Time for another ramble session I guess. A few big things going on in my life right now so there isn't much I want to dwell on. I guess the first big thing, if you somehow missed it, I got approved on SubsribeStar finally!!!!!! I said I'd go into more detail on the last post, so I'll do that now. At the moment I don't really plan on having finished pieces being secluded behind a paywall. I personally find its a bit shitty to lock things away forever, but I understand that it may be a necessary evil. So what am I offering as an incentive?

More updates, not just once a month In progress projects/animations/stills Polls to help decide how things will flow My love and gratitude All the technical and behind the scenes stuff Name in animation credits (if you want it)

This list is going to probably change a lot over the next few months as I figure out what to offer without restricting the overall output of my works. I also just dropped the prices on everything given how crazy things have been economy wise (to be honest too, i set those prices months ago waiting for approval). I want my art/porn to be accessible independent of your financial situation. A lot of this stuff is me working through my own interests and sexuality so it also feels disingenuous to gate off this kind of stuff as this has been a big part in helping understand myself. If you haven't noticed or have but didn't say anything, yes I'm now the big gay 🏳️‍⚧️. (HRT Might start next month!!!!!!) Its been quite a rollercoaster the past few months but the dust has finally settled so I feel more comfortable coming out about this outside of slight tweaks to my profile.

But getting back on track, I also want to use Substar to help get voice actors for my animations. I've said before I want to work with VA's but I don't want to beg for freebies, but I also don't have income still. I also would love for this to become my career, cause who wouldn't want to do art for a living? But I do need to eat, and VA's need to be payed, so if you want to see the quality of my works go up, please consider contributing in some way.

Outside of Substar, my recovery has been going great. I'm on strength training as I've regained full mobility in my wrist (way ahead of what my doc predicted) and I've been feeling a lot better. Still got pain every other day but its been much better. The general malaise that has loomed over me has also started to lift, and the art block finally feels like its leaving. Still navigating moving out as it has involved a possible house purchase thanks to my fiance, which if either happens expect my output to increase drastically since I won't have to walk on eggshells with making my art. Having a more dedicated space too will let me finally get over my fears of voice acting some of my characters too, I've already got plans to build a tiny quite booth so I can moan in piece.

That stuff aside, whether you decide to support me or not, I appreciate everyone who has followed so far, and has stuck around to get off to these weird little fantasies. It has helped me overcome a few fears and it never ceases to amaze me that I've even been able to pull 500+ people here and a few other hundred across all my accounts. From the bottom of my dead cold heart, I thank all of you, and please consider Going to my Substar and at the very minimum taking a glance.

"Hey, quit dozing off. I heard one of the captains is making the rounds tonight."

"So? It's been pretty uneventful this past week. Iris doesn't mind."

"It's not just Iris out tonight... Whatever, your funeral."

Whoa, new character be upon yee. Her name is Bee (not sold on the spelling or the name yet.) She is one of a few guard captains of this demonic palace. Unlike Iris, she is more hands on with her training and discipline. The bane of lazy or tired guards, she is the most annoying and persistent of the captains, usually ambushing them when they least expect it.

So for a technical breakdown, this I think she middle of the road in terms of performance of all my characters. 134k verts/133k faces isn't that bad tbh. Render performance on her own is about 4-7 seconds depending on how much light is on her. I planned to do a lot more with her textures, mainly scars and what not, but after spending too much time on getting everything to play nice with the model and rig itself, I figured it's just best to get her out and moving.

Her armor is the most under-performant thing I think I've made in a while. I wanted to add detail without having to setup UVs >> Texture >> Shaders and ended up going with a method to transfer normals from the breastplate to the skulls when they overlapped. There is the modifier way, which is just a data transfer node, and shrinkwrap, but I tried using geometry nodes this time, specifically following the merging objects tutorial from Joey Carlino (i'd link it but then there would be a massive youtube vid thats not mine and thats not cool) (if this somehow makes it back to you Joey, hey i like your stuff, sorry you have to see my smut.)

However, the biggest thing with this project is Bee's prosthetic. Every part of her hand was made separate from her model and I had to fiddle with her other hand to get the rig to play nice. The other big thing that still needs to be addressed is who she's related too. For those who have seen my older stuff, Bee is Ceres' older sister. Bee was also supposed to be released alongside her boyfriend (and a touched up version for Ceres), but when I went to open this project back up, I apparently had Bee fully retopologized, and well... the boyfriend is missing a face still. I wanted a lot more done but recovering from two surgeries has been a lot, along side the prospects of moving out. I can happily say I am on the tail end of recovery finally, only a few more PT visits left before its all at home stuff and tbh I'm ready to put rubber to the road with these characters.

As for the next project, expect an update around Wednesday and something finished by Friday.

I've also included the sculpt previews as I don't think that's been anything I've ever shown off. I want to have sculpting timelapses and or possibly streams in the near future, but don't want to bloat my limited drive space.