Jay Versluis
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Exciting News and a couple of Early Access videos
🕑 Added 2023-05-31 16:37:01 +0000 UTCHello Supporters!
Today I have not one but TWO early access videos for you, and a bit of exciting news I wanted to share. Also, where has the month of May gone? Did it even happen? Time is speeding up at an exponential rate, and I'm reminded of this by the fact that I've turned 51 this month. That's great news actually, considering that a few years ago I wasn't sure if I'd make it to this point. Just in case I wasn't already last year, I believe I'm now officially what they call "middle aged".
The first video is for one of my YouTube supporters Weseyaso, and they wanted to know how to put multiple partial expressions onto a single slider in Daz Studio. Although I've explained this principle before, it was more about other morph dials and thought it would be nice to explain this specifically for expressions: https://vimeo.com/819538180/3ee20f5cdb
Next up, something I've been getting a lot of questions on ever since Genesis 9 came out: how can we use G8 hair on the G9 figure, without it turning into a hot mess. The solution is to not use auto fit and position the hair prop manually, then parent it to the G9 head. This will leave all adjustment sliders in place and still move the hair with the figure: https://vimeo.com/831932880/2d616ee4af
Now here's my exciting news:
I have a new job as VFX artist!
I've started two weeks ago, and my task is to help finish a full-length feature film called Heart of Mercy that's been in development for the last four years. It's a faith based project, funded entirely by donations, produced by a theatre company called St. Luke Productions. The task is to combine live action footage shot against green/black screen with 3D environments to tell a story.
We're using Daz and Unreal Marketplace assets to create the animations that are combined with the actors' performances, and our task is to make most of this happen in Unreal Engine. I'll talk more about the details in the coming weeks, and I'm sure I'll share some workflow videos and animations along the way, and of course tutorials on so many aspects of the workflow pipeline.
This is literally a dream come true for me, building on my 3D knowledge and passion for 3D animation, adding a creative project, not to mention huge opportunities for learning new skills in the process. I get to work from home on a part time basis, which leaves enough free time for other creative projects like my YouTube channel and the occasional job for Daz.
The timing for this new project couldn't be better: my collaborative contract with Daz has run out recently, and it looks like - after a leadership change in the marketing department - they're pulling back on how much content they'd like me to produce. The last thing I did for them was an interactive tutorial that's now live on their channel, but I'm not sure if they want more videos, or if we'll keep the Daz+ live streams going, nor at what frequency. It's all a bit uncertain, so perfect timing with the new job.
That's all I have for today! It certainly explains why my last post was over a month ago. I'm still doing live streams at weekends over a good video game and the occasional working session, so drop by Saturdays and Sundays from 5pm EST if you're free and say hello.
See you soon 👋
Comments
Jay Versluis
Thanks Brian!
Brian Cramer
So cool, Jay. It sounds like an interesting challenge. I see why you've been so gungho to learn Unreal again. Congrats!
