Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Showcase your artistic creations, whether that be sprites, music, drawings or literature, and whether they be related to the Ace Attorney universe or not.

Moderators: EN - Assistant Moderators, EN - Forum Moderators

User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

Heyo, everyone! I've been on the site for a while, but I've never posted; I'll be using this thread to post sprites and music (as well as any other assets that I might make in the future).


General rule for stuff I post here: It's all free to use in fancases, videos, etc., as long as it's not commercial and you give credit. The exception to the rule is monetized videos; you can use this stuff in those, but still give credit, please.


I have nothing to post at the moment; if I'm not too busy tomorrow, I have some custom music tracks I've made that I'll post at some point. Also, while it's far from being done, I'm working on making sprite assets for Thought Route segments to be used in AAO and other case makers. Animation's not my strong suit, and I might ask others for help making those, but they are in progress.
User avatar
SuperAj3
Posts: 1309
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:19 am
Spoken languages: English, 日本語(少しだけ)
Location: Legal Land

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by SuperAj3 »

Welcome!
I heard your CE tunes you shared in the resources thread and they're really good! Nice work!
I can't wait to see and hear what else you share!
ImageImageImageImage
Avatar from the TSub website :april:
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

Thanks a lot! :larry:


So here are the 4 songs I've made so far. There are two Courtroom Lobby themes because there's a fade in note that isn't part of the loop, and I wasn't sure if AAO could start the loop at a certain time (but I think it can, so that point's moot).



Courtroom Lobby (with Intro)
Courtroom Lobby (without Intro)
Cross Examination - Moderato
Cross Examination - Allegro
Logic
User avatar
DeeYo
Posts: 937
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 4:21 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: Hungarian, English, some Russian, Spanish, German
Location: Yes

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by DeeYo »

Quite promising! Still, there are a few things you need to pay attention to:

1) Most tracks feel rather empty. You're missing bass in a lot of places and there should be more decoration; that is, smaller background melodies when the main melody is taking a rest, for example. You should also use more instruments if possible - obviously synthetic instruments don't fill up space like real or at least realistic ones - that's why a one-piano track that can sound amazing on a concert piano sounds really lousy on a MIDI piano. You need to counterweigh this with more instruments or panning your existing instruments (setting instruments to play on the right or left audio track, i.e. almost only from the right or left headphone).

2) What program are you using? The soundfonts with it are pretty low-quality. While this isn't directly relevant to how well you can compose, it affects the reception of your work greatly. Here you can find some orchestral soundfonts, as I've noticed you mainly work with those.

3) Fake strings are very dangerous, especially violins. (Same goes for brass, although you haven't used any.)

4) The tracks are pretty monotone - adding more and more instruments while repeating the melody over and over again is bad practice. Make interludes.

5) I liked the manual bell reverb in Lobby (repeating the note at a lower volume), but you need to be careful with it. It only really works as decoration, so making it the main melody like at ~00:20 is pretty bad practice. Especially since at the line starting at 00:24, you first added reverbing bells (Ab Ab Ab) and then non-reverbing ones (F Gb Ab). Mixing those is dangerous - it destroys the illusion that the bells are actually echoing and you didn't just set 3 notes with decreasing volume. (At this same part, the track feels very empty.)

That's all I could notice so far. I hope this will be of some assistance to you.
Image

Total times sued: 10328
User avatar
Tiagofvarela
Posts: 357
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:16 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English, Portuguese
Location: Portugal

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Tiagofvarela »

As for me, I really liked the lot of them, and have nothing to criticise.
They feel calm, for the most part, and I really really like them. Furthermore, they all have a similar and congruous style to them. Maybe I'd say they're repetitive, because they're short.

Moderato - Especially calm. Really feels like we have to slowly go through something, carefully, thoroughly, minutely.

Allegro - In the middle a 'new instrument' or melody pops in for a while. Loved that. Otherwise, this feels like a faster paced version of moderato, which is good, because that's the point. It certainly has a "build up" to it which sort of climaxes at the 'new instrument'.

Lobby - Liked the bells all throughout. The main melody is the same, and I like it too.

Logic - Nothing noteworthy. I liked the two (and later three?) different instruments going on simultaneously, especially when one of them stopped temporarily, suddenly leaving the other the limelight.
A Laggy Turnabout ★
A Batty Turnabout ★
A Tricky Turnabout ★
Upcoming: A Worldly Turnabout, A Courtly Turnabout, A Clumsy Turnabout, A Needy Turnabout
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

DeeYo wrote:Quite promising! Still, there are a few things you need to pay attention to:

1) Most tracks feel rather empty. You're missing bass in a lot of places and there should be more decoration; that is, smaller background melodies when the main melody is taking a rest, for example. You should also use more instruments if possible - obviously synthetic instruments don't fill up space like real or at least realistic ones - that's why a one-piano track that can sound amazing on a concert piano sounds really lousy on a MIDI piano. You need to counterweigh this with more instruments or panning your existing instruments (setting instruments to play on the right or left audio track, i.e. almost only from the right or left headphone).

2) What program are you using? The soundfonts with it are pretty low-quality. While this isn't directly relevant to how well you can compose, it affects the reception of your work greatly. Here you can find some orchestral soundfonts, as I've noticed you mainly work with those.

3) Fake strings are very dangerous, especially violins. (Same goes for brass, although you haven't used any.)

4) The tracks are pretty monotone - adding more and more instruments while repeating the melody over and over again is bad practice. Make interludes.

5) I liked the manual bell reverb in Lobby (repeating the note at a lower volume), but you need to be careful with it. It only really works as decoration, so making it the main melody like at ~00:20 is pretty bad practice. Especially since at the line starting at 00:24, you first added reverbing bells (Ab Ab Ab) and then non-reverbing ones (F Gb Ab). Mixing those is dangerous - it destroys the illusion that the bells are actually echoing and you didn't just set 3 notes with decreasing volume. (At this same part, the track feels very empty.)

That's all I could notice so far. I hope this will be of some assistance to you.
Thanks for the criticism; hopefully I'll get around to really diving in and fixing a lot of this.

I'm using MIDI instruments and arranging it in FL Studio, so as cool as the soundfonts probably are, I'm trying to stick with MIDIs for the sake of making it sound a little more like the non-3DS games, but maybe I'll look around for AA soundfonts so I can use a wider range of instruments. Since I'm sticking with MIDI instruments for now, what do you recommend I use in place of the strings?

Also, interludes aren't my strong suit, but I do need to get away from being really repetitive. That happens way too much, so I'll work on that. I'll also change the bell thing and start adding background melodies and bass, and I'll take a look at panning. I'm not too good with music theory, so it'll take some work. Thanks again for the critique!
Tiagofvarela wrote:As for me, I really liked the lot of them, and have nothing to criticise.
They feel calm, for the most part, and I really really like them. Furthermore, they all have a similar and congruous style to them. Maybe I'd say they're repetitive, because they're short.

Moderato - Especially calm. Really feels like we have to slowly go through something, carefully, thoroughly, minutely.

Allegro - In the middle a 'new instrument' or melody pops in for a while. Loved that. Otherwise, this feels like a faster paced version of moderato, which is good, because that's the point. It certainly has a "build up" to it which sort of climaxes at the 'new instrument'.

Lobby - Liked the bells all throughout. The main melody is the same, and I like it too.

Logic - Nothing noteworthy. I liked the two (and later three?) different instruments going on simultaneously, especially when one of them stopped temporarily, suddenly leaving the other the limelight.
Thanks for the kind words; I'm glad the interlude in the Allegro theme came across well, since I'm not too confident about my interlude work, and since the Cross-Exam tracks are in 7/8 time, which is a super awkward time signature.


I'm working on a fancase right now, and I'll be making almost all of the music myself (though I might use other original music that people are allowing to be used), so there'll be more music soon (and sprites, once I start focusing on that). I'm definitely planning on fixing the Lobby theme so the bells don't sound so awkward, and on adding more stuff to the Moderato theme, which sounds super empty right now.
User avatar
DeeYo
Posts: 937
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 4:21 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: Hungarian, English, some Russian, Spanish, German
Location: Yes

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by DeeYo »

Glen Elg wrote: Thanks for the criticism; hopefully I'll get around to really diving in and fixing a lot of this.

I'm using MIDI instruments and arranging it in FL Studio, so as cool as the soundfonts probably are, I'm trying to stick with MIDIs for the sake of making it sound a little more like the non-3DS games, but maybe I'll look around for AA soundfonts so I can use a wider range of instruments. Since I'm sticking with MIDI instruments for now, what do you recommend I use in place of the strings?

Also, interludes aren't my strong suit, but I do need to get away from being really repetitive. That happens way too much, so I'll work on that. I'll also change the bell thing and start adding background melodies and bass, and I'll take a look at panning. I'm not too good with music theory, so it'll take some work. Thanks again for the critique!
MIDI instruments are no substitute for even GBA instruments. The feel is just totally off - GBA/DS instruments are usually obviously synthetic and aren't really trying to sound real, while MIDI sounds like it's trying to be orchestral but fails miserably. I recommend you google "GBA/DS/NES soundfont" and use those if you're going for a retro feel. I don't know about AA soundfonts so I can't help you with that.

If you're sticking with MIDI instruments, try to use "strings" or "string pad" instead of "violin" or "viola". The latter two sound very bad with MIDI.

Since you don't know music theory, I'd advise you to listen to a lot of video game music, preferably in the style you want to make your tracks in. You can even try to transcribe some by ear, which helps a lot. Whether you brush up on music theory or analyze tracks by ear, the main thing is that you need to learn how a song is usually structured and instrumentalized.

Panning can be done pretty easily with FL Studio. Google it, it'd take too long to explain in writing.

I'd also advise putting your songs on a site where they can be listened to without downloading. Dropbox's share links should work if you replace the "www" with "dl" and remove the "?dl=0" at the end, but kiwi6 and github might also work. You can find a tutorial for the latter here.
Image

Total times sued: 10328
User avatar
tiancai
Posts: 79
Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:04 pm
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by tiancai »

i know nothing much about music.

I've listened to 2 of the tracks and I find them good. Pleasant for my ears. 8)
At least there is nothing awkward or weird or out of place.
User avatar
tb2fan
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:03 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by tb2fan »

Absolutely phenomenal! Putting credit where it's due, I'm using your logic track and courtroom lobby for two things at the moment. One is an Ace Attorney Roleplay Blog which you can find here -> http://harmongrennanaceattorney.tumblr.com/. Second is for an in progress trial Titled "Turnabout Hunt."
Image
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

tb2fan wrote:Absolutely phenomenal! Putting credit where it's due, I'm using your logic track and courtroom lobby for two things at the moment. One is an Ace Attorney Roleplay Blog which you can find here -> http://harmongrennanaceattorney.tumblr.com/. Second is for an in progress trial Titled "Turnabout Hunt."
Ah that's awesome; thanks for the credit, and thanks for sharing! If it helps, those themes are quieter than the others on the playlist; it might be a good idea to boost those in Audacity or something so that it's consistent volume. Thanks again for using it, and expect much better stuff in the future (especially now that I've got an AJ soundfont)!
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

I'm gonna be making some sprites soon, but before I do, I'm trying to get my drawings to look as "Ace Attorney"-ish as possible. Here's some sketches I did earlier:
Spoiler : Drawings :
Image
Just looking for some feedback; which of these characters look the most like they could actually be in an Ace Attorney game?
User avatar
SuperAj3
Posts: 1309
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:19 am
Spoken languages: English, 日本語(少しだけ)
Location: Legal Land

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by SuperAj3 »

I like a lot of your designs you've made!
I think each design could work as an AA-styled OC. Especially the guy with the comb in his hair, or the old guy with the beret or the doctor.

If you want to get more in the style of the AA art and sprites, maybe start by copying an official piece of art, then modifying it. This way you have a (detailed) base for proportions, and you can trace the basic parts like head shape, and poses, and then add your own clothing/hair/details. That's a sort-of short cut you could use. (And how I started making my OC's).

Also, with a lot of manga-styled art, each artist draws eyes a specific way, so depending on what AA artist you're referencing look at how they draw eyes. I know Fuse (Who did Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice's art) draws a ring inside the iris, and then the pupil, depending on the eye shape.

Also I hope your essay due June 3rd went well! NO EXTENSIONS! XD
ImageImageImageImage
Avatar from the TSub website :april:
User avatar
Reecer6
Posts: 456
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2011 11:45 pm
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English and, for the most part, Spanish

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Reecer6 »

If I can suggest something, I think you've got most of the technical aspects of the style down, but you don't have the actual broad character design of Ace Attorney characters, which can be very outlandish at times. Here, basically the only way these people are made distinctive outside of the face are parts of their hair or some kind of hat they're wearing. Like half of them are wearing suits. I'd say just try and flanderize the characters a bit more, give their designs characteristics that come together to much more clearly convey their personality or shtick. And, of course, make sure their silhouettes are unique.
~~~Image~~~
I have a tumblr, check it out!
The Fury Wraith wrote:''Now I'm SERIOUS!''

Desmyrr grabs his LEMON!
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

Reecer6 wrote:If I can suggest something, I think you've got most of the technical aspects of the style down, but you don't have the actual broad character design of Ace Attorney characters, which can be very outlandish at times. Here, basically the only way these people are made distinctive outside of the face are parts of their hair or some kind of hat they're wearing. Like half of them are wearing suits. I'd say just try and flanderize the characters a bit more, give their designs characteristics that come together to much more clearly convey their personality or shtick. And, of course, make sure their silhouettes are unique.
Thanks for the critique; I tend to focus more on face design than costume design when I do these drawings, which is why there are so many suits. Thanks for pointing it out, though; I do have trouble with costume design, especially for men. Also, I'm working on nailing the style down before I start doing wackier designs; even with the variation, there's a key feel that official Ace Attorney characters have that I'm still working on. But it's been noted, and I'll work on being a bit more varied with those designs.
SuperAj3 wrote:Also I hope your essay due June 3rd went well! NO EXTENSIONS! XD
Haha, thanks for your concern; it went very well!
User avatar
Glen Elg
Posts: 85
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 7:47 am
Gender: Male
Spoken languages: English

Re: Glen's Assets (Music/Sprites/Other Graphics)

Post by Glen Elg »

So I thought I'd ease into spriting by doing a profile first; this is the victim for a case I'm making now. Nothing particularly unique about the design, but some victims tend to be like that, so I'm not too worried for now.

Image

I'll probably do some more profiles before I start getting into full sprites, just so I can get the spriting method down.

Oh, and the sprites I used to frankensprite this are Jake Marshall (Face/Nose), Adrian Andrews (Mouth), Luke Atmey (Ears), and Matt Engarde (I think; it was for the eyes, but I edited those a ton). Eyebrows, hair, and clothes are all scratched.
Post Reply