Update : polls resuming, and general questions about anime cell shader (Patreon)

Hi everyone, sorry about the late update this week. I caught something pretty bad last week and spent most of the time in bed. This happened all during my week off the new year holiday so I guess its both good and bad.

Preamble aside there's two general topics that I want to go over. 

1). Polls will be resuming next week, submissions are open now on the Discord request channel. If you don't have or want to use Discord you can DM me the model submission. I know a few people who sent me submissions for future polls last week, please DM me again to refresh my memory and I'll add them to the list.

2). Anime cell shader : this is a fantastic plugin by HuntingSuccubus that helps enhance certain looks, however its a tricky plugin to use and as someone who mainly focuses on anime characters I get a lot of repeated questions on its usage.

Question 1 : bugs with alpha textures (black clothing) -
A : the black textures are what's called alpha textures, in simple terms the black areas are meant to be transparent, but due to certain shader settings it might turn visible again. This is a fixed issue in the 4th Version of the plugin, however that is the paid version. The free version (Version 5) does not have this fix for some reason. If this is an issue it might be worth investing into getting hold of the 4th Version.

Question 2 : textures have weird wrinkles or 'tree-rings' when the plugin is used -
A : its an issue with the shadow from one of the light sources. my recommendation is to go down the atom list and check each lighting. If the box named, 'Shadows', is ticked, then flip it on and off to see if that fixes it. If not then move onto the next light source. Tip : tick the 'See Hidden' box in the atom list to display hidden lights in a scene.

Questions 3 : eye shadow clothing and the cell shader -
A : if you're using the cell shader plugin you will have to remove the eye shadow clothing in the clothing tab. Most MMD or anime type models have an eye shadow mesh or have it shaded in-game somehow, so I use this clothing to replicate that effect as close as possible. However for those using the plugin, the eyeshadow will be displayed as white instead. I was asked a few times if there's a fix for this since it is a detail that is easy to notice once you know its missing and until recently I haven't thought of a solution to this issue.
 Recently a thought came into my mind that I could use the Ambient Eye Shader plugin (also by HuntingSuccubus) to create a similar effect since it uses the in-engine shader instead of a clothing item. Here's how you use it;
i). load eye shader first (important to do this first)
II). load anime cell shader plugin

It is imperative that you load the eye shader first, because otherwise it will override the anime shader and remove its effect. 

For reference I attached a few sample images above, and as a disclaimer the eye shader plugin is a paid plugin. Its not necessary to have for my looks, but I thought I'd just mention this since I get about a DM a day about this.

Hope you guys have a good rest of the week!