Cyberpunk Stuff Update (Patreon)

      Here’s an update on the Cyberpunk stuff I’m working on.

      The first model I’m doing is V, specifically the 2018 demo version of her. The assets for this version of V are unused in the final game, but they’re still in the game files. These V assets aren’t exactly 1 to 1 with the demo version, mainly the texture resolution is lower, but that wasn’t much of a problem after I upscaled them. I went through my usual face transfer process, using Wrap3 to transfer the original face shape and textures to a genesis 8 female, and fixing the face shape afterwards in Blender. The final result is pretty much identical to the original game asset.

      When I began working on this model, I wanted to try using displacement maps to add more realism. Displacement maps are basically textures that add more detail to the geometry of a mesh. I started by baking some displacement maps that cover the full model, including the teeth. It took a lot of tweaking to get these displacement maps looking right, but in the end, I think they came out pretty good.

       Then, I wanted to add some wrinkle maps to Improve how the facial expressions looked. Wrinkle maps basically add creases and wrinkles to a model's face depending on the facial expression. I originally was gonna manually tweak the value of each wrinkle displacement per each facial expression, but instead, I chose to use bones. Basically, I added bones that copy the position of specific vertices on the model’s face, and those changes in bone position drive the wrinkle maps. This means that the wrinkle maps “just work” and I don't have to manually tweak much. This method also means the wrinkle maps will be easily transferable to other characters.

I improved my animation rig too. This isn’t really something you can notice in a finished pic or animation, but it makes working with the model a bit easier. I finally made the rig mirrorible (which can save time when posing), I improved the foot roll controls, added better breast bones for more control, and added a bunch of corrective bones which help with the deformations around the arms and legs. There's still more I want to add to the rig, but for now, this is good enough.

The first thing I’m gonna do with V is a few poses to show how the model looks. Frankly, these pics aren’t gonna be too exciting, but they’re a good thing to do before moving to my normal sex renders because I’ll be able to iron out general problems and “bugs” with the model that I probably missed.

I ported part of V’s apartment to use in these renders. It’s not her whole apartment, just the area I plan to do the renders (but I do plan on finishing the apartment eventually). Assets from Cyberpunk 2077 are extremely finicky to port. The game uses a layered material system to save on drive space and texture memory. As a result of this, most meshes don’t have straight textures as you’d expect, but instead, multiple masks to layer on textures from the material library the game uses. Fortunately, some great people in the CP77 modding community made an add-on for Blender that tries to import meshes and shaders as they appear in-game. The addon does a great job, but it’s never 100% accurate, so I have to adjust most shaders it imports.

So, that’s it. I’m gonna start working on those poses in a little bit. And sorry for the mumbo jumbo in this post, just wanted to explain some technical stuff and I know some people find it interesting.