Neko Part 1.5: Breaking the Couch

7/11/18: Breaking the Couch

After some research on this, couches are surprisingly good at looking the same while its inner pieces break. Which meant I could take the same shape key/morph expression approach as I did in my car destruction tutorial. (If a couch is scratched up, only then will its tears show. This was a perfectly balanced couch. As all things should be)

Because of all this new sinking potential, I found it really easy to make the cushions look like they were pushed in by the girl's weight. And like the car in Bubblegum vid, the weight matters.

Got a nice pillow pushed out and a broken back that looks natural. The proportional editing tool for Blender has been awesome! This does mean that I have to go back and lower a bunch of bones on the models so they don't float in the air due to the pushed in cushions.

There were a few reasons why I switched to this position after the first cuddle spurt.
1. Variety. Copy/Paste bad.
2. I needed them to be in a position for when the back of the couch breaks so they tip it completely over.
3. It's hot. But you wanna know something weird? It doesn't FEEL hot during the animation. It looks fuckin' adorable is what it looks like! I don't know how everything Neko IA is, which is a combination of sexy cat girl, sexy long white hair, and sexy lingerie, somehow added up to be insanely cute instead! Her personality as well as her tail and ears have added up to a girl that really feels... perfect for a Neko. Honestly, she could shine through any situation I put her in. A definite scene stealer for sure.

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7/10/18: Cuddlesworth

Lots of little interactions were important here so that there was no clipping or movement problems. I'm gonna do 3 images together so you can capture how damn adorable this is.

I want one! Burying her face into Rin is just too much for me on this interaction scale! Wow!

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7/9/18: A Quarter Pounce at a Time

You know, this is the first time that something I thought would be incredibly hard, turned out super easy because of Blender.

First, that expression is gonna be adorable in better lighting. Still catching up on facial expressions though.

Anyways, I had to parent Rin to Neko's lower body in the middle of this complex jump. I did get the subtle butt wiggle before the jump too. (Need to animate tail now)
Reparenting was super tricky in MMM due to having to reposition the model all over again. On top of that, FREEZE everything so the transition could happen, then edit that out later.
Blender? Parent? Sure. Where do you want it, how much do you want to parent, and which bones would you like to parent to another? Let's keyframe parenting too. (Just wow)

Catch finished and Neko does slide on the wood floor a little bit.

Not only did I get that complex jump done, I also got the movement to getting them on the couch done. This was a damn good day!

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7/6/18: Out of the Frying Pan

With that damn judder solved by checking the model's armature, I can confidently move forward in Blender with anything as my main program! I did a lot of animating today after fixing some leg rotations affected by that 2nd hip set. (Funny thing, I accidentally saved over the main version I did all of the changes and rebuilding to with all of the hand IK animation deleted. I had to go back to a file when I first encountered the judder, which was before I tested anything at all! Fixing the armature here proved successful yet again on removing judder and the Neko was completely intact with a few messed up leg rotations)

I continued the Neko headpats and made her lean into it a bit more.

In fact, this is a nod to another old growth video that had spurts and 2 girls by a fountain that was in front of a suspicious school. Touhou characters? Idk, but this calls back directly to the moment when the girl grows during a head pat and slams the other one down a bit.

Neko looms while Rin is a little pissed about the circumstances. (For now)

Rin is now smaller than the couch and the Neko is sizing up her prey. This will go right into the ultimate snuggle on the couch in a bit. I got this far.

I think choosing to focus on 1 size change at a time was a good one. There is a LOT to pay attention to between these two girls that will require a few rewatches. Yes, the hair and tail are messed up only because I didn't get to them yet. The Neko's ears, tail, and hair all put together is like animating a 3rd character. So I moved those to the side for now so they aren't in the way.

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6/29/18: Hints of the Future.

(The other update scroll was getting kinda long) Good news is that the hair is somewhat working well now and I'm able to get further again.
Bad news, I have to completely redo Neko's jiggle legs. IT WAS A TRAP!
I must've copied and pasted her leg keyframes somewhere and now when she touches her feet to the ground, they jiggle. Which... is odd how that didn't happen for all the time before then. Idk, I'd rather go with my tried and true method of treating it like a virus for a couple hours rather than take days trying to figure this thing out.

I added the headpat shake as the Neko was getting up. Came out perfect!

Now the Neko IA is surely enjoying this!

Let's show you guys some future shots for this!

I took a screenshot in render view of Blender after lazily moving their limbs. I really can't wait to do this shot in the future!

I think you guys know by this time that I'm taking this vid up to 200%
This is just before Rin feeds Neko IA the shrink treats that don't work.