DevLog: Major Visual Updates + Willow's First Wallpaper (4k NSFW)

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board.

TLDR;

• Patreon-focused: Consolidating efforts here (pausing SubscribeStar temporarily)

• Anya gets another glow-up (New eyebrows, improved skin)

• Scene 6 almost complete after extensive rework and relighting

✅ Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update:

• Scene 6

  • 🎶Music + 🔊Sound Design (still in progress)

    • Finished 1 soundtrack

• 🧹Housekeeping

  • Discord channels and roles + connections to Patreon

  • DevLogs will now only be available on Patreon to consolidate workflow and focus on community building (no longer on Itch.io)

• 💅Polishing

  • Writing - removing non-essentials, fixing inconsistencies, and streamlining the story to provide a more well-rounded experience

• Anya's rework - new skin and new hair

• Blender Workflow wasn't exactly a success (Scroll down to Technical Corner for more info), but it was still a good learning experience. Still added a few minor and helpful steps to my rendering workflow.

🛠️ Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• All-in on Patreon - After a lot of consideration and thought, Patreon will be the hub for all of the project updates, releases, and community content. This consolidation allows me to focus energy on building our community here rather than splitting my efforts across multiple platforms. The SubscribeStar account page has been paused for the time being.

• Anya 2.0 Continues - In addition to her previous rework, Anya has received some additional minor changes & fixes that dramatically improve her close-ups. The original asset had her eyebrows baked into her skin texture, without actually having any eyebrow fibers. This looked fine from medium-far away, but anything closer just looks awful. Thanks to a successful "eyebrow transplant" from another character and improved skin specularity, she looks much better!
  Thanks to Termz (a fellow artist) for his help on these.

• Scene 6 Rework (scroll down to the Sneak Peeks for examples) - My skills in Blender and EEVEE (and also lighting) have improved dramatically over the past month, making it clear that some scenes needed attention. If you check out the Sneak Peek below, you'll certainly see a night and day difference, which makes these reworks completely worth it.
  Thanks again to Batman and C for giving me a push to update and rework this scene.

🔮 Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next:

• Scene 5 Rework - With Anya's rework, my skills improving since the last time this scene was lit, and also a RAM upgrade, reworking this scene will add so much benefit. This was the first scene that was made completely within Blender and EEVEE renderer. I have learned a lot and have been working on a workflow that will be useful to make this scene a much better experience.

• Scene 6 Completion - 🎶Music + 🔊Sound Design (In Progress) - Working on 2 additional soundtracks
  Because of the rework, this has been placed on the backburner and will be worked on soon!

• Adding a "Gallery" to the menu

• Exclusive and available for a limited time Patreon "Foundation" tiers are coming!

⚙️ Technical Corner

Last DevLog, I had just barely gotten a RAM upgrade (128GB) and hadn't taken it for a test drive. Now, I've had the chance to see it in action. While it's helped with overall system stability (BSODs seem to have disappeared), I'm still experiencing some random Blender crashes every few frames of rendering. This is mostly from the VRAM still filling up and spilling over to RAM - not a huge issue, just re-start the rendering queue and continue as normal. But this does show that character's texturing should be as optimized as possible to prevent VRAM usage from exploding.

👀 Sneak Peek

Scene 6 rework example

Anya updates example

Also bonus points (Willow's Wallpaper 4k NSFW) for reaching this far. 😉

💬 Community Corner

Thanks again to BigBat_Productions and Celeritas for their willingness to provide their support, feedback, and additional expertise.
Thanks again to Termz for his crafty and artistic eye, helping me to fine-tune Anya's looks.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support - if you're reading this, THANK YOU.

The self-promo channel in the Discord server is empty! So, if you'd like to promote some of your own work, go give that channel some love!

What do you think of the before and afters for Scene 6?

Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️