Music-Makin'

Alrighty, I been planning a game for quite a while now and have been working on animations of it for like the past year. For instance here's an animation of one of the enemies of the game:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2FtbY19vKQ


Anyhow, I got a tune in my head today for the starting area of the game so I looked up online music-making stuff and came across pulseboy. And by god...I'm horrible. Spent a few hours in there and couldn't even manage to get the first few seconds of my music to sound right. Now I don't intend for it to be crappy 8-bit quality for the actual game (should it ever get made), but I just wanted something for reference for when I'd make the good version. But seeing how it is...I don't think I can really do music. I have the tune in my head, but I have no way of putting it down as actual noise unless I have something to record my voice. Just wondering if anyone knows of an ONLINE (can't download things for this computer) program that might be easier for me. Doubt there is one, but just wonderin'...

 

Well that's a nice little animation.
I sorta have the same problem too, with actually knowing a tine vs writing it as music.
I can think of two solutions, but the first one is quite possibly the worst possible idea ever conceived.
1. Record you singing the song
2. Convert the audio file to .MP3
3. Use an online MP3 to MIDI converter. (Although I'm pretty sure most don't work)
4. The new, terribly arranged MIDI should show which notes are in the song

Better solution:
Try hooking up an electronic keyboard. Play each note and test to see how close it is the the note in your head. When you get the right note, write it down. Continue until you have all the notes. With the correct notes, keys, rests, etc, you should be able to make a tune out of it.

 

I probably know even less about music composition than you do so I don't have a solution to your problem, but that is a very nice animation :3

 

I would most certainly at least do my voice if I could (of course wouldn't put that in the final product, just to get down the tune), but sadly I don't even have the equipment to record my voice anymore I don't think =(

...wait...maybe...no...camera's been lost for months now. Can't record myself that way...I'm sure I'll think of somethin'...probably won't, but yeah, definitely would record my voice if nothing else for sure. Didn't know Midi would show the notes or anything though.

And I guess I should show the hero of the game (I gave him a different running animation after I put this one up. Haven't uploaded that one though):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1B2o_xqdrE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1B2o_xqdrE

Thats pretty good animation. Better than I can do

 

Well I been animatin' for about 5 years now probably and been drawing since I was 5 years old =) Also have done him swimming and swinging and some other things. Still got quite a ways to go (and that's not even counting all the idle animations I plan for him to have).

The other animation I'm working on right now is of my comic characters and is a little over 400 pictures (Xenohunter's run cycle for instance is about 6-8 pictures). This is the longest one I've put up so far though (not Xenohunter or game related. Just thought you guys might wanna see since you guys seem to like the animations somewhat. Made this a few years ago though so it's not as refined or anything): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOV8FWT6Ze8

But as for Xenohunter I plan for the game to be hand drawn and everything like Rayman Origins ^_^ doubt I'll ever finish it, but it's what I hope to do =) It'd play like Metroid in that it's a world to explore and be also somewhat like Earthworm Jim and Kirby The Great Cave Offensive.

 

But as for Xenohunter I plan for the game to be hand drawn and everything like Rayman Origins

They have special software for integrating hand drawn assets into the engine as an asset. I'd worry about getting a method of integrating your stuff into game before I make more of them. You've got a lot now to test, if you can't make one character and put them in engine, then you really are just animating with a theme all this time.

 

Oh I'll never stop animating ^_^ if nothing else I could always use them as experiments and tests for later actual animations. I do hope to be an actual cartoonist of some sort someday.

But it can be done. I have seen that. Rayman. Sonic 2 HD (rest its soul). That's the kind of stuff we should've been working towards ever since the 64-bit era. Yes 3D's fine and all, but what isn't fine was that it killed the focus on 2D gaming. A medium that was looking absolutely gorgeous by 32-bit and, anytime it's been done (competently) afterwards it's always looked so much more visually pleasing than any 3D title to me. No matter how good 3D animation gets, it hardly ever looks as good as 2D does at its best (because there's just so many damn factors in 3D animation that people generally can not take into account as easily).

Now I love Cave Story. But honestly, if there was a hand drawn version of it I would probably take that over the original (the problem I have with 3D's version is that they completely destroyed the art style), just as I'd have taken Sonic 2 HD over the original had it been completed.

We're at a point now where video games can literally be playable cartoons. And I fully intend to make use of that. And if I can't yet I am certainly preparing for the day when I will be able to.

Edit (The Day After):

Well, after a day of messing around with it, I finally got the track I wanted ^_^ this is the first music track I have made for my Xenohunter video game idea. Now I would undoubtedly make a better sounding version for the actual game, but I'm just working with the resources I have at my disposal at the moment and just wanted to get down an idea of how it's supposed to sound. So it's an 8-bit version of it. But I call it March of the Twilight =) and personally I find it pretty catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2fGq58jsW0

 

I think perhaps www.beepbox.co is just what you're looking for! ^-^
Here's a quick example I made in like 1 minute:
http://www.beepbox.co/#4s0kbl0e4t7a7g0fj7i0r1w1181f0000d1111c0000h0000v0000o3240b00000000110000000a00000000000000p1Fzj713ieAd8qq86E82CUv610kPMkQ-qo7bSptBCk00

You might have to switch the scale to "expert" to use a full chromatic scale.
Pulseboy does look cool though, maybe I'll try it out some time.

I totally agree, any kind of animation can be incredibly fun. I took a class in high school that went over 2D and 3D animation and both were awesome.

If I'm gonna be honest, though, if you've seriously never programmed anything up to this point, you're not going to want to jump into programming a game with fully animated characters.

 

http://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-One/explore/start-free-go-pro
^^^^ This is a pretty cool *free* music making tool. ^^^^^

Or at least, the free version is free (there are lots of other expensive versions with more stuff). It does have all the features I could ever expect from a free music creation program and more, but it might take a bit of getting used to. And also, it won't be capable of solving that problem of not getting the right notes... it helps if you play the piano a lot (or any other instrument for that matter). I find it a lot easier to play/compose it live on a piano, remember the notes, and then put it into whatever program I'm using.

But you'll have do download some soundfonts for the kind of sounds you're looking for probably. I'm gonna assume you're capable of googling stuff yourself, but here's a cool place that has some orchestral stuff:
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1200140

And I second what Connorses said about jumping into programming a game with animations and stuff. Programming takes a lot of practice. And also, what programming language/thing are you planning on using?

 

Well messed around with Beepbox a bit and it certainly is different from Pulseboy. A lot more advanced it looks like. I tried to recreate the first part of March of the Twilight though and it turned out...horrible ^_^; really is gonna take some getting used to.

As for Studio, unfortunately my computer can't run programs. Can't even play games or anything. Got Cave Story for the Wii is how I played it =) I know I played Iji over my friend's the other year when I visited Florida.

Did make a new track though =) probably not gonna show all these off every time I make one, but I made a little Album Cover art thingy for the 8-Bit soundtrack of the game so I feel I should put that video up =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WO3GZPOPT8

 

Jeez, what kind of computer do you have? It it, like, a Chromebook that can only do things that work in a browser?

Also, have you ever seen a game made (almost) entirely with claymation?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twJG83moPRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6EJUnLTmE