Updates and WIP Dump (Patreon)

It's been a long time since I did a update and WIP Dump, so here it is! First off, I apologize for the length in time since last doing this. I know not everyone uses Discord to follow our progress. I'm trying to be better about posting on Patreon so you know how myself and Dark Dreams are doing, but I just keep putting it off to do more work. At my core I want to be more up front and extroverted with Dark Dreams and in general, but it's hard to do so when I know there's ideas I could be trying and more animations to get out there! Maybe I am just too introverted? Regardless, here's some updates!

As you can see from the WIPs, we have some new models we are working with, and some of those come courtesy of new artists. Since our last update, I have started working with Hyliam. They only just started animating within the past year, but they are learning quickly. Imflain is back on the scene, which is very exciting. I love working with artists who are passionate about what they do, especially when they are as organized as Imflain. Lewd Dewd and I are working together pretty often now, and I am afraid I will get through all their current content at the rate I am devouring it. Beowulf had a kid (Congrats!) and had to take a short break for obvious reasons, but is back and sent me a bunch of animations to sate myself and Dark Dreams' mutual thirsts. Stoned Dude is a new artist I am working with on an almost-weekly basis. They're an up and coming animator with a passion for Soul Calibur and Street Fighter characters, so they're a welcome relief from the over-populated DoA trenches.

I do intend to get some more models out to the public as a way of giving back to you and the SFM community. I was working with ThatSFMNoob on this for a while; heck, I still have unreleased animations to get to! But we took a break for a while due to the busy season. I decided to try someone new to test the waters with as I wanted someone who had the patience and skill to also rip models. Soooo our next modeler will be Stealth2111. Ironically, the model I want to do is already ripped, so the extra funds will be going towards giving the model all the bells and whistles. What model am I speaking of? Assuming all goes to plan, Maria from Nioh. I strongly dislike that there aren't more models from Nioh available in SFM. So when I saw this I knew I had to get someone on it. As progress is made on this I'll keep you informed. Side note: It seems Lion Jenkinns is working on an Okatsu model, so I'll see about pulling that into SFM next. If any of you know people (or ARE people) who specialize in ripping models, I would be very interested in an introduction. I fully intend to learn how to rip models myself some day, (Ya know, when I have time) but would love to have someone around to rip models for me.

I am working on a couple new techniques for rendering. The first one consists of multiple renders: one being high depth of field with no actors but short in length, while the other would be no scene build and only actors, but low depth of field and full length of time. I know it doesn't make too much sense when you say it out loud unless you get the full context of what I mean, but in doing this I might save render time overall, as well as produce a better looking animation. Win win for everyone! Another technique is using opacity for transparent objects such as water, slime girls, ghosts, etc. This has already worked pretty well as you'll see on an upcoming animation with Cortana. Thanks to BayernSFM for giving me a basic explanation to get me started. Another technique I am working on is using premier to fix the SFM looping issue I have with water and skies. I loathe anything that breaks immersion in animations/VR, so to fix this I'll be attempting to loop a render separately then combining them with actors and scene builds. It also requires green screening, but means, if done correctly, that randomly generated animations within SFM will no longer be an issue.

As some of you saw with our Christmas release, The Yule Ritual, we are attempting crazier and crazier stuff with each video. I'm almost using Adobe Premier more than SFM at this point. The video was one of our longest to date, and took me an entire week to render (I was literally doing post work on it 2 days before release). Not only did we push SFM to it's limits, but we tried a bunch of new positions we've never done before. I love that video, and I am grateful to KDE for working with me on it and running side by side with me when it comes to my crazy ideas. I had intended to add a magic effect to the end of it in premier as KDE did, but ran out of time and it had to get axed.

As for me personally, life has been crazy. I am running Dark Dreams full time now, which has allowed me to switch over from a purely VR focused studio to a VR AND 3d studio. Mind you, Dark Dreams' focus will always be VR first, but being able to make time for 3d versions of our videos as well has been a welcome change. It's nice to see what our videos look like outside of a headset. A lot of people still think that Dark Dreams just takes existing videos, pushes a couple buttons, and voilà, VR. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are so many changes made to a video that sometimes it's unrecognizable when it's said and done. And this isn't discrediting the artist who started the project. We're working together to bring you the best VR experience possible, and I will always give them credit and support. Now I am rambling which means I need to wrap it up! Back on topic, bringing 3d on board has not only enabled me to learn even more about SFM, but also given us opportunities to share our art and find new support. All in all a huge blessing. Dark Dreams is growing an changing for the better.

To the crazy part, this Holiday season slowed down my work substantially. As some of you know, I am going through a big move soon. I intended to work through the holidays as I knew I would need a week off for said move, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to spend time with my friends and family and say goodbye. So, the next couple of weeks will have animations spread out to ensure there are no major gaps in our releases. I'll most likely do this again after the move, as I don't like having no content to post at all for longer periods of time.

I think that covers everything for the most part. Life is good, just busy! Thank you all for the continued support. I appreciate every single one of you who takes the time, energy, and resources to support myself and the rest of the Dark Dreams team. Until next time.

-Dark Zalivstok