Dronema
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June 2022 Update [Download]
🕑 Added 2022-07-24 01:05:00 +0000 UTCGuys I'm really sorry to have kept you waiting this long! we're having some internet issues, I kept thinking they'd get resolved and was sure we'd have internet any day ths week, but seems like it'll still take a bit. Still I shouldn't have waited so long, I'm really sorry!!
We think next week we might have internet again, but no matter what I'll have July's update ready by the 7th at most!
Now, onto the art related update!
So June was pretty busy IRL, there was mostly a lot being out, as well as clenaing and organizing at home, so saldy I didn't really advance as far as the animation course goes, and there also wasn't as many drawings.
However I'm really happy to say I think I finally finished Tekki's retopology! Anything that I might want to tinker with are solid pieces that would be no issue editing later on. [It's more of a July update but I'm working on the rig now! still placing bones, but so excited to be so close to start posing her!]
After the rig I'll work on the final textures, since these are placeholders, and since the textures will be handpainted, I don't want to have to re-do them in case I find I need to edit the topology.
[Pics: "Fullbody 1-4" and Face "1-2"]
Hair
I ended up going with the previous front hair, I thought the rows showing a bit of skin, especially from the profile, look really appealing! I still want to improve the shapes, especially from the front view, but that can be done later!
[Pics: "Face1, Facec2", "Hairv1, Hairv2"]
Hairband
I'm happy with the hairband now, it's very different to what I've had in mind since the start!
Originally I wanted to do the same as the game model, metal hairband, small crystals with a more intricate/interesting encasing. Now, through happy accidents, the hairband will look more like cloth, It still has a bit of metal connecting and encasing the crystals. The crystals themselves are now bigger, or at least more prominent, but I think it fits her, looks a bit more raw.
The two ideas I was playing with regarding the hairband + back hair.
1) Small crystals, Hair on the back spiky at the top. Hair is responsible for the silhouette from all angles.
2) Keep new hair, it has a nicer profile silhouette. The bigger crystals will be responsible for the sillhouette from the front view, since the hair is not very visible from that angle.
I went with 2.
[Pics: "Progress1", "Progress2-crystals", "Hairv1", "Hairv2"]
Another thing to mention is the side hair thingies, that hang at each side of her face. I wanted to connect them to the front hair so it's all a single piece... but honestly it was giving me a lot of trouble.. So I decided to just go simple and made it a separate piece! Tbh it feels a bit goofy, but I doubt it'll be that distracting with better colors and in motion [also, I imagine it will blend much better if I made the top white, and added hair strands covering the connection].
Some pics of the hair at the back, I've now cleaned it up, separated each "chunk", and removed unnecesary topology hiding inside the head. [Also pics of the previous hair, which I colored a bit!].
[Pics: "Fullbody2", "HairBack", I forgot to take a pic of the back of the head with the wireframe showing;;]
[Oh also! the hairband won't be a solid color, I painted a little mockup on the sculpt, but the pattern will probably change in the final texture. (Pic: Hirband)]
Eyes
[Pics: "Eyelashes"]
This is what I went with regarding her Eyelashes, a very simple shape.
I also added a highlight to ehr eyes. Speaking of! I'm not sure what to do with the eyes atm. I want to change them because the pupils get lost in profile view. adding depth to the eyes would solve that, but I'm not sure how to do that with the shape of her pupils. Maybe instead of changing the eyes, I can add a contour, if not to the eyes, maybe to the pupils? that way they no longer get lost.
Mouth
I've finished the mouth! I kinda want to keep tinkering with it, reducing the poly count, maybe get rid of the assymetry, but that can be done later if I really want to. The mouth cavity was already done, I just made small adjustments to it, and the lips from inside and outside. I finished the teeth, the molars are a single mesh, the others are each a separate to facilitate adjustment. And there's the tongue too, very simple, I think I'm happy with the thickness.
In the pics you can see two versions because one was the retopo [with a bit of decimating] and the other was a completely decimated version of the retopo. [I forgot to make it clear which is which and to add the polycount, don't think it makes that much of a difference though, but with my computer I feel like every bit counts;;]
[Pics: "Teeth1-9", Teeth-Sculpt, Tongue]
And last thing, I added depth to her nsfw bits lol. It had no depth at all before,
[Pics: "nsfw"]
I'm leaving all pics on a zip file this time, if you are Tier 3, they'll be included with the compilation zip.
Again, I am really sorry for the long wait! Thank you so much for your patience!
Comments
Hahaha, I adore that way to describe the teeth, Chomp-ey and Bite-ey shapes <3 I hope everything will come together at the end, especially later on when I work on an outfit for her! <3 I'm so happy you notice the polish, I've already done many comparison pics before, but I'm really looking forward to a final series of comparison pictures once she's all rigged and textured! I'm glad the explanations are also interesting, I'll continue trying my best to explain my reasoning! >:D [I want to offer something interesting to read and also in case I may receive feedback and suggestions on any of it!]
epyon_avenger
Oooo, really love the way the mouth came out! Seems like the right balance between chomp-ey and bite-ey shapes. The hairband also looks good, similar to the teeth, it seems like it's got good balance. Honestly, I feel like this latest version of everything is just showing more polish and balance in general, really coming together nicely. I'm also really impressed with seeing the poly adjustments, and how it changes things, but only subtly, again again, getting good balance in there. Thanks for sharing all this progress, and explaining how and why! It's great to get an education. ^_^
