Art and Software Developments

Hey guys,

In this post, I wanted to talk about the software I use for The Headmaster and to show off some newer software I’ve been messing about with in my spare time. To be clear, I don’t have any plans to switch, I just thought you guys might find the test videos I made interesting.

For context, I started working on The Headmaster in 2018 and the 3D software I chose was Playhome Studio, which is a 3D sandbox sex game created with the Unity Engine by a Japanese company called Illusion. Playhome was an awkward middle child between two of Illusion’s other major titles; Honey Select (HS) and Honey Select 2 (HS2). Most Devs ignored it as it wasn't a huge step up from HS (which many people still use) and they were waiting for HS2. However, I had never played HS by the time Playhome came out so I had no attachment to that older software. I thought Playhome had better textures and lighting. I decided I would figure out how to use it to create characters and shoot scenes for the game I had in mind. The rest is history, as they say. 

Between updates, I always dedicated a week or so to improving my capabilities with Playhome and over the years I have learned to do a lot of things which I couldn’t at first, with smoother animations, better body physics etc. Between every two or three updates I also dedicate a little time to keeping up with software developments more generally. I think it’s important for me as a developer to keep up with the times. I tried my hand at HS2, and although it was an improvement over Playhome in some areas, it was a step back in others. So I decided not to spend too long with it. The company Illusion has since gone bust, so there will be no more games from them, sadly. I’ve also tried Unreal Engine 5, although I never really got anywhere with it to be honest. Then, at the end of last year, I took the time to teach myself how to use a piece of software called Virt-a-Mate (VaM). Just like Playhome, VaM is a 3D sandbox sex game created with the Unity Engine. However, that is where the similarities end as VaM is a far more advanced piece of software. VaM has been around for several years, however, recently developed mods (or plugins) have transformed it into something a little special. As long as you have a beefy enough PC to run it on of course, which fortunately I do. Purely out of curiosity, I set myself the task of creating a handful of good looking characters and recording a few random animations. I never originally intended to show these to people, however, they turned out rather well and I think people might enjoy them. So, without further ado, here are a couple of the test videos I have made using my own original models. They are all 4K with a high bit-rate, so please excuse the very large file sizes. I would advise downloading the videos rather than trying to stream them.

Video 1: Dancing

VaM might not be able to create as pretty still renders as other similar software (e.g. Daz3D), however, it really shines when it comes to animations. This is because everything is physically simulated, right down to each individual public hair. After figuring out the basics and creating some cute models, I wanted to figure out how to record videos. The most obvious thing to test first was a model dancing, as there is plenty of dance motion capture data available on the VaM’s in-built download hub. I ended up using two animations here by VaM artist, VaMtimbo (posing/stripping and dancing). I used dozens of plugins to create this video, however, the main ones are automated camera tracking, automatic spot light tracking, and a camera linked to several big screens in the background. To improve the breast and bottom jiggling, I am using the Naturalis plugin by the modder, Everlaster. For the automatic muscle flexing I am using the plugins “Flex It” and “Shake It” by the modder, Cheesy. Now, some of you may ask why an American cheerleader is dancing in a British football stadium, but try not to think about it too hard. I certainly didn’t. The video is around three minutes long and you can download it here.

Video 2: Conversation and Spanking

I originally made this set of three animations over the Christmas break, but I recently re-recorded them with better models and lighting (including Ray-Tracing). Don't read too much into what is happening here, I just wanted to create a familiar looking set up with two naughty girls getting in trouble. Only this time it’s two cheerleaders and an angry dean. The scene starts off with the characters in conversation using mo-cap ‘idle’ animations from VaM Artist, CuddleMocap. You'll have to imagine what they are saying, but presumably it's the two college girls being told off and consenting to a spanking, because that's what happens next. These spanking animations are my first (and currently only) attempts at making my own animations with this software. Interestingly, rather than carefully positioning the hand and bottom for each frame of the animation, I just set the arm swinging in the direction I wanted and adjusted the physics settings of the hand to control the velocity and force behind the spank; the game’s physics engine did most of the rest. This didn’t make the animations any easier to make (far from it), however, it did produce some impressive results. I particularly like the way their bodies jiggle and you can see the muscles flexing in the girls’ legs (from Cheesy's plugins). I didn't add the fading in red-butt effect, however, this would be entirely possible. The video (consisting of three animated ‘scenes’ filmed from multiple angles) is three and half minutes long and you can download it here. 

So, I think these videos turned out pretty well given that they are my first real attempts at creating art with this software. Obviously, I’ve spent some time working on these. Altogether, I probably spent about 3 weeks learning the software (a couple of weeks over Christmas and another week after the most recent update). The animations also took me a couple of days each to make and record. I have no idea how long I spent working on the female models though as, I confess, I’ve been playing around with this software in what is supposed to be my time off. In any case, I’ve used it for a tiny fraction of the amount of time I’ve spent working with Playhome and I’m definitely still scratching the surface as to what is possible. 

However, to be very clear, I have no plans to change my current software any time soon. For the foreseeable future, I will be continuing to work primarily with Playhome. Moving my existing character models from Playhome to VaM (while technically possible via Blender) wouldn't produce good looking models. Also, VaM has some major limitations, especially when it comes to the number of models you can put in a scene without the software becoming unstable; with serious lag, frequent crashes and corrupted saves. Not to mention the fact that I have invested thousands of hours into my Playhome models, environments, scene files etc which would take years to recreate. Playhome also has an excellent balance between quality and production speed which VaM cannot currently match. Making The Headmaster with VaM would be impossible. So, please don’t ask me to do it. I was thinking that I could use VaM for close up shots of things like spanking, penetration, jiggling breasts, bouncing bottoms etc. It’s certainly a huge improvement in all of those areas. Other than that, it's probably not going to be much use to me at the present time. 

Having said all that, I am very curious to know what people think about these test videos. So, please let me know in the comments what you think about these models and the animations. Personally, I feel like VaM has a lot of potential for ENF, public nudity and spanking content. I also really enjoyed trying out this software. It was a fun change of pace and I found myself learning a lot about anatomy, physics simulations, animation, lighting and 3D rendering; experience that I can hopefully bring back to use with Playhome. Who knows, perhaps I’ll use VaM for something else, someday. VaM 2 is supposedly out as a beta later this year, so I will be sure to check that out as well. For those that are interested, I have half a dozen or so more random test animations like these (including some VaM approximations of Headmaster characters) and I will add them to the custom art folder available to my top tier patrons. The link to the custom art folder can be found in the Headmaster’s Study section of our Discord, be sure to link your Patreon and Discord accounts to gain access.

Also, just to casually toss a second cat among the pigeons, I have an in-house 2D artist currently in training. I am looking forward to showing off some of her work in the near future.

Altos