CUPdate 25: Eventure Writing & Cassette Tapes

We had a lot more time since the previous CUPdate, but also I've been having a hard time getting back into drawing often, so I've mostly been doing a lot of writing. Since the last CUPdate post, I wrote 2 Eventures, so I'd say that's pretty decent progress.

I started out this CUPdate by visiting my parents, where I picked up some of my old cassette tapes. It was very nostalgic! When I was a kid, I used to record my own "radio shows", opening theme songs for my made up TV shows, and more on those tapes. So I got a USB tape recorder that can convert those into mp3 files using Audacity. So I drew some sketches while listening to these tapes.

I had a slow transition back to working on my own personal projects when I got back because work was so hectic and taking up a lot of my time and energy. But since I took a few days off amongst the chaos, I did manage to get my mind off of things and write some Eventures. To get back into it, I first did a different approach for the Shinneas Eventure, which is now called the Sorceress Osyra Eventure. I started out by recording some sound files, which then inspired some story moments/planning of songs, and then I made The Nays make blog posts for each part that I had planned out. After that, I actually went back and wrote the Eventure, updated some blog posts, then I recorded some more final sound clips that I put on the blog. It was a fun and creative approach, which really helped me get back into things!

And then after creating the sound clips, I ended up writing the whole Sorceress Osyra Eventure on a day off. It was fun to have the blog post outlines for each of the scenes as I was writing.

After writing that Eventure, I spent a day writing the rest of the Sid Eventure with my brother! This was one that I started a few months ago and did parts with just The M Nays, then I had planned out the rest and we finished it off together.

Then the month of May ended so I finished another digital sketchbook page! This month was a little rough because I was so busy, so I honestly didn't draw every day, even traditionally. I'm trying to get back into it, but it's just a really draining time.

And then that's about it. There were some unexpected family things right before this CUPdate so I ended up spending a lot of my free time just playing games to just relax and take some time off. Work has also been super busy so like I said earlier, it's been a struggle to work on my own projects much these days. Days off outside of the normal weekend seem to be when I get most things done. Because things are so busy it's hard to take days off, but maybe some day I'll be less busy and able to get back to things. For now, not promising much for next time, but I hope to at least be able to get back into spending Sundays on working on projects.

CUPdate 23: Camping Eventure Rewrite

I want to start out this post with some personal things, since I think it's relevant to what's been going on and why I haven't been producing much for these CUPdate posts. And a big part of why I had very little to show last time.

I had about a week or two where I was extremely unmotivated to do anything. I let some things get to me and honestly had a bit of time that I truly felt like I should give up on creating art for my personal projects. I haven't been that low in years, so it sucks that I got affected that badly. But then people encouraged me in unexpected ways, which helped me out of it. And then I read the Shitaka Fireworks Eventure that I rewrote a couple of years ago, and remembered that I am capable of creating things that make me happy and are fun to me, regardless of if anyone else would enjoy it, which isn't really the point of my personal projects. So I finally got back into things and out of that terrible slump. 

A lot of what I've been doing recently has been slowly easing back in and doing more reading and writing, so still not a lot to show visually, but I'm getting better! I'm not going to even promise that I'll have more visuals to show for next time, but I will try to work on writing more at the very least.

So I decided to rewrite the Camping Eventure since that one felt kinda like a filler the way that it was originally written. I updated it a lot to add more character development and story moments. It was a great opportunity for me to flesh out some world building involving time tapes and how those work into the story. I also was able to enhance it through incorporating a cabin that I envisioned looking like the one I stayed in last year, so that was a fun addition.

Then I drew some storyboards for the Eventure afterwards. It's been awhile since I drew a lot in one day, so I slowly eased myself into it. I didn't end up finishing drawing all of them, but I spent about an hour sketching these rough boards.

And then something else I've been doing has been re-reading Eventures. I'm at Eventure 80 now in order, so over the past few months I've been progressing through and doing some copy edits and things. What I started to do recently also was rewrite a few minor parts to connect things more. For example, in the Izumi's Missions Eventure, I added in a few lines relating to Gair and Kudamono's first encounter from the Stinky Girl Eventure since I finally wrote that part now. So I was able to connect some of those story moments together better, which is always fun. Other times I'll just update some dialogue to improve it and make it sound less generic, since I've improved my writing skills since then.

So again, not a ton to show, but I do like that I'm getting back into the habit of Eventure writing, so for the past two CUPdates I've had a new Eventure written. If I can average out one every other week, that'll be some good writing progress! Dedicating Sundays to writing and mostly project work has been a lot of fun for me. We'll see how that continues.

CUPdate 21: Eventure Rewrites & Video Editing

So we had a longer time for this CUPdate, but I don't have a ton more to show. Most of what I've been doing is proofreading, planning, and rewriting Eventures. So a lot of writing, but not so many visual updates! The main visual updates I have are video edits that I did towards the end.

I started by reading some Eventures and doing a lot of proofreading throughout Eventures. And through reading these, I started to think of more ideas for rewriting Eventures that I wrote a long time ago, because some of those were just really outdated and I know I could do better now. So I went back and rewrote some parts of the Timer Afterwards Eventure. I also planned out the Timer Eventure and part of the Baron Sisters Eventure, since both of those lead up to this one. There's still a bit more I wanna do with the Timer Afterwards Eventure in terms of making new parts, but I haven't fully figured that one out yet.

Then after I rewrote part of the Timer Afterwards Eventure, I drew some storyboards for the part in The Gek's World. I decided to add some grayscaling to this one to make certain parts pop more. It took a little more time, but was a good addition.

I was also editing some parts in the Ducklin Eventure and decided to revisit a drawing from 2015. Trekkon and Sarah's designs have changed a bit since then, so I drew over this drawing to update it to their new designs for this scene. I also had fun playing around with making Sarah's Dark Vaiyo markings a lot more prominent and vein-like here:

2015

2022

Then I decided to start thinking about how I want Eventure Trailers to be structured. These are going to basically be short videos that are about 5-10 minutes long to recap what happens throughout an entire Eventure. I originally made one of these for the Discovery of the Rebirth Stone Eventure using rough storyboards and voice clips to portray the story. I've been wanting to make more of these and do eventually want to make them for all of the Eventures. Since The Gek Eventure has the most finished art from the Twine story that I made in December, I decided to see what one of these would look like with finished art. I still need to record sound files for most of it and make a few more edits like zooming in on pictures, fading in music, and figuring out how I want subtitles to work. But this was a fun mini-project to take a break from reading and writing Eventures.

I've been in the mood for some video editing recently, so I decided to grab all of the "Nay a Week" videos that I recorded so far and edited them together so I can slowly progress forward on that project. This is a project I'm planning to post at the end of the year and am slowly recording footage for. Basically it's just mini-vlogs of me talking about The Nays and my progress on the project. I thought it'd be a fun project to do for the 20-year anniversary this year.

After that, I got in the mood for editing videos and realize it had been 10 months since I last uploaded a Sketchbook Tour. I was editing those consistently for awhile and kinda just stopped. But so I ended up editing 3 of them and 2 of those I uploaded already. It's fun going back and seeing my old art and memories.

And then since another month ended, I finished my March digital sketchbook page! This month I was reading a lot of Eventures, so I would often doodle a little scene from the one that I just read or characters relating to them at least.

I'll be traveling during the next CUPdate so I'm not expecting to post much for next time. But I plan on continuing with the projects I've been working on and trying to make a little progress there!

CUPdate 20: Game Dev, Eventure Writing, and Drawing

This time I wasn't super focused and kind of worked on a variety of projects. I'm still trying to get back into creating more often. Work has been super hectic recently so I've mostly just had time to work on my own projects over the weekend and not so much on weekdays. I'm slowly trying to motivate myself to get back into it regardless, so that's why I've been kind of all over the place for this CUPdate.

I started out by working on the Link Point system in Compass Nays. This started because I wanted to add how many LPs each character got on the victory screen after a battle, which meant starting this massive mechanic. I was able to set up a ton of loops to actually make these 40+ playable characters fairly manageable. And I set up a system where even if I add up to 60 characters, I won't have to change anything internally, which is great, because this is a huge part of the gameplay system and I'm happy I got it all set up and working so I won't have to touch it unless I have to debug anything down the line.

Then I took a break from my game to get back into writing and working on The Nays. Last weekend my brother and I spent most of our time rewriting the Piko's Concert Eventure. We originally wrote it back in 2009 so it was pretty bad, honestly, since it was one of our first Eventures ever written. But I think we made some good improvements overall this time around! I've been working on figuring out some new ideas revolving around Kali in general, so I was able to sprinkle some of her first moments in there, to connect things better. We still have a few scenes left to rewrite, but we'll come back to it.

So after rewriting a lot of this Eventure, I drew a bunch of storyboards for it. I had already drawn 6 of these when I was brainstorming, but now I went through and drew the rest. It was fun to just be really rough with these and not worry about accuracy or being on model, just to get the first rough pass out on these. It helps me draw a lot more fluid drawings and get the emotions and composition down on the page.

And then also with another month complete, I finished my February digital sketchbook. I started to draw characters each day relating to what I drew the previous day to kind of make it feel like a continuous story. And then towards the end I had the idea to draw characters whose birthdays fall in February. I kinda like these ideas, so planning to carry some of them over into next month as well. I also got some splashes of color in there this time!

So overall I did some game design, some writing, and some drawing. And a little bit on all of my projects! I guess it helps to have projects I can bounce between depending on what I'm more motivated and in the mood for working on.

I'm thinking about getting back into reading Eventures more so I can get all of those proofread and fully into the new Google Docs format. Maybe I'll even be able to draw some storyboards or write some more through this too. Right now I'm still kinda figuring out if I want to focus on something specific, but it's been kinda working by switching between what I'm most in the mood for. This way I'm making progress on a bunch of different projects relating to The Nays, like I wanted to do for this year anyways.

CUPdates 2: Nays 2084 Preview & Nay Recruiters Game

For this week's CUPdate, I've been working on three projects, so I'm gonna show some of the progress I've made so far on each. A lot was admittedly writing, so if there's not a lot to see, that's why!

*Note: Some of the links in this post are private Google Drive links and only in there for my presentation, you won't have access to these files. I've provided some screenshots to show what's included in these links to give you an idea though!

Nays 2084

I started on this animation back in 2017, but hadn't worked on it since 2019. Well, a few weeks ago I got inspired to start working on it again since it had been a while. At this point, I've spent over 40 hours working on this project, and I still have a lot more to do.

Here's the animatic that I posted 2 years ago, just with the rough storyboards and layouts:

The idea for this is that I wanted to make a trailer for a bunch of events that take place in the year 2084 in The Nays (which is the current year for the most recent parts I'm writing). At this point, about half of this video has already happened, but there are still some moments that I haven't written yet.

This was inspired by my brother's Nays 2008 animation that was made over 10 years ago at this point, but that was always one of my favorite animations that he created.

So I ended up creating a lot of the more finished drawings when I was making the Truth of Yaguzi Eventure, but I didn't do a lot of the animating. Recently I finally composited together a lot of animations that I had drawn and started to realize I was getting closer to finishing this than I had originally thought.

My plan is to finish this animation by the end of this year (maybe by fall if I'm lucky), so I'm hoping that'll happen!

Here's where I'm at in terms of progress so far:

Nay Recruiters Game

Another on-going project that I've been working more on is the Nay Recruiters RPG Maker game. It was originally an MV project that I started back in 2019, but I updated it to an MZ project and have mostly been working on the battle system, GUI, and overall concept plans for how the game works. 

Well, recently, I decided to start working on the sequence of events and overall story. My plan is to make the story basically an abridged, shortened, retelling of my huge The Nays story. In this version, I'm planning to focus on some of the main characters and a lot of the characters that come later will be side optional characters, where their stories will be optional quests that aren't required for the main plot. I really wanna focus the story in more for this game, and it could be a chance to explore rewriting the story without affecting the Eventure structures too much, and it'll be a kind of fresh start. I've narrowed down the opening scene to 3 different ideas, but still trying to figure out which of those to go with.

Then I also started working on style inspiration boards, mainly for the text boxes, and then a bit for character/background art. I'm still kinda all over the place and not quite sure what I wanna do, but the art won't actually be coming for awhile since I need to finish the story and programming main parts first, so that's okay. I might do some style tests in the near future though to try and at least explore some of my options.

The Nays

It's been awhile since I wrote anything for the main storyline of The Nays (since December actually, so I haven't since last year!). Well, last weekend my brother and I wrote the Garlint Eventure, which has been planned for awhile, but never actually written. I also drew some storyboards for the Hot Ice City Eventure that was written a few months back, and turned it into a Google Doc.

Here are the storyboards:

And as a bonus, I also discovered Hero Forge this week (thanks to my friend Anna!) and I decided to make The 6 Main Nays on there:

Discovery of the Rebirth Stone Animatic

I took about 3 hours to make this rough animatic that summaries the Discovery of the Rebirth Stone Eventure in 5 minutes. I took some of the key moments and made a bunch of quick storyboards to showcase them.

Discovery of the Rebirth Stone from Michelle Rakar on Vimeo.


And here are some of my favorite moments:

Nays 2084 Preview - Storyboard Animatic Complete!

This is a project that I've been working on recently. It was inspired by my brother's animation that he did back in 2008, where it was a preview of stuff in The Nays that was to come that year. This one is about what is to come in the next year of eventures (in their year, which is 2084). Some of these things may happen in 2085 though, since some is very far future, but close enough!

On another note, this is still in the rough stages, but I finally finished drawing all of the storyboards so I wanted to compile what I had together so far. Sounds are still very rough/unedited, and I haven't added sound effects yet. But the timing is pretty solid for what I'm planning for the final. Same with the compositions. 

I also want to point out that a couple of the scenes towards the beginning were drawn at least two years ago, so that's why some of these look a bit lower quality than others. Those are also the ones that have old recorded sounds that are probably gonna be redone when I get time to.

But overall this has been fun and I'm excited to start working on the actual animating! It's taken about 8 hours and 30 minutes so far for the drawing, compiling, and recording parts. But I'm a lot happier with this than I was with my previous animatics for this project and others.

Nays 2084 - Storyboard Animatic from Michelle Rakar on Vimeo.

Tegra Note Doodles

So recently I've been trying to get more comfortable using my Tegra Note for sketching. It's fun to do quick little doodles, but I'm still working on being able to create finished work on there.

Ended up realizing that painting in Sketchbook Mobile is my favorite of the free programs for my Tablet.

This one was in Art Flow.

And I tried out "Colors!" only to find out that you have to pay money to save pictures... so this is the only photo I could get of my drawing. That app was uninstalled pretty quickly afterwards....

Lots of character sketches.


I drew this one in the car on my vacation.

Quick little sketch I did after re-watching the first Madoka movie for the third or so time.

And these were some quick storyboard thumbnails I did.

Storyboard Practice

Lately I've been working with compositions and doodling some storyboards for fun. I also did super quick boards for a short animation project I'm planning on doing at some point (I revisited an old project), but I didn't post those here because they're super rough and really only for me to understand.

This was a test I did on my Tegra Note, and I actually really liked the type of line quality I could get.

And this was one that I did on my Monoprice Tablet that took slightly longer, but was a little more detailed.

These were some quick thumbnails I did in my sketchbook with marker, based on old scripts that I found from 2011.