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Summer Retreat with Honoka
🕑 Added 2020-08-09 14:15:22 +0000 UTC
"Your summer retreat with Honoka is more than just a much-needed vacation. You two really touched base here. A lot of touching, in fact- emotional and physical. She's your dearest. Just look how she shines!"
- Secretary Karissa
Animation by Lieutenant Flapjack and sound by Laarel.
I don't typically upload remasters for everyone to view, as I like to set those aside for those of you who are supporting us financially. That said, we already had an exclusive this week, and this was a commission that was all ready to go. Between learning and rendering in Blender, time has been very tight for me. I can't remember the last time I did a WIP post. That said, releasing this publicly was nice to show off how much the studio has improved as a whole, and this is a prime example. I think the old version is from around a year ago. Here's a pic:
For those of you who are new or missed the video, here's the original post. I also didn't have our own non-VR versions to share back then either, actually. It's a world of difference for sure. There are certainly things to like about both, but I prefer the new version.
I didn't have time to extend this one, as it was already pretty lengthy at 23ish seconds for the base loop. I did loop it over top of its self for those of you who can't loop in their chosen viewers, smoothed out the animation, lip synced, touched up lighting, added rim lights to add depth where it was too soft on the edges, and even added some new textures to the environment. I changed all of the phong settings to better show off Honoka's skin, as well as the phong on background items as they were just so immersion breaking with their dullness and fake look. Yes, it's 3D CG, it can only look so real in SFM but I'm sure going to try. Honestly, I think that might have been the toughest part outside of the animation smoothing.
Beyond that, a quick update. As mentioned, I am learning and working in Blender. The computer I saved up for is a beast, and rightly so as Blender render times are no joke in cycles. I'm still fine tuning my first video for release, and although I'm keeping it simple due to time constraints, it should be out in a couple of weeks. As with most things in life, learning a new way of doing things, in this example Blender, is teaching me new techniques for other areas of videos, particularly SFM releases. For instance, encoding, sound, and even improving my workflow. It's still a lot to handle, but that's exactly what I need to be happy.
We've taken on a new staff member, Wampa. I knew it would be necessary to take on some more help if I was going to learn and start using Blender as well as continue our ventures into SFM. Wampa has been helping me with setting up sessions for VR, and even animating scenes for us, so keep an eye out for those!
I think that covers the basic for now. Enjoy the video!
-Dark Zalivstok
Comments
Steven B.
Thank you!
