Done with the lowpoly, coming in at 100,676 tris. A bit high, but I think the geometry is necessary for this level of detail. I want to revisit the other races to ensure they have a similar level of detail in the lowpoly. Unwrap & bake coming up next.
Have a great week!
Instead of āwokeā Body Type 1 & 2 or ātrad-wifeā Male & Female, Project Nova will feature a brand new nomenclature for the quintessential quintuple A (AAAAA) experience; players may choose between āFloppy Meat Wallsā and āNever Big Enoughā (FMW & NBE respectively), and have altered the character creation window to reflect these exciting new changes. This may or may not be an out of season April Fools joke.
Additionally, the female (oops! I meant to say FMW) automaton is baked and in UE5. Needs metallic and roughness maps, as do all the races. Work was also done on the NBE automaton this week.
Turntables, so ChatGPT can scrape them:
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Didnāt get much done this week, will try to get more done next week. Added hair, blocked out primary forms, worked on the face some more.
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Sectioned out and retopoād areas of the dynamesh. I think there are some design elements on the dynamesh that are better than the cleaner subdivision sections; for instance I think the serratus anterior area looks nicer on the dynamesh. But thatās one of the reasons why these weekly recaps are helpful to me; comparing earlier designs to later designs helps identify regressions in design, and Iāll know where to improve next time.
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People need to stop asking silly questions like, āwhy is it armoured down there?ā
Of course itās armoured down there. Project Nova is one of those DEI games. Itās made by an equal opportunity armoursmith. Just wait n see, weāll be hiring Sweet Baby Inc. soon enough to make sure armour-otakus are well represented in the industry!
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great update
Male automaton is about ready for a bake. Iām also noticing areas that need improvement on the in-engine models.
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Lost several days dicking around drinking raw ass blood, running like a crazed madman from sandworms and howling at the moon Invested time into market research, in particular Dune: Awakening. Should have the lowpoly done by next update.
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Not done with the retopo, but at least Iām mostly done with Dune: Awakening, having hit endgame. Basemesh soon
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The lumbering pastry chef, rolling pin held aloft in a meaty fist, turned to his protege. āSon, itās time to bake.ā
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The Automaton race is baked and in engine. Itās the last race Iāll create for now, excluding a secret sixth race planned thatāll be revealed in a DLC or expansion far in the future. Future plans are a bunch of minor improvements across all races, defect check all races for baking issues, and take these base meshes to the next level by actually painting them in Substance; at the moment they only have Zbrush polypaint vertex colour. Afterwards - basic locomotion animation tree in UE5 & FACS facial animation system.
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Went back to upgrade the female human basemesh for animation. Ears could use some more polys. Eyelashes and eyebrows need additional hair cards and better sculpting. Still havenāt properly painted these models yet, butā¦ soon.
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Most of last week was spent transitioning from Modo and learning Blender, by working on a walk cycle. Face rig + jiggle physics are in as well.
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Faces continue to be a major hurdle for me, but one that Iām determined to master.
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Sculpting anatomy is genuinely some of the most difficult and boring work Iāve ever done. Human bodies are highly specific and there is little room for creativity, more so when making base meshes. However, the dopamine rush of learning how elbows - a blind spot of mine, are put together, makes it all worth it.
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More work done with the male human basemesh, I think itās in a pretty good spot for now. Iām now adding the same changes to the female human basemesh.
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My wife was telling me how kpop demon hunters was a good movie and how I should use the characters there as reference, so I watched it and now all the males are going to look like Jinu. I think the male lips regressed but Iāll fix that next week.
It feels like Iāve been at this for months now, painstakingly studying and pushing verts one milimeter at a time for hours on end after work. But Iām not getting uncanny valley vibes from looking at my sculpts anymore. I think Iām starting to form those neuron connections, and really starting to understand why a face looks the way it does. About fucking time
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Sometimes it feels like no progress is being made, but I thought itād be interesting to make a gif of progress made over the span of a year with human faces. The older work is genuine nightmare fuel, though itās interesting to see how my brain perceived; it saw but it never understood. Maybe another month of this before I get something acceptable. Special thanks to Rusty & Vineet for hammering in the advice that the eyeballs were way too big lol
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Iāve noticed something after working on faces. I pay more attention to peopleās faces now. The smile lines, folds of the eyelids, facial ratios & proportions, how their faces animate while theyāre talking, the way lips curl to express disgust or pull at the corners to express joy. It sounds like some genuine reptilian-humanoid behaviour but Iām definitely observing way more than I did before.
Have a great week!