Dev Log Ep3 Week 7: 60% of the Time It Works Every Time

Alright, the hard part is over. I managed to come up with a title and a cover image for this update. Shout out to the guys on Mr Maya’s server for helping with the most difficult part of my week.

There is plenty to get through in this update, so I will try to keep the rambling to a minimum, but I make no promises.

TLDR: I did stuff in DAZ, I did stuff in Blender, and I did not sleep much.

Right out of the gate, I am starting to realise just how big this chapter might actually be. I still need to write a good chunk of it, but that may have to wait a little. I am fast approaching the animation that includes voice acting, and that is going to be a serious challenge.

This week, I cut up the individual lines from the long audio files the voice actors sent over so I can use them directly in Blender and sync the lip movements properly. That part honestly worries me the most. I really want this cinematic to feel like a worthy addition to the game. I will talk more about that once I am deeper into it.

The 5090 is overperforming and feels like a very worthy addition to my pipeline. I managed to render over 240 renders this week, plus an animation, and the system still sits idle most of the time. It is a massive relief knowing I am no longer waiting on renders the way I used to.

I posed 165 still renders this week, bringing the total to 525 renders for Episode 3 so far. With the new animation completed, the episode now sits at 6 animations in total.

Unlike previous updates, I have been doing post work and adding renders to the game as I go. This has allowed me to playtest early builds of the episode, and it is starting to come together really nicely. The animations are already adding a noticeable boost to the overall quality and feel of the game.

The plan for the week ahead is to keep pushing the render numbers and begin prep work for the big animation sequence. Beyond that, I am not sure what else I will realistically have time for. I am back to working my day job now, so I am putting in some pretty crazy effort to keep hitting my development goals.

As always, I appreciate all of you, and I am incredibly grateful for the continued support.

Cheers,
Bat