Hi! here I am again. I hope you are all doing great. well... like last year, the first month of XV is Onsen / Inn themed. but with more cast this time.

PIXIV
MEGA

Also included an extra cameo in the spur of the moment. I was just a lil bit excited for the upcoming 7 for PC. I was on a fence whether to render nude variations on some of the animations. Because their breasts already out in the open anyway.  And there is no way I'm having them wear clothes in the water. 

And ngl I miss doing a week full of Aranea set. maybe next month for once? I haven't animated Aranea in her winter outfit too. feels like it's the perfect time for that before winter ends. we'll see...

===========================================================================

Our new girl this week is Materia from Dissidia.

Apparently this girl have quite sum amount of haters idk why. she is still pretty though.

Typical FF fashion. if not bunch of belts, characters would wear uneven pants like Tidus'. And Materia here, she is wearing Victorian dress' cage. ...just the cage. I wish I had that level of creativity ngl. anyway, I don't think there is any Dissidia NT characters left for me to rig....except maybe Shiva. 

Dissidia Tifa is everywhere already, and for Y'shtola, I assume people still prefer her 14 version from me which I already rigged and animate couple of times. and I'll continue animating her in the future. She is 14's Icon after all.

===========================================================================

It's Jill's time to debut. followed by Nier's Marie after. Haven't had any idea on what poses I should do for Jill and Tarja yet. Solo set is my main focus right now.

but if idea strikes, I'll do both of them together this week at least in 1 video.

Oh and I finally finished 16... took me a while. I like the game overall. But not as much as I like 7 Remake or 14. And I know I'd enjoy Rebirth even more especially because of the minigames... which 16 lacks. It might also be because I'm a bit jaded with fetch quests in huge semi open world games. The mini bosses are really fun though. especially Kairos gate. and I'm not even in Final Fantasy Mode yet. idk if I'll ever touch that mode soon since Rebirth is coming up. Just kind of wish I could play as Joshua, Jill or even Dion. well...at least now I know how it feels like if DMC had plenty of fetch quests. 

I think that's all.

Thanks for you kind support and donations as always. m(_ _)m

Don't forget to stay safe, and godspeed to you all! see ya!

Holla! it's December XV already?. felt just like yesterday when I started learning animation just to put more Aranea content on the internet.

PIXIV
MEGA

so..Uh...yeah at this point, I don't think uploading a petite character on MEGA is a problem (maybe) But just in case, I better search for a new ISP next year when I move to another rent. 

I'm still a bit sick, so there might be some mistakes that I missed. And there was also actually another Gentiana & Young Luna animation, but didn't make it in time. I used the time fixing the extra first which took way longer than I thought....so another time.

===========================================================================

So many requested her, so better now than later. it's Yaana from Dawntrails.

At first I thought people refer to her boss version. not gonna lie Yaana boss version is Hrothgar territory for me. I don't have anything against Hrothgar, it's just not my thing. also, skipping Neyuni for obvious reason. for those suggesting me to make Neyuni as tall as Meteion, I..uh have to think about it. I'll do Eutrope eventually though.

If it's Queen Bee, I don't mind animating the Boss variant.

There are some people also requesting Pandora, but I can't find her in the game files. probably a new structure or something. a friend told me Pandora model is streamed into the game instance. so there is no model of her offline. so the only way of getting her is through Ninja Ripper. If this is the trend going forward, I might have to re-sub to FF14 instead of relying on trial.

I'm able to afford a 14 resub if I want to now, but it's bit daunting to play ff14 If I don't play the game that much. I rather watch the story on youtube and animate more. (for now)

===========================================================================

Tarja is next. I'll slip in 1 Jill as well.. it's just the threesome POV from the wallpaper a while back. like I said, I'll do a Jill focused animation in Jan. a full set like any other debut.

 And after, there is Rinoa but I haven't decided on who to animate beside FF8 characters. perhaps 1 or 2 Olette-Namine-Kairi 4 some or something.  I've been wanting to do them together for a long time ngl.

Well that is it. I still need more rest. I'll get back animating tomorrow.

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

Do stay safe, and godspeed! see ya!

Hello again~ yet another milf to smash with!. And we don't even know her name! but milfs a milf.

PIXIV
MEGA

Phew! all that extraction and assembly process just for this scene. Some objects I didn't manage to find from the pak, but it shouldn't be noticeable because of how I position the cameras. I was planning to assemble the kitchen as well, but I got so fed up looking at the ingame object list. There are some objects I don't even know what they are called in Japanese or English. I'll just save it for later when I decided to cook a serving of "chicken and egg".

===========================================================================

Meia from Mobius Final Fantasy is our girl this week.

Grabbed her first because she seems to be the more difficult one to polish compared to the other two.

Tried to make her look somewhat okay in Blender, but Idk how to make her hair to look exactly like it was in the game. The game use environment texture to make it glossy, and it looked worse when I tried rendering it in Blender.  She might look okayish if I use flat lighting instead of complicated lighting setup.

Never tried the game nor had any interest in it, but the girls cute.

Yes I know, FF16 is finally released a demo on PC. And the game is coming out next month on STEAM. I'm closely following the modding community in hope to learn how to extract the "stuff" from the game safely and correctly to use them in Blender. although, I might go and play the game first and let the modding wizard cook for awhile to save me some headache. from what I gather so far, it seems it's way more complicated than FF7R since it's a completely new custom engine. it should be possible with a model ripper, but I rather be safe and learn to do it manually first.

I'm guessing the most popular characters from the game are Jill and Benedikta. other animators probably would get them animated in no time. I'd still prioritize side characters, though ngl I want to animate both Adult and Young Jill as soon as possible. we'll see.

===========================================================================

Well since I rigged Kyrie right after I rigged Jessie's mom, I will get her out of the way next. After her, I want to try animating Y'shtola and Zero 3some for September's FF14 animations. and a 4some (MFFF) for September's XV set to really test the new PC limit.  Once I'm able to get my hands on 16 characters, I'll do them ASAP.

That is all. 

Thanks for you support and donations as always! m(_ _)m

Do take care and good luck in whatever you do! see you!

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

PIXIV
MEGA

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. 

===========================================================================

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.

===========================================================================

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? 

===========================================================================

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~~