Painting veins on Maria with Substance Painter. Looking really good! I'm using them as bump maps everywhere except for certain key areas I'm using them as bump + displacement maps.. Such as on her biceps.
2018-01-14 06:20:57 +0000 UTC View PostMaria's Pecs have gotten a boost for this new animation. ;)
2018-01-11 08:44:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe operation was a success! Maria's shoulders have been re-rigged. Her armpit area and where her lats meet her arms have been re-modeled and re-rigged. I don't know if I mentioned this before, her shoulders had to be manually re-shaped every step of the way in the last animation. I've learned some new tricks and it's all automated now. Such a relief! The lats and armpits look better too.
The last step is to transfer the displacements from the original model...
2018-01-09 19:12:21 +0000 UTC View PostI know this is going to result in some delay. It won't destroy the animation (movement) data, it will make her look better. Trust me on this one please.. My new software opens some new opportunities and I want to take advantage of them and it's better to do this now than later. I'll keep you informed.
2018-01-09 06:24:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I was really struggling with this new version of Lightwave because while it looked beautiful, it was taking forever to render. I just found the one setting that was causing me all the problem: Ray Recursion Limit. I set it to 1 and this entire shot rendered in 4 minutes. That means the entire 5000+ frame animation will probably take ~13 days to render. If I lower the resolution down to the older format of 854x480 I could probably shave off 3 days.
Before I found the Ray...
2018-01-07 04:29:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Changed her skin material and makeup
Changed lighting
Made morphs for raising/lowering eyebrows and animated them.
2018-01-06 15:01:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a look at Maria after being retooled for Lightwave 2018:
New skin shader
New hair render engine
Physically based lighting and materials.
It's not final.. But it's a good move into this new version. :)
2018-01-03 16:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostI have the new version of Lightwave and so far it's fantastic! I am currently retooling Maria's surfaces to the new format and she is looking much better. I'll post a test render when she is looking more...fully put together. :)
Thank you all SO MUCH!!
2018-01-03 14:12:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a look at Maria experiencing some growing pains.
2018-01-02 07:51:37 +0000 UTC View PostJo's 2nd animation with a bonus futanari version for deluxe donors!
2018-01-01 01:49:16 +0000 UTC View PostA young polar bear went to it's momma polar bear. He asked his mother, "Am I a pure polar bear?"
The momma polar bear looked at her son and asked, "PURE polar bear? What do you mean?"
The young polar bear said, "All polar bear. Not black, brown, kodiac..."
The mother sighed with relief and said, "Yes, son. You are a pure polar bear. I am a pure polar bear. Your father is a pure polar bear. Go ask him yourself."
The young polar bear ap...
2017-12-31 22:53:04 +0000 UTC View PostHey everybody! I will be posting a paid creating later today. Most likely will be Maria's 3rd animation part 2. After the animation I am working on now is done, I will only be behind by two posts.. So I think I am making progress with getting caught up. I will be ordering Lightwave 2018 on the 3rd. It's going to be a lean two months but it will be worth it in the long run with the new rigging tools and new rendering engine.
I just wanted to thank you all for holdi...
2017-12-31 21:10:15 +0000 UTC View PostHappy Kwanzaa, Yule, Cristmas, Hannukah, HumanLight, Newtonmas, Saturnalia, Sehboradai, or whatever you may be in to.
My special day will by when the Lightwave 2018 update is released on January 1st.. The last update I bought was in 2012. A long wait!
Work in progress.... Note the materials and lighting will all need to be redone after Lightwave2018 is released.
2017-12-23 05:24:28 +0000 UTC View PostHey all,
If you are bored, here are some videos showing new rendering features in LW2018. Some of the rendering improvements are quite dramatic.
Shading System LW15 vs LW18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCN99kC2Ons
Volumetric Lights LW15 vs LW18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK1lwhgGNTY 2017-12-20 11:19:56 +0000 UTC View Post
For those interested in the stereoscopic versions of my animations.. A friend of mine shared this link with me.
The cheapest option is using the cross-eyed version. Just cross your eyes until the two images merge into one stereoscopic image. The problem is some people are not able to cross their eyes to view that; or they cannot do it for extended time. Me, I can do it for a long time.. From practice I suppose. :)
The link above has a cheap device that works...
2017-12-18 01:25:05 +0000 UTC View Post
I took a model I used in an older animation (background) and revisited it for Maria's next animation (foreground). I never liked how sharp the bubble-like shapes were on the sides of the bottle. I used a plugin that y'all helped me get and essentially heat-shrunk a model over it and this blended all of the forms nicely. Now to finish the label.
2017-12-17 11:44:45 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a demonstration given last year that showed an early build of the new version of Lightwave.. Now that Lightwave2018 is officially announced, the video of this demonstration is available for all to see.
In the video he refers to it as Lightwave2017. He was under the impression that it would come out a year earlier. But this shows in greater detail how the material system has been revamped and now everything is "physically-based."
So if you are interested in the...
2017-12-15 04:36:45 +0000 UTC View PostGood news keeps rolling in.. Patreon has decided against "standardizing" their fees.. This means the 2.9% + 30 cents for each pledge will no longer be added to your donation! Power to the people!
There is a very good chance I will be getting the new Lightwave upgrade straight away (See my previous post). It's very likely Maria's next animation will be rendered with it!!
There is NO WAY this would have gone down like this without your amazing support.. Thank you all so much!
2017-12-13 04:36:23 +0000 UTC View PostHey all!
Last night I finished cleaning up the motion capture of the legs and feet for the entire sequence, which is over three minutes, I believe. Huge.
Anyway, the software I use just posted an official release date for their next version! Details here:
https://www.lightwave3d.com/news/article/newtek-announces-latest-release-of-lightwave-3...
2017-12-12 17:09:43 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
In case you missed Patreon's email to you, they are making changes on how they do charges. And so far, NOBODY seems to like it. I'm not a fan of this idea either. I'll explain.
In the past, when someone makes a donation, I would get anywhere from 85 to 93 percent of that based on how various institutions do their transaction charges.
With this new change, they are locking in what I get to a constant 95% of your pledge. So if I am getting more...
2017-12-08 05:42:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe motion capture for Maria's 2nd animation was recorded today. Wheee!
I'm currently editing Maria's body... Making it so she can start from a whimpy, skinny girl and then hulk up to her wonderful bigness.
Today I was given a surprise.. I got a message from the Lightwave (my 3D software) chat group.. One of the guys there asked me if he could friend me on Steam. I said sure, and then this gift popped on my screen:
2017-12-01 18:21:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello all,
I just sent out still images from Maria's Intro anim. If you were expecting to get Maria's Intro anim or stills and didn't get it, please send me a private message here on Patreon.
In other news... Immediately after I finished Maria's animation, I was struck with a brainstorm of how I could improve cloth tearing with my cloth sim software (Syflex). So yesterday I put together a tutorial video to help other animators out there.
I showed it to the develop...
2017-11-29 01:44:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Just put up a YouTube preview of Maria's first animation. I'll take care of getting those still images to you first-thing tomorrow!
2017-11-26 01:09:32 +0000 UTC View PostSome of you have her already. I need to take a break and hit the grocery store!
Other than putting it all together in a video and adding the intros/outros, she's done and with sound. I probably went overboard with the sound design.. Let's say the foley is rather "rich." I'm pretty tuckered out by now, so I'll wrap this up and send it out to her donors on Black Friday. Goodnight!
2017-11-24 01:23:22 +0000 UTC View Post
