Update 33 : Preparation

Hello all!

So this month has all been about preparation for the Kiriko scene. During this month the script was finalised, edited and voice work completed.

We completely re-rigged the Kiriko model with a whole new setup, featuring body and facial mocap to smooth the animation process. 

Whilst this happened she received a new head of hair (particle based) and some extra juicy detailed goodies, like sweat mapping, vellus hair and texture refining and optimisation.

This has a really distorted perspective shift (orthographic) but shows the skin detail well

In addition the robot arms that I'm usually used to having to wrestle into shape finally received a good re-designing of their rig setup which will save me substantial time and headaches during the animation phase.

The selection of tools to be used in the anim, some we've seen before, some are new, some may be modified yet! I will let you all muse as to their purpose.

This phase of prep has been something I've neglected a lot for previous productions, always shooting ahead and wanting to get into my favourite phase: animation! 

It's difficult to describe quite how advanced the rigs I'm now going to be using are over what I've been working with previously, suffice to say the level of control I have now has never been higher.

It is thanks to this more measured approach that we can get closer and closer to representing the vision of the scene most accurately, and trying to get what exists in my head into the crispy viewable cinematic presentations you all enjoy.

Animation has a budget, regardless of how much time you have, there will be a point where the animator (me) runs out of steam, removing road blocks like fighting bad rigs or models to get them into the shape I need just ensures the quality can climb further still.

Some early lighting testing

The unfortunate drawback of this methodology is that, it takes a while before I can do renders and previews that.... well... look any good! or at least to the standard I consider presentable.

There is no scene background or anything to speak of, and the lighting setup is still being iterated on, but all the toys are ready to go, the scene layout is finalised, and I'm going to start making things move very soon.

Al placeholder lighting and no background here.

Most key assets are textured too, so all going well, I hope to finish all the animation this month.

Plush velvet seating, for only the highest tier of luxury 

The entire production will come in at around 14 minutes or so depending. I imagine my sound guy is going to need some time with this, so whereas I feel confident we should have this more or less rendered this month, whether it will be available this month, time will tell!

Kiriko is here willingly, but is perhaps due for a more intense experience than expected

Once again a massive thank you to everyone's continued support, being able to sustain this level of income has guaranteed the full time employment of my technical lead, allowing these kind of developments that will not only benefit this production, but every one moving forward!

That's it for now, more developments as they come!