Should I go Daz3d or traditional drawin art for VN.

[LadyLilith-3D]

To premise this I plan on doing the entire workflow for my VN myself using Renpy. Over the last month, I've been diving back and forth between Daz3d and learning to draw in the digital realm. I am by NO means an artist and honestly suck at it. It is something however I would like to get better at and eventually make an adult VN with as that's the kind of art style I enjoy. The issue is, going the self-created digital art route will undoubtedly take a long time to even get my art skills to where I would want them. Probably years. Daz3d on the other hand seems to be fairly easier to get into and begin creating decent content quick. I already have a good handle on it and have been making some quality renders.

Do I just go the Daz3d route as with this I could start creating my game now or go with hooning in my craft as a digital artist and do that route once I'm capable. Maybe even do the Daz3d route now and just draw in my spare time and maybe create a game with my digital art on the next one? I just keep switching back and forth between Daz and learning to draw and I'm not really making progress on either because of it. Any suggestions, ideas, or if you've been in this predicament let me know your thoughts.

 

[Deleted member 3145675]

Hi,
ideally you would go thru the experimental phase first - try to do a (very) short game as a "proof of concept" (that you can go thru all different phases of game creation up until final completion) with Daz3d - learn all you can from this process
(all the things that never go well while trying to create or build up something - the delays - change of mind - the doubts one might have - etc...) - transpose to a greater scale project.

it is always safer to learn gradually - master techniques before jumping to the next one.

GL

 

[khumak]

If you're actually good at drawing then I think it can add a unique appeal to your game to go with more of a stylized, drawn art style because very few devs are doing that so it really makes your game stand out. If you're NOT good at drawing though, it's just going to look bad. You're better off getting some art assets from people who are good at that and then just using Daz to render them for you. I have zero artistic talent, but I can round up a bunch of assets from someone who DOES and render a nice looking scene with it. That's the beauty of Daz IMO. It allows non artists to actually create nice artwork.

 

[hakarlman]

2D art is vastly superior to 3D when it comes to making extremely erotic art. But, that doesn't mean 3D doesn't stand a chance. 3D can definitely hold its own, but I'd say only 2% of 3D artists actually put out solid work, the rest are just hobbyist's who don't have time to hone the craft.

IMO, you have two options:

A) DAZ Studio, GOZ(MANDATORY), Zbrush(MANDATORY). DO EVERY OFFICIAL DAZ TUTORIAL (EVERY SINGLE ONE). Apply what you learn from hand drawing to sculpting in Zbrush. What does that mean? After you pose a scene in DAZ, 75% of the time you'll need to export it to Zbrush via GOZ to fix bad deformations; to fix and finalize line & curvature (That means if the butt looks all fucked up, you need to sculpt it a bit and fix the problem parts). 3D art can be erotic, but only 1-2% of DAZ artists pull it off, the rest of the 98% of DAZ 3D artists put out pure shit because they don't have the time to learn or are just being lazy; they just use a pre-set pose, ignore lighting and render pure shit.

B) Hand Drawn: Put in the years of practice needed to draw properly, and if you succeed, you can be confident in knowing that 2D art is typically far more erotic than 3D art on average. Because 2D artists who hand draw don't neglect basic rules when reproducing the human form. They care about lines, curvature, gesture, form, while most 3D artists don't even know what the fuck the word line or curve even means.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

Having stick figures drawn in MS Paint can work as art for a porn game if your writing is good enough. Hell, there are plenty of text-only games I consider great. Good writing will always be more important than art to me.

I just keep switching back and forth between Daz and learning to draw and I'm not really making progress on either because of it.

My suggestion would be to figure out what you actually want to accomplish. Do you have an idea for a game you absolutely want to start working on and get out to the world? Which of these two processes do you actually enjoy doing more? Which of them might be more beneficial to you in the future? There is no right answer, it all depends on you.

 

[khumak]

B) Hand Drawn: Put in the years of practice needed to draw properly, and if you succeed, you can be confident in knowing that 2D art is typically far more erotic than 3D art on average. Because 2D artists who hand draw don't neglect basic rules when reproducing the human form. They care about lines, curvature, gesture, form, while most 3D artists don't even know what the fuck the word line or curve even means.

Practice drawing is an interesting concept to me. I definitely agree that practice with different rendering software and image editing programs will make you better at it. I know I've personally gotten MUCH better with DAZ through practice. I don't think I could ever get good at drawing though no matter how much I practiced. I just don't have any aptitude for it. Then again maybe I just haven't tried it enough to get a viable baseline to improve from. Would be interesting to see whether lack of aptitude is something that can be completely overcome through practice or whether you'll reach a plateau that someone naturally gifted at it wouldn't.

 

[Laikhent]

If I was pressed for time, I would go DAZ and reserve a fixed amount of time per day to learn to draw. That amount of time should be small enough so that it would not noticeable impact the game production.

If I was not pressed for time, I would focus on learning to draw.

The main reason for that is because you would live a happier life doing what you love most.

 

[hakarlman]

Practice drawing is an interesting concept to me. I definitely agree that practice with different rendering software and image editing programs will make you better at it. I know I've personally gotten MUCH better with DAZ through practice. I don't think I could ever get good at drawing though no matter how much I practiced. I just don't have any aptitude for it. Then again maybe I just haven't tried it enough to get a viable baseline to improve from. Would be interesting to see whether lack of aptitude is something that can be completely overcome through practice or whether you'll reach a plateau that someone naturally gifted at it wouldn't.

The end result is that you're either sculpting in Zbrush or drawing by hand. If you're doing neither and using DAZ, then IMO, your potential for making great porn content will be limited, because when you have extreme deformations, your figures will look like crap; the ass, hip, thigh, genital area will look bizarre and out of whack.

A 2d artist who hand draws fixes problems by addressing lines & curvature.

A 3rd artist needs a way to address bad deformations; which causes problematic lines & curves, by sculpting in Zbrush. If he ignores the bad deformations, then he's become the 98% of 3D daz artists who put out subpar crappy porn art.

 

[Choo-choo]

Play with Daz3D, would recommend learn Blender(way more room to maneuver), and practice with your 2D art skills every day
In short term Daz3D will give you faster results if your creating game, but long term would be 2d art or Blender best choice

 

[LadyLilith-3D]

Thanks everyone for chiming in, it does help for sure. I decided to just go ahead full force Daz3d for my first game since it will be faster for me to complete and I'll still learn a ton throughout the process. In my "extra" free time, I'm going to continue to draw and hone in my more "artistic" skill set, and hopefully in the future be able to go that route.