Note: Un-Rendered Screenshots saved directly from Trimble Sketchup

NaNoRenO?… Nope, I’m not gonna discuss NaNoRenO projects for today. Instead, I’ll talk about that old sketchup building I released a while ago.

Newly retrofitted school building viewed from the gym front entrance.

Long story short, a few weeks ago I released a sketchup model of a whole school building complete with furnishings  under creative commons HERE for use with OELVN BG creation. While it does serve it’s purpose I’ve been receiving a few (actually just 2) emails that it looked kinda brutal and old. As if the building was build during the 70′s and wasn’t maintained properly. I took a second look and yes indeed, it looked horrible which is perfect for horror stories but awful setting for a lovey-dovey moe-moe school love story.

The school Building before major retrofitting.

The building is in awful shape and will probably receive a very dismal ENERGY STAR rating of 15 or even lower. Normally, I don’t mix work with OELVN activities and I go to great lengths to ensure the two are separate but this chance is just too perfect. What this building needed is a Retrofit. And to make things more fun and interesting (at least for me), I’ll treat this as if it’s for an actual client with a tight budget which I’m not gonna disclose.

The School Building viewed from the nearby School Gym.

Let’s start with the exterior. The look of the building affects the mood of the people working in it. So we decided to clad the whole building with Dryvit. We use a vibrant light yellow cream color which is very pleasant in the eyes. For the awning, we decided to use Dryvit Custom Brick to accentuate and highlight them choosing a red orange brick color to provide high contrast with the wallcladding while at the same time blend together since they belong roughly in the same part of the spectrum.

For the gaps between windows, I could rely on Tremco to seal the gaps that can be saved and a combination of Dryvit  AQUAFLASH and BACKSTOP NT for places where windows that needed to be gutted and replaced. The Outside part of the lobby will have an artificial brick floor for no apparent reason other than it looks good. Also, adding plants in windows will add value to property in who knows what ways but I’m still gonna say it because it usually convinces otherwise skeptical clients. The roof is a different monster altogether and will be a very VERY long thing to discus so let’s skip it and say we just power-hosed and scrubbed the whole roof, cleared the drainage of debris, use the cheapest branded sealant to cover potential problem spots while trying to control budget and installed a ring of large drainage pipes along the roof to prevent rainwater accumulation. For aesthetic purposes, we added a few semi transparent roof structures supported attached to guywire’s which doesn’t really bear any load but is rather there to make things look interesting. We also removed a few dated looking fire exits and replaced them with bulky sturdy looking and wider modern ones.

All in all, if this was a real project it will take about 120 working days and about 50 people working on 8 hour shifts while the building is still on half-use. Probably even go as low as 60 days if the building is fully vacated. So that’s all for the exterior but what about the interior?

The building structure remains intact so the only thing we can do is make the interior look interesting. Let’s start with the classroom.

By adding more furniture, you make the classroom look like it was indeed being there for a purpose. We also replaced the previous large ventilation shafts with smaller sleeker ones. The chairs and tables are also replaced with newer models, they now have more than double the pixel of the previous one but still under a manageable 1500. We also added more whiteboards, blackboards and cork boards for who knows what.

But most importantly is the addition of the curtains. That’s right, curtains. I’ve been neglecting this one piece of classroom fixture for quite a while now. Adding the curtains made the classroom more homely and somewhat a place I’d like to hang out.

Oh and before we forgot, we also added a few nifty things like that sign thing in front of every room in the building.

We are also concerned about the safety of the students (and potential lawsuits) so we make sure we remind them to be careful in places that are accident prone.

But wait, did I mention the fact that every single door and window in the building is functional and can be opened and closed independently?

Here we have a 32 door locker cabinet for a class of 40 students.

And what kind of school doesn’t have a locker room for the student to put their things and hide their stash of weed. Same thing with the doors and windows. Each locker is a functioning locker. Unfortunately  I can;t say the same for electrical wiring. At this point I went into lazy mode and pretend some of the missing electrical connections are buried within the ceiling even though the base structure clearly doesn’t have provision for such things. Of course we can always drill a hole but removing everything all we will have left is floors and load bearing joists and columns/pillars but it might compromise structural integrity so we usually just snake them all over the place when retrofitting unless we are 100% certain we can mess with the structure without compromise.

Oh by the way, unlike the previous models I’m not sharing this one yet. I’m still in a pretty awful mood after that incident last week that I needed some time to get back my happy vibes. So for now, no free models from Uncle Mugen.

That’s all for now. (goes back to sulking)

Note: Un-Rendered Screenshots saved directly from Trimble Sketchup

So here we have this image of Anime Styled School Building…

NaNoRenO?… Again not this time. Instead, I’ll continue talking about the ongoing retrofitting of that old sketchup building I released a while ago which can be downloaded HERE.

In the previous thread while in the middle of the retrofitting. I received several suggestions from teresamanco on improvements like more access to disabled, gentler stair steps, railings and access ramps. Aesthetic-wise, the changes made to accommodate disable friendly improvements made the building look interesting but for a contractor, it was a total nightmare. Lesson learned here.

We also made the stairs wider so no crowding in case of fire induced stampede. Same thing with the fire exits. They are now gentler and wider and doors open both ways with really loud alarm siren to help people find way to fire exit.

The lobby is now wide, and high ceiling. Very inviting with chairs for those who are waiting and LED screen to display school and government propaganda.

Unfortunately, to save file size, we have to eliminate accurate electrical paths and pretend it is hidden in the ceiling. Same thing with ventilation. But it is good news now we can has Florescent lamp embedded in ceiling.

We also added more details in gates and is marked by colors so you can tell which gate is red, green or blue. Also, Disable Friendly because of access ramp.

Also added a bunch of bench around the building for social interaction and place where students can sit when they are tired.

The classrooms also get a boost in details with more objects and chairs and tables not arranged properly.

The comfort room is also not neglected. It has everything you need in toilet.

Of course, most anime themed school building had this rooftop where every VN character obligatory goes to at least once in their lifetimes. We made it look interesting by adding benches and plants to contrast the ugly air-condition units and big water tanks.

Again, the cabinets, doors, windows and everything are interactive. Giving you maximum flexibility.

Not every room is created equal, some are small, some are big and some are just plain weird… like the one below… it is full of chairs and tables and no apparent purpose…

Anyway, to give you complexity of this project…

Last preview for now… hope you enjoy my English XD

Like every single free resource from UNCLE MUGEN, this is free for use on whatever purpose it may serve you best, even OK for commercial use, may it be on OELVN creation or anything else but may I humbly request you credit me and say hi to me when you use it…

OK… That is all for now… you can download it HERE in Google 3D warehouse… again be warned, it is big and complex file so it is recommended for you to have very good machine…

“POOF” (Disappears)

I’m still alive you know… barely…

So here is Ren’py Date Simulator, The Game (not again)… a tiny VN based around the demo VN included in Ren’py released back in 2011… Unfortunately, the rush to finish it before the end of the year left me with some lingering regrets and questions like what could I have done to make it better but still within my cheap, fast and efficient way of doing things… the amount of regret is so much I haven’t uploaded the game on the Ren’py archives yet.

I know, I know… this is beating a dead horse… again and again… but I’m doing this to achieve a desired result. Right now I know next to nothing about Ren’py screens and boxes and widgets and so on so I’m not gonna touch the underlying Date Simulation Framework. That leaves me with Graphics and GUI as the only things feasible for an update.

So let start with the BG’s… time and time again I am preaching the advantages of creating BG’s using Sketchup. Everyone frowns about it but hey… it works! And I’m gonna use it… Nearly 2 years later, my methods have streamlined and improved so much, I’m beginning to think some of my BG’s are really hovering close to professional VN quality… minus the hard work and effort… but there are times that the renderer I’m using (Twilight Renderer) doesn’t behave the way I wanted it to be resulting in BG’s that are borderline almost life-like which is a big NO-NO in OELVN… all of that despite all my initial efforts to make sure it doesn’t come out that way.

Another thing I need to note is my ever changing style that is dictated by how lazy / busy I get. I gave up a long time ago on becoming the best artist / illustrator out there and instead focus on making as much money as I can before I reach retirement age. And especially now that I’m plagued with several ailments, one of which is destined to eventually get me, I must make use of my remaining time more efficiently. So I resorted to simplistic anime styled two tone that changes from time to time depending on my mood and dictated by how lazy / busy I get.

Click image to view larger image

Which is kinda interesting how much the characters have evolved from the initial release to their now current form. I also decided to focus on what I think looks good instead of trying to be as close as possible to the original source look. So I throw everything out of the window (like I always do) and decided to give her a much more slender looking but less complex hair. I also give her more meat and muscle despite being the timid one and I also increase the mass of those two things in her chest. The tie is now gone and is replaced by a ribbon which is looking better and the skirt is now plaided…

OK last preview… I think I’m beginning to miss those painkillers now…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: 3d, evn, mugenjohncel, OELVN, project, Renpy, Renpy Date Simulator Engine - The Game, Sketchup, uncle mugen, VN

What you see here is my current progress in Blender Day 2, which is familiarizing myself with the tools (trust me, you don’t want to see Day 1 but in case you are curious CLICK HERE at your own risk WARNING! NOT WORKSAFE!!!). Yes, I’m trying to teach myself how to use Blender and model organic things in hopes of one day creating my own Anime Styled Characters to replace manual drawing Sprites and CG’s.

Just pretend it’s a Macrophage floating in some liquid stuff…

I hate to say this but I have pretty much exhausted and perfected everything I needed to produce “decent” looking BG’s using Sketchup and Photoshop. I have streamlined the process to the point that making a typical urban BG from scratch takes about 1 hour (sans rendering time) and another 20 minute or so for post processing. It’s so efficient to the point that it is now pretty much boring. Sure, it still doesn’t look as good as hand drawn BG’s but hey… instant BG… you can’t complain…

Despite the simplified 2 tone shading it still took me 8 hours to finalize this sprite and that contradicts my Quick, Cheap and Efficient way of doing things.

Unfortunately, drawing sprites and CG’s is still something that I still need to take care of manually. For those who are following me, you are very much familiar now that I put more emphasis on Speed, Efficiency and Quantity over Quality… and I have no choice… I’ve been working solo on my projects most of the time and unless I found myself willing collaboratives who can share my vision… I foresee that this will be the case in the future. It seems, I need to move on to 3D too when it comes to Character Sprite and CG Event Creation if I wanted to maximize what little time I have. Besides, focusing too much on producing quality OELVN’s is pretty much not on my interest since I don’t profit from them but rather do them for personal satisfaction and the sooner I can produce content the better for me so I can soak in all the feels… another thing is I no longer have the luxury of sitting down in one spot for half a day drawing something. That is no longer possible for me. So the quicker I learn how to accomplish this, the better…

Even the Japanese is slowly reverting to 3D characters. Efficient and can be done and edited cheaply and still look anime enough if done correctly.

Unlike Sketchup and Scenery, Organic Modeling is pretty much alien territory to me. I am raised and trained in AutoCAD and relying too much on Sketchup that I pretty much ignored other 3D modeling software and mastered only what I think I will be needing to accomplish things and that turned out to be a pretty bad decision leaving me unprepared for organic modeling.

It’s not like I’m running around without a plan. I have a pretty much straightforward agenda that goes like this…

● FAMILIARIZE with the TOOLS

● LEARN how to EFFICIENTLY MODEL basic organic things

● LEARN how to EFFICIENTLY MODEL anime styled CHARACTER

● LEARN how to TEXTURE and BAKE MAP anime style

● LEARN how to RIG

And that’s pretty much what I needed to learn to accomplish the task I needed to do. Anything else will be useless for I don’t intend on doing anything else other than the task I am currently focused on and that is replace Sprites and CG’s with 3D.

This will be a long and bumpy road. Who knows how far I can get… oh well…

(No photos or images in this post… sorry…)

Perhaps some have noticed my lack of activity here in the blog. Rest assured my friends… I’m still pretty much alive and active behind the scenes but I have decided to limit release on all my OELVN (and other related) projects. There are several good reasons for doing so but let’s just say one of them is superstition related but I can give several hints on current projects running and completed ones that I haven’t had time to release properly (due to lack of music)…

Project 1 = (Technically Complete) Hammer and a Girl

Project 2 = 2 Twin Girls and some foreigner from the Netherlands…

Project 3 = (Almost Complete) Mushrooms and Explosive Diarrhea

Project 4 = (Technically Oh-Hold) Rock, Scissors, Paper and a few naked girls

Project 5 = Meddlesome Uncle

Anyway, that is all for now… I truly wish I can reveal more but I was advised not to do it and I must adhere strictly to our plan even though for an attentionwhore like me it is trully painful…

;_;

“POOF” (Disappears)

And now we come to the juicy part… I the handsome UNCLE MUGEN has been quietly developing and refining my Sketchup BG making techniques. My main objective is to reduce the steps down to five and make a tutorial so everyone can make their own BG’s without much effort… so far so good I managed to bring it down to a safe 8… still 3 steps more than my ideal goal but I’m still working on it.

Of course along the way we have to do things by trial and error and sometimes we end up with a few test BG’s that are byproduct of the experiments. Some of them are good enough to be used in a project and it would be a shame it I just discard them right?… So I quietly compiled them in a nice little thread that is being updated regularly where I post them backgrounds together with other resources like frameworks and sketchup models for everyone’s use.

Terms are pretty lax… anything goes FREE to use, modification is OK , even OK to be used in commercial projects… just say hi to me Uncle Mugen when used…

To visit the thread click HERE

“POOF” (Disappears)

Finally, a solution to a problem that has plagued me for such a long time! How to have decent looking 3D trees but still have low poly count enough to shorten render times so I can get more BG’s produced in short time.

But first a bit of history…

What you see above are a bunch of 2D trees I’ve been using and abusing for a long long time now. I use them in my sketchup scenes whenever possible and it is very good decision because it make my scenes look good  and being 2D they are just one plane so very low poly count but…

Problem with 2D trees is that they are flat objects in 3D world so if you turn on the shadows you can quickly see the problem immediately.

So for a long time I used this really clever but depressing method of hiding the source of imperfection by hiding the base of the trees behind walls, structures, other plants and shrubs or make sure they are offscreen.

It works but this severely limits what scenes I can do which makes UNCLE MUGEN really sad…

Of course, there are 3D trees in Sketchup but chances are the poly count quota for the leaves alone is enough to model a whole town in sketchup. A single tree alone is enough to slow or even hang a low end unit and even if you have a high end unit that can accommodate such polycount intensive resource they don’t quite look anime’ish enough for use with OELVN (visual novel) backgrounds.

So UNCLE MUGEN comes up with a clever solution because UNCLE MUGEN is very smart. Let us combine 3D tree trunks with low poly 2D leaves. I am genius!… not only does it look somewhat OK for use with OELVN (aka Visual Novels) it is low poly count enough that I can put a whole forest of it without worrying too much that it will make machines all over the world crash… and best thing of all… I can now do scenes that I wasn’t able to do before using 2D trees… like scenes where the base of the trees are visible…

Anyway, this is just the first. it doesn’t look good right now but we’ll get better. As always, UNCLE MUGEN is releasing this for everyone to enjoy. You can download it HERE in the Sketchup 3D warehouse… more to come!

“POOF” (Disappears)

OHIO GO SAY MUST everyone… it is me UNCLE MUGEN… it’s been a while…

Allow me to introduce to you what Uncle Mugen has been cooking lately… Today, I present you the OELVN “INSERT TITLE HERE”… yes… I’m not kidding… that is the name of the OELVN (aka EVN or English Visual Novel)

Yes, that is the name of the game… not even joking…

It can trace its beginnings to the original Project Gakuen whose goal is to produce a recyclable and scalable generic school themed OELVN where you can insert any story you wanted but on a more grander scale (click here to learn more) … Fast forward a few months later… after doing a really thorough feasibility study… I found out that it was next to impossible to finish it in any reasonable amount of time with only me doing everything so I have scaled down the project from a large multi acre International School into a generic 300,000 sqm High School OELVN titled  “INSERT TITLE HERE”.

The basic idea is to create a whole ready to use complete generic school setting complete with people, backstory and everything… all that it lacks is a protagonist to interact with everything and a story to move things… Add another story on top of the already existing protagonist, story and existing characters and scenario and you now basically have a scalable OELVN… Remove the Inserted Character and his story and insert a totally different Character to interact with the existing settings and characters and you now have a different OELVN (aka VN) thus… it now becomes a Recyclable VN…

Welcome to Applegate High School… where every student has been hit by a bagfull of piss at least once…

Long story short… what I’m currently making is a framework of some sort. It will have the usual features of a typical School VN. It will sport the usual Stat Building, Navigation where you go from one place to another but what sets this framework apart from everything else is the Time of the day Feature where every action you take consumes time depending on how long and complex they are. For example, moving from one place to another will take about 5 to 10 minutes depending on distance. Time will directly affect the scenes by displaying the correct sky and background according to time of day. Also, the Time Function can be tied to events if the writer wishes to meaning you can now have time specific triggered scenarios.

The main reason I am creating this framework is to compensate for my biggest weakness when it comes to creating OELVN’s (aka VN or EVN) and that is writing. Shameful as it is… I suck at writing. I’m good at Illustration, I’m good at Backgrounds to the point that I streamlined the process as if it’s like a factory assembly plant and churn them at the shortest time possible, I’m good at copying and comprehending and utilizing various Ren’py codes once I saw how it works, I can simply use Kevin MacLeod music if I cannot find a composer who will be kind enough to help me but you really cannot fake, cheat or even shortcut on writing… there is no program or plug-in that will generate good story or an all in one button that will dish out a good writing… nope… there is only one way to write good story and that is… sit down and write a good story… period… and thus I have to rely on a framework where I can ask or beg someone who is good at writing stories to help me in creating a generic story that I can simply drag and drop into the framework and make it work with minimal effort as to minimize the burden on the writer. As I have mentioned earlier it was scalable… you can have two writers writing two different things and have the framework accommodate their writings seamlessly (of course… it has to be within the framework’s limitations and bounds)…

Rarely utilized feature of Ren’py is it can change the image in-game in such wonderful ways… like in this example. I can adjust settings to make sprite darker for dark areas and light for bright areas…

And now we talk about the limitations… of course unlike sandbox free roaming games like GTA series… this is a Visual Novel (OELVN) so we have to work within the limitations of the VN medium. The framework is a generic School Setting so it’s obvious from the start that the story and the character the writer would introduce would have to be within the bounds of the school setting may it be a teacher, a student or a staff needed to keep the school running. There is also the time that also encompasses day function. The writer will also have to take into consideration the timing and placement of the events. A good example of this would be a Janitor character. Everyday, the Janitor will obviously be around the school cleaning things… like He’ll be at the gate in the morning sweeping, mopping in the afternoon and sleeping in the evening or perhaps a student who loves to read books during noon and attends club activities during afternoons. The writer can then make full use of the navigation and time functions to write a scenario that will involve the protagonist (you) into navigating and planning your next steps which hopefully increases OELVN immersion and gameplay…

One BG, Eight time of day variations… Click image for larger view…

Right now, the framework is functionally complete… all it lacks now are the resources which may be quite too much for a single person to handle but I think I’ll manage somehow. The backgrounds are especially tricky because each single BG in this framework will have 8 time of day variations namely Twilight Sunrise or Dawn, Sunrise, Morning, Noon, Afternoon, Sunset, Twilight Sunset or Dusk and Evening. Now multiply it with the actual number of planned BG locations and you’ll end up with a lot of BG’s. Good thing I already mastered batch processing so I can churn out Custom OELVN BG’s like a factory.

Right now, here is the current school construction in progress. It still has every basic school amenities and facilities.

Of course it would be unfair to just invite people to exert effort and write something without me showing anything so I’ll kickstart things by making an OELVN inspired by LVUER’s RSP Nanoreno Game called “INSERT TITLE HERE” which is a perfect fit for the scalable School Theme Framework. The original RSP is basically a strip RSP (rock scissors paper) game where you hunt for girls, beat them in RSP and strip them naked… pretty straightforward. But let’s make things complicated and add elements to it…

The protagonist like from the previous RSP game transferred to the school because of some convenient reason. Then like the previous RSP, you are greeted by this particular girl to join the RSP Club (disguised as some lame club I still need to think of) then this particular girl who happens to be the Vice-President of the club tells you all about RSP Club which is basically a strip RSP where you search for members of RSP and engage in a stripping match. Then she drags a girl who just recently joined the RSP Club and as expected you’ll beat her easily. Then you are handed the defeated girl’s panty which will now serve as a sort of tool of declaration of challenge to other RSP players. Long story short… you’ll flash the panty in front of the RSP player you wish to challenge but here’s the catch… you have no idea who they were or where they are and is only given vague hints from time to time… you can talk to the currently known 2 members of RSP frequently and their hints change from day to day… sometimes they will not cooperate unless you run errands for them. Oh and the president will transfer out to another school within 30 days so you’d better hurry…

Here’s the tricky part… you will have to be very VERY careful when showing the panty because if you happen to show it at the wrong person… chances are they will avoid you for a few days… do it enough times and everyone will label you as a pervert and people except likeminded and perverted ones will avoid talking to you. There is a cooldown period though where people slowly forget about that panty you just flashed but that takes time and you only have 30 days left. Of course exposed and defeated… the fallen can give hints from time to time about the remaining undiscovered RSP members.

This is the generic uniform. The school was lax enough to allow variations of it so not all students will have same looking uniform.

Now about the girls… of course I cannot post any of them here because part of the game is actually try and figure out who are the members of RSP club… but I can post here a generic girl and show to you what the typical girls uniform will look like…

Depending on girls, there could be more or less items to remove but what you see here is the typical complete uniform where you remove them in this order.

COAT ► VEST ► SKIRT ► LONG SLEEVE ► NECKTIE ► BRA ► UNDERWEAR ► PROFIT!

Of course there are some girls who prefer to do it this way…

COAT ► VEST ► UNDERWEAR ► LONG SLEEVE ► NECKTIE ► SKIRT ► BRA ► PROFIT!

Or even this

SWIMWEAR ► PROFIT!

And now to answer some questions that has been tossed to me recently… some are condensed for clarity…

Will this be for Free?

Of course it will be… UNCLE MUGEN wants to spread tender loving care via Free OELVN’s

Your drawing sucks, get a decent artist!

Oy-oy… I may not look like it or perhaps maybe a bit rusted but I am a retired Graphic Artist with extensive experience in illustration. I’m pretty confident with my drawing. I just have no choice but to scale down on quality to get more things done within the limited free time I can squeeze out of my schedule. But if I’m motivated enough and given sufficient free time, I too can make quality illustrations worthy of any budget Japanese VN… it’s just that this time… I put more emphasis on quantity which has a quality of it’s own… also… there is so much a one man team can do…

Stop stealing other people’s Ren’py codes! Go learn to code Ren’py by yourself!

Wrong my friend! I do not steal… I just merely peek. I’m a layman when it comes to programming and coding and stuff so the way I analyse and comprehend things are slightly different from the typical coder mindset. I put emphasis on quantity and efficiency. Look at it this way… why should I learn how to overhaul a car when all I need to do is change a flat tire? Same thing with Ren’py coding… Why should I learn every single function when all I’m after is a very specific behaviour. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just get what I need and get things going instead of spending too much time learning everything while accomplishing nothing?… This is the UNCLE MUGEN way… take what you need… leave the rest for later…

Go get a haircut!

No… this is where I get my awesome UNCLE MUGEN powers!… Without my hair I’ll be just another fat guy selling printer inks…

Why not do a Kickstarter? You seem to be good enough…

Because doing a Kickstarter would put additional and unwanted pressure on an activity that I consider as a hobby and stress relief. Yes, a Kickstarter would get me funds to hire more talented people to upgrade the quality but I’ll now be answerable to all the contributors… something I find a bit stressful… Remember… UNCLE MUGEN says… When Money comes in… that’s when the fun stop…

Aren’t you rich enough to fund the game yourself and find talented people other than you to work on your crappy VN’s

No I’m not rich… I still cannot afford a Bugatti so I am poor bum. Also, what’s the point?… Want me to hire people to do OELVN’s for me while I sit and watch?… Oh no le don’t my friend… that is not how UNCLE MUGEN do things… UNCLE MUGEN enjoys getting his hands dirty on making OELVN’s it is more fun this way… the finished OELVN is just the byproduct… The fun is really in the making process…

Just quit doing Visual Novels and make a shooter or some newground games instead. You just suck at making Visual Novels!

Whoa! That was kinda harsh my friend… True, I used to suck but after years of doing it I think I become slightly better at it… sans writing… I will eventually find a writer I can collaborate with… Just you wait! I’ll make the best, cheapest OELVN within the bounds of my abilities and free time and you will become an UNCLE MUGEN fan!

So what is it you wanted?

Writers, Writers and more Writers… specifically, writers who can write Generic yet Interesting School Settings within the limited framework of the current School Framework.

the plan would be to have a single writer write a scenario and focus on a girl or two that will be bound by these requirements…

● She’ll start as a total stranger to the protagonist so no osama-najimis and former classmates.

● The girl must not act suspicious at the start nor give hints that she is a member of the RSP club.

● She’ll have her own movement behaviour that is bound by the limitations of the existing school framework… For example… a writer introduced her girl as a sort of nerdy but meek girl who likes to read books and prefers spending most of her time in the library during breaks and after class. For the protagonist, this is obviously a pretty straightforward move. Just go to the appropriate place where you expect her to be and start a conversation. A few days and conversations later she’ll open up which eventually will lead to you being closer to each other. Another good example would be a delinquent type who would occasionally cut classes and would be present at the roof during class hours and you’ll have to run errands for her. Or to make more interesting… two writers will cross each others work and make it a requirement for the protagonist to either accomplish or cross paths with one character in order to gain access to the other girl.

● RSP and dating should be separate meaning regardless of you discovered she’s an RSP member or not. You can still date her or get close to her.

● Not all datable girls are RSP members.

● All of the events will happen during school hours and within school premises.

● The weather is always sunny and clear so no rain or cloudy scenes. The reason for this is because there is only one artist working on all the assets of this project and that would be me (sad isn’t it)… the framework requires each BG to have 8 different time of day variants multiply it with the amount of final locations and I’ll have a lot of BG to create. Adding weather variations will strain the poor artist… me  and make the framework slightly more complex for the coder…again me 

● More to come…

Last but not the least…

I’ll be using this logo XD

Wow… I talk too much…

“POOF” (Disappears)

Filed under: Non OELVN / Unclassified, OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: 2d, 3d, background, Blogging, Google SketchUp, landscape, lemmasoft, LVUER, mugenjohncel, OELVN, project, Renpy, RSP, Sketchup, Studio Mugenjohncel, uncle mugen, update, visual novel, VN

Yes! I now come to the futures of the Internets!

Studio Mugenjohncel and Uncle Mugen is now proudly to present to you… our official Tumbler Account!!!

So you ask why have Tumbler when you have an already awesome WordPress?… Well… because I notice too many young people nowadays are too lazy to be bothered to read WordPress blog post (but wait… WordPress is awesome you know)

Anyway, I will be using this blog to post minor updates and other tidbits regarding Studio Mugenjohncel and it’s projects that are too short to warrant a full blogpost.

Look forward to it people and have nice day!

Here is Official Studio Mugenjohncel Tumbler Account if you want to visit and follow… come spread word to friends and family. Uncle Mugen is waiting warmly

First and foremost… I’m no longer a professional Graphic artist / Illustrator and I’ve basically reverted to this almost layman state when it comes to computers, software and other stuff related.

Now let’s go back to the topic at hand… Adobe Products…

I read from various internet news and articles that Adobe is now abandoning the old model where you pay outright for the product and instead force users to subscribe and pay monthly to use their products. Of course being a layman, the first reaction to this news was panic… as I read further… it is slowly becoming clear that the reason behind this extortion is motivated purely by greed. True, they have their justifications and sweet promises of always updated and a plethora of features that are only available to their subscription model.

So where am I going with this?… Honestly, I don’t know… I’m still having trouble comprehending as to why would Adobe do this to the people?… Piracy? What are you talking about!?… I purchased your product and still use them especially Adobe Photoshop 7… it’s outdated but it still works and I still have the original box with me when I purchased it years ago and the most recent one I purchased CS4 which is a total crap because some fucktard whom I wanted to hang, shot and burn his/her corpse in the Dreamweaver department decided to remove the layout mode and tell people to “DEAL WITH IT”… Yes, I pirated your products “TWICE”… First one is Adobe Photoshop 5 so I can learn how to use your product more thoroughly which eventually lead me to purchase Adobe Photoshop 7 legally and Adobe CS3 because it still have layout mode because you won’t allow me to downgrade my purchase and you removed the single biggest reason why I purchased CS product and that is the Layout Mode in Dreamweaver because I went to Saturday Web Making School and that is what they taught me there.

I’ll be straight… I don’t feel like paying Adobe anymore especially after I saw that only subscription based ones will receive full updates while those who opt for a full licence will only get the basic of updates and bug fixes… at least that’s how I understand it… oh and let’s not forget… they said there will be no CS7 so beyond this… everyone will now be forced pay rent regularly to Adobe to use their products. No thank you… As you can see, I’m the type of user who sticks with his purchased program and use it to it’s fullest and squeeze every single productivity out of it… I mean… it’s 2013 and I’m still using Adobe Photoshop 7 in my latest works…

Of course, I’m just a nobody to them… and I doubt Adobe guys will reverse this anytime soon so I better be prepared for the future. You see… my hobby is making OELVN’s (aka EVN or English Visual Novels) and an image processing tool is a must so I’ll be making contingency plans just in case Adobe went nuts and go full greed mode to satisfy it’s investors.

First thing I’ll do is to ensure that my originals are in a safe place inside a vault in my office. Next I’ll prepare 2 high end unit that is using Windows XP and install my legal copies of Adobe Products in there along with every programs and tools I use so when the time comes that I am no longer be able to use the new Adobe products in my current primary machine without being raped in the ass or if Windows beyond 8 becomes unusable and degraded into just another Smartphone OS I’ll still be able to continue to do what I love at my current pace.

Another thing I’ll do is to get used to using alternatives such as GIMP, SAI or Corel Products… It may take a while but at least I won’t get caught with my underwear down when Adobe finally decides to screw and extort everyone. I already started shifting from MS Office to Open Office and hopefully I one day get comfortable enough with them.

I sure wish someday Corel or some other company would make Adobe irrelevant just as how Adobe made Quark irrelevant back then. I know that my rant might be a bit irrational sometimes and I am very well aware that it is their product and they are free to chose what they do with it and they are a business and are out to get your money but you see Adobe is “THE” industry standard and any changes they make can and will have impact on everyone. As I have said before… I am a layman in all of this and probably missed a thing or two and this might be the reason why I am ranting right now but my point is… I am very loyal to the product I use and I’d rather pay in one lump sum and be able to use it anytime I wanted without worrying about monthly subscriptions and stuff like that. They say the subscription is cheaper then guess what… I’m still using Adobe Photoshop 7 with perpetual license and I’m very good at it and it’s definitely cheaper in the long run than me having to pay Adobe every month.

“POOF” (Disappears)

Filed under: Non OELVN / Unclassified Tagged: adobe, cloud, corel, extortion, mugenjohncel, OELVN, open source, piracy, software, Studio Mugenjohncel

OK… I think enough time has passed…

I am now releasing an unnarchived version that includes images and everything so anyone can take a look at how I do things and hopefully inspire or help other people especially those who are having difficulty grasping or are still starting to learn how to Ren’py to create better OELVN’s than I did…

Uncle Mugen says… Grab it HERE!!!

This work heavily uses imagemaps, looping animations, hover images and a lot more… like… a secret ending that most of you probably never get to see 

Anyway, UNCLE MUGEN says… ENJOY!!!

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As the title says… New Sketchup House Model now available for your OELVN needs… and yes, it’s FREE!!!

But before we begin let’s take a look at this (see image below)

This is a Sketchup Model of a typical Urban / Sub Urban Japanese home that I uploaded way back in October 20, 2011 which is quite a while ago. This is also my first model that appeared in an OELVN (EVN or Visual Novel) project.

While it served it’s purpose… I’m the type of person who loves to maximize the usage of things and squeeze as much from what I created. So this particular model was constantly being used, re-used and abused again and again both in my Free BG’s, other projects and even in other people’s projects… basically it’s everywhere and I can recognize it at a glance (See image above) We need a new house model… and here we are…

For this model, I tried my best to make sure it doesn’t look like it’s from Japan so I opted for a more traditional home layout with a typical door, electrical box thingy, window and roof drainage on side of sloping roof found everywhere.

Of course… every modern home should have an Air conditioner… it is a basic human right for every household to have an Air conditioner.

And while we’re at it… might as well install an exhaust and a tank less water heater behind the house…

But the most important addition is the garage where you safely store your car protected from the elements…

Another thing I did is to add more color and texture variations to the model… now you have many flavors to chose from or go on an adventure and change the textures yourself to suit your needs

As always, the model is available for FREE because UNCLE MUGEN loves you all. You can use it for your OELVN projects or just about anything that may serve you best… even OK for commercial projects. Modifications are not only OK but highly encouraged… just say hi to me when you use this… UNCLE MUGEN would love to hear your story

Anyway, you can download the model HERE…

Something tells me the house still looks way too Japanese

Back then I said this…

The lack of an open complete GUI example featuring Imagebuttons is probably one of the biggest wall in Ren’py that prevents layman people like me from adopting this superior method… While Imagemap is easier to use… everyone knows that the future of Ren’py belongs to Imagebuttons…

And then comes Leon from Lemmasoft

Not anymore, Uncle Mugen! Here is a complete GUI example so everyone can learn to imagebutton!

So here it is…

Long story short… this is a whole fully working screen based imagebutton GUI with a few bells and whistles designed to be dissected so everyone can learn how to do imagebutton GUI in Renpy… This is made possible thanks to Leon Zavšek (Leon)… Good Job bro! and Thanks! This will help us layman people how to make very good GUI in Ren’py…

So what are you waiting for?… You can download it HERE!

Filed under: OELVN News, OELVN Project Tagged: coding, gui, imagebutton, lemmasoft, leon, Renpy, uncle mugen

First and foremost… Hello World! Next is an image to get your attention… Second, never in my wildest imagination I’ll be doing what I’m about to tell you today…

The image you see above is for an Otome project where I Uncle Mugen is currently part of. We’ll go back to this later…

OK, now that is out, I shall now tell you my excuse why I haven’t been active in Lemmasoft or on OELVN’s (aka EVN or Visual Novels) lately…You see… my tiny adventure in UDK landed me a part time job as a level designer for a Japanese Company for this one particular project. Here’s a condensed version of the story…

• Downloaded UDK to see if it’s internal rendering Engine can help me achieve my desired results which is generate cheap BG’s for use on my Ren’py OELVN projects.
• Took me a day to learn the necessary things I needed while totally ignoring what I don’t needed…
• Using Sketchup to produce scenes then import it to Blender, then UDK… Produced stunning BG’s that not only gave me what I wanted but actually surpassed my expectations.
• Bragged about it all over the internet
• 1 week later… Received what I though was spam… offering me a job as a Game level designer for a platformer. About 30 minutes later another message comes in, this time with Skype and complete contact details… it seems, a Japanese company is eager to get in touch with me.
• Fast forward 2 days after first meeting, they send me US$500 as bonus sign in Unfortunately I cannot tell how much I’ll get paid monthly for the actual job due to contract stipulations. We ironed out all the scheduling and protocols because I still have a full time day business to run.

Now there are a few things I needed to note here… mainly, I am under contract not to release any screenshots or info about the project or the company other than what they approved for release (which is not much at the moment)… same with this blog post… had to receive approval before I can post this. It’s really unusual because it just came out of nowhere and bam here it is. They are fully aware that I’m pretty much a Sketchup native and the fact that it’s barely over a week since I started using UDK… And they are pretty much lose on the scheduling and I don’t have to worry about Physics or any programming and stuff… they have other people working on that, I was told to just concentrate on Level Design. While I appreciate the fact that they went through the trouble of finding me… I’m still scratching my head as to why would they go that far to find me when there are more talented readily available people out there than me who can do this job better. But I have one advantage that I can brag about… I’m an extremely fast Sketchup Modeler… as long as I know what I needed to model… it will be a piece of cake to me. Another interesting thing is that they specifically put in the contract as a separate stipulation that I’m not allowed to put any Easter Eggs or “Uncle Mugen” stuff in the works. At that point, several scenarios are running in my head as to why they added that in the contract but one thing is for certain… whoever recommended me to them or scouted me is very much aware of my “little habit” of self inserting myself into anything… most likely, he/she is a Lemmasoft regular… So long story short… Uncle Mugen is now officially a Game Level Designer for a Japanese Company for one game…

So does this mean the end for UNCLE MUGEN’s ties to OELVN and EVN / Visual Novels in General?… Nope…

Which brings us back to the image I posted earlier… what you see there is for an Otome project where I Uncle Mugen is currently part of… which I’m not gonna reveal just yet not because of any agreement and terms but rather… I’m kinda shy to admit I’m a part of an Otome project. Normally, I steer clear of Otome VN’s but the premise and story of this one is just… it will hook you so here I am. And the character design… is just glorious…

Now unlike the first project, this one is pretty much straight from Lemmasoft. He contacted me asking me if I’m OK for commission, I saw his project page, more left and right conversation and bam… I’m now working for him… This is actually a good opportunity to fully test and apply what I’ve been trying to perfect for a long time… quick and cheap and probably recyclable BG’s on a non-studiomugenjohncel project… and unlike the level design job where I have to adhere to specific game and engine constraints, this one is pretty much left to my imagination which is actually pleasant… I mean, it’s a VN BG… I don’t need to worry about clipping distance or any other thing…

Anyway, that’s it for now… here’s another BG from the Otome project… Anyway, I’ll reveal the projects soon

“POOF” (Disappears)

So here you have GoDaddy… one Google away and you can see a lot of articles ranging from Why GoDaddy is Evil to why Godaddy sucks and should try other hosting…

You know what, true, there are many out there that are cheaper than GoDaddy but ever since I started using GoDaddy I barely have problems with them and even if I do have problems with them, they are trying their best to resolve it one way or another.

Long story short, I’m a layman when it comes to websites and and servers and PHP things like that. So when I tried installing WordPress for a new Non-UNCLE MUGEN, Non-OELVN website unnasisted and alone, I’m pretty much expecting trouble… and trouble did happened… not only I messed up the new website I just got, I also messed up the other two existing websites in that GoDaddy account… IIRC I accidentally deleted some folders and stuff… uploading FTP of backup files only made the existing sites a jumbled mess. At that point, I gave up on them and decided to let the IT handle and fix my screw-up and decided to concentrate on this one new website.

In this website, I wanted to use WordPress… now unlike the free wordpress blog. The one hosted on GoDaddy will have to have it’s bells and whistles manually added to have the same functionality as the Free WordPress sites. Enter Jetpack… install wait and see… and then… nothing happened… All I got is a “Your website needs to be publicly accessible to use Jetpack: site_inaccessible” message

So I decided to resort to tech support which normally resolves all of my problems… to my surprise and horror… not only the reply didn’t solve my problems it gave me what I considered irrelevant and useless reply… of course I am surprised! This is the first time GoDaddy failed me. So to vent out my frustration I went to twitter and rant about it and guess who pops up in Twitter… GoDaddy….

Long story short, GoDaddy twitter asked me about my report number and reviewed it and and gave me the correct hint I needed to activate Jetpack and have it communicate with the server. It seems Jetpack doesn’t work on newer PHP that comes default with GoDaddy so a simple downgrade and bam! problem solved… Godaddy goes as far as twitter to help GoDaddy users resolve their GoDaddy problems.

So there you have it… GoDaddy may not be cheap but it’s comforting that I can rely on them when I needed them the most…. I’ll stay with GoDaddy…

Filed under: Non OELVN / Unclassified Tagged: GoDaddy, jetpack, PHP, server, website, wordpress

It’s been a while since I last posted but anyway, teaser since I really cannot say much details about Waxwing project of which I am proud to be a part of… (excuse the watermark)

You can learn more about this particular project HERE…

And now let’s go this time for something different. This one is meant for the do-it-yourself sketchup BG artists in here who use sketchup to produce BG graphics for OELVN’s (aka Visual Novels)

The new set compared to the old set

It’s not much but this one is an update to the old Anime School Desk Set. This one is looking much better, mode detailed, better optimized and best of all like previous resources in this thread… it’s FREE for use for whatever purpose it may serve you best. Modification is OK and highly encouraged… have fun! 

If you are using the older model I made I highly encourage to update to this one… it is much better…

You can download the set HERE…

Anyway, back to being productive… NO! I WILL RESIST THE TEMPTATION OF GTA V!!!

Long story short, I stumbled upon a tweet from @My_True_Form

@oelvn 'Kaaay, this isn't the exact one (I'm on mobile) but say the girl in this http://t.co/FlTt9GYyoY—
DraCocoala (@My_True_Form) October 31, 2013

OK, the keyword here is “crop” so this question isn’t exactly new but cropping photos is pretty much a very basic required skill when you are involved in OELVN aka Visual Novel creation and there are quite a number of tutorials out there that covers this topic more comprehensively. For now, let’s concentrate on Adobe Photoshop 7 since it’s the one I have… So here we are… Uncle Mugen teaches you how to crop your image in Photoshop 7… For this tutorial I will assume you have basic grasp of the menus.

I recommend you click on the images to see a larger version…

First open your image in Photoshop 7

Next, duplicate the layer so in case you screwed up the whole process, you will still have a fresh backup layer to go back to.

Using the pen tool (Press P) draw an outline around the area you intend to crop or cut.

Once you closed the lines, right click inside the outline enclosure you made, select “Make Selection” and chose a “Feather Radius of 0″ and press “OK”

Once the selection has been created, hit delete in your keyboard to erase the selected area.

Now do the rest of the image. It is highly recommended that you do this in small increments especially for detailed drawings.

And there you have it… You now have a cleanly cropped image…

Hope this helps

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Guess what… I finally nailed the perfect indoor render settings that looks good enough to pass as somewhat hand drawn BG (with a little help from Photoshop 7… also insert disclaimer here) while retaining the convenience and reusability of Sketchup Model… And to celebrate this glorious occasion… I will give not one (1) but five (5) free BG’s for OELVN use (aka Visual Novel because I absolutely refuse to use the term EVN because it sounds so lame)… 

Same terms as previous resources… Feel free to use for whatever purpose it may serve best. Modifications are OK and highly encouraged…

YES! THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL! COME GET WHILE HOT!!! Also, this is not the end… I will post day variations of each BG later… and if I’m flipped enough… I will also post the actual 3D sketchup classroom so to those DIY Sketchup BG users here can render it themselves…

Anyway, get them HERE in Glorious Full Resolution

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I’m on a ROLL!!! Remember the previous BG’s of classroom I posted?… Well, here is the evening day variation of them… come get while hot!

Same terms as previous resources… Feel free to use for whatever purpose it may serve best. Modifications are OK and highly encouraged…

Anyway, get them HERE in Glorious Full Resolution

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We are on a ROLL!!! This time it’s night version of the above classroom BG!!!

So we have the DAY VERSION, EVENING VERSION and now the NIGHT VERSION of these BG set

Same terms as previous resources… Feel free to use for whatever purpose it may serve best. Modifications are OK and highly encouraged…

Anyway, get them HERE in Glorious Full Resolution

“POOF” (Disappears)