DevLog: Xana's Mirage in Motion

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board.

This week is exciting (sorry there's not much you can see), but for part 1 of 3, Xana's Mirage animation is nearly complete and receiving some final touches (eye movement, subtle breathing, camera shake).

After these polishing details are finished, rendering part 1 of 3 (4000 frames) will take approximately 1-2 weeks (depending on the quality needed). Again, part 1 of 3 will be about 60 seconds long at 4K 60fps. 🤤

Still working with the voice actor for Xana's accomplice, Daz; after providing feedback to a sample, the full voice acting should be coming back soon!

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update:

• Scene 1
  • Part 1
  • Ambrose's primary blocking animation (almost finished)
  • Part 2
  • A male voice actor has been found for Daz Threadgill (Xana's accomplice).

Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• Scene 1

  • Part 1 (nearly done)
  • Ambrose's primary blocking animation (almost finished)
  • Ambrose's subtle movement (eyes, blinking, breathing)
  • Camera shake
  • Part 2
  • Working with the voice actor for Daz Threadgill (Xana's accomplice). Thankfully it should be a quick turnaround, as there are only about 18 lines.

• nuii pointer avatar

  • Taking some time to create something a little fun and reworking the avatar
  • Using particles that make up the face shape
  • Animating some extra UI elements

Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next:

• Scene 1
  • Part 2
  • Xana animation
  • Ambrose (main character) animation
  • Lip syncing Xana
  • Lip syncing Daz
  • Part 3
  • Some of which will be copy + paste from Part 1

Sneak Peek

New Avatar

See you next week.

Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board

The progress on Scene 1 (part 1 of 3) is exciting and looking amazing. For part 1 of 3, Xana's animation is just about finished, and work has begun on animating Ambrose. Remember that a lot of this is "ramp-up time", the amount of work to setup the scene, learn certain animating techniques, learn certain simulation techniques, studying how other artists' workflow can be adopted, etc. In future animations, progress is expected to be much quicker and expedient. And as you'll see down below (as well as in the Trello board), there's quite a bit of work that's finished already.

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update:

• Scene 1 (part 1)'s animation (sneak peek of the animation)
  • Started blocking for the full animation
    This will be a large lift, and until it's finished, these updates will look slim. But be assured that the animation process is underway.
  • Boob physics are looking fantastic 👩‍🍳👌
    
  • Making Xana's thighs deform as she contacts Ambrose (main character)
    
  • Hair physics is turning out to be very very difficult (again) but finished
    
  • Xana's facial animation (including lip syncing with moans) look fantastic
    

Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• Scene 1
  • Part 1
  • Ambrose's primary blocking animation (almost finished)
  • Part 2
  • A male voice actor has been found for Daz Threadgill (Xana's accomplice) Thankfully it should be a quick turnaround, as there are only about 18 lines.

Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next:

• Scene 1
  • Part 1
  • Polishing minor details of the animation
  • Part 2
  • Lip syncing Xana
    
  • Lip syncing Daz
    
  • Part 3
  • Some of which will be copy + paste from Part 1

Technical Corner

If you remember last Development Log’s Technical Corner, Echoes of The Cataclysm now uses Synology NAS for backups. Well, the first week of use has already been a huge help. After many hours of animating, the file for Xana was changed without updating the animation scene's file, causing a mismatch for the linked library. In short: the NAS was a huge help in recovering the files needed to continue. 🥵 Progress resumes!

If you're not familiar, Blender, the 3d creation software is an open-source and free. The Blender foundation takes optional donations to help support the software. I've decided to become a Gold Supporter for the Blender Development Fund, helping ensure this incredible open-source 3D software stays free for everyone. It feels good knowing I'm directly contributing to the tools that empower so many artists and creators worldwide; especially Echoes of The Cataclysm.

Speaking of Blender, the new version (4.4) was tested out for a few hours, but immediately there were issues with Scene 1's animation, so 4.3.2 will be the default for a few more months.

Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️

Xana's "Oh" face

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board.

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update: - Posing and lighting practice: Take a look at the 4k wallpaper (NSFW) - For Scene 1's Full Animation - Recreated Psion Booster Inhaler for the new rendering engine

Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• Scene 1's Full Animation (take a sneak peek of the animation)
  • Started blocking for the full animationThis will be a large lift, and until it's finished, these updates will look slim. But be assured that the animation process is underway.
  • Boob physics are looking fantastic 👩‍🍳👌
  • Making Xana's thighs deform as she contacts Ambrose (main character)
  • Hair physics is turning out to be very very difficult (again)
• Resuming progress on the PRISM facility

Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next:

• Scene 1 (full animation) Preparation
  • Searching for the perfect male voice actor to play her accomplice

Technical Corner

I recently got a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet which has been helping with sculpting and weight painting (it's also just super fun to use).

Ironically, I received the Synology NAS the same day that disaster happened to NiiChan, creator of "My Bully is My Lover". And I've been working hard to create redundancies of backups to ensure that this never happens to Echoes of The Cataclysm.

The, "321 Backup Rule" is a golden standard and data management is a skill in its own right, but in addition to that, Git is used to source control and fine-tune the version control of the data storage. A lot of time and effort is being put in to ensure progress moves forward.

Sneak Peek

Take a sneak peek at the animation.

Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board.

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update: - Developing additional assets for future scenes: - Jizz material and props assets need to be created for the rendering engine - Scene 1 (full animation) Preparation - Adding female genitals to Xana and her mirage form (proved to be very difficult) - Character Development for Ambrose (Main Character) - Adding body hair (arms, genitals, chest, legs); a small detail that is easily overlooked, but it's a detail that should be added to a 30-year-old male 😏

Current Development

What I'm working on right now: - Posing and lighting practice: Take a look at the 4k wallpaper (NSFW) - For Scene 1's Full Animation - Recreated Psion Booster Inhaler for the new rendering engine - Started blocking for the full animation This will be a large lift, and until it's finished, these updates will look slim. But be assured that the animation process is underway.

Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next: - Scene 1 (full animation) Preparation - Searching for the perfect male voice actor to play her accomplice

Don't forget to check out our Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️