12/20/18: The Hard Way

12/20/18: The Hard Way
Turns out studying a bunch on rigify and more was also wasted time. Yay!
It doesn't support my scaling needs.
But I did learn about automatic armature weight groups. That shit is awesome!

Telehypnotic helped me figure out that my needs in my videos are so specific that I'll need to make my own armature that can be used across all models.
I've been editing Mmd imports this whole time so I guess this will make things more consistent.
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12/17/18: Rigging Things
Nothing ever goes just right these days. The Samus model I was using was an xps imported one rather than MMD. Looks nice but damn did the bones not work right whatsoever. When I set up IK, it would constantly bend the elbow on the arm in 4 different places. YUCK!
So I downloaded an MMD version of Zero Suit Samus and to my surprise, it seemed to be the EXACT same model with low poly face differences. I like working with MMD models that don't twist their legs in 5 directions, so I'm in the process of moving the xps head with all the facial bones onto the MMD model.
Best part is that the hq textures from the xps model transfer to the mmd one due to using the same source. Neat! So by the end of all of this, there will be nearly zero differences from the picture I showed but with all of the bone usefulness I get from an mmd model!
The nude version didn't work out since scaling it would cause... morbid body stretching. No idea how to fix that!
Anyways, there's zero facial expressions to work from. So I gotta pose a bunch of face bones where I want them and use the pose library instead of any sliders. At least this means I can easily subdivide!

Good head on the left, mmd one on the right. I tried replacing the hair but... may as well do that in Blender.
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12/14/18: What I've been doing for a bit

So I've got a nude Samus model and the super fine Samus model that I posted the picture of. The problem is that they're 2 completely different rigs. (Skeletons are totally different setups) I've been looking into retargeting animation and other stuff to find out just how I can make things match up for an sfw and nsfw version.

I could've streamed, but it's a lot of dead end tutorials using rigify left and right. Which doesn't do scaling well.

BUT! I just had a theory pop into my head at this time of 3am. What if I parented, with an offset, the IK joints and then made different body parts match rotations? (Like fingers)
Then it would turn into simply patching slight changes and stuff.

Otherwise, if I knew how to texture a damn model, I'd only have to add the suit to the naked version and be done with this.

But I don't want to learn that right now. That's a whole other thing along with learning modeling. I'm deciding to just stick with the suit for now and practice motion tweens using stretch & squash this time. (Think Overwatch animation style)
So once I fix up her rig, I'm gonna begin animating immediately.
I just need to find some cyberpunk thug models!

Modeling and texturing will be my goal next year.

The nude Samus rig definitely requires studying time since its setup is vastly different from what I'm used to. Will have to use her some time in the future since it's done so well-ish. (Scaling her resulted in seriously warped body parts. Which means only scaling from the root. That's a huge time sink to adjust sliding feet)
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12/11/18: Jacking in
Today turned out to be all about importing problems just to get Samus into UE4. Working with transparent hair in Blender is gonna be weird, but there's no problems in UE4 so it's fine.


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12/10/18: Getting Cyber
With my commission for Telehypnotic to fix up Marin's model and textures, it was time to go bac to building for Samus's vid.





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12/4/18: Finished Furniture/Lighting!
Let's just do some sexy before and after pics!


I forgot to get the "before" downstairs, but it was pretty much empty too.

I feel like it needs more books. Or pots. Definitely more pots since she is from Legend of Zelda.
But what I have figured out in my head right now is that I want her head to burst right through the second floor. 100% happening. I'm also gonna get help from Telehypnotic to clean up Marin's model and make her look higher quality than what I can do. If it goes well between us and the style isn't lost, then he could be a consistent fixer-upper for my videos! This might take a bit of time since he has 2 commissions ahead of me. Good thing I have a speedrun video to work on just in case!
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12/3/18: Inside Furniture
I've been slowly getting a good idea of how I want the furniture placed around the house.

Can't wait to figure out how to get the lighting just right here!
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Bowsette:
With family not at home for a few hours, I did some personal voice acting to help Monstrassa get an idea of what I'm going for.

Marin:
Started from nothing and now the beach cove looks fantastic! Even got the outside home layout done! Another successful VR day! Sand will need texture size adjustment.

Edit: Forgot to mention, but I tested the add-on for subdivision with shape-keys in Blender and it was successful! So expect better quality mmd models from now on. I'll be doing this with Bowsette's sound version too since I have to change the lip-syncing for the talking.




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11/27/18: Next on DBZ
Blonde Bowsette:
First of all, Bowsette Blonde version is being worked on. It's not out yet because UE4 wants to throw sequencer deleting bugs at me that I'll fix another day for render. I still have to sneak into my car to record the voice acting for Bowsette and myself. (To help say how I feel it should go)

Marin Vid:
Marin's armature is finished and I did apply all transforms to everything before even thinking about animating. This worked perfect! There should be no physics problems with her through the animation now! On top of that, I found an add-on that can allow subdivision surface to be applied even with shape keys on in Blender! Despite the Rick & Morty-like eye effect, the results have been super good! I'll have to remove the eyes from the mesh real quick, apply subdivision, then reapply the eyes.
Today was all about checking out potential assets to use for her video. Ended up with wanting to go with a smorgasbord of stuff! Everything is set up for a VR trip to building her home. Just gotta figure out how I want to build it. Something beach basic.
For her environment, she's going to start in a not-too-modern house by a nice beach cove. She'll outgrow it then head out of there to end the scene. Then she comes around the corner in another modern beach with a cliff that has the city above it. She gets big enough here to simply step up the cliff to enter the city. Not without some beach play though. Then it goes into the city destruction stuff, mega stuff, etc.

Samus Speedrun:
I want to cyberpunk the hell out of the Samus Speedrun, (Because we never seen that yet!) so I had some fun with the lighting in it! The City Strip was planned for both vids all along! I can't wait to add more cyberpunk stuff!
Take notice the chromatic aberration on the edges. I personally DESPISE the effect, but in very certain cases, like a cyberpunk setup, it works perfect to help establish mood.
Also, if you thought my night time MMM shader was weird, this is why. I NEVER go with basic night time. I like the highly stylized type.