Missed a week again, oops :S I was supposed to post on the weekend I posted the last songpic but stuff happened, just not that. Over the last week I finally managed to finish the retopo and apparently it has 8k odd faces with the mirror modifier, more once the subd modifier gets turned on, and probably more again when I get around to applying the mirror modifier which will probably be pretty soon (after I version save XD). I then chucked a rig in it and tried it out.

In the spirit of failing to do more in the same amount of time, I ended up having to clean out the art cupboard (a job I’ve been studiously avoiding for the last 5 years, I also bought a cube shelf for it that fits a bit more perfectly than I thought it would) and will over the next week or so probably have to sort out the rest of the crap that I’ve been putting off and should have probably done during covid except that I took the opportunity to go hard on this thing instead.

The last week has been more about trying to fit more stuff in, so work hours keep getting cut more and more and more (because apparently I shouldn’t be cutting sleep for some reason). And then on Friday my problem shoulder exploded (either pinched a nerve or it decided to become a frozen shoulder, I will find out which presently I guess) because I had the audacity to…stretch (literally all I did was stretch upwards). By evening I was popping painkillers (I don’t take painkillers because I have an irrational aversion to them) so I could run kids to places they needed to be, yesterday it was less bad and today it’s less bad again but still there and still occasionally annoying.

Those twisty horns from hell are so-called because they gave me a hard time when I was sculpting, a hard time the first time I was retopologising and a hard time this time round too but I got there eventually. I started off using speedretopo.

It’s the little things. I keep getting told not to worry about the tiny little details, because no one will ever notice them. I do sometimes (depending on how long I’m staring at something that I didn’t make). I’m reasonably certain that people might not notice the little details when they’re there, but will definitely notice them or at least pick up something “wrong” when they’re not. Depending on the style of the artwork of course. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself when I’m obsessing about all those little details.

Finally got done with the hands (or at least as done as I can be/am prepared to do). I really hope I don’t regret the decision to try and fix some of the more finicky things in the normal map later x_x This is actually the right hand. I usually work on the left side because I manage to get in my own way less on that side. I am showing off the right hand because I had to hide the right arm so I could start working on the wings.

There has been some hilarity with some of my previous progblogs as I’ve shared the dodgy looking things that usually end up happening whenever I’m building (at least characters, I haven’t done much else recently x_x) The above screenie is not that dodgy, it’s just highlighting those irritating bumps. All I want is a perfectly smooth mesh but pparently there are vertices that just jut out for no apparent reason regardless of what I’m doing with autosmooth and the smooth brush settings. I have wasted so much time on this that it’s well beyond ridiculous.

This is a really boring phase where things are super slow going but they need to be done to keep me happy. Other people obsess about mesh smoothness and stuff in obscure places like the soles of feet right?

Quickie because sculpt fixing is taking forever and I felt like doing something else for a little while. As I said in the last progblog, I had been intending on sketching Zara in a hive hoodie as I’ve drawn her in a steem hoodie previously, and then decided I should use her model instead. Some fixing was required and that had to be done anyway so it got done, and then I made the hoodie together out of a cube.

WARNING: if you’re an ultraprude there’s a nude character in here but only the breasts are somewhat detailed, while you can see the crotch area due to lack of clothes there isn’t even implied genitalia. So there I was, just smoothing out Red’s feet and toes and fixing toenails that needed fixing when I decided that I should draw Zara in a hive hoodie since I’ve drawn her in a steem hoodie previously (and Kurenai in a steem shirt). Hot on the heels of that I figured I may as well use the 3d model of Zara seeing as it’s more or less finished. So of course I had to fix the proportions of the model first. After a lot of glaring and trying to figure out if the legs were too long or the torso too short, I finally decided on the former and ran it past Sprat who helpfully marked up a screenie for me.