[Themes][A-T] Revival Serenade [WIP]

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Its been way too long since I've done a SM theme....hmm, I say its been 4 - 5 years since I did Nocturnal Dream and to be honest, with me looking back on it now, I consider it a disappointment as a theme in general and I'm disappointed in myself cause I got unmotivated to actually complete it. To those who were expected more releases of the build of ND, I want to say I'm sorry for the whole thing. As a themer, I feel kinda bad about it but then I got stuck into other things with my group at Anime Toshokan (Yeah, we're still alive.....barely).

With Xatnys completely turned off by SM now, I've pretty much also lost all will to do another theme for the last few years. So we went to stuff like anime fansubbing (still trying to do it) and doujin game stuff (Doujinstyle.com took over so we're bumped from that as well). With a ever dying community on our hands, I thought I should give this one last try......and a rather ambitious one at that cause I have so many ideas stuck in my head.

At the moment, this is all I have to show for Revival Serenade since I'm pretty much back to square one with trying to learn how to do themes again. Till then, this is just to show that there is another anime theme being worked on but at my pace since I have to go about this solo now without any support from Xat. Stay tuned......

:: Screenshots & Designs ::

Title Screen


Style Select



Revival Serenade Opening Intro: YouTube - Stepmania Theme - Revival Serenade OP Intro

:: Progress Report ::

Total File Size: 50+MB (EEEEEK!!)

Opening Movie Intro: 100% Complete
Ending Movie Credits: 5% Complete
Title Menu: 100% Complete (design phase)(animation application needed)
Style Select: 90% Complete (Insert game test complete)(animation application needed)
Theme Sounds: 100% Complete
Total Theme Completion: 35% Complete


If possible, can anyone help me with the clean up of this theme after its done. By clean up I mean file size reduction. History has shown us that I've been infamous for making "HUGE ASS" file sized themes around the area of 32MB+ and I don't want that to be for this one if possible. Assistance on this would be nice.

For those who want to see what my other works was like, here is the last build of Nocturnal Dream I have before I stopped working on it: Nocturnal Dream.rar

--------------------------------------

:: Revival Serenade - AUG 14, 2008 Demo ::

This is the first public demo of Revival Serenade for Stepmania 3.9+. This is a unfinished work-in-progress so expect some problems along the way. Here are some things you might want to take notice of:

- No animations applied to this version except those remaining from Nocturnal Dream

- Some screens from Nocturnal Dream are still left in this demo (I was working over Nocturnal Dream)
- Caution Screen
- Ranking Screen

- K//Eternals Music Select Wheel Design is used as a placeholder till the theme is completed (used with permission)


:: Download Link :: Revival Serenade Unfinished Test 1.rar

-----------------------------------------

:: Special Note About This Theme ::

Before anyone starts saying that this is a mockery of K//Eternal's old theme AOI, I will go ahead and point out that "NO" this is not to take a bite out of K//Eternal at any way. The purpose of this theme is to give a rather more anime feel to the theme that I thought was kinda missing (at least to me) in AOI. I respect all the work that K has done with it and I thought I could at least do a little homage to the theme in a rather small way while still keeping some originality in my style along with not giving a bad name for anime Stepmania themes which everyone who has made one that we've seen has been a catastrophe of a job since. In a sence, this is a mixture of both AOI & Nocturnal Dream since I'm working over ND but implimenting design styles from AOI.

[raen⁄⁄tkel]

Oh hey, welcome back!

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Hiya hiya! Long time no see 'K. How ya been? I see you got your hands full at the moment with a certain someone though.

Currently still trying to gather all the material I want for my theme. I looked at AOI[S] and I was kinda set back at how good that looked even though you didn't use much material (for the file size that thing is anyway).

Anyway, back to work. T _T

[raen⁄⁄tkel]

Haha, and to think AOI[S] was from way back in 2006. Things are largely going well in any event; it seems I'm free until IIDX16 comes out to do, well, nothing, heh.

Too many anime themes are just about swapping in a few graphics; ND was a breath of fresh air and hopefully this will be even better

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Actually, I want to really take my time with this one since I was kinda rushing ND to keep up with Xats Sakura themes.

I really miss his works though (he's still with us also).

At the moment, trying to find some good "flying thru the cloud" videos (IRL or anime) that I could use for my intro screen. With Stage6 gone though, its kinda hard now. lol

[shakesoda]

I miss stage6 :/

Anyways, can't wait to see how this goes.

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

I'm pretty much in the photoshop stage as of right now. The main thing I have a problem with is doing the text and font for my theme which was the main reason i could finish Nocturnal Dream.

Definetly not one of my strong suits.

[tweak_]

it would be nice to see a anime theme that isnt garbage.

good luck to you, sir.

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

That's because I don't just splat images and call it a theme. The day I do that is the day I stop doing this kind of stuff.

If you want my last build of Nocturnal Dream to see how much I've done with that before I stopped, I'll be glad to share it.

By the way, I was wonder if there is a tutorial site on SM theme designing that has examples on what each tag does when implimenting them into a theme design (someone should make small video clips of examples also).

[shakesoda]

Main Page - SMTheming Wiki
This is the closest there would be, that I know of.

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Thanks, this is proving to be very useful to me right about now.....even though I still haven't done a single thing about implimenting my theme into SM yet. lol

Actually, I got back into doing themes cause I needed a gimmick for my site and also because of the fact that the overwhelming of replies I've gotten to finish Nocturnal Dream or to create a new theme kept flowing in. I got tired of them and then I saw AOI[S] just recently and decided that what the hell......

So yes, this theme is being made because of AOI[S] so there will probably be some resemblance (only in some areas as in looks) but I assure you that all graphics are my designs only. If this goes well, I'll go forward with Nocturnal Dream EX.

Oh yeah, remember me saying I was going to do a hentai theme......NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I canned it.

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Okay, mock-up designs of my theme are now being posted. No worries me doing this though, I've added logos in crucial areas of the designs in case a certain someone wants to go using them without my concent.

These are not final.........maybe.

Also, for those whom are willing to help me with this (there has been a few people already asking if I need it), the only thing I'll mostly need help with (actually, these are things I'll really need help with) are in 3 areas:

- Font Design
- Animations

If these are something you can help with, please let me know.

[AJ 187]

Depends on what you mean by "advice on metric handling".

[Hideki-Motosuwa]

Originally Posted by AJ 187

Depends on what you mean by "advice on metric handling".

Maybe I've phrased that kinda wrong. Actually, I'll scratch that off since I can just ask or do some researching on my own from time to time when I need help with something that deals with the metrics of my theme.

Back to music searching.....I can't seem to decide on which loop to go with for my theme for some reason.

European Aviation (loop was made by me): _common menu music (loop) 01.ogg
Nico Nico Douga 33 Song Collaboration (loop made by me): _common menu music (loop) 02.ogg

[raen⁄⁄tkel]

Whenever you have two good loops, you use one for the title screen and one for the menus, haha.