RE: Breast/Object Movement & Past Animations (Patreon)

Hey guys, hope you're all are doing great! Just wanted to let you know I'm still very hard at work & working on your animations for this month. You guys should get what I think is a decent amount this month & who knows I might throw in some extras.

But this in this post I wanted to address 'Breast Movement' & 'Object Movement' because I really want you guys to understand why some past animations will have breast/object animations added to them and why some won't.

- Warning: this post is longer than usual -

Breast Movement 

To make this explanation easier, I'm going to be using GIFs instead of lots of lots of 'technical animator language' [but just know the meaning of one word at least - "rig" = 'a structured set of bones used to deform(/animate) a mesh(/model)] - because I'll be using this word.

GIF A: 

GIF B:

Above are gifs showing previews of my past animations. 

Both animations don't have breast movement (yes,.. not even GIF A, I just created a good illusion). Both animations can be used between Male & Female sims 'in-game' (as well as Male-Male & Female-Female sims) because both Sim models use the same 'bones' within their rigs. - So that's why they work in-game.

With GIF A's animation, I originally animated it using a Male and 'Female' rig. And so yes, breast movement can be added to that animation.

But with GIF B's animation, I originally used 2 Male rigs. So Is it possible to animate?

The answer is Yes & No.

Yes: because Male rigs also have the Breast bone.

No: because if I move/animate the breast bones, I'll see nothing happening in Blender (the program I use animate) and so I'll have to be "guessing" how the animation will look in-game. (tweak-test-fail-repeat = will take a long time)

I could gladly try doing that for every previous animation where I used Male & 'Female' rigs but I fear that it will consume a lot of time which I could be spending, creating new animations. 

Of course I know I don't have to do it all at once but, I'm waaaay more partial to creating more NEW animations for you guys, than fixing old ones.

GOOD NEWS: The past animations where I used Male & Female rigs are far less than the animations I originally created using a Male-Male rigs.

BADish NEWS: You're likely to get breast movement on animations created with Male-Male rigs much much later than the ones between Male & Female rigs.

"OLL, why didn't you use Male & Female rigs from the beginning?":

- Breast movement in TS4 has not been possible for about 2 years. The mod which unlocks breast movement was just released less than a week ago. 7 months ago, I was to new Blender/Animating, and I had enough trouble/problems learning how one rig worked, so at the time, learning how two different rigs worked was going to be a nightmare (and more importantly severely delay how long it would have taken me to release animations in the past). 

- As I got used to Blender/Animating, I switched from using 2 Male rigs to using a Male and Female rig. By this time, I had released a lot of animations already but I didn't think it would be a problem because I always thought: 

"there's no real difference between using male-male rigs & male-female rigs pfftt, it's not like breast movement is suddenly going to be made possible".....

-...... epic fail

- So when 'Denton's' mod got released. I knew I'd have this very issue haha. I hope you guys can understand my predicament :) 

My Proposal:  

I'd personally prefer to re-create some of my old animations, as I am a much much MUCH better animator than I was 7 months ago and I think you guys would appreciate them better.

Also, If I do plan to do that, I intend make many re-created animations at a time (as much as possible) as a form of compensation.

Hope you guys like the idea of that.

Object Movement (Brief):  

I have some past animations where I could incorporate object movement (mostly bed movement), once again I'd prefer to re-create them, but since that feature has been out for a while, I'll try my best to add object movement to some of my animations.

NOTE - I have LOST some of my original files I'd normally use to tweak animations so I won't be able to do them all. It's unfortunate but it's true.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say.

Phewww... that was a lot to read... 

But I hope that I've addressed any people's concerns.

Have a great week :)