WEEK REPORT N°1 BUNNY PACK (Patreon)

Hello comrades, Kinda late, kinda weird day of the week but it was about to time to post some news of the ongoing proyects
I got disappear for a whole month for several reasons an emotional issues i had to resolve and well of course that affect my activity on the work

However this year its slow but wanted to compensate that "Slow" with projects what are more unique in production features and progress for future modelling, among them trying to solve an old dilemma, race packs!

Like i said in the early days of this year, its the year of the bunny, and one of the most requested, liked and used races in this media are buns, Holly proved a solid platform and concept what should be expanded into race

however despite the lack of news in Patreon, the production of the bunny pack aldely began in mid July

There are some questions what should be answered to contextualize why the delay on news about this project and the future of this pack


RACE BASES
in mid 2021, a post where published notifying the Halt of future races packs, the reasons of Why where explaining there but in a nutshell and to give more context

based on the experience with the Hosternfaux/goatPack i had a sever issue trying to overall focus in the whole proyec having a lack of diversity problem with the shape and alot of branched work, The problem Goes for 3 fronts

Male and female models are 2 different models (yeah have a sense but see the issue )
that means any issues (flexes/weightpaint/textures) has to be individual becuase the models branch very early, that means twice of work on the porting process, twice of textures for each skins and twice the amount of time spent for each variant, specially OCs, on top of that both models used with Genesis 3 base had issues what are permanently corrected over the curse of years, but usually these issues are applied on Female bases rather than in Male ones, making the male slightly problematic when its about making characters and eventually since 2020 until 2022 alot of untracked changes made the Male base and mesh inferior to the female, making even more complex the problems,

In short, it was like 2 models in parallel with 2 different issues and 2 different workflows aggravated by the factor of both had to share sometimes props and the Skins for them made A lot of effort trying to make both equally diverse, something evident lacking with the Goat pack

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE

To solve many of these issues a newer base body was used and complete different workflow has to be invented,

to start now transition into genesis 8 base body featuring shared body shapes across male and female bodies allow an magic approach for not just race bases but overall any character what require both genders an feature, while this is not much difference for the end user  cuz anyways both genders has to be a different body due bone positions, it means a greater help in the making process

This Hugely optimise the throuble shottings because now all problems are coming from a single model what can be modified and fixed and just apply a flex and swap modifiers to have a male model functional,

among the benefits, both sexes now share the same UV meaning both can use the same Skin simplifying the whole painting process, this workflow inspired another great idea featured for this pack

Among other things, new addons, techniques and general knowledge what wished know years ago will help in the craft of the races packs making them more viable

BUNNIES

-Head base of the early stages of Holly Zanzibar model where used to save time (for this particular chase) and make it consistent with the race what they belongs

-Early prototypes for the shared body port and behavoir for the new base mesh where created to SFM to plan the workflow

-Despite the mesh base be the same the bones still be the same from the current models so some props can be attached yet

Body construction

-Some pieces where borrowed from Holly but others has to be rebuilded, among them the feets needed a severe intervention 

-As well some new theeth added 

-And finally welding all pieces together 

Despite both having different genders shapes both are the same model and mesh, (just pay attention what male body still have female genitalia, this will be resolved and the end of the crafting process)

HEAD TYPES

One of the common issues associated with working with a different meshes like in the past made the idea of making variants of a same a exponential problem, but with that out of the way now making HEAD VARIANT MODELS its possible, and convenient than before! 

-But you cannot do this with a flexes like did in the past with the foxes/goats with the HS/ES/MS flexes?

-Thanks for asking little Timmy!

You see, in the past changes like these where more subtle, like cheek furs, nose shapes and overall head structure, However some flexes what changed alot the head shape lead into things like Mouth (specially flexes like funnel/O/U) be really broken as well for the lids , and the bunnies are more complex due the ears and bones, SO different models with extreme different head shapes will be a separate model, this allow to preserve the shapes keys forms and focus more in the range of options of the flexes Head/Ears/Muzzle complement better to each head shapes specifically, and for now referrer as TYPES to represent a different variant of each Species

Paint testing

And finally the most important test, the painting one allowed to be compatible to all the previous mentioned changes
I did a veeeery quick and dummy texture what ended up liking among the server so the test bunny texture will be redesigned and implemented in the final product but overall was to show how the seams and UV behaves with all the changes made during the cut/shapekeys and deformation transitions giving very positive results on both genders

Annnnnnd Finally flexes!

We have progress on the shape keys, and all variants considered are complete (including males), from now we can move along into more creative steps for this proyect and the whole ideas implemented can be executed as planned,  the next week (or this one deppending if is aldealy Monday)  some skins and hair will be manufactured, HS (head shape) &  Ear shapes will be added based on the criteria of the combination of colors for the skins and the hair styles  

Officially at this point i can report the proyect in Patreon (reason of why didnt before) since before this last task all changes and considerations where "Experimental" and can leaded into a process where existed the chance of the whole proyect can came out as "cancelled" or went into huge changes or cuts so i cannot guarantee or promise nothing at all from the pack

Luckly i passed that experimental period and now can focus into more traditional workflow, like i mention before, Skins and Hair,

This pack will share the same nature as the other packs, and hopefully stay in the level of content as the hosternfaux packs, including things like armors, some sexy stuff, some casual, and things involving Hazard Core lore including OCs and some other characters what can be produced in the fly, keep in mind this pack its just in early stage and left yet 6 week of production ahead, i want to be realistic too and this is not just one model where usually take 1 month to produce, this is a whole pack and expect at least 2 months of production from these kind of proyects  and i aldealy spent 2 week figuring out how to produce this base workflow and save me alot of head caches what make the race packs cancelled years ago

other than that the addition of additional stuff and concepts to make in the free time to not just burn out with boring task will be included to complement the hosternfaux, and continue the practice on stuff what will be more relevant as close we are getting to the ROBOT race pack what its stalking in the horizon if this proyect succeed


In the mean while i want to give huge thanks for all these years of support and pushing for founding this kind of proyect, i know what the previous models of the year werent the most "awaited" characters in the existence but where extremely healty for me as an artist, now its time to accomplish some promises

see ya the next week comrades with the progress log!

WM OUT!