[Status Report #3 + Preview #2] Sicae - Episode 7

Hey, everyone! How’s it going?

This latest progress has been brutal. I seriously need a break. (I may or may not have bitten off more than I could chew with this one… but hey, one step at a time, right?)

... So, let’s get a bunch of stuff out of my head now rather than later.

Progress & Current Numbers

• Lines of code: 3,051

• Renders: 524

• Animations: 1

• Music & SFX: 20

Report

Huge progress since the last report! I’ve been tweaking the shadows for a much cleaner render output. At first, getting soft shadows to work was a nightmare—I actually gave up on them for a while. But recently, I figured out a way to do it without making my life a living hell, and the results? Chef’s kiss. No more hard, broken (or just straight-up ugly) shadows! 🥳

That said, this new workflow is still insanely exhausting. It’s gonna take some time to get used to, but I’ll power through. Muscle memory will kick in sooner or later… I think? 😅

About Animations

Now, this part probably won’t matter much to most of you, but I want to put it out there anyway. After a lot of thinking (and frustration), I’ve decided to pause making fight animations for now.

Why? Well, they take around a month to finish, and the results… honestly, they’re just not worth the time sink. They always end up looking clunky, and after hearing feedback from others (and reflecting on it myself), I realized it’s better to save that effort for moments that really matter.

Don’t worry—we’ll still have our usual small animations, but for now, fight scenes will be handled through static renders. (Unless, of course, someone out there knows a good HS2 animator who can handle these. In that case, I’d happily invest in getting some extra hands on deck.)

Previews

Not much to say here, aside from the obscene amount of time I’m spending on each render. 🤣

Right now, I’m at the part of the update where our little sweetheart Eliza gets a fair share of the spotlight. I’m setting her up for the next series, and this is where we really start to understand who she is and what she actually does. She sees the world differently—on a level that makes her a serious force to be reckoned with.

Besides Eliza, this update will feature a lot of worldbuilding. The stakes are getting higher, and new perspectives are starting to emerge—perspectives that can’t be ignored. Will they help the crew? Or will they just get in the way? Guess we’ll have to keep moving forward to find out. 😅

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That’s about it for this status report and preview. I did have something else I wanted to talk about—plans for MBML—but honestly, that’s a big topic, and I don’t want this post to turn into a wall of text (if it's not already). So, I’ll save that for the next post.

What’s it about? Well… let’s just say I need to get my head in the right place before I drop that. It’s a big one, so I need to rest first.

As always, take care and have an awesome day! I’ll see you guys soon.

- NiiChan