CUPdate 44: Small Update

I have a pretty small update for this week. May has been super busy in my personal and work life, so I haven't really had time to draw.

For this month's digital sketchbook, I was just playing around with some color palettes and styles for Sagun to figure out the design. I decided to go with the one that's larger on the left.

It was my friend Laura's birthday, so I drew her characters Banana and Belle!

I also went to a baseball game, so I did some quick gesture drawings.

And that's it! I have a pretty busy summer up ahead, so I'm not really expecting any big updates until the fall.

CUPdate 28: Stage 1 of the IGMC Project Wrapping Up

So for this CUPdate, I mostly worked on my game more for the IGMC2022! I've been making a lot of progress on the first stage of the game and tried to get most of that finalized by this CUPdate so I could present as much of it as possible before it's finished (which is the goal for the next CUPdate!).

I started out this CUPdate by finishing some character art. I made digital drawings of all of the character portraits. I started with at least one drawing of each of them, then built off of that to make all of the expressions that I needed.

Then I started to work on the dialogue system. I set some things up in RPG Maker and set up the ink dialogue system. Then I wrote the whole first stage of the game (besides one character path). I made a bunch of branching story paths and wrote it all in Ink! This was my first time writing something this in-depth directly in Ink, so it was fun to fully utilize this powerful plugin. I really love it for longer story-focused games, so this was the perfect time for me to use it and test its full potential. I ended up writing a lot throughout the week (~3000 lines).

The transition from Ink to RPG Maker went fairly smoothly and it was honestly maybe my favorite part. It just felt so good seeing everything come together and working with more simple switches and variables to progress the story. I've been working so much on setting everything up with more complex code that I forgot what it was like to do the more simple parts! Those parts wouldn't have been possible without all of the setup I've been doing though, so it paid off!

Then I started to figure out the UI for all of the stages of the game. I used my initial concepts and added color to them so I could start to figure out what I wanted to do with them.

And then I finalized the UI and imported it into the game. Here's my first official final screenshot:

While working on the UI, I made the menu for the game. I wanted to keep it simple and really only include information that would be needed. Right now it's entirely mouse-based, but one of my wishlist tasks is to see if I can make controller/keyboard support too. Not sure if I'll get there, but maybe!

Then I worked on making some sound effects to replace some of the default ones. I plan to come back and make more, but there's at least something there for the minimums now!

And then I made the transition scenes to the second stage of the game. The writing for that is done and I have basic events working in RPG Maker, I just need to make the art so it all comes together. I'm having some trouble with plugins not working well together, so I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with the text boxes for the second stage of the game, since my original plan isn't working out as intended. I might end up using more manual coding of window positions than a plugin since I couldn't get them to work well together, or might just stick with something a little more simplified.

So for my next CUPdate post, I hope to have this game finished and playable!

Amelia Expression Studies

For October's Improvement Movement, the theme is expressions! I decided to get a headstart on this one and did a few extras. I decided to stick with Amelia, since I don't have a lot of various expression drawings of her yet.

These ones I polished a bit more and ended up being the final group.

This was the first group that I decided to leave pretty rough, just as some additional ideas I had while doodling.

Old Forgotten Posts of 7 Years: Part 2

This is part 2 in my old blog post series. I'm setting the date for 2019 but posting this compilation technically in 2025!

Mr Dude Redesign (December 29, 2019)

For December's Improvement Movement prompt (and the final one of the year!), I decided to redesign Mr Dude! 

Here's his final design! I included the different hair concepts I made in the process too.

And then here is his old design to show a side-by-side comparison of what I improved, too.

Life Drawing (October 19, 2019)

These are some various life drawings I've done the past few months.

Yaguzi's Family (September 29, 2019)

I've been planning out eventures all weekend, so I decided to make the Lynx family tree to try and figure out how this family works. They don't have names yet, but that'll happen soon!

Here's the family tree!

So basically, Yaguzi is 25% deamon (which is about 50% demon). I was playing around with the idea of how deamon traits are passed down through families. I decided that demons likely come about when deamons breed with another species, since they become more people-like. Since Yaguzi's family lives in Compass World, they become demons pretty quickly down the line.

For his grandparents and great-grandparents, I got a lot of inspiration from different types of cats. His great-grandpa is based on a Norwegian Forest cat, his great-grandma a tiger, and then his grandpa a maine coon. This was a lot of fun to make, since I really think genetics is interesting and how important it is in how characters look, in relation to their families.

Ralphie (September 15, 2019)

After a bunch of traveling, it's been hard getting back into drawing often. I've been trying to do some quick doodles to get back into it though.

Here's a quick doodle of Ralphie!

More from The Nays Comic (August 8, 2019)

I realize it's been about a year since I've drawn a comic page. I've been so caught up in writing more of the story and making concepts that I haven't really spent a lot of time drawing the beginning. This was fun, but also took a lot of time to draw, so I guess that's why I haven't been keeping up to date on drawing these. Maybe I'll draw more before another year passes!

Read the previous pages here!

Page 6

Shelter 128 Floor Plan (August 3, 2019)

Here’s a floor plan of Shelter 128. The M and S Nays generally spend a lot of time here when they’re not on missions. Bird-in-Trainings use the computers in here to do work, and one of the Higher-Up Birds resides here to oversee work.

This was originally for this month's Improvement Movement challenge, but I might do another one since I'm not sure if I wanna draw a full illustration of this one yet.

Kominushu (July 8, 2019)

Some more NAD drawings I've done. I usually don't get to do these in the summer, so it's been fun to finally draw some of these more main characters!

Kominushu is the kind-hearted younger sister of Trekkon who looks up to him. She is very calm and gentle and likes to see the good in others. She believes everyone has a little good in them, even if they choose to do evil deeds. Despite the hardships she’s gone through in her past, she has always kept a smile on her face and stayed positive. Her strong-hearted personality has made her very likable and inspired others. She’s close friends with both Clove and Sarah, and will do whatever she can to keep her friends safe.

Hide & Seek (July 7, 2019)

I've been writing the Hide & Seek Eventure, so I decided to do some quick sketches of a bunch of the scenes!

Detective Ragger (May 23, 2019)

Some more sketches!

I've been playing Detective Pikachu on 3DS and it's been making me want to get back to working on Detective Ragger. Maybe someday I'll have time to make games for myself again.

Sketches with Emotion (March 5, 2019)

Sometimes I get that feeling where I put a lot of myself into the sketch and it just flows better and looks less stiff.

Here's a shot from the Eventure I rewrote. Gair's running from the White Cloaks, and in turn, even pushing his friends away in fear.

Gamishness Revisited (March 3, 2019)

I decided to start up this project again of drawing the Eventures of The Nays in the style of games I've played.

This one is Dragon Quest I (or, Dragon Warrior, as I played). I played this game a long time ago, so I don't remember a whole lot about it. This Eventure is Complex.net when Scott and Chozu take over the Bouncy Room, so this is the Bouncy Room Lady trying to defend herself against them.

Midi Inspirations (February 24, 2019)

I've been in the mood for listening to midis recently.

I called this the Music Mania Easygoing Remix since I listened to the songs twice in a row instead of once so I would have time to put quick colors behind them. I'm planning to use these in a game I'm making.

Biggert City Sketches (January 9, 2019)

Some drawings of Biggert City characters!

My friend was jokingly saying we all needed to draw frogs, but I took her seriously and drew Josinda.

 

When DMunn obtains The Gek's powers and takes over his brother.

More NADs: Poproy and Handew

Some more NAD drawings that I've had time to do on weekends in the summer!

Poproy is a very well-known hero in Somi who always fends off against attackers. He is very powerful, but is defeated by Ducklin, in order to save his beloved son Piko. He is very close with his wife Siubo and his son Piko, so the family would often train together and grow stronger as a family. Poproy trained under Wes, a well-known legend in PS World, which explains where his immense strength came from. Though, because of Poproy's strength, his village is often in danger of challengers wanting to face him. He's very humble and doesn't like to show off his strength, but when his family and fellow villagers are in danger, he doesn't hesitate to show his true power.

Handew is a polite and studious young boy who always asks questions for clarification. He's not very good with technology and usually runs into technical difficulties whenever using computers. Handew is often a bystander and follows along with the group. He's one of Waga's wings, so he's constantly asking him questions, though he wouldn't dare talk back or talk out of turn when around him. Handew is a very obedient kid and it often weighs down on his self-confidence level due to never standing up for himself.

Clove's Poses

This month's Improvement Movement challenge was to draw a character in a bunch of different poses, so I chose Clove! I also wanted to draw her in costumes that she wears throughout the series.

Here's the final sheet

And then this is the process!

Nays Characters Being Born

It's crazy to think we've finally gotten to years where characters in The Nays are being born. Only another 58 years until the actual story begins!

I drew this on Ginko's birthday!

I doodled the Ragger twins' kid selves during my lunch break on their birthday.

First Nay-A-Day Drawings of 2019!

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I drew any NADs. So here are the first few of the year.

Valentina is Amelia's embarrassing mother who always treats her much younger than she is. She often babies Amelia and calls her "her baby" in public, and will hug Amelia in front of her friends. Valentina is very self-centered and often doesn't care what others think. She is demanding and always wants things done her way. Valentina doesn't like to reason with people. She is very strict and thinks she can decide what Amelia can and can't do, and will order her to follow her demands.

Del is a dedicated young woman who was trained by Daymo when she was younger. Since then, she's broken away from Outlaw Bar and pursued work at Mantra. Del specializes in stealth and often accepts jobs where she can exercise this specialty. She likes to talk a lot and makes friends very easily, which is why she's very well-liked throughout Mantra.

Improvement Movement: Gif Turnaround

Barely finished April's Improvement Movement prompt in time! This one was probably the most difficult so far since it involved a lot of drawings and keeping a character on model. I chose Zandra since she's easy to draw!

So here's the final gif!

And then this is a process gif to show a bit of the process. I ended up just erasing lines on the original sketch layer to clean it up so I don't have quite the whole process documented, but still fun to look at!

New Characters

Because I don't have enough already.

I don't know who she is, but this design just came to mind so I sketched her. I'll find a place for her someday.

Here's a quick doodle of what Xiyu might look like! She's Zev's mother and Kai's aunt who lives on the Rapturous Continent.

Bram & Muyo

I recently rewrote an old Eventure and decided to re-design Bram and Muyo for when they come back as World Officials of New Lady World.

This is what Bram looks like when she comes back as a World Official in the War on Mr Dude World Eventure.

And then this is what Muyo looks like as a World Official of New Lady World!

Re-Designing The Nays

I've been doing some character re-designs.

I decided to re-design Eather today since I didn't really like how her old design looked. I'm going with something like the top left one.

Thinking about demon skin tones and trying to figure out one that works best. I'm still kind of leaning towards the original one, honestly (the far right). The orangish one and gray ones are also top contenders though.

Val Character Re-Design

So Val is a character I made up a long time ago, but never actually did anything with or really had a design for her. She was just a character in Clove's past and didn't have a whole lot of personality or backstory. So I went ahead and created an Eventure about her and developed her much more!

For her design, I created a character in DB Xenoverse 2 and based it from there.

Here's the original concept based on her design in DB Xenoverse 2.

A typical day with Clove, Jibu, and Val during their childhood. This is a scene from the Clove Retrieval Eventure.

New Clothes for The Nays

I was thinking about what clothes demons would wear other than their uniforms.

I made some new clothing designs for Akuma!

These clothes are pretty similar to Snull's old clothes, but she also doesn't seem like she'd want to change it up very often. I'm thinking this could be how she looks after the Death Finale Eventure.

Clothes Variation Sketches

Some quick sketches I did during lunch breaks or before work.

I was thinking of some new clothes ideas for Jibu and came up with this one.

It's been very cold in the Midwest. This is how I've been dressing indoors.