The past two weeks have been eclectic; I've done A LOT of different things this week, some for PoD and others wholly detached from my AVN development...

I'll start by giving an overview of what I've been up to for the past two weeks. Last week I decided to get all remaining locations set up and modified where needed, ready for posing scenes. Completing Chapter 1 was a big driver for me, as it's been so many months since I released the Demo. 

Setting up Nate's (MC's) home took me four days! I haven't modified a single asset so much before, but this was a five-bedroom set, and I only needed three bedrooms. I converted one of the bedrooms into a home gym with an entire mirror wall, you know, for checking your roommate out while she is working out, duh! I made modifications to the third upstairs bedroom but, spoilers. The second upstairs bedroom was going to be a home office. However, I toyed with the idea of what if MC's mom came over to check on him. So instead of pigeonholing myself, I left it as is, which led to making my own custom assets for Daz.

Later that week, my new Remarkable 2 tablet arrived, and it's bloody fantastic; I love these so much. I bought my first one in 2020 but lost it when I went away to do a 2-day training course with work. Yeah, that was £400 wasted! To reduce stress and get away from things, I have started fishing a lot more, but whilst I was chilling, waiting for a bite, I came up with potential gold but had nothing to jot my thoughts down. So that's when I started thinking I wish I had my Remarkable and thought fuck-it, I'm going to buy a new one. It arrived a few days later, and when I linked it up with my account, I got access to all my old notes, including my storyboard for Chapter 1. I added images of the locations for each scene and released this for Patrons/Subscribers. It's a behind-the-scenes of how I have approached my story development, and a little peek at what's to come.

Because I had no more rooms in the house for a home office, I needed to source an asset that could stand in for one. I was drawn to the issue many of us have faced since working from has become so prevalent, space where can I stick an office. I was drawn to the Garden Office idea but couldn't find any assets on Daz or Renderosity, so I thought I'd have a go at making my own!

I'm not familiar with Blender at all, I've watched Fugazi (3D Megaverse) on YouTube, but the workflow would be too slow for me until I mastered the software. So I decided to stick to something I knew, which was Autodesk Revit. This application is designed for buildings, and I am shit hot in the software too. I would need to go from Revit to Daz Studio via OBJ format, but I added Hexagon to my workflow to manage the materials and bone creation into Daz. Yes, I could use Blender for this but seeing as I have no clue how to use it, I skipped it as an option.

It only took me an hour to get the Revit part smashed out, and I had visual inspiration curtsey of google search. I then went to Hexagon, which took me a few hours and MANY failed outputs until I figured out how to get what I wanted. The final part was Daz Studio for applying textures and setting the Doors & Windows to openable. Then, of course, no render is complete without a fully kitted-out space, so I added all the furniture, rendered some snaps, and put them on Discord.

A few people suggested I put this on Daz Store or Renderosity for others to use, so I investigated Daz Store. Daz wants to see a small portfolio or works to consider you a Professional Artist. I haven't looked at Renderosity yet, but I will. So keep an eye out because I may start selling content on the Daz Store or Renderosity soon!

I've already started project 2, The Granny House! Daz had a lot of super glitzy houses that no one with an actual salary could ever afford IRL. I think I will be looking to make more modest homes with 2-3 bedrooms. I'm also considering creating a modular road system so content creators can make custom street scenes.

I also have set up a YouTube account, and I posted about it earlier on Patreon & SubscribeStar. My plans haven't gone past uploading some interesting Dev Streams, like making my custom assets. I need to think carefully about how I will use YouTube, and I might bring you guys some tutorials on creating custom Daz Assets or something similar. I will let it evolve naturally and take queues from you and my fellow devs if something I'm doing is worth sharing with the broader community. 

So let's talk about PoD; I know some of you will be dropping by to see if there's been a game update or news. As you can tell from reading this blog today, I've had a pretty busy fortnight and am progressing with the development of Pursuit of Desire. I will be writing a separate post later in the week to discuss the story's plot and my plans. I have many things coming up, doubts here and there, and other things cropping up that slows my progress. Rest assured, I have no intention of shelving PoD; I have several story ideas planned for after PoD so I won't be going anywhere. I'll just probably be moving at a slower pace than I'd like to.

With that, I've taken enough of your time and have to get ready; I'm away on business for a few days this week and still got to pack my shit.

Snowy

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