2025 January Update #02

ZARYA

I've been wanting to release Zarya for a while now, but I've run into an issue with the model that makes it almost unusable. These Overwatch models are my first attempt at doing head hacks, so most of them are quite rough.

Honestly, I know very little about stitching two models together (head hacks). From what I understand, the models need to have the same number of vertices at the connecting points. Unfortunately, due to my lack of experience in this area, when I stitched the head onto the character, it caused the model to become asymmetrical.

Why does this matter?

Symmetry is essential for most tasks in Blender. While it’s not strictly necessary, it makes your workflow significantly more efficient, cutting your effort in half by mirroring actions to the other side. Unfortunately, due to my rushed stitching, the model lacks symmetry, so I now need to restitch the head while maintaining proper symmetry.

I’ve thought about commissioning someone to fix it, but finding someone skilled in topology and modeling has been challenging. On the other hand, I feel like I should learn how to do this myself. Considering I’ll likely be doing more head hacks in the future, mastering this skill would save me a lot of time and effort.

Symmetry is also crucial for weight painting. If you’ve ever tried weight painting an asymmetrical model, you’ll know how difficult it is to achieve good deformation. Without symmetry, the process becomes frustrating and inefficient. That’s why having clean and symmetrical topology is critical before moving forward.

NEXT PROJECT

Zarya's model is also taking a bit longer than expected because I'm currently working on an animation that's around 20 seconds long—the longest I've ever made. I've been pouring all my mental energy into it, aiming to take the quality of my animations to the next level.

I don't want to just slap this one together; it doesn't have to be perfect since I'm definitely not at the level to make anything extraordinary yet. However, I still want this animation to be noticeably better than my previous work.

That’s the update on Zarya. If anyone knows someone skilled in topology or modeling, let me know! It would help speed up the release of the model.