Here we are, Weekly WIP 100. In 'honor' of this, V has helped Misty Olszewski (Cyberpunk 2077) figure up a new way to earn some eddies. Seems to be working. Misty Olszewski model by Lord Aardvark

    Black Cat Cafe is coming along, slowly but surely. Several new tricks being added to this one, so it's been an interesting challenge to get them to work well; if at all. Very much a trial-and-error project.

    Tekken's Emilie de Rochefort project is nearing completion. Finally. Glad I didn't give up on it. It should be out in a week or so; render times and all that.

    Happy to say I've gotten back on track with Black Cat Cafe. Black Cat was being stubborn, 'hissing' and refusing to work with me. She works pretty well now. Really what it came down to how I was trying to do the animation. When I first started SFM I learned how to animate via 'pan' camera, which is difficult and time consuming since it shows all of it all the time, so breaks in the model, glitches in whatever, odd angles etc. are visible. 'Still' cameras are more aligned with the animation and model and is easier and I think better, but I default to my 'roots' all the time and forget to stop doing that.

    An example of is right below. Black Cat's knees are pretty jagged/pointed in this pose, but, since the camera doesn't show that high up, you can't see it, thus it looks fine. At one point in this angle her left elbow swings into view much more, hiding a jagged bit on her chest.

    It's still rough of course. I only got this working properly yesterday, but now that I know what I'm doing again, I can really get things swinging.

    Alrighty. I don't have anything to show for Black Cat Cafe right now. It's being difficult to create. Black Cat isn't wanting to cooperate in the pose I want to use, so she keeps breaking at the knees or hips or just moves wrong all around. Usually that's fixed by adding extra constraints to the rig or locking one bone to another, but everyone I try either doesn't help or crashes SFM. Having to rehash how to position her. I did get some nice motion practice out of it though that I think I can salvage into the rehash, so not a total loss of time/effort.

    In other news though, I had an idea (based on a picture I came across like usual) of another project that is going very well. So well, I have a little preview video of how realistic the motions are thus far. Cassie Cage from Mortal Kombat working out. Very rough WIP on that and early as hell, but still, I'm pretty proud of the motions already. Seems to have peaked interest in the Discord already as to what might happen in it.

    In other other news, I had another idea with Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3. Not gonna say much on this one yet. Tavern? People. Her. Situation. About all the info til I have something of it.

    So yeah, probably best to not consider anything a 'main project' these days. Setbacks, things in life or just loss of general interest from thing to thing shifts my focus all over, but those are the main things I'm working on.

  Whatcha think of Cassie Cage though? I like it.

    Black Cat Café. I think it's a fantastic name. I didn't come up with it; a follower did. According to Wikipedia, a cat café is a theme café whose attraction is cats who can be watched and played with. Well; Black "Cat" is about to be watched and "played with", so it works on a fun play on words type level.

    Still a lot of general scene sorting. (What's in the background, how much of the background needs to be shown, is there anyone else visible, etc.) so there isn't much to show yet. Also, I have a lot more textures to work on, mostly for Black Cat and for various things, like the dildos for the machine. Interesting what can happen by just changing a texture outright and editing the bump map (the file that determines the way the light bends/reflects on the object to show wrinkles/texture). I like them. More interesting than just a solid color or flesh tone. I'll probably keep them somewhat like the preview picture.

    It's already been chatted about some on my Discord about the possible use of a gag for this. Yes, there will be a bit gag this time. In fact, it's the one on the banner picture here on SubStar that Judy Alvarez has on.

    Still not sure what music I'll use. I need to look around for that soon. Even though this won't be musically timed, the music will still need to help set the tone.

    Might take a bit to sort a name for this one.

    Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) is invited to a spiffy charity event hosted by a new company Obsidian Mirage.  Little does she know that they know that she's also Black Cat and they have an....interesting theme for the event.

    Long limo ride on a dark and rainy night. (Yeah, I like rain in animations. I've not figured out why yet.) Hope nothing happens like a spiked drink, or some kind of knockout gas gets pumped into the car. "Hint hint" and all that.

    Not much to say about this yet; still early in concept. The intro, which is also where I'm also going to place the credits, is nearly finished. I miss intros and more a cinematic style. I like how BM Ivy has the detailed start. I was going to do a single camera angle, but I've decided to do several. One wouldn't show enough of what's going on and it be kinda boring.  The lighting has turned pretty nice on this section. I think I do lights well these days.

    This one will not be timed to music, since the concept wouldn't make sense for it. It will, however, have music in the background, most likely a loop. Something that won't grate on nerves to hear over and over and over and over and you get the point. Lastly, this one is meant to be longer than anything so far. I really want to convey a lengthy passing of time, so there will be the nice time transitions (Like Yin-Ping) and expression changes (Like Sancus 1) plus actual project length. How long? Not sure yet.

    Lastly #2. Since this will be longer running, it will take longer to make. It's going to have a lot of transitions. Hopefully you all bare with me on this, since there most likely won't be anything released for a bit.

    A new year brings about new ideas...
    Not really, I've had this in "The List" for a long time already.
    Anyways, the idea here is a live stream featuring someone. "Who" is the question though. A heroine, in my opinion for theme, makes the most sense, thus the current potential lineup.  Before anyone gets overly excited, this is not a multi-character project. Each girl shown is not going to be in this or even have an alternate project of it. It's a selection process, not who is already selected.
    I was originally going to use Supergirl but checked a few other models for it and found several that I liked the idea of. Black Cat though is the current lead for a few reasons.  Firstly, the model is fantastic all around.  Second, she's one of the girls on the banner I was using, and it seems appropriate to use them sooner than later.  But lastly and most important, the project needs to be a very long runtime, so the model needs a lot of extremely good facial flexes for animated emotions. All of these have that, but hers are the best.  Just her default look has an emotional aspect to it. Yeah, I had her look at the camera too.  Black Widow has the best butt though.
    So, this week, and a lot of random time last month, has been spent making a UI type stream screen overlay with the Lovense style theme. Tokens are bought and spent to change the events.  Time spent sorting who with outfits and all that.  Prep-work for the general scene.  Lots of texture edits or creations from scratch.
    The 'who' is still up for grabs.  Black Cat is in the lead, but that's not a sure thing and I still have other characters to poke at, just in case, but she is pretty far ahead.

    In other news, some projects shown earlier last year are still in progress, even if super slow.  Tekken Emilie 'Lilli" de Rochefort is still going, just not very fast. It is nearly in a state that would be releasable, rather than a more involved and finished project, so given that I've lost a lot of interest in it, it may go that route.  Or it gets shelved til I finally get back to it.
    Probably some other projects I'm not remembering.  That happens though.  Things get lost and forgotten.  I have longer ideas in mind, but worry they'll take too long to create/release.  Will see how things go.

    Also, Happy Late New Year.