VN Ren'Py Color of My Sound - Development Journal (Release Date Announcement!)

[Gallant Trombe]

Color of My Sound
-Working Title-

Development Journal Entry #1

Color of My Sound is a Sci-Fi, Espionage, Drama, Erotic visual novel centre around a cast of characters each confronting their own problems while keeping their desires in check.​

Color is set in an original sci-fi setting written by me after a dream I have had one night. It is a setting chock full of potential for character drama, conspiracies, espionage, intrigue and action, all in front of a sci-fi backdrop to give it better believability but also flair. In Color, humanity has unified under the rule of the Empire after a turbulent war across the stars that nearly irreversibly fractured humankind forever. Although an empire built to last, nothing ever will. The political dynamic between the Emperor, the Three Houses, and the Imperial Court has managed to keep the Empire in a fragile balance for a millennium. One small but precise spark could ignite and engulf humanity in the firestorm of war once again.

The story began when a rebellion on an unprecedented scale erupted across the Empire's worlds and humanity faces an uncertain future for the first time since the Empire's inception. The infamous day has abruptly altered the lives of many, including our protagonist. The Protagonist was an aspiring musician, working job to job making ends meet. The chaotic war has ripped his financial stability and forced him into a life of military service.

An ill-fated mission during his service has seemingly irreparably taken the Protagonist's spark for music, worst, he could no longer hear it; nothing but ruin awaits him as the nobles of the Empire have taken interest in him for all the wrong reasons. Would he ever rediscover his love for music and the joy of life? Or would he numb himself in sorrow until impending doom inevitably reaches him?

About Me​

Hello everyone! I am on the journey of making my first visual novel. This journal will act as a schedule for me to follow, just to help keep the development organized and on pace, but also to see if I could get any feedback during pre-production, so I can make the right adjustments before I crank up production on the renders. For this first entry, I think an introduction of myself is pertinent. I am Gallant, I have been playing games found on this site for about two years now. However, even before then, I have written several stories on my own time as a hobby but never found the right medium to release them in. Despite the enjoyment I get out of writing, I do not like writing novels at all. I have a huge disdain for writing and reading prose, especially the purple kind. Instead, I want to tell my stories and my worlds through striking visuals and dialogue. Visual novels just seem like the natural answer to my quandary.

Also, I like porn, so why the fuck not?

This is the first time I've delved into the world of 3D rendering. I have previously worked in a 3D animation studio managing render farms and such, but that was just a random job I landed after school. I do also have some experience working with games in general, I do a lot of modding for games that I play, and I have worked on games with others before. But to sum up my strengths, it is definitely in the story structure, and game design category. Rendering is very much uncharted territory for me. As of writing this journal entry, I am exactly 5 "days" into Daz Studio, and today, I'm going to record the progress I've made so far here.

One last thing before I move on. I won't be revealing much more of the story just yet. After all, it is my first time doing this, I don't know if I can produce the renders I need to tell the story as is. Trying to make a sci-fi visual novel as my first one is quite the challenge, I'm well aware of it. I am determined to at least get the feel of sci-fi right, but the plot and structure are not set in stone at this time. Fortunately, I have written the story with adaptability to game development in mind, so this isn't an issue. I already have a few different plot and structures planned out, I just need to pick the right one. I will make up my mind once I know where the limits of reality are. For now, all my focus is on getting the renders right.

Day 1​

I did the obvious and start messing with Daz Studio to get used to working with it. So far it has been fairly intuitive. This is probably a "famous last words" moment, but so far it's pretty easy to use. I managed to render a shot of a "scene" after eight iterations by the end of the day, however, I am utterly embarrassed by it.

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Although it was a quick, hastily taken render, it felt wrong and not at all what I want the game to have. But we all make mistakes so we can learn from them, tomorrow should hopefully be better. In this particular render, the biggest issue I have with it is the lack of flavour and character. It felt soulless, but now I know what my objective for tomorrow would be.

Day 2​

Day 2 is all about getting the basics of rendering characters right. Finding the right shaders, lighting and render settings is the goal. So, I started to build my proto-character who is based on one of the main love interest of the game. I used this opportunity to play with morphs and shaping a bit to get the look I wanted. This time I also tweaked the pose to better fit the shot, unlike day 1's. The result is these two shots of her.

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I'm much happier with these. It's not there yet, particularly I find the skin to be a bit boring to look at, and the eyes were kind of dead. Much of the positives of the shots are carried by the quality of the assets themselves, and I didn't feel I did enough to really feel attached to it like it's my own work. The lighting is also lacking character and flair, it was mostly lit by the environment. So day 3's goal is "personal touch".

Day 3
​

To achieve the goal I set out for myself, I decided to do something like a profile shot or a portrait. Lighting was also a big issue I want to tackle. This time, I used a spotlight and emissive plane to mimic reflectors. I also played around with different emissives to add some detail to these more close up shots. The backdrop was changed quite a bit so she's not standing in the middle of a sky or something.

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This one was almost perfect, my only complaint was I didn't get the catch light I really wanted out of it. Trying to do it also took a lot of time to render, and unless I could find a more efficient way, it's not worth it. So this second render tried to remedy some of that.

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This was rendered in 4320x4320 overnight. It didn't actually take the whole night, and it looked clean and clear in my eyes. But I had to sacrifice a few other lights to render it within a reasonable time frame. Overall Day 3 I felt was very productive, I achieved everything I wanted, so on the next day, I can move on to something really important.

Day 4​

Today is all about sex. I'm not ready to do full sex scenes yet, but I need to start somewhere. So obviously the very first thing I did was I gave her her sex. Then its a matter of posing and getting the lighting right. Using the lessons I learned the last day, this shouldn't be too hard right? Or maybe it should...ANY way...

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This is also the first render I ever did some postprocessing on. The render took far too long, and I honestly don't know why. So I had to downscale and touch it up a bit in Photoshop. Frankly, Photoshop is so powerful at what it does, this method is just much more time-efficient than trying to render a shot for 2 hours, only to still have noises. I would likely do the same for most renders in the future I think. This next shot was where the "famous last word" comes back into play, I was tearing my hair out trying to get it right...

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I hate the Timeline so much. I have a little bit of experience with Flash before, so I'm not completely uninitiated in the world of animation tools, but this was a nightmare to get right. Why is it so difficult to just delete some frames, or copy their states around? I mean it took a while of experimentation to learn how to get the cum shot to land in the places I wanted it to, but trying to do two spurts was far more immensely aggravating to do. All I wanted to do was simulate the first shot, save and freeze it in place, then simulate the second. I really didn't think it would be that difficult. I've got to figure out how to do this the "right" way, there has to be one right?

Day 5
​

This is probably the most important day so far. In order to tell the story I want to tell, I need to get the scenes right. There's plenty of assets in the store for characters and morphs and poses, this really was the easy part. However, finding the right props and getting the right look for a sci-fi story has been very difficult for me so far. It's too expensive to buy all the assets out there, and with only a limited amount of sets, it would mean the story has to take place within very few locations. Fortunately, I foresaw this issue, and it's not like a sci-fi setting has to have a very robotic, futuristic, metallic look to all its scenery. I would need enough spaceship interiors and exteriors, some planet or space station scenes, anywhere else I could probably make do with contemporary or even fantasy sets. The look of them, however, is far more important, so this is the goal of the day - Turning a contemporary cafe, into a sci-fi one. This is not going to be achievable in a day, so for now, let's get the lighting right. Set dressing will be for another time. The follow render will serve as an example of what a conversation scene in the VN would look like.

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This is the first attempt at making the look and atmosphere of the scene. I chose a colour palette of blue and purple, I think they're fitting for a futuristic look, but also fit the thematic tone of the story. THE major theme of the story is "Balance". How do we balance all things we do and have in life. This goes from the very top of this world - The Empire as a whole, to each individual person at the bottom of any societal structure. In the story, the Protagonist can develop personal relationships with the supporting characters, but no one starts off as a friend, most are enemies, whether they want to be or not. This scene is done in the PoV of the Protagonist, where he would be having a casual, potentially intimate conversation with a love interest. The Purple represent the futuristic version of warmth and personal haven, with a tad bit of intimacy and romance (red), and the ever seeping Blue from the outside world represent the cold, ruthless, unrelenting reality of their situation. For now, within this little cafe, they can find warmth and comfort with each other, but once they leave, it is a completely different story.

The bokeh is my way of filling the outside with something, mainly to mask what the background really is. It's a pretty rough implementation of it, but for now, I think it does the job fairly well. I would be amazed if anyone can recognize it.

Overall, this has been a milestone worthy day. I feel like I could actually make something out of the assets I have. And with some set dressing, it is very possible to do the setting justice. For now, I'm taking a break from sets, and next time I want to work on posing multiple characters and maybe render a couple more sexy shots


That's it for now. Thank you to anyone that reads this. I will be doing more entries in a few days when I got something new to share. I know the love interests are a big deal, so once I figure them out, I'll introduce them one by one to you all. Cheers!

​

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #2
-Characters-

Day 6 part 1
​

It wasn't easy trying to figure out the best ways to add my own personal touch to each character and make it my own. For example, there seems to be a few different ways to apply makeup, and with what I have, there's not a whole lot of choices available. Not to mention, a lot of makeup textures are a bit over the top IMO. They have their uses in a story, but I need some casual, day to day looks too. Anyway, on Day 6, I managed to complete 2 love interests. The first character took a lot of time to get right. It was my fault for getting too fancy and bought 8.1 assets, only to realize there are far more Gen 8 assets out there to mix and match. So all the time last week spent working with 8.1 has spoiled me a lot, and I overestimated the expected quality of my characters. Still, with better lighting and poses, I think I managed to get it to the level I wanted with a Gen 8. That is not to say Gen 8 isn't good, quite the contrary, I just really like the 8.1 assets I have. I haven't found the right costumes for them yet, but I might as well introduce them by presenting them in their "purest" form.



This is Annelise Eleonore von Rosenheim, or Elise to her friends. Nobility is a big part of the setting of Colours, and Elise is one of them. I pondered whether I should give her a longer and even more ridiculous name, but I don't want to spend all my favourite names in one character. Elise is the 13th heiress in line to take over House Rosenheim, but this innocent looking girl isn't interested in aristocratic lifestyle and culture. Although kind and appear harmless to others, in truth, Elise is a bit of an aspiring schemer.

Love Interests​

Elise is one of the main love interest of Colours. At the start of the story, she would join the Special Operations Squad (SOS) - an elite team formed to serve the common interest of various political powers in the Empire that the Protagonist would lead. Each member of the team is selected by each major powers to represent their own interest. This particular squad isn't just another regular SOS however, rather, this is a velvet prison of a sort. Due to the Protagonist's prior involvement with a certain incident (I'm keeping this in the bag), he unknowingly became a person of major interest to every major power, they all want to control him for their own reasons. Each of the members (Love Interests) are selected to do just that. Elise could be tasked with either coercing, protecting, enticing or even eliminating the Protagonist. It's up to the player to find out what her task truly is and make the choices that will determine how she would choose to carry them out.

That's all for now. I'll post the second love interest in the next entry. Cheers!

 

[OldMoonSong]

Sounds like an interesting setting and premise! I'd wish you luck, but I don't want to suggest that learning and development are the results of luck rather than hard, grinding work, haha.

You seem to be coming along quickly with DAZ, which is probably the component with the greatest maximum potential complexity when it comes to making a VN in this style.

You mentioned in your first post that

I had to downscale and touch it up a bit in Photoshop. Frankly, Photoshop is so powerful at what it does, this method is just much more time-efficient than trying to render a shot for 2 hours, only to still have noises.

One DAZ tip I have (which I only recently learned about) is to use the built-in de-noiser that is applied mid-render. Here's an image showing how to enable and activate it--found inside the "Filtering" options within the "Render Settings" tab:

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Here are a few example images from my own testing 1600x1600 renders ("Rendering Quality Enable" = OFF):

No denoiser - 1,000 iterations

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Good quality, not much noise even in high-detail areas such as the eyebrows and hair. However, 1,000 iterations for every render, with much more complicated scenes than this one which only has 1 character and an HDRI environment? That will take a while...

No denoiser - 100 iterations

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Lots of noise in the hair and finer details, some on her skin as well. Not terrible, but definitely noticeable.

WITH denoiser - 100 iterations (denoiser starts at 80)

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Comparing this to the 100 iteration render without the denoiser, we can see strong differences. The overall image is softer and what I'd describe as "tidy"--but at the cost of some detail. Fine-detail areas like the eyebrows and hair can appear fuzzy/blurred. Increasing the "Post Denoiser Start Iteration" setting can help keep more detail--it's a balancing act which you sort out with experimentation.

WITH denoiser - 250 iterations (denoiser starts at 200)

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Increasing the number of iterations before the denoiser kicks in allows more details to come through--again considering previous affected areas such as the eyebrows and hair.

If you're happy and experienced with Photoshop then that's awesome! I am not, and I've figured it would be overkill for my purposes so I've been able to get by with the Nvidia denoiser (separate from DAZ) and then I discovered this built-in functionality which made it a lot easier to use.

You must be registered to see the links

is a YouTube guide video showing how to use the tool, in action, if you want to check it out!

I see from your profile that you've found the Daz3d Art thread--which is great! The good, the bad, and the ugly can be found there. It's a great place for discussion as well, and you can give and receive valuable feedback and tips.

On the subject of assets--I agree, there is a definite shortage of high-quality sci-fi / futuristic props and environments, particularly when it comes to basic day-to-day stuff. I have an idea for an adult VN which has both medieval and futuristic settings, but--like you said--it isn't easy to find appropriate props/environments (PARTICULARLY for anything that isn't a space-ship!!).

Your idea of converting modern environments into futuristic ones is definitely interesting! Looking at your example from day 5, the lighting you've done really does make a big difference. You could take it a few steps further even if you look into different material shaders to edit the textures of environments give things more "futuristic" surfaces. For example, the brick wall could be converted into something more "flat" in texture, the wooden chairs/stools/tables can be given a metallic or composite-like look.

I really appreciate the more story/character-driven games/VNs, so I'm definitely rooting for you!

Would love to get more profiles of characters as they're developed. And maybe a description/list of the sexual elements/tags you plan to include?

 

[Gallant Trombe]

One DAZ tip I have (which I only recently learned about) is to use the built-in de-noiser that is applied mid-render.

Would love to get more profiles of characters as they're developed. And maybe a description/list of the sexual elements/tags you plan to include?

That's very good advice, thank you. I do actually use de-noiser. The long render times is really for the scenes with really dramatic lighting. So far, I'm just switching off Render Quality Mode, do a quick low-res render to see how many iterations I would likely need and then render full res. Seems to work so far. But I'll keep your post in mind when the problem pops up again.

Would love to get more profiles of characters as they're developed. And maybe a description/list of the sexual elements/tags you plan to include?

More characters profile are coming soon as I continue developing them. Right now I have 2 more ready to be introduced, so I'm doing another profile tomorrow. As for tags, I already have them in mind, I'll do an entry on them when I get to rendering sex scenes, which I plan to do next week. I have a lot to say about the sex I've planned for this game

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #3
-Characters-

Day 6 part 2
​

You ever had that feeling where you really nailed something, felt really good about yourself and just charge into the next task without a break? Only to stumble hard trying to force that creative lightning to strike twice? That's the story of the day for the second character. I was really happy with Elise, but this one I had to scrap the next morning when reviewing it. I'm glad I slept on it first because I have no idea how I was thinking that was good enough.

Here is the current version of her. I'm still hesitating to post this because I'm not really satisfied with the render, it was done hastily trying to wrap her design so I can move on. The character herself looks great regardless of the render itself, so I'm happy to leave it for now.



This is one of the main love interest of the game - Mireille Lowell.

Mireille as a character is the representative for House Utica, one of the Three Houses of the Empire. House Utica is ruled by merchant princes and each of these princes operates a mega-corp that form the foundation of their power base. Mireille serves as the window into the world and culture of House Utica.

Mireille was trained to be a corporate agent who specialises in espionage from a very young age. As an agent, Mireille is part of a network of agents tasks with protecting their companies' interest both from the outside and within. Calm, manipulative, and wears layers of masks metaphorically speaking, Mireille was exceptional at detecting and eliminating foreign agents.

Before I go, here's a bonus render of "evil" Elise I made while designing her. For the next entry, I will be revealing and discussing the Protagonist. I'll also do a poll to see what kind of MC people like in these games. Thank you for reading, cheers!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #4
-Characters-

Day 7​

It is time to talk about The Protagonist, the MC of the VN. This is a fascinating subject in terms of design. What kind of MC do people like in their VNs? Someone they can insert themselves into is probably the answer for most VNs. Who wouldn't want to be the ones who get to bang all the hot chicks in the VNs they're playing right? Unless it's NTR, then usually I assume most see themselves in an observer role, just enjoying the downfall of the girls and despair of the supposed MC. Unless they enjoy being a cuck, that's cool too.

But what about the depth and personality of the MC? Commonly referred to as trousers, this type of MC are generally quite shallow in their character, they're only there to serve as the viewpoint for the player, and they are usually carried through the current that is the plot solely by their cock. For example, in the case of VNs, the creepy, perverted MC is great for incest stories. It makes it really easy to justify situations that warrant fanservice scenarios like peeping and night visits. Beyond being a pervert lusting after his family members, they don't have much of any characterization. Maybe they are a bit witty to bring some humour to the VN, or they have a heart of gold that could justify being able to win over their love interests, but really, they usually just have a magical cock that does the work for them.

Then there are the more in-depth MCs that actually have backstories and personalities. Usually more dramatic and story-heavy VNs would have this kind of MCs. Given that Colours is that kind of VN, I can tell you right now that is the type of MC The Protagonist is. However, even within this type of MC, there are different ways of portraying or utilizing them in the story. Mainly, first person or third person narrative. In the case of VNs, this also includes whether the face of MC is ever revealed and how often they are shown on screen. Another important aspect is how much agency does the MC has in the story? Are they the type that's given quests by NPCs and they go around doing "quests" for rewards? Or do they lead the charge that further the story they're in? There are merits and purpose to both of these but in the case of Colours, The Protagonist is a man of intent and action. After all, he is on a timer, others are out there trying to kill or manipulate him.

So with that said, the only question that remains concerning what type of MC Colours has is how he is portrayed; first or third person, face or no face. This is something I've pondered for a while. I've not completely made up my mind, but I do prefer the immersion of pov shots. But if I ever give and reveal the face, I would need to be careful with how he looks.

So without further ado, I present -The Protagonist!

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There you have it, this is him. At least that's what he will look like for most shots. I've decided to do most scenes in pov. After testing different scenes and shots, this pov cam gives the most detail to the subject, which is usually the girls, and the depth of field is easier to manage. While I like badass MCs, there's no need to show them all that often. I mean personally, I rather see the girls' face during the climax of sex, rather than the troll "zoom into the male's face" shot some porn does. That being said, there will be moments where other types of shots will be used. Trying to shoot ie. spooning entirely in PoV is a not very good idea. Also, the Protagonist is a character with a significant backstory and characterization, for better storytelling, certain shots are better done with the MC in frame, and his facial expressions are essential.

So here is his actual design.

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This profile shot's lighting gives the impression that he has quite the light complexion, but my original intent was to give him a darker skin tone, I think that matches the white hair better. However, during lighting test, the darker tone makes it harder to light when most of the scenes have really dramatic lighting and are shot in low light environments, this lighter complexion actually saves me some time in setup and rendering. If I can figure out a better way to do it, I'll go back to my original design. I'm also undecided what colour of eyes he has. I want to give each core character a different eye colour, so I'll leave it until I have everyone else designed before I solidify his.

Thank you for reading as usual. We are now halfway through the main characters, just three left to go through. One last thing before I go, I would like to set up a poll, just to gauge what kind of MC people prefer. Face or no face. Please let me know, cheers!

​

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #5
-Characters and development update-

Day 8
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I'm getting closer and closer to full production now. It was quite the journey just trying to figure out all the locales of the story, and trying to find the right assets for it. As with any game development, things will change. I previously would have liked the story to be a bit more "globetrotting", but without a satisfying spaceship asset that could act as the home ship, I've decided to set the first main story arc in a much smaller, local locale instead. I've also tweaked the technology level of the setting a bit to fit the aesthetic of the sets.

Besides that, I've been streamlining my render production cycle and making notes on how to post-process renders. After that, I plan on doing a mock week just pumping out what could the renders for the first release of the game, then I'll start working on Ren'py and writing part of the development. Hopefully, I'll have something to release by the end of all that.

Before the first release, I want to finish all my entries on characters, and then I'll do entries on the sex/tags and what will be included in the first release. So far, everything is actually on schedule, and I couldn't believe how smooth relatively everything has been. The only real wall I hit so far was finding the right assets. I would like to thank Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence for giving me the inspiration I needed to solve the asset and aesthetic issue.

I created a thread here to gather feedback on dialogue scene renders. Please kindly take a look and maybe leave me some feedback on what you think.

To finish off this entry, I'll introduce one of the last 3 remaining love interests.



Lady Safiya Ranya “Saya” Luce

Heiress to House Luce, Lady Safiya is the daughter of the late Lord Luce, younger sister to Raza Luce - the current Head of House.

I have just two characters left to introduce, and ever so close to starting the production of the game. These past two weeks have been very productive for me. I went from having never touched Daz to halfway ready to start production in a week. There's still much hard work ahead of me, and I can't wait to wrap up the remaining task in schedule and start putting stuff together for the first release. Thank you for reading, cheers!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #6
-Characters and Sex-

Day 9​

This is Blanche Aureus - the tech specialist of the team, and I swear only by pure coincidence a reference to Cyberpunk 2077. I created her five years ago when I was writing Colours.

Development Update​

I am now about 50 renders into the optional H-scene that would be included with the first release. As I have said, I plan to do an entry on the topic of sex and tags, here's a bit of a preview and a quick explanation of the intentions with them.




After experimenting quite a bit, I've decided for at least the first few releases, it won't be worth it to do animations. It is too time-consuming, especially when I don't want to do short and concise H-scenes. Let's just say I've seen some really terrible animations "forced" into the game just because someone thinks having any is better than none. I strongly disagree. I don't want to do a couple of renders per position, cut some shitty animations in there and call it a day. Also, I'm still new to all this, I'm not going to do animations well even if I want to when I haven't even mastered the process of still images yet.

Since this isn't a sandbox game, there are no repeatable scenes, each H-scene will be carefully handcrafted and serves storytelling purposes. That is not to say there won't be a lot like some other heavy story-driven VNs, I want to do at least 2 major H-scenes per update. This VN is supposed to be erotic after all. Some might think being teased and "build up" for 1-2 years is fine, but IMHO that's not the right pacing for the type of games that shows up on this site. But maybe I'm just weird...

Each major scene will consist of 60-80 renders each. With "quickies" around half of that, and most important ones at 150. Most shots will be POV, with plenty of close-ups for dramatic purposes. About 20-30 unique renders per position.

The experience is hugely important to how I want to do H-scenes, so I decided not to show the MC's face during sex, I think it just takes away from the experience. The scenes are also pretty wordy, the VN isn't dialogue only, so there will be prose to accompany each shot. Every shot progresses the scene, there would be a very limited amount of "alternative angles" if any. I choose the angles for every render for a purpose, wouldn't make sense to have different angles just to reuse poses. Having too many different angles just once again takes away from the experience, especially when most are in POV. Think erotic film, rather than porno.

Thank you for reading. Just one more love interest to go, cheers!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #7
-Characters and Tags-

Day 10
​

Time to finalize the last main love interest. She was the first character I created for the story, and probably the most difficult to write. If Colours didn't become a VN project, she would have been the only love interest and the deuteragonist of the story. Things changed, and much of her story has to be rewritten. So in the last week or two, I spent a majority of development time just rewriting her background and character arcs.



The general design is the same as the proto-character I used to start learning Daz, only this version of her is redone from step one. Using what I've learned from designing other characters, I apply a couple of personal touches to hopefully distinguish her a bit more from the stock assets. But to be honest, I actually really really like the original assets, so it was really difficult trying to make her look different but also not worse.

As for who she is and her story, I'm going to save it for the VN itself to tell. Instead, I'm going to discuss Tags today.

Tags
​

As of right now, here's what the tags for this VN would be.

Tags: Male Protagonist, Multiple Endings, Anal Sex, Ahegao, Creampie, Group Sex, Handjob, Harem, Lesbian, Oral Sex, Teasing, Groping, Titfuck, Vaginal Sex, Virgin, PoV, Romance, Sci-FI.

They are all pretty self-explanatory, and but there's two that I want to elaborate on.

Ahegao - This is going to be really mild, to the point I don't even know if I should include it. By mild I mean it is only going to be used very sparingly and only for specific characters. Personally, I find Ahegao pretty amusing, but it doesn't really fit the tone of the story. So expect at most some tune down rolling of eyes, and a little bit of tongue sticking out.

Harem - On this site, Harem is defined as "1 person being courted by at least 3 others, all engaging in consensual sex simultaneously. " Which does apply to Colours, however, I want to explain what I mean when I say this is a Harem VN.

• There is a harem ending.​
• The consequences of "cheating" or going man-whore route are you might miss key flags that the harem ending requires, and other things that I won't spoil, but you won't get dump for it.​
• There's only one dick in the story, you won't see another.​
• There's absolutely no NTR, doesn't matter how you define it. No other man will even get to touch a LI sexually or otherwise. Even something like a courteous handshake is unlikely. I treat genres and fetishes very seriously, I love NTR, but this is how I define Harem, I will keep it as far on that end of the spectrum as possible.​
• No voyeurism that doesn't involve the harem.​
• No, the LIs won't fall in love with you on day 1, the MC will have to earn it.​

This isn't an exhaustive list, I'm opening to adding more, and I probably did miss a few. For now, the tags should be enough to illustrate what to expect.

Thank you for reading, now that all the LIs are out of the way, the next entry will be on the first release and what to expect from it. Cheers!

​

 

[Mikedazz1]

Development Journal Entry #7
-Characters and Tags-

Day 10
​

Time to finalize the last main love interest. She was the first character I created for the story, and probably the most difficult to write. If Colours didn't become a VN project, she would have been the only love interest and the deuteragonist of the story. Things changed, and much of her story has to be rewritten. So in the last week or two, I spent a majority of development time just rewriting her background and character arcs.

View attachment 1128176

The general design is the same as the proto-character I used to start learning Daz, only this version of her is redone from step one. Using what I've learned from designing other characters, I apply a couple of personal touches to hopefully distinguish her a bit more from the stock assets. But to be honest, I actually really really like the original assets, so it was really difficult trying to make her look different but also not worse.

As for who she is and her story, I'm going to save it for the VN itself to tell. Instead, I'm going to discuss Tags today.

Tags
​

As of right now, here's what the tags for this VN would be.

Tags: Male Protagonist, Multiple Endings, Anal Sex, Ahegao, Creampie, Group Sex, Handjob, Harem, Lesbian, Oral Sex, Teasing, Groping, Titfuck, Vaginal Sex, Virgin, PoV, Romance, Sci-FI.

They are all pretty self-explanatory, and but there's two that I want to elaborate on.

Ahegao - This is going to be really mild, to the point I don't even know if I should include it. By mild I mean it is only going to be used very sparingly and only for specific characters. Personally, I find Ahegao pretty amusing, but it doesn't really fit the tone of the story. So expect at most some tune down rolling of eyes, and a little bit of tongue sticking out.

Harem - On this site, Harem is defined as "1 person being courted by at least 3 others, all engaging in consensual sex simultaneously. " Which does apply to Colours, however, I want to explain what I mean when I say this is a Harem VN.

• There is a harem ending.​
• The consequences of "cheating" or going man-whore route are you might miss key flags that the harem ending requires, and other things that I won't spoil, but you won't get dump for it.​
• There's only one dick in the story, you won't see another.​
• There's absolutely no NTR, doesn't matter how you define it. No other man will even get to touch a LI sexually or otherwise. Even something like a courteous handshake is unlikely. I treat genres and fetishes very seriously, I love NTR, but this is how I define Harem, I will keep it as far on that end of the spectrum as possible.​
• No voyeurism that doesn't involve the harem.​
• No, the LIs won't fall in love with you on day 1, the MC will have to earn it.​

This isn't an exhaustive list, I'm opening to adding more, and I probably did miss a few. For now, the tags should be enough to illustrate what to expect.

Thank you for reading, now that all the LIs are out of the way, the next entry will be on the first release and what to expect from it. Cheers!

​

 

[Mikedazz1]

wow your renders looks beatiful

 

[Gallant Trombe]

wow your renders looks beatiful

Thanks! Glad you like them

 

[osanaiko]

Wow, this one has just come out of nowhere, somehow I missed the thread for a week or so, and suddenly I feel like I've stumbled into something great!

There's a lot of words up there (hopefully the writing/editing process can be a bit tighter in game :wink: ), so I'll just reply to a couple of things I noticed and know I can help with:

Simulation troubles:

> All I wanted to do was simulate the first shot, save and freeze it in place, then simulate the second. I really didn't think it would be that difficult. I've got to figure out how to do this the "right" way, there has to be one right?

Yes, there is. Once you've finished simulating the first item (before you add the second to the scene), you select the object, go into Parameters -> General settings -> Simulation, and then toggle on "Freeze Simulation". Then you can add the next item and simulate that one. During the simulation, it will look like the first item reset's position, but the final result is restored at the end of the second simulation.

Check these threads in the Daz forums (IMHO they are actually the best resource for dealing with Daz issues and lack of documentation)

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

Renders:

The progress you've made already in just a few weeks is truly fantastic. The Cafe shot, the MC one and especially the Blanche image are all fantastic. Honestly better than anything I've managed after occasional moderate effort over years.

Story:

So far I'm intrigued. The quality of the story and the specific way of writing of a VN is so important, in the end, more so than images. I think you said that your idea of the story came years ago and you've written at least some of a novella with the concept. One advice you might appreciate is to treat the VN writing as more of a movie/TV script than a novel. Short, natural back and forth dialogue, but still preserving the character's personality via expression/pose changes in the images is vital to make the characters come alive


Anyway, good luck and hope you keep your enthusiasm up, because this so far sounds like it has great potential.

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Wow, this one has just come out of nowhere, somehow I missed the thread for a week or so, and suddenly I feel like I've stumbled into something great!

There's a lot of words up there (hopefully the writing/editing process can be a bit tighter in game :wink: ), so I'll just reply to a couple of things I noticed and know I can help with:

Simulation troubles:



Yes, there is. Once you've finished simulating the first item (before you add the second to the scene), you select the object, go into Parameters -> General settings -> Simulation, and then toggle on "Freeze Simulation". Then you can add the next item and simulate that one. During the simulation, it will look like the first item reset's position, but the final result is restored at the end of the second simulation.

Check these threads in the Daz forums (IMHO they are actually the best resource for dealing with Daz issues and lack of documentation)

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

Renders:

The progress you've made already in just a few weeks is truly fantastic. The Cafe shot, the MC one and especially the Blanche image are all fantastic. Honestly better than anything I've managed after occasional moderate effort over years.

Story:

So far I'm intrigued. The quality of the story and the specific way of writing of a VN is so important, in the end, more so than images. I think you said that your idea of the story came years ago and you've written at least some of a novella with the concept. One advice you might appreciate is to treat the VN writing as more of a movie/TV script than a novel. Short, natural back and forth dialogue, but still preserving the character's personality via expression/pose changes in the images is vital to make the characters come alive


Anyway, good luck and hope you keep your enthusiasm up, because this so far sounds like it has great potential.

Thank you very much for your reply, I appreciate your advice on Simulation. The problem I was having was more on Timeline, I wasn't able to sim one after another when I wanted to freeze the first object in a specific frame. Anyway, I've been avoiding it recently, maybe I'll figure it out next time.

These dev journals are really wordy because I have a lot of say and I just like typing I guess lol. It won't be the case for the VN.

About renders, I did a little bit of reading on cinematography prior to Daz, so I think I at least have some basic understanding of lighting and using colours as a storytelling tool. That probably helped speed things up.

As for the story... IMO Visual Novel is all about visual and novel (duh), but what I mean is I value them equally. Each image has to serve to tell the story beyond a mere visualization of what is happening. I try to use coloured lighting extensively for that purpose. For example, each main character has their own colour schemes, and I light the scene base on who's the subject of it. Red and Blue are the main colours of the MC and also represent the central theme of the story, so that's the most common palette I would use. Then I'll use secondary character's colours to accent the scene.

The advice you gave about movie/TV script is exactly how I see it as well. I think it defeats the point of a VN if there's wordy prose everywhere. I also find it easier to convey the emotions by handcrafting each expression based on the scene, rather than just using presets, whether it is custom or not. For production reasons, a lot of VN reuses pose often, similar to 2D VNs, but I want to better utilize the pros of 3D and tailor each pose for the scene.

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #8
-Progress Update-

Day 11
​

Been quite busy the last few days with work and family, so I took a break from development during that period. Still, I couldn't keep my hands off it completely. Couldn't help myself just chipping away at the storyboard whenever I can. Currently, the scenes have all been laid out for Chapter 1 and I have a storyboard ready for production. So, now that the planned content for the first release is set in stone, I can finally talk about what will be included in it.

First Release​

I will be doing updates to the VN in chapters. Each chapter will be as long as it is needed to complete at least a minor arc. In the case of Colours, a minor arc takes the form of a mission, and each whole arc would be comprised of multiple missions chained together.

In terms of renders, Chapter 1 will consist of 400-600 total renders, 120 ish of those are the H-scene.

The VN won't be too heavy on branching paths. The nature of the story just isn't designed for that. And the more branches there are, the less content there is. I don't want to do updates every few months and people only get 10 minutes of story per branch. However, I'm big on dialogue options being meaningful. You won't be picking an option, only to get the same response and renders had you chosen the other one. Think more Mass Effect, less Persona if you know what I mean. Also, no single dialogue choice like "Take a shower" or "Go to the coffee shop" when you have to. Seriously, I don't get why some VNs have them.

In terms of making choices that do matter and have long-lasting consequences. I plan on using good old fashion flags, and not points. These flags will determine which ending you'll get. I don't want people to stress over a point tally when they don't even know how many points they need and if there are even enough points left.

As for actual progress on Chapter 1. The H-scenes renders are all done, just awaiting post-processing. I'm currently doing lighting tests and set-dressing for all the scenes. Here are two test renders I did for two sets.

This one is the establishing shot for where the story will set. I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I think I'm on the right track, just needs more polishing.


This one is just a quick low-res render for how I plan on lighting this set. I'm changing the colours of the lights, blue and orange just happen to be the generic combo that works well for tests.



Thank you for reading, I'll do another entry once I have made more progress on sets. Cheers!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

​

This one is the establishing shot for where the story will set. I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I think I'm on the right track, just needs more polishing.

View attachment 1142732

I knew something wasn't quite right with this render, just didn't know what exactly I could do more. A good night sleep does wonders sometimes. Here's the quick improved version of it.

 

[Norman Knight]

the renders are quite impressive, a good Sci fi adult game, it's rare most are just poorly disguise parodies, but this project has a lot of potential good luck

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #9
-Progress Update-

Day 12-18
​

Using the experience I've gained from producing all the renders for the sex scene, I've been refining how I set up my scenes before production. Although I'm happy with the 120 renders I considered "final", the process could have been so much better. Too often I had to go back and re-render because I forgot to switch a light on/off, or I forgot to re-pose the hair, etc. But the worst thing I did was I only had 3 scene files for 120 renders. So if I ever want to go back, I will have to redo poses and lighting, making sure they match and all that. I think I lucked out the renders turn out okay.

Anyway, I've changed my approach to production because of these problems. First, I'm setting up all the sets first before I produce renders. Because I render elements of each shot separately, they don't actually take long to render. What's more important is I set it up as well as I could before I go all in producing renders. I've been producing what I call marquee shots for each set. The purpose of these shots is to fine-tune and polish each set until it is satisfactory, and also finalize the tone of the scene. Once I have these marquee shots, I can then start producing renders for the game using those shots as a quality and art direction standard.

So with all that said, that's what I've been doing this week. It hasn't been too productive, each set and their marquee shots took 3 days of work to get right. I'm not too happy with the pace I'm on, I think I can do it faster.

Lighting and Colours​

Here are the 2 marquee shots I did this week. The first one some might have seen on another thread, this is the updated version of it.



Calling back to the cafe scene I did on Day 5, this is a stark improvement. The main challenge with making a Sci-fi VN with mostly contemporary setting assets is always the atmosphere. It would be pretty boring if I just slap metal panels everywhere and call it a day. Instead, using lighting and colours has always been my preferred method of tackling this challenge.

In this scene, there are 4 main lights lighting the scene and subjects. The blue neon lights from the outside serve as the background to make the subjects pop, the yellow neon as the accent, the red holo-screen contrasts the blue (it looks purple here but if you can see the entire screen it's a gradient with mostly red), and finally a decorative white neon behind the camera to balance out the colours a bit to expose the face of the subjects.

This isn't the final version as I still need to do a colour correction pass for a better emphasis on the main 3 colours of the scene.



This is the introduction shot of a character the MC will later have an opportunity to have sex with. As I've said in a previous entry, I treat every sex scene as a storytelling opportunity, no character involved in those scenes are throwaway characters, which means, I need to do their introduction as well as I can. The lighting needs to tell a uniform message with the text, I hope when people do get to play it, the lighting and colours will subtly add to the experience.

For Colours, red represents passion and personal emotions in general, blue represents the cold of reality. I'll let the players decide why the red is in the front, blue in the back when they play it.

From a development standpoint, having to consider how lights and colour influence the storytelling is a unique challenge that I haven't faced before, I've only ever done written work after all. It definitely is eating up a lot of time, which is why I've only completed 2 sets this week. Again, this is something I really want to improve on.

Thank you for reading. I'm setting a goal to complete 3 sets next week to pick up the pace. We'll see if I managed it when I do the next entry, cheers!

​

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #10
-Progress Update-

Day 18-22
​

The goal of the week was finishing 3 sets, I kind of pulled it off. I didn't feel any of them were complete, but they are mostly ready for production. The biggest hurdle this week was the performance issues. The more characters I need to work with, the slower it is to render, even for previews or just navigating the viewport. Prior to this week, I have worked with multiple characters in a scene before, but I custom-tailored the sets to be better at handling them. The assets I've been using for the sets of this week don't give me as much freedom as the others. It is a lot harder to render characters separately, which is how I managed it before. As always, it is a continuous learning process. The struggle this week will make me a better developer in the future.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but I'm not afraid to show WIP stuff. So here's what I got to show for this week.



This is a hallway, just like any other hallway, which is a problem when it is meant for a Sci-fi story. So the challenge is as usual the atmosphere. Neon is just the obvious choice, but if it works, it works. The real problem is exposing the subjects. When you just have lights shining from above, they don't always make for very interesting looks. And if I turn them up too much, then everything is too blown out by it. If I just set up an invisible key light, then it begs the question of where the light is coming from in this dark, fully enclosed hallway? Whenever I can I want to stick with practical lights. So, the secret to the scene is actually what's around the corner, behind the wall. A vending machine is what's actually lighting the two characters. I also pick a leather jacket for the man because of its reflective properties, does wonders to give hint on where the light is coming from, and who Mireille is actually focusing on (purple is her colour).



This is a weird one. It is not meant to be a proper render of anything. I did it to see what kind of things I can use in this set, and how far can I go with it. The goal is to figure out how to use the background to help tell the story, and this render is there to set up what can be useful for the actual scene. The big white backlight is a cheating mechanic, an in-universe technology, and a practical light all-in-one. It is cheating because it means I don't have to find a suitable outside view for each interior when there are already so few good ones for Sci-Fi. It is also consistent with the setting, where most people live in mega buildings called MAB. These big white lights are actually windows or screens. You can switch it to display all kinds of environments or imagery. And of course, it's a big glowing thing, it's really good at its job. The circular light ring thingy on the left is a Home Terminal, basically a smart home device. Also really good at adding some flavour to the scene.



Finally, this is a wide-angle shot of the living room of the safe house the main cast will be living in. The two elements from the previous image are here as well, along with two HoloScreens. One in the kitchen area, another behind the camera. I want to keep the place as clean as possible at the start of the story. After all, they just moved in. Over time, I want to use props to tell stories, so the fewer there is now the better. The "windows" can be switched to anything I need, you can check out the post I did yesterday to see the effect of it. Of course, the beauty is it really can be anything when it is virtual reality in-universe. And I really like the dimmer lit atmosphere, it gives off a peaceful, almost misty sleepy forest vibe. Good differentiation to the high contrast, dramatic atmosphere from outside home.

As always, thank you for reading. Next week will be a preview on "proper action and shit". Cheers!

 

[Gallant Trombe]

Development Journal Entry #11
-Action Part 1-

Day 23-26​

This week has been all about the climax of the chapter, I want to set a stage where the main characters get to show off to close it out. Given the story, naturally, there will be combat. I talk a lot about hurdles in developing this VN, action is yet another one I really need to jump well over. The way I see it is there are two aspects to it. Presenting melee combat with still images, and presenting firefights with still images. Although they sound like the same thing, I've come to think differently in how I handle them. Melee is a lot of kinetic impacts, far more than sex. It needs to be violent and aggressive. Firefights are chaotic, decisive, and not very personal. My posing still needs work, so I'm saving melee for when I'm better at it. For this week, I've been working on firefights first.

The first part of that was figuring out what kind of guns are there in the setting. Personally, I prefer ballistic weapons even in Sci-Fi, lasers just don't have the impact. I thought about giving bullets and their casings a different shading to give off a Sci-Fi look, while that worked out quite well, the problem is the impact FX. I couldn't get gunshot wounds or the impact right. I also couldn't find a muzzle flash that I'm happy well. So instead of dwelling on it, I decided to take the middle path and go with blasters instead. Blasters give off light, they look nicer in still images than a flying bullet, they could be any colour, and I can make my own assets and not having to rely on others.

This is the first test render of it.



It only really works with the right amount of blur and certain angles. Fortunately, it is a gunshot, it should be in motion anyway.



This is me testing what it would look like directly in front and also testing it in the set where the combat takes place.

Finally, this is what I have so far. This is the marquee shot of firefights.



I think nailing the motion blur is the top priority, it adds much-needed activity to images. That blur just helps sells the blaster muzzle flash. Finding the right lens setting for it was equally important to even capture the blaster shot in the right lights. For comparison, this is a WIP render with the wrong settings.

Spoiler: Wrong settings

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That's it for this entry, thank you for reading. I want to do another entry on the set I finished today, but I'll save that for next time. Cheers!

​