Update + Schedule (Patreon)

I've been wanting to make a post like this for like a month now, but I've sort of put it off just because of how long it would take to put together. The summary is that I want to go over some stuff that I've been working on and projects that I'm planning. Here we go.

Since the start of the year, I've actually been beaming with creativity. It's quite a contrast with how last year ended. I have so many ideas but not so many that I'm overwhelmed. That said, there are enough of them that I've been hesitant to commit. 

That's sort of what happened in February. I really wanted an animation out for February. I also really wanted to hire a voice actress for the animation rather than work with extracted audio clips. By mid February, I hadn't decided which character to go with, so it was kind of late to hire a voice actress. I went through about four different ideas by the end of the month. I ultimately went with Claire since I was playing RE2 Remake and there was a newer sound pack that had more audio than the last time I did an animation with her. I took my time to finish the animation but didn't complete it until March. Repeat. 

In the meantime, I've been working on various modelling projects and commission along the way, so it's not like time was wasted. Just not as much animation. As of typing this, I've done drafts for three commission sets of four posters. I'm waiting on commissioner feedback to finish those projects. For those projects, I've done some modelling work too. I've also dabbled with some other models for possible animations.

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This is probably a good point to mention the models specifically. I did a generic futa hack for one commissions set. I've also done Samara/Morinth headhack and scenebuild for another. That includes welding the models together, fixing up the weight painting, fixing the corrective shape keys, and blending all the textures together. 

For personal projects, I'll start with  something spicy. IceDev has ported a Wrex model from SFM to Blender. It isn't the greatest quality since I think it originated from a Mass Effect statue model. One of the ideas I had in February was to give this model another go. I tried to apply most of what I knew about Blender to improve it, mainly with shaders. The topology of the model is pretty bad, so converting it from tris to quads did little. Despite that, the subdivision surface modifier went a long way to improving the look of the mesh. Textures were still really low res, so I went about improving the materials. I redid the normal maps, I created spec maps, bump maps, and subsurface scattering maps. I changed the subsurface scattering color a little. I added extra noise to some of those maps to fake extra detail. The results started to look pretty decent. Lastly, I swapped the dick out for a different model. I changed it to the one I normally used in SFM. This time, I was able to hack it directly to the model. I'm not sure if that's the best call since, as I said, the topology sucks so the weld isn't great. At least, it is one seamless model. More importantly, I edited the weight painting for the dick model. This was something I always wanted to do for the SFM version because its deformations were rather poor.

Needless to say, I have some plans for this one. I just didn't think I had enough time in February to do it justice, and I also thought it would work better closer to the Legendary Edition launch.

One more model I've made a few attempts at is Jesse Faden. Control was one of the first games I played on my new PC, and I have some creative ideas that I'd like to do. At the very least, I want to do some short loops since there's so little for Jesse. The armature for the model is pretty much unusable though. Looking into things, I think I underestimated the rigging tools for Blender. There are a number of ways to do automatic weight painting for rigs that are quick and easy to set up with good results. Unfortunately, those methods really seem to hate this Jesse model in particular. Initial results were disastrously bad. I expected the automatic rigging to need manual cleanup, but it was a mess. The best reason I can come up with is that the Jesse model is made up of many different parts, and the automatic rigging tools really don't know what to do with her. I tested some other, simpler models, and had more success. After playing around with settings, I managed to get the automatic rigging to about 75% decent for Jesse. The body is mostly rigged up fine with some quirks, but her face needs a lot of fixing. Mainly, nothing has done a good job with rigging her jaw or lips. It'd easily be days if not weeks of work. She basically has to be the next main modelling project if I want to work with her.

In the midst of that, I realized there is already a Jesse model on smutbase. But I really want to remain committed here for the sake of knowledge and experience in Blender. It's just that her project really made me think about what I should be focusing on.

One last thing, I also have the Dragon Age desire demon model in mind. I've done a few tests here and there, but haven't officially started working with the model. I think, through these other projects, I've learned all the pieces I need for this one. It's just going to take time, and I want to position it closer to the Dragon Age short movie.

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Speaking of movies, let's talk about those.

One of the problems with creativity is also ambition. A lot of ideas I have based on games I've played recently are big enough that they will require longer animations.

I have a number of ideas around Control, Devil May Cry 5, and Resident Evil. The Morrigan short is actually the next movie I have planned, but that is still contingent on finishing the Morrigan and the desire demon models. I had also really hoped to hit some patron goals to work on a project that big. Since I haven't, I've just been slowly working on the models.

I might tackle some other shorter movie projects for the fun of it before Morrigan, but most of those other games will require just as much model work to setup, so it's unlikely I'd do much before Morrigan.

Hold on. Morrigan, all these other ideas? Didn't I have some big Mass Effect Movie? Yeah...

Undercover ASSignment. Mass Effect Legendary Edition is coming up and I thought it might be reasonable to address this. Long story short, I put this project on hold almost two years ago. Fuck. I was way out of my depth with this project. Undercover ASSignment basically commands a full time job, and my earnings here weren't close to justifying that. I put it on hold to build up to it with three short movie projects. Two of them have been released. A switch to Blender has been made. There's so much to learn, but my skills eclipse what I was capable of in SFM.

But patron earnings are about the same as they were two years ago. I don't feel any closer to fully working on this project as I did back then. I still technically haven't hit the goals I wanted to for the Morrigan short. I've slowly been working towards it though. My first major modelling project in Blender is Morrigan, and that started specifically for this short. I've learned a lot along the way.

What does that mean for Undercover ASSignment? It still feels like a pipedream. Two years chasing projects that were just supposed to build into it. I'm just sort of numb to expectations at this point.

On technical note, obviously the SFM version is done. With Rigid's Miranda model, the star of the show is in great shape. With model work I've done with Batarians and Krogans, some pieces are coming together, but those aliens are still making use of fairly old assets. 

Since the end of last year when I did that Batarian hack, I started thinking about the movie in Blender. I could just rip a scene out of the movie and make it as a standalone demo. It would be a Batarian focused scene with Miranda and a custom scenebuild. That seemed doable, but one scene from the movie alone was basically a short movie itself. With the trilogy remaster looming, I didn't want to jump on a big commitment too early.

The Legendary Edition on the horizon has me in a wait and see mood. I want to see what kind of assets can be extracted from the game. Mainly, I'm looking for higher quality textures and materials. I want to see what kind of spark it might rekindle for the franchise. Not just in other people, but also for myself.

I still figure the movie will have to be release in smaller parts as I mentioned. Building out scenes every now and then until the whole movie is done. The Legendary Edition release and Morrigan movie being completed are basically required until I start to work on the project more though.

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Back to more immediate things. After juggling all those projects, I decided enough is enough and I really need to plan things out.

I wrote down pretty much all the main characters I want to animation, models I want to work on, and some movie ideas. I balanced it with projects that I think should be done, games that I'm playing, and games that are coming out. The general theme is that I'm still working through the Resident Evil remakes, so I want to do more with them. The Mass Effect legendary edition is coming out soon, so I want to plan for that as well. Outside of commission relevant models, Morrigan is the main one and should be the top priority model.

After that, things fall into place. It all breaks down into about four categories - Animation Loops, Animation Movies, Commissions, and Modelling. This is similar to what I thought of towards the end of last year. I want to do at least one loop and one character model a month with commission and movie work in the background. The difference is I'm planning things out specifically because that seems to be the main hinderance to actually getting stuff done. Ambitiously, I want to do more like two animation and models a month. In regards to models, I mostly mean low level models. That is, functional model hacks but not fully made up with all the bells and whistles a public release would have. A bigger model project would be more likely to take months.

Commissions are bustling, as I mentioned before. I'll fit them in between other projects.

That leaves movies. As I mentioned before I have a number of ideas. The shortest and easiest one is with Resident Evil. I want to do it for fun before tackling the Morrigan movie. Right now though, it is the lowest priority. It's something I'll work on when I have time spare from everything else.

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Let's talk more specifc then.

For April, I want to start with a loop for Jill Valentine. Relevant to what I'm playing. Ready made model. A simple place to start. I want to do something with Ada too, but plans for her are... bigger. I want to finish the Morrigan model. As I said, this is the main modelling project. It's nearly complete, so I should put it as a priority. It's a different avenue of content, and a nice way to give back to the community of artists. I also want to do a loop with Morrigan to correspond with the model release. If there's extra time in the month, I would also like to do a low level headhack with Aria T'Loak. She's someone different than usual, and it sets up for a Mass Effect themed May.

That leads us to May. My thoughts on the Mass Effect franchise are a rollercoaster, but I've had a trilogy run penciled in for May since they announced the release date in February. That Krogan model is gonna see some work with Miranda. An animation with Aria would follow as long as the model is ready. For modelling work, I'm a little less sure. I'm inclined to go with Jesse Faden, but that is going to be a big project on her own.

Commissions will be ongoing and I'll fit them in between other projects.

The last thing I have in the background is a longer animation / movie. I've wanted to do something with Ada for a couple months. The idea is more like a medium/long animation like the one I did with Jill. It's almost a short movie. It's really ambitious considering how packed everything is, so the priority is low. I mentioned it as it is a sort of stepping stone before getting into the Morrigan movie.

Perhaps if I do stick with the Jesse Faden model and Ada movie, those would end up being the main work for June. Then, the desire demon model and Morrigan movie project would begin in the summer. We'll see how it goes.

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There it is. I've been planning this post out for over a month. I think it started out coherent, but I'm pretty sure it lost structure as I rambled about everything. I hope it made sense. It is rather ambitious, but I actually feel like this has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders by narrowing focus from so many ideas. One of the hardest parts after finishing a project is just figuring out what comes next. There's a lot of good ideas, so I'm excited.

Feedback and comments are welcome.