Now this I am happy with...
Everything about this set is better than the original, and that nagging voice in the back of my brain is at last silent.
The lighting in this one proved a little trickier to get right, and I had to dive deeper into some more advanced render settings that I'd never played with before such as Exposure Value, Shutter Speed, Burn Highlights and Crush Blacks. I had seen some of these settings used when loading up preset scenes in the past, and I'd fiddled around with some of them to see what exactly they did, but was never able to figure out how they were meant to be used, or in what cases they were best employed.
And while I still don't fully understand them, I think I've gotten a basic understanding of what they do and how to use them. Increasing Exposure Value and Shutter Speeds for example seem to be useful for darkening a scene, without actually reducing the visibility and making it harder to see things. The final sex scene in the bathroom for example is actually very brightly lit, but by increasing the Exposure Value and Shutter Speeds, I can give it a dark and dingy feel, without decreasing the illumination on the three girls and making it hard to see them. It's definitely a setting I can see myself making a lot of use of in future scenes.
I'm pretty pleased with how the three girls look, but I'm always trying to improve character designs as I improve my own skills, develop a better eye for proportions and shaping, and pick up new, sexier assets like clothing and accessories. Jackie got another bit of a makeover in this set, particularly in her face and outfit. Noelle got the biggest makeover of the three in the
Slut Summer Holiday set - mostly in her tattoos which are now all very xxxmas-themed - but I'd still like to tweak some aspects like her boots. Trixie is probably due a but more attention and care, and I'm thinking of making her a bit trashier, but we'll see how that goes come Christmas time.
As always, higher-quality versions of this set are available on the
Mega Drive! There's also a new "Scrapyard" folder containing never-before-seen WIPs of character designs and storyboards for projects that I dropped for one reason or another. Some fun stuff in there, check it out!
As always, I hope you enjoy this set, please let me know what you think, and thank you all for your support and patience with me! Rest assured, this will
not be the only set I do in August...