v0.06 Teaser Before/After Tryouts (Part2) and Bed Studying

Hey all,

So new post today with some Before/After teasers for the upcoming v0.06 which is kinda in the home stretch for the visuals (Last pic here is the current scene that I'm working on) and shouldn't be too much longer.

For those of you in the $20 tier, there's a new video up where I talked about the first two sets of pictures here in more depth with more background stories. That video also includes another picture that I won't be showcasing here today. While I'm super proud of that picture and it's probably one of the best shots I've ever done, it does need color correction, but I wanted to show off the original to all those hardcore fans that like all the extra and don't mind seeing the unpolished version. 

However, even the $20 folks will get to see something new here today because this post has an extra shot in that that wasn't finished during the video recording so that'll be new to all of us. 

So let's get started:

Pic 1: So this discussion will pickup where we left off at the swim tryouts. I wanted to show this picture because in the original game there was some pretty heavy issues with hair pokethrough with Zack's swimsuit. If you look at the top of Zack's speedo, you'll see black fuzz and we all know what that is. Basically, Zack's bush was poking through during the early parts of the game. I did some terrible attempts to fix this (including literally trying to color over it by hand with terrible results). The lighting and facial expressions are pretty fucked in this version, too. So let's jump to the revamped visuals that will replace this soulless nonsense.

Pic 2: Revamped replacement. Yay! Better lights! We also have a lot more life in Zack's expression. But, the more important change is that we won't be seeing anymore bushy pokethrough because that's fixed now with some geometry editing. I'll also try to maturely direct your attention to the bulge. I'm trying to do more variation in the swimsuit because naturally when you have tighter clothing on like this, it shows off more anatomy and I'm trying to capture that a bit better. So we'll hopefully be seeing more consistent bulge action moving forward when they're at swim practice.

Pic 3: So this picture is from the original and shows the first time that Zack majestically emerges from the swimming laps. For a complete background on my original meltdown about this image, you can check the video log but the short version is that this image was one of the first ones in the game that I tried to get more stylized with and position by hand, but my skills weren't up to the task yet. I was happy with the skill required back then but it turned out to be creepier rather than more stylized. However, there's a lot of room for improvement and discussion about this image so let's jump to the replacement we'll be seeing in v0.06

Pic 4: The swim team tryouts are going to have a whole new feel to them with realism that we didn't see before. I wanted to showcase this change because of water. In the revamp, I'm trying to use more splashes and things like that rather than the water just sorta being like gelatin. While Zack is doing laps, we'll also see some splashes that took me quite awhile to figure out but it's a huge improvement and adds a little something extra. I'll also point out that his hair is wet just like in the shower. I'm also pretty proud of the depth of field blur here because it's hard to consistently get right. I'm not great at it yet so it's a work-in-progress but this one looks good and I'm happy with it. Pretty sure it was an accident but Bob Ross says those are ok :p

Pic 5: This is the last set we'll look at today and is a new shot that wasn't previously covered in the video series. I've been working on these the last few days and was trying to get to a point that I was sure of what I was doing. So v0.06 is gonna end with study time in bed and I've taken a bit of a different approach. This original shot is pretty horrible. In this pic, we got Braden with his head bent down so far I'm unsure how he can even breathe. We also got some clipping problems with the pillow. Plus, of course we have the typical boring camera angles from the original.

Pic 6: So this isn't a direct replacement but it'll show you the different vibe for this exchange that we'll see in the revamp. Study time on the bed is going to happen at night this time because i think the dark vibe has more intimacy to it then broad daylight. I really like the nighttime lighting in the room and I'm trying to play that to its natural advantage. We'll see Braden's typical collegiate frustration play out like usual but this scene is a bit more expanded and direct about what's going on than it was in the original. There's an even more natural progression about both of them crashing on the same bed together to leaf through a textbook on imaginary numbers. Aesthetically, this scene was pretty blah before but it has more of a charm and intimacy to it now with the additional CGs, dialogue, physical expressions of the characters, and the night lighting so hopefully you'll enjoy the change. 

So that's all for today. I'm probably gonna put a devlog out before too long. I have some decisions to make about the possibility of an animation or two and odds are those will either be worked on or scrapped early next week depending on what I decide. Priority is to finish this last scene tho and see how much steam I got left to try and tackle animations. Lot of dynamic pictures in this update though so stay tuned. It's looking way better.

-Aaryn