taking more time to make it feel good.
To be honest, it wouldn't even need to feel good because most of this would have been fixed once I properly animate things.
This would have made the h-scene demo boring though, only filling in the story holes that were missing without giving the fun of playing it.
That's why I decided to work in more details.
I started diong the over scenes from start, adding details and expression to the sketches as I went along.
I started doing simple sketch animations and variations, trying to stay as simple as possible while still giving life to the scene.
After finishing the first one I knew that I had to do it for all of the scenes and definitely wouldn't get done in time to release the demo.
I've worked on 3 of the scenes to the point that I think they have the quality needed, 3 more I already started working on and another 3 that still need to be looked at completely.
Even those 3 are by no means perfect, but in the end it is still just a demo, and the real animation will fix a lot of the problems that I had with the scenes before.
But that's pretty much all there is to it...
I'm still trying to release the full demo at the end of this month so I have enough time to work on the Braixen animation for Patreon.
But for now I'm hoping that you understand that it takes a bit longer than planned and that you enjoy the few scenes that are up plus the ones that are still to come.
Thank you again for your patience and I'll hope to get you those missing scenes asap!
-Dark
I was hoping to release DM v0.2 today but sadly didn't get to finish it in time.
At this point, I'm actually still only halfway done with what I wanted to have.
There are multiple reasons for that, all listed down below with some additional details and
explanations since I want to be open with this.
Since I didn't want to not have anything for you at all, I took 3 of the h-scenes that I think are playable enough to already share them with you guys and put them in small, standalone demos.
This way you can take a look at what you can expect for the other h-scenes and have something new to read/play in the meantime. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
There is a another 2 Scenes that are quite far into release, both rather large/important for the story. I will upload those aswell once I think their quality is high enough to be released.
>> Download links will be over here <<
(Keep in mind these are Hentai Scenes, so NSFW material! Only download them if you know what you're doing. xD)
Now to some more details on why it's taking so long..
Short Version:The quality of the scenes (art/writing) wasn't what I imagined/wanted because I'm still lacking the skill and I had to rework/refine them bit by bit.
Long Version:
I've been working on those scenes in different steps.
1. - Writing a loose script about what happens in the scene, what kind of poses will be used
2. - Actually writing the scene, adding dialogues and making notes for what art appears at which moment
3. - Sketching the art needed for the scene and it's different variations needed
4. - Putting everything together in the game
5. - Add in some more details into the writing to spice things up and bring some harmony into writing and sketches
What went wrong?
Now everything seemed to go fine until step 4, where I realized that it doesn't quite add up.I did notice that sketches weren't as good as I wanted them to be, and normally that wouldn't have been a problem since I would try around until it works.
I didn't have the time to keep trying for 40 different CG and animation sketches though.
I had to draw poses and perspectives that look as different from another as possible to not make it repetitive and at the same time make sure that it will work with the game and later on animating as well.
Trying out so many new while also trying to keep it fresh was definitely too much for me still and I ended up with 2nd choice sketches to still make it in time.
When I started putting everything together though I realized that quality was lacking.
The scenes felt short and unimpressive, were missing the little something that made them feel alive.
Sketches I thought would look good in the game didn't quite fit in or would have looked stupid animated because I've been missing simple rules you need to make the scene feel good.
All in all it simply didn't look good.
So now I had to decide:
Lowering quality to get it done in time or taking more time to make it feel good.
To be honest, it wouldn't even need to feel good because most of this would have been fixed once I properly animate things.
This would have made the h-scene demo boring though, only filling in the story holes that were missing without giving the fun of playing it.
That's why I decided to work in more details.
I started diong the over scenes from start, adding details and expression to the sketches as I went along.
I started doing simple sketch animations and variations, trying to stay as simple as possible while still giving life to the scene.
After finishing the first one I knew that I had to do it for all of the scenes and definitely wouldn't get done in time to release the demo.
I've worked on 3 of the scenes to the point that I think they have the quality needed, 3 more I already started working on and another 3 that still need to be looked at completely.
Even those 3 are by no means perfect, but in the end it is still just a demo, and the real animation will fix a lot of the problems that I had with the scenes before.
But that's pretty much all there is to it...
I'm still trying to release the full demo at the end of this month so I have enough time to work on the Braixen animation for Patreon.
But for now I'm hoping that you understand that it takes a bit longer than planned and that you enjoy the few scenes that are up plus the ones that are still to come.
Thank you again for your patience and I'll hope to get you those missing scenes asap!
-Dark
Sunday, June 30, 2019
2nd Progress Update on Dream Molder v0.2
Hey again everyone!
I was actually hoping to be done by now but it's seems like I need July to finish
version 0.2 (or the NSFW update) after all..
It's nothing too severe since I'm still in synch with the roadmap, but it would have been nice
to have some more time for the coming animations as well...
For now I'm hoping to release it on 15th of July, but depending on how well everything works/looks
I might take a bit longer.
This blogpost will focus on the things that I was working on the last couple weeks and some more of the stuff you can expect in the next update for the game.
For everyone that doesn't quite know what's coming up here's a improvised changelog
with all of the main things I focused on the new version:
> added 9 new scenes containing the main h-scenes of the game and missing story parts
^ (These scenes will be greatly extended, rewritten and improved on in later updates and
are simply meant as a placeholder to go along with the sketches)
~ 40 CG-Sketches to properly visualize the h-scenes of the game and give an example of how they will look like in the future
^ (some of which are lightly "animated" to improve atmosphere and show off which scenes you can expect to be animated in later versions)
> added roughly 30 Character Sketches, mostly nude variants of already implemented poses
> some minor bug fixes revolving around improving gamplay and fixing the game getting stuck in certain places
For everyone that wants to know what kind of work is left to do before the release or simply wants to see some of the stuff I've done the last few weeks this is your section:
There's 3 steps left to do before I can upload v0.2, everything is pretty much done by now.
- drawing the remaining sketches
- turning some of the sketches into "makeshift" animations
- finalizing the h-scene scripts with said animations and add some fitting music
Step one: Drawing remaining sketches
Now this is an obvious one.
I'm not quite done with drawing all the sketches yet.
I should have been done by now, but not all of the sketches turned out the way I wanted them to or
were simply too complicated for me to draw after all.
I will need a few more days to rework them and try again, maybe even change up the h-scene to make something more fitting in the end.
You might want to see some examples of what is coming though so I've put together a small collection of some of those CG-Sketches that I made the last few weeks, including some of the ones I uploaded on my last post to have them in one place.
(NSFW and Spoiler ahead! Keep in mind before clicking!)
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/nsfw.html
Most of the CG's shown will be animated and have variations, but we'll come to that in the next step...
Step two: Creating makeshift animations
This one isn't actually a must do, but something I like to do to somewhat visualize the animation progress before deciding if I want to keep the picture this way.
It also looks nice if the game and it's scenes have some movement, even if it's just sketchy placeholders.
Since this step isn't actually necessary for the update I'm still debating on how many of the CG's I'm going to add like this.
Especially after wasting a lot of time with some of the early animations and putting in a lot more effort than was needed.
For a small example of what kind of animations I mean I've uploaded and linked some of the ones I prepared for the game the last couple days.
They're all scenes/CG's that I've already shown or were in the first Dream Molder demo, so there's nothing to worry about spoilers!
(Unlike the images I didn't go through the trouble of censoring them though, so please keep in mind that the link is highly NSFW!)
Click here to go to see Animation Examples
I might decrease quality of following animations to increase my pace and get out the update earlier, but we'll see how long I'll take for the next few and how much time I have left.
Last Step: Finalizing the H-Scenes
Pretty much the last hurdle before release, finishing the programming/script on the h-scenes.
This won't be a problem in itself, it is time consuming however since I will have to read through the hundreds of text lines over and over while I put everything in place (pictures, animations, music) to make sure everything looks and works as it should.
Depending on the size of the scene I normally take around 3-8 hours for one, but since I'm also retouching some of the CG's while doing so it might take somewhat longer..
Release and what's after
In the end though there is not much left to be done until the next release which I will follow up with a break from Dream Molder, taking time off to finish some of the animations I planned on doing for a while now.
These include another Braixen animation that was votet for on Patreon, finishing some NSFW animations for Lucario that I worked on early this year, some of the reworked Dream Molder animations and a couple of random ones I came up with over the time but didn't have the time to work on yet.
How many I'm actually releasing will depend on the time I have since Dream Molder has priority for now, but we'll think about that after I've finished v0.2
I already experimented with a couple of settings and sketches for the Braixen animation by the way and if you're interested here's a link to the one I'm most likely to use at the moment:
Likely Sketch for Braixen Animation
This is not set in stone ofc and everything about the sketch (or even the setting/sketch itself) might change.
But I liked the setting and have a small story idea behind it that I was thinking of posting together with the animation. Let me know what you would like though since I want you guys to like it as well and maybe you were hoping for something different.
But that's pretty much it for this post/progress update.
It's a bit all over the place, like always, but it's quite late already and I also need to write the update on Patreon after this.
The next post should be Dream Molder v0.2 itself in (hopefully) about two weeks!
See you then and thanks for reading!
I was actually hoping to be done by now but it's seems like I need July to finish
version 0.2 (or the NSFW update) after all..
It's nothing too severe since I'm still in synch with the roadmap, but it would have been nice
to have some more time for the coming animations as well...
For now I'm hoping to release it on 15th of July, but depending on how well everything works/looks
I might take a bit longer.
This blogpost will focus on the things that I was working on the last couple weeks and some more of the stuff you can expect in the next update for the game.
For everyone that doesn't quite know what's coming up here's a improvised changelog
with all of the main things I focused on the new version:
> added 9 new scenes containing the main h-scenes of the game and missing story parts
^ (These scenes will be greatly extended, rewritten and improved on in later updates and
are simply meant as a placeholder to go along with the sketches)
~ 40 CG-Sketches to properly visualize the h-scenes of the game and give an example of how they will look like in the future
^ (some of which are lightly "animated" to improve atmosphere and show off which scenes you can expect to be animated in later versions)
> added roughly 30 Character Sketches, mostly nude variants of already implemented poses
> some minor bug fixes revolving around improving gamplay and fixing the game getting stuck in certain places
For everyone that wants to know what kind of work is left to do before the release or simply wants to see some of the stuff I've done the last few weeks this is your section:
There's 3 steps left to do before I can upload v0.2, everything is pretty much done by now.
- drawing the remaining sketches
- turning some of the sketches into "makeshift" animations
- finalizing the h-scene scripts with said animations and add some fitting music
Step one: Drawing remaining sketches
Now this is an obvious one.
I'm not quite done with drawing all the sketches yet.
I should have been done by now, but not all of the sketches turned out the way I wanted them to or
were simply too complicated for me to draw after all.
I will need a few more days to rework them and try again, maybe even change up the h-scene to make something more fitting in the end.
You might want to see some examples of what is coming though so I've put together a small collection of some of those CG-Sketches that I made the last few weeks, including some of the ones I uploaded on my last post to have them in one place.
(NSFW and Spoiler ahead! Keep in mind before clicking!)
https://in-dark-waters.blogspot.com/p/nsfw.html
Most of the CG's shown will be animated and have variations, but we'll come to that in the next step...
Step two: Creating makeshift animations
This one isn't actually a must do, but something I like to do to somewhat visualize the animation progress before deciding if I want to keep the picture this way.
It also looks nice if the game and it's scenes have some movement, even if it's just sketchy placeholders.
Since this step isn't actually necessary for the update I'm still debating on how many of the CG's I'm going to add like this.
Especially after wasting a lot of time with some of the early animations and putting in a lot more effort than was needed.
For a small example of what kind of animations I mean I've uploaded and linked some of the ones I prepared for the game the last couple days.
They're all scenes/CG's that I've already shown or were in the first Dream Molder demo, so there's nothing to worry about spoilers!
(Unlike the images I didn't go through the trouble of censoring them though, so please keep in mind that the link is highly NSFW!)
Click here to go to see Animation Examples
I might decrease quality of following animations to increase my pace and get out the update earlier, but we'll see how long I'll take for the next few and how much time I have left.
Last Step: Finalizing the H-Scenes
Pretty much the last hurdle before release, finishing the programming/script on the h-scenes.
This won't be a problem in itself, it is time consuming however since I will have to read through the hundreds of text lines over and over while I put everything in place (pictures, animations, music) to make sure everything looks and works as it should.
Depending on the size of the scene I normally take around 3-8 hours for one, but since I'm also retouching some of the CG's while doing so it might take somewhat longer..
Release and what's after
In the end though there is not much left to be done until the next release which I will follow up with a break from Dream Molder, taking time off to finish some of the animations I planned on doing for a while now.
These include another Braixen animation that was votet for on Patreon, finishing some NSFW animations for Lucario that I worked on early this year, some of the reworked Dream Molder animations and a couple of random ones I came up with over the time but didn't have the time to work on yet.
How many I'm actually releasing will depend on the time I have since Dream Molder has priority for now, but we'll think about that after I've finished v0.2
I already experimented with a couple of settings and sketches for the Braixen animation by the way and if you're interested here's a link to the one I'm most likely to use at the moment:
Likely Sketch for Braixen Animation
This is not set in stone ofc and everything about the sketch (or even the setting/sketch itself) might change.
But I liked the setting and have a small story idea behind it that I was thinking of posting together with the animation. Let me know what you would like though since I want you guys to like it as well and maybe you were hoping for something different.
But that's pretty much it for this post/progress update.
It's a bit all over the place, like always, but it's quite late already and I also need to write the update on Patreon after this.
The next post should be Dream Molder v0.2 itself in (hopefully) about two weeks!
See you then and thanks for reading!
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Progress Update on Char Sketch Demo v0.2 + some technical information
Hey everyone!
I'm actually a bit unsure of what to post/show, but didn't want to go too long without anything new either.
So here's some random infos and sketches to see what I'm working on right now and what things you can expect from version 0.2, the NSFW update!
It will be my usual babbling and ranting but I will add a sketch or two for everyone that's more into the pictures.
For censoring and spoiler reasons, I'm going to link every sketch instead of posting it directly.
So don't worry about spoilers, I'm going to tag everything and you can decide if you want to look at it while reading!
And while I'm going to censor images for the blog, please keep in mind that everything will still be NSFW since this post is about the h-scenes.
H-Scenes / Writing
I already talked about it a couple of times, but update 0.2 will add in all the h-scenes that were missing in the latest version.
It will be 9 scenes in total that range from short, mildly teasing scenes that set the mood to longer emotional scenes that are supposed to bring the characters closer together and/or reveal some parts of the story that weren't told yet.
I've also written about 4 more scenes that are not really story related and could be seen as non-canon/optional that I'm planning to add as unlockable bonus scenes for every playthrough.
If they're in v0.2 will completely depend on how fast I can do the sketches though.
Since the scenes are non-canon I was able to go a little crazy, adding/making up whatever I want and ended up having a lot of fun writing them. So I'm actually hoping to be able to ship them with 0.2 to share them with you guys, don't count on it though!
I actually wanted to do sketching first since I would have had more stuff to show in progress updates inbetween, but I ended up doing writing first to make a proper list of what kind of
sketches I need to be able to properly update the progress bar every now and then.
Now I'm done writing for the most part and have a lot of work done that I can't really show off since that would spoil everything and would probably be a bit confusing without the sketches/right formatting, but maybe I can at least get something out of the few sketches I already made...
H-Scene Sketches
While I did start a lot of sketches I only completely finished 11 of them (3 of 9 scenes) so far.
Getting them to be the way I want is taking me a bit longer than I anticipated, but I rather get them right and take a bit longer than rushing things. I'll probably end up rushing some stuff anyway, but since it's just sketches I won't have to worry about every detail anyway.
A lot of sketches are still going to change before coloring and getting some feedback after 0.2 release will help out correcting everything I didn't see/could have looked better.
So don't worry about anything that looks off.
Just mention it somewhere here on the blog or discord and I will add it to the list of things to look into for the next update!
An example for what kind of changes can be seen on some older sketches from the old demo that nobody saw.
Image: Old demo CG / Old demo sketch comparison
As you can see I changed a lot of things like posture, proportions, etc while coloring.
Some of it because I didn't see while drawing, others because I could do it better at that point or simply didn't like what I did before.
Now the new sketches will most likely have less extreme changes, but it can still end up looking completely different if it has to.
That pretty much already brings me to my next point:
CG Variations
CG variations will be a big part of the game.
While a CG-Image is a full screen image that shows a scene in more detail, a variation of it will slightly alter the image to go along with the story.
This can be simple things like changing a facial expression, but it can also have some more extreme changes like a different pose or background.
All in all however, it's still the same base-image that's simply been changed.
That's why you see a lot of CGxxx-1, CGxxx-2 etc in the latest demo.
Variations will help make the game feel more alive and hopefully almost cinematic.
In H-scenes the variations will have an additional use and represent something similear to "key-frames" that will be needed for animations later on.
Every variation pretty much shows me what kind of body parts I need to draw in which angle and at which time of the animation it's used.
Here's a little example of how they're put together to make it easy to replace parts and make it easier to model the animation later on.
Image: Sketch/Variation layer example from office scene (Spoiler!)
For now it's just a few parts layered over each other, swapped out for each variation sketch.
But in later versions I will use them to make animation samples just like the one I made back then for the old demo:
Animation: Old demo sketch-animation test over on Furaffinity (NSFW!!)
If you're interested in some more variations here's a couple of them for the first h-scene in the game, a redrawn version of the old sketch you saw on the first link above:
Image: Variations of redrawn BJ scene from old demo (NSFW!!)
Image: New frames/variations for 2nd scene from old demo (NSFW!!)
While there's going to be a lot of variations, 0.2 won't have any animations yet.
There might be some simple test gifs similear to this:
Image: Old motion test over on Furaffinity (NSFW!)
to test motion and pacing, but nothing too serious since that would only waste time on I could use for the actual animations.
Fun fact:
I'm actually doing these kind of motion tests all the time, mostly to figure out/decide on which kind of animation/picture I'm going for.
I always end up drawing multiple sketches for the same scene and decide which one I'm going to take/animate by doing these little "warp" tests in gimp.
I have a couple of different ones for the Lucario animation, Zoroark, some unreleased ones, etc...
Here's 2 tests for Zoroark that didn't make it if you're interested:
Image: Motion test for Zoroark (NSFW!)
Image: Motion test for Zoroark 2 (NSFW!)
Keep in mind that these were really just to test what kind of pose I want, I was still figuring out which style I was going for and design would have changed a lot after.
I have a lot of these + some random, silly/cute animations I make inbetween to work against stress.
You could call them leftovers from whatever I work on at the time and if you want I can try to share a few more of them in the future.
End word
I think that's pretty much all I can talk about right now and I hope that it was somewhat entertaining and shortens your wait for v0.2.
When I guessed the release dates for the roadmap, I gave myself time until late July.
While I'm hoping to get everything done until end of the month, I probably end up fixing and finalizing things until 15. of July after all... But we can always hope.
If you want I can show of some more sketches on a later post in about 2 weeks when I'm hopefully done sketching.
Alltogether, just let me know what you think about the sketches or whatever is on your mind.
I'm always glad to answer questions and get feedback so I know what to improve in the future.
I didn't want to spoil too much, but since I didn't have much to show here's some more sketches(without variations) from the office h-scene, to at least have something to show if you were only interested in sketches from the start. Sketch 08 and 09 will most likely end up animated btw!
Images: Office H-Scene Sketches with Anthro/Dream Fia (Spoiler!)
H-CG06 (SFW!)
H-CG08 (SFW!)
H-CG08-10 (NSFW!)
H-CG09 (NSFW!)
I know this post didn't have too much in it, but you can always reach out to me if you want to know more about the progress or want more details on what I'm working on right now.
I'll keep you updated on everything, thanks for reading and interest in the project!
-Dark
I'm actually a bit unsure of what to post/show, but didn't want to go too long without anything new either.
So here's some random infos and sketches to see what I'm working on right now and what things you can expect from version 0.2, the NSFW update!
It will be my usual babbling and ranting but I will add a sketch or two for everyone that's more into the pictures.
For censoring and spoiler reasons, I'm going to link every sketch instead of posting it directly.
So don't worry about spoilers, I'm going to tag everything and you can decide if you want to look at it while reading!
And while I'm going to censor images for the blog, please keep in mind that everything will still be NSFW since this post is about the h-scenes.
H-Scenes / Writing
I already talked about it a couple of times, but update 0.2 will add in all the h-scenes that were missing in the latest version.
It will be 9 scenes in total that range from short, mildly teasing scenes that set the mood to longer emotional scenes that are supposed to bring the characters closer together and/or reveal some parts of the story that weren't told yet.
I've also written about 4 more scenes that are not really story related and could be seen as non-canon/optional that I'm planning to add as unlockable bonus scenes for every playthrough.
If they're in v0.2 will completely depend on how fast I can do the sketches though.
Since the scenes are non-canon I was able to go a little crazy, adding/making up whatever I want and ended up having a lot of fun writing them. So I'm actually hoping to be able to ship them with 0.2 to share them with you guys, don't count on it though!
I actually wanted to do sketching first since I would have had more stuff to show in progress updates inbetween, but I ended up doing writing first to make a proper list of what kind of
sketches I need to be able to properly update the progress bar every now and then.
Now I'm done writing for the most part and have a lot of work done that I can't really show off since that would spoil everything and would probably be a bit confusing without the sketches/right formatting, but maybe I can at least get something out of the few sketches I already made...
H-Scene Sketches
While I did start a lot of sketches I only completely finished 11 of them (3 of 9 scenes) so far.
Getting them to be the way I want is taking me a bit longer than I anticipated, but I rather get them right and take a bit longer than rushing things. I'll probably end up rushing some stuff anyway, but since it's just sketches I won't have to worry about every detail anyway.
A lot of sketches are still going to change before coloring and getting some feedback after 0.2 release will help out correcting everything I didn't see/could have looked better.
So don't worry about anything that looks off.
Just mention it somewhere here on the blog or discord and I will add it to the list of things to look into for the next update!
An example for what kind of changes can be seen on some older sketches from the old demo that nobody saw.
Image: Old demo CG / Old demo sketch comparison
As you can see I changed a lot of things like posture, proportions, etc while coloring.
Some of it because I didn't see while drawing, others because I could do it better at that point or simply didn't like what I did before.
Now the new sketches will most likely have less extreme changes, but it can still end up looking completely different if it has to.
That pretty much already brings me to my next point:
CG Variations
CG variations will be a big part of the game.
While a CG-Image is a full screen image that shows a scene in more detail, a variation of it will slightly alter the image to go along with the story.
This can be simple things like changing a facial expression, but it can also have some more extreme changes like a different pose or background.
All in all however, it's still the same base-image that's simply been changed.
That's why you see a lot of CGxxx-1, CGxxx-2 etc in the latest demo.
Variations will help make the game feel more alive and hopefully almost cinematic.
In H-scenes the variations will have an additional use and represent something similear to "key-frames" that will be needed for animations later on.
Every variation pretty much shows me what kind of body parts I need to draw in which angle and at which time of the animation it's used.
Here's a little example of how they're put together to make it easy to replace parts and make it easier to model the animation later on.
Image: Sketch/Variation layer example from office scene (Spoiler!)
For now it's just a few parts layered over each other, swapped out for each variation sketch.
But in later versions I will use them to make animation samples just like the one I made back then for the old demo:
Animation: Old demo sketch-animation test over on Furaffinity (NSFW!!)
If you're interested in some more variations here's a couple of them for the first h-scene in the game, a redrawn version of the old sketch you saw on the first link above:
Image: Variations of redrawn BJ scene from old demo (NSFW!!)
Image: New frames/variations for 2nd scene from old demo (NSFW!!)
While there's going to be a lot of variations, 0.2 won't have any animations yet.
There might be some simple test gifs similear to this:
Image: Old motion test over on Furaffinity (NSFW!)
to test motion and pacing, but nothing too serious since that would only waste time on I could use for the actual animations.
Fun fact:
I'm actually doing these kind of motion tests all the time, mostly to figure out/decide on which kind of animation/picture I'm going for.
I always end up drawing multiple sketches for the same scene and decide which one I'm going to take/animate by doing these little "warp" tests in gimp.
I have a couple of different ones for the Lucario animation, Zoroark, some unreleased ones, etc...
Here's 2 tests for Zoroark that didn't make it if you're interested:
Image: Motion test for Zoroark (NSFW!)
Image: Motion test for Zoroark 2 (NSFW!)
Keep in mind that these were really just to test what kind of pose I want, I was still figuring out which style I was going for and design would have changed a lot after.
I have a lot of these + some random, silly/cute animations I make inbetween to work against stress.
You could call them leftovers from whatever I work on at the time and if you want I can try to share a few more of them in the future.
End word
I think that's pretty much all I can talk about right now and I hope that it was somewhat entertaining and shortens your wait for v0.2.
When I guessed the release dates for the roadmap, I gave myself time until late July.
While I'm hoping to get everything done until end of the month, I probably end up fixing and finalizing things until 15. of July after all... But we can always hope.
If you want I can show of some more sketches on a later post in about 2 weeks when I'm hopefully done sketching.
Alltogether, just let me know what you think about the sketches or whatever is on your mind.
I'm always glad to answer questions and get feedback so I know what to improve in the future.
I didn't want to spoil too much, but since I didn't have much to show here's some more sketches(without variations) from the office h-scene, to at least have something to show if you were only interested in sketches from the start. Sketch 08 and 09 will most likely end up animated btw!
Images: Office H-Scene Sketches with Anthro/Dream Fia (Spoiler!)
H-CG06 (SFW!)
H-CG08 (SFW!)
H-CG08-10 (NSFW!)
H-CG09 (NSFW!)
I know this post didn't have too much in it, but you can always reach out to me if you want to know more about the progress or want more details on what I'm working on right now.
I'll keep you updated on everything, thanks for reading and interest in the project!
-Dark