Brad's Erotic Week (BEW) - S01, E07 (2017-12-04)

[TeineWolf]

Forgive me if this has been brought up before. Some the animated sequences are a little distracting. Specifically the one in the bar, when Brad takes a look at what Faith it doing.

It looks a little clunky as a two cell animation. The sudden visual jump of the bar counter, doesn't look right. You might want to add a few cells to that animation. The brain will trick it's self into seeing movement, as long as there's some form of continuity. In a two cell animation. Having a bar top suddenly at the top one cell, and then in the middle in the second. The brain wont allows itself to be fooled. Because of the severity of the transition.

[Wolfschadowe]

Forgive me if this has been brought up before. Some the animated sequences are a little distracting. Specifically the one in the bar, when Brad takes a look at what Faith it doing.

Yeah, that's one of the first animations that I did, and I didn't know how to use the animation tools, so it was essentially a stop motion thing, and I wasn't smart enough to lock the camera in place either.

Personally, I think the worst one is the one with Candy and the Bartender at the strip club. On a brighter note, the animations get a lot better as I learn the system. Most of the Animations in the private dance are a lot better, but I have lighting problems in some of those. The best in the current episodes is likely during the private dance with Azumi.

I made a conscious decision not to go back and redo those for various reasons. One reason is that if I went back to redo everything I messed up, I wouldn't even have Episode 1 done yet, let alone be close to releasing episode 3. Another reason that I don't go back for the really bad ones, is that I don't have save files for them. I'd have to recreate them from scratch. The problem with recreating them from scratch, at this point, is that I don't think I could make the lighting and everything that bad if I tried, meaning there'd be a jarring change in quality between the frames. Beginning with Day 2, I have a save file for every rendered frame, but for most, if not all of day 1, I just used a single file and moved everything around after every shot and saved over the same file. Stupid in hindsight, but that was part of the learning process.

Hopefully those early shots, that I consider to be craptastic myself, don't detract too much from the overall game. Hang in there, it gets better!

Wolfschadowe

[xravensfan]

maybe a dumb comment here... This is awesome. With or without animations. So, NO, it was not distracting!!! :-)

[Wolfschadowe]

maybe a dumb comment here... This is awesome. With or without animations. So, NO, it was not distracting!!! :-)

Thanks xravensfan! Really though, I agree with TeineWolf on the quality of the early renders in the Bar and Strip Club scenes. I cringe at some of them myself. The ones in the office on Day 2 are much better, and I expect the ones in the dates in the evening to be better still.

Wolfschadowe

[TeineWolf]

Forgive me if this has been brought up before. Some the animated sequences are a little distracting. Specifically the one in the bar, when Brad takes a look at what Faith it doing.

Yeah, that's one of the first animations that I did, and I didn't know how to use the animation tools, so it was essentially a stop motion thing, and I wasn't smart enough to lock the camera in place either.

Personally, I think the worst one is the one with Candy and the Bartender at the strip club. On a brighter note, the animations get a lot better as I learn the system. Most of the Animations in the private dance are a lot better, but I have lighting problems in some of those. The best in the current episodes is likely during the private dance with Azumi.

I made a conscious decision not to go back and redo those for various reasons. One reason is that if I went back to redo everything I messed up, I wouldn't even have Episode 1 done yet, let alone be close to releasing episode 3. Another reason that I don't go back for the really bad ones, is that I don't have save files for them. I'd have to recreate them from scratch. The problem with recreating them from scratch, at this point, is that I don't think I could make the lighting and everything that bad if I tried, meaning there'd be a jarring change in quality between the frames. Beginning with Day 2, I have a save file for every rendered frame, but for most, if not all of day 1, I just used a single file and moved everything around after every shot and saved over the same file. Stupid in hindsight, but that was part of the learning process.

Hopefully those early shots, that I consider to be craptastic myself, don't detract too much from the overall game. Hang in there, it gets better!

Wolfschadowe

Two words that were hammered into me, "AUDIT TRAIL".

It's actually from an accounting mindset, but it's to make sure you can retrace something. In your case you don't need a fancy file archive system. Just cobble a PC tower. slap a network card in it. Then buy cheap HD's to archive your more complex sequences. That way your work PC, can stay current. But you can recreate older elements, from the archive. When a HD is full in the archive machine, yank it out, and put a fresh one in. And place the old one in a Tupperware box. DO NOT MICROWAVE! Or mix it with KD.

[ut1stgear1]

IMHO. The work wolfshadowe has done far exceeds many games I have played by authors that have published many games. These are on sites where the name of the game is quantity and if you happened to have quality then great but these authors seem to only care about putting new games in as short of a time space as possible. The games tend to be much the same from one to the next with very little if any storyline to them. In BEW we can an increase in quality from episode to episode. I was most drawn by the storyline and the quality, all though, was good enough to not detract from what wolfshadowe was doing with the story. I am looking forward to see his as it progresses and know already I will be able to enjoy both a quality story with improved renders. Since it was mentioned I did noticed the scenes that were mentioned but it had minor effect on enjoying the game as a whole. That's just me speaking.

[Wolfschadowe]

...In your case you don't need a fancy file archive system...

Ironically, I DO have a fancy file archive system. It comes from years and years, and a depressingly large amount of years of system and network administration. My render system has file versioning enabled at the O/S level. Additionally, it does delta backups hourly to a 4TB RAID 5 NAS device that keeps a years worth of backups hot. That NAS compresses and offloads daily to a pair of Portable NAS drives in RAID 1 configuration, one of which is swapped out monthly with a third identical drive in a safety deposit box...and recently I also started uploading backups to cloud storage. I can actually pull up 15 year old phone bills that I digitized back in the day. heh. I scan everything.

But...I would keep DAZ open for weeks at a time, never even saving the file while making those scenes. And I knew better! Just from a general data integrity perspective. heh. It was just Pose..render...pose..render..pose...rinse..repeat.

Now I save before every render. Have a matching DAZ file for every image. Have every version of every DAZ file and image, and recently even enacted source control via TFS server and Visual Studio 2015, and now even my backups, have backups of my backups, both online and offline, onsite and offsite.

...I am looking forward to see his as it progresses and know already I will be able to enjoy both a quality story with improved renders. Since it was mentioned I did noticed the scenes that were mentioned but it had minor effect on enjoying the game as a whole. That's just me speaking.

Speak away! I don't mind constructive criticism, especially when it's as deserved as talking about the quality of early animations and artwork. Even my current artwork isn't fantastic...just better. I also appreciate the confidence and compliments as well!

Wolfschadowe

[ut1stgear1]

Ok, here goes. Only two scenes and I am sure you already know about them without anyone pointing them out. First Natalie's lower leg in the Dance Scene was completely out of wack color wise. Positioning looked though. Guess you say it jumped out at me. Second and I actually thought this was planned. Th look on Azumi's face during Btad's Private Dance with her. Found it to be comical and very Halloweenish so I enjoyed it everytime I found it. Had to laugh. Can't think of anything in the bar scene at all. Didn't notice the positioning of the bar behind Faith. One of the walkthroughs had the Club as Episode 1 and Bar as episode 2. Not sure if the renders in each would support either way although the quality in the Bar seems somewhat better so that might support that sequence. However, as I've already said, the storyline and written presentation overrode any loss in graphical presentation. It seems that Daz is a very popular program for stills. For motion I don't know. From what I've seen Daz makes it easy, to a point, to render but is very time intensive so the other program you have talked has a lot of promise based on the example wolfshadowe shared in an earlier post.

[TeineWolf]

But...I would keep DAZ open for weeks at a time, never even saving the file while making those scenes. And I knew better! Just from a general data integrity perspective. heh. It was just Pose..render...pose..render..pose...rinse..repeat.

Now I save before every render. Have a matching DAZ file for every image. Have every version of every DAZ file and image, and recently even enacted source control via TFS server and Visual Studio 2015, and now even my backups, have backups of my backups, both online and offline, onsite and offsite.

Wolfschadowe

We've all been guilty of that, at some point. You know you should save an active file, you know you should save previous revisions. But hey, it's a quick thing, never need to use it again..........

[ut1stgear1]

Love this discussion on how to not lose your work. It's mostly foreign to me cause I haven't done any graphic work but interesting to read about. I just know I have heard about DAZ and then it quickly goes beyond the scope of my knowledge and experience. I think I can also pick out authors who are using SAZ or just a Flash Player to produce games. Keep the discussion going I might learn a little bit about how things work to produce a much better than average game. I have no desire to produce a game but certainly will enjoy them.

[karrek]

...In your case you don't need a fancy file archive system...

Ironically, I DO have a fancy file archive system. It comes from years and years, and a depressingly large amount of years of system and network administration. My render system has file versioning enabled at the O/S level. Additionally, it does delta backups hourly to a 4TB RAID 5 NAS device that keeps a years worth of backups hot. That NAS compresses and offloads daily to a pair of Portable NAS drives in RAID 1 configuration, one of which is swapped out monthly with a third identical drive in a safety deposit box...and recently I also started uploading backups to cloud storage. I can actually pull up 15 year old phone bills that I digitized back in the day. heh. I scan everything.

But...I would keep DAZ open for weeks at a time, never even saving the file while making those scenes. And I knew better! Just from a general data integrity perspective. heh. It was just Pose..render...pose..render..pose...rinse..repeat.

Now I save before every render. Have a matching DAZ file for every image. Have every version of every DAZ file and image, and recently even enacted source control via TFS server and Visual Studio 2015, and now even my backups, have backups of my backups, both online and offline, onsite and offsite.

After the Collapse humanity barely survived, but over the centuries we have been able to rebuild some of what was lost. We know very little about what society was like before, nearly all records having been destroyed, with the exception of a series of caches, buried between 100 and 200 meters below the surface, forming a 1 km grid across the entire surface of the Earth. Each cache contains only a series of strangle metal tablets, each one labeled "Brad's Erotic Week - Backup".

[Wolfschadowe]

Th look on Azumi's face during Btad's Private Dance with her. Found it to be comical and very Halloweenish so I enjoyed it everytime I found it. Had to laugh. Can't think of anything in the bar scene at all. Didn't notice the positioning of the bar behind Faith. One of the walkthroughs had the Club as Episode 1 and Bar as episode 2.

Wasn't aware of that quirk in the Azumi dance...but now that you mention it, she is kind of like one of those cat clocks with the eyes that go back and forth. haha.

Technically, there is the Base Game, which is the framework, menu system, intro, office, and home. Episode 1 is the Bar and home afterwards, and Episode 2 is the Strip Club, for those who are curious. That was also the order of creation, with the private dance being the last scene of that set that I made. (It's a completely different scene/set from the Strip Club although integrated with the Strip Club Episode.)

But hey, it's a quick thing, never need to use it again..........

That is so...so true!

Love this discussion on how to not lose your work. It's mostly foreign to me cause I haven't done any graphic work but interesting to read about. I just know I have heard about DAZ and then it quickly goes beyond the scope of my knowledge and experience. I think I can also pick out authors who are using SAZ or just a Flash Player to produce games. Keep the discussion going I might learn a little bit about how things work to produce a much better than average game. I have no desire to produce a game but certainly will enjoy them.

Not really the place to keep this going, but if you get curious, you may want to check out the BEW DEV thread in the projects forum, linked from the first page. There's also a few threads in that forum where people are asking about DAZ studio, and Game Creator tools (Like Tlaero's Adventure Creator that I use).

After the Collapse humanity barely survived, but over the centuries we have been able to rebuild some of what was lost. We know very little about what society was like before, nearly all records having been destroyed, with the exception of a series of caches, buried between 100 and 200 meters below the surface, forming a 1 km grid across the entire surface of the Earth. Each cache contains only a series of strangle metal tablets, each one labeled "Brad's Erotic Week - Backup".

Damn...only 1 every km survives? I need to fix that, and also develop a technology proof way to play the game so that the future society can base it's entire culture and socio-religious structure around the tenants of BEW to form a Utopian society that will put Bill and Ted's music based one to shame....or destroy said society. Either way, should be fun.

Wolfschadowe

[Bonhomie]

Stuff all this back up chatter - priorities, priorities gentlemen.

What we need to be sure of is that Emily wears those black stockings ( from the 'easy' picture ) in all forthcoming episodes and they stay on during her sexual activities.

[ut1stgear1]

Th look on Azumi's face during Btad's Private Dance with her. Found it to be comical and very Halloweenish so I enjoyed it everytime I found it. Had to laugh. Can't think of anything in the bar scene at all. Didn't notice the positioning of the bar behind Faith. One of the walkthroughs had the Club as Episode 1 and Bar as episode 2.

Wasn't aware of that quirk in the Azumi dance...but now that you mention it, she is kind of like one of those cat clocks with the eyes that go back and forth. haha.

Technically, there is the Base Game, which is the framework, menu system, intro, office, and home. Episode 1 is the Bar and home afterwards, and Episode 2 is the Strip Club, for those who are curious. That was also the order of creation, with the private dance being the last scene of that set that I made. (It's a completely different scene/set from the Strip Club although integrated with the Strip Club Episode.)

Love this discussion on how to not lose your work. It's mostly foreign to me cause I haven't done any graphic work but interesting to read about. I just know I have heard about DAZ and then it quickly goes beyond the scope of my knowledge and experience. I think I can also pick out authors who are using SAZ or just a Flash Player to produce games. Keep the discussion going I might learn a little bit about how things work to produce a much better than average game. I have no desire to produce a game but certainly will enjoy them.

Not really the place to keep this going, but if you get curious, you may want to check out the BEW DEV thread in the projects forum, linked from the first page. There's also a few threads in that forum where people are asking about DAZ studio, and Game Creator tools (Like Tlaero's Adventure Creator that I use).


Wolfschadowe

I just read the first two pages of the DEV thread out of curiousity. Very interesting. Probably read twenty-nine pages though. I was surprised at long you have been developing BEW. Best I could determine it would be a start date of sometime in early 2013 based on the date of your first post but think I saw some posts that predated that year. When did you get started on it.

I shortened this post by editing out the parts that don't apply to this post. No offense meant.

[Wolfschadowe]

...What we need to be sure of is that Emily wears those black stockings ( from the 'easy' picture ) in all forthcoming episodes and they stay on during her sexual activities.

In that case, choose your path...wisely.

...I just read the first two pages of the DEV thread out of curiousity. Very interesting. Probably read twenty-nine pages though. I was surprised at long you have been developing BEW. Best I could determine it would be a start date of sometime in early 2013 based on the date of your first post but think I saw some posts that predated that year. When did you get started on it...

If you count it from when I first started outlining the story, that was probably mid 2012. The first render and page creation was probably January of 2013. The biggest bottleneck...rendering. I'm always waiting on images, and artist help is few and far between.

...I shortened this post by editing out the parts that don't apply to this post. No offense meant.

No worries. I shorten posts all the time, or chop them into relevent pieces. I note areas where I do this by using "..." or "--SNIP--"

Wolfschadowe