Playblast, Tongue Material study, and Covid

First off, here's a recent playblast of the end of the Halloween animation's intro! I'm already a lot further into it, but since the animation is a bit more polished here I figured I'd show this part. I'm fairly close to the part where Bunsen gets properly introduced, so hopefully I should have some previews with him next month!

Playblast: https://mega.nz/file/Ugh2haCa#Rutje6XGz9YogtHKjnQ0gq6gdGJQ_AKjc1p-R-kmhrg 

Had to upload it to Mega since the playblast is a little long. I might shorten the camera pan a bit in the final version since it's dragging a little, oop!

Tongue Material Shader

Here's a little material study I've been doing for a sort of next-gen shader I've been planning to use on Chloé's tongue. I've always been a bit dissatisfied with the look of Zoe's tongue when it came to close ups, as standard bump and normal maps could only simulate so much surface detail. This new material is supposed to give her tongue a softer look by simulating the appearance of small little taste buds. The effect is achieved by using detailed displacement in combination with Redshift's new random walk SSS, which I'll be extensively using for future materials.

Right now the material looks a bit like sugar-coated candy, but I'm still tweaking it of course. The white spots are currently a bit exaggerated due to the super bright rim lighting. In a normal scene they're a lot more pink looking. Whether or not I'll be using this new material on Bunsen in the current animation is something I'll have to decide later on. I'd likely only use it for close ups, as the shader is pretty heavy to render, oof!

Regarding Chloé I'm still doing some minor things on her here and there, but she'll most likely get rigged next month! I'll of course will let you guys see how that's coming along once it has begun! :D

Some Covid Stuff

Things are currently progressing a little slow, not only due to me sidelining another project, but also since my Mum recently caught Covid. Since she's in quarantine I'm currently taking care of her by running errands all day. I've furthermore stayed at her place for coffee a few days ago when she was already sick, but she only tested positive on the day after, so it's not unlikely that I get it as well within the next days. So far I've tested negative though, fingers crossed!