Progress Report, 14/08 - 20 (Patreon)

Hello everyone and welcome to a brief progress report, which will be more on the technical side, before I head off to the dreaded Friday shift!

My endeavors to bring Lady of the Woods 2 continues, though this week also saw major strides in my own skillset within Blender. More specifically, as you can probably gleam from the screenshots above, I have learned to properly import XPS models into Blender and apply, on existing skeletons, inverse kinematics, also known as IK rigs - as well as build skeletons and create IK's from scratch while applying them to models initially lacking them. Models without skeletons require configuration of the manner in which the model reacts to bone manipulation, such as how, where and how much things bend, and consequently, I have also begun to learn weight painting - and though it's certainly difficult, it does not feel nearly as insurmountable as it might initially seem.

But I digress, I am currently in the process of, with the blessing of, so far, one local XPS model creator and/or porter, rigging and setting up an array of models that will definitely make up for the horrible drought of male models available to Blender - especially in the Mass Effect universe. Though they're not nearly as high fidelity as our lady models, I definitely consider them serviceable for the purposes we have here. My first port and rig was, in fact, the Husk models utilized in the Monday Loop of this week. Bit of a proof of concept there :)

Additionally, what I managed to cram into my brain this week isn't limited to XPS - I also learned how to extract and port SFM models into Blender, rip and re-apply their textures, and rig them as well. Though it requires a lot more time, this is the first step on taking the beloved models we have over in SFM and, maybe, finding them a new home over in Blender one day.

Exciting times, these, which means I'd like to thank you, as always, for your continued support, and for all of your kind words. I hope to have more good news to share regarding LotW2 this upcoming week, where I'll more closely be able to gauge the release date. Remember that I'm still considering input for the greenscreen fast-forward scene of LotW2, so if you have suggestions for by what or how Lulu might be banged during those, don't hesitate to share them - I promise I read them all :)

Take care of yourselves, and each other!
/DH