Update 14-3-21
Added 2021-03-14 23:23:48 +0000 UTCLet's be straight about this. I hate 99% of all the stuff I do. I can spend ages working on something, then the second I press that Submit button, I hate it. I could have done more, or tweaked it extra or improved skills or processes or...
I fucking love what is currently rendering. It gets me excited again. It is also completely out of context, so good luck guessing what exactly is going on here. So, this here is a sneak peek.
Working through what is left to do for this episode:
I have a 30s bit near the start with complex Efa movement.
I need to finish up the new Kyn model. He's just waiting on new eyes and rigging. I feel like his new fur is probably the best I've done so far. Then he needs plopped into the longshot scene.
This scene that is currently rendering is rendering an Efa part, but a Kyn part is getting added on as the next bit.
Finally, a Kyn and Efa scene.
I think things are starting to come together. End of the month might be pushing it for a release though. Several large projects at work have deadlines soon. As it is, I've already worked all of the last two weekends, getting a bit of time first thing in the morning to do some Wilderness stuff. Not sure if things are going to ease up soon or not. I remember days off. They were so long ago.
Something that has sort of half sped up and half completely slowed things down, is attempting to use Blenders NLA timeline. Normally, things get keyframed on a Dope Sheet. However, you can keyframe then save actions. These can then get added to the NLA as action strips which you place together a bit like a video editor, except you can combine blocks of animation data.
It's not easy, it's not entirely logical how it works, but holy shit I got Efa walking across a room in no time flat. Getting it right was the tricky bit. It's something I'd like to work more on. In theory, mouth shapes can be actioned as well, so speech could potentially be constructed that way.
Once I get the hang of it as well, it means each character would have a library of actions that can be just plugged right into the NLA timeline rather than hand animating or looping stuff.
So, plan for this week is to get Kyn done, and get him into the longshot. Maybe even get to a point where I can start on rendering the longshot would be nice.
Comments
Aww, you should try and be nicer to yourself! There's always that old chestnut about 'only the creator sees most of the flaws' (which isn't untrue), but you're giving it the most effort you can handle at that point in your day/week/life. Especially if work is calling you in on the weekends, multiple weeks in a row! Better be good overtime or a nice bonus in your future... Friggin' jazzed to hear you're excited! Indeed, predictions based on that screenshot are difficult, but it looks like a scene change at the very least. Between this post and the previous, Kyn's getting quite a few upgrades! Eager to see what his new fur looks like. The timeline thing sounds like it'd be a big initial time investment, but could potentially save a bunch more time in the future. Hopefully it works out, that's unfortunately all Greek to me. From your previous post, huzzah for your bike overhaul! With more people getting vaccinated every day, it sounds like they'll be able to stick to the 7-week schedule. Don't anticipate them moving it up, but I'll take "it didn't get worse" at this stage, heh Thank you for the updates, stay safe out there, and make sure to get rest when you can!
Dargon
2021-03-15 04:32:08 +0000 UTC
