W.I.P #52 - The Hard-to-Please Reptile

hey! i'm back with the usual update. my progress thus far has been pretty smooth. in comparison to the last few animations, this one's pretty simple in terms of what needs to be animated - so i highly doubt this'll take nearly as long as the previous one (but as always, take every bullheaded assumption that i make with a grain of salt). while the animation is still heavily in the works, i did get some lighting set up that i think looks pretty nice.

(here's a screenshot of the current animation progress. lots of the blocking is done, but still needs some time to cook)

i would like to offer an additional camera angle or two if possible (either POV, a lower angle, or something else) though i'll focus on figuring that out and evaluating if it's doable once i'm done with the bulk of the animation. regardless, i still felt like doing at least one additional render for this preview to demonstrate what i had in mind. the alternate angle may be subject to change or removal depending on how difficult it is to work with - but hopefully, it'll work well

i'm also opting to hold off on working out the background/scene until the animation work is finished (or at least once it's mostly finished). the main reason behind this decision is that i'd like to retain as much performance in blender as possible (and i'm pretty sure that loading in the scene itself before the process of animating is finished is a big cause of the FPS problems i've faced in the last few projects). i do plan on upgrading my hardware later on, once i have enough money to afford to do so, which should negate most of the problems i'm currently facing - but for the time being, this'll just have to be the workflow i follow.

in the meantime, this should give you an idea of where i'm currently at. i'll be returning with another update when i can - hopefully in the next day or two (possibly an animated preview if i can get enough done by then).
thanks for the continued support, it really does help me more than i can express. i'll be doing my best to make sure it does not go wasted, so stay tuned! :]