- Aug 5, 2016
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Honestly I think it's just the shine that for whatever reason draws the eye to the space between the lip and the nose. It makes it look like they're all really snotty and haven't bothered washing their faces.
- Thread starter thomasxlong
- Start date
- Oct 15, 2016
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FYI - the daughter sleep sex webm that's in the files isn't actually in the game as far as I can tell
- Apr 3, 2017
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I found Meghan and Sarah to look great. The daughter looked a little old for the role of live-in daughter. The rest didn't really catch my eye and seemed pretty generic so I have no opinion there. The art is pretty good compared to most 3DCG stuff. No one should be expecting Big Brother-tier 3DCG from every visual novel.
Also, this is a visual novel. I've always felt the illustrations were supplemental to the writing in VNs, and not the other way around. This is why Japanese VNs only do about 50 high quality CG's (for special scenes like story milestones and sex) in a 40-hour visual novel, and not for every scene. The rest of the art in JVNs is just the same sprites used tens of thousands of times. In this respect, 3DCG novels have it rough because expectations are so much higher for every single scene when the focus of readers should be 95% on the text, being a novel and all. I don't envy 3DCG devs.
Also, this is a visual novel. I've always felt the illustrations were supplemental to the writing in VNs, and not the other way around. This is why Japanese VNs only do about 50 high quality CG's (for special scenes like story milestones and sex) in a 40-hour visual novel, and not for every scene. The rest of the art in JVNs is just the same sprites used tens of thousands of times. In this respect, 3DCG novels have it rough because expectations are so much higher for every single scene when the focus of readers should be 95% on the text, being a novel and all. I don't envy 3DCG devs.
- Dec 17, 2016
- 2,319
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@jpsimon first off love your avatar, I fondly remember that game and screaming at the screen when the damn yeti ate my character. Dev has a good attitude and he is sitting on a dynamite project here, with a little polish on the models he could possibly be the uncucked darksilvers.
- Nov 15, 2016
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- 288
Got to say: this is a jewel in the making. Lots of rough edges here and there, but it has, imo, huge potential.
Most of the 3d characters are pleasant (to my eyes, at least) to look at, but the author really, really should spend a little time researching and learning rendering techniques, especially concerning proper lightning. By basically using better lighting this game would have a huge improvement, graphics wise.
If anything, just rendering your character's assets (not the whole scenes) in something like Keyshot, which can be learned rather quickly (it's quite possible to do good renders in it with a day or two studying it) would bring a huge jump in quality, for very little effort.
Avoid darker scenes (it's one of the biggest tricks guys like DS, from Big Brother, do). Rendering dark scenes is very, very hard (even major game developers struggles with it), so go with as much light as possible when rendering.
I can't tell for sure, but some of the characters' skin textures looked a bit subpar, imo. This should be a fairly easy fix to do, so perhaps do consider using better skin textures.
Some Photoshop on the static scenes would go a long way too. It's another one of the secrets other Patreon game developers do.
On the plus side, I really loved the amount of work and detail you gave to the BGs. It's something a lot of patreon creators gives little attention (some of which are even well know for their rendering skills). Well done!
I do like the overall story, and personally loved the humor touch in it. If the author can improve the graphics just a tad, and deliver constantly, I can easily see myself as a future backer. As of now, I'll just follow this with great interest.
Most of the 3d characters are pleasant (to my eyes, at least) to look at, but the author really, really should spend a little time researching and learning rendering techniques, especially concerning proper lightning. By basically using better lighting this game would have a huge improvement, graphics wise.
If anything, just rendering your character's assets (not the whole scenes) in something like Keyshot, which can be learned rather quickly (it's quite possible to do good renders in it with a day or two studying it) would bring a huge jump in quality, for very little effort.
Avoid darker scenes (it's one of the biggest tricks guys like DS, from Big Brother, do). Rendering dark scenes is very, very hard (even major game developers struggles with it), so go with as much light as possible when rendering.
I can't tell for sure, but some of the characters' skin textures looked a bit subpar, imo. This should be a fairly easy fix to do, so perhaps do consider using better skin textures.
Some Photoshop on the static scenes would go a long way too. It's another one of the secrets other Patreon game developers do.
On the plus side, I really loved the amount of work and detail you gave to the BGs. It's something a lot of patreon creators gives little attention (some of which are even well know for their rendering skills). Well done!
I do like the overall story, and personally loved the humor touch in it. If the author can improve the graphics just a tad, and deliver constantly, I can easily see myself as a future backer. As of now, I'll just follow this with great interest.
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- May 26, 2017
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- May 17, 2017
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Thanks for the advice. Yeh I definitely think a lot of the problem is lighting.
I've looked at BBs renders a lot trying to figure out what makes them so popular and gives them that distinct look--as far as I can tell it's mostly that they're very bright, heavily saturated and evenly lit. When I first started I was naively trying to create "realistic" lighting for every scene so there's still some of that in 1.04.
Scene detail is something that's very important to me. It always ruins a render for me when I see empty shelves or a scene where a character's hands aren't prominent so the dev just gave no thought to what the hands are doing.
I've never heard of KeyShot but I'll look into it. I do post-process in Photoshop but I'm far a pro at it. Here's an example from a rerendering of the Kaitlyn intro (I changed her skin and tweaked the face slightly--also got rid of the exaggerated expression) I did today:
Original on the left, new in the middle, new with post-processing on the right.
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- Aug 15, 2016
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I think DS uses large mesh lights to represent window lighting, often behind the camera. He may be using
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, it certainly gives similar good results. There's a sequel with more complicated shapes which also works well:
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.
- May 17, 2017
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Interesting. I've used that technique before, in the daughter's room day and the weekend scenes waking up in bed with your wife. I'll check out that light set, thanks.
- Aug 16, 2016
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- Apr 3, 2017
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This is great. The right picture looks like it's over-lit by those painful fluorescent lights that are in every classroom and office. Seeing as that's a classroom and all, it works perfectly. I chuckled a little at how the realism simultaneously mocked reality. Good stuff.
She looks wonderful, by the way. When I played before I didn't even take a second glance at her because there was just no attraction there. She looks really good in your new renders. Much more approachable, pretty, and lifelike. I find that bitch characters are the most important to be absolutely stunning, because it is their only redeeming quality (part of the stereotype). If they don't look good, there is no reason to care about them since they already have ugly personalities.
- Dec 17, 2016
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- Oct 15, 2016
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Her mouth is too small for her face so in the first and second pics she looks a bit deformed. Seriously, attractiveness is all about facial symmetry.
I applaud the idea of not wanting supermodels in the game, but seriously do most of the "average" people you meet in real life look like these? Look at the mom from head on, from the eyes down. Her eyes are fantastic but look at her nose, the shape and symmetry and how nose and mouth fit together. The pinched nose and longer gap between the nose and upper lip just throw everything off.
Look att the nose of the rubber puppets I posted and then look at the mom from the front view. They are very similar (in a bad way). Are there angles that make the characters look good? Yep, and I get that some don't care about it, and everything thinks attractiveness is a little different for each, but check the link I posted earlier about the golden number. Its no wonder the statue "David" is seen as the perfect man from an aesthetic standpoint because it's all built off ratios.
Here's a subjective view of the numbers...
Now I don't agree with all the pics for each level, but notice the more symmetrical the faces are the higher they rank. The more narrow a face the easier it is to throw everything off with just a small change. A character doesn't have to be a model to have symetry, hell get those celebrities without their professional makeup and hair stylists and many of them look no better than men/women off the street.
I applaud the idea of not wanting supermodels in the game, but seriously do most of the "average" people you meet in real life look like these? Look at the mom from head on, from the eyes down. Her eyes are fantastic but look at her nose, the shape and symmetry and how nose and mouth fit together. The pinched nose and longer gap between the nose and upper lip just throw everything off.
Look att the nose of the rubber puppets I posted and then look at the mom from the front view. They are very similar (in a bad way). Are there angles that make the characters look good? Yep, and I get that some don't care about it, and everything thinks attractiveness is a little different for each, but check the link I posted earlier about the golden number. Its no wonder the statue "David" is seen as the perfect man from an aesthetic standpoint because it's all built off ratios.
Here's a subjective view of the numbers...
You must be registered to see the links
Now I don't agree with all the pics for each level, but notice the more symmetrical the faces are the higher they rank. The more narrow a face the easier it is to throw everything off with just a small change. A character doesn't have to be a model to have symetry, hell get those celebrities without their professional makeup and hair stylists and many of them look no better than men/women off the street.
You must be registered to see the links
- May 17, 2017
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I'm not contending that there is no more-or-less objective standard for beauty and, if you'll notice, I pointed out that I'm past the point of going for the average look.
I actually did look at the link you posted earlier about the golden number, even got an overlay to show ratios and evaluated the faces based on that. Kaitlyn's new face is pretty much perfect to the ratio, most of the others are very close except for relationships with the bottom of the chin. This appears to be very common with DAZ models meant to look young, you'll find the same discrepancy in renders from other games.
I actually did look at the link you posted earlier about the golden number, even got an overlay to show ratios and evaluated the faces based on that. Kaitlyn's new face is pretty much perfect to the ratio, most of the others are very close except for relationships with the bottom of the chin. This appears to be very common with DAZ models meant to look young, you'll find the same discrepancy in renders from other games.
- Oct 15, 2016
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By the way, I wanted to add that like many others I really enjoy the game so far. I like the dad's attitude and the conversations are refreshing. The main reason the images stuck out so much was because everything was really nice. It was refreshing to not overlook machine translated 'English'. 
- Dec 17, 2016
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According to numerous studies, Jessica Alba is the golden ratio of feminine facial beauty. If only it was as easy to copy paste her face as it was to reuse the same 3 Daz models that are in everything.
- Dec 22, 2016
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Massive improvement on the model, looking good.
You can unpack the RPA and take a look.