A lot of last week was prep work for sculpting; made better lowpolys for subdiv sculpting (faulds & tassets, rerebraces, vambraces, gauntlets). Minor polypaint work to remove some of the most messy parts of paint. Adjusted waist proportions to accommodate the underlying pourpoint, as well as to allow cuirasses to procgen sans faulds, or vice versa. I also started prototyping emblems loosely based on Japanese 'mon' (紋) to represent the various factions & houses in Project Nova.
Arms seem to be in a pretty good place for now, still needs work though. Cuirass & leg armour next. Feels like I didn't get a lot done, but gauntlets can be time intensive.
My entire weekend was utterly devoured by the release of PoE2! I managed to get a bit of work done on Project Nova however. WIP of the Abyssal race compatible armour. In Destiny 2, Titans get a powerful boosted jump, Warlocks get a maneuverable glide, and Hunters can get a triple jump. Similarly, each race (species, rather) in Project Nova will have their own movement abilities, tied to whatever is on their backs.
It's the last Wednesday of the 2024, so here is the second annual progress log for Project Nova, as well as this week's update. I hope you're all having a wonderful xmas/holiday, and/or happy new year! If not, well that's life for ya, innit.
- Male & female highpolys & lowpolys.
- Exploration into animations, basic walk cycle for human basemesh, will likely switch to a different software other than Modo for anims.
Overall, progress is steady and I remain committed.
For this week's update I did more work on the human jetpacks, am redesigning the vampire helmet, and am overhauling the infested race to better fit the vision in my mind.
Oh man the veins new animalistic jaw on the infested are so sick! Seeing the lineup, I felt like they looked a tad similar to the insect, especially on the scales pattern, now they're really packing some punch. Also, nice cocks :]
More zsphere work, bringing back that fungal sprout on the back from early concepts. Decided to change the scarlet red veins into fungal hyphae. Changed genitalia from spiked abomination to fungal plug based on massospora cicadina. I plan on revisiting the other races and making them less human.
shheeshh i thought this was a well place (the unarmored version) and you just kept on going ;P this new update the tilted head down version if you look under where the "cheek "hole" would be kind of makes a serpent-ish eye hole with the head down like that and it stood out to me enough to mention it.
Spent awhile developing the biomechanical structures that open and close the face plates. They are opened by 'arms' that have locking joints and double as mandibles. A strong length of sinew in the back adds support, and is what snaps the plates back together. More polish and a bit of proportion work was done as well.
I've gone through a number of redesigns on the infested race, as what I have in mind is very specific. I think I've settled on a design I like now. Yes, I am nixing the concept of animated face plates, but I think the design, while cool & interesting, is a bit too much for a player race. Compiled here is a history of the redesigns, as well as the current bone-helm aesthetic. The jaws have been pushed forward to allow for biting in combat and feasting on the corpses of the slain, the cranium is naturally protected from blows, and feature curved spikes to rip flesh in order to spread infestation faster.
Plans going forward are to detail & polish the male infested, make the female version, and continue with a much needed de-humanization rework of the abyssal race. I think the vampires are in a fairly good spot design-wise for now, but I might change my mind later on that.
Very late update on Project Nova, normally these are posted on Wednesday or Thursday morning, not Friday. Had some IRL stuff to take care of, but it's all sorted now. Added head spikes to differentiate the back profile, polish, separated polypaint into layers, removed subdivision level 7.
Done for now, retopology underway & female version up next. Removed veins, too much work, especially if I want to create other infested things (which I will) and I can probably get some sort of procedural geometry node wizardry to work instead.
really strong updates, this has me a little concerned
Removed veins
as the details where really well read for me, probably not at distances so much but i mean their veins. Did you try a quick bake test and this is the reason? Could just bake them down without the geo? or something. I mean its your stuff, i just think the (from my view) design has lost some quality aspect. either way looking to see what becomes of all this.
@iam717 great question, I too am a bit concerned about the lack of veins, but I think there are procedural methods for adding this sort of detail that I'd like to explore before committing to sculpting each individual vein on not only the infested race, but infested flora and fauna by hand. Either way, I'm not bringing any of the races to 100% completion; there's a lot of mechanics and tech art stuff I need to get into before finalizing designs. Veins are a very extraneous detail that can be added at any time.
The important thing at this stage is that the highpoly is in a state where I doubt I'll alter the silhouette any further, and has sufficient detail
Male infested baked & in UE5. There's a lot of polish work & actual painting (not polypaint) to do, UV layout work etc. I'll be doing all of this once the fifth and final race of Project Nova are complete; the Automatons.
Did the highpoly + lowpoly, baked & imported updated female infested
race to UE5. More concept work done on the automaton race. And there we
have it folks; five races, fitting for a quintuple A game.
A lot of the design choices are mostly solid now, been going through and eliminating a lot of subpar or awkward design choices I made early on. I don't think much will change, all that's left is polish and finishing up. Stomach and lower back still needs work IMO.
thanks Muzzoid, I usually don't pose characters since it feels like a waste of time; highpolys are just a means to an end for me. I'll likely pose the lowpolys in engine though, especially once armour and accessories are made.
I feel like a bit of a spammer for posting with seemingly so little progress, but the last 10% of sculpting is always like this, and is important to get right. Male version coming up soonish I think.
These weeks are just flying by. Played too much Morrowind. Closed the eyelids a bit for better detail during animation & started on retopo. Might smoke some sweet moonsugar later if I'm feeling cute
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.
Instead of 'woke' Body Type 1 & 2 or 'trad-wife' Male & Female, Project Nova will feature a brand new nomenclature for the quintessential quintuple A (AAAAA) experience; players may choose between 'Floppy Meat Walls' and 'Never Big Enough' (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.
Sectioned out and retopo'd 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 that's one of the reasons why these weekly recaps are helpful to me; comparing earlier designs to later designs helps identify regressions in design, and I'll know where to improve next time.
Replies
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Overall, progress is steady and I remain committed.
For this week's update I did more work on the human jetpacks, am redesigning the vampire helmet, and am overhauling the infested race to better fit the vision in my mind.
Have a great year!
I added more veins as well as trypophobia to the infested race.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Plans going forward are to detail & polish the male infested, make the female version, and continue with a much needed de-humanization rework of the abyssal race. I think the vampires are in a fairly good spot design-wise for now, but I might change my mind later on that.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
The important thing at this stage is that the highpoly is in a state where I doubt I'll alter the silhouette any further, and has sufficient detail
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
that sneaky grass, its a trap i tell ya with all those flowers and sh!t. neat updates.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
Turntables, so ChatGPT can scrape them:
Have a great week!
Have a great week!