XXXIV March 2022 Progress Update (Patreon)

Hey everyone!

We have a lot of progress to show on the XXXIV side of things :D.  

For those of you that haven't checked in for a bit, XXXIV (pronounced "thirty four") is the Rule 34 series we're working on getting off the ground.  We're looking at a variety of things, including animations in the style of PO, high quality still image sets, and potentially a gallery app utilizing Pure Onyx's cinematic mode framework for animations.

I chose not to run a character selection poll this month since we are working on both Malise and Tifa currently.  

And on a less positive note, Demonu, our female face and hair sculptor, lives in Ukraine and is currently helping with the immigration crisis near his city.  We're hopeful that Putin runs out of Scooby-Doo vans and conscripted children in the coming months so that he can join us again.

Tifa Sculpt Completed!

The Tifa sculpt is finished, and TK has finished her low poly model and is nearly finished with the first draft of her rig :D. 

I spent some time making some high quality still images using a sculpted pose that Kame did after finishing her high poly model ^-^. These were hand processed and composited using renders from ZBrush, and am really happy with how they came out.  Please check the attachment for full size 8K lossless renders!  

I've been looking for a "finished" looking style to use for high quality stills for this series, and I may experiment in this area some more.  One benefit of using ZBrush for stills is that Kame can sculpt details we can't quickly or easily get from a rig -- such as the authenticity of Tifa stretcihng and hiking her skirt up.  This can be taken much further with H stuff, so it's something to consider.  

Malise Sculpt Progress

Kame has made a bunch of progress with Malise's suit and body sculpt!  

Her body is pretty similar to the PBR (realistic) design we did a while back, with some exaggerated features to match the style of recent characters.  

We're currently experimenting with the holsters, as we can't really decide on an optimal design.  I'd prefer to do away with the inner thigh straps that her old holster designs had, as they >_> complicate things.  

Tifa Unity Materials WIP

I've also completed the first pass on her Unity materials :D.  These are still a work-in-progress!

One of the areas that needs work is hair outlines, so I've left them off these shots entirely. We've tentatively found a method that we can carry over to PO to improve the look of hair there as well ^-^.

Expect some completed posed renders from Unity next month, and hopefully some test animations at the very least :D.