Quick reminder: You can follow development more closely on the Trello board

The progress on Scene 1 (part 1 of 3) is exciting and looking amazing. For part 1 of 3, Xana's animation is just about finished, and work has begun on animating Ambrose. Remember that a lot of this is "ramp-up time", the amount of work to setup the scene, learn certain animating techniques, learn certain simulation techniques, studying how other artists' workflow can be adopted, etc. In future animations, progress is expected to be much quicker and expedient. And as you'll see down below (as well as in the Trello board), there's quite a bit of work that's finished already.

Last Week's Progress

What I accomplished since the last update:

• Scene 1 (part 1)'s animation (take a sneak peek of the animation)
  • Started blocking for the full animation This will be a large lift, and until it's finished, these updates will look slim. But be assured that the animation process is underway.
  • Boob physics are looking fantastic 👩‍🍳👌
  • Making Xana's thighs deform as she contacts Ambrose (main character)
  • Hair physics is turning out to be very very difficult (again) but finished
  • Xana's facial animation (including lip syncing with moans) look fantastic

Current Development

What I'm working on right now:

• Scene 1
  • Part 1
    • Ambrose's primary blocking animation (almost finished)
  • Part 2
    • A male voice actor has been found for Daz Threadgill (Xana's accomplice) Thankfully it should be a quick turnaround, as there are only about 18 lines.

Coming Soon

What I'm planning to work on next:

• Scene 1
  • Part 1
    • Polishing minor details of the animation
  • Part 2
    • Lip syncing Xana
    • Lip syncing Daz
  • Part 3
    • Some of which will be copy + paste from Part 1

Technical Corner

If you remember last Development Log’s Technical Corner, Echoes of The Cataclysm now uses Synology NAS for backups. Well, the first week of use has already been a huge help. After many hours of animating, the file for Xana was changed without updating the animation scene's file, causing a mismatch for the linked library. In short: the NAS was a huge help in recovering the files needed to continue. 🥵 Progress resumes!

If you're not familiar, Blender, the 3d creation software is an open-source and free. The Blender foundation takes optional donations to help support the software. I've decided to become a Gold Supporter for the Blender Development Fund, helping ensure this incredible open-source 3D software stays free for everyone. It feels good knowing I'm directly contributing to the tools that empower so many artists and creators worldwide; especially Echoes of The Cataclysm.

Speaking of Blender, the new version (4.4) was tested out for a few hours, but immediately there were issues with Scene 1's animation, so 4.3.2 will be the default for a few more months.

Don't forget to check out the Trello board for detailed progress updates! ❤️