Let’s talk about Akali. (Patreon)

Hey guys, now for a change of pace… well, nobody likes this kind of pace change. It’s time for one of those posts nobody wants to see posted, because nothing positive can come from them: a Let’s talk about post.

So, I’ve been looking forward to start with Akali after I saw the model on Blender. And I wasn’t looking forward because I’m interested in Akali, I was looking forward because there’s a lot of things going on with that model, because it’s “unexportable” and it needs a lot of fixes, let me elaborate.

========IMPORTANT NOTE========

Before I even begin to elaborate, I want to make this abundantly clear: THIS IS NOT GIFDOOZER’S FAULT. Gifdoozer, like many of you and me, works with what resources have access to. If you want to say something negative about Gifdoozer, it better be about not having more support, because Gifdoozer’s resources are fucking amazing, it is thanks to Gif’s resources that my workflow got a HUGE time boost.

First red light: The source.

When I was reading the description for Akali, I noticed something real quick, the sources was an MMD model. This is a red light for me, because this means the model doesn’t have face bones, or at least it is implied. This means this model was either Add-on rigged or by-hand rigged.

Next red light: The outfit.

So I open the file and I check the model. Looking pretty good, only natural since Blender has that amazing function of showing modifiers only at render. But then when I was checking the outfit, I noticed something that sparked another red light: the outfit is modified. Since this model is made for NSFW purposes, the her pants have an exposed variation, however, it is missing the regular pants. I cannot just provide an exposed variation without a regular variation.  

Another red light: Add-on rigged.

While this is not an issue in Blender, it is an issue when it comes to export models. The reason is, in Blender you have IK bones and regular bones, however, they are all bones at the end of the day. This means, I need to figure out which bone is which, and which one to delete. Granted I can write a Python script to do that for me, but it’s not worth it since the model isn’t easy exportable anyway.

Big red light: Really hard to export.

Since I have my workflow on 2.79, I wanted to export the model for FBX (because someone though it was a great idea to make 2.80 files version-exclusive…) however, like I mentioned with the previous red light, there are a lot of bones. To make things worse, it is difficult to actually export the model because some of the items are out of place and for some reason, putting the proper parent to it doesn’t fix it.

Killer red light: No mouth mesh.

Yes, I’ve mentioned every red light so far, even went as far to say it’s hard to export. However, in my opinion, there’s still one particular red light, the red light that kills it: there’s no mouth mesh. The mouth mesh, for those unaware, is a mesh that is inside the mouth: the tongue, the teeth… open your mouth and see yourself in a mirror. All that shit you see inside? There’s none of it. You can even use Jaw Drop on any of our models and you will see what I mean.  

We can have a long and productive discussing if there’s even a need for a mouth mesh or not, but there’s no time for that. There is no mouth mesh. This makes this really difficult, and I have zero experience with mouth transfers.

Another light, but of hope.

While I mentioned every aspect that makes this an unreliable port, I’m not giving up. My patrons voted for an Akali model, and they are going to get an Akali model.

So after sitting down and thinking for a while (literally weeks), I decided the best course of actions for this to work:

• I’m using the MMD port as my source, the same Gifdoozer used.
   
• Instead of using Rigify, I’m going to use my own method to rig faces. Yes, the first model I face rigged was A2, and in my opinion, it went well. If I can do it once, then I can do it twice.
   
• The model doesn’t have a mouth mesh. Who cares. For what is worth, it’s really rare to see people even use regular model’s tongues, so this is a compromise that needs to be made.
   

There’s still another compromise to do, and it seems unavoidable: I won’t be able to deliver this model on time this month, but fuck if I’m not going to put effort on it regardless.

What to expect of the model.

So now that we are all aware of how this is going to develop, I’m going to give you guys some expectations:

• A model with no mouth. Better keep that in mind as of right now.
   
• A model with funky flexes. I’m going to try my best to rig this model to the best of my abilities.
   
• I’m also using Gifdoozer’s figure as a reference, personally I liked that choice, but still not trying to go for a full unrealistic cartoon figure.  
   

Well, I think that’s everything I need to say. Once again, this is not Gifdoozer’s fault, so I don’t want to see any negativity going Gif’s way. This is true for every Blender model, and even I’d dare to say, it’s true FOR ANY SOFTWARE-EXCLUSIVE model: they only work on the environment there were developed for.

Anyway, thank you guys for reading, I hope I can count on you with this one. I was about to say “I hope you can come with me on this ride”, but I don’t think that’s possible, because you guys and me are already in, and the ride began to move, so if anyone wanted off of Mr. Bone’s Wild Ride, well, it’s too late.