Progress Report, 06/07 - 21 (Patreon)

Hello everyone and welcome to another in the line of progress reports!

It's been a rough week, as August tends to end up being these days. Previously I could look forward to these vacation weeks, but owing to my current form of employment, it is instead the times I get called upon the most fervently owing to my colleagues' vacationing. How the tables have turned, indeed.

This week, as I failed to do in my stress last week, I figured we'd go through a quick summary on the on-going projects, their statuses, challenges and so on. So, in no particular order, here we go:

Blitzballs (SFM):
Final Fantasy X.
Lulu.

Blitzballs have existed in something of a perpetual state of updating owing to Aardvark's propensity to create new, better Lulu models, and I've come to the conclusion that the whole project will simply have to wait until he's settled on a stable V5 model, which I believe happened recently. Needless to say, it's a project I still want to do that mostly, these days, exists as a rough script outline and some scene builds, with the old animation work and posing discarded owing to the model switches etc. I hope to incorporate Aardvark's "generic male" model into this as well, as to ease on the RAM load of the previous models featured.

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Continued Negotiations (Blender):
Mass Effect.
Liara and Miranda.

With its very meaty script largely in order, I have put this project on ice until I learn sufficiently about Blender tech to do it justice. When I finally sit down to animate this project, I want to have a full grasp of fluid mechanics, physics, volumetrics and all other matters that truly makes a project shine. Until then, I will keep glancing at it, pensively, in the hopes that I've somehow magically found the time to learn these matters.

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Planetfall (SFM):
Soul Calibur/Mass Effect Crossover
Isabella "Ivy" Valentine and Ashley Williams

Script work is underway, though it's proving a challenge to make it not be overtly silly owing to its very clashing, crossover nature. Still, I struggle onward, both to make sense out of it and to hopefully make the matter appealing to you all. Owing to how the first draft is turning it though you should expect, if anything, a lot of lizardmen.

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Breaking the Lineage (SFM):
Mortal Kombat.
Cassie Cage.

BTL suffers from infrequent bursts of work from me owing to its troubling nature where Shinnok lacks a proper IK rig, requiring a sudden Cassie Cage urge to rise in me to motivate me enough to work on. I cannot stress how much of a pain it is to work with a model that lacks the basics, and I've gone to great pains to make it look somewhat passable, constantly fighting against the urge to simply rely on lazy camera work to cover up the difficult parts, which would make the project suffer immensely. I don't know when it'll be done, but it will be done, and it will be done well.

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Underground Fundraising (Blender):
Final Fantasy VII.
Tifa Lockhart.

UF is stuck in something of a small development hell. The initial two first scripts turned out to not be feasible in-engine, and after painstakingly rebuilding Don Corneo's model not once, but twice, we yielded the results of the Male VA community poll, rendering the prominent speaking role of his in the third script moot. I am half of a mind to revamp the entire thing into a sewer gang bang with Tifa at the center of some sahagin at this point, though it remains to be seen what I settle on. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the matter.

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Dossier: The Convict (Blender):
Mass Effect
Jack (Subject Zero)

Bloated well beyond its initial "scenario" aim, the Convict is now its own small project. The script outline is taking shape as I've finally, I believe, found a way to make the matter work with the model limitations that we have, though I really need to nail down the specifics around conversation, find a good VA for femshep and Jack, and also get even more scenes added where our dear Jack is draining the guards. It is in the works, so expect to hear more of it in the near future.

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Unnamed Wonder Woman Scenario (Blender):
DC Comics
Wonder Woman

My first comic attempt has been the biggest focus lately, mainly owing to my schedule brutalizing my spare time, leaving little left in the way of periods to sit and do lengthy animation work. For these times, scene posing and the likes is perfect, which is why it's made quite a lot of progress lately. Owing to feedback, I am going to include an intro scene that makes the narrative flow better, and have yet to sort out how the matter ends as well, but the middle part is, on the whole, at least to me, appealing both in its themes and in terms of the models involved. Another teaser image, on that matter, in the header for today's progress report. More on this as I keep working away at it.

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And that, I believe, is what we've technically got in the works long-term in the present. Thank you, as always, for your continued support and for all of your kind words - these are tough times, and they are warm times, but we persevere none the less.

Take care of yourselves, and each other!
/DH