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! ❤️

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! ❤️

Animation Tests & Anatomical Details

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board. (https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/)

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update:

• Character Development for Ambrose (Main Character)

  • Added genitals for the first animated scene
  • Created control rigs to assist with genital animation and easy alignment (giggity)
  • Completely reworked skin texture (first version was too pale); needed to be done anyways, considering the newly added genitals!

• For Scene 1's Animation

  • Converted Ambrose's apartment from Daz3d into Blender
  • Animation Learning Curve Practice
  • Playing around with some practice projects and animation tests to in preparation for Scene 1's full animation. Unfortunately, this is extremely necessary to learn animation in Blender 😢This clip that I'm using as practice is approximately 20 seconds long.Take a look at the animation here NSFW!

Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• 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 (this is proving to be very difficult)

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 - 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 😏 - Modeling and texturing the interior of PRISM facility

Technical Corner

Adding a Synology NAS to my arsenal - functions are to backup all data with a RAID configuration and to have it store all Echoes of The Cataclysm assets, textures, renders, etc. This will be delivered within the next few weeks but shouldn't take too long to get setup.

The genitals for Xana proved to be extremely difficult, due to my own lack of awareness. I sculpted Xana (and her mirage form), forgetting that I'd need to import her body with the genitals from Daz3d first; thus, I had to completely re-sculpt Xana and her mirage form again. 😿

Don't forget to check out our Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️ (https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/)

Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board (https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/echoes-of-the-cataclysm-progress-board)

Custom Music Creation

While Scene 5's writing, poses, and renders are completed, sound effects and music still needs to be completed. However, an exciting milestone has been hit with our first custom-composed song for Scene 5! This atmospheric track adds a whole new layer of tension to the scene.

You can check it out here: Tense Path (https://soundcloud.com/nuii-pointer/tense-path)

One more music track might be required for the remainder of the scene.

Character Progress

Xana's transition to Blender from Daz3d is complete: - Dynamic transformation slider between real/Mirage forms - Custom sculpted Mirage features - Multi-resolution textures (4k, 2k, 1k, 512) for efficient posing - Texture baking challenges overcome (after 3 intense days!)

See attached below (8k image took 15 minutes to render)

PRISM Facility Development

The interior of the PRISM facility continues to be designed, modeled, and textured out. This massive undertaking will serve as a central location for upcoming scenes, making the investment in detailed development crucial. Unfortunately, it really may take months to complete the main interior of the massive facility. Nailing the aesthetic, properly architecting, and ensuring enough space for the characters to interact will be paramount.

Looking Ahead

This week, focus will be on the remaining soundtrack for Scene 5. And since Xana has been converted into Blender, the interior of the PRISM facility will become more and more important. But a few sound effects are needed before we continue down that route ✌️

Don't forget to check out our Trello board (https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/echoes-of-the-cataclysm-progress-board) for detailed progress updates! ❤️

Hi everyone! I'm excited to share the progress on Echoes of the Cataclysm.

(Also don't forget to check out the Trello board!) What is "Echoes of the Cataclysm"?

Echoes of the Cataclysm is a mature visual novel exploring autonomy, and power in the world that's been transformed by psychic abilities. It's set in the dystopian city of Neo Angeles 2069, where the entire world has been affected by the "Cataclysm" event. The event has killed much of the population and has left a small percentage of the remaining population with differing types of psychic abilities.

Navigate a web of relationships, dark conspiracies, and experience the new society through our main character as he must confront his beliefs about power, trust, and the lengths he'll go to protect those he loves. He'll uncover unexpected truths and form intimate connections while a divided society still echoes with the catastrophic events of the past.

Each character brings their own psychic abilities, motivations, and potential for both romance and betrayal.

Dive into the world of survival, power, and unexpected intimacy where psychic forces have reshaped humanity.

Workflow Migration

One of the biggest recent decisions was transitioning from Daz3D to Blender for nearly everything, including modeling, posing, animating, and rendering. While this means converting our existing character models, the benefits have been remarkable:

Significantly faster and more intuitive interface (in the eyes of the beholder!)

More responsive timeline for character animations

Dramatically improved rendering speeds

Higher quality skin textures and materials

Here's a before/after example of the improved character fidelity with the protagonist (not final image):

Daz3d (first image)

Blender (second image)

It's not 1-to-1, and that's okay! But you have to admit that it looks less cartoonish! At least... that's the way I like it. ✌️ Current Development Focus

While you can see the progress on the Trello board, currently there are 3 scenes fully rendered (currently done in Daz3d). All future work will be completed in Blender.

The migration to Blender will require additional effort upfront; however, in the long-run, this switch is absolutely paramount for the ambitious work ahead. What's Next

Converting remaining character models to Blender (converting as needed)

Finishing out the poses and renders for Scene 4 of Chapter 1

Implementing enhanced skin shaders and materials

Looking Ahead

While the workflow migration adds some additional work to the timeline, the improved quality and workflow efficiency make this a worthwhile investment. Our Trello board will be updated constantly with progress on both technical development and character conversions.

I look forward to sharing more character reveals with the enhanced visual quality in future updates!

Don't forget to check out the progress on the Trello progress board.

Testing New Horizons

(Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress!)

Following last week's successful Blender transition, experiments with Blender's Eevee rendering engine have been ongoing. While initial tests show render speeds up to 10x faster than our current setup, fine-tuning lighting and material settings is needed to match the quality standards.

• Blender's Cycles Rendering Engine Physically accurate, light-based, but very hardware intensive and time-consuming.

• Blender's Eevee (10 x faster) Real-time, rasterized rendering with physically-based materials, offering speed and interactivity at the cost of perfect accuracy.

Technical Optimizations

Alongside engine testing, necessary optimizations have included:

Reducing character texture VRAM memory usage from 8GB to under 1GB per character

Baking complex shader networks into simplified versions

Scaling texture resolutions from 4K to more efficient 2K/1K formats

These optimizations will benefit performance regardless of which render engine is ultimately chosen.

Current Progress

Scene 4 of Chapter 1 has reached a milestone with completed environment modeling and character posing. The lighting and final renders are on hold pending the optimization efforts and potential Eevee transition.

Blender Migration Update

The switch to Blender continues to prove its worth:

Significantly faster posing workflow

Improved customization options

Enhanced overall productivity Though we occasionally encounter stability issues with more complex scenes, the benefits far outweigh these minor setbacks.

##Looking Ahead

Focus remains on:

• Completing the Eevee rendering engine tests

• Finalizing character texture optimizations

• Implementing the optimized workflow for faster scene completion

It's exciting to see the progress, week-by-week. Even if it hasn't yielded renders, it's yielded valuable knowledge and more solid workflows. ❤️

Don't forget to check out the progress on the Trello progress board. https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/echoes-of-the-cataclysm-project-management

Building PRISM + Progress & Performance

(Don't forget to check out the https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/echoes-of-the-cataclysm-project-management for detailed progress!)

Rendering Evolution

The transition to Blender's Eevee rendering engine hit a major milestone:

52 high-quality 4K resolution renders completed in under 2 hours!

While Eevee presents unique lighting challenges compared to path-based rendering, these skills will improve with time and practice.

Scene Development

This scene has come at a reasonably slow pace, as the transition to Blender was a long and tedious (but very necessary) process. Characters/assets/scenes/poses had to be exported & imported, textures had to be recreated, character-specific traits had to be manually generated (such as the Psion glow-eyes), and some things just had to be recreated from scratch. And that doesn't discount the many hours dedicated to education and learning Blender! So while this first scene in Blender has been at a slow pace, the road ahead is bright, exciting, and full of infinite possibilities!

Chapter 1 Scene 5 has reached final development stages: - 5 establishing shots rendered - 52 main scene shots rendered - Remaining shots awaiting final pose and setup (including the PRISM facility, see below) - Character textures enhanced for Eevee compatibility (skin, hair, and eyes)

PRISM Facility Development

A major milestone has been reached with the completion of the PRISM (Psychic Research Institute for Study and Mediation) building exterior: - Imposing concrete pyramid design - Glass-capped summit - Architecture reflecting its evolution from Psion fortress to government research facility

Looking Ahead

Focus remains on: - Completing Scene 5's final shots, music, and sound effects - Interior PRISM facility development (incredibly difficult and large-scale!) - Further education and refinement of the Eevee workflow

Fast render times open up exciting new doors - imagine seeing these characters come alive through animation!

Don't forget to check out the progress on the https://trello.com/b/kJ9cIAi5/echoes-of-the-cataclysm-project-management board.