Update - Minor change of plans. Dragons!

Hey guys!

I was hoping to have the cum update out for you last month, but I've decided to hold off on that a bit longer, as it's taking longer than expected to implement, and when I release it I want it to be relatively feature complete, which means at a minimum it should stick to avatars.

I thought I could have that done by the end of February, but I was making slow progress on it and then I got a massive toothache which had me popping aspirin every six hours and sleeping more than usual to escape the pain for a week or so because Tylenol alone wasn't cutting it and the effect would wear out a couple hours before I could take the next pill. I'd heard its safe to take both Tylenol and Advil at the same time though because one is processed by the liver and the other by the kidneys, and supposedly the combination was better than either alone, so I gave it a shot, and it actually worked surprisingly well. I decided to alternate between the two, taking the Advil 3 hours after the Tylenol, with each lasting 6 hours between doses and it got me back to relative normalcy. And a few days later I realized I didn't need to take either any more. I don't know if the Advil's ability to help with inflammation assisted there or not. But either way, I'm fine now.

Anyway, after that ordeal, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to get the cum update done by the end of the month, so I considered adding one of the new avatars to the game. I first started working on Kudalyn's avians, hoping to add a blue and gold macaw to the game, but I quickly realized I'll have to do a lot of custom paint to make that happen. So I put that aside and looked at some of the Zairiza / SlapYouWithFish avatars, and decided that the dragons would probably be the easiest to get into the game, and they're probably be the most desired addition, so I got to work on them!

Of course, as things go, it's been a lot more work than expected prepping them for the game. Sure, if I just wanted to change the color and throw it in there, I could have had one in already, but I went a little overboard.

The first thing I wanted to address was the scale texture, which I felt was lacking. The default scale texture, that is, the texture on the 'skin' of the avatar, not the scales of the belly, looked more like random noise or goosebumps than actual scales, and this texture was just painted into the albedo channel.

After dicking around with it for a while, I realized I could adjust the levels to expand those goosebumps into a texture that resembled scales a lot more. I then played around with many different blending modes, parameters, and methods of applying this texture. Using it as a height or normal map seemed an obvious choice, but it just didn't look right to me. The models I'm using are more toony than realistic, and because the other avatars don't have real fur the aesthetic clashed. At the same time, merely lightening or darkening the scales didn't look great either, since I was still left with a flat texture that didn't change at all with the lighting. Finally I hit upon a non-photorealistic look that didn't make the avatars look weirdly detailed compared to the others, but would allow for details in the skin that change with the light. I used changes in roughness, making the scales smoother than the spaces between them, thus creating the impression of depth and a texture that changes with the lighting.

I then used this same technique to add a bit of interest to the horns as well.

Also, pro-tip for doing this stuff in Substance Painter... I'd been using the blank background for a long time and it was really hard to get a good idea for how smooth things should be, and which colors were too saturated or not saturated enough. But in the display settings you can actually make the environment map visible in the background and actually seeing the avatar standing in the environment it is lit by makes it soooo much easier to see what looks good!

Once I'd done that, there was still a bunch more work to do. The next issue to address was that all the lines and shading were painted into the albedo channel. That's not the best way of doing things though in my opinion, as again, it can look a bit flat. I feel it's better to combine those details, or replace them entirely, with ambient occlusion. 

However, this was easier said than done in Substance Painter, where you can't simply copy a paint layer to a mask, and embedded textures aren't always accessible. To use these painted details as ambient occlusion maps I had to understand how anchor points work, and those had stymied me for a long time. But I figured them out finally, and I was able to make the albedo channel of this layer an anchor point, hide the layer I wasn't going to be using any more, and then create another layer above it for my ambient occlusion, and then set that layer's fill to use the selected anchor point in its ambient occlusion map slot! Phew! I then had to apply this knowledge to all the other layers that had these painted shading details applied to them to convert them to ambient occlusion. I've got most of that conversion done now for the main model, though I will have to repeat the process for "accessories" like clothes and fins and manes that are contained in their own substance painter files.

Anyway, things are going well, here are some previews of different color schemes I'm playing with, also showcasing different body types. 

Keep in mind there are many other parts that aren't shown here which will be on the final models, like claws, hair, horns, fin scales / furry mane down the back, tail spade, ears, cheek fins, different styles of muzzle, and of course, wings.

This red and black one which I've dubbed Dad Dragon has a scar on his nose that resembles a permanent blush, and I'll probably give him rectangular glasses, a furry mane, a spade tail, and one of the spike hairstyles. I may also give him a bit of a gut. And he'll probably get a bondage harness and hood, though those I want to make toggleable for all of them eventually. 

I'll probably make a variant with blue/cyan belly as well. I haven't played around yet with the colors for the genitals much for any of the dragons, so those colors aren't final, I may make those more of a purple hue for him, but the cyan looks nice too in contrast with the red and makes the mouth stand out, so I'm not sure yet. I've already got so many red pink and purple dicks in the game though. It's good to have some variation and I don't want the characters to look exactly like any trademarked ones!

Anyway, that's what I've been working on, and these will be in the game very soon!

Oh, and in addition to the two dicks in the images above there's also a dolphin taper style that's in one of the other Substance Painter files. Until I'm able to implement dick swapping I'll just give them a variety of styles with and without balls and sheath!

PS: I've attached high res versions of the images above below.