Hit me with your test shot! (Patreon)

As mentioned in the “Plans for Q1” post, here are a bunch of test shots for Ménage à Moi. These renders are non-canon and not part of the story, but they do show the finalized versions of sets and characters for chapter 1. I made sure to go over everything with a fine-tooth comb to ensure my GPU could handle all the furniture, lighting, characters, and the resource-heavy anatomy add-ons. So no, the characters will not be going about their day naked (at least not all the time).

This first batch of renders is set in a custom-made basement apartment I designed from the ground up. I got really annoyed at trying to set up some store-bought buildings in the past, so I wanted to see how difficult it could be to do it myself. I already had the knowledge and a bunch of household props lying around, all things considered, it went relatively smoothly.

One of the residents of this place is Kiersten, the MC, who is without the goth makeup because doesn’t wear it much at home. Otherwise, she is unchanged from her original debut.

No doubt your eye is drawn to the other occupant, Camila. She is the caretaker of Kiersten’s modest estate. This duo has their disagreements, but when they aren't arguing, you'll be able to see their deep bond.

Moving on to Marta (on left) and Janine (on right) in a public bathroom. Both character models have had substantial work done to them since anyone last saw them. 

I showed off a hairy version of pregnant Marta on the Discord server and Twitter. Since then I realized, for whatever reason, several important parts of her skin weren't applied, which I've now fixed. She will start off hairy and then transition to being fully shaved somewhere in chapter 1. (Hint: shaving scene).

This is Janine V2 as opposed to V1 who I thankfully realized had odd proportions. Combined with some new normal maps, and she looks much better now. Her freckles are the reason I decided to test not using Daz's built-in denoiser. All of these renders in the post are with the denoiser disabled and I intend to keep it off as it isn't saving nearly as much time before I learned this new lighting technique.

Again, this is a public bathroom so a scene like this is just for the test. That doesn't mean other interesting stuff isn't going to happen here, just not this particular scene as these two characters don't really interact all that much.

And finally, Rico and Annabelle in the relit study room. This couple is the object of desire for Kiersten, and one way or another, they will be hers. Rest assured, even though two of the MC's love interests are already in a relationship, there is not going to be anything like the dreaded NTR. I'm going to write up a further post to explain some of the kinks that will be in Ménage à Moi and what to expect from any of my projects (like how I'm not much one for cheating and bad feels).

My primary objective when designing all these sets was that I didn't want to have to redo lighting for every shot. This room's light source is fixed, and I only use spotlights on the characters for dark areas. Along with looking more natural, this type of lighting actually renders faster than my previous technique.

Annabelle has a completely new skin which drastically changes her skin tone, but overall I prefer this paler skin version. With this shot you can see how not using the denoiser has kept a lot of the detail on the skin and hair compared to my older renders. 

The only thing I changed on Rico was his hair. This is the only shot out of all of them that I needed to spend a few minutes messing with the lighting. From here on out, the bulk of my work is posing and camera placement. No longer should I be bogged down by relighting every scene because it was too dark. I believe I've laid a foundation that should be cut down on a lot of the prep work I had to do in the past, and allow me to create more renders in less time than before.

And that's it for the time being. I hope all my supporters enjoyed these renders which represent the culmination of all my learning and skills up to this point. I'm a lot closer to release than I ever was with Motherhood, and I can't wait to read all your reactions when chapter 1 of Ménage à Moi comes out.