Sneak peak of Redshift Mari!

Now, some of you may be thinking "what on earth is a Redshift Mari?" And maybe some of you are also thinking "you promised an image rendered in redshift of Mari, but I kinda hoped it would be more than a boring tpose."

Very true! The unboring pose will be posted very soon, but I've been going full steam ahead on getting shaders right first, and I'm just very excited with this progress so I wanted so share that.

So let me explain everything in layman's terms. I'm sure many of you already know the basics but in case you don't, here it is:

Rendering is the process of making boring grey 3D wiremeshes look good. There are many different pieces of software designed to do this, called Render Engines. The same as how games run on different sorts of Game Engines. An engine in this context is really just a collection of algorithms and math that act as the fundamental processes behind what we see and play.

For the last four years that I've been doing this (in fact, on February 21st it's going to be exactly four years since my 3DX journey began), I've rendered everything in Iray in Daz Studio. Now, Iray is a perfectly fine piece of rendering software, but there are other options on the market and Redshift is a very popular one. Wanting to expand into Maya from Daz Studio, the choice for me was to get an Iray license or a Redshift license, and since the guys at Affect3D are all working in Redshift the choice was easily made.

Working in a new render engine, in the most advanced piece of animation software to boot, was a giant learning curve and honestly it seemed insurmountable for the longest while. Keep in mind that I have no professional 3D background. I am entirely self-taught. Nevertheless I knuckled down and with the advice and pointers of A3D friends, things are finally starting to fall into place.

The above is very very close to the final result I intend to settle for with Mari. I think this is the most realistic looking skin I've ever produced, to be quite honest. And now that I'm starting to generate some actual visuals, doors have opened to so much more. Hair, clothing, all the things I need to make a 3DX scene come to life.

I'm moving full steam ahead, and I've been able to find the time to do this because of you guys. That really is the case. If it had not been for Patreon I would've been caught in a murderous production schedule for Affect3D just to keep my income going, with no money left to invest in a dedicated rendering rig, and no time left to learn Maya and Redshift. Thanks to you guys, I have the breathing room I need to make this big step towards animation happen, and I am insanely grateful.

Stay tuned, there's going to be more very soon, as well as updates on all the other stuff I've got planned for this month!