Trying to decide which art style I should use for my project.

[MockingSparrow]

So I'm currently creating a visual novel using renpy and I've managed to accumulate around 30,000+ words.

I originally made the project just to see if I could make a fairly realistic novel that's not like most others out there with the limelight of Point, click, pound. I wanted to make a game that makes choices matter with realistic and human responses but without the mcguffin magic potion or ability that makes any male or female bend to the will of the player. I've found designing the game to be quite fun and now I'm steadily poking at it during my free time. Unfortunately I've found myself unsure which art style I prefer at the moment.

As the poll suggests I've found these to be my three options and frankly I'm not sure which I like more. I've been rendering in Daz 3D for some time and I've found the art style to be good but lifeless in my opinion. I don't mind the models from Honey Select but I worry that later on it will hamper me with lack of content. CG art with sprites seems like a good idea but I'm hardly an artist who can create such works of marvel and I don't have the capital to purchase such for a game.

I'd love some thoughts and just curious what the community likes the most.

So which does everyone prefer?
Daz 3D?
Honey Select?
CG ART?

 

[Gomly1980]

I don't mean to criticise here but you just said yourself you aren't an artist and don't have the means to hire one for CG art so why would you make that an option?

That's only just behind Daz so if it wins you're going to be in a tough spot.

 

[somebodynobody]

I would assume the CG art would be taken from anime games or some art site like deviant art, etc.

I would say do what you are comfortable with, if you have the 3d model experience, go with that, and if it is lifeless to you, go over them in your preferred program to try and give them a bit of life, like making their skin matte instead of that weird shine. Drawing the art yourself will take a bunch of free time, and if you aren't willing to put some decent work into it, people will not want to check out the game. You can always do a revision like Dual Family, or other games do and put new art in place if you ever get to that point.

 

[Caligula]

I voted for Daz 3D models because I don't the looks of the Honey Select models.

About bringing Daz models to life, a lot depends on facial expressions and body language. That's my 2 cents from the games I've played so far.

 

[The-real-Vastitas]

Keep rendering if you are not sure about cg ...games like dreams of desire showcase that lifelessness indeed is a matter of effort put into light source, facial expression and body language. On top of that sprites do add to your workload more than you might initially think. Concerning realistic and human responses...right on point missed that myself in most titles out there.

 

[MockingSparrow]

I don't mean to criticise here but you just said yourself you aren't an artist and don't have the means to hire one for CG art so why would you make that an option?

That's only just behind Daz so if it wins you're going to be in a tough spot.

Ah yes, I should have clarified and used the property terminology on my post. When I refer to CG and Sprites I'm thinking of games such as Seeds of Chaos and Summertime Saga. My bad.

As for budget I can afford to spend some money on an artist to commission drawn work but most likely not at a very desirable pace. It might be cheaper than purchasing rendering assets at first now that I think about it. hmmm.

I would assume the CG art would be taken from anime games or some art site like deviant art, etc.

I would say do what you are comfortable with, if you have the 3d model experience, go with that, and if it is lifeless to you, go over them in your preferred program to try and give them a bit of life, like making their skin matte instead of that weird shine. Drawing the art yourself will take a bunch of free time, and if you aren't willing to put some decent work into it, people will not want to check out the game. You can always do a revision like Dual Family, or other games do and put new art in place if you ever get to that point.

I never realized dual family did a revision. Interesting point.

I voted for Daz 3D models because I don't the looks of the Honey Select models.

About bringing Daz models to life, a lot depends on facial expressions and body language. That's my 2 cents from the games I've played so far.

I've got the posing and expressions down, and frankly I think my lighting is fairly good. I just look at the characters and think to myself that it looks like every other Daz game. Maybe that's what's holding me back.

Keep rendering if you are not sure about cg ...games like dreams of desire showcase that lifelessness indeed is a matter of effort put into light source, facial expression and body language. On top of that sprites do add to your workload more than you might initially think. Concerning realistic and human responses...right on point missed that myself in most titles out there.

Yeah, I really want to make sure that the story of this title is vast, realistic, and make choices have a fair impact.

For those that might be curious, this is a render I completed not to long ago as a test.

 

[Caligula]

I voted for Daz 3D models because I don't the looks of the Honey Select models.

About bringing Daz models to life, a lot depends on facial expressions and body language. That's my 2 cents from the games I've played so far.

Missing word. That should be: ...because I don't like the looks of the Honey Select models.

...snip...

For those that might be curious, this is a render I completed not to long ago as a test.

Image looks good in my opinion.

 

[OhWee]

If you decide to go the Daz Studio route, there are a number of free assets available, including shaping morphs for body and face, a number of characters, hair, clothing, etc.

That being said, if you want to just go the 'free' route you'll be limited to what you can find for free, which could be good or bad. So you may eventually want to pick up some additional assets later.

The nice thing about Daz Studio 4.9 is that you can download it and use it for free (along with a small collection of free starter assets/models), and that there are a number of free tutorials available via the Daz site, youtube, etc. to help you get started.

Depending on how 'general' or 'specific' you want to get with your character design, you might be able to get away with free for quite a while.

There are a number of sites that offer free assets for Daz Studio.

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and

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both have a number of freebies for Daz Studio, but definitely take a look a the usage rights before downloading (some allow unrestricted use, others insist on personal use only, and varying levels in between). There is also

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, plus Google can often find some other free assets for Daz Studio, and there's also a freebies thread on the Daz3D forum.

You'll need to provide an email addy and address to register Daz Studio.

Short form, you can download a bunch of free stuff for Daz, take it for a spin, and then decide if you like it or not. That may help better inform your decision. Should you decide that you really like Daz, and decide that you want to start buying models, assets, etc. for it via the Daz3D shop, I definitely recommend getting a Platinum Club membership (better discounts, more freebies available every week), but wait for Plat Club to go on sale (it's normally $70 US, it goes on sale about every 4-6 weeks or so for half off).

But definitely download it for free first and play around with it a bit, to help decide if it's your thing or not.

As for scene backgrounds, you have two choices here. Render them yourself (Daz Studio can do this, with or without your characters, the trick here being trying to find free background models, or you can just buy them, or try to build something yourself), or go the 'use stock photos' option. You'll need to dig a bit to find royalty free stock photos, but they are out there...

Genitals for your Daz models can be a bit tricky to find for free, but there are a couple out there. Ghastly has something on ShareCG, and I found some very basic female gens (a slit essentially) via Google. Daz doesn't offer genitals with their basic models, you'll need Victoria or Michael Pro (or some other 'pro' characters that include genitals), and they generally aren't free, or you can just go with the 'free attachments' I mentioned.

Hope this helps!