Sneak Peek #5 (Patreon)

With the next game release coming soon, I've been working on refining the last member of our main cast: Griffin, whose final sprite is slide #1. He will be introduced if you visit Atelier 54 to meet with Asher.

Griffin has already been teased in prior updates, but as you may have noticed, his appearance, outfit, and vibe have changed quite a bit. You can see the previous version of Griffin in Sneak Peek #4.

With these changes, I thought it might be interesting to make this a combo sneak peek and behind the scenes post to look at how much the characters can change physically from first iteration to last.

Griffin Revision

Despite being the last character introduced, Griffin was one of the first conceived for the game. As a character with a particularly interesting romance storyline, there was a specific look and vibe I wanted for him that took many revisions to achieve.

After a character is conceived, I create a brief for what I want them to physically look like. For Griffin I was looking for someone who reads as a few years older than Connor, self-assured, effortlessly cool, a little enigmatic, and striking in a way that can be a little intimidating. Physically, I also knew I wanted him to be biracial (Japanese and White), average height, and slender without much muscle definition.

In slide #2 you can see the progression of the character model. The first version was basically Griffin "out of the box"—I needed him for Matt's bonus gallery in February, which is a canon sequence. Knowing that you wouldn't really see much of Griffin, I didn't make any edits to the base model & texture asset that I purchased.

As you can see in the slide, the base model and especially the original skin texture didn't match the quality level of the other characters. I left his body and body hair the same, but applied a much higher quality skin texture, eye texture, hair, eyebrows, and stubble.

After I showed off version 2 in the last sneak peek, I kept coming back to the character. Something seemed off. He seemed several years older than his actual age, for one, and the whole vibe did not meet the brief.

Enter the 3rd and final version. I sought out many images of real life men who matched Griffin's racial background, and through studying them I made some relatively small changes that added up to a greater whole.

The base model is nearly identical between version 2 and the final version. The only things that were edited were the upper arch of his eyes and decreasing the areola size. The main changes came from other edits: I slightly darkened his skin tone, and then further darkened his lips. His eye color was changed from light brown to hazel. A new hairstyle in dark brown changed his hairline, and new eyebrows changed the spacing of his forehead. Lastly, new stubble was added to better frame his face.

With the new model created, he needed a new sprite as well. The entire vibe of the first sprite in Sneak Peek #4 ended up as "friendly waiter at a casual dining restaurant." But Griffin works as a bartender at Atelier 54, a hot gay night club. He needed to dress sexier and more vibrantly. And thus we reached his final form.

Riley Revision

I first started working with 3D renders in September 2021. The first three characters I made were Connor, Marco, and Matt. I then tried my hand at Riley.

In slide #3, you can see Riley changed A LOT. The brief for both character models was the same: thick, nerdy, extroverted, shy about sex, recently lost weight. Version 1 of Riley mostly meets that brief, but compared to the other guys, he wasn't nearly hot enough.

An earlier version of Riley was in the game up until a week before the game's launch. Playing through, I realized Riley had to change. Version 1 could certainly be edited to fit into a game highlighting guys sharing his body type (adding a full beard and thicker hair would definitely be a good start), but he seemed out of place amongst the physical archetypes being covered in this game.

The changes are self evident here: he's taller, less barrel-chested, has an entirely new face, new hair, and a new skin texture that has similar vibes to the original (blush to the cheeks, body marks, and body hair) but is toned down to match the visual style of everyone else.

Matt Revision

Slide #4 is Matt, and wow, what a massive change, right? The first 2 characters created for the game were Connor and Marco in the test scene. Like with Griffin's first model, both Connor & Marco's first versions were basically straight from the box. I attempted the same with Matt, but the quality level was really bad, even for me just figuring out the program. It was time for me to learn how to heavily edit body types, faces, and skin textures.

Matt went through many, many, many iterations. As the first character Connor interacts with and also being the best friend  romance, he had to look pitch perfect. It took me a long time to be happy with his appearance, but in the end I think he turned out beautifully.

You can even still see some of the original (but poorly executed) visual ideas that made it to the final model. For instance, the first model's eyes are creepy and doll-like, but the color of them—light blue ringed with dark blue—lasted all the way to the end.

Creating Matt raised the bar significantly, and he became the baseline I measure every new character against when determining if they're game ready.

Final Thoughts

I think the main takeaway here is that being willing to revise your work (even to the point of completely tossing away the first draft) can lead to great results!

I'm proud of how far I've come from first creating 3D art back in September 2021 to now, so I wanted to end with one final slide: an artistic nude of Griffin created just for this update.

Thank you for reading! I look forward to sharing more very soon. :)