The Shanfei Project: the great big update/announcement (Patreon)

That title rolls right off your tongue, doesn't it.

Anyway, hello, new supporters! Thank you very much for joining this ride!

I've been planning to make this post for a while, and I figured it would be a nice welcome post for all y'all, and a fancy big update for everyone else. So welcome to the party! I typically make WIP posts only for the $10+ Patrons, but sometimes exceptions happen, and this definitely is a special occasion, so BLOODY DEAL WITH IT.

Some of you may remember a certain WIP of a certain large structure I've been working on a few months back. I have been working on it relentlessly, but it's a lot of work. Like A LOT a lot. And not just the structure itself, though that's nearly finished now.

Not gonna lie, I don't even know where to begin lmao, so maybe some general info about the project first. Please note, however, that I still want to keep this mostly a secret, so I won't share a lot of details.

Shanfei. It's kinda written like this:

That's the name of a species I'm working on. The name basically means "fate's eyes" in their native language. But the species is not everything I'm making. I need to design two entire planets for them, both with their own (fairly similar) biomes, ecosystems, history, along with the history of the entire civilization. And their traditions. LITERALLY AN ENTIRE ADVANCED CIVILIZATION SPRAWLED OVER TWO WORLDS OKAY??? All of that is in the works at the moment; I have a fairly solid base for most things, now I just need to build upon it, and fill in the gaps.

And yes, I actually created a writing system for this. Its logic is loosely based on Hangul (Korean), but the symbols are unique. The pic above is some super stylized calligraphy; normally it looks more like this:

Oh, and this post's image, the circular one on the very top - that's a meditation symbol, which the shanfei use for specific things.

Also, the graffiti I've been using in some recent artwork was made for this project as well. Either directly, or as a sorta teaser. It's also fun to make! And in case you were wondering why you can't read any of it - this is why lol.

Next, an update about the structure I mentioned. I've been working on the shaders, and now they're nearly done! Here, have some pics (this thing is literally hundreds of years old btw):

Oops, that last one was something else - a bunch of wind turbines! They're about 500 meters tall each btw. The other thing? About 1500 meters tall. Yes, that's almost a mile. I know some towns which would easily fit within its base area.

And lastly, also something I only vaguely mentioned before: I've been learning World Machine! Haven't bought it yet, but I definitely will (am learning on the free version). I can't make two entire goddamn planets for my actual magnum opus using procedural noise maps, c'mon. Side note: I super recommend downloading the free version of World Machine to play around with - it's pretty fun for what it is (if you're 3d-curious, and/or have a fascination with geology), and it's pretty much fully featured, just limits the size/quality at which you can generate stuff, and you can't use it commercially.

Anyway, here are some of my WM experiments and exercises - all made from scratch:

The arid mountains in the first three pics are more or less what the shanfei homeworld looks like. At least most of it. The other three are just things I wanted to try.

I think that's all I wanted to share at the moment.

I hope this post has been an enjoyable ride, and thank you again for your support! <3