Hello hello~ debuting Crowe this month. and the usual Aranea to fill my energy. nothing too fancy.

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I had fun animating Aranea wearing this outfit.. I still plan to animate her with the same theme next month, long version is coming later too. for Crowe, I can't find more acceptable camera angle without it edge clipping the shadow in POV.  tried to change the clip start settings and all but no dice. This has happened in past animations of mine, but never this severe. I could disable the contact shadow, but it'll look too flat. 

Eevee's shadow is known to be really finicky sometimes. 

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Speaking of finicky shadows, Blender 4.2 LTS released today, and now Eevee have "Ray Tracing". (looking more like Pseudo-raytracing so far). I never touched 4.2 Alpha, so this is my first time in 4.2. I've tested it with some of my scenes, but of course the first thing new features do, is messing up how my models look lol.

At first glance, immediately there is noticeably worse shadow and shadow flickering. And everything is new, so I don't know what each new settings do. ...Why there is no bloom and contact shadow options in 4.2?

I didn't change the lighting setup for the comparison above. take a closer look at the hard shadows on her butt and hair. Pretty surprising difference huh? the shadow in 4.2 one have this weird jaggy edge. Then I found out there is this new settings under each individual area lighting now called "resolution limit" and "filter".

Disabling resolution limit get rid of the jaggy edge, and increasing filter make the shadow look softer somewhat. but I still have no clue on how to bring back contact shadows. perhaps it's gone forever.

However,I noticed that light size affect shadows immensely now compared to before. small light gives hard shadows and big one gives softer shadows. I think it's because of the new Global Illumination.  Seems the dev really want Eevee to behave like Cycles. I don't know if I should be sad or excited lol.

Yep. plenty of stuff to figure out and fix.  and I don't really want to get stuck with the old Blender version if I can. Because I know some friends who decided to stay with Blender 2.7 having trouble catching up to Blender 4.0 merely because they didn't like how 2.8 look.

So, future renders might have some shadow flickering issues and other anomalies. but of course I'll find some way to make it look better if I'm able. I'm still not finished reading the 4.2 threads, so I hope to find something useful for me to adapt to the new version.

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Well, it's finally Cindy's turn to get rigged.

She is the most popular girl from XV, and I can see why. ...who wouldn't want a sexy mechanic taking care of your car and your needs.

Her original model cut the top part of her hair inside the cap. but no big deal, I found a solution just from minutes browsing.

....she has ton of animations made already out there, but I do want to try several ideas I have for her. like how I want to animate her without her cap for her debut. because pretty sure close to no one animated her that way.  or would you rather have her wearing the cap? 

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Sarafa from Nier Reincarnation is next, followed by Lumina the week after.

I intend to make her wear the veil in all of her scenes, ...but idk yet. . ......eh but maybe I'll do one position without her veil after all.  For Lumina, I haven't got any Idea yet. Lumina is so cheeky and cute, so I might go a little rough on her. we'll see...

Yep. That is it for now. I'm so tired, so I'll sleep really early today.

Thanks for all your support and donations as always m(_ _)m

Do take care, and see you next week~~

And here I am again~ are you well? It's Monica & Iris, MonIris time.

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I spent lot of time trying to make the Physics cage to work on Iris' breast. end up discarding it and used the old trusty shapekeys just like how I did Nophica and Halone.

And you might have noticed that Monica whispered something to Iris. for those wondering what she said to Iris,  I'll leave that to your imagination. it was just a little detail I put on the spur of the moment. I'll be doing June swimsuit set too for XV girls after I'm done with the others. XV girls will have their own separate release. I'll try to animate all the rigged XV girls for June. not all in 1 scene though. I don't think I can do that yet. but at least 1 character per scene. 

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It's Seven from Type-0

My first Type 0 girl. So might as well start with my most favorite.

She is my favorite of all the Class 0 girls. Just like Lightning and Aranea, she is cool,reticent and seems cold, but really caring deep down inside. 

Sice is my 2nd favorite after Seven. if it's not obvious already how I like my woman. well, eventually I'll rig and animate them all. maybe even Emina and the others...

but the thing about Emina and the other NPC models is,their model is bad. it'll look out of place. I'd have to redo her hair at least. and I don't have the motivation for it atm.

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Terra /Tina is next. I'll try to make at least 3 animations of her as I'm also preparing for June swimsuit set.

Added new girls I'd like to revisit to the list for June swimsuit set... included 2 more petite characters as well. 1 of them is new. you just have to guess who from the picture above. There is still possibility to add more characters to the list If I'm able. that's...bit too many...So, I'll release the set in 2 parts. part 1 on the first week of June, part 2 on the second week.  then XV swimsuit set after. let's just hope I get enough sleep. it's good practice though.

That is all for this week!

Thanks for your kind donation and support as always m(_ _)m

See ya!

Salutations Warrior of Light. or is it Darkness? The oracles of light are here, Minfilia and Ryne... or should I call both of them with the same name?

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These girls are the true chosen ones in the FF14 universe. bound to a doomed end. but I'm not going to spoil the story and how it ends for those who haven't played it yet. ...I too still haven't finished Shadowbringers. Don't think I ever will  seeing how expensive everything has become and how difficult it seems to re-subscribe to SE live service. (at least from where I live). it's hard to commit. uh..sorry for the sudden rant

Always wanted to have them in 1 frame just like Ryne & Gaia or Alisaie & Ameliance. ...but...I'm not entirely happy with the end result. something is off and I don't know what (again).

Other 14 pairing I have in mind currently :  

- Lyna and Lyse.

- M'naago and Lyse.

- Lucia and Hilda.

- Cirina and Sadu.

- The other12 goddesses like Halone & Nophica

if you have any pairing ideas, let me know.

don't expect for them to get done so fast and soon though. there are many characters I haven't even rigged yet. ...but I admit If I'm in the mood for them, I'd sometimes rush them and get them done faster. just like what I did to Ashley Graham.

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The one Viera girl that made everyone wishes they were Balthier. Fran.

I rigged her FF14 model. just like I said I would.

About the feet dilemma, I'm just going to let her wear her shoes whenever I animate her. the hands also look human. so I'll leave it like that.

There is still Penelo, and FF14 Alma waiting to be done. I think that's all for ivalice girls?  might want to touch Type-0 girls soon. since I haven't done any of them.

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It's Iris and Monica along with mandatory Aranea.  It's the 3rd Aranea back alley animation, so there will be a long version next week compiling the three of them. 

Monica is House Amicitia servant, so I think it's only obvious I'd pair them both. other obvious pairing is Luna and Iris but Luna is pairable with anyone really.

I'm also getting ready for June swimsuit set. the girls are mostly characters I'd love to revisit.  I included 2 popular petite characters this time. total of 6 characters (for now). the amount of character on the list still can go up depending on how much time I spend on each week animating. Usually I do spend waaay too much time fixing small details...like clipping,lighting and shadows etc. And lately, I tend to redo the animation process twice or more trying to figure out something that feels off. sometimes I even give up and scrapped some after wasting my time trying to fix stuff.

After Iris and Monica, I'll be touching Terra / Tina from FF6. 

That is all for this week! thanks for all the kind support and donations!  m(_ _)m

Hello hello! are you well? I heard some part of the world experiencing terrible heatwave. please be careful wherever you are. Anyway, guess who is here to deliver Divine Ass-ault.

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Decided it's Lenneth this week. 

Valkyrie Profile have a lot of cute beautiful knight girls serving as loyal einherjar.  don't think many people know about them though. me included. 

Animating her reminded me that my skill is still not quite there yet. I had to revise some animations couple times even though the poses are quite simple. I still think something look off, but I can't figure out what. usually I'll notice the mistake once I look back at it in retrospect much later on. if you love drawing, you know how that works and feels. it is similar.

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I plan to release Olette next week, so might as well rig another KH character. A supporter mentioned her not too long ago. so she has been on my mind since. it's Aqua from kingdom hearts.

Don't have any ideas on what to do with her yet, but at least I get her model ready to animate.

Still trying my best to match the ingame shader and lighting. I think I'm slowly getting there. Aqua is such a sweet girl. I have no plan for the Anti version of her currently. but who knows maybe I'd be in the mood to have her Anti version sooner.

Right now I have Xion, Larxene, KH3 Yuffie and KH3 Aerith waiting in line. no rush. let me know if I'm missing some characters you'd like to see. If they have a high res model especially.  Also, I'm not really big fan of Disney nor their characters. so no promises on those. at least for now. but I could be persuaded, as you all know.

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The usual drill for petite character next week, If you're on FANBOX, I'll direct you to "read" her article on my other blog.

Something about Olette being so cute I can't resist the urge to do her rough.  at least that's the idea for now.. I might change my mind later and do more soft stuff. Also, maybe Ryne and Minfilia threesome in their oracle form next after Olette before I forget about the pairing. 

That's all for this week!

Thank you for all your support and donations, also for the kind comments. thank you m(_ _)m

See you next week ^^

Hello! how are you doing? I hope all's well. just here to deliver my weekly post as per usual.
it's big sun lover this time.

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Miqo'te is really popular for obvious reason with Au Ra close second. ...and Y'shtola, she is on another level. even my friends who don't play 14 know who she is. She is almost in every cameo involving FF14.  In Japanese dub, she called Magnai "boya" instead of "little sun"... which made thousand of her fans had a galactic orgasm. ...yep. she is that good of a mommy material it seems.

I got carried away again while animating this big sun lover. it was more fun than I expected. probably because I don't make her wear her attire. no headache on cloth sim and mesh clipping.

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It's Edea and her "Matron" or "Mama-Sensei" version.

The Dissidia NT version is basically just Ultimecia with different texture and outfit. at least that's what I thought at first. looking closely, her Edea head have this vein on her face. which has full geometry not just a normal map believe it or not.

Nothing the smooth sculpt tool can't fix. her matron version is not final, but I'm happy with her current look for now.

The only time we are shown her CGI matron version is during the game's end credits. other than that, we got to see her during a visit to the orphanage in the game.
Without Ultimecia possessing her, she is a really kind sorceress...just another motherly figure in Final Fantasy series that I'd love to "do".

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April's XV set is up next which is just unreleased Gentiana and Luna reanimated and mandatory Aranea pill. nothing special.  There is a plan for Lenneth next month after them.
And next week, my awaited game Eiyuden Chronicles is going to get released, so I'll really take it easy. (...maybe...)  I really want to play that game....I love Suikoden just as much as I love FF.

I've been looking at various Dawntrail benchmark results and graphic comparison. there is not much difference in model geometry cmiiw. what I notice is just better textures, normal map and the added subsurface scattering on skin. So...if I have to update anything on my rigged 14 characters,it'd probably just the textures. I'll wait to rig any Au Ra NPCs until Dawntrail released. just to save me the trouble of updating their scale textures.

That's about it. ^^
as always, thank you for your support and kind donations. m(_ _)m
take care and see you again!

Hello once again and welcome Warrior of Light, your serving of chicken and egg coming up!

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Who doesn't love a serving of chicken and egg especially a spicy one. Intended to only make 3 animations, but I got carried away and made another one. A lil bit tricky to fit them in frame together than I initially thought with Ameliance being so big paired with Alisaie that is petite. but that's FF14 for you. 

Other than that, just couple of crashes here and there which I still don't know what's the cause. it's Blender. most of the crashes are unsolved mysteries. which I'm sure all frequent Blender users familiar with. Thankfully F14 models are light as feathers, opening the project file over and over again is super quick.

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Speaking of light model, this week I rigged Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca from 12.

This is a PS2 model. so might look a bit weird and out of place with some lighting setup.

A young widow with bold attire, simply irresistible. Now that's she is here, Penelo is obviously also on my list.  As I said, for Fran, I'll just use her 14 model because it's just better. I also have plan to rig FF14's Alma Lexentale / Alma Beoulve at some point.

we'll see which of the Ivalice women going to get rigged next. I just hope I don't forget about them.

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Hmm I think I'll do the usual petite article next week. she is not that short, but she is baby faced. I also need my Aranea pill, so there is gonna be 1 Aranea animation to charge my battery next week along with Young Luna. This is somewhat of a trial for Monthly XV. If I feel comfortable with it, I'll continue the monthly XV plan with random XV girls + Aranea per month.

And that is it for this week.

Thank you for your support and donations as always! thank you very much! m(_ _)m

Take care and see you again next week. ^^