Cannon sizes? Yar. I'm not a fan of incorrect character shapes. Marie Rose is mousy. Anna/Elsa are mousy. Making them busty/thick, to me, is stupid. Same as if you made like, Tina Armstrong from Dead or Alive flat/skinny. Incorrect.
   
    "Skinny Mini"? Yar. It's my loving term for the sexy skinny/flats, who for a long time now seem to have been forsaken. Even when one gets used, they're often blown up to incorrect shapes.

    Thankfully, my favorite model makers tend to make cannon sizes, or at least in the case of the Anna and Elsa models I'm using, a flex to make them so. So no, there won't be thick versions or double Ds on Anna/Elsa.

    Now that that's out of the way.

    *sings*

    Princess Elsa has to stay "on top" of her sister Anna all the time. No, not like that! Maybe later though....
    As such, will Anna get the present she wanted? Did Elsa manage to find such a thing? Is that poor bear being smooshed by skinny-mini thighs? What the hell is.... electricity?
    Oh, she'll get her present, the bear it rather content, and who needs electricity when you have.... MAGIC!

    So other projects were meant to reignite my love/passion/drive/fun for SFMing. They failed. This, however, has; and it's a Christmas project. Go Figure. Those that came before it were some of the most annoying things I've made, but that was because they had a Christmas song and let's be honest. Who the hell can tolerate Gene Aubry singing the same song bit over and over and over and over and over and you get my point.
    This does have a Christmas theme, but only at the start, before the wonderous Ramma-Jam kicks in and starts pumping out all those lovely techno/rave sounds. See what I did there?

    Anyways.

    I've really been having fun creating this, even when things have gone a bit janky and ideas for various bits have been scrapped out of it. I've even added in things I've yet to do, or do well at least, and they've come out really good. My Quality Assurance person assures me it is of quality? Yeah.... that.

    Another sleeping shot of Anna, this time after the sun has come up, along with the examples of her being a "skinny mini" and lastly, the Ramma-Jam thus far. It's not fully built. Anna is putting it together piecemeal and testing it as she goes. Her teddy-bear is assisting, or some such.
    Honestly, I thought about making these like instruction manual sheets for her to be reading to make it and yeah, no. That's a bit much. Instead, it'll just be a manual booklet and fade out/ins with the new sections added.
    I'm trying not to show off too much of the actual animation. Also, I am going back to showing more of the 'how it was made' style previews as well. There isn't enough to show on Weekly's otherwise, really. Might make a small trailer for this, given time, like I did with Valentine's Day.

    Lastly, I did some practices earlier in the week using Shadowheart and Mizora from Baldur's Gate 3. They're rough as hell, cause they were practices after all. I'm going to toss the best of each on Discord.

    Christmas? Yup. It's officially started; for the second time this year. I'd already abandoned an idea early to start another for it, only for that one to actually screw up, causing me to rehash and start the original idea which is going fantastic thus far. I'm pretty excited about it, so much so I've been working my ass off this week on just it, putting aside other things to work more.

    Anna (Disney Frozen) receives a special gift from 'a friend'. In her excitement and haste to try it out, she doesn't fully read the manual it comes with, causing a....fun "situation" to occur.

    What you're seeing in the two preview pics is the opening segment where the credits will be (Anna sleeping/waking up) and the room where the rest of the animation will take place (fireplace). The intro is nearly complete along with a small segway and the very beginning of the "situation".

    This animation is a bit more "traditional Zjera"? By that I mean it won't be tame like last year with Batgirl and Mr. Freeze. Not saying I dislike that one, it was nice to do a more subtle animation overall, but this year will go back to a more hardcore feel/sound.

    I've not stopped Black Cat Cafe, but it's certainly slowed to a crawl. I meant to go one way, but went another, and now I'm trying to see if I can get it back the original way without having to start over. If not, I'll just soldier on with it the way it was going. It's not bad, just not what I wanted.

    Still too many ideas floating in my head and more keep popping up. Lot of small things though, so some loops or even just still frame pics may come along. Some big projects too; I've got this idea for a kind of racing event....

    Someone sent Bloo a special setup to use on the redhead he knows as well. How nice of that person. Two versions: one with full AO (ambient occlusion) and one with just AO Outline. Ambient Occlusion deals with the use of shadows.

    As I've said before about AO, some models/maps simply do not work with it at all, so it's a very hit/miss when it gets used. Gwen Tennyson doesn't like any while Frankie was fine with all. That mirror floor map doesn't like any either while a rope model I have does alright without the outline style. Outline is sometimes very useful, like in the second picture/version of Frankie here.

    I think AO Outline makes it look more like a cartoon since they're 3D models based on a 2D creation. Sort of more correct to the source, but that's why I did the 2 versions; in case you all like a different way a bit more. Both will be released right after Christmas 2024 and since the 25th is my animation "New Year", Frankie, which is a 60 second loop, is the first animation released for 2025 (Supporter+ Tiers), followed by a small free project. So, 3 releases this month.

    4 releases, really, since the Year 3 video will be the last this month. Year 3 being the recap compilation video of all/most of what I've made this year, spanning from one Christmas to another. Gives me an interesting way of showcasing all I've done thus far, shows small previews of higher tier projects lower tier subscribers might not have seen anything of, and just a fun way of seeing how I might have progressed as time passes.

    Last preview of Christmas 2024. It's fully rendered now, just needs made into video in Sony Vegas. Been strange to have it be such a calm creation. The other Christmas' have been chaotic and stressful, except that little Violet Parr one.

    Speaking of little ones, I did get another mini-loop style created as well. Preview for it will be shown next Weekly. It needs full render, since it only has the test one right now, and then the Vegas treatment and voila. I said I wasn't going to do any other free this year aside from Christmas 2024, and even though it's also Christmas themed it's not the main one, so it will be Supporter Tier+ ($3+). I've been trying to find correct voices for it, so it may or may not have sound, depending.

    I'll soon start compiling this year's creations for the Yearly video I like doing.

    Not much to say this week. More Christmas rendered, I've taken some time to 'recharge' and sort things, spent yesterday in the ER with the fiancé.
    Still not saying who exactly is in Christmas this year, but I will say it's DC Comics and she's in a snow globe/machine thing. Getting the snow globe's glass to be visible was a pain. Sometimes it's not really visible at all. I didn't want to obscure the view too much though.
    Pic shown is one of the test renders, not a final render, so it's not the best quality.

    Several new ideas added to 'The List' of things to do. I even have another possible mini-Christmas thing I might try to hammer out in time. Sorta like the little Violet Parr last year. No promises though.