October 2020 Progress Update! (Patreon)

Hey guys!

Beyond the release last week, we've gotten quite a bit done with new enemy development that I want to show off :D.  

I'm expecting us to have a new Inner Circle release ready around the end of October or early November showcasing a new map, environment FX, and a working shop.

Topics for this Update 

** (New since IC Update)

• New Onyx Artwork
• Chain Splicer Sculpt + Rigging Complete!
• Chain Weapon VFK Rig **
• Chain Splicer Materials **
• FemCop Poses WIP
• 2020 Pure Onyx Art Collection
• New Website
• Police Boss Progress!

New Onyx Artwork

Uber brought the liquid simulation system to pipeline readiness at the end of last month, and I decided that a good first use of it while learning the process would be this Twitter artwork trend that's been going on.  I've posted the results above, with an extra sloppy version for you guys :D.

Chain Splicer Sculpt + Rigging Complete!

TK completed the entirety of the 3D version of the Chain Splicer model and rig earlier this month!  I added some renders I made in ZBrush of his high poly sculpt to the gallery at the top of the post :D.

Chain Weapon VFK Rig**

Last week TK, APL, and I coded a new sort of rig for the Chain Splicer's weapon.  It's called a variable forward kinematics rig, and has a lot of properties that will be useful for tentacles later on.  It allows for the joints in the rig to dynamically adjust to falloff and position settings on the controls, and the chain can even dynamically change length -- an important feature for creating illusions necessary for some of the Splicer's moves.  

The usual example for this kind of rig is an elephant's trunk, and here's an excellent video demonstrating the technique (also where we got the idea from).

Chain Splicer Materials**

Over the last few days I made the textures and materials for the Chain Splicer enemy.  During the process, I felt the gold elements weren't coming through as metallic enough, and I ended up created a new technique for metal materials within this cel-shaded style.  I'm especially happy with how it came out on his chain, as it is readable but still doesn't look very obviously 3D.  I'll likely add this effect to the FemCop and Splicer Boss' armor as well.  

FemCop Poses WIP

I've begun working on FemCop's keyframe poses in between other stuff.  Design of her moveset is still an ongoing process, but I'll hopefully get the poses to TMX in the next week so that he can begin animating!

2020 Pure Onyx Art Collection

I've put together a new collection of Pure Onyx art!

It's not exhaustive, but pretty well documents our progress since we made the switch over to 3D characters (and a bit before).  I got the idea because I realized it had been just over a year since we made that switch, and felt that a lot of our current patrons probably haven't seen much of the work from beyond a few months ago (especially due to Patreon having terrible performance  / inexplicably lost images on old posts).

You can download the collection here!

New Website

You can also check out the above-mentioned art collection at our new site!

I didn't have anywhere to host such a large gallery online, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on what will eventually become an Eromancer homepage / full site.  TMX did the back-end work to help me get a simple bare-bones one up and running.

It may be a bit janky on some devices, so let me know if you get any weird results.  We'll come back and add a full responsive design in the next pass -- probably around the release of the public demo.

Police Boss Progress!

Limbo and TK are nearly finished with the Police Boss' models!  I've made some renders in ZBrush to show off dem curves ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).  The last significant things left are some design edits to make on his fist covers and guns (not shown).