WIP Update - 9/27 - Short Animation Rendering + Physics Tests (Patreon)

Hey all!

Hope you guys have been doing well! I've been spending a bunch of time lately working on jiggle physics and collisions with more complicated kinds of clothing. It's been a lot of trial and error, and after several days of elbow-deep searching into Blender's physics engine/tutorials, I've re-discovered what everyone seems to agree on: Physics is a total crapshoot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and artists who have had more luck with physics systems almost always use other programs that are more dedicated to the particular physics in mind. That being said, I made a lot of progress in determining the most 'bang-for-your-buck' approaches, and while there's a lot more that I can delve in to, I think I'll be shifting focus to some less frustrating aspects. I'm currently rendering a quick walk cycle demonstrating the physics in motion (with growth), and I'll be posting it here tomorrow. I slapped together the walk cycle to test jiggle physics in motion, but it ended up looking pretty darn good and I figured it was worth a little demonstration. Liara's been my test dummy for a while now, and she's always due for some 'enhancements'. 

In more boring news, I've been also experimenting with more fluid camera motions and shifting DoFs. Hopefully it'll help to make the animation smoother and bring some nice polish to the workflow. I'm still honing in on color balance and general compositing techniques, so the animation frames aren't as unified as I'd like them to be, but it's helped to better emphasize different parts of the render and take out a lot of the meticulous lighting/positioning work. 

Aight, enough techy speak. After completing the Brigitte animation, I really needed a bit of time to stretch out and try focusing on other topics, and I appreciate the patience and support this month! Next month is looking to be a bit of a doozy, between seasonal content, updates, commissions, and a sorta-secret-but-not-really-secret project that I'll have more info on in a bit. I'm looking forward to getting back in the animation mindset, and hopefully I'll be able to apply at least some of the techniques I learned this month to keep upping my game when it comes to growth content.

Thanks!

Haptick