Blending The Busy Fox... And Why (Patreon)

Don't jump to conclusions! It's not what it sounds like! Let me explain...

So, over the weekend, I've been messing around in Blender. For those unaware, Blender is a piece of 3D graphics software that lets you do all sorts of neat stuff like 3D modelling or moviemaking or fancy visual effects. But I wanted to use it for something a little simpler than all that.

I wanted to create The Busy Fox - the tavern from A Tiny Furry On A Huge Quest.

Why? Well, I have three reasons.

Before I go into those reasons, though, let me preface this by saying that I'm well aware that it doesn't look like the best modelled tavern in the world! Understand that I'm completely new to this tool - I'd never even looked at it before Saturday evening, actually - and that the overall quality of the renders doesn't really matter because this isn't a space you're ever going to be really walking around.

The first is because it's a lot easier to do than you might think. Blender has a pretty huge user community and there's an absolute goldmine of assets out there that are free for commercial use. If I had to model everything in the tavern - fuck, if I had to model a single stool, even - then it probably would've taken me a month or more. Thanks to stupendously talented people, however, I was able to plop down textures and models and lights like I was playing The Sims or something - except it was on hard mode, and it made my computer scream!

The second - and biggest reason, honestly - is my mind's eye. What does this mean? Well, even as the creator of this place, I've never been a hundred percent sure what it really looks like for real. The reason for this is simple - the place doesn't actually exist. I can sit here and imagine it all I want but at the end of the day it will never actually be a physical space... unless I build it. And while I can't built a medieval tavern set in my backyard or anything, I can build one inside of my computer. So I did! Now I know all of it's nooks and crannies. For example, I wasn't really sure where to put the basement before...

... but now I know that it's right here! This door originally led to the kitchen and just the kitchen - but now I've decided that it's an employee only area that leads to the kitchen and the basement. Why? Well... it doesn't make sense for it to be anywhere else. The basement is where the booze and the food are kept - so it'd make sense for it to be close to both bar and kitchen.

The giant barrel that you see there is a prop, by the way! There's actually a much smaller and easier to handle barrel inside of it. Will that be mentioned in game? Probably, now that I know it exists...

... but, yes! Having this place exist - either literally or virtually - helps me understand it. Today I've dove back into Quest to do some writing since it's a new week - and the effect that it's had on my output is incredible. The area exists and makes sense outside of my head! That was worth the time spent alone.

This is really why the stretched out textures and stuff don't really matter - in most cases, anyway. I plan on spending more time in the program (to throw together later areas) so I'm sure I'll figure out how to make things not look stretched out to shit eventually. Things will get better as I go. This has always been my philosophy, and... it's worked out pretty well so far! I didn't know a thing about Quest when I started but now, years later, I know lots of things about Quest. Maybe it'll be the same with Blender.

The third reason is backgrounds. For those who are unaware, I've been using (copyright free) photos from the internet and applying a few photoshop filters to them and other fuckery in order to make a stylized sorta background. This works pretty well... for the most part, at least! But when it comes to getting multiple angles of a place - especially from a micro perspective - it's not really feasible. With a 3D environment in Blender, though, this is a non-issue. Let me show you!

Here you are at the bar.

Here you are looking at the bar from a different angle.

And, finally... here you are. Tiny. Shrunk. Reduced! As soon as I realized that I could shrink the render viewport I knew that I was onto gold. Not only does that help with the minds eye thing again (I know how big a tankard really is when you're two inches tall) but, also...

These aren't final or anything - I just smacked a basic couple of filters on them so that you'd see my point - but...

By doing something similar to what I did to the photos, I can make effective stylized backgrounds for the various scenes in the game - all of which will have continuity now! The background you see when you're large will reflect the background that you see when you're small... and vice versa. Obviously these backgrounds will have text plastered all over them - and will be darkened/altered considerably before being put in game - so their various flaws won't be so obvious. 

This will also come in handy with more... conceptual spaces. For example, I'm probably not going to be able to find a CC0 photo of a potion shop or something... or a micro betting hall/dungeon thing for that matter. Creating my own backgrounds had to come sooner or later. This is the easiest way of doing it... for now, at least. It's either jank around in Blender or spend a few thousand hours learning how to draw again...

Anyway! The text is the most important thing, of course... and will remain the most important thing. I'm a writer, after all, not a 3D artist... and that probably shows from the clearly beginner efforts here! But this will make tons of things easier and wasn't the hardest thing to do. Plus... as janky as those stretched out textures look... it really is cool to see the place actually exist. Sort of. Kinda! To me, at least.

Don't expect to see any of these Blenderfied new backgrounds in-game for a few months. This was just a test run - I want to spend a bit more time learning the program before I commit to anything! I wasn't even planning on posting any of this, but... as janky as it is, it turned out too cool not to.

For those of you who don't really care about this or the games background or whatever - then, don't worry! I said it earlier, but my focus is always going to be on the texty writey porny smut - and this helps me with that.  This'll be proved when I drop a huge text-heavy update for the game at the end of the month!

In other news - the latest poll will end on Wednesday this week, so, please make sure to get your votes in before then!

In other other news - I'll have a vignette up in a few hours for those who are hungry for a short story!

Hope you're all enjoying your start to the week!