April Update#1

Hard to believe we’re already halfway through April, time’s really been speedrunning this year unironically. I’ve been chipping away at things behind the scenes and I’ve got a bunch of stuff to share. I finished the script for the Zatanna and Hawkgirl animation! I’ve got the scene prepped, models ready to go and even threw together a fun little spell book McGuffin that’s gonna be the magical catalyst for all the shenanigans.

Like I mentioned before, I’m trying to avoid feature creeping this one to death, so I’m keeping it to two main poses. That said, I still plan to get a bit spicy with transitions,tempo changes, motion build up and some pose evolution to keep things dynamic without going overboard. With all this groundwork set, what’s left now is storyboarding out the angles and getting that flow down, then it’s off to the races.

The story itself is classic and super original, definitely not the trope of “curious magician messes with ancient artifact and things go weird.” Zatanna does what Zatanna does, pokes at forbidden magic, chaos ensues, and Hawkgirl (aka Kendra) has to step in and help “resolve” the magical buildup so the spell can fade. Simple premise, but hey, simple works and it gives room to really push the animation and interaction.

For those of you familiar with the old models of Zatanna and Hawkgirl, you’ll probably notice I didn’t change things too drastically. The goal wasn’t to reinvent them, but to polish and improve what was already working. I tried to stay true to their original look while pushing the details a bit further.

With Zatanna, I really leaned into the idea that she’s canonically one of DC’s bustier characters, so I made sure that part was... respectfully represented. Hawkgirl, on the other hand, has that athletic, abs for days, cheese grater core that could probably punch through steel. I think the contrast between them is going to be really fun to animate.

Models Preview HERE

Also, this is the current... monstrosity I’m playing with for Zatanna. I keep flip flopping between “is this too much?” and that Kylo Ren more meme.

Usually, I flip the pairing dynamic, with the stacked one on the receiving end, but this time I wanted to change things up. Zatanna’s more, uh, magically gifted this round and I want Kendra to carry the visual weight on the bottom half especially that dump truck. I think the contrast will look great on screen. I’m still debating whether to include her wings since they are technically lore accurate, but finding wing assets that pose well and retract is a beast of its own. Might keep it simple for animation’s sake unless I find a good solution.

While all that’s cooking, I’ve also been working on a loop with Storm I recently ported over. I call it a “loop” but it’s got multiple transitions to really push my animating chops. Lately, I’ve been feeling like something’s about to click with animation, I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s that feeling like your brain is almost syncing up with what your hands are trying to do which is pretty cool and rewarding.

As part of this, I’ve been changing up my approach. I don’t usually show WIPs since they tend to look cursed/janky until the cleanup phase, but I figured I’d give you all a peek at how I’ve been handling things. I start with key blocking, move into a kind of blocking+ stage to give Blender less room to auto interpolate weirdness, then go into spline. It’s helped a ton, stuff feels way less floaty and I don’t feel like I’m starting over every time I hit spline. The stepped approach is all on 2s right now and still missing overlap (which makes everything smooth), but it’s a nice way to show how much blocking plus helps.

On top of that, I’ve been giving some attention to the OGs Power Girl and Wonder Woman. Mainly just retouching their models to prep for a bigger project. I still like their original versions a lot, so it’s mostly fine tuning, though I do plan to give Diana a minor resculpt before the project. For now, I’m just showing PG with her updated look, a mix of her classic costume and a modernized twist that I think hits a good balance.

Also gave PG a bit of muscle as she’s called Power Girl, after all. Felt like she deserved to look the part a bit more and to be fair she is always toned/beefy in the comics as well ( for the most part ) so I gave her a more toned build while keeping her proportions. I’ve also been experimenting with her pubic hair, but for some reason, I feel like she looks better without, but maybe that’s just me not hitting the right shape yet. Still messing with it.

Anyway, that’s the current state of the art lab. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you think Zatanna’s build is too much (or not enough ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )

As always, thank you very much for the support and stay safe out there!