More new UI, Pin ups, Visual polishes, Update on VA, etc.

Heyo everyone! This week was a bit of a busy week, though there's only a few things I can show, unfortunately. I know I feel like I constantly say "More new UI", but I am getting close to having the first batch of UI overhaul implemented! Some components take a good chunk of time to implement, as they completely rework how certain things like buttons animate, and function.

Anyways! Without further ado! Let's get into the post!

Let's start with the UI.

The Pin ups section finally get their glow-up

As you may see, we have gotten rid of the "Page" system from before, and gone with a scroll bar. This scroll bar can be controlled via Swiping, Scroll Bar, or Mouse Wheel. I will note that at the moment, gamepad will likely struggle to function efficiently on this until proper implementation is added.

Why is this gif taking up so much real estate on this post, you ask? I have no idea, but I cannot resize it. So uh... moving on.

You probably see quite the list of Pin ups, that's because there are several more coming in this build (Some old, some new)!

And because the new UI actually has these images scale pretty small sometimes, I have added a "Maximize" button.

Next was fixing up some transitions for the backgrounds.

 To make things quick, and easily navigated, we will have quick transitions right back to hub.

Finally: This is stiillll not quite done, but the Apparel section is also getting the overhaul. This overhaul will allow you to jump right into apparel without going deep into a menu chain. You can edit them right in the store window.

NOTE: I didn't have time to set up the sprite masks, but in this case, Lana would be in the center panel right above the character selection(NOT covering the shop options). This is just to show off how the new menus here will all more universal than before.

With that, the next UI component worked on was actually the "Intro Cut-in"

All levels will have this cut-in to introduce the level.

Finally I did some quick changes, and shaping up on the "Blink" animation.

 In case you missed the last post that I covered this on, Blink will be an alternate defensive option that can be purchased from the shop. It can replace the Barrel Roll. It will not deflect lasers, but you can reposition easily to catch far enemies, or avoid various attacks/obstacles.

Before I close out this post, I will give an update on the VA situation: At the moment we have received most of the initial takes. There are still a few more to go, but once we have them all, I will go through the takes, ask for any necessary retakes, get necessary revisions, and ship them to our sound designer for processing. After that will come the implementation. There will not be time to get it in on this build, but if everything goes well, it will hopefully come in v0.14. This VA batch will cover everything up until Zol'gan2. (Titas2, and on wards will still be unvoiced until development completes)

Alright! With that, I'll wrap this post up! Next week is going to be really busy. It is focusing on Build Wrap up, and there is quiiittee a bit to wrap up. Let's hope everything goes smoothly!

>Put "Blink" into the shop
>Finish components in "Apparel Select"(Like character being in the center, along with some remaining UI bugs)
>Climax animations for Tanya3
>Climax animations for Tanya4
>Climax animations for Pix/Rooster/Aether's Extra Hscene
>Transmission dialogue for Titas2
>Polish, and finish off Titas2 level mechanics
>Boss intros/outros
>Write up the new Hub dialogue.

I might needa work over the weekend for this one ahahaha.

Anyways! Thanks again everyone! I'll catch you all next week with the final progress report before build launch!

-Regulus